Artful Journal Update and Watercolor WIP

I tried to get some interesting photos of barns and Fall color as the hubster drove yesterday for our lunch meeting with my sister and her husband, but was unable to get anything worth showing. We talked about walking around Shipshewana after lunch and taking pix, but it was pouring rain by then and we just headed for home.  We had a lovely lunch and a good visit before transferring a 4-drawer file cabinet and some lovely garden rocks from their vehicle to ours. But the ride home was less than lovely. It poured all the way and there were more large trucks on the road than I've seen since the dreadful semi parade of the far north.


Nevertheless, we made it home by 5:30 or so and the hubster made chili for dinner. We ate in the living room while watching the game shows. I won a ton of money, including the bonus round on Wheel of Fortune and didn't do too badly on Jeopardy either.


I then spent a bit of time working on the watercolor that is in progress. I added the water to it and am puzzled by the spots in it. I haven't had something like this happen before. Could it be pigment that wasn't well mixed? Is it something from the brush? Is it dirt? I did brush off the paper before I began.
I am planning to put more color into the water so am hoping it will not be noticeable when all is said and done. Have you ever had anything like this happen to you?

I also decided it was time to sketch the pear in my Artful Journal and thought it would be fun to draw it as a letter in the word pear. I rather like how the word turned out - I used an alphabet I found in The Speedball Textbook as a model and I don't think the spacing of the letters is too bad. However, when it came time to put in the striped dish towel/tablecloth, I was at a loss. I found a red Pitt brush pen and began to put in the stripes. At about stripe number three the brush failed, so I switched to a Sharpie marker. Unfortunately, the color closest to red was a mauvy purple and I am not so sure I like how it turned out at all. I can't remove the color so I will accept it as a creative accident and share it anyway. I thought about adding shadows to the letters too, but really wanted the pear to be the star of this page, so left the letters flat.

Except for the "striped cloth" I am really pleased with how this turned out.

Imagine my surprise when I'd photographed the "pear" page and was preparing to upload it to the Artful Journaling blog, I was distracted by the arrival of an email from Laure Ferlita with the next assignment for this class. Would you believe the next assignment is "word art"? Does this situation fit the definition of serendipitous? I have no idea what I am going to do for the word art assignment, but may have to do something with Zentangle doodles. 

The Tigers are playing the Yankees this evening in the first game of the playoffs on the way to the World Series. We are playing there and I am looking forward to seeing Curtis Granderson, but have to hope he doesn't have his usual spectacular game against us. With Verlander on the mound, I am hoping we can beat the Yankees soundly. I do like a close game much better than a runaway, and hope I will not be disappointed with this one.

Tomorrow I have my son's Miss 8 and she is staying overnight. I am planning to make time to do some art and maybe a bit of cooking. I haven't made any monkey muffins in a long time. I have some hot Italian sausage and some chicken thighs thawing in the refrigerator and am planning to make some gumbo today. It is a perfect day for it - gray and wet.

I hope you are having a fine day and that the sun is shining where you are. If your weather is like mine, try to get lost in art, cooking, a hot cup of tea and a good book and really enjoy yourself. A day like this is a great one for losing yourself in some kind of project. I just hope the rain doesn't prematurely knock the leaves off the trees. I am anxious for Mother Nature's Fall show.

xoxo

Posting from the Road

I'm at my sister's house and having a really lovely time. I arrived on Tuesday to find my sister feeling ill with a headache, chills, etc. I let her sleep for a bit while I sketched the lovely oasis in her backyard.

She had a couple of piles of library books in the family room and she recommended a couple of them to me. I read "Learning to Breathe" by Karen White while my sister slept. It was quite a good read. She has another one by the same author called "The Memory of Water" that I may still read while I am here. Later in the day, her hubster made us each a cup of tea and I visited with my sister a bit while she drank hers, but she was still feeling miserable, so I retired to the living room to finish the book.

After a dinner of homemade chicken soup (my sister ate only a little of the broth and then went to bed for a couple of hours), her hubster and I watched the Tigers/Indians game. My sister joined us and watched until the end with us. The Tigers won!!

The next morning my sister felt considerably better so after coffee and a bit to eat, we went out to the shops. I found a couple of things for the hubster, which I won't tell you about yet, as he will read it and it will ruin the surprise. I also found a couple of bath sheets (extra large bath towels) that Carson's (formerly Elder Beerman) was giving away and found a really cute Sock Monkey bunny rabbit for Miss 6 months. I think it is okay to tell you about that purchase because I don't think Zoë reads my blog just yet.

After shopping I took my sister to Panera's for lunch where we each had a lovely strawberry chicken salad and then we came home. When we got home the Tigers/Indians game had already started and we were behind 2-1. Verlander was pitching and it was a really good game, which we won - meaning we swept the Indians. So exciting!!

In the evening after chicken salad and chicken soup, we played Scrabble, cribbage and Yahtzee until bedtime.

