Another Bird

I have been working on sketching while I have a huge pile of borrowed books on sketching from the Interloan Library.

As usual, I am drawn to drawing birds. I am particularly happy with this one and wish my painting skills were better so that I could color him, but for now I am going to concentrate on the sketch and practice painting on other things.


I also tried another self portrait and have uploaded it (after coloring it in Photoshop) as my new avatar. I think it is more like me than the previous one, but my daughter's comment was, "You are not that ugly." Try again.


I am hoping to get more dominoes sanded, painted, stamped and sealed today. I will share them as they get done. Yesterday I tried a combination of my own art printed out to size from the computer and adhered to the domino and some transfers. The transfers for the most part were a bomb.

I need to remove all the "stuff" from my work table while working on the dominoes as things keep getting in the way. I think I need another work surface in this room in addition to my "painting" table. But for now this one has to do double duty.

I brewed the coffee almost an hour ago and have been so busy in here that I haven't gotten myself a cup yet. Gotta go!

Bye!

Friends and a Butterfly Book

I had the most wonderful time on Saturday. I met a dear Marshall friend in Jackson and rode with her to Plymouth for the June michiganab meeting. We met at the Plymouth library early in the morning and played most of the day. There was a mountain of food, friendly people, and a great project provided by Ingrid Dijkers. Ingrid lives in the Plymouth area and made all the arrangements for the meeting place and the kits to make the butterfly books. This is the first time I have gone to an art gathering and actually left with a finished product. Sweet!

I cannot possibly remember the names of all the amazingly talented people I met, but I must mention Tina, Pam, Katie and her Mom, the girls from Ohio, Sandy, and Sharon and Linda from Muskegon who will be hosting the next get together in September.

Here are some pix of the event and my finished (well almost - I plan to add buttons and/or beads to the strings hanging on the front and either paint a face or collage a picture of one of my little girls to the face plane.) book.

More Found Poetry and a Card

I am going to drive up to St. Ignace again tomorrow and spend several days visiting. I decided to make a card with found poetry for my sister Kathy. This time I didn't select the words blindly, but still had fun.

Here is the inside of the card (the found poetry):




And here is the outside:




While I am visiting, I am going to try to spend less time working crossword puzzles and more time sketching. I am going to take my iBook with reference pictures to sketch. Milliande has a Doodle Daily Life art play exercise with 24 reference photos that should just fit the bill.

I don't know if I will have time to post while I am gone, but I will try.

Today my friend, Nancy, is coming over and we are going to USArtQuest. Maybe we will make other stops at craft stores or second hand stores. If I find any treasures I will share them with you here.

Until then, Bye!

Too Late

I just got an email from Sarah at everyone-can-draw in which she gave me some great hints about sketching and then coloring with water colors. Unfortunately, I had already tried to use watercolor last evening and I am not happy with the result.

She suggested that I draw lightly with the watercolor pencil instead of pencil or that I lighten up the pencil lines with an eraser before starting to color. Too late!

I am thinking that for the "something sweet" maybe I should have done something like this instead:

Or this:

Or perhaps, this:


Or maybe this one:


I am, no doubt, much better at photography than I am at drawing. But I am determined to keep practicing so that I get better at it.

I surely do love my kids and their kids!

EDM #96 and More Photos

While at my sister's house last week, I attempted to sketch the yellow rosebud. I think I will attempt to color it with my watercolor pencils later today.



I also took a ton of pictures. I use the original Canon Digital Rebel and absolutely love it. Here are some more pix I took last week while in Stevensville.




I am planning to go to my Mom's again later this week. My sister, Kathy, is there for the summer and I would love to see her. I will try to get pix of the St. Ignace area. It is stunningly beautiful this time of year - all the water, Mackinac Island and the Mackinac Bridge.

Photography as Art II

I am back from my visiting my sister and her husband. I had a blast! We played lots of Scrabble, cribbage and Yahtzee. The Tigers are on a winning streak - they even beat the White Sox three games out of five. Go, Tigers!

