Feeling lazy...Need some sunshine!

I took this corner of a page I had doodled on with ballpoint, put it in corel painter to add the color and the type. I like the addition of the text. Before, the page looked empty and disconnected.

This is Oliver Wendall, our cat. This was sketched in the span of about five minutes, and I didn't even try to draw every pose he made! I thought cats were supposed to be lazy! Done in col-erase pencil with a little w/c added later.

Haha! This is what happens when I try too hard to be imaginative! This silly thing was sketched in black col-erase pencil, w/c added later, and with not much effort to be neat. I just felt messy that day!

A pig from morguefile. Sometimes I just don't feel like putting in the effort of a neater sketch or painting. This was an interesting photo; I may go back later and try this again. With more focus next time!

A True Story

To say that I was uptight about my grades when I was young would be a massive understatement. I was a good student, but I fretted constantly. I was also disorganized. You know, one of those kids walking around with papers falling out of their notebooks, opening lockers to have the structural integrity of its contents give way. I was always forgetting my homework at school, or losing it on the way home and would have to rush back to the school to pick it up, or call a friend.

(I should also mention that I grew up in a rural neighborhood. This was the late seventies, maybe early eighties, so people still felt safe enough to leave their doors unlocked.)

One day in middle school, I forgot my homework again and decided to call a friend. I didn't know him all that well at the time and had never been to his house. He told me that I could borrow his book, just come over and get it.

My parents drove me to his house and I ran up to knock on the door. Somewhere deep in the house, a woman yelled “COME IN!” This wasn’t uncommon; we weren’t afraid of intruders. But, you did sometimes feel a bit awkward, knowing the person was probably expecting someone they knew to walk through the door. This was one of those times for me. So, instead of going in, I knocked again. I got the same response. I reluctantly walked in and looked around but no one was in the room. I called out, “Hello?” The same voice yelled, “I’M BACK HERE!” Even more awkward! But I started my way back towards the voice. And I didn’t see anyone, anywhere. It was eerily quiet. Finally, I got to the last room, and when I didn't see anyone, I said “Hello?” again.

Imagine my surprise when a yellow and green parrot screamed out, “I’M BACK HERE!”

The next day, I went to confront my friend about not being there, but before I could say anything he asked me what had happened; he had been waiting for me. I told him, “YOUR BIRD IS WHAT HAPPENED!”

He said,“What bird?”

The above parrot was drawn from a morguefile.com photo, free use section. It is watercolor and colored pencil on hot press paper.

Casts and Tonework

This torso was done as part of my effort to work on tone. The reference image is taken from the drawing tutorials website (linked at right) and was intended to be a longer, more finished drawing. This is not one of those! This was done in about twenty minutes, while watching the cast drawing instructional dvd on the site. He highly recommends buying your own casts to work from, as opposed to his photos. But, the links he gives are for expensive casts. Very expensive! Like this one, about three hundred dollars! I know that some art supply stores carry cheap versions, but they can easily run thirty dollars apiece. That's quite a bit when you are looking for a selection. I had the idea that I would go to the thrift store and look for knick-knacks/statues that had a lot of definition. Then I would paint them with gesso to get the flat white color.



This is the inexpensive pencil sharpener that I carry around everywhere. I was watching "Signs" when I drew this. I enjoy watching movies again and again because you don't have to pay very much attention. You don't miss important information as you doodle in your sketchbook. (I find that people get very irritable if you keep asking what you just missed!)




And this, THIS, makes me happy! I went to Goodwill to drop off some clothes and made a quick run in to look at their statues. And there she was sitting on a shelf, looking at me as I stepped in the door! Just waiting for me! How serendipitous can you get? I know it would have Julia Cameron smiling just as it had me smiling! Look at all that definition! And she's not small at nearly two feet! I don't even have to paint her! Meet Diana, I think. Or Artemis. Aren't they the same person? Daughter of Zeus? There isn't any information on her, so I'm guessing here. Only ten dollars--It's a good day!

Been keeping busy this Christmas season...

I hope everyone had a merry Christmas (if you celebrate it). The new year is approaching and it's time to start thinking about our resolutions. How about you? Do you make resolutions or are you one of the ones who makes resolutions not to make any more resolutions? Me, I think resolutions are good, like goals are good. And I'm going to put a lot of thought into mine this year. I have a week left to get a good list going, which I'll post on the first.


You may have noticed that I've not been around much lately. I've been very busy and haven't had time to surf through the blogosphere. When I have surfed, I haven't really had much time to comment. Some of it is because of the expected hustle and bustle of the Christmas season, but mostly, I've been submersing myself in the drawing tutorials online (linked at right). I really think it's a great program for the money (very cheap) and highly recommend it. It focuses mostly on figure drawing, a class I've always wanted to take and can never seem to find in my area.

This giraffe was sketched from a morguefile photo. I was getting a little frustrated with my figure drawings and wanted something easy. It is done in black prismacolor.


These are sketches copied from Bridgman's Complete Guide to Drawing from Life. It's a book that Matt (from the tutorials) suggested. I'm not sure I really like the book, but have to admit it is helping me see the human figure more in terms of volume. So, I guess I would still recommend it. What I don't like about the book is how little it does in the way of explaining. It's more about showing, but I don't always understand.



This last sketchbook page has a couple of quick gesture studies, in continuous line and a sketch from one of the online poses available on Matt's site. I was having trouble with her legs, so I brought out her musculature a bit more than she had in order to help me understand the volume. I'm guessing that it took about fifteen minutes, but you know how time goes when you are sketching; so, I couldn't swear to that!

I really struggled with writing this post. I suppose that it's obvious, with the awkwardness of the phrases and the dullness of the content. I think it's time to pick up a good book to read. That always helps. Although, if I read a good Steinbeck novel and then write, wow! That is funny! I once wrote a letter after reading Of Mice and Men. When I read my copy of it (the letter) now, I laugh. I am so easily influenced! I would be one of those people who come back from Britain, and suddenly have a British accent. Oh whoa, I went off on a tangent there. Sorry.

Christmas Card idea...

Tonight, as the family watched Christmas with the Kranks-again-I was doodling ideas for Christmas cards in my sketchbook. Unfortunately, no one understood this one. They thought it was cute, but didn't understand what was going on. So, I'm looking for advice on how to exaggerate the action here. And in case you're wondering, one snowman is alive and is poking the other one to see if he is too.

moleskine sketchbook, blue col-erase prismacolor pencil.

My First EDM challenge post

This is for my first post to EDM flickr group. It was a quick sketch, done to test out the new drawing desk my dad built for me. And no, I didn't mess up on the finger; it's a scar!
I don't know why, but I picked up a prismacolor col-erase pencil, in terra cotta, to do this. It took a little tweeking with the scanner to even get it to show up! Quite honestly, I hadn't expected it to turn out since it was so quick.