Nandina in the fall

Beautiful nandina, or heavenly bamboo, in the fall. Not all of the leaves change color, but the ones that do get this glorious rich red color. Some of these leaves were done wet into wet, others were layers of glazing, paint, let it dry, add another layer of paint. The shadows are always interesting to try to capture especially with double or triple cast shadows. Sometimes, I wonder where exactly is all the the light coming from? Prints will be available soon in the shop.

Stippling on a Bigleaf Maple Leaf

The stippling is complete on my next leaf, a Bigleaf Maple. It is very easy for me to get caught up in all the stippling. I know that I will be adding color on top of this so I don't have to be too exact, but it is tempting to just keep on adding more and more dots!

An Oak Leaf

I wanted to sketch and draw some fall leaves but they were drying too quickly before I was to draw them. But the curling leaves make for an interesting challenge. Here is an oak leaf. The shadows really help to make the leaf appear 3D.

Wires, wires and more wires

It's hard not to be impressed at the number of wires around this entryway. And it's hard to believe it all works. What I am curious about is what happens when something needs to be fixed. This is from Habana Vieja, Cuba.

A Work in Progress - Castillo de la Real Fuerza

This is a work in progress from Habana Vieja and the Castillo de la Real Fuerza. There are lots of lovely shades and nuances in the stones and I thought I'd play with stippling in some texture before I added color.

Dragon Fruit

A couple variations of dragon fruit. I got one because they are such interesting looking things. I find the taste somewhat bland, however. I drew this partly for myself and partly because how I was drawing satisfied a homework assignment for Danny Gregory's klass in the currently ongoing Sketchbook Skool's Exploring klass. He asked students to work on something with hatching and stippling to help create volume and depth in an object.