This morning my sister and her hubster have gone to pick up a new vehicle that they picked out the morning of the day I arrived. The vehicle they were driving was 8 years old and was showing its age. I can't wait to see the new one. 

While they are gone I sketched a bit of a picture they have hanging in their dining room and am planning a shower after which I will read until they return. 

I'm afraid it didn't photograph and I don't have Photoshop on my sister's computer to correct it, but I think if you click on it, you will be able to see it a bit better.

Later today my sister and I are going to go check out some garage sales and then we will have game-o-rama again this afternoon. The Tigers have a day off today and then have a series against Minnesota.

I will be here until Saturday morning and then will be returning home. I have Miss 6 months on Sunday and will try to get more photos then.

I've missed posting and can't believe it is already Thursday. I hope you are enjoying this lovely weather (and I am sending positive energy to those of you who are suffering with too much wind and the awfulness of flooding) and that you are making time to do something creative.

xoxo

I Think It is Going to Be A Nap Day

I stayed up until nearly 2 am watching the Tigers play the Indians. It went for 14 innings and was a real heart breaker at the end. I think nearly every pitcher in the bull pen was used and everything was going fine until one of the new pitchers we got at the trade deadline hit a batter with the bases loaded. What an awful way to end a game! I sure hope the starting pitchers are really good today as the bull pen surely won't be ready for more so soon.


I did spend some time in the art room yesterday morning. I've added a bit to the watercolor, but it is wimpy and there is a smudge of black ink from a leaky fountain pen that I didn't know had left its mark on my finger.  I am seriously thinking that I will add a cliff on the left arcing toward the bottom of the photo somewhat in silhouette or maybe add some boats. I sure wish I was better at watercolor, and do know that in order to get better I need to play more and so I shall.

This is still only the very first layer. Who knows how it may turn out?

I tried to capture the likeness of my Aunt Mary in a quick ink sketch and while it is not all that good, I can see a bit of her in it.

I found a couple of new blogs and groups online yesterday and am hoping to get more incentive to try more painting. One of them is Studio Atelier - they have a new challenge every 4 weeks so you have lots of time to play with it before submitting or you can just play along and lurk.....

I also have joined The Painting Loft where there are assignments (you are not obligated to do them). I sometimes don't know what I want to paint and stick with the same kind of themes, so this gives me a wider scope of ideas.

I believe that my friend, Nancy, and I are going to a life drawing session tomorrow. This will be a first for me and I'm a little nervous, but looking forward to it. I am going to try to remember to do the quick poses as gestures sketches so I get something down before the pose changes. I'm not sure how I am going to eat lunch out while on the HCG diet, but I will face that challenge when it happens.

I have to make a decision about what I am going to attempt for the August swap with my Water Colour Pencil Buddies - the theme is orange, a color I really like. I have no idea what I am going to do with it, but intend to have some fun with it. I'll share it once the recipient has received it.

Time for a second cup of coffee and then browse through some magazines and catalogs and see if any ideas hit for a new project. Isn't it grand to have a day off to spend on art??!!

I hope you find time for yourself today. I am so enjoying reading the blogs of others. I subscribe to so many that I don't feel I have time to comment on them all, especially with the slow connection I have, but it never ceases to amaze me the amount and diversity of talent out there.

xoxo

Pens, Paper and Gesture Drawing

I've been playing with my new Art Pen from Rotring and like it so far. Last night while watching the Tigers play the Mets, I tried to do quick sketches of the players. I mostly wanted to do a quick sketch of the pitcher in his windup, but the whole process is over in a nanosecond and there was no way I could catch it that quickly. The two curved lines in the picture below were supposed to represent his left arm and right leg at the end of his delivery. That is as much as I could get. Considering that the Mets hit two, yes I said two, grand slams and were showing no signs of slowing down, it is good that I got something out of the game. Here's what I did get:

The elephant sketches challenge that I tried yesterday were supposed to be gesture drawings not blind contours. Sandy Sandy put up pix of a deer today so I tried to do gesture sketches of them. At least I think these would be considered gesture sketches:

I also intended to show you a sample of the papers I got from Paper Mojo yesterday, but I was having problems with Blogger (so what else is new?)

Aren't these lovely?

I need to go to the Library today to return some books that are due and then to the daughter's to feed the cats. I cut my toenails yesterday and hurt myself by trimming one way too close to skin that is not intended to be exposed. Ouch!!! Needless to say, I will not be walking the treadmill today, but hope to get back to it tomorrow.

I got such lovely feedback about my photos yesterday, I thought I would share a few more:

I love the fence line in this one.

I can never get enough pix of these little guys.

Do you see the size of that bee? This one scared me into the house.

Mr. Gorgeous!

This looks to me like the personification of the "cat who swallowed the canary".

Lovin' the lilies

I am so looking forward to meeting Dee in Battle Creek on Friday and doing some outdoor sketching. I will tell you all about it on Monday. Can you believe that tomorrow is the last day of June??!!

