Cherry Blossom

More spring pink from the weeping cherry tree in the front yard.
Laura also happened to draw a weeping cherry branch today ... coincidence? I ask you ...

If you need a chuckle (and don't we all), go see this picture on Patrick's blog.

Signs of Spring

From a photo of this little park downtown on the first gorgeous spring Saturday this month.
(and yes, the iron work on the gateway really does look like that)

Of course, there is only one TRUE and consistent sign of spring. Spring flowers and bulbs can be tricked to bloom at odd times, birds and bees can even be tricked into thinking springlike thoughts. The one sure sign of spring is, of course ... Girl Scout Cookies! You can force a crocus to bloom any time of year, but no matter what you do to a Brownie, you can't force her to sell you some Thin Mints in October.

If you see a girl scout selling cookies, stop and pick up a box, or at least say hi. They're working awfully hard out there.

Saturday Sketchin

Out sketching with Diahn this afternoon -- we decided to go downtown to Gay Street and then over to Market Square, looking at old buildings and more. We started at the sculpture of the Rowing Man* on the corner of Church and Gay, and then worked our way up Gay Street, along a couple of little roads, through Krutch Park and into Market Square. In Market Square we only shopped a little bit (we're getting better!) and then went to The Tomatohead to sit outside and have a soda while we sketched the crowds. What a beautiful sunny afternoon, with temperatures surprisingly up in the 70's. A little known (outside of Knoxville) factoid about Knoxville's Market Square is that Elvis Presley's recording career was essentially launched from here, when a merchant named Sam Morrison played the recording of "That's All Right, Mama" through speakers out into the square. The response was so positive that people flooded the store to buy copies of the song, including an RCA talent scout. The talent scout sent the record to his boss at RCA, who bought Presley's recording contract from Sun ... the rest is history.


* This man is either rowing up out of the concrete, or hopelessly sinking into the sidewalk. It all depends on how your mood is. We looked and looked and couldn't find a plaque telling the name of the piece, or the name of the sculptor. I've searched on-line and can't find anything specific about it, either. If anyone out there can identify this, and especially let us know who did it, I would much appreciate it!

Star Magnolia

Honestly, I don't know how these botanical artists do it. This time of year, the flowers that are budding in the morning when I leave for work are in full bloom by the time I get home, and withering on the branch by the time dinner is done.

Last year's Star Magnolia drawing ... I can't help but do blue somewhere on the drawing if the flower is white ... it's a compulsion, I guess.

Technical notes: Watercolor in Arches 140# cold pressed sketchbook. The drawing of the bud.

And this one is for Cynthia on the Botanical Arts group -- an example of watercolor pencils on the Moleskine sketch paper. I think I did the ink drawing first, then the WC pencils and water over it. Probably finished up a few details with Verithins. ?

Just looking at this makes me want to run out to the fern garden to see if these poppies are coming up yet! I love spring!

EDM Challenge - Self Portrait

The most difficult Everyday Matters weekly challenge seems to be the one that has had the highest participation! I guess we don't have any excuse for not doing a self portrait -- we can't say we don't have our subject with us and handy ... so here goes!
This was my first attempt -- something about it looked right, but something else looked off. For one thing, it might be me some years ago (I reserve the right to leave out any wrinkles and sags!), but there was something else ... After a brief family consultation, I realized that I had drawn my little sister. We DO look alike ...
I did several more highly unsuccessful attempts; then, this morning I decided to try one last time. This is really more like it:
This challenge really WAS a challenge!

Sketch Day

Friday afternoon was a free one for me, so I got to meet up with Diahn and go sketching in Knoxville for a few hours.

In honor of Diahn's March devotion to the color orange, we met up at the Orangery, a wonderful building full of character and charm, which contains not only the Orangery Restaurant, but several other shops. I'd always thought it was an old building that had been restored, but never considered exactly what it used to be (a house? apartments? shopping center?) until Diahn asked. We called her dear hubby, who looked it up on the computer and informed us that it was all fake. Well, not really fake. The gentleman who built this building has done a wonderful job of restoring many old historical buildings in town; his love for the old architecture is evident in the careful way he carries out his renovations. This building was built to house some old architectural pieces from buildings that had been or were being torn down. Anyway, it was a great place to sketch. If you go to her blog, you'll see that we both drew the same "stoned cherub."

