Tag Archives: pencil sketch

Galápagos tortoise

A virtual trip to the Galapágos

Leave a reply

So lucky to travel again! Even if only virtually. *sigh*

This time to the Galapágos with Art Safari’s Mary-Anne.  We worked from hundreds of photos from their previous trips, of sea lions, iguanas, birds and people. I started off with tonal studies learned from my virtual Japan session. Galápagos tortoise

Then looked for the interesting colors of the land iguanas – Galápagos land iguanas

Next lots of curves made by the sea lions.  These were lots of fun to do, and add color to. Galápagos sea lions   Galápagos sea lions 2  Yes, SO much fun! Galápagos sea lions   Galápagos sea lions   Galápagos sea lions   Looking at the lines of the variety of bird species –

Galápagos pelican and booby

Galápagos pelican and blue footed booby

 

Finally, I tried a watercolor only tortoise – no pencil lines first. Not my usual style, but that’s the fun of stretching  your abilities! Galápagos tortoise  Ending with something of a combination of ink lines and loose watercolor. Might be my favorite! Galápagos tortoise

I hope we all can travel this year, even if only virtually! 😘

 

Mount Cook

NZ – Mount Cook National Park

Leave a reply

This post is about day 14, as we drive to Twizel, Lindis Pass And Mount Cook. Day 13 did not have many on site sketches, so art from my photos can be posted later, if they get completed!

Sketches from this day are all about Mount Cook. Enjoy!

Mount Cook

Mount Cook with Lake Pukaki in the foreground.

Mount Cook

Mount Cook with Lake Pukaki in the foreground

Mount Cook

Mount Cook

Mount Cook

ancient forest

NZ – Te Anau & Fiordland National Park

Leave a reply

Day 11 – we retrace some of yesterday’s travels.  First order of each day is usually getting lunch and snack food!  Miles Better Pies has a cute statue out front.

Miles Better Pies

Miles Better Pies in Te Anau

Stopped along the way to practice clouds, these are the reason for calling New Zealand “Land of the Long Cloud”. New Zealand clouds

We returned to Mirror Lake, in Fiordland Nat’l. Park, where I may have been the only one in our group who didn’t sketch the calm clear waters.

View at Mirror Lake

View at Mirror Lake

Mirror Lake

Mirror Lake – I wonder how it got the name? 😉

Here we sat and painted in an ancient beech forest next to Gunn Lake. We saw faces in the trees, while parrots and keas sang above and a New Zealand robin visited us.  He tried to join me by sitting on my water container, which he tipped over.

ancient beech forest

ancient beech forest.

ancient forest

Faces in the ancient trees

A slight interruption in our travels while we waited for them to cross the road –

Sheep crossing

Slight traffic jam

Last stop of the day was in Eglinton River valley with broad horizons to paint.

Eglinton River Valley

Eglinton River Valley

 

North of Kingston on Lake Wakatipu

NZ – headed to Te Anau

Leave a reply

Day 9, we left Queenstown and wandered the shores of Lake Wakatipu along the Devil’s Staircase as we travel to Te Anau.

New Zealand pencil sketches

pencil sketches during the ride

North of Kingston on Lake Wakatipu

North of Kingston on Lake Wakatipu

Sketch at the Oreti River

Sketch at the Oreti River

New Zealand travel on Day 9

New Zealand travel on Day 9 – from Queenstown along the Devil’s Staircase

 

Zambia – lions

Leave a reply

With minimal access to wifi, this trip was a relaxing vacation from social media. The unique environment (which consisted mainly of riding to the park, finding big game, sketching, then returning to the lodge, where I sketched some more) has truly inspired me to create as much art as possible to remember this trip by.

The lions are SO majestic! I doubt I’ll ever enjoy going to a zoo again after seeing them wild and free.

Lion sketch 1

Lion sketch 2

Sketched from our vehicle

Lion - watchful

Ink and watercolor done from my sketches

African lion

African lion – 11×15″ ink & watercolor

Zambia – Giraffes!

Leave a reply

So yes, elephants are amazing and exquisite, but there were also other wonderful creatures. The giraffes, so tall and stately, and when they tipped their head to reach the leaves, they were just one fluid line.  Zambia giraffe 2

Zambia giraffe 1

My sketches don’t do them justice, so here’s the real thing:  Zambia giraffe photo

Were giraffes created only to reach new heights?

Trip prep

Leave a reply

Yes, I’ve been busy, buying special clothes and repellant and whatnot for the upcoming Zambia trip. But on a quiet night recently, I thought it might help to practice sketching elephants, so I turned on a documentary, and here’s the result:

Elephant sketches

Pasted the stamp that arrived on my Zambia info packet, then realized I had plenty of room to sketch!

I also thought I’d try on an “outfit” while holding a sketchbook, and did a selfie sketch.

Bernadette's selfie

Yep, I’m a nerd! But you probably knew that.

I really should be practicing other animals, but… I have no idea what we will end up seeing!
For now, I’ll just practice sketching – anything, just to keep the pen and pencils and colors moving!

Still sketching! Dinosaurs at the museum…

Leave a reply

In spite of a lack of posts, I am still sketching, but haven’t been posting much.

Let’s catch up and see what I have been working on.  Way back in January, the same day I found out that my second grandbaby would be another girl (yippee!), I was also thrilled to meet Heidi and Mary-Anne from Art Safari! This is the company that I went with to (amazing) Morocco last fall.
They were touring NYC with a small group, and we were able to coordinate a short meeting at the Museum of Natural History. They are just as friendly and charming in person as they were via email. You might notice how much I enjoyed the dinosaur exhibits by my sketches here…

PS – Granddaughter #2 arrived recently and all are doing well!

mammoth

My 3rd sketch at the museum – I feel like I warmed up with the first two!

Mammoth

My 2nd sketch of the day

Dinosaur at the Museum of Natural History

Dinosaur at the Museum of Natural History – His head was sticking out of the room to show how large he was!