Miscellany

I get bored of the things I do quite often.  I think that's what prevents me from getting ahead with a lot of my projects, I work on everything for a few weeks, it doesn't get a response and then I run off after something else.  Here's a few uncategorized pictures I've managed to finish this year.

Orchids in ballpoint pen:

 

This was a fun little picture.  I like working in ballpoint, it has a quality you don't get out of any other kind of pen.

Orcish Cook:

A couple years ago The Art Order had a challenge to design either an orcish shaman or cook.  And who can resist drawing horrible orc cooks?  I tossed this sketch off and forgot about it.  Last year I dragged it out and got 90% of it done before I was interrupted by a job.  This year I finally got it done!

I snapped some photos of this downy woodpecker at Smith Crossing last fall:

The contrast between the red dogwood branches and the duller gray branches made me want to play around with a limited ink palette.

Then I worked on a children's illustration.  This one is titled "Survival"

I'm painting now so I won't be doing more of these for a bit.

Vancouver Island Sketches

In May we went to visit family on Vancouver Island.

Here's a sketch from Vancouver Airport.  The island terminal is pretty tiny, and the planes are all propellor planes.  I said that if the flight took more than 15 minutes I'd be disappointed, and it took 13.

Once on the island I found it hard to get out and sketch.  When you're there with someone it's rather boring for them to sit around for hours.  We did a lot of hiking and birdwatching, but I did manage to get a few things done.

Here are some little sailboats at the Nanaimo Yacht Club.

This was painted on a hike around Englishman River Falls near Qualicum Beach.  I did a quick sketch of the falls.  The day was overcast and the birding wasn't all that great.  Apparently I had a Steller's iay hopping in a tree over my head the whole time.  I get a lot of blue jays in my yard so I was keen to see the Steller's but they just weren't cooperating.  I got a bare glimpse of the one above me just before it flew away.

But at least I got some kind of painting out of the deal.

I set aside a bit more time for sketching in downtown Nanaimo.  I got both these buildings on the same day.  It was tough.  I was bitten by ants.  Don't sit too close to an anthill while sketching, kids.

I got a chance to sketch a few people, too.  A couple at Penny's Palapa in Nanaimo, and a few people in Victoria.  We didn't spend very much time in Victoria.  We meant to do more than we did, but we didn't realize that Tofino was so far from Nanaimo and that all the activities we were planning for required more preparation.

Oh well, we go back to see family every couple of years, next time we'll hit the west end of the island and do some canoeing.  In the meantime I did do a ton of birdwatching and we saw some very neat species that I never would have noticed otherwise.  Also, turtles!  It has been a dream of mine to see pond turtles ever since I started hiking, and now I have.  We saw a whole row of them sunning themselves on logs.

Next time my run-down on Art Walk and paintings.