April 25, 2011

    This is a tiny white ceramic pitcher about six inches high. I think the story is that my maternal grandfather made it, but I'd have to double-check on that... 
    After two very short-of-sleep nights and a long day today (followed by a wearing evening), I wasn't up to investing a great deal of time in an involved sketch. 

April 25, 2011

    This is a sketch of a clematis I did in the backyard today while the weather turned chill and grey, and the wind picked up - threatening to rain... and, partly at least, while I was talking on the phone to an artist friend. Some of my clematis aren't in bloom yet, but several are loaded with blooms and justify the old "April showers bring May flowers" rhyme.

April 24, 2011

     Here's a stack of pans on the stove; two iron skillets so tightly nested they practically merge, a steel pan, a colander, another steel pan that barely sits in the mouth of the colander, and in front is a mere indication of the water pot already sketched (March 3rd).

April 23, 2011

     This is a simple pen drawing done as a plan for a painting at Julie Metz wetland bank park. I found the spot I want to try painting from, and I sketched the path at that point in order to try out some compositional plans. I didn't plan on changing  anything, exactly, but just by becoming aware of the value areas and shapes I think one ends up adjusting things subtly to affect composition. It relates to how difficult it is to draw something you cannot see well, even if you really are trying to simply draw it exactly the (visually incomplete) way you see it.
     Regardless, I did end up changing something:  I had felt like the lower left was lacking something, and then on the way back I found a nicely formed New Jersey Tea in bloom, so I sketched it in over top in that corner. I think I'll like the texture it will add. 

April 22, 2011

Just another unsung hero story - involving keys!

     On Easter Sunday I had taken my parents to put flowers on family graves as well as to accomplish a number of other things, and on the way home I stopped by my daughter's place to drop off a bag of oak leaf mulch (good stuff), and was waiting in the car for her to arrive... drowsy in one of the first really warm days of this summer. I got thinking about some violets in the trunk and decided I'd better check on them, so I opened the trunk and set the keys down. One of the violets had dumped over, so it was most likely when I was scooping and tamping dirt that the keys slid between the bags. Out of sight, out of mind... but still in trunk. Just about as the trunk latched I had the "oh No" realisation that the keys were probably still inside. 
     We tried everything, but without success, so I called AAA for their local locksmith service. They sent an angel in tattoos. 
     Seriously, here's a guy that arrives on Easter Sunday, spends several hours on a particularly difficult job (my car has a broken closing motor on the trunk, a firewall behind the back seat, and weird valet key precautions designed to make it Hard to get into the trunk), and Never Once makes a single patronising comment or glance, has the persistence of a Job, a wonderful attitude throughout, and still cuts us a break on the price. 
      How did he accomplish the job? After eliminating all other ways in, he had to remove the lock from the glove compartment, disassemble it to somehow make a key for it, reassemble it and put it back in.
     Oh - and locksmiths have the most wonderful little workshops in the back of their small vans. They look like something a clock maker would have... very cool.
      

April 21, 2011

     Today was supposed to be a sketch of car keys... which I began yesterday. It may yet be car keys, but since I'm playing catch-up anyway I ran outside to draw the surprise iris growing up in the money plant. I can see I should have provided some darker values higher in the money plant, but it wasn't going to be about the money plant anyway and since I was getting hot in the sun, I fled! 
     I really like these Louisiana style iris because they look like alien flowers. I'm sure I stuck the bulbs in sometime last Fall and immediately forgot - which is great because I was so pleased when I discovered two of these in bloom this morning - which means I successfully and unintentionally set a happy trap for myself. It's a gift side effect of distraction! 
     The first two were white. Another in yellow and white has since bloomed, and I can see more on the way. Whoopie!

