Alternative media, Perspective

As I mentioned before, part of the idea of Every Day in March is to seek out and use art supplies you wouldn't normally choose. I've been avoiding that up to now, but today I saw the box of crayons that my friend Kirsti gave me for Christmas and decided to break them out and try something new. The theme was...

#3: ELEMENTS (still backtracking)

So I did the elements of a recipe. I have drawn and painted this picture before, with more items and using watercolor, but given that I was using crayon, I chose just a few.

It takes a lot of work to build up different shades and blend! More than I was willing to put in, obviously. (And despite the reality of the packaging, I should have thought to choose different colors for the bag of beans, so as to give contrast with the bell pepper, but...whatever.)

So--here are crayoned elements of a favorite winter-time dish: Bonanza Beans, which I am making tonight.

I also did #7: PERSPECTIVE

I am not great at perspective--I tend to draw what I know is there, instead of what I actually see, and my eyes can't convince my brain to quit knowing and start looking, somehow. But I saved a photo of this tree-lined street--not exactly a pleached allee, but close, as the trees overhang the entire road--because I liked its perspective, so I decided to draw it for this exercise. I don't know who took the photo, or where it was taken, but I'm speculating France, based on the all-black hat and coat of the woman, and the ornateness of the fence.

I have not quite figured out how to paint foliage on trees. On the one hand, you can't paint every leaf; but you also need some definition, some variation, from the blobs of green you painted as a child. This got a bit blurry, but for a short, sketchbook attempt it's okay. Maybe I'll try this one again someday, on good watercolor paper, as a "real" painting and see how it goes.

Micron pen, limited palette (greens, grays)