Done!

I have finally finished my seagull drawing. 
The main changes from last time are darkening the background especially in the lower portion. I also darkened the seagull's reflection to make the white areas look brighter.
I am really happy with the result. I will leave it a while before going back to take a last look to see whether it needs any tweaking. If not I shall mat and then frame it.

Laying It On

The first layer is done. Standing back from the drawing the reflection looks better than it does close up. Six to eight feet away is the optimum distance for viewing artwork. Sometimes I forget this and fuss about how a piece of work looks until I leave the room and see the work anew as I come back into the room.
I think the reflection will look even better when I put another, darker layer of blue on the drawing. If you want something to look lighter then put something darker beside it.

The Low Down

Here is my latest painting. I have just realised that I don't have a title for it yet. It is of the jetty on the ocean side of Dana Point Harbour. It is at low tide which is why you can see a portion of the beach on the left-hand side. 

Not Quite White

I am continuing to work on my seagull drawing. 

I am not too happy with how the reflection looks at the moment. I began wishing that I had done this drawing on toned paper (perhaps a grey) which would mean I could use a white pencil to put the white in. Because I am using the paper as the white it is harder to see how the white will look until all the blue and grey is coloured in. The white in my source photograph is very bright and the paper may not be bright enough to express that.

It is important not to make a negative judgement too early so I intend to continue on and see what happens when more of the blue is added. Although it is harder to erase coloured pencil than graphite, I can erase or lighten some of the reflection colours and make adjustments later on.
It is in the struggle that you learn to become a better artist even though that struggle is often discouraging and/or frustrating.

Gullible

After constantly telling myself that I would get working on my seagull drawing this day or that, today I finally did. I worked mostly on the bird although it is not finished yet. 

However, I feel I have overcome whatever it was that was blocking me from working on this drawing. Instead of feeling frustrated and dwelling on the challenges, I tried to just enjoy the experience. It worked.

Prior posts about this drawing can be seen here, here, here, and here.