Halo and chameleon

Saw two somewhat unusual things today. The first, a halo around the Sun, which I photographed from two different sides of a building, trying to keep direct sunlight out of the lens:

And then, a few hours later, found this little fellow clinging to the curtains in my apartment:

Presumably my cat brought it in, and then, for some reason, decided not to dissect it as she usually does with her wildlife specimens (she makes Hannibal Lecter look like Gandhi by comparison). So I took the lucky survivor outside and put it in a tree densely overgrown with creeping jasmine - not perfect, but probably better habitat than my apartment:

Chameleons were common around here when I was a child, but I haven't seen one in many years. Perhaps they are making a comeback.

Buddhist sculpture

HB mechanical pencil on printer paper, 18cm x 12cm:

Mushrooms

Done from a reference photo. I have reported before on my struggle to draw from photos. Considering how convenient they can be, it seems like a weakness not to be able to make proper use of them, so I am trying to overcome it. Not sure if I am managing...

HB mechanical pencil on printer paper, 13cm x 18cm.

#30: Pine cone

I find this kind of subject absolutely fearsome, because whenever I have to deal with this kind of repetitive complexity, i.e. little units that repeat, but not exactly, I quickly lose track of which bit it is that I am working on. Here I think I managed reasonably well, though I greatly simplified it and the drawing does not remotely contain all the detail I could see.

When I was a kid, ladies would often sit and knit or crochet in conversation. Nowadays we buy our jerseys in clothing stores, and we have cell phones, so the knitting ladies making idle and pleasant conversation have been replaced with people rudely ignoring the conversation while frantically typing text messages, or privately laughing at something they see on the little screen. 

I wonder why we bother to have friends in real life at all. Anyway, I made the above drawing while idly chatting in a pleasant conversation with colleagues - my version of doing the knitting lady thing. Or perhaps drawing while chatting is every bit as rude as texting? 

Black-collared Barbet

A sketch of a Black-collared Barbet (Lybius torquatus). Ballpoint pen and coloured pencil on printer paper, about 20cm x 20cm.

Self-portrait

As always with self-portraits, the rather menacing expression is just an effect of staring intently into a mirror...

#28: Blue bottle and tomato

Oil on canvas board, 20 cm x 15 cm.

A friend gave me a lovely blue bottle, and I couldn't wait to paint it. Clear bottles are common, so are green ones and brown ones, but blue ones are rather hard to come by!

With such richly coloured things, one is always tempted to use too much colour, ending up with something way too garish. In fear of that, I erred in the other direction, and my painting's colours are not nearly as rich as the bottle. 

I added the tomato for some extra colour. And I liked the curious bump on it - vegetables (and bottles, for that matter) all have their own unique personalities, well worthy of portraiture.