works in progress: canary drawing

 I've made steady progress on my drawing today.  The weekend was spent gathering and combining sketches to make the cartoons.  The key lines were transferred to good drawing paper using my window as a makeshift lightbox.  I used a hard pencil with a light touch, so as not to indent the paper or leave too much graphite behind.
On balconies, both in Guardia and Venice, people keep canaries as pets.  In my drawing, they're free to explore a little patch of paradise I've created.  The more I add color, the more I want to work and see the finished project-it's good to have that feeling.

Yesterday evening I took a four kilometer hike to the neighboring to buy olive oil with another artist and the residency director.  Along the way was a fresh spring where we filled our water bottles-it tasted so fresh!  I also ate two figs from a tree, they were everywhere.  It was a beautiful walk with a cool breeze and beautiful plants along the way.  Check out the coral roses, they were almost fluorescent!