Try your hand at an apple bough scene! Tonight 6-8pm 10/14 at my studio #2, Lincoln Street Center, Rockland ME
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We've been drawing on apple picking, pumpkin patch, and scarecrow themes the past few weeks in the kids drawing class at Rockland Library. In my apple bough drawing I wanted the kids to get an idea for using circles (the apples) to make patterns. There is a straight line, a curving 'S' line, a circle, and a spiral. Then I wanted them to see how the branch is also a curving line but it is broken up. I want the kids to make a flow, a connection, between the objects they put in their picture. There is also an apple pie and a blob of ice cream which they asked for!
For the pumpkins I wanted them to learn a bit about giving a circle some form. We tried observing how a roll of masking tape when viewed in one position looks like a circle but when viewed from other positions the circle becomes gradually a thinner oval (ellipse), until it disappears altogether into a straight line. This was a hard concept for a six year old. The literal mind cannot yet see a thick roll of tape as a straight line - afterall, it is thick! Too late I realized the trouble. It was a trauma. Such is the experience of verbal language and it's inevitable misunderstandings.
The kids learned that a scarecrow is meant to scare crows from eating the crops. Why would a scarecrow be able to scare crows? "Because he looks scary," said one child. (She may even have said ghoulish.) No, not because he's ugly. Why can he scare a crow? "Because crows are scared of people!" a child finally exclaimed. Yes! And sometimes tin pie plates or tin cans are tied to the scarecrow to blow around jangling and help with the scaring. In our scene the crows are not afraid of the scarecrow. The poor fellow's hat is on the ground and a crow sits on his bare burlap head.
The apple picking scene was inspired by a Carl Larson painting. Drawing the scene would have to be a stand in for apple picking this year. When I went to go for apples that past weekend, the orchard was all sold out. There had not been much of a crop this year because of all the bad weather we'd had.
We'll paint sunflowers in watercolor class tomorrow. These were taken last week, just before a frost. Wonder what they look like now - and what they'll look like in their painted incarnations. Hunh? Carnations?? I thought you said they were sunflowers...
My recent Cat and Star story drawings: Today I worked more on the scene of Cat getting into it's little boat, on the beach, with Star looking on. I've drawn it a few times in pencil. I like to work in my car so I can be out and about while working but it can get awkward. In this case I'd had to use the car window for a lightbox for tracing. When I thought it was ready to ink, I realized I did not want to ink over the pencil drawing. I'd have to try inking while tracing. But that did not work in the car without a proper lightbox. That work session ended up being instead a practice session of drawing freehand repetitions, with brush and ink (black watercolor), of the cat's head. It was good practice though.
This version I drew with a croquis pen and black watercolor, 'inking' over the pencil lines. The pencil is not yet erased and ink smudges not cleaned up in the originals. The enlargements got some digital doctoring though. You can download my cat and star drawings for coloring pages!
The Belted Galloway cows were out in the main pasture at Aldermere Farm, in Rockport, Maine, yesterday. There is a little pen near this grazing area where they can go for water. When I arrived they were close to the pen, with one at the water bucket. When that critter left, another would wander over. The group moved away from the pen, but the ritual seemed to continue. They were aware when the water bucket became free for the next one's turn. The next thirsty cow would head from the group to the water, like kids in a classroom who know that only one is allowed at the water fountain at a time.