Groundwork and lists

I rarely start what I call a 'proper' drawing without doing a preliminary sketch first. Now the sketch can be loose and have inaccuracies or it can be detailed and precise. I like to have some idea of how the final drawing will turn out and if I even like constructing it.

A drawing is like many things that are started and not completed just because they don't feel right.

Here is such a sketch of one of the Pekin ducks whose overexuberance got her into trouble - getting stuck in a bucket. I've had the reference for this image since last summer, but only nowo am getting around to considering it as a drawing or painting.

This weekend I am hosting the weekend drawing event at Wet Canvas so have provided a variety of images for people to choose and create art pieces. The duck in the bucket is one of them. Bear in mind that this is a rough sketch, and started more as a doodle on some lined paper. I'm trying to decide the medium for this piece. Perhaps black paper and pastel or derwent pencils.

I've also been working on more self portraits. I completed one yesterday and another today. Yesterdays was done in graphite and today's in Derwent Drawing Pencils. I love the look and feel of these but haven't had a lot of practice with them yet. They are fat pencils that blunt easily so I'm learning as I go. But I love the rich,natural tones of them and how smoothly they go onto the the paper.

Here's today's efforts.

Loretta at Pomegranatesandpaper has unique List Friday going. Today the theme is What's Missing? List six things that you have lost and never found - youth and virginity not allowed..:o)

Here are some of my losses.

1. A gold bracelet from a very dear friend. I felt like I was confessing a sin when I said it was missing.
2. Forty pounds sterling that my tiny daughter took out of my bag, 'played' with and couldn't remember where she put it.
3. $100 stolen from my car while I showed the girls their first blueberries on the bush in Newfoundland (do you see a trend happening here??)
4. Too many single earrings and socks to mention. In vain, I keep the twin in the hopes the other will magically appear one day.
5. Baby teeth. At least three that I swallowed inadvertently. I felt cheated at the time as I thought the Tooth Fairy would fly over me without a second thought. She still arrived anyway. :o)
6. Two cats, both within a week of each other. Guinness and Murphy, both named after stout beer. Wonderful five-toed cats that I owned for years. They were great hunters, bringing home anything from rabbits to crows. I think they were outsmarted by a fox.

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