I continue to work away on the five pieces I started after the holiday. So far I've spent the most time on the two winter scenes. I think I'm done with Winter Wonderland and almost finished with Frozen Lake. Both of these pieces are based on photos which I took in Michigan. I may have walked out further to the lake, but it was freezing cold that day with the wind blowing at about 35 miles and hour.
To warm me up I started on the foothills in Montana. The original photo came from my sister who lives in Montana. I still have a way to go on this piece, but the surface of this paper, Fabriano Artistico, is far different from the other papers and is more often used with watercolors. Ink Tense Pencils need water to bring out their vibrant colors so I thought it might be helpful to work on this paper. However, I didn't tape it down entirely, laziness, which has resulted in warping. I've wet the back of the paper, taped it to another board and ironed it dry. Now it's sitting under several heavy books. We'll see if that works.
The next piece is based on a photo I took while walking in a Slot Canyon. It isn't very large, 11"H x 7"W. I haven't decided if this is going to be abstract or realistic. I'll work on it a bit more and see what I think. I have one more piece that I started which is abstract, but I 'm not far enough along to bother posting it. Work on that one starts as soon as I get off this post.