Red Rose of Late Summer or Early Autumn

 The first creative work of art since becoming a person of leisure is a pencil crayon render of this rose from our garden. I used a set of Berol Fantasy pencils. It's not the best quality, but it worked out just the same. It's my third rose. Since the last time, I really wanted to know what still worked. Just pencil illustrations is far too difficult, so I went straight to colour. The main thing now, I have to figure out how to keep the pencils from breaking when I sharpen them.

Aquarium 2023 - Live Plants with Platys.

First created video in a long while. Of course it will be of my aquarium. It's all about making the occupants happy and healthy.

 

Colouring and My Drawings

Finally, I have started to use colour medium to render a drawing. The only references I had were photos taken from our garden. At first I used pencil crayons or coloured pencils. These I had an abundant supply of. There were false starts of course, to get used to the practice. I had viewed enough tutorials on Youtube to see what artists had to say about techniques and layering in particular. For the roses, I stopped short of overworking the drawing. The green was used but in the photos, they were ill-defined. In the drawing itself, it almost anchored an otherwise floating flower.

For the second rose, I used a slightly limited palate, but it ended up muddier looking. Clearly I needed to work learn more about colours.

My next challenge was watercolour pencils. I had played around with this before I understood how to release the pigment in this fuller set of pencils. Even then, I still had difficulty matching the colours to the reference photo.

Digital Photos from 2020

The Best of 2020

As I have not posted in a while, I think I shall share some of my favourite photos from last year. During lockdown, I spent quite a bit of time in our garden. From April to September, I took charge in mowing the lawn. In that time, I've discovered many new things. 

There were white wild roses growing  in our hedge. These made for some pretty pictures. A neighbourhood friend had a beehive. It's not unusual to see honeybees. These blooms really smell sweet.

We also had peonies in the garden. With the fair weather, we still had just two weeks. They just did not make the cut.

The seven sisters rose bush came with the house. It never bloomed better. We had a couple months of flowering.

We had one small rose bush. This year being so scorching hot, all the early buds had withered. It was only until late summer, did we get a full flower.

Honey Bee on Wild Roses

Wild Roses

Seven Sisters Roses

Seven Sisters Rose in Bloom

A Friendly Robin

Lots of Seven Sister Roses

Unexpected Ladybug

Best Rose in Bloom

Calendula (Marigold)

The Ideal Canon Digital Elph Feature for Aquarium Photography

On the Canon Powershot SD870 IS, this is the AF assist beam. All these years, I have not used it correctly on this model camera. My mistake had always been to aim that light away from the goldfish, when I should have aimed it directly at the fish. By doing so, both the goldfish and the background is properly lit, and I get minimal to no light bounce back from the glass.

In Steele We Trust

It is time for another cover art. I think that will be the twist for my new fan fiction in this genre. I have gone back to a caricature style. That way it is easier to capture the expressions.

In Steele We Trust
Genre: Mystery/Suspense
Rated: K+
Character: Laura H., Remington S.

While on a romantic getaway in the Orient, Laura goes missing. It is up to Remington Steele to find her. Can the duo match wits with criminal elements without causing an international incident?

Fish Tanks

Goldfish

Green Tiger Barbs 

Latest set up of a 10 gallon and 2 gallon aquarium.  The goldfish 5 years old. The barbs are recent additions.