Where's this?

I'm still scribbling, having started, can't seem to stop!

The word for Illustration Friday last week was Garden.


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Any of you Americans know where this is?

We were there with the family in 2004 and this is my grandson when he was three. How many other children must have sat on that sculpture!

Coloured pencil on white cartridge paper with a bit of scraffito.

TIF - March - details - scribbling

I have to say, this month's challenge has encouraged me to get the sketchpad out again! Drawing something really makes you examine it quite closely and 'get the feel of it'. I've noticed at least one other participant similarly affected.

Here's a closeup sketch of a poppy from my garden.


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Not one of my best.....coloured pencil on inferior paper. I was disappointed with this so I decided to play around with it in Paintshop Pro, looking for inspiration...

First I tried a contour effect:


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then I tried adding a coloured foil effect to the original:



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OOOOoooooooooo! Manipulating images like this creates lots of possibilities. No need to throw away those bad sketches any more!

I'm really enjoying this month's challenge as a purely paper exercise, so a big THANK YOU to Sharon for nudging me in this direction.

Illustration Friday - Leap (TIF March)

Having trouble with this month's Take if Further challenge concept.

Did this quick sketch, prompted by this week's Illustration Friday theme, while mulling it over:


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Titled "Leap into Spring"

March is the month for mad hares!

Needs more work on the hare in the foreground to bring it forward, which reminds me that the closer it is, the sharper the details you can see and the colour blue gives depth and makes backgrounds seem further away.