Another challenge that is harder than it sounds!  I fancy having a go at this in paint, or with black paper and white pencil.  Maybe tomorrow.  It’s been a long week.

We bought these silver teaspoons from a junk shop in Masham, North Yorkshire.  It’s one of those shops you can get lost in for hours, and we usually do.

What is there to do on a grey wet afternoon except draw?  Realising that I’d cheated on the egg box challenge (not reading it properly!) I thought I should challenge myself to draw the box open rather than closed.  I have enormous respect for anyone who has attempted this challenge in paint.  It is hard enough in pencil. 

I’ve also drawn a previous challenge – our local store.  We are lucky enough to have a local Co-op in the village, and it does a great job of stocking most things that we may need.

You can probably tell I’ve been less than patient with this sketch!  It is also interesting how clearly I can see all the mistakes once I’ve scanned it in.  Why can’t I see them as clearly in my sketchbook I wonder?

We buy our free-range eggs from the farm in the village.  This involves standing in the farmhouse porch which has roses rambling round it and stone bench-seats either side, often with empty egg boxes left on them.  We rattle the knocker on the heavy oak door to summon our eggs.  After some brief chit-chat with the farmer’s wife, we wait quite a few minutes while she presumably goes and finds some from wherever the hens lay them.  You don’t get much fresher than that.

My favourite egg dish is probably a good old english fry-up with fried or poached eggs.

Click to enlarge. 

Last week’s EDM challenge was to draw a paper bag.  Challenge was the right word!  I drew this in colour pencil.  When I scanned it, the scanner was still set to black and white.  I thought it looked much better in B&W, which is interesting.  I like the tonal values, but not the combination of the colours for some reason.  It’s interesting to see what you can learn by looking at a sketch in B&W.