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 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.

Art du Jour 16

I fought a killer urge to make that ear into a pointy elf one.  You have no idea.

There are several people in my family who have delicate little points at the tops of their ears.  Not that I think we have elf ancestors exactly, but there’s definitely a pointy ear gene.  My ears are round and boring I’m sorry to say.

And why is that picture so blue?  Because I edit my photographs to make them sharper and bring out the details and also I don’t notice the blur at the bottom until later and I’m too lazy to fix it by starting over.  And sometimes blue happens.  On a blue Monday.

A few days ago a fellow Team Pepper person (I think!) posted Celtic Tree Astrology information and I can’t for the life of me find it or remember who it was – so if you’re reading this and it was you, please let me know so I can give you credit for inspiring me to imitate you.  Anyway, you can find this astrology information  here at What’s Your Sign.  It’s all very interesting and credible because…..I am………..

……TA DA!!  THE ILLUSIONIST!

Hawthorn signs in Celtic tree astrology are not at all what they appear to be. Outwardly, they appear to be a certain persona, while on the inside Hawthorn’s are quite different. They put the term “never judge a book by its cover” to the test. They live seemingly average lives while on the inside they carry fiery passions and inexhaustible creative flame. They are well-adjusted and can adapt to most life situations well – making themselves content and comforting others at the same time. You are naturally curious, and have an interest in a broad range of topics. You are an excellent listener, and people seek you out as an outlet to release their burdens. You have a healthy sense of humor, and have a clear understanding of irony. You tend to see the big picture, and have amazing insight – although you typically won’t give yourself enough credit for your observations. Hawthorn signs match up nicely with Ash and Rowan’s.

Well, I must have Celtic roots too. Those Celts are smart cookies.

What’s crazier than a cold Monday in November?  I don’t know the answer to that one but if there is an answer, it would make a good riddle for a cold November Monday.

Art du Jour 14

Anyone else ever wake up in the morning with a burning desire to draw an elf?  If anyone at all says yes to that, I can only assume we are twins who were separated at birth.  However, as you can see, this is not an elf, although I had to stop myself from making that little ear all pointy.

The elf is still a possibility.  But today I’m also thinking PAINT.

Who knows where the day will end.  (Only my secret twin.  Scary thought.)

Okay, I do have a couple of sane things to say.  W is off to hand rehab.  But his fingers are straight and moveable and so much improved, I can’t imagine they’ll keep him there for long. Tomorrow is our anniversary, in case I forget to mention it then.  Forty three years together.  Unless you take away all the separate vacations.  Hey, time apart is very important.  You do whatever works.

Eleven straight days of mindless posts to go!  Haha. I am on such a roll.

Art du Jour 11

Whew! I was having some sketch withdrawal issues there for a minute.  So this was a lovely calming exercise for a Saturday morning.

My perspective work of art so far consists of many straight lines vanishing into the vanishing point. It looks a little like a shrinking black hole.  I got tired of staring at the page wondering what to do next.  The above satisfactorily bumped me out of a perspective induced hypnotic trance of sorts.  I don’t really know what that is, but I’m pretty sure I was in one.

My astute observation for the day:  eyelashes are easy to over do.  A lot like applying mascara.  Too much and you reach clown status.  Go ahead, critique the eyelashes!  I can take it!  (No I can’t).

Back to the drawing board to build my city street on its way to oblivion.

But first…..more coffee.  It’s shaping up to be an awesome weekend.

 

Art du Jour 9

Just in case you thought I’ve been slacking off in the art department, the dog (whom I don’t know personally) was an afternoon before-the-kids-get-home experiment simply to see if I could do it.  Dogs are hard to draw because they’re so hairy.  And you never know what the hell they’re thinking.  He’s probably not that sad in real life.

The man is a late-at-night (late here is any time after 9 p.m.) project, simply being a physical presence while my grandson watched a half hour program  before bed.  I can’t see much without my glasses on or hear much of anything at all, so TV is a big guessing game for me.  Mostly I just ignore it.  We have been watching a few episodes of Bates Motel though on Netflix and it’s on the up side of intriguing.

Just noticed the guys hair is blurry (bad photo) and he’s either a genius or his forehead is out of proportion.  Or both.  My pictures tell a story, as long as you’re willing to make one up.

Have a happy Thursday!

 

Art du Jour 8

Today is a six-hour travel day for me.  I will be visiting 4/5 of my grandchildren for a week.  That’s not counting dogs, the count for them being 1/2.

In lieu of writing something interesting and worthwhile I am giving you this serious little person with wonky eyebrows and one large ear to look at.  It’s difficult to take a photo of a sketch, (especially at midnight under artificial light when you should be packing) and not have the reflections on the eyeballs do funny things.  Daylight works better.

And speaking of daylight, our clocks were turned back an hour on Saturday.  Spring ahead, fall back.  End up with exactly the same amount of light you’d have if you left the clocks the hell alone.  So I’m not sure who we’re fooling with this.  A better idea would be to extend October, a month that everyone likes, by a week;  and then transfer the last week of November into December, because that month is never long enough.  Isn’t that a great idea?  Except maybe not so much for all the November novel writers who would have to type a lot faster.

My great expectations for my week away include answering some of the excellent Nano Poblano prompts and learning how to draw a realistic ear.

Enjoy your Sunday (1/5 of the total number of Sundays for this November).  If you need anything else put into fractions, just ask.

Art du Jour 7

Here’s a little touch of summer for the first of November.   It rained on Halloween night,  so what snow there was has disappeared from the dead brown grass and the half-naked trees.  The sun is shining and the magpies are flying.  Actually some of them are dive-bombing our house for whatever reason magpies have for doing their particular brand of weird stuff.

As our neighborhood ages along with the rest of us,  we have fewer and fewer kids trick or treating every year.  Today the people next door will dismantle their front yard scene of ghostly horror.  I will take down my boogie man door decoration and put the witch plates away.  Yep, I go all out.

This month I am participating in Nano Poblano 2014 as a Team Pepper person.  All that’s required is a post a day.  Compared to writing a gazillion words for a novel, that should be a piece of cake, right?  Right.  It’s all about pursuing new blogging relationships. That is an excellent goal.  I probably should work harder on the content and purpose of my posts to make a good impression.  But I have never been about hard work, so if you don’t hold your breath waiting for that to happen, none of us should be too disappointed.  I will just carry on being me.

Happy Saturday!  Clean up that Halloween loot!  See you post-sugar-shock tomorrow.

Art du Jour 1

Perhaps the title should be “The Good The Bad and The Ugly”.  I am practicing drawing faces.  I gathered them all up, snapped pictures of my pictures, saved and edited them and turned them all sepia.  Because it’s a sepia kind of day.  Big fat snowflakes coming down out there.

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It’s been an interesting Sunday pursuit and I’m thinking a daily art project might be a good feature here.  For days when words fail me.  Anyway, if I do 365 of these, just imagine how good I’ll be in the 300’s!  I don’t know why everybody’s right eyeball is blurred.  Trick of the light, or the artist.

Happy Sunday.