4/23/15 pencil sketch old, leaky, winter boot

This is my favorite type of boot to wear in winter when working outside unless it gets below zero. Then I wear my white, rubber, Mickey Mouse boots.

The felt pack keeps your feet relatively dry and warm. They're not too heavy and they are easy to get on and off. Next year I will be buying a new pair as these have developed a leak. Luckily it was when the weather was starting to get warm in the high 20s F. Goodbye leaky boots.

Some journaling from 150416

Met up with my Martini Girl friends at their studio. We had a good time.

Elegant Farmer Apple tree orchard pastel 9x12 and plein air painting

 Last Thursday a group of us met up to paint at the Elegant Farmer. Donna had called and got us permission to paint at the top of the hill but despite that we still ended up talking to someone in a white truck. I guess the woman in the office forgot to tell him.

John got there first, then me, then Mark and Cindy, then Terry, and Donna last. It was an overcast day and actually sprinkled on the way out but it stayed dry while we painted. There was a good breeze and towards the end of the morning it became partly cloudy with white puffy clouds and a blue sky.

Mark has very good painting setup that he designed hisself. (I'm using the colloquial version of himself here because that's the way I talk.) His wife bought her photographer's umbrella from Amazon Basic. It has a handle for carrying and a hook on the bottom for hanging weights when it gets real windy to keep it from blowing away. Mark made their painting panel mounts so they can attach with a camera attachment. He got the insets from a hardware store. They found lightweight sports umbrellas from Menards

My painting looks dark and fuzzy but I think that is the way the lighting was.

My painting supplies were simple. Three boxes of pastels, a drawing board, and rag. I set the pastels on a towel to try to keep track of them in the tall clover and sat on a light, blue, foldable, tripod stool. Since this is wood tick season I tucked my pants into my socks but didn't see or get any ticks. Wind kept off any possible bugs. I wore my floppy canvas hat, long sleeve shirt, and long pants. Mosquitoes love me and I get an allergic reaction to insect repellents, even natural ones, so I have to limit my use.

I started out by taping a piece of 9x12 gray, Canson Mis-Teintes paper to my drawing board and lightly sketching the basic shapes. I was intrigued by the lines of the trees in the orchard. I had to dull down the greens with browns. The far tree line was the darkest spot of the picture while the chopped up plant material in the field was the lightest.

4/10/15 pencil sketch sandals

It's been awhile since I posted. Life, family, and work got in the way. However I kept making some art. Just didn't have the quiet, uninterrupted time to post.

Here's a pair of sandals I wore many years but I don't need them any more so have given them to goodwill.

Goodbye Sandals. You were pretty comfortable but I have a new pair with a closed in toe box so I don't stub my toes anymore when I trip.

journaling experiments

9x12

11x14

 

My friends had a journaling night at their studio. They are going to do another one April 15.

Journaling is quite freeform. You sort through a bunch of different collage material, pictures, old patterns, matchbox covers, postcards, yarn, buttons, etc. Whatever you feel like using. Then you glue it onto a paper (I used Behr Faux Glaze), usually in a sketchbook which you may have gessoed the page to keep it from curling too much. Then you go over it with whatever you want. I used woody pencils, acrylic paint, watercolor pencils, pens and pencils. I decided to start putting stuff into a box to use and instead of using a sketchbook I want to use pieces of gessoed cardboard 8x8 and 8x6. Then if I like any of them, I can hang them on the wall.

msc model 14 x 17 pastel on sketch paper

Someone asked me what was I using at sketch club because they said it really glowed. I told them pastels. They said they has some at home that they never used.

This model has really long hair almost down to her waist. I think I started out with green undertones. Ended up using black to make the darks darker. I don't think it deadened the painting. I used a combination of pink and yellow for the skin tones. I like to color in the back ground because it helps me adjust the edge better. This model would tilt her head back as she started to doze but she sat really still. I quick put in the hair because I found it never stays in the same position when the models come back from break. Now if I could just finish a sketch in 25' it wouldn't matter. I wonder when Tony will come back to sketch club. His wife is very ill. Cathy is leaving to close up her house in Arizona now that her husband is dead

boots, 9x12 pencil sketch

I really love these boots. My cousin dragged me into a store in Paris, France and told me I should buy them. She was right. They are a little worn. I keep polishing the toes where the coating has worn through to the fabric. We just finished gluing one of them back together with gorilla glue which we then colored with a marker. I'm not ready to give them up yet.

I started the Komari method of tidying up. I would call it decluttering. To me, tidying up means putting things where they belong. I just finished going through all my clothes. I took 4 garbage bags of clothes to Goodwill. The remainder now fits into my 21"x 44" coat closet and my 24"x 44" clothes closet which also holds some large canvases + four 16 x 11 x 5"sweater boxes on the shelf. You're supposed to put and fold most stuff in drawers but I don't want to take up the floor space with a dresser. You're also supposed to put the clothes in order by shirts, pants, etc and not sort them into where you wear them. However, I really don't feel like trashing my everyday clothes by wearing them when I'm working and I separated out 4 dressy outfits I only wear when I have to dress up. I also sorted by season which she said was unnecessary because of central air and heat. I disagree. I spend a lot of time outside. We keep our house cold in winter and don't use an air conditioner plus we walk one hour outside almost everyday no matter what the weather. Therefore I need clothes that go from 0 to 90 degrees Farenheit with 80 degrees humidity in summer. In winter I wear long underwear, heavy sweaters, lined flannel shirts and 2 pairs of socks. In summer I wear shorts and short sleeve cotton shirts unless I'm in working or there's a lot of bugs. When there is a lot of bugs I wear long pants and long sleeve shirt because insect repellent makes me ill so I minimize putting it on my skin. In fall and spring I wear t-shirts and long sleeve cotton shirts. That said, it's not really a problem getting rid of clothes. Now books, which is the next thing to go through, is another story. My goal is to make all the books, including cook and music books, fit on the shelves in the front hallway.