Rainbow of Peppers

© Ellen Blonder

Before a predicted frost, the generous owners of Draper Farms in San Anselmo, California, allowed members to harvest what was left of the peppers and tomatoes. We brought home a rainbow. I wanted to remember the peppers with a colored pencil sketch.

The farm is a labor of love, well worth joining if you're in the area. It's a joy to gather vegetables from their beautifully-tended rows, then traipsing home with the bounty.

Plant Study

© Ellen Blonder

Does anyone know the name of this plant? I saw it growing in a large pot in Kauai, and loved its colorful ribbon-like leaves. This is a colored pencil study of it from my sketchbook.

Persimmon Loose Sketch

© Ellen Blonder

Happy New Year! I resolve to post more this year--to draw more this year. This is a recent colored pencil sketch of winter's persimmon crop, now long gone. 

Red Leaf

© Ellen Blonder

Something in colored pencil from the sketchbook. I can't get enough of fall leaves this year.

Cosmos

© Ellen Blonder

My friend Roney brought me a beautiful bouquet of cosmos last week, and I thought they were worth a colored pencil sketch. Thanks, dear Roney!

Sycamore Leaf

© Ellen Blonder

More fall: I'm trying to look down more when I walk around this season. I saw this the other day, with a beautiful range of color all in the same sycamore leaf. I drew it in colored pencil in my sketchbook today.

Fall Leaf - Final

© Ellen Blonder

This used nine different colors of pencils, even though it looks monochromatic. Happy Fall!

Fall Leaf 2

© Ellen Blonder

I do like this paper's sturdiness as I layer the colored pencils with more and more pressure.

Fall Leaf 1

© Ellen Blonder

I'm trying to pay more attention to what's right in front of me, and yesterday it was fall leaves. Summer flew by, and I didn't get a chance to try this new paper, sold by Canson for drawing comics. I'm checking out the paper to see how it takes colored pencil.

Abutilon 1

© Ellen Blonder

Some dear friends brought a gift of an abutilon plant when they visited earlier this month. I sketched the flowers in my sketchbook, trying to capture the tangerine shades and rich green leaves with colored pencil, and with more than a little frustration. I'll try watercolors next, before I find the perfect place to plant it in the garden.

Colored Pencil Rooster-Day 5 Final

© Ellen Blonder

All done. I'll only overwork him if I continue. 

Colored Pencil Rooster-Day 4

© Ellen Blonder

Slowly filling in the feathers on the rooster's body.

Colored Pencil Rooster-Day 3

© Ellen Blonder

Working out those great tail feathers, all attitude and, well, cockiness.

Colored Pencil Rooster-Day 2

© Ellen Blonder

Rather than filling in the shape head to tail, I want to see relative values as I go--or is it that I'm too impatient to see the rooster develop in such an orderly way?

Colored Pencil Rooster-Day 1

© Ellen Blonder

I've been playing with colored pencil, but not sketched anything very colorful. I thought I'd try a rooster. This handsome guy posed for a photo along a walk in Kauai, where they're everywhere. I darkened the scan of this to show the basic shape; the lines are actually much lighter.

Red Roses-Final

© Ellen Blonder

The roses I used for reference are both the same dark red, but I liked leaving the one on the left lighter for contrast. Now it's done.
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Post p.s.-My friend Jeanette just commented on this post with a poem, but it's too good to be lost in the comments; I'm adding it to the post itself. 


ONE PERFECT ROSE

A single flow’r he sent me, since we met.
All tenderly his messenger he chose;
Deep-hearted, pure, with scented dew still wet —
One perfect rose.

I knew the language of the floweret;
“My fragile leaves,” it said, “his heart enclose.”
Love long has taken for his amulet
One perfect rose.

Why is it no one ever sent me yet
One perfect limousine, do you suppose?
Ah no, it’s always just my luck to get
One perfect rose.

~ Dorothy Parker (1893-1967), American writer of poetry and short stories  

Red Roses-Day 4

© Ellen Blonder

This is fun, but it's fun in slow motion, without the anxiety of watercolors that might dry too fast in the wrong places. The challenge is to still to get the flowers dark enough.

Red Roses-Day 3

© Ellen Blonder

I'm wearing out my pencils trying to get the reds dark enough. Once I get these tones down, it'll probably take another round to darken everything even more.

Red Roses-Day 2

© Ellen Blonder

These roses will go way darker, but sketching in highlights and shadows helps me see where I'm headed.

Red Roses-Day 1

© Ellen Blonder

My friend Jenny gave me some red roses that were so dark and velvety they were almost black. I'm going to see if I can reproduce that color and texture with colored pencil.