5/31/11

Friends

I bought these funny little animals (and their furniture) at a small import store in Leesburg a few years back. They're about 3" tall. They're removable - you can switch them around on their seating. They sit on a bookshelf in my studio, and this is the first time they have ever posed for me. I used a Sharpie fine pen to draw their contours, and colored pencils to color them in. I had fun.

5/30/11

Blind contour, my left hand

This was a true blind contour drawing - I didn't look at the paper at all while I was drawing it. The idea is to look really hard at what you're drawing, and as your eye moves along, your pencil (or in this case, pen) moves along on the paper, which is out of your sight off to the side or behind you, at the same rate of speed. The results are always kind of weird, or hilarious, or cool - the point is that it trains your brain to see better.

5/29/11

Ampersand

This is a metal ampersand, about 3" tall, that I bought for the purpose of putting it into my "A" painting. I'm doing (at least I started) a series of paintings based on the alphabet - still lifes where everything in the painting has to start with the same letter. So far, I've only completed "B", but I'll get back to it - I'm always on the lookout for cool objects to represent the different letters.

5/28/11

Ball of string

5/27/11

Old friends

These Mr. Peanut cups came into my possession during that eBay buying spree of several years ago. I have more, and they're all different colors - one is even cobalt glass!

5/26/11

Mystery cable

This is one of those cables, probably to a long-gone cell phone, that lie around our house for years. We look at them, move them from place to place, and finally decide to throw them away. Then we realize what they went to, and that we still need them. At least that's the fear that makes us keep them around for so long.

5/25/11

Dusty

One of those days when there was no time to do a long drawing... Dusty was definitely Posing for me, she looked right at me and didn't move the whole time I was drawing her (only about two minutes.)

5/24/11

Maple syrup bottle

Of course I bought this maple syrup for the wonderful, leaf-shaped bottle! This is the first time I've attempted to draw it. It might have been more interesting with the syrup in it, but my family used it all.

5/23/11

Sugar

5/22/11

Plastic skull

Alex took a couple of my plastic skulls to school to use in Theater class. They sat around in the classroom for about a week, and came back with fewer teeth than they used to have.

5/21/11

6 eggs

A couple of years ago I went to Whole Foods and bought a variety of eggs. There are a couple of different kinds of chicken, maybe a duck, a couple of goose eggs. They are all different colors - white, pale blue, beige, deep brown. I blew out the insides and kept the shells. I did a painting of them once, which sold. I also bought an ostrich egg and an emu egg (they cost $20 each!) which I also blew out. They'll appear in a future drawing or painting.

5/20/11

 Malkie - I didn't get too far before he left

Sabu and Dusty - the fight

I started this page with the drawing in the center, of Sabu peacefully sleeping on the floor. Then the drawings on the right - Dusty bothering him and starting a fight. Sabu sat up (drawing in upper left) and then left, leaving Dusty to do a little grooming (top center) and finally settling down where Sabu had been (bottom left.)

5/19/11

Library parking lot trees

I drew this after leaving work today. I've been wanting to draw these trees for a long time; I wish I had done it before the leaves came in.

5/18/11

Deer skull

This is one of my four deer skulls that I got on eBay. I stood up and looked down on it to draw it.

5/17/11

Bathroom faucet

A shiny chrome bathroom faucet was one of the first serious, realistic drawings I did in high school art class, so this was nostalgic for me. I didn't have the patience or stamina that I did back then, though. It was hot in the bathroom, and I just couldn't hold out very long. See my head reflected upside down in the faucet?

5/16/11

What was right in front of me

I was sitting at my kitchen table, with the laptop, the phone, and various other things strewn around, and I decided I didn't have time to do a drawing today, so I would skip it. Then I suddenly decided to just do a drawing of what was in front of me - very fast, and not caring about composition or anything. I even drew my own hand at the last second, very badly. I just love this Sharpie fine pen!

5/15/11

Excavator

This piece of equipment was left at the storm drainage site, so I wanted to draw it. It rained this afternoon, so I went over there between showers. I was hurried, and I started it too low on the page, so the composition is lousy. But it sure was fun! It's really interesting drawing something new that I've never drawn before and that I know absolutely nothing about. I'll have to go back and try this one again, if it's still there.

5/14/11

Basket of rocks

I've discovered that I don't like drawing baskets very much! This started out as a contour drawing, but it soon let me know that it wanted to be shaded. I disengaged from it as soon as I could.

5/13/11

Clay skeleton

I bought this little primitive skeleton in the Mexico pavilion at Epcot last year. It's made up of separate clay pieces that are held together with thread. They put the hands on the wrong sides. I love it.

5/12/11

Paper cranes

Blogger was down last night, so I couldn't post yesterday's drawing until today. I felt like I was running out of ideas for drawings. What I really want to do is start a really big painting! I might do that this weekend. But for this evening, I've got to think of another thing to draw. Stay tuned.

5/11/11

View from Starbucks

I took a walk today over to Starbucks with my Sharpie pen and sketchbook. I started this drawing at the  top of the big column on the right, and just meandered around from there. It was very pleasant. Here's a photo I took from the same spot, for comparison:

5/10/11

Malkie

 

Once again, a day with no time left to do a long drawing. So I turned to a subject always near to hand - a sleeping cat.

5/9/11

Earth moving machine

I'm not sure what this is called - a bulldozer? a front-end loader? a dirt pusher? Anyway, it's parked in my neighborhood, where the county is redoing a storm drainage pond. This is a modified contour drawing (not a blind contour.) I looked back and forth from the machine to the paper (in a blind contour you never look at your drawing,) but I didn't measure, or pre-sketch. I started at one point and just kept drawing. I started with the grill on the back end (the left side of the drawing,) and by the time I got to the cab, I could see that I wouldn't have enough room on the paper, so I began compressing and squishing as I went. So this is a squished, compressed drawing. But such is the nature of contour drawings, which are not meant to be a faithful reproduction of what you see, but are rather meant to train your brain to go slowly along the contour and record every bump in every line. I used a Sharpie fine point pen, my favorite so far.

5/8/11

Hal

Hal was sitting and watching the progress bar of my laptop as it downloaded a very long file, and I asked him to sit still while I drew him. He was very cooperative.

5/7/11

Malkie

Malcolm moved about four times while I was drawing him, but he took this same position a couple of times as a favor to me.

5/6/11

Shot glass

5/5/11

Amber glass fish (bottle?)

I picked this up at a thrift store - I think it might be a bottle, even though it's on its side, because the mouth is perfectly round and could have had a stopper. I've had it for years, but have never used it in a still life (yet.)

5/4/11

Rhododendron, oil pastel

I sat on my front step and drew a branch of this huge rhododendron bush that grows beside our front door. It is an even hotter, brighter pink than I was able to draw.

5/3/11

People on the Metro

Today is the first day this year that I did not do a drawing (sob!) But I drew these yesterday on the Metro, on my way in to DC to go to Will on the Hill, which Alex performed for. So I bent the rules a little and posted these today.

5/2/11

Malkie and Sabu

I drew them without their bed, so it looks like they're floating in space... they would be able to sleep that way, too!

5/1/11

Self-portrait - my left eye

It's the first day of the month, so it's self-portrait day. I decided to do an eye portrait, like the Victorians did - they would carry a portrait of the eye of a loved one in a locket, so they would always remember them. I did my eye portrait in a dental mirror.