I still feel like I'm trying to find my niche in terms of my artwork. My forte is definitely pencil, but I still enjoy trying other materials and subjects. But for now I'm enjoying experimenting! For quite a while I've been wanting to draw a pile of something like rocks, pencils, marbles, whatever...! Monotony works for me when it comes to my artwork (to an extent)!
I often feel inspired by the work of other artists, and lately I've really been admiring the work of April Jarocka, who's blog I follow. She does amazing paintings of beach rocks (among other things)...check out her blog! After watching many of her paintings unfold, I decided that I wanted to try my own rock drawing. I love all the colours that are found in beach rocks and I wanted to capture that in my own drawing.
So here is stage one of my drawing that I'm calling "Cape Cod Rocks" for now. I took the reference photo myself on a beach in Menauhant, Cape Cod this summer, while staying at a friend's cottage.
``Cape Cod Rocks``
8x10
Coloured Pencil
Work in Progress
On another note, I'm probably going to be away from my drawing desk for the next little while. We're in the process of moving to a house in Mactaquac, NB, which is on a beautiful piece of waterfront property. We've been waiting to move for over a month now but as of last week, we officially sold our current house and officially bought our new one! We move on October 13th and we're so excited!! It's a little further outside of Fredericton than we are now so it will take me 30 min to get to work (I know, that's nothing for you big city folk!). I don't have any good pictures of the new house yet, but here are a couple from our new front yard, taken from the deck.
And one last piece of news...I will be having back surgery sometime during the winter. If you've read some of my past posts, I mentioned that I've been having back problems due to a herniated disc. After meeting with my surgeon, we decided that surgery is the way to go so I can get my life back to normal. I don't know the date yet, but I'm hoping I'll be able to stay home during the really bad weather this year! I'll probably be off work for almost 2 months. So during that time, once I'm feeling better, I hope I'll be able to spend some time on my artwork. But I guess I'll have to see how I feel then.
I know moving won't be great for my back, but we've hired movers to lug all the boxes, I'll just have to help pack. Normal, day to day stuff isn't really that bad on my back. It's when I have to bend and move around a lot that I start to get sore. I'm trying hard to use my legs a lot instead of bending, but I know I'm still going to get sore while we move. I'll just have to be really careful!
Well I guess that's my news for now. I'll try and post something again soon, but I can't guarantee it!!
8 comments:
Pet Portrait and Animal & Rockstar, that doesn't sound so bad :)
Beautiful view of your new house. Hope that the surgery will fix all your back problems.
Haha! I like it!
Congratulations Heather on the purchase of your new home and also on the sale of your current home. You must be so excited! What a great view!!!
There must be something in the air as I too have been feeling the urge to draw rocks, stones or beach pebbles...I have 'go out and get rock photo references' on my to-do list.
I wish you all the best with your back surgery! Getting back to a normal life sounds like a good thing to focus on.
Great job on the rocks so far!
Thanks Teresa! We are every excited about our new home. I just wish we were moving at the beginning of the summer, rather than at the very end. It would have been nice to go swimming and boating before the snow comes. Oh well, next year.
I look forward to seeing your future rock drawings!
Heather, I love the new rock piece!! Its stunning, and reminds me allot of an artist I studied named Gary Greene. His colored pencil technique is really what inspired me to work in this medium. Hope your move and back surgery go OK. Congrats on the new house!
Hay Heather! April here! How are things? Just found your post about rocks through my new snazzy wordpress blog - who have ways of searching out people's posts.
Great drawing!! I must say you've inspired me to try the same medium for the rocks.
Now for a name...PET PORTRAITS THAT ROCK!???
All my best to you and hope that the surgery and move go well. I agree...great view to recouperate to!
April Jarocka
Melody and April, thanks for the well wishes and thanks for the compliments on my drawing so far. The actual drawing will have a lot more rocks in it. Here I'm just showing a crop of the corner of the full sized drawing.
Hopefully it won't be too long before I can show you more!
Hi Heather, nice start to your rock drawing so far. I know where you are coming from re: changing web title...as I too gradually change my subject matter am also "stuck" with a pet portrait title.
Best wishes with you new home and your recovery!
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