grayscale – Curious as a Cathy

On Friday, we decided to drive the newly opened portion of the Foothills Parkway near Maryville, Tennessee that ends in Wears Valley not far from Pigeon Forge. This segment of the parkway laid unfinished for 52 years before final completion last April. I took these three photos at the largest overlook on that stretch offering a gorgeous panoramic view. It wasn’t until I got back in the car that I realized that I had turned the B&W filter on my iPhone camera. It was a bit nippy and the wind was gusting more than I cared for so decided to go with these shots. This goof actually services quite well for the mid-week alphabet prompt, G is for grayscale! Doncha just love it when a plan comes together? 😉

With the gloomy grayness overhead, the B&W effect turned out good expressing the moodiness of the moment purrfectly. We’ll go back again on a glorious blue sky day for another attempt to capture even a better picture.

Once we got off the parkway, we explored some of the back roads before heading into Pigeon Forge where we gave into one of our guilty pleasures, ice cream. We stopped at a candy shop that boasts of home-made ice cream which we’ve been wanting to try for more than a year but never got around to it because of bad timing. You know, the terrorists that flock to our mountains? Anywho, we are sure glad that we didn’t fight the multitude off to get this place because it was a disappointment. *sigh* Oh well…we can cross that place off our list.

Today’s post is in part sponsored by the letter ‘G’ and the ABC Wednesday community.

My linky party is open to all regardless of what kind of post you have as long as you’re a personal blogger. ALL commercial websites, advertisers, or other spammy, non-fun links are subjected to immediate termination by the linky hostess!

[tweetthis]I linked up with Curious as a Cathy & I invite you to join the party! #WW #abcwednesday #scribblepicnic @a_dotty_hill [/tweetthis]

Scribble Picnic host, Michael MacVean, challenges the artist in us all regardless of our level with a prompt every other week to inspire creativity. This week’s word is ‘HEARTS‘.

When I was a little girl I remember my mom doodling. She would draw a woman in a ballgown. It was a simple design to remember because she always began with a heart-shaped bodice. That’s where my illustrations begin this time.

I have fond memories of those early years watching her sketch. That’s about all I recall her drawing but I do remember others in the family illustrating, mostly my uncle. He liked sketching naked women but I’m not going to go that far here…yet! lol

My brain got to thinking about Valentines Day, so I thought why not use Michael’s heart challenge to create something for DH. I did this pencil drawing of a gal blowing kisses. Besides the obvious floating hearts, do you see any others?

The interesting thing about using digital art media like Procreate, I can upload my image to iCloud then add it to the app. That’s what I did, then just traced it. I haven’t mastered hands. Shoot, I haven’t mastered any part of the human anatomy but hands are tricky to get right and still I can’t get it. Practice. Practice. Practice. You’ll probably notice that I did the gal’s hand a little different but I can’t say it looks any better than the pencil design. What do you think? This one I was able to iMessage to DH on Valentine’s Day. I like the color. The double heart chocker represents our courting years and DH got me one something like this. I actually still have it tucked away in my jewelry box as a momentum of those early years. It’s broken and tarnished but it symbolizes our love.

DH does his own little thing for our daughters for Valentine’s Day and so I like to send DS a little something, so I did this little doodle in Procreate just for him.

There’s nothing like a little art play to show someone that you’re thinking of them and it’s an excellent expression of ❤️!

Until we cross paths next keep on doodling where ever your brain takes you. Come back tomorrow to see what I divvy up next perhaps a few words of gratitude and a new writing prompt?

X💋X💋, Cathy