8/31/11

 Quimby

I made Quimby today while my student, Grace, was here for her lesson. Today we finished the whistles we made last week. I told her to turn her whistle around in her hands until she saw how it should be turned to become a creature. She decided to do her whistle upside-down, and so did I. Mine is Quimby, a turtle-like alien with wings. In the top photo, where I am holding it, you can see the whistle is underneath. Below is a photo of Grace's creature, a "Quadrapus". I love the little hat! Grace is going into the 5th grade, and I love her artwork!

Grace's Quadrapus

8/30/11

Corbin

This is another type of clay whistle creature, a pet for Hubert and Judith. He is sort of like a dog, sort of like an elephant. He's very friendly.

8/29/11

Tonight I made another clay whistle, Judith, a companion for Hubert. I've taken a few pictures so you can see their relative sizes. As you can see, there is a lot of individual variation within their species. Judith is darker because she is still wet. Her tone is much higher, because her body is much smaller.

8/28/11

Clay whistle

I know this isn't a drawing, but I spent a couple of hours making it, so I'm posting it instead of a drawing. I've become really interested in clay whistles, since I taught my private student to make one. You make two small pinch pots and join them together so you have a hollow ball. Then you make a mouthpiece by forming clay around a popsicle stick and then pulling out the stick. You make a hole in the ball, and shape one side of the hole into a wedge shape. You join the mouthpiece into the hole at an angle, so that the air blown through it will split when it hits the wedge. If you join it at the right angle, it produces a tone. I made this ball oblong instead of round, and added features and limbs to make a creature that sings when you blow in its mouth.

8/26/11

Alex

I don't think this is a very good drawing, but it's what I did today, so here it is. Alex wanted to pose for me, so I had to draw him. He is really good at posing, must be the actor in him.

8/24/11

Malkie and Dusty nap

I haven't drawn for a couple of days, so the best way to get back into it is with the kitties. Notice how hairy Dusty's paws are.

8/21/11

 Portrait of Alex

Alex posing for me

This was a pretty casual drawing - I didn't do any measuring at all. I thought I made his head too small and his leg too large, but when you look at him in the bottom picture, I think you'll see that at age 16, Alex is all arms and legs.

8/20/11

Dusty in the rocking chair

This is the best chair for TV watching in our house, so of course the cats love it.

8/17/11

Cow creamer

Another view of the cow creamer. I was so close to it that I had to draw it with one eye closed. Otherwise I would see a little more of each side, depending on which eye was dominant. (I think I am slightly like a Chameleon, able to move my eyes independently, and look with one or the other.)

8/15/11

Cow creamer, posterior view

I disassembled my still life, so the cow creamer was available to pose for me from a different angle.

8/14/11

"C"

I think this is it for this one! Can you name all the objects that start with a C?

8/13/11

Three small stones

Just a quick sketch tonight.

8/12/11

Vintage glass juicer

I stood up and drew this looking directly down on it. A pretty uncomfortable position, but once I had started, I was committed. Probably not the best choice from a compositional standpoint, either. Vine charcoal.

8/10/11

Shell

I felt like drawing with something that would hold a point tonight, so I used my .5mm mechanical pencil with a 4B lead. It keeps a very crisp, sharp point, but it still gets very dark darks.

8/9/11

Adirondack chair

This is a little model of an Adirondack chair... only 3" high. I have four of them. I'm going to paint each one a different bright color.

8/8/11

Deco dish

8/7/11

Avocado seed

I'll draw it again when (if) it gets roots and a stem.

8/6/11

Pepper mill

8/5/11

Gestures of cats

I could not find a single thing I wanted to draw tonight, so it had to be cats. Sabu was wandering around and Dusty was washing her face.

8/4/11

Grader

I wanted to draw a machine I saw over at the road construction site that I saw the last time I was there - it was small, sleek, shiny, colorful, and looked like a Velociraptor compared to all the other big dinosaurs that were there. But when I walked over there, I didn't find it. There were even bigger machines than had been there before. This one is so long, I positioned myself so it was pretty foreshortened, and I still couldn't fit it all on the page. I started at the far left and just drew from there, after kind of planning it out in my head. I got tired of it long before I was finished.

8/3/11

Driftwood

This is one of those Things that I've had in my studio for years... I must have found it on a beach somewhere. It's full of very round holes, and those white things are tiny shells embedded in the wood. I like the way it has eroded in layers, like shale.

8/2/11

My left sandal

I went into my studio tonight intending to do a drawing using my left hand. This was an exercise we had to do in school, and I wanted to try it again. But just taking the pencil into my left hand felt so wrong - I just didn't have the energy to devote to it tonight. When I put the pencil back into my right hand, it felt so much better. I'll have to try again with the left. I drew this using a 6B woodless graphite pencil, which makes great blacks.

8/1/11

August self-portrait

First of the month, self-portrait day, like it or not! I did this one with the charcoal powder toned paper (cream-colored pastel paper), eraser, and vine charcoal. I started with the ear, without planning the head out, and just erased and corrected with charcoal as I went along. There are problems, but I was overworking it, so I finally called a stop.