Day 296 "On the Rocks" ink & watercolor 4 x 9

 Today I tested my knew knee by walking down to the Southern tip of the island, to one of my favorite spots past Lobster Cove.  You can climb out onto the rocks here, leaving all traces of people and green behind you, and become absorbed in the waves, rocks, birds, sounds, and salt.  I love it, have not been able to visit since the summer of 2016, and made the trek down and back today.  It was a joy!!  I'm a bit rusty painting the rocks, but here is today's sketch and the contour drawing I completed while sitting in my favorite spot.

This is my two hundred ninety-sixth daily drawing.  Thank you for joining me in this exercise each day.  

Day 295 "Triple Overview" 9 x 12 watercolor & ink

Today I sat half way up Horn Hill on Monhegan and drew what was below and then what I could see in the woods to my left.  Then I added another sketch of Manana from our deck to fill the page.  I decided in the upper sketch only to add color to the parts of the view that nature made, not man made, making it an exercise in near and far greens in different combinations of blue/green and neutralizing reds and oranges.  

You can see my drawing in progress below.  
This is my two hundred ninety-fifth daily drawing.  I am enjoying my travels around Monhegan these two weeks.

Thank you for your continued interest.

Day 294 "Over Eider" ink & watercolor 9 x 9

Another beautiful day here on Monhegan.  We went to a Chowder Festival to benefit the Monhegan Memorial Library, then I headed over near the church under a shady tree to draw lovely Manana, through the cottages.  The cottage to the left is called "Eider Duck" and sits on Fish beach.  I love the back drop of Manana behind and above the structures.  While I was sitting there, a nice couple in a golf cart stopped to ask directions. We wound up talking for about 1/2 hour about art, the island, their journey here and mine.  It was a very sweet exchange and lifted my heart.  Thanks, Joanne and Ed.  
This is my two hundred ninety-fourth daily drawing.  Thank you for your continued interest in my day to day activities.  

Day 293 "Eye Practice a la Charles Reid' 9 x 12 . watercolor & ink - Step by Step

I began an oil painting this morning, and within a half hour, the island was fogged in.  Not in the mood to paint fog, I broke out my fabulous "Portrait Painting in Watercolor" book by Charles Reid, Watson Guptill, 1973, inherited from my mother's library.  I need a lot of practice with portraits, using watercolor wet in wet, and drawing the features of the face.  So I spent the afternoon following Charles Reid's steps for painting the eye.  

I began with an ink contour drawing, put fifteen of them on the page and here is the result.  As you can see, I have a lot of inconsistency in value and edge control but can see some successes. Below you can see my progress from the initial drawings, and I added Charles Reid's step by step illustrations below.  Very interesting exercise!

Fifteen Contour Drawings

This is my two hundred ninety-third daily drawing.  I tried Charles Reid's steps for painting mouths back at Drawing 229 and certainly need more practice.  I am enjoying the exercise!! 

Thank you for your continued attention and interest.

Add a wash over each

After the first six

Here are Charles Reid's steps.  I added a note to myself after the third.  

Day 292 "Among the Rocks" ink & watercolor 12 x 5 - and a visit with some artist friends

Social media is an interesting thing, and sometimes very beneficial.  Yesterday I saw some beautiful photos of the Monhegan sunset from down in the village as we watched it from up on our deck above the village.  Turns out they were posted by an artist friend of mine.  We didn't know the other was here, so happily connected this morning over coffee! She and her husband are Monhegan artists now living on mainland Maine, and are over for a few days.  

Check out their work:  Amy Williams Beers, and Kevin Beers.  

After catching up, I walked over to Dead Man's Cove to sit on the rocks and paint.  I love it there, the views are spectacular, and there is a small rocky island were the birds congregate noisily.  Their chatter makes a nice backdrop.  You can see from the photo below that there are lovely vistas including my favorite, Manana.  Today, however, as I sat down, I saw this intrepid weed.. maybe a thistle, not sure.  It grew straight up among the rocks, and cast a beautiful shadow beneath, and it caught my eye. The crispness of the shadow is a reminder how strong the sun is.  If I had this plant in a studio with a lamp casting the shadow, I would expect the shadow farthest from the plant to be softer-edged than the shadow closest to the plant as ambient light invades the shadow.  Not so with the sun; 93 million miles is the same as 93 million miles 8 inches, give or take.  

View from Dead Man's Cove

This is my two hundred ninety-second daily drawing.  Thank you for looking, as always.

Day 290 - "From the Harbor - Two Views" watercolor and ink

There has been intermittent sun during our first five days on Monhegan Island, fog, rain, sun, clouds, wind... beautiful New England weather.  And, we can hear the surf from the south end of the island, crashing into Christmas Cove due to the weather.  My new knee won't carry me that far yet, but I am determined to visit my favorite spot before we finish our two weeks.  This morning I could see the waves crashing against the southern tip of Manana, Monhegan's tiny island neighbor that provides the sheltered harbor here.  I walked down to the rocks, found a place to perch, and spent some of my favorite type of time here on Monhegan, surrounded by the sounds, smells, occasional spray and the view of wave upon wave crashing and tumbling over one another.  The first is a watercolor of the southernmost end of Manana and the rock called "Washerwoman".  For the second, I turned to my right from the same seat, and drew the village in the distance beyond the rocks and scrubby vegetation on the shore.  Interestingly, the vegetation seemed to come in three  distinct layers as it receded.  First, some small, low plants that looked like they may have had berries on them at one time, then Queen Anne's Lace with some beach grasses, then some yellow-topped weeds, among a different beach grass.  I added color only in the vegetation, and like the effect.
This is my two hundred ninetieth consecutive day drawing and posting. Thanks for following along.   

Day 289 "Fishing - Three Generations" ink & watercolor

We walked down to the dockside coffee shop today, The Barnacle, to see off our friends' daughter and her fiance.  There is a a lot of choreography to the arrival and departure of the ferries here; arrival of passengers and friends, pick up trucks backing onto the dock to transport luggage, hugs hello, hugs goodbye, occasional jumpers from the dock into the frigid harbor waters as a send off, riders tossing wildflowers into the harbor as they pull away as a sign they will return.  It is fascinating.  Before and between all of that, there is quiet time on the dock for fishing, or sitting with a sketchbook, or listening to the waves lapping.  Today, these three generations were fishing on the dock together, comfortable.  I grabbed a quick sketch. 
This is my two hundred eighty-ninth daily drawing.  Thank you for continuing to look.  I appreciate your time.