April 20, 2011

     Today was Easter. Not the I'm-behind-but-catching-up April 19th sketch date, or the posting-wee-hours-officially-now-the-25th posting date, but April 24th Easter Sunday - So in honor of Easter and of renewal (and since I already have two rabbits sketched), I've sketched a bilby. Not a realistic bilby, but an Easter bilby... a sort of children's cartoon bilby... although the real fellow looks at least as odd. 
     I heard somewhere (NPR?) that some Australians were attempting to ditch the Easter bunny in favor of the Easter Bilby because of the ecological depredations the rabbit - an introduced species - causes in Australia. I looked up bilbies and they look like a cross between a rabbit (sorry, but they do), a tiny kangaroo and a snowman (the carrot nose). Their coat colors are wonky, they begin and end with a pink tip, and the weirdness doesn't end with their outside. They are marsupials with backwards pockets because they dig burrows (think about it) which are, by the way, spiral, they eat a great deal of dirt, and... well, read about them! 
     Oh - and they are exactly the kind of goofy-cute that should catch on... but wouldn't you expect that from an old bandicoot?  

April 19, 2011

     Once again, while staying at my parents' house, I ended up working a sketch in after I headed off to sleep. I rather liked the casual way this little lady doll was holding the bear on her lap. I was almost finished when I noticed that the object next to them was an unplugged alarm clock - and since I liked the juxtaposition of old childhood toys and an unplugged clock I added it to the mix.

April 18, 2011

     Here's an Earth Day sketch - I've used a traditional Apache cradle (which is normally laced back and forth across the baby/ papoose) as Earth's cradle with representatives of Earth's species strung on the laces as the web of life. The Apache woman is, of course, Mother Earth, and she is clothed in her continents. The continents are distorted and not at all placed in relative positions, but the planning that would involve would have added significantly to the time needed, so I've left it up to the viewer to imagine they can discern some familiar outlines...

April 17, 2011

    It's a froggy time of year. Walking my dog in the park today, I could hear frogs and the plopping of frogs into the water, but nary a frog did I see. When I got home I saw this plastic frog my kids had when they were little. In recent years, we put it near our little pond to confuse the real frogs that live there. 
    I started off with a pen I used to like, but discovered it must be running out of ink since it would not do anything but the firmest mark without skipping. Of course, I should have found another pen that matched or started over, but I found that it was actually a bit of an interesting exercise to sketch the plastic frog with all firm marks. How's that for rationalising just "making do"? Unfortunately, I can see the pen also made a few blot-marks on it's own initiative; it really is due for the trash. I added a bug and lily and pad just for fun. 

April 16, 2011

     This is a relatively fast (but not quick) sketch of a wisteria in our ash tree with the "Roo box". 
     Explanations:  This is a slightly larger sketch book, so even sketching in a faster vs. more meticulous manner, it takes some time to cover the area. The flip side of the size equation is that if I use my tiny carry around sketch book I end up wishing I had more room for certain details or even just all the important features! 
     Wisteria... yes, I know it's invasive and all that, but I'd admired it from childhood and thought that I could keep just one vine under control. Well, this vine is about 15 years old and it only began to take off somewhat in the last five years, only had one panicle of bloom last year, and this is the first year it has really bloomed. I've read up on it, we do all the right things, and yet... So much for rampant. 
     Roo box means that this was once the home box of a very special little boy squirrel - a one-in-a-million squirrel.

April 15, 2011

    A friend of mine says I should not use a straight edge... well, I didn't use one on this one but I had to correct the steeple after it was done once, and the limbs were in over it. What a pain. It's still a little crooked, but I'm not going to sweat it... 
    The view is of a Baptist church across the street  seen over the roof of my house (not visible in the sketch) and through limbs. There was not a cloud in the sky today.
    It would be interesting, as a series, to draw the signature architectural feature with symbolic significance on each of a temple, a mosque, a cathedral and other places of worship.

April 14, 2011

    A box turtle wandering around... he wasn't the best model since he was constantly moving. He'd strike a nice pose then turn his head, pull in a leg and push off with the other to change the angle of his shell. Ah, well...

April 13, 2011

     If I walk out to an electric line that crosses the land, I can stand at the top of an extremely steep hill and look down and along the clear line all the way to Afton mountain. It's a beautiful view, especially on a fresh spring (or fall) day. We buried a beloved pet (a very sweet iguana we had for 18 years) at the top here... so it's "Draco's view". 
     There's a pole behind me to the left and the diagonal line in the lower left corner is a guy wire from the pole to the ground. I hope those things aren't supposed to be taut because this one isn't! The hill is so steep that the next pole is way down there; an irregularly long interval away, and the wires just descend the slope unsupported. There is a narrow old road partway down edged by brush, and otherwise the right-of-way is fairly clear this time of year.
 

