My beautiful J.C. Leyendecker poster that I got for Christmas, framed and hung on my wall as of this early evening! Right above my desk so that I can be inspired by this incredible illustrator! Leyendecker is hands down my ABSOLUTE favorite illustrator of all time! I had it custom framed by Jerry's Artarama and it costed me quite a pretty penny, even with a 40% off discount. However, it was beautifully done so I have no complaints...only my bank account is severely disturbed by the amount. And my father.

The final thank you cards

The sakura flowers were taking too long to draw so I switched to little vignettes of a tree on a small hill against a blue sky. I wanted to go for a relaxing feel to the image. Did I succeed? Nothing calms or makes me happier than a beautiful day.

I have finished! My scanner isn't the best, so there is actually more fullness to the tree on its right side. However, I may add more darks in the field of grass. Comments?

The Tuscan Sky

I decided to experiment with a landscape picture that I took in Italy for a thank you card to my great aunt Alice rather than draw the sakura flowers (cherry blossoms). Those tiny flowers are really time consuming. These are six very small drawings on a 4 1/2 by 6 1/8 tinted canson paper, though I cropped off the bottom area that I didn't use. Different combinations of blue and white were used for the sky and varied greens for the landscape. For the darker areas in the trees I used black, very lightly. I also layered some of the colors. The bottom right has non-photo blue over white. My goal was to achieve a bright sky. I wanted my great aunt to feel the openness of the scenery and feel relaxed looking at it. I'm not sure if I accomplished that...

I'll post the final piece later. Perhaps I'll get it done by tonight.