A Peek In My Sketchbook, by Leada Wood, Texas Artist

"A Peek In My Sketchbook" ©2017 Leada Wood

Ahhh...vine ripened tomatoes, warm from the sun just waiting for you to pop in your mouth...pure bliss. In all our years of organic gardening we have never grown cluster tomatoes and didn't know we were this year. What a nice surprise! Bootman came in dangling this dazzling little cluster of porters and I knew I had to paint them before they were eaten. Adorable and delectable...a feast for the eyes and the tummy.

Funny how a mix up from the garden center can make your day. We haven't had much luck with tomatoes in recent years so this year we decided to take a different approach, after trying many other approaches in previous years. We planted our little beauties straight into our compost piles and they seem to be loving their environment. We are off to a good start and hopefully will have enough tomatoes to share. Have a wonderful weekend!

Tulip Time, Watercolor by Leada Wood, Texas Artist

Happy Spring! It's Tulip Time in Texas. Don't you just love springtime? It's like the earth is bursting forth with blooms and buds everywhere...and the lovely spring green of the trees glistening in the sun absolutely takes your breath away. Not to mention the gorgeous, delicate fushia blooms of the fruit trees and redbuds. Inspiration is all around!

 As an artist it is hard to focus, so much beauty around me. I want to paint it all and share with you, my world as I see it. The baby lambs, calves and llamas in the green pastures...baby chicks, ducks and birds, flowers blooming. Beauty is all around us, we just have to look around and observe it and take the time to be grateful for all that we have.

 I think Claude Monet said it best, "I perhaps owe having become a painter to flowers."

"Tulip Time" ©2017 Leada Wood

 

Roz Stendahl of Sketchbook Skool by Leada Wood, Texas Artist

copyright by Roz Stendahl and Sketchbook Skool
 

 

What a wonderful week we have had with Sketchbook Skool's Roz Stendahl. The whole class has been great but Roz's generosity and teaching videos were extraordinary! This was one of her parting gifts to us, a memento of our week together. I had to print it out and cut the cards of course but it was worth every minute! Roz has an awesome blog you should check out: http://rozwoundup.typepad.com

It has been so cold this week the only live animal sketching I did was of my little Yorkie, Mollie. She was very suspicious of all the activity following her around with my sketchbook and pen. I found that sometimes standing up and calling her name was the only way to get her to be still...she is a little hyper.

This was my first attempt at a live animal subject and sketching with a Pentel brush pen. This was drawn standing up calling her name as it was the only resource to get her to stand still. This is called a gesture sketch and probably doesn't take over 35 to 40 seconds to create...or however long your subject cooperates. These quick sketches are not meant to be fine art but only practice of capturing the essence of your subject.

The assignment was to draw a live animal everyday. Another gesture pose of Mollie with the brush pen. I really like it for fast sketches.

Mollie getting use to me following her around and tired too...but she won't be still for long!

 

 

 



 

 

I caught her napping in the sunshine before I left for work so I had a quick go at drawing her again.

 

 

 

 

 

And this is the way she looked laying in the sunshine on a cold winters day When it warms up a little I will try again sketching live animals on the farm. Maybe sheep, goats or llamas!

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Daddy's Keys, by Leada Wood, Texas Artist

Daddy's Keys

 

 

copyright2014Leada Wood

 

 

 I have been doing Sketchbook Skool the past 5 weeks and one of this week's assignments was to do a drawing of a collection. I had a bunch of antique keys for clocks from my dad laying around, so I decided I would sketch these as a tribute to my parents.

 

Their anniversary was yesterday, August the 8th and they would have been married 65 years! My mom and dad had a jewelry store and they both repaired clocks and watches. Clocks hold a dear place in my heart as I was always around the chiming and heart beats of their steadfast ticking. Their continual ticking can still be heard in our home and the chiming of the hour. It will be a sad world when they are no more. Something about them is comforting...familiar...homey. 

 

This sketch was done with a Bic Velocity Gel pen in blue because it was my dad's favorite color. I leaned a lot from drawing with only a lowly ballpoint pen and think my shading got a little better toward the end of the drawing. I plan on drawing the keys again in some way with another medium.

 

One of the things I have enjoyed the most about Sketchbook Skool is that it reminded me of my love of drawing. I have also enjoyed seeing artist's work from around the world. It's a small world after all!

  

 

 

 

 This is their wedding day photo. Don't you just love old black and whites? 

 

 

 

 

 

#leadawoodart #mixedmedia #watercolor

Leada  Wood

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Happiness by Leada Wood ©

Happiness by Leada Wood©

Aww happiness is decorating the cover of a new sketchbook.  Inside will be all kinds of possibilities for new paintings...ideas...designs. You just never know what you will come up with until you start playing around in "the book".  I am not one to have a plain cover on MY sketchbook...I want it to beckon me to pick it up and spend time with it.

Imagine by Leada Wood© Artist of Texas

Imagine by Leada Wood©

This is the cover of a sketchbook that I did for a dear friend's birthday. I used my hand decorated papers and collaged them to the prepared surface. It's a good idea to use a hard back sketchbook and coat with gesso so that the paint and collage materials will adhere. The words and stars are raised above the surface of the book. I made the little bamboo stip out of clay. I always finish the books with several clear sealer coats to protect the papers.