Tuesday's life drawing (And didn't I used to paint once?)

I finally made it to life drawing this week and picked up a pencil for the first time in nearly a month! The model did some great poses but my hand and eye weren't quite up to speed which was a shame...
This is the closest thing to a finished sketch I've got so far at these sessions (about an hour) although there is a lot wrong with it... I would have liked to have captured the lovely fluid sinuous curve of her back a bit better - it has ended up with some stiffness in the upper back which wasn't present in her pose. I think perhaps some of the shadows are not quite right there in the shoulders too which doesn't help the form.
Although I usually never go back to a life study without the model in front of me, I am tempted just to go and take out some of that straightness of the line from her left shoulder in the hope the curves will flow better... maybe...

This was the other passable sketch of about 30 minutes...

The business has really taken over completely these last couple of months so I've barely had time to see my children never mind think about artwork! Exhaustion has well and truly set in now as well, but hopefully we can settle back down to some kind of normal routine soon and I can get back my children ( who have been so, so good) and my art!
So, sorry for the lack of art posts lately, but sooner or later I shall rediscover my poor forgotten paintbrushes! (Just one big nightmarish mountain of books and tax returns to go! Arrgh!)

Tales of Eostre and a wander in the woods...

'Eostre and the wounded bird'

copyright of Carrie Osborne.

Here is an Easter sketch for you!

I'm sure most of you already know of the tale of the bird Eostre transformed into a hare... and although I know it has no real historical basis and is more of a 'modern' myth as such, I like it and tell it to my children for the sheer pleasure of its story telling ...
In brief...

...Once when spring was late in coming, a young girl found a bird dying in the snow, its wings frozen with winter's frost. She called on Eostre, the Goddess of the Dawn to help and so she came over a rainbow bridge, bringing spring with her robes of sunlight and warmth and melting the snow. Eostre healed the bird but could not make it whole, so to save its life she transformed it into a snow hare. The hare who was once a bird, still laid eggs but of rainbow colours and gave them to Eostre in gratitude...

Eostre is also said to have Hare attendants to carry her lanterns of dawn-light...

In our world, the sun shone long enough today for easter egg hunts in the garden and a winding walk through the woods...

We saw buds on trees, deer slots, ferns clinging to moss clad limbs, sodden badger sets and a fallen silver birch with bark that shone ghost pale in every colour of mother-of-pearl. (But alas my camera just wasn't up to capturing that!)

Happy Easter!