From the Orangery, it was just a block and a half down to Jerry's Artarama, where we felt obligated to do a bit of shopping. I had to pick up a few more colors in the Dr Ph Martin's liquids, and a couple of funny postcards for Diahn and I to keep in the backpockets of our Moleskines as additional souveniers from our day. Notice how it fits with Diahn's theme of orange for the month of March, too!

From Jerry's we pulled into a torn up old parking lot across from this wonderful building -- Toddy's Backdoor Tavern and Package Store. And in this sketch I learned NOT to start sketching one place, then move to another place to finish the sketch. It messes up one's perspective!

We drove around a little bit more, taking some photos and making another additional stop (we were NOT shopping -- we were just LOOKING -- jeez!) The afternoon went way too fast for me. Hey, Diahn -- when are we going again???

Technical bit: Micron and Staedtler pens in Moleskine sketch book. Note the wonky circles in the top drawing -- I'm going to add a few different sized circle templates to the pocket in my book!

Moleskine 2

I just get fonder and fonder of this little sketchbook! Downtown Knoxville, sketches from going to and from work on the weekend -- dated Saturday, although it really spans Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. Those little squares stamped onto the paper (Friday night) helped break the page up into workable bits for a busy person. * The "bike route" rubber stamp and red postal cancellation is left over from a darker period, one of becoming fascinated more with the art that was being included in some rubber stamp lines than the whole rubber stamping thing itself. I've had the date stamp for years, and have used it on and off in journals when it seems to fit ... there's something satisfying about "whamming" one of those little date stampers!

If you look really closely (or double click the image to enlarge) you'll see places on the left page where the Dr. Ph Martin's watercolors seeped through the paper -- but only on those few places where the paint was worked heavy and wet.

*I was going to draw a grid in ink, then I saw this post by the Mistress of the Moleskine, Amanda of Craftmonkeys fame. She's truly an original and an inspiration -- and if you've never visited her, go now!

Moleskine

Dear Daughter,

I am sorry to report that I continue to spend your meager inheritence on art supplies. One day I'm sure I will have enough of them, and will be able to stop.

Love,
Mom



I stopped by the art supply store today and picked up a long coveted set of Dr. Ph Martin's liquid watercolors. The colors are truly INTENSE, but I'm delighted to say that they work well on the Moleskine sketchbook paper!
(They also worked great with a dip pen ... oh, the possibilities...)

Lemon Tag

Still working on yellows, so here are some lemons. You guys are right ... a little purple wash, very light, is just the thing for the shadow side of the lemons.
And, by the way, I've been tagged by Patrick. (go see his drawings of Stella ... what a sweetie!)

Four Jobs I’ve Had
1. waitress
2. selling clothes in the mall (for two whole miserable weeks)
3. paratrooper
4. art director ... oh no, wait, 3 & 4 were Patrick's answers ... bookkeeper and therapist would be my answer! (One of my patients once called me his "physical terrorist"...)

Four Movies I Can Watch Over and Over
1. any of the Lord of the Rings movies
2. The Usual Suspects
3. The Fifth Element (I know it's crazy, but I love every single character in this movie -- it is the PERFECT science fiction movie in my opinion!)
4. I can't think of another one ...

Four Places I’ve Lived
1. Miami, Florida
2. Pigeon Forge, Tennessee
3. Tyler, Texas
4. Knoxville, Tennessee

Four TV Shows I Love
1. Lost
2. Survivor
3. Gilmore Girls (reminds me of my daughter!)
4. The King of Queens (reminds me of my hubby...!)

Four Places I’ve Vacationed
1. Mexico -- the Yucatan
2. Colorado
3. Nevada
4. Canada

Four of My Favorite Dishes
1. Good, fried fresh caught walleye -- (especially the cheeks! yum!)
2. New York Strip Steak, coated in my very own secret Cracked Pepper rub, cooked medium rare
3. Falafel from Vic and Bill's deli on North Broadway!
4. Cantaloupe (okay -- nearly any fruit)

Four Sites I Visit Almost Daily
OKAY, now -- there are a lot that I visit nearly daily! How do I list just four?
1. Laurelines - because I always learn something from her work! (but don't we all?)
2. Patrick's Blog - because he is always outdoors, doing cool stuff (and I love his dog pics)
3. Diahn's Blog - because she's my local drawing buddy and I love her stuff!
4. Karen's blog - because she's my baby sister who never used to think she could draw, because some cheap slob who called himself a high school art teacher was a *insert series of words of your personal choice* and now she's finally realizing that of course she can do whatever she puts her mind to and is actually pretty doggone good at it! Go see it. Tell her hi. Tell her that her big sister loves her, (but remind her that I can still kick her butt anytime I want to.)

