Art du Jour 88

Special request for my daughter who wanted a drawing of the late Layne Staley from Alice in Chains.  Hope I got that right.  I guess he was an Ozzy fan.

Art du Jour 81

My November Day 14

Never let it be said that I won’t attempt the damnedest things. My oldest granddaughter asked me for this, although it was awhile ago and she may have forgotten.  I hope she recognizes him.  I gave it my best shot.

Art du Jour 79

Twenty days of blog neglect must mean I have at least half that many lame excuses for it, so yes, that’s what comes next.

But first, this is a drawing requested by my 14-year-old grandson of some random YouTube guy.  Two of my granddaughters knew right away who he was supposed to be and even told me his name.  However, as talented at portraiture as this grandma might be, remembering names is not her strong point.  So call him whatever you want.  I don’t think his teeth are that weird in real life.

Here’s what’s going on in my life, in random order of importance

1.  After many scaredy cat delaying tactics I finally got up the nerve to sit down and figure out how to take a blood sugar reading.  The first few stabs at it were incredibly frustrating but now I’m poking my finger tips with sharp things three times a day like a pro.  So come on, how hard was that?  You think you can’t do something and then you find out you’re not such a wimp after all.
2. Results of my mammogram were normal.  Can you imagine being the person who spends her day flopping boobs on to glass plates and squishing them in different directions?  Don’t ever complain about your job again.
3. Bone density test was also normal.  So now I feel I can blame a large percentage of my weight problem on seriously dense bones.  Those things are heavy, man.
4. The radiologist who looked at my abdominal ultrasound noticed some sort of mass on or above my uterus and has advised a pelvic ultrasound to investigate further.  This of course scares the hell out of me, but what can you do except make the appointment and show up for it, right?
5. I spent a day at the Hip and Knee clinic with W learning all about his upcoming hip replacement surgery, scheduled for November 3rd.  He will be in hospital for three or four days, and unable to drive for six weeks.  So basically, totally at my mercy.
6. The hand rail for our basement steps has been missing since we removed it when we moved in to this house, so we could get furniture down the stairs more easily.  For over thirty years I have been suggesting that we should put that thing back up before one of us falls head first into the rec room.  A cute little nurse at the clinic insisted that there must be a hand rail or W would have to refrain from using the stairs after his surgery.  The tv is down there.  The handrail is now up.
7. Next week I go to the Multidisciplinary Care Clinic in the Primary Care Network building to learn how to cope on a day-to-day basis with my medical condition.  Now we just have to decide what exactly my medical condition is.
8. If you know me even slightly you will know how much I dislike schedules and regimes and rules and itineraries.  I prefer to be an undisciplined brat.  However, I am now keeping a log of my blood sugar readings, blood pressure when I remember to take it, and every single thing I eat and drink every day.  I hope I am burning a lot of calories writing all this shit down.  This record is a requirement for my appointment.  They even make you write it all down in pen, I suppose in case you are tempted to make untruthful revisions.  As if I would do that.  With my erasable ink pen….
9. Almost every day I go for a walk.  Some days I feel like I could go forever, and other days just putting my socks and running shoes on wears me out.  I find having a purpose and a destination works better than wandering aimlessly about the neighborhood.  The mall is my favourite destination.  Buying random things like a ridiculously long shoe horn from the dollar store for W because he won’t be able to bend over after surgery seemed like an admirable purpose.  I’m sure I can think up many more like that one.
10. My middle granddaughter is always looking for paper to draw on, so when I was visiting them I gave her my big partly used white paper sketch book.  Within minutes she had drawn a head with a beautiful face and glorious blue hair.  It’s possible she’s filled the entire book by now.  Anyway, I need a new one and can’t possibly do any proper sketching until I get one.  What my excuse is for neglecting all my other art is a mystery.

And that’s it!  A not so brief summary of my October so far.  We had Thanksgiving dinner in there somewhere.  It caused my highest blood sugar reading to date.  I blame the sweet potatoes.  Better them than me.

Art du Jour 78

Sketch of a little dog I never met.

My life lately has been one big series of breaks. I’m running out of reasons (excuses) to take them. Maybe I’m just resting up for non stop November blogging from hell. (That’s not exactly what it’s called, but close.)

A couple of weeks ago I flew/drove/crossed a river by boat to spend several days on our little island in gorgeous fall weather. My sister and brother-in-law drove from the other direction and all of us helped W close up camp for the winter. It’s a two-day drive for both of us to get home. And then straight away I drove 5 hours north to spend some time with 4 of my grandchildren. Not sure how useful I’m being, but I’m here for a couple more days. Number one grandson turns 14 tomorrow.

W is busy at home preparing himself with appointments and paperwork for his hip replacement surgery. We are hoping it will be scheduled for early next month if not sooner. I will be his chief post surgery care giver. How scary is that? Not for me, for him. I’ve got my own scary stuff going on with two ultrasounds and a mammogram booked for next Friday. October is health month at our house. Flu shots are coming up too.

