I spent an hour going through my posts from the last year, reading about my activities and thought – how soon we forget!

The new year has dawned and our new project is underway, but as I write this (01/01/2015) I am the sole person who has posted a drawn image on our 365 Drawings for 2015 group site.  As I talked to friends, several people expressed an interest in joining in, so it is not just me!  During the run up to the challenge I have managed to draw every day and it has been really helpful knowing that if I did not post an image, then I might disappoint Maggie who was also doing a practice run up.

I was given a Bromeliad for my birthday and this was the subject of several of my drawings and the colours and shapes are so dramatic I thought it would make a good winter subject – the reds and greens will cheer me up.

Bromeliad

I found it difficult to draw and with the stem running through the centre difficult to see.

Bromeliad 2

However the complicated shape made it fun and interesting.  With the final drawing, I thought, just go for it, so I just started on good paper directly with coloured pencil (usually I do a careful drawing then trace and transfer to good paper).  Using Wendy Hollender’s limited palette of 20 pencils and her direct way of image making I have launched myself into a drawing – and ran out of paper; my drawing is just a gnat’s bollock (s’cuse my French) from the top of the sheet – doh! Still, the drafting is OK so I’m ignoring that and finishing the piece.

Bromeliad in colour

These images show the start of the drawing and I have only lightly blocked in the colours and shadows.  Looking at the image now though, I can see all the drafting mistakes, I read somewhere that this was a good way of spotting errors, shame I have already done so much as I can see something I would really like to fix (and I think I know how to fix it).

Bromeliad in colour

At Christmas my sons told me that they read my blog, that they liked it and that they had shown it to their friends, I was surprised as in some weird way I thought this blog was just me musing away to a few (distant) folks. They have never posted a comment………..so this is a request to any of you out there that read this, drop me a note once in a while to let me know that you are there………….Happy New Year.