Four Places I Would Rather Be Now
1. Florida, visiting the dear daughter and her sweet hubby! oh, and the puppy ...
2. Arizona, taking a botanical drawing class with baby sis
3. But, hey, I kind of like where I am right now ...
4. Hmmm... did I mention Colorado?

Four Bloggers I Am Tagging
1. Jim ('cause he's been so doggone quiet lately)
2. Bonny
3. Lin
4. Robyn

Watercolor Workbook

In a recent discussion on the "Art Workbooks" list, I mentioned my watercolor notebook. Karen asked that I post some of the pages -- did she realize how terribly boring it would be? The first page of the notebook is a diagram of the palette used in my watercolor class, with each color listed and numbered.

The next part of the notebook (which is a 9" x 12" Canson All Media book) has each page divided in half, with each half devoted to a color on the palette. There, I painted a good sized square of the color, never minding that I didn't get a good even wash, obviously! I now have a place to put notes about the color -- notes that I get from class, from various books, from comments on the mailing lists I belong to, or from my own experience. I'm very interested in how the pigment actually acts -- is it transparent or opaque? is it granulating? is it lifting or staining, and how staining is it? how well does it mix with other colors -- does it dominate or get lost in the mix? This is the kind of information that I'm trying to learn and know so completely that my color choices are logical and (hopefully!) intelligent, and based on more than it just being a "pretty color".

The next section of the workbook is a growing number of color charts. So far there are green charts, brown charts, charts of darks and lights, shadow color charts, and so on. All these charts are based on assignments given by my watercolor instructor, who will give us a chart that she has done, and let us work on "matching" her colors at home. I've found that it's one thing to mix a green, it's quite another to exactly MATCH somebody's green. This has been really good practice for me -- the next step, though, will be to match up the how and why you use these mixes, based on the knowledge I'm learning about each individual pigment.

You'll notice on this chart that I really can't ever play completely by the rules. I had to go back on a bunch of the colors and play around with how well they lifted. It's like a compulsion!

Anticipating that there will be lots more charts and other exercises, color mixing notes, etc., I've left plenty of pages blank before I started the next section...

I started this section at the back of the book and am working my way forward with it, which lets me be sure of plenty of blank pages to work on in the center of the book. This section is made up of all my other colors -- what I call my "illegal palette" (since they are not used in my class.) I still collect notes about them, and use them on and off ... several of them will become permanent additions to my palette once the class is over, I'm sure.

This cobalt violet is one of those colors that I never used to appreciate, and now think it would be fun to use in some background mixes for landscapes.

The manganese blue is an old tube of Holbein -- the real thing, not the new "hue", and is therefore precious. Since I've been learning about the behavior of the pigments, I really appreciate its very granular quality. Isn't that something?

Some of the pages are even less organized than this one, and there are plenty of notes referring to another color on another page (for example, Winsor Red on page 6 has a note referring it to Winsor Red Deep on page 46, and so on.) I have this notebook open when I paint now, and can flip around in it as I go, reading notes, as well as adding to my notes. I've only used the front side of each page, leaving myself the back of each page for room to grow.

And that, Karen my dear, is how I use my watercolor workbook! If anyone has any ideas about how to make it an even more useful tool, I would LOVE to hear them!

Oh Yaller

Its fun to go to the grocery store at about 4 p.m. on Valentine's Day and just hang out in the floral department section. Lots of nervous looking guys wandering around clutching flowers and candy, obviously wondering if there wasn't something else they should be getting and wondering why they put it all off until the afternoon of ...



And why was I at the grocery store? Not getting late Valentine's supplies -- all has been covered (and thank you, sweetie for the early flowers :-) Nope, I was looking for yellow produce to use for color studies. Why didn't I think to make red the color for the month of February? It would have been easier!
There's still much to do with the color yellow. It is so hard to make yellow shadows without making mud! The forsythia will be blooming soon, and I have a funny feeling that they will be rendered in colored pencil or pastel, rather than watercolor, unless something clicks for me!

(ahem.) This also goes out to those in the EDM group who have been talking about posting our "failures" and practice sketches. Yep. That's pretty much what I would call these! But I'm learning from them -- I'm learning and having fun and that's what is important! So don't be afraid to play!

