Post your other non-phtographic art here.

[Dave]

I'm inexcusably late getting into this thread.

Some very impressive art here damar, Don, Rich, Grant, Michael, and Natalie. You folks are multi-talented.

I finally got around to starting my latest try at watercolors, with the goal of producing very loose and colorful paintings. Loose and expressive would be a huge change for me.

But since I'm convinced that good values (the darks and lights) are as critical in painting as in photography, I've begun with a value sketch. It's taken from a book by Jean Haines (she encourages readers to copy the paintings in her book as practice). I chose to emulate one of her sketches of a baby elephant.

There are some things in my value sketch that I'm pleased with, and others that could be much better: it's much looser than I've ever done, the values are pretty good (especially leaving white around the eye), and I think the proportions of the elephant are pretty accurate and I got a reasonably believable sense of it's stride. And I like how leaving a white edge above the head draws the eye to that important area. On the other hand the trunk needs some work to look realistic and the foreground is pretty lame.

But overall, I'm pleased with this first attempt. I got some practice with some of Jean's recommended techniques, and I'm eager to move on to a color sketch of something that appeals to me as much as this baby elephant does.

Anyway...