Portrait of a Friend

It isn't often that I come out and say that I really really like something I've done. But, for this one, I'm jumping up and down, patting myself on the back, chanting well done, well done! I don't think I've ever done a more true portrait. Most of the time I can see things that have gone wrong-- the eyes, or the mouth usually. But dang it, it's in my sketchbook! I wish that I had done it on a single sheet so that I could mail it to this friend! This man, I'll call him Mr. D, and I had some great conversations! A terrific person, Mr. D! One of those people who are always able to make you laugh!

I have so much to do right now and I'm feeling the pressure. I'm beginning to think about homemade Christmas cards and gifts, I have a portrait to do for my husband's grandmother (she doesn't read this), and I'm participating in the art exchange. The person I'm to send to is a fantastic artist! What to do, what to do! I'm near panic stage since I'm supposed to mail out by Tuesday and I haven't even a clue on what I'll do yet!

Mr. D is done in Prismacolor pencils, in my Moleskine sketchbook. I plan to add some lettering to the left of the page, but since I'd blur it out anyway, thought I'd go ahead and post it.

Oh yes, you noticed the banner! Well, this is temporary. I just couldn't look at my last banner another day. It's been on my to-do list for a long time, so finally I just took a portion of an experimental doodle that I did the day I received my copy of Corel Painter X, added some text, and voila! Temporary banner! I never deleted this little experiment because I loved the colors so much!

It wasn't like I did absolutely nothing...

Okay, so I did do something while I was gone. I found this tin at a garage sale. It is about seven inches by three inches. Almost an inch in height. It cost me three dollars! I know, a lot for a used tin, right? But, the woman was attached to this tin. She got it in London! When she found out that I intended to use it for a wc travel kit, she almost didn't sell it to me. I had to promise I would only paint the inside lid white. It is funny to me that she would sell it in a garage sale if she loved it so much! Anyway, I put my wc paints in plastic lids and then used double-sided sticky tape to make them stay in place. The inside lid is painted with white enamel paint. I'm not sure what I'll take in it, I just threw in some supplies to show how well it could work. Right now it is loaded with Kate Johnson's muted primaries, and then my favorite complimentary pair, orange and blue. Things may change, not sure.




And these are random doodles from my sketchbook. It would appear that I watch a lot of television, which isn't really the case, except for maybe lately.


You might recognize Ron Paul above. The woman in the black dress was from a movie, but she didn't turn out looking like herself, not even the same nationality! The mannequin sketch was from memory. And I really don't remember who the other people are supposed to be!

A few sketches from The Mummy. I never hit pause for these, so they were done in bits and pieces, not getting a great likeness. The houses on the right were done from imagination. I was practicing a technique, so basically I was just looking for some kind of roof-scape. Even though it is more of a symbolic type drawing, I like the way it turned out.

These are sketched randomly from commercials, and I think we were watching Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Also, a visitor fell asleep on our couch! He should have known better!

Trying to Get My Groove Back...

Okay, well, the last of the company left yesterday and I'm left with no more excuses. I have no one to blame for my procrastinating all the way until bedtime, and telling myself that tomorrow, tomorrow I will get going again! So, today, I stuck a movie in my computer, hoping something would catch my eye and make me want to hit pause. I actually forgot to hit pause though and at the end of the movie, I had to rewind. The lighting in this movie is really dark! I guess I never really noticed that until I tried to find pictures of the characters with enough light as to be recognizable. I felt out-of-practice. Like I hadn't held a pencil since first grade.