April 12, 2011

    Probably not the typical camping sketch, but with over a three hour drive down one day and back up the next and scads of things to get done in the two partial days, we were busy busy so on the first day I didn't get to sketching until after dark. With the lantern broken, we were functioning on flash lights and the only objects I could cuddle down in my sleeping bag and still see were these two guns down inside a lock-box. They were along for personal safety... or perhaps more for the feeling of personal safety... for two women in an off-the-beaten-path but not completely isolated (which would feel safer) part of the mountains. Happily, they could be left on safety all night, as the only visitors were a raccoon or opossum and a mouse or other small varmint.

April 11, 2011

    It was raining today so I dashed outside and picked these soggy dandelions. I really wanted an open yellow dandelion, but apparently they close in the rain or dim light... I never knew. Instead, I got the three other stages; a spent flower, an unopened puff and a seed head. The seed head was a bit clumpy due to the rain which gave it a different look from the earlier sketches, but by the time I got to it, it had dried out.

April 10, 2011

    A single dandelion, this time using an eraser as a drawing tool instead of simply an error remover, followed by tiny dots of white water color.

April 9, 2011

     Two dandelions and a camellia. I was interested in trying the dandelions without using the eraser to soften or smudge in any way, and yet I did decide to lighten the shade of the bottom dandelion... so of course I had to touch it a bit around the inside with the eraser. I also used the eraser for mistakes or adjustments elsewhere, but the exercise was to sketch softness softly.

April 8, 2011

     This line of dolls and stuffed animals is sitting along the top of some bookcases in a bedroom in my parents' house. The dolls and some of the stuffed animals date back to when my sister and I were children and played with them, and some date "only" back to my own, now grown, children. For instance, the tall dog "Patches" was loved by several of my parents' grandchildren... my own kids and my siblings' kids. The Raggedy Anne and the little blonde doll on the end were my sister's. There they all still sit, lending the room a feel like a patchwork of generations of bedtime stories and tea parties.  

April 7, 2011

     With about thirty minutes before we would have to leave, I stepped into a promising gallery room at the National Gallery and chose a painting to sketch as an exercise. It was a relatively easy choice; the 1786 Henry Fuseli oil of Oedipus Cursing his Son, Polynices has simple, strong dramatic shapes, and with four figures (that is a figure in the lower right weeping on one of Oedipus' knees) and a very dark background it's relatively uncomplicated. 
     This is as far as I got in the time available even though I whipped right into it; even skipping fundamental stages like measurement since I didn't plan on putting so much into it that being a bit off on the sketch would ruin a big time investment. I was more interested in practising my eye and hand, and within a time limit. The placement is surprisingly close (well, I was surprised), and maybe I'll go back to it for another 20 minutes or so when I'm there again... however most of the remainder is, as I said, very dark and just pressing graphite into the paper might not have much practice value. 
   

April 6, 2011

        
    These are a few quick sketches of people on the Metro (subway), mainly done while the train was running so there was some motion to contend with. The funny little line drawings to the left of middle are outlines of people standing on the platforms because in certain lighting you could see them only as dark silhouettes which made them interesting. I turned the pad sideways to fit them into spaces. 
     This is a very small pad I can carry around tucked into a purse... I noticed my friend was surprised to see how small this one is. It's only 5.5 x 8.5!   

April 5, 2011

    This was my husband reading a report in the living room. He showed signs of being ready to take a break, so I had to rush the legs.

April 4, 2011

     We dug up this little (about one inch long) toy in the back yard while putting in a pump. It is some kind of metal, with no rust and no paint, and the top is yellow plastic with a fairly involved pale (faded) red plastic something up under the roof indicating something had once been attached there. It's a Mattel, but it must have been in the ground for at least 20 to 30 years given how long we've had this house and the age of the "youngster" who lived here before us. I wonder if it might have been a circus calliope.

April 3, 2011

    This is a sketch of a few of the tools laying around on the table during the kitchen light repair.

