Honing My Strengths

“The Mouse Of Amanita” (wip)

I didn’t think I would be able to do it but I got my idea of a mouse with mushrooms to fit onto an artist card. I started off working at a larger size but it didn’t seem to look right to me. I’m beginning to wonder, by me being so accustomed to working on such a small scale, I now have difficulty working at a larger size? It’s like my brain can’t fathom such a thing. Then again maybe working on a small scale is really just my natural disposition and I should just hone my strengths rather than worry about my perceived weaknesses. Unfortunately I often get the impression from the art world that there’s much more interest and focus on large works of art that can fit the span of a living room wall. Due to that, at times I feel this pressure within, to match what I see and strive to stretch myself and to do something on a much more grand scale. But in all honesty, I find something cozy and quaint about small works of art that suits me more than I like to admit. As an American, born and bred in a culture that likes to do everything BIG, it seems almost unAmerican to churn out these little works of art, especially when I have some people who ask, “Why don’t you do anything larger?”
Anyhoo, so far this little scene fits nicely in the space provided and I’m excited to see how it’s going to turn, which is a good sign because if I’m not excited about my work it becomes so much harder to do.

Magdala

Magdala” by Q. Rumbley

Well, well, it’s a holiday week and I managed to squeeze in this piece among all the hubbub. I experimented a little bit and tried something new with this drawing. Before inking the figure I added a layer of graphite for shading and blended it a bit with a smudge stick. Turns out doing so gave the base drawing this appearance of a light ink wash that I thought was interesting. From there I inked over the graphite. The finished drawing seems to have a bit more depth and the highlights stand out more. I might experiment with this technique a bit more in future drawings. Let me know what you think. You can see the before shot below.

Anywho, I can’t say I’ll be able to get much drawing in for the rest of the week ’cause I’ll probably to be knee deep in greens and sweet potatoes. And I won’t be touching any turkey this Thanksgiving, not that I got anything against turkey, I’m just not feelin’ it this year. Got myself a whole chicken that’s gonna get fried up instead. I’m going for a simple country dinner come Thursday. Nothing fancy. Hubby got a gift card from work to go get a turkey or honey baked ham but we weren’t feeling up to being out among the crowds. So we’re just keeping things simple and I’m all for simple. We got all that we need and if I feel like being a bit extra, I can just make some double chocolate chip muffins to go along with the ice cream we stocked up on . 😛 Anywho, I got plans for some “Magdala” handmade journals so if you’re into journal making, stay tuned to see how they turn out. Have a Happy Thanksgiving. 🙂

Strike A Pose

Strike A Pose” by Q. Rumbley

Well I now have this little cutie all finished and ready for a new home. It was fun working on this but I think, for now, I’ve had my fill of tree frogs. Still got my Tree Frog journal sets to complete but after that I’ll be looking for a new subject to tackle. Feel free to drop some suggestions for new creatures to ink in the comments section. 🙂

Close up of “Strike A Pose”.

I’m Still Alive

I see it’s been almost three weeks since my last post. Sorry to have been away for so long but I’m still battling through some health issues, particularly digestive issues, that has garnered more of my attention and energy over the last couple of weeks. So I took some time off from drawing, again. Unfortunately this is appears to be an ongoing battle that’s not going away anytime soon so I’m learning how to manage. I gotten back to inking my egret and cattails ACEO which you can see above. This is a fairly straight forward drawing  with most of all the inking going into the background. The egret itself is white, so there won’t be much detail to add there. My main concern will be how to define the bits of grass around its feet in a way that it doesn’t get lost in the background. I’ll just have to take a wait and approach as I go along. But for now I’ll just focus on getting the background done. 🙂