New Frog Drawing

Here's a work-in-progress view of the second frog drawing in my Deep Thinkers series. This little guy is sprawled across a page of Japanese math equations, with white word bubbles floating above. This piece has a lot to do with holes, but I haven't thought it out thoroughly enough yet to be able to explicate much further.

I started this drawing nearly 2 months ago, when I first arrived in France. I set it aside for awhile, in favor of painting, which I had sorely missed during my month in England. But now I'm picking it back up again, as my urge for photorealism returns.

His feet look really white right now, but they will be colored to match the rest of him soon! I find that laying down a white layer first helps lend the frog's skin a sense of vibrant translucency.

I worked on this drawing a bit this morning, and I hope to have the frog finished soon. It was a nice respite to pick up this drawing again, because for the past few days I've been spending lots of time working on my small, detailed abstract paintings. Since we've got a Natural Agriculture course going on at the moment, I've been able to steal away loads of free time to work on my art, which has been a real godsend. I've been spending 6-7 hours working alone, listening to mp3s and painting tiny dots and strokes of color onto wood and canvas. Working on art in such an intensive manner has a really calming and focusing effect on my mind, which is something I start to miss if I can't work on art for prolonged periods. After spending a few hours painting abstracts, I find that long after I've stopped, I still see colors, forms, patterns, and designs floating around in my mind, kind of superimposed over the real visual world. Sometimes it can be distracting, because it causes me to focus more on my inner world/vision and makes me content not to engage in conversation (or perhaps it is conversation that is the distraction?)

We went for a walk last night along the ridge behind our property. There was a lovely and peaceful area with a wide variety of plants sprouting from between the rocks. The variety of different life forms emerging from the ground was really inspiring, and I hope to return to that spot soon to make some sketches and take some photos. I'm starting to become more and more inspired by natural forms, so I feel lucky to be in a place where there is so much wild nature just outside the front door.