#C2C15: Yin and Yang in the Garden and Countryside

Click to see the set on Flickr

The sketchbook exchange programme continues, with two more swops left to go.  This one was a challenge; finding complementary opposites in the greener outdoor space. I admit that I made one or two up... 

Page 1 was based on our garden. It was the one day that we have had snow this winter, and the suggestion was my husband's: a barbeque in the snow, representing fire and ice.

Page 2 was a stylised flower bed in a park, viewed from above, rendered in watercolour with the assistance of my new masking fluid. The flowers are laid out in the shape of the yin-yang symbol. There's a picnic happening in the blue corner...

Pages 3 and 4 are linked; they represent night and day, with the local radio mast (and landmark) shown from two positions. The daytime view was drawn outdoors and the line drawing made onsite is shown separately from the finished version. These are both done in various inks.

I also included, in the Flickr set, the line drawing for the snowdrop picture on page 5, embellished with watercolour for the finished image. Snowdrops growing in last year's leaf-litter.

A digital doodle of an imaginary yin-yang butterfly had to be printed and stuck in on page 6.

Two green men face each other on pages 7 and 8. Both are imagined versions of familiar tales; the age-old folk storie of the wood spirit and the newer invader from out of space. Old and new; within and without; earthly and alien.

Finally, I went back to nature on pages 9 and 10 and drew the mallards on Kingsclere's lake. Easily distinguished, the male and female birds are a fine example of yin and yang.