Working With Landscapes

“Riverbed” (wip)

Welcome to the new year. I hope everyone had an enjoyable holiday and are in good spirits. Unfortunately, I can’t say that my holiday was all that upbeat and joyful. I have to admit last month took a bit of a toll on my creative energy, which left me not wanting to draw. Sometimes it can take a lot out of you to constantly put stuff out there without any assurance that it will be well received. So I spent a week wanting to draw but not sure if I could actually bring myself to do it. It was rather agonizing. But after seven days I finally regained my courage to pick up a pencil and pen and get to drawing again. I’ve been tired before but this experience felt like much more than just needing a break. That was a brief but trying moment for me.

Well, since it’s the new year, I thought I’d start things off by tackling something new; a rocky riverbed. Before the year was out I got to thinking about how I haven’t done much with landscapes, especially since it’s a subject matter I really like. I did a few landscape themed ACEO pieces a few years ago but haven’t revisited the subject since. So now I’m in the process of laying out the base drawing of a rocky river, which is coming along nicely but inking it can turn out to be something altogether different. One of my concerns is how to stipple flowing water? This is something I’ve never done, so that’s challenge number one. My next concern is when working on a small piece like this, how will I stipple the vegetation so that it actually looks like vegetation? And that’s challenge number two. Oh what have I gotten myself into? 😯 I hope my ambition hasn’t exceeded my skills. Wish me luck. 😊