April 2nd 2011

    This was a fairly quick sketch of my son fixing my kitchen light while my husband supervises. The son turned out okay... but by the time I'd gotten to my husband I had only managed to sketch his head before they needed another screw and left. I had to try to do the body off a later - and probably slightly different -  lean against the counter and it just didn't do right... mainly going wrong in the neck and shoulders, which translates down into the torso. On the bright side (!) the light works!

April 1, 2011

    Maple squirts, also called whirligigs by kids, are developing now. Some are almost full sized and rosy, and some are still tiny. The little beans you find inside when you peel them are a favorite food of our squirrels. The leaves are still tiny (about the size of squirrel ears!) and such a pale green they're almost silver.

March 31, 2011

    Two slightly ratty pine cones picked up on a walk. By this time of year, most pine cones have been laying on the ground all winter. It was a beautiful day so I took these back out and drew them on an aluminium filigree table, which distorted and added to the shadows. I thought I would like drawing the effect of the table on the shadows too, but the sun was moving too fast so I'll just try it with another object another day and closer to mid-day.

March 30, 2011

    An extremely fast sketch of a lacewing that volunteered for a few moments, hobbling about on my tightly pinched together forefinger and thumb, then fell off and "disappeared" almost as if it had disintegrated on the way down. Of course, it took off somewhere but I certainly didn't see it fly - too bad as I was going to liberate it outside.

March 29, 2011

     They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery - and this is certainly that. One of my favorite sketches is Amy's sketch of her son's tennis shoe fresh from the wash. With the toe slightly tilted the way they come out of the washer, you can tell it's a little stiff but clean smelling... and has so much graphic punch! 
    At any rate, ever since she posted it, I've been wanting to sketch shoes too! I had to dress up for a function today, so I had on these much loved but rarely worn wedges. The suede front of them reminds me of shar-pei puppies... no wonder I like them!  
    I used a black Prismacolor pencil and a graphite pencil. Normally, I dislike mixing them because the two seem to me to amount to different actual colors. The Prismacolor causes the graphite to be redefined by the eye as grey, so darkening parts of something with the Prismacolor makes it look disjointed and patchy to me. 
    Here, however, I used the graphite over the Prismacolor to give a sheen to the heel and insole, and used it alone for the metal while I was at it, since the different material could take the different color. I was interested to find out I liked mixing them (under these circumstances)!
   

March 28, 2011

    This is a feather duster I have. I wondered how one would go about sketching the soft fluffiness and busyness of the feathers, so I gave it a try to experiment with various approaches here and there across the feather area of the drawing.

March 27, 2011

    Not particularly exciting sketches, but very functional as practice. I sometimes have trouble with cylindrical things, which are harder (for me) to sketch correctly than spherical things. Ovals are likewise more apt to go wrong than eggs. In terms of the elements, I have a harder time drawing simple circles and straight lines. Of course I can use a straight edge (to the horror of one of my artist friends), but it's pretty hard to carry around aids for ovals... and they're not standard ovals, anyway. I just need to get my hand and eye more used to making them. 
    First a batch of free-hand circles, lines and ovals, and then a couple of things using free-hand circles. The words express the making and correcting of circles. They are all non-cuss words that sound like they could be; if you want to, you can say them with enough vehemence and venom so they sound like you're cursing fluently. 
    I'm likely to retry that footed pressed glass jelly jar since it's a pretty thing, though this version is lop-sided. 

March 26, 2011

     A pinedactyl from the H-Mart. A pineapple looks like a great thing to draw (I was even thinking I'd draw it when I bought it), but then you start with all those tessellating shapes - that don't really exactly tessellate and change subtly top to bottom and rotate on a spiral pattern rather than straight around - and you start to lose the pattern, have to squeeze odd shapes in to make up for creep, get exasperated and look for ways to mentally code the shapes to be able to carry them to the page.
    That last bit - the mentally coding part - is where you start to notice odd things about your subject; like that the overlying scale that comes to the papery point looks just like so many little birds or like pterodactyls where the sections become wider across the middle. And of course, the fat little cushions under them look like pillows or stars and so on. With planning ahead, this could be vastly improved, but of course it wasn't planned...
     And maybe that's how M. C. Escher got started; while doing a perfectly straight-faced drawing of something with tiresome repeats he started to mentally code... with, of course, the mental apparatus of M. C. Escher! He decided "this is fun" and started having related ideas.
    Could be.