Dum Dums

Well, it was hit and miss tonight. Sketch a line, answer the door, wet a paintbrush, answer the door, head toward the paintbrush, answer the door. Halloween is always so much fun. The little kids are always cute, especially when they are at the age when they're so excited they almost can't stand it! And the little ones always love DumDums. Which is nice, because that means they leave most of the Snickers for me. Yay for Halloween!

Leaf Necklace

And since we were talking about leaves ....
This is the drawing that I started last night and finished tonight. It was supposed to be a quick one, but I ended up puzzling over the shadows, and how they changed from one side of the necklace to the other. I kept having to get up and double check that I was looking at it correctly! This necklace was made by my friend Marcia, who does just beautiful work and keeps me in jewelry.

Now, I really DO have to figure out my Halloween costume for tomorrow...

I probably also need to go downstairs and see how much of the candy has been eaten already. I KNEW I should have waited until tomorrow to get it!

You may notice that I'm in the process of making some changes in the blog's appearance. I don't know what I think about the teacup -- maybe something more seasonal will be coming up this week, but I'm wondering about column width. Please be sure to let me know if I make some changes that make it difficult for you to read things! And let me know if you have any suggestions, too. :-)

Change

The leaves are finally beginning to change around here. I spotted this leaf the other day, captured by another tree on its way down to the ground.

I'm not able to finish tonight's drawing tonight -- maybe there will be two tomorrow. This daily posting IS going to be a challenge, as November is suddenly shaping up to be much busier than expected. That's the way the world works, though, isn't it? You're heading somewhere, just floating along, and then BAM! -- caught up in a tree.

In Search of Subject Matter

Well, even if NaBloPoMo officially starts on November 1, I tend to be a week to week kind of girl. I'm going to go ahead and start my daily posting now!

So, art wise here's what's going on around the household --

I'm working on an acrylic painting of a pair of pink flip flops. This time I'm proceeding very slowly, using almost a watercolor style technique of thin layer upon thin layer. It's turning out pretty good so far! I'm not certain enough about the outcome to post the early stages yet ... acrylics are fairly new to me and I could make a wrong turn at any moment! Still, I love the painting, and may do a watercolor version of it also.

Watercolor wise -- oh dear. I'm working on the color pink. Sounds a bit nutty, doesn't it? BUT that's how we figure things out. Fact is, I don't care too much for pink and find it very difficult to attain good values with it, even though one of my very favorite paintings that I've ever done is of pink flamingos. They just seemed to magically flow from my brush. This time, however, I'm working from a photo of some pink hollyhocks and don't think we can use the word "flow" when discussing what's happening right now. The old saying of "you've got to know when to hold them, and know when to fold them" applies to painting as well as poker. It might be time to fold and start something else! Not going to post it -- nope, not right now. Later on in the month if the daily posting gets tight I might have to resort to showing it. Of course a miracle could occur and I could pull off a good save... we'll see.

And sketchbook wise -- I'm always keeping my eye out for good subject matter, and never more urgently than when a painting I'm working on is going badly. The above little sketch is from a photo of a harbor in Gulfport, Mississippi. After trying to figure out all the masts and angles, I decided that it might not be as much fun as I first thought. Still, it appeals to me quite a bit. There's something about boats that makes me want to travel ... fried shrimp from Rickey's Bar and Grill sounds good to me right now -- how about you?

:-) Off to plan a Halloween costume, finish laundry, get ready for the work week, and do another wash on those flip-flops!

NaBloPoMo

I guess we all know that November is National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), and I'll be the first to wish the best of luck to all of you who are planning on trying THAT one, while the rest of us prepare to wave good-bye to you and call "see you in December!" However, Diahn tells me that November is ALSO National Blog Posting Month (NaBloPoMo), a much less stressful version of the event. Rather than writing a 50,000 word novel in 30 days, for NaBloPoMo all you have to do is post something on your blog every day in November. In order to change my evil ways and become a better blogger, I've joined. There may be photography mixed in with the art, there may be music, there may be nothing more than a knock-knock joke, but I'm going to try to do it. Who else is in?

Colors Everywhere

Just playing around with an imaginary Tuscan landscape the other day -- doodling in the sketchbook after watching the travel channel. Funny how even the light can be a different color in different parts of the world. And as cliche as it may sound, this is one of those places I'd love to go some day.

Sorry to have been away for a bit -- have had some technical difficulties with the laptop screen and couldn't SEE to come visit you all. But, as of tonight(!) I'm running the laptop hooked to an external monitor -- a brand new 19" hp flat screen monitor that makes everything beautiful. Just BEAUTIFUL.

Depending on how the repairs go, I'll be back up fully mobile next week some time and DH will get the new monitor. Maybe. I may just have to keep it. (Really -- it's just BEAUTIFUL.)