Zero effort on dragon....100% effort on enjoying life and all the natural beauty that surrounds me daily. The lake was like glass today! Otherwise, artistically, I have a lioness completed but not scanned as yet and have moved on to another kitten.

I haven't been doing anything on the dragon for sooo long. I have done a couple of projects while on camping trips though .... kitten and lion. Not enough hours in a day it seems. The weather has been excellant for the duration so we have to enjoy it while it's good. Our grandson visited for a week and much fun was had instead of art work.

I got the next frame done. The photo of it is a bit wonky but shows it in perspective more or less. As I mentioned before it was a relatively boring piece to work on...yawn...but it's done. I've moved to the frame coming down and across the nape. This will require a little more care and creativity to blend in with the previous work as well as to create the beginnings of his wings. Now these wings, I hope, will be of a rather gossamer quality. My dragon sheds and regrows his wings yearly during which time (albeit a short period) he finds himself somewhat vulnerable to predation. My aim with this depicition is to show the wings in their most robust state but at the same time to somehow reveal their delicacy and fineness.

What fun!

I am finally back to the dragon. This is the first frame after the original head frame. I'm feeling quite encouraged now that I can see some progress on him. Now that I've photographed these 2 frames together I see the arm connection is off. I have corrected the gaff and it will show up in the next grouping photo as a better match. Today I am working on the next frame down to complete the other hand/claw. It's kind of a dull frame to work on as there is so much to background fill with charcoal. And yet, I am enjoying being back in the loft.

Home at last! My travel companions and I are soooooo glad to be back in beautiful BC. Saskatchewan was a nice visit with Mike's family but I sure can't take hours and hours of driving. I'm more of a drive for 4 hours only and camp kind of person. There was not a minute to spare for art....I think I went through withdrawal! Now that I'm caught up with my grooming clients, garden and yardwork I hope to get back to it. All of the frames are prepped with line drawings. I did a change to the hind legs. I'm quite excited to get on with it!

The dragon body has begun to take shape. This is a rough draft of the general look he will take on. However I have already changed the front legs since the scan. I am seriously concerned about the hind legs. They need to change but I will wait on that for a bit. They will stil need to be in a tucked position because he is in flight. I just don't like the look... I am finding that as I transpose the idea onto the each frame in relation to the previous frame I can make adjustments to improve the look. There has been much too much going on here lately that has kept me from my art. Two more weeks of interruption and I'll be at it more consistantly...I hope.

What happened to the last 2 days? I'm not really sure....except that I have a horse drawing done to show for it and a half done portrait challenge from wet canvas. So, I guess I was busy drawing. I had a ShihTsu to groom...the very grumbly Buddy...very good but "don't touch my front legs or else". Not entirely all bluff to that threat either. We had some visitors from the "big city" drop by for a few hours too. The hummingbird pictures are for them as they were quite thrilled by them but could not catch them with their camera. Those hummers are very wary of changes around the feeder. I had to set my camera up on a tripod in one of the flower boxes by the feeder and hide behind the post to get this. Hmmm, I guess that's what happened to the last 2 days. The dragon is at rest for the time being while I work out his body stance...over and over... until I see what I like.