Strange Hiatus

It has been an unusual couple of weeks for me. Not busy or really bad so much, but more like a noisy case of the hiccups while delivering the State of the Union address (in other words, a memorable interruption of no great consequence). Anyway, I hope to be back on track very very soon. Right now, I'm off to try and UNPAINT a bathroom wall, then maybe I'll be able to get around to painting some of those yellow studies I'd planned on doing before the spring flowers bloomed!

Doggie Sketch

We've had our dog Winnie for many years. By my reckoning, she is somewhere between 17 and 18 years old. About a year and a half ago, she became ill, with some bizarre lab results from blood work; the vet, suspecting cancer, suggested that we euthanize her, but we decided against it, since she didn't seem to be in any pain. She surprised us all when she continued to keep on keeping on ... although she does it slowly and spends most of her time resting. Every morning I go out to check on her, never knowing what to expect.

I drew Winnie today for the EDM weekly challenge, and realized that I had never drawn her before. In all these years ... isn't that sad.

Note: Winnie is solid black, but I decided to leave just the line work. Had I added color, she would have been a bit of a blob -- one of the artistic challenges one encounters with black furry friends!

Technical notes: drawn in Canson Drawing book with Nexus black pen.

Cell Phone

Do not put your cell phone in the microwave.
The instruction manual clearly tells you NOT to do this.
This means you.
Some days the world feels like a strange place.

Homecoming

Inspired by a recent bout of interior drawings, this week's drawing challenge for the Everyday Matters group is to draw what you see when you first come home. Believe me, I tried several, and found that drawing a room is much harder than it looks! This is the best I could come up with -- the cat sleeping on the back of the sofa in the living room, enjoying the late afternoon light coming in from the opposite window. Other than that, here's an orchid. Not blooming, but an orchid none-the-less.

EDM - Metallic and WC class

I know I've been silent lately, and some of you have asked about my watercolor class. I really have been busy drawing and working on learning about watercolors, but haven't done much of anything worth looking at. I actually felt a bit paralyzed after the first class, and I'm just now getting over it!
A very quick (and sloppy!) value study for a painting that I'm going to be working on (photo from Wet Canvas) -- which I will also use as my submission for the Everyday Matters Challenge to "draw something metallic."

Sidenote -- this type of color value study is not an "assignment" from my watercolor teacher -- I wonder why not? Is it a bad idea, or what one really should do?

Mostly, I've been working on color charts, learning to mix greens (so I can quit using the infamous and fugitive sap green -- even though I love it dearly) and browns (which have been a thorn in my side for some time now!)
And I promise ... I'll be better about posting now that I'm getting "back in the groove!"

Yappy Hew Near!

The new grandpuppy ... Percival T. Pug (the "T.", of course, stands for "The")...
The cat is relieved that Dear Daughter and The Son I Did Not Have To Raise live in Florida, and thus we won't be expected to do any babysitting, but I would really like to see this little guy before he gets to be much more than the double handful that he is right now!

And, as promised, here are my art goals for the upcoming year (which I've already posted to the Everyday Matters group, which is a huge bunch of folks, so what's a few more!?!):

1) Improve my watercolor technique. The watercolor class starts next week and I particularly want to improve my brushwork and my wash technique, especially around objects. Stacks of watercolor paper will be diligently "wasted" in this endeavor, I'm sure, as there will be tons of "non-pictures". That's okay. I've got the paper. Hopefully I'll also learn how to do great brilliant dark passages, too!

2) Draw / sketch every plant in my own yard. Okay -- I know this will take more than a year, but it will also be a good learning experience and, hopefully, also will be a good way to become a better gardener. Weeds may be excluded from this project! :-)

3) Do one DETAILED study of a seasonal plant each month in whatever medium, or mix of medium, that feels right.

4) Color studies! Inspired by Laura's color studies last year, I'm going to focus on a color at a time. She devoted an entire sketchbook to each color, but I'm not going to be quite that dedicated. The tentative color list is:

yellow

pink

green

blue

red

orange

brown

purple

5) Finish the paintings that I start! This one was in my mind, but the succinct wording was inspired by Teri's resolution to do the same.

6) And, darn it, this year I'm going to get out there and draw in public!

Other than the above art goals, I have the same yearly nonsense about exercising more, eating better, keeping the house cleaner, blah, blah, blah... But I'm really going to try and do them this year! Really!