Tag Archives: cancer radiation

A Week of Drawing Sunflowers

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ahh the color is still grey – just think of these in the sunshine

supposed to be white paper not grey

I’ll just keep bumping up the brightness. I think now I have the camera on automatic in direct outside sunlight.

Ok this one I tried with a black background

This one I bumped up saturation, brightness, clarity  just about everything – still isn’t right

Bumped up the exposure in Lightroom 3 too much. Gotta go back to painting. It’s hard to try to be a photographer, someone who draws, a drawer?  and a technical wizard on the computer! Click on the image to see it larger. Who knows the color may be better 🙂 I’ve been thinking about Joan Mitchell and Vincent Van Gogh. I see how they were caught up with sunflowers, especially when the morning sun first lands on the yellow petals.

80 Drawings in 80 Days

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 I did it!

Eighty drawings in eighty days. Day one was the day I started radiation for tongue and throat cancer. Day eighty was thirty seven days after my last radiation treatment. The effects of the treatment build up and continue after the treatments have stopped. Now, I’m up and at ’em with rests during the day. After 3:00 my voice and body give out – time for a good read and a rest in my bed of clouds. We bought a duxiana bed and a big, warm, soft, comforter before all this. I bunch up that light soft cloud and settle in for a read and a nap. Heaven!

This last week I have been drawing sunflowers a gift from my husband. It is absolutely startling when the sun hits those petals around eight in the morning.  I think of the effect of these flowers on Van Gogh and Joan Mitchell when they painted them. I’ll post some of the pastel drawings I did this last week.  Maybe I’ll post an early drawing and one of the last ones so you and I can see the difference – how the drawings have changed due to the influence of radiation and the practice of drawing everyday.