Holly Branch 4 and Final

That's it! I'm done! :-) Phew, at least fifteen hours here. I had an absolute blast with this! :-) I keep seeing places where I could revisit this drawing but I'd rather move on and try something new.

The challenge of a larger, more complicated piece has been so rewarding. Now I want to bite off another similar specimen but I'm not sure what. I'll check out my bags of weeds and see if anything jumps at me.

Holly Branch 3

It's been a mild and rainy day, leaving only few remaining patches of snow. I thought I'd take advantage of the clear ground for an acorn harvest. Alas, my little squirrel friends have chewed up every seed in sight! And speaking of squirrels, my torn ear little scrapper was not to be seen today and there were at least four simultaneous visitors. I do hope it's doing okay.

A spent a couple of hours last night and a couple more this morning. I'll be back at it this evening. It's nearly time to start the cleanup--pulling out my smears, sharpening edges, and pointing up the tips. I learned a bit about working in stages. I want to think more about the overall drawing before starting, that is spending time on planning layout and overall lighting direction. Also need to think about covering up sections of the drawing or perhaps using one of those bridge-like affairs for keeping my hand above the drawing. Oh, and lastly, I want to experiment with the darks by applying crosshatch layers and then smoothing with a 2H. It sounds promising as I've already had good results smoothing and spreading 2B with a 2H. This technique is supposed to reduce if not eliminate that glossy look that seems to come from pushing too hard.

Even though I might sound critical, there is an awfully big grin on my face with this piece already. I am having a huge amount of fun but I really do want to improve. There's a real sense of excitement in working out a bigger piece rather than just one leaf. Next post should be presenting a close to complete piece, if I can remember when to stop. ;-)

And looking ahead, perhaps a beech branch, or maybe white pine...

Holly Branch 2

I got it a bit more work on the holly branch. It's been slow going today as I simply lounge around.

I'd been scheduling out posts to publish at 5 AM but have decided to just let them come out whenever ready. (Feedburner's still emailing at 9 am, for now.) It's my new looser style. :-) Now if I can only get Blogger to let me turn my "posted at" turned back on. There's a little bug in there somewhere...(got it later in the evening!)

Holly Branch 1

Here's my first round with a Holly branch. Now that it's sketched in, I can take my time tweaking shapes and building up tones, poco a poco.

Holly

I remembered sage advice while working on this Holly leaf:

• Keep the pencil very sharp. I fell back to single edge blades; the utility knife blades are too coarse, made for heavier work.
• Know when to stop. This was a tough one. I had to get up and run it through the scanner to put the stamp of finality on it. Approximately 3 hours.
  
• Work comfortably. I started it in my chair and wrapped it up in bed.

I occasionally dimmed the lights to increase the contrast on shadow and highlight, blocked out the major areas, and then kicked the lights back up for detailed work. I felt a bit daring, almost giddy, using such a wide range of tonal values. It was really exciting feeling this leaf develop.

~~~ Merry Christmas! ~~~

American Holly

American Holly, Ilex opaca, grows in the woods to the west of the lake. The bush pictured here is in my yard, saving me from battling the mosquitoes and deer flies so heavy out there. It seems that five petaled flowers are quite rare, four being the common configuration. It makes me wonder if my bushes, coming from a nursery as they did, are some species variation.

From Wikipedia:

"Holly berries are mildly toxic and will cause vomiting and/or diarrhoea when ingested by people. However they are extremely important food for numerous species of birds, and also are eaten by other wild animals. In the fall and early winter the berries are hard and apparently unpalatable. After being frozen or frosted several times, the berries soften, and become milder in taste. During winter storms, birds often take refuge in hollies, which provide shelter, protection from predators (by the spiny leaves), and food."

Indeed, the birds enjoy these trees. Throughout the year, sparrows pop out from time to time. Although I've not noticed the birds feeding, the berries do disappear each year. I like that, having trees and bushes in my yard that service the wildlife.

"Holly." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 9 Aug 2009, 22:42 UTC. 9 Aug 2009 <http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Holly&oldid=307055544>.