Plein Air Colored Pencil and Hunting

I want to thank all of you that are reading and subscribing to my blog in your RSS readers or by e-mail. Thank you, thank you. I always try to have some art instruction included or at least art information. I am still on dial-up for a few days. I am not patient enough to read all the blogs I usually read, so I am sorry for not making many comments on your blogs. I know that many of you are on dial-up and I certainly give you credit for your perseverance. Maybe if we didn't have high speed at home ... I am so spoiled. No one calls us on the telephone here so I can't even say that I should keep the phone line free. Ah me o my. I will get back to regular form next week after Gene's birthday ride, right?? That is the plan.

Yesterday was a long bike ride, 50 miles, for Gene in preparation for his birthday ride. He plans to ride his age. It is always interesting. He rode 100 miles a couple of times to put some miles in the bank for when he gets older. Last year he was short a few miles. We were in Albuquerque and he didn't get to prepare well. We will see how it goes this year. I suspect he will make his age plus a few miles. You can root for him on Tuesday.

Gene leaving the rest stop.

I waited for him at the same rest stop as before. I painted with pastels that day. I planned watercolor yesterday and again the plans went awry. I brought water and paper towels, but no container. I could have worked that out with a Coke can or some such, but I'm lazy as you know, so back to colored pencils.


This first photo is what I got done in 1 1/2 hours. Yikes, I can finish a pastel or acrylic in that amount of time.


I colored on it again today for about an hour and got this far. It still isn't finished, but I won't put any more time in it. I did learn from this. Any time spent on art is good time.

This is a photo of the cacti in the rest area. You can see that I simplified the drawing. That is very important in painting. This helps the composition in this drawing.

I also sketched last night for Scavenger Hunt 98. In the sketchbook, Cachet Studio Blank Book, with a Pilot regular ball point pen.


Number 1, potholder. About 20 - 30 minutes.Number 2, something hanging on the wall. A with some framed painted tile flowers.