I'm back!

Oops!  I forgot to mention that we'd be going away for a beach holiday... and as it turned out, there was no Internet access where we were staying.  This was an absolutely wonderful thing for my family, to be unplugged and unscheduled for so long.  However I realize that my trusty blog followers must have wondered what happened to me!  I'm back now and raring to go...

Consider the two drawings I did this past week:

The first, a quick sketch at the beach, proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that I am not terribly gifted at depicting landscapes.  But you get the general gist of the environment, and you may be able to guess that it really was a lovely, uncrowded, sunny beach that stretched on forever and inspired us to do essentially nothing but worship the sun for a week.

The second took much longer, and I am more pleased with the result.  The light source was a bit ambiguous, so the shadows are not perfect, but other than that I like it.  Ah, the friendly starfish.  Creeping slowly along on its little nobby arms (or legs?) bothering no one, except the coral it eats.  I love the bumpy, ridged texture of its body, which serves to camouflage and protect.  The bumps and ridges create wonderful shadows and are actually easy to draw by stippling with a pen. Enjoy!