A couple more recently i did

[patindaytona]

Couple in past week or so. The lane is from a reference of mine in michigan.I'd say about 5 hours on it. Erased the entire trees about 20 time.Rose?   About 20 hours. Goes good, then bad, just never ends. No wonder I'm afraid to do any more. It's always been this way. 

Details

Details

I adjust things and my eyes are constantly deceiving me ...i think, yea, that's about right. 5 min. later i look with averted vision and i can't believe it....no, it's way way off. I'm accepting it more, but man, spending 5 or 6 hours a day for three days straight is not the way if it turns out no better than the first 3 hours.
I know ...sure, i like it. But not to be a slave over it. You can see the patience here, i hope.     I perservere thru all my frustration, and i do have incredible patience.At least i've been looking at my reference in order to see instead of improvising on my own (paint what you see, not what you THINK you see).  and.........another hour....one revelation i got here was that the petals that overlap on the left and right sides would in fact have a shadow shading as a "whole" here besides the individual ones....so i shaded them that way slightly.  PS. I know how i must sound.

[Happychappy]

    Pat, as I have always maintained, you are too hard on yourself.  Your drawings are beautiful, your tonal values are excellent.   Patricia

[patindaytona]

Patrica, thank you very much. I for most part went over the values more than anything else. The reference photos had pure blacks in the shadow areas, but i took it down to a dark greys. I know photos are deceiving in that way mostly.I changed it forever! Hard times adjusting the shape too. I can say now that i found the best way from now on for getting my shapes correct.
I mostly carbonize the printed image with pencil and trace, but i always found it was still off somehow on things which doesn't seem possible, but was. At least for critical things like eyes or something.I recently bought a floor lamp for more light. I traced a new one last night and noticed the shine of my pencil as i traced. If i use the angle of light to see the actual shine as it's being traced, i can see how exact my tracing is. Otherwise, because of the angle of your pencil, it can be off without realizing it. So now, i KNOW!Next one will be very good. I drew it twice already and just didn't turn out. Mainly...once again, shapes being off. Always the basis to so many problems.

[liz]

Hi Pat,  roses are always a challenge for me, but they’re my favorite flower.  I was thinking of trying to draw them negatively to get a feel for their shape and form.  In some of the drawing classes different kinds of erasers were used for drawing.  Graphite or charcoal could be used as a light to medium background over the area of the drawing.  Then with the putty eraser or sharpened corner of an eraser one would draw the picture.  I haven’t tried this method yet, but it may have possibilities.  I got to thinking about this when I watched some classical artists start their oil paintings by wiping off parts of their still wet underpainting using a small cloth or paper towel. Might be interesting to explore this technique anyway. ~Liz

[patindaytona]

You know i think too deep, but here's one thing i gathered on my own about painting, charcoal and graphite. Similar to what you're saying about the anology of wiping out areas beginning a painting ---as in laying down a tonal value using powdered graphite or charcoal. I just ordered some powdered graphite. I know you can do your own with sandpaper. I find it kind of hard to get enough out of it.But yea, COVER the paper, just like painting canvas. But I don't think you should necessarily DO all of it every drawing if you see some clean white areas you want preserved..common sense.I find drawing way way less complicated than painting ...........look at all the different styles of painting vrs drawing.    It's self expanitory.
I started another one yesterday and i';m running into a bit of trouble. I think i should look once ore tomorrow and do a little more but just let it go.........it's learning. It's a landscape with big waterfall i took in Yellowstone. I realized the waterfall was going to be difficult the minute i began it. Their is always that difference .............organic things in nature where you can keep throwing the dice...like i do forever, if it's not lookin organic, and the things that have solid borders, faces, archetiture, etc. You can be as accurate as you want with that, but nature, forget it...too much, you have to just dive in an it's scarey.I KNOW Dennis and Nolan know this................when you have a art teacher, do you notice how they come along and change something you are diddling with for a long time because you think you're onto something good (say some rocks or clouds)?    I experienced that when i took paint classes for a month. She just said, it needs this and made big BOLD move to it. It might be the best thing though, but it's very very uncomfortable to do it (i just did that hour ago and it worked out pretty well from what i had). You have to be brave and make those bold giant steps when something isn't quite right. Sorry..........long.

[nolan]

I really like the lane - good depth.
With the rose I would like to see some white of the paper on the lightest areas

[patindaytona]

Nolan, i was aware of it the whole time, unfortunately, it was not a very bright paper to start with. They didn't have the paper i wanted, so it was a substitute. One note here..........not that important....can't take all of this too seriously.

[Val]

Absolutely love the lane. Could just walk right down the length and beyond. Beautiful. 

[patindaytona]

Thanks Val, it is from one of my photos. The lane is real closeby to my mother's place. I went in and around that place alot when i was young.

[tshow]

nicely done!  especially like the second one.