I hope to see you tomorrow,

xoxo

Photo of the Day and a Bird Sketch

We've had a bit of rain and gray skies lately, but that didn't stop me from getting out in the yard with the camera. I waited for a break so I didn't get the camera wet and took some pix. I found a small, perfect rose covered with raindrops and couldn't resist. I love the colors behind it, too.

I have spent most of the time since Thursday last week deciding what tweaking I am going to do to the painting I am working on. I want to add some darkness to the left side behind the heron and am thinking of doing some spattering of the bank of the creek behind him, but I have been paralyzed when thinking about actually making those changes. I have to remind myself that it is only paper and that whatever happens it will be a great learning experience. I am hoping to make changes today and share them tomorrow.

Meanwhile, I am afraid the paralyzing effect has extended into other art endeavors. I must get to work playing with the tangles workshop in my group. I also want to do a blind contour at least once a week. And I have been planning to get outdoors to do more sketching. I think it is time to get my friend Nancy and go to the zoo to sketch.

Late last night while watching the Tigers vs White Sox baseball game, I sketched a few birds. Birds seem to be my "go to" subject matter when I am trying to get into sketching. At any rate, here is my rendering of a tufted titmouse.

I need to go the the store today - we are out of nuts, bananas, cereal, bagels, avocados and who knows what else. I am also going to walk the treadmill. And then I am going to make myself sit down and make some changes to the heron painting so that I can see what happens.  I will share tomorrow no matter how it turns out.

xoxo

Jackie Robinson Day

The baby was picked up by her Dad around 3 pm and she and her sister are spending the night. This means that I can have some uninterrupted art time.

I wanted to have a journal page to remember yesterday's Tiger baseball game and since it was officially Jackie Robinson (42) Day and every player on both teams was wearing the number 42, this is what I came up with.



The background was made with wet Caran d' Ache crayons, as was the number 42. The words with the score, time, weather, pitchers' names, what we wore, what we ate, where we sat, and the date were written with Pitt Artist Pens.

I think this will make a great memory to look back on and I think I've included enough information so that the memory will remain strong.

That's it for now.

Bye!

Detroit Tigers and EDM #10

We went to a Tigers/White Sox game yesterday. It felt really strange to be wearing long underwear in April, but we were so glad we dressed for the weather. We had a lovely time which was enhanced by the face that the Tigers won 9 - 0. We left when the score was 6 - 0 because I had told my young tutee I would meet her in the evening to work on some Precalculus. We got home around dinner and I grabbed a bowl of the pea soup that I had made the night before, changed out of my long underwear and met her at 7. We worked for 2 hours and I didn't get home until almost 10 pm.

I have the baby today until 3 or 4, at which time I am planning to go to the store and get some potatoes and use up the colored Easter eggs to make potato salad.

It is a beautiful day - sunny and expecting 60 degrees. YIPEE!!

I have attempted to draw my hand in a semi curled position. It was tough. I definitely need to practice, but I don't think it is completely awful.






I am hoping to work in my art journal later today. I want to make a two page spread about the game yesterday. It was Jackie Robinson day and all the players were wearing the number 42. A little confusing, but nice.

That's it for now.

Bye!

EDM #8 and CED2009

I have a drawing to share. It's EDM #8, a sketch of a domino pendant I am making which will later be painted. I am planning to try to sell them at a nearby farmers' market and will share my progress with you as the season begins.

Well, this week is shaping up to be chock full of fun. Yesterday I spent the morning with a dear friend reorganizing her studio. We spent about 4 hours and really got a lot accomplished. She had already spent lots of time on her own and had a lot done by the time I arrived. I am going to guess that we are about 1/6 done. But, oh, what fun! When I try to reorganize my own stuff, I find it to be almost overwhelming and pretty frustrating. When it is someone else's stuff, it is so different. I can't wait to go over again and watch it/help it develop.

Today is a workout day. I am already in my workout clothes and once I get this posted I am going to weight train for about an hour with Cathe and then walk for an hour on the treadmill. I will feel so good when I am done - it is definitely worth it!

This afternoon I am meeting a new tutee. This is a young female who is taking a Precalculus class and would like some help. We are going to meet at Panera's to work. I am looking forward to meeting her and working in a place where someone else can make the coffee. I might even have one of their yummy cranberry bagels.

Tomorrow the hubster and I are going to a Tigers/White Sox game. I always enjoy an outing to the ball park. It is supposed to be around 60 degrees and sunny. That means layered clothing and sunscreen. The only thing better than going to a ball game is going to a ball game where the home team wins. Here's hoping!

I will spend some time later in the week working on my girl. I don't know how I want to finish her. I wasn't planning to put clothing on her, but maybe I will - I am totally empty of ideas at this point in time. I know I need to do something to make her better fit with the background, but am not sure what that is going to be. Perhaps I will surprise myself when I start working on it.


That is it for now.

Bye!