alaskan cruising recap

We took a week long cruise to AK a couple weeks ago. I managed to do some sketching while on the ship and off - the sketching was done quickly, paint added on the ship...

St Michael's church, Sitka with Mt Arrowhead looming behind.

The reference photo ........

The atrium in the center of the ship that spanned a couple of floors. This was TOUGH! I spent a couple hours sitting and sketching & trying again on those angles. Not great but I feel a sense of accomplishment none-the-less.

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On the Lido deck for breakfast about 7am. Not many people about which is good.....I could sit at a table and sketch uninterrupted.

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Sketching from on board the ship through a window.... (my shoes the most colorful part of the view)

Pencil sketch of the famous Red Dog Saloon in Juneau. Dan had his first LEGAL drink here at 19 in 19.......72! Yikes, it's like it was yesterday.

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Creek St in Ketchikan - this street is famous for once being a street of brothels; now it's all tourist souvenirs stores.

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Our last port of call was in Victoria which I'm more familiar with but found this pretty archway at the side of the Empress hotel. You'd think it was spring instead of mid summer.

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A last view from the ship - a mountain in the distance as we leave Ketchikan.

The one thing I realized at the end of the cruise is that I didn't sketch or even photo any of the food! What an oversight! But, there was plenty of delicious and well plated food. And some mediocre meals. Overall, a great, relaxing week.

some watercolor practice

No serious sketching this weekend - had a family day with the boys & their girlfriends Saturday but I managed to squeeze a bit of paint playing today.  Rough sketches were just to practice with paint.

Practicing a tree and its shadows.

Different tree & leaves technique (funny little boat shape needs some work :))

It's trying to be spring and I have some tulips on my table, so........makes sense I would try my hand  at a touch of spring.

Have a creative, productive week!

I'm so excited!

I just can't hide it.

I want to send a giant thank you to Vonny for painting this watercolor of my Tigger.  I sent her the photo and got back this stunning likeness.  She's just starting to accept commissions for pet paintings and she's clearly got the talent.  If you have a favorite pet, you should really consider contacting her for a portrait.

Look at the amazing fur detail.  The subtle color on the inside of her ear; the perfect capture of her wild whiskers and her bright eyes. I just love this Vonny, thank you so much!

Here's the photo I sent:

APR series

Artist Playroom has a theme this week that I've been meaning to explore for .... well, forever. Series.  Work something in a series.  I've done it here and there, but today I sat down specifically with an idea to explore and got started on a series.

So I started with watercolor backgrounds (I miss using my watercolors - they've been pushed aside in my eagerness to try all sorts of new things).  My thought with the top drawing was to use the watercolor shapes to dictate where birds would go.  Made a couple of early goofs so it became my trial-error-sketch page.....

I had fun playing with my bird and dandelion motifs.....there's LOTS more room to work with this and I'll be doing it because I love birds and I can almost draw a couple of generic shapes.....at least well enough that they're recognizable as birds! :)

Last year I made a mini series of palm trees using different media - collage, paint, etc.

Also, watercolors painting trees:

The thing is....there's no way I'm done exploring any of these themes so the series will continue. Does it count if there's a year between pieces?

Visit Jenn at Just Add Water Silly to see even more great examples of working in a series.  Or maybe someone will paint/draw something about a baseball 'world series', or a television series or a ......

pears

Jenn at Just Add Water Silly is hosting the 18th weekly APR (Artists Playroom) and the theme this week is pears.  She loves pears and draws and paints them so beautifully.  Pears happens to be one of the few things I can kinda draw - I'm not going to have time to do something new this week (son's accident and doc appts are taking lots of time and I'm planning a big party this weekend - more about that later) so, here are some I did a while ago.  These are all in watercolor....

This is a digitally manipulated image (duh).

Here's the original photo.

I actually have a collection of pears in different textures etc. in my kitchen - here's just a few of them.

So, if you enjoy painting, photographing, collaging, sketching or eating pears, this is the challenge for you (though she'll take any fruit) - join in, won't you.