Sketches

My preparatory sketches are usually bits of scrap paper or even post-its on which I jot down the bare bone idea of what I want to do. Not the best practice, as I end up doing most of the work directly on the paper and sometime I have to re-elaborate and correct details over and over, at the risk of ruining precious materials.Unfortunately, I find it hard to draw a full fledged piece and then transfer it on fancy paper. I mean, I am much more driven and focused when I know that I am working on the actual piece. I tend to be too generic otherwise...Yet sometimes I wish I would elaborate more in a preliminary drawings to translate the images I have in my mind more clearly: typically my final results don't look at all as I thought they would/should...
Anyways, here are some sketches for current projects...;)

 

And to say good night, here are a couple more pictures of my beloved magnolia.

BTW, in case you were wondering, the flowers don't really have a perfume that I can clearly perceive...

And we have flowers!

I went home yesterday evening and I found that actually during the day the flowers of the magnolia had open: yeah! I think the rain has damaged them to some extent, but they are pretty anyways. They are pearly white and very delicate.
I took pictures of the tree in the past week to document the blooming. Here they are:

Aptil 16

April 18

April 19

April 21

April 22 in the morning

April 22 in the evening

Just a little bit..flooded

So much for my cheerful welcome of spring a few days ago!

A night of torrential rain was too much for our pumps (yes, two of them!) and our basement got flooded...just a little bit, fortunately. We had just half an inch of water, but that was enough to soak up the cardboard boxes we had not processed since the move, though. So we spent the weekend sorting out our belongings to determine what could be saved. Annoying as it was to work instead of resting, I can't complain too much. Our basement is not finished (and given we don't need the extra space it will not be finished any time soon) and it was mainly empty, plus we live on top of a (puny little) hill, so overall the flood was inconsequential to us. Other people down the road and towards the river took a lot of damage, though. You can tell that from the amount of debris accumulating in from of the houses. So sad.

We had troubles with framed pictures (most of which we managed to rescue), documents (that we had completely forgotten about...but important nonetheless...now spread around the house to dry), old books (our precious, but unused-because-of-baby D&D manuals), and sentimental stuff, like old calendars, love letters (so funny to read them now!), school notes...

Clearly, I had no time for art...but we've had a chance to work out, instead (carrying our "treasures" upstairs while chasing after Bella curious to explore all the new objects emerging from the basement) and walk a bit of the memory lane (I found some old drawings of mine...and I still wonder why I keep them around instead of tossing them, as they are frankly quite horrible...lets just say I would feel comfortable admitting I made them in early middle school at best, but unfortunately they are much more recent than that!!!! :D).

I feared my precious magnolia would be ruined, but it seemed to have endured the elements, so far.

The forecasts have rain again tonight and maybe snow (?!) in the next few days. Will we see the magnolia full bloom at all?

Spring is here...the magnolia is blooming!

Finally, spring seems to have begun. OK, today the sky is all grey and heavy with rain, but the grass  is turning to emerald and  the first flowers are popping up here and there. Such a cheering sight!

Last October we moved to a new, bigger house so now we have a backyard...with a magnolia tree (a small one, though) in it. I did not realize it for quite a while, until somebody pointed it out to me and I was overjoyed. I adore magnolia trees. Where I grew up, we did not have them, but a few years ago I discovered them around town: smallish and shrub like (such as mine) or massive, old and majestic, all laden with luscious, gorgeous flowers in infinite variations of white, pink and cream. What a spectacle!
The magnolia has been my favorite tree ever since. At the time I even made a drawing, partially inspired by Enchanted Dolls, that celebrates them, Lady Magnolia.

I am told that it's pain to clean the mess when the flowers fall, but I don't care: the delight of seeing them every morning during the month of April is well worth the extra work. ;)

For weeks now, I have been keeping an eye on my beloved plant, at its furry gems (scientific name unknown to me!) green and tightly closed, tossed by the winds, covered in snow, hammered by torrential rains...and wondered when they would come to life. Yesterday, after a few days of sweeter temperatures the tree has awakened. The gems are opening! I so look forward to seeing what color and shape the petals are . From what I can see so far, it looks like they might be white, but...who knows...

...I'll keep you posted.

I am working on two new pieces, one for an italian contest about travels and one for my nephew Pit (but maybe I could also use it to enter another contest ;)). I'll post the WIP in a few days.

For now, be well and enjoy the delicate beauty of spring!

Two Cherries...Finished

Sorry for the delay, guys...these past few days we were victim of an awful GI bug that has been plaguing Bella's daycare...No Easter luncheon, no parties, no walks in the sun, no energy for drawing or posting on the blog.

Possibly (I don't feel like claiming victory over the infection yet...it's really nasty) things are getting better and will allow me to go back to drawing. I have a small project I want to complete before our trip to Italy in June.

Meanwhile, here is the picture of the finished Two Cherries piece.

Why the cherries? Bella and Pit look so much alike that they could be siblings: they made me think of two cherries. In addition the cherry tree symbolizes rebirth and new awakening and these two little angels have brought new life to our families, new hope, and new adventures.

Happy Pasquetta (the Monday after Easter is a holiday in Italy...not in the US unfortunately...)!

Work in progress: Two Cherries

I am making a gift for my mother in law and of course it's all about her beloved grandchildren.
This is my first approach to the project.

I started this when she came to visit us last month but came to a stop because of different problems:

1) The eyes of Bella are a bit off center and uneven.
2) The shape of the cherries, albeit rather consistent with their natural appearance, looks wrong.
3) When I started coloring the cherries, I got carried away by the dark red tones. The drawing was loosing the dreamy quality I was hoping to convey in it.

Painful as it was (I rather liked the leaf, although it's too small compared to the fruits), I opted to start over.

I think that, in the long run, this choice is paying off. Today I am finishing the new drawing and will show it to you tomorrow.

Be well everybody!

After the archery lesson

I mentioned the other day that I almost participated to a third contest.

That was the Lara Croft Reborn contest on deviantArt.  used to play Tomb Raider a  few years ago and I loved it. When the new game came out and the contest announcement appear I was busy with other stuff and did not pay too much attention to it. A week before the deadline, I remembered about the challenge and came up with a quick idea, as you see on the post-its below.

My idea was to depict Lara in a rather unconventional way, picking on the description found in the "assets package". She was said to be naturally beautiful, studious, not a social butterfly, wealthy, but not ostentatious, etc. All these characteristics are not typically represented in LC art, where she usually is in a combactive stance, covered in dust and sometimes blood. Instead, I wanted to show a young innocent girl with an interesting background and a hidden strength.

When my husband saw the drawing half way through the inking, he first could not identify her, then reminded me that the contest was supposed to promote an action game and that composed and calming views of the main hero were not going to appeal to the panel of judges, the company, or the target audience. As a former player of the game, I begged to disagree on the last point. However, I recognized he might be correct on the rest. Because I was also extremely tight on time and very busy with work and the baby,  I decided to relax and finish the piece for my own pleasure. Here is the result.