For the next three months I’m on a diabetic medication because blood work revealed that my blood sugar levels are all out of whack. I hardly ever eat sugary things, but I guess sitting on my retired ass for a year has messed up my metabolism or something. There’s always something. So yeah. Working on that.

So that’s my missing-in-action excuse list for now. The sketch is from a photo. I will get back to working in my “art studio” soon, and back to reading your blogs. I miss those things.

I have all the paraphernalia at home to check my blood sugar levels.  It involves sharp things and a bio-hazardous waste receptacle, so when I work up the nerve to start using all that, I will share the experience with you.  Self inflicted pain coming up.  Woohoo.

Have an awesome October weekend!

 

Art du Jour 75

Among the many reasons why I don’t like to draw the faces of men, these two are the biggest. Their ears are so visible and over all they are generally so incredibly hairy.

So,try to ignore the ears which I couldn’t be bothered finishing, and the inaccurate directions in which the stubble appears to be headed. Other than that, I am calling it okay. Not just another pretty face, and more challenging than anything on a Friday really needs to be.

Today the weather is cool with gusty winds and welcome rain. Perfect for staying inside and messing about with charcoal. I’ve lost track of how many coffees I’ve consumed.

I should tell you that this drawing was inspired by a photo of Hugh Laurie. Now you don’t have to wonder who it vaguely reminds you of any longer. This information might even give you something totally different to wonder about.

And on that note, in this world full of wonder, have a wonderful weekend!

Art du Jour 73

It’s been a long time since I’ve done a black and white charcoal face on brown paper, so I’m very happy with this result. Especially the hair. And the lopsided smile. And the fact that the eyes are not too big. I like doing eyes, so I tend to exaggerate them too much sometimes.

Practice, practice, practice. And then practice some more.

Originally I intended to incorporate this in to a collage, but I think she’s fine on her own.

And look at me, all organized and industrious and posting in the morning! It’s a beautiful one too, sunny and breezy and not yet hot. Perfect for whatever comes next.

Art du Jour 68

This is what happens when you take a photo in low light at the end of the day and your pencils cast shadows on the white page. As if you would ever wonder about that. Just saying, now you don’t have to.

This morning I went grocery shopping. On my return, I immediately made myself a very creamy cup of coffee with my stockpile of coffee cream.  Running out of cream was more brutal than anticipated.  This is how you learn how addicted you are to something.  Shopping before coffee sure speeds up the process but doesn’t necessarily make it pleasant.

The day turned out to be very hot and I turned out to be very lethargic. But it finally cooled off enough for me to draw something once the light was more or less useless for art.

Considering how little time I spent on this, I’m very happy with it.  My mind might change with the daylight.

This is the start of Canada Day long weekend!   Flags are flying.  Hope you have a good one.

Art du Jour 65

There’s been a long convoluted detour away from my original intent to draw lots of faces, so I steered myself back in that direction today with this sketch.

The woman who plays Phryne Fisher (Essie Davis) has beautiful deep-set eyes, incredible cheekbones and a perfect heart-shaped face. All of that makes her Dutch boy bob look like a million bucks.  I wore my hair like this when I was six.  I did not look this good.  If you didn’t know that’s who this is supposed to be, that’s okay.  It’s still an interesting face and worth the big charcoal mess I’ve made.

Feels like I’ve been on vacation for a week with all this Netflix watching.   At least I’m feeling slightly less guilty about it now for having finished this.

And now I deserve another cup of coffee without any charcoal dust floating in it.  Hope you’re having a fantastic Friday!

Art du Jour 46

I’ve been missing my charcoal.  This doesn’t look much like my magazine picture model, but I’m sure she must look like somebody.  I started off on this project with the intention of drawing 365 faces.  Obviously I’ve gone off on a lot of tangents.  Now I’m just doing a count of art days and anything goes.

It was a lovely quiet Sunday here,  once W got back inside from a couple of hours of blowing snow all over the neighbourhood this morning.

I wish I was kidding. Third day of snowfall in a row.  But higher temperatures in the forecast so it will soon be gone.  I try to never complain about rain,  because at least it’s not snow.

Does this look like a young Jane Fonda to you?  It wasn’t supposed to.  What the hell.  I’ll just pretend I meant to do that.

Art du Jour 38

I wonder if I should tell you how many times this portrait came close to being crumpled up and chucked.  Halfway done I began to dislike her intensely.

But today I scrubbed her eyes out and redid them not so wide set,  put her in a window and declared her finished.

Or maybe it’s me that’s finished.

I suppose being critical is a good thing and will make me better.

Happy Sunday!

Well, now it is.  Earlier I wasn’t so sure.  It’s not every day you scrub somebody’s eyes out.