Three Drawings Ready

I told D that after a very long, hard winter, a day like today (like the last several days) is more splendid than a spring day may seem to people who live in more temperate climates.  I do believe that, but don't forget that I am also very well aware that being retired makes a HUGE difference in the way I perceive winter's woes.  I am not a Pollyanna (does anyone read those books these days?), but winter doesn't bother me as it did when I had to drive in it to get to work.

It has been just lovely:

This is the view of our side yard looking past our two flowering trees (the white one down by the road is almost invisible in comparison) to the paler pink tree in our neighbors' yard across the street.

In addition to glorying in the day, I spent a wonderful time with two friends from teaching days.  We laughed, ate lunch, reminisced, visited a bookstore, laughed some more, and simply had a grand time.  All three of us are now retired so I hope we can do this a little more often.

Once home, I managed to work on two drawings.  One is the call box (phone booth to us) from Painswick, England with the village church in the distance.  I hope I have the proportions right this time.  Before I had drawn what was in the photo, but as Sharon pointed out, it didn't make the most effective composition.  Now the call box dominates.  The other is a drawing of an outlying limestone building near Stourhead (of rhododendron fame) with super blue doors and a wonderful roofline.  While I don't think it was part of the estate we visited, it was on property nearby and caught my eye.

I can't show you either of them because they are drawn on tracing paper which is difficult to photograph well.  Why did I do that?  Well, the usual way of doing this is to draw the picture on regular drawing paper (as I did with the London Mews), then trace the drawing, and then transfer the drawing using graphite paper onto watercolor paper.  I know.  Phew!!  So I tried to make two of the compositions easier by eliminating the initial drawing stage. That's risky because as you probably realize, tracing paper is very thin and doesn't take kindly to erasures.

However, as I had actually already drawn both the call box and the Stourhead building, I felt reasonably confident that I could repeat the subject since I knew it rather well, had already made the more egregious mistakes, and now had a reasonable chance of getting it right.  

Fortunately for me, all went well.  The Mews needs to be traced, but basically I am ready for class with three drawings!