Drawing Lab by Carla Sonheim

I've been having so much fun with the drawing lessons in this book.  I'm at the beach this week, and the sunshine and ocean air is really influencing my work.   Here are a few of the things I've done through Chapter 4. (This is my second time doing each lab.) I'll be uploading everything to the Artists of the Roundtable site when I get home.

Well, you know, every girl is pear shaped eventually, right?  And what girl doesn't need two mouths to talk with and eat with?  And two ears to listen to her friends with??

This is my "Miro at the Beach" and it is one my favorite art

pieces I've ever done.  In a drop of water we have my 

entire beach experience - the sand, the grass, the

skies, and the seagulls.  And across it, the movement

of the sun throughout the day. I really love what this 

expresses for me. I'd like to do it again on

canvas. And I used my new, beautiful Byzantia 

paints from artistcellar!

Above is the ink and eyedropper technique, which I 

quickly discovered that I loved.  It felt very

Asian to use ink. Quick strokes seemed to take

on a life of their own as soon as I put them down

onto the paper.  I just watched them almost paint themselves.

It was fascinating and I really enjoyed it.

This one was actually the most difficult for me -- seeing the thing that wasn't really

there.  I had to ask my husband to help me, and he accused me of cheating

on my homework.  It helped me to watch someone else pick out the image

with a pencil, because even when he named the image and pointed at it, I

still could not see it. I don't understand, really, why I couldn't grasp it, but maybe

with practice I can improve on this.

This is meant to be my mom, but she doesn't actually look like this woman

at all. Still, I like the look of the painting, mainly because it's nothing

like anything I'd ever do. I could do an entire American Gothic

family like this, including a dog and cat. As you can see, green and blue

are recurring themes in this work.

Here is another ocean inspired work, with my beautiful Byzantia paints.

I know this is called Picasso dogs, but my tail is a mermaid's tail, rather

than a dog's tail.  and the human leg has bits of the color of the tail,

as the transformation from human to mermaid begins. The blue and 

sand spray in the background is part of the beach theme.

I did several monkeys before I captured an expression I was happy with. 

I've been into baby faces lately, and this little one was less than a year old when 

his picture was taken.  Isn't he a sweetheart?  Of course, he's green and blue

for the ocean...