EDM# 104 and An Idea for a Painting

I had an idea for a painting that I attempted to sketch out here. The plan was for a girl to be walking with little tiny elephants dancing all around her feet. Well, not really dancing, think Heinrich Kley. Then her feet went off the page and I really didn't feel like correcting anything. After this, my heart wasn't really into the drawing anymore. Not that it is terrible. I used two reference photos for this, both from morguefile. Here and Here.
And this is something I haven't done in a long time! EDM Challenge #104: Salt and Pepper shakers. In fact, I just turned myself into a liar because I recently commented on someone's blog that I don't do the EDM challenges anymore. (Not that they're bad or anything!) I think I said that today, in fact! But then I saw this salt and pepper set in my mother's china cabinet and couldn't resist. Not sure how I've missed these. They look quite old, with some of the shine worn off the ceramic. The sketch isn't very well observed. Have you ever been in that mood before? Where you don't really care to focus that hard? Just throw down some lines and let them be? That was me today. I just said, 'ah! Nobody will even notice!" Except, I'm a blabbermouth-- I forgot. It looked better before I added the ink lines, which I did because they actually appear on the birds that way. This was done on some very old paper that I found amongst my late aunt's things. The paper is pretty rough, and 300 lb weight. I had never used paper this heavy, and I love it! No buckling whatsoever! No taping down! Maybe it's a little rough for my taste, but I do love the weight!

(They are still sitting next to me. I just looked over and they have been pushed together in a way that it looks like one bird is whispering in the other's ear. Now why couldn't I have set them up that cute???)

EDM #56 Self-portrait

My forty-second birthday is in ten days. I thought it would be nice to get a self-portrait in before everything starts heading south. (I heard that starts the day after your forty-second b-day!) This one is from a photo since every time I do one in a mirror I have that growl look. The eyes look a bit off, I think I've made my pupils too big.

And this is the one that I royally screwed up a while back. I went back and added payne's gray to the background to tone down the color a bit, and then painted my husband. I did a lot of guessing on the shadows and it probably isn't consistent. I like it okay...At least I feel like I can bring this one out of the closet now.

Wow...productive month for me. This post will tie me with my biggest month, and it is only the twelfth. (And I haven't typed the word "twelfth" in so long that it looks strange to me. hmm.)

A few sketches...in public? or not?

Okay, so I didn't draw EVERY day. I did draw some though; and, in public-sort of.

Tuesday afternoon my husband and I decided we needed to get away for an afternoon in Galveston. So, that afternoon we went to the grocery store to load up on goodies to take in the cooler. I stayed in the car and sketched. (I was covered in paint anyway...too embarrassed to go in.)


Does it count as drawing in public if you're in the car in a parking lot where no one can look over your shoulder?

Wednesday we headed off to Galveston Island. We had a wonderfully relaxing day. We walked, we went to the Strand, we sat around listening to the waves. It took me awhile to decide what I would draw. Looking out at the water didn't seem challenging enough with the straight line of the horizon, unless I concentrated on the water, which actually seemed too much for me. I went with drawing my husband, which many would say I could do anytime (my mom did say that), but really I can't because he's never still! This sketch(ten minutes, maybe?)was torture for him.
By the time I got out the sketchbook, we had both had enough rays, so we were sitting with our backs to the sun. That is a white t-shirt on my husband's head. He didn't want his neck or ears to burn. I think I'll use this as EDM challenge #176, Draw something summer.I guess this is done in public, but does it count if the person nearest you is 200 feet away?

EDM challenge 94: Draw a Spoon

When I first saw this challenge, I knew exactly which spoon I had to draw. This one has been around for at least 35 years and was especially coveted by two little girls. It was a race to see who got to the drawer first and usually a fight afterward about something being unfair. The memory makes me laugh. I wonder if my sister has thought about our breakfast rituals.

I've been busy!!

Whew! I signed up for the Everyday in May challenge and then unexpectedly, I got very busy, starting on May 1st! You see, I don't currently work and usually have plenty of time for anything, but my mom decided to remodel her kitchen. The work is being done by my father and me. By the end of each day my body aches so much that I haven't taken the time to do more carefully observed drawings. Or to add color. Or to even look for more appropriate paper. On my last post, I was very excited to see that Joan Sanford-Cook would be watching my progress, and I had planned to start working more with adding tone (a weakness that I had hoped to get her help with). But, I was just too tired to tackle all of that. I am just happy that I have drawn something everyday. Even if it was just a small thing. So, here is what I've been working on since the first of May. I also have some pictures of the work in progress in the kitchen, which I still have to upload from my camera. I'll post them later.

EDM Challenge #23 Draw your foot

I've had a terrible last few days. Sunday I was stung by a wasp right between the eyes and most of my face has been swollen ever since. Let's just say that a girl doesn't go out in public when she has bags this big! Luckily, I have glasses which help camouflage the bags so I can make some trips out in public...as long as I look down and don't make too much eye contact with anyone! My fingers are crossed they'll be back to normal tomorrow! Right now, I just look ugly!

We've also had thunderstorms and tornado warnings for the last two days. I missed them when I was in Idaho, but I'm getting a little down with all of the gray days. Looking forward to some sunshine!

Well, here are my feet, drawn while watching NCIS tonight. I played around with color in Painter X again, though I wasn't feeling very artistic.

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.