Como......

If I had Clooney money I'd live there too.  There is something magical about being by water....at least for me.

 Not a bad view eh?

Was very easy to get inspired here.  I sat in this same spot for hours!

                                                   

Odo approved.

 It was awesome at night too.

 What's going on here?!  Very happy I didn't run across one of these in person.

Ok, now for some sketches........

In the distance I could hear the bikes roaring across the mountains - and my hand.

I've had this antler / horn / branch thing in my head for awhile.....hope I get something out of it soon.

Here are some birds.   Bet you didn't see that coming from me. I picked up a ballpoint pen for this.  I used to sketch only in ballpoint pen.  Not sure why I left it, but this was fun, will have to put in back in my arsenal.  

                                       

I like gulls, pigeons, any of those birds that aren't known for their beauty.

Dorking around here......

Haven't done these guys in awhile.  Used to draw them all the time.  Like the ballpoint pen, not real sure why I have been neglecting them.  There were some fantastic dragons in Como.

I was so happy to find a lizard in my bathroom.  Odo had been hunting them (unsuccessfully - whew) outside for days.  I love the way they move.  Fun shapes to draw too.

More gull shapes.

And last but not least - some head birds.  I like the way the blue and orange work in this one.  I may have gone too far with the green on the end - not sure.  I think the blue and green dudes look disgusted the the orange dude for being so cutesy.

I'd post more, but I'm sick of scanning for now.

The unheard of!!!!!!

I did something unheard-of..........I took a 3 week vacation (and I didn't take my work laptop!!!!).  I'll admit that the first few days were a little scary - not being able to check emails.  But I really think it was the best thing I could have ever done - EVER!  The last few years have been very challenging.  Rewarding, I have no regrets, but challenging.  I would take a foreign assignment anytime anywhere.  The knowledge you gain about yourself and the world in priceless.

My next few posts will show the doodles I did along the way.  First stop - Freiberg, Germany......

 Freiberg is right on the border of France and Switzerland.  It's a neat location and a beautiful part of Germany.  There's a cathedral (shocking, i know) in the town of Freiberg that has all these cool critters hanging off of it.  I can't get enough of these guys!

Yes, the sky was that blue :)

No idea what this guy is....but I like it!  Goat - dog?

First time I'd seen a fish grotesque - least I think it's a fish.  Neat shape.  Or maybe this one is a gargoyle - dunno, spout wasn't clear.

There was also no shortage of views like this.  I'm a sucker for old fences, paths, rows of trees, etc.  

Triberg was near by.  Located in the black forest, one of Germany's largest waterfalls is there.  I can see why so many stories originated from the black forest area.  It's a pretty magical place, easy for your mind to wander.

I took a small moleskine sketchbook and a small watercolor moleskine.  This one was Cathedral inspired.....duh.  

I put together a watercolor travel kit for this trip.  It had a bunch of colors I'd never touched before, so I was just trying to get in the groove with these first two entries in my watercolor moly.

Loads of ravens in the black forest.  My scanner really let me down with this one.  There is actually a really nice light blue wash that wanders onto the other page - stupid scanner (grrrrrr).

Next stop - Lake Como Italy..........

Hornets.....

Starting the second in my ocean / autobahn series.

This was the first one - Birds, the Autobahn and the Ocean.  This was my attempt to paint sound that I hear from my table.  Birds = birds, autobahn = ocean, hornets = mopeds and lions = bikes.

I have never second guessed a composition so much in my life!  After pro-kraska-nating for most the day, I started to scribble in the big book of Kraska krap. I have these hornets in my head, but they're not making it to the paper just right........yet.

more krap......

This one kind of looks like an Imperial probe droid.....that's not a bad thing ;)

That intimidating piece of blank paper in the upper right will eventually be a painting.

I even did a little test run of the hornet.  Need to control those colors a bit better.  After posting this, I'm gonna dive into the real thing!  Otherwise I'll be second guessing this for days.

Let it go....

So I put off working on this thing because I thought the colors were too fruity and sweet.

I liked my original idea, so I went back in and tried to tone down all that pink stuff...

I'm liking the lost and found lines around it's head and wings.....think I'll play that up some more......

I like him flying into all that dark spooky stuff.  At this point I finally gained confidence with this painting and decided that I would push myself to finish it this weekend. 

I'm calling it done!  I could probably noodle away at it for hours, but I'm  not convinced it would make it any better.  Sometimes you just have to let go......sometimes you have to lose a few feathers in order to move on.

More Blue and Odo

I revisited those blue botches that I made a few days ago over my coffee this morning.  I'm still avoiding that larger painting....too many colors.

I like the smokiness to the right and I think the darker stuff in the upper left is cool too.  I see antlers again.......or branches.

Odo says enough with the antlers already lady! He can be harsh sometimes.

Definitely antlers in there.........

.....and that smokiness on the right....maybe it's this critters breath.....it's early morning and cold....or something.

Some darker blues and finding a light source.

There's those antlers I saw.  Added some white gouache for highlights.

Finished.  

Blue Blotches....(and a big ol' butt)

I started pouring paint a few days ago.  I knew the big one was going to be a bird, but the colors came out too fruity for me.  Kind of discouraging, so I poured the remaining blue and red on two smaller pieces.

I saw antlers in this one and drew over it.

He's got a big ol' butt.  The antlers were fun to get lost in though.  Kind of like tangled, unclear thoughts.

Thoughts?

Sunday scribbles.........

I really wanted to start a new painting today.........but I got really distracted.  Everything was more fascinating than this blank piece of paper.  Finally forced myself to scribble something on it.

Then I got talking on the phone and this happened.  May have taken some artistic license with that beak.  I think the bleedy watercolor stuff is way more interesting than my sketch.

Now I'm thinking that I want to work on this guy that I started last weekend for a bit.  I want to do a series of red riding hood wolves, but they are way different than what I usually do (at least I think they are).  Which is scary, but kind of cool.  Hope to learn something new.

This was my first wolf.  I'm using acrylics for these.  I'm fighting them the whole way....keep expecting them to act like watercolors.  What was I thinking?!