Back to the Drawing Board

Sunday, November 23. 2008

Sunday, November 23, 2008

The summer has come and gone. Whish! Now, winter is setting in with its grey skies and long nights. So I’m back to work on the drawing board, literally. Briefly, the Sibley workshop in June – awesome. Then fire season took me out to 3 separate fires in the state of Washington. Great experiences all of them. No – I’m not a firefighter! That is for the young folk. I help setup and run the fire camps. My first call was just after July 4th, and for the next month and a half I was out supporting fire fighting efforts. A whole ‘nuther story, perhaps another time.

The end of September I couldn’t (or didn’t want to) wait any longer so I returned to Ireland for a couple of weeks vacation, this time with Mom. I was very excited to share some of my favorite places with her. Just to go back was great. We briefly met with a couple of friends from the college while we acclimated from the jet lag, then I played tour guide for Mom.

Finally, mid October and I was back home and settling in for the winter. Finally back to work on drawings. Mostly I’ve been working on trying to complete a set of 5 Sporting Group head studies for a set of prints and cards (hopefully first of next year). Then a little piece I’d been wanting to do for my daughter – her two little “yappy” dogs, Tayysa and Angel.

I’m a little stuck at the moment on a good reference and layout for an Irish Setter and a Pointer for the last two Sporting Group dogs in the series. So, I’ve taken the plunge into a landscape that has been rattling around in my head for a bit. I’m sticking with pencil for now. I really like the effects and the textures and detail I can achieve with it. So, with some encouragement from the little exercise I’d done in Mike’s class way last spring, off I went.

There was this bike in the backyard of the cottage I stayed at while gong to school in Ballyvaughan. I have no idea how long it had been there. It was quite rusty and the ivy and grass had been having their way with it for a few years. It was calling out for a picture to be taken and something made of it – eventually. And then there are the rock walls I absolutely love. The different styles, textures, ways the ivy and blackberries and other bushes would climb over and around the rocks. So, the idea of the bike leaning on an old wall started bouncing around.

To date I have been working on the drawing for about 3 weeks, a couple hours a day more or less.

Now, as I move a little further into the drawing I’ve started to wonder about whether or not I want the bike to look like it has been there for years…. or someone just put it there. Each one conjures up a different story. Not sure which story will be told yet. I’m letting it unfold as I work up to the bike.