The end of this exercise in ink comes near. In one or two sessions I might be able to finish this ink drawing. The next one is already in the works, this time in my sketch book again. Parallel to this big ones I plan to do a series of small ink studies too in coming weeks.

It is funny how each year gets it’s own character by the variations in the seasons that I notice while drawing and sketching outdoors. Last year became the year of the forest with the diary I had started without knowing how it would all turn out.
This year seems to become a time of slow motion. First the heavy winter with recurring snow and frost slowed down progress. Now we have this terrible summer heat all of a sudden, there was almost no spring season.
I do not know why I have choosen to do this very slow ink drawing, but somehow it fits. I already know that I will remember this year as the slow year!

The strong contrast between black lines and white paper can be a challenge for the human eye. When I looked at this simple ink sketch of an apple tree orchard, I noticed that I had difficulties to see the drawing as a whole. As soon as the eye fixates a detail some other lines at the periphery seem to vibrate or even jump a bit. This effect was explored by OP-Art, the works of Bridget Riley are an excellent example.

Summer has arrived in a rush now. Temperatures went up to 30°C during the last couple of days. The ink drawing of a fruit tree meadow made further progress. The end is not near yet, funny enough I look forward to the many leaves that are waiting for me to be drawn somehow.

What is good drawing? This question comes up quite naturally when a couple of artists or art lovers meet and start to discuss their subject of interest. Defining good drawing seems to be as difficult as defining good painting as soon as the question of accurate or academic representation is left behind. But even getting over this cliff with a convincing argument seems to be difficult. None of the words we might find to argue for the one or other drawing seems to be precise and strong enough. What is a vivid or confident line and whatelse we might say about the quality of a drawing?

Time makes the difference. The time we spend looking at a drawing is an indicator for the quality. The more time we spend with a drawing the better it is I think. The best drawings never wear off, the cheap ones are done away with the blink of the eye.(what is good drawing)

Even though the weather in this part of good old Germany must be classified as lousy considering we have already mid of June, there are still a couple of afternoons that allow to go out with a big sheet of paper (46X61 cm). This ink drawing is progressing step by step. Looking, not thinking, in a way meditating is the thing here. Drawing such a detailed study line by line is a challenge, but once the idea of creating a piece of art or so is put away, everything is alright.

Session number six today was mostly about the grass and the meadow. I continued to draw from a different perspective, which was convenient as there were rainshowers and low temperatures. Shelter was found under the roof of an old stone hut. There is still a bit works to do at one of the trunks, but I believe the next session will be the last one, hopefully under a blue sky and sun finally.

I had the chance to continue this drawing on a fruit tree meadow in a 5th session on this long weekend. The perspective had to be changed as the horses had occupied the place again already two weeks ago.

This gouache study was painted after I had developed some ideas in a number of thumbnail sketches with the intention to create a poster and card motif. The print is now available in my Zazzle Store

Also I am exploring simple monotype effects in works with gouache colors. The white I have used is a simple wall paint. In such a session I paint a set of 4-6 sheets in quick and spontaneous actions knowing that there is a good chance to gain at least one interesting result.

The weather has been to cold and moist for my taste during these early days of May. The rain did not alow me to continue with the bigger drawing, instead I played on small format paper with ink and pen. The quick notations below, shall serve as preliminary image ideas for monotype printing.