Striped Bowtie

Finding a striped piece of fabric to sketch for item #4 was a toughie! It turns out that in this household, stripes are a rare and difficult to find item! At last we found a striped bowtie among my Dad's things. He used to wear these all the time instead of a tie.

String of Beads

Ball/marble/string of beads (round ones) was the third item on this weeks list. I recently learned how to make several types of Celtic knots and used them to string these beads. Two of the knots are sliding knots, which allows the length of the necklace to be lengthened or shortened! I had a lot of fun making this and so it was easy to choose it as the subject for this sketch. The challenge for me here is that the beads were all somewhat transparent and the knots intricate.

A Twig of Cotoneaster

#2 on this weeks Scavenger Hunt list is: A Twig. Lots of possiblities for this one! I walked around the yard with my pruners in hand. I had quite a bouquet of interesting autumn leaves on twigs, but when I walked around the front of the house and saw the bright red berries and deep green leaves of the cotoneaster (pronounced ka-TONE-ee-aster rather than cotton-easter!), I knew this was what I had to draw.

Seedpods

Every 9 days, a new "Scavenger Hunt" begins on WetCanvas. One of the participants of the Artwork from Life/Scavenger Hunt forum submits a list of approximately 26 items and up to 3 challenges. The members then post their sketches.

For this hunt, I chose to sketch the items in watercolor with ink accents. I use a Winsor Newton sketchbox, Winsor Newton Cotman brushes, Micron pens and Holbein Multi-Drawing Book/OF (approx 5.25" x 7.25"). The first item on the list for October 8 - 16, 2006 was: Seedpod (cone, acorn etc.) I looked through my Mom's collection of nature items and came up with these interesting items to sketch.


The acorn is from a Burr Oak. I do not know the type of cone or seedpod though my Mom believes she found them in California.