I love taking closeups of flowers.

She has the most beautiful gardens; they run around the perimeter of her back yard and also as islands in the yard. Her front gardens are just as beautiful. I always remember to take my camera when I visit her and spend lots of time taking pictures of her lovely yard.


She lives on the western side of the state near Lake Michigan. We frequently go for rides and sometimes park and walk around. Her back has been bothering her and my legs have been bothering me, so we limited our walking. However, we did park in a lovely spot on the lake and I was able to get a few pix there too. The sun was low in the sky and so the lake is not blue like I like it, but I still liked the pictures that I captured.



I have a pedicure this morning and Payton has her ballet performance this evening. I don't know how I am going to get up the magnificent staircase at the Potter Center (maybe they have an elevator), but can't wait to go and hope to get some good pictures to share.

I really must get into my art room and begin to make things again.

Bye, for now!

Monday, Monday

I am leaving in a couple of hours for my sister's house about 2 hours away. I am really looking forward to these few days as we were supposed to get together in April, but life got in the way. I don't know if I will be posting while I am gone, but I will definitely be taking pictures of her lovely garden and will maybe catch a glimpse (and get a pic ?) of her Baltimore orioles; mine have gone on to some other feeder.

We had the girls this weekend and the two days were full to exploding with fun, work and chaos. I did manage to get some cute pix of the sisters early Sunday morning (we had a sleepover) as they hammed it up in the living room. There is absolutely no time for myself and my art when the girls are here and I don't think the 20 month old is ready yet - but she does love to scribble with a pencil or any other writing utensil she can get her little hands on.

I have tried 8 times to upload a cute pic of the girls, but it is lightly raining and the waaaaay overpriced HughesNet satellite is not cooperating. My contract expires in October and I am planning to do some serious researching to see if there is any alternative besides dialup so that I can make a change.

I'd better get another mug of coffee and then hit the shower and finish packing.

Bye!

A Card for My Sister

When I made my Mom a card for Mothers' Day, my sister (the one that I am going to visit on Monday) said she would like to have one. I knew I wanted to do a bird again - in fact I decided to do a Mama bird and a baby bird, but this time I used a "found" poem for the inside and then drew the birds based on that.

Here is the inside:



And here is the front with the birds trying for balance:




I sure hope she likes it.

Bye!

Photography as Art

Long before I ever got up the courage to try drawing and painting, I was seriously into photography. I still have a very nice digital SLR and put it to good use this week while watching a pair of bluebirds courting and the male working on building a nest in the bluebird house between the house and the hubster's workshop.

This is the picture I like the best so far:




I also find this one to be quite cute:

The Courting Couple

I am working on a handmade card for the sister I will be visiting for a few days next week. When I get it done, I will share it here.

That's all I have for now - I've mostly been busting my butt hauling things to Goodwill and the recycling center. The house is almost ours again. I just have a garage full of baby toys and accoutrements to sell at a garage sale soon.

Quick Colored Pencil Sketch

I decided to make my Mom a hand made card in which to send her bird drawings and decided to try a jack-in-the-pulpit. She and I both really like them.




I used colored pencils - wish I'd used my Neocolor IIs. Maybe I'll try another just to see the difference.

Babysat today at my daughter's house. Afterwards I took my overfull car to Goodwill to drop off 3 large garbage bags full of clothes and a box full of hangers.

Busy day - biting my nails watching the Red Wings game.

That's all I have for today.

Bye!

3 Quick Birds

I am getting ready to send my Mom a snail mail letter and decided to make a few quick (emphasis on quick) sketches of birds she has seen lately in her backyard. I hope she likes them.




I am still in my pajamas as I couldn't work out this morning because of some knee and leg pain. Bummer!

Need to get in the shower and get to the post office to send out some books and letters.

Bye for now!