Andrea Doughtie, Rural Painter

These are mannequins I got some time ago for still life set ups.  It’s funny how anytime I put characters together–people, animals, etc. it looks like a little short story.  That’s a pearl earring the guy is holding but it looks more like a little light bulb.   I meant to cover these folks with skin and make them look realistic but decided that was more trouble than I wanted to go to. Although the catalog claims these two are “anatomically accurate” I have my doubts.

We went for a walk  in the woods yesterday and I found some great dried vegetation–milkweed pods, goldenrod, pearly everlasting, etc.  This drawing is of a sensitive fern–a rather coarse invasive type.  I really liked the animation of the dead fern–all those twisting lines, like a dance.

Playing dolls again.   This one is so pale it may not be readable.  Anyway, the DrawMo! project is really good for my drawing skills.  Painting realistically requires accurate drawing too but it’s different.

Here’s a mannequin hand I got a long time ago for a still life painting which I still haven’t done.  That’s a marble it’s holding.

I’ve wanted to draw/paint a piece of ginger for a long time–such a strange-looking form, and complicated!

I thought I’d go for spontaneous in today’s drawing so I decided to throw some ink onto the paper and  see if I could make a picture out of whatever landed there.  It’s a little sinister–the character seems to be fighting off some alien life form.  I punched holes in the eyes and tried to take a photo with the light shining through the eyeballs but couldn’t get it to show up.  Anyway, a welcome change from careful rendering.

I was so impressed with the ink drawings some of the DrawMo! participants  had done I thought I’d try it.  I haven’t done any ink drawing for quite a while and am not too happy with this one.  It looked better at an earlier stage and then I think I overworked it.  Oh well, every experience matters.  It’s the forested slope behind our house.

Here’s a picture of one of the rubber babies and a strange stretched-out short-eared rabbit giving each other the once over.  Drawing babies is hard enough but the scale makes it even harder–measuring one tiny part against another.  I guess I’ve never grown out of playing with dolls!

Here’s a drawing of a milkweed pod.  The white charcoal over the black made everything look sort of blue but I guess that’s how you learn.  Anyway, I love the form of these pods–so many seeds packed in and the silvery fluff spilling out.  But if I don’t spray them with fixative the stuff gets all over the house.

I have a collection of tiny plastic farmers, farm animals and rubber babies on top of my china cabinet. I’ve used them in still life paintings but mostly I just like the way they look. Also my granddaughter delights in creating little dramas with them. So this is my drawing for today. Ed says if it were an elephant instead of a pig it would be a political cartoon and I’m thinking that has possibilities…