ever-moving profile

Chaucer was stretched out on my propped legs. He moved constantly, so this is the head bit I managed to get.

Tech pen and w/c wash, mixing black and red on the page.

down to bare weave

This bear has been with me for over 50 years. His fur is mostly worn off, his seams show, and his nose is smashed sideways.

But he still has an alert look in his eyes.

Tech pen and w/c wash.

long and lean

He stretched out so long, I didn't plan ahead to fit his tail on the page. But you can imagine it.

Brown pencil on drawing paper.

painting glass

I like to draw a glass, then see if the paint mixed on the page can indicate the translucent effects. I should work in layers (drying in between) for more realism, but like the sponteneity of quick wash.

While watching the movie Proof (very good), I doodled this glass from different angles. The colors worked best on this one.

Noodler's ink (fountain pen), w/c on 90# Strathmore

whiskered rabbit

I like fictional rabbits that have a bit of snarl. This one was inspired by a reference photo.

Pencil (HB, 2B and soluble 4b), charcoal, plus tech pen and w/c for background, in the Lulu journal.

sewing tools

I took some of the elements in a drawing book example and rearranged/interpreted them, using a slanted stroke to make most of the shapes.

W/c pencil and soluble graphite on 90# Strathmore.

playing with Gimp

Two quick filters:
whirl and pinch,
then "glass effects" and "lens"
--converts any poorly lit picture to something more interesting!

round and round

I make strips like this simply as colorful movement to brighten a journal page. I experiment with how paint blends on the paper.

I paste them in as a balance to a page of writing.

time for knitting

Two scarves just finished, my (simple) patterns: burgundy cables and green checkerboard. Photos are washed out, but I'm not patient with fixing or retaking.

The blue scarf is still on the needles--candle flame pattern by Chauntel.

(Scroll down that page for the candle flame pattern.)


I used Debby Bliss Baby Cashmerino on size 6 needles for the candle flame and checkerboard. Soft Peruvian wool on size 10s for the cabled scarf.

Blocking yet to be done. Suddenly the weather is wonderfully warm. I won't need these for a few months!

profile in wood

Pencil today, to really capture those subtle angles and curves that mean the difference between an impression and the actual form.

But ink scans so much better!

2b pencil and w/c on a new journal volume from Lulu--sturdy paper for all media.

table jumble

Drawing a tableful of objects is such a challenge for me. I drew this standing up, holding the paper.

I start with one object (here, the paintbox) and move around the scene, trying to get proportions and placement to come out somewhat accurately.

By the time I got to the last thing, the lamp, I have to resize something to make it all fit on the tabletop. I had made the phone machine too big, so the lamp base is too small.

Oh, well. I make this image as a bookmark for what I felt, heard, and thought during a short span of focused attention. No higher ambition is necessary for me.

The paintbox is Sennelier's travel kit, painted with my Winsor & Newton paints.

Fountain pen (Noodler's ink) on Winsor & Newton 90# paper.

finally, blue sky!

The rain has stopped! There's hope for a partly warm day!

Faces are my constant challenge to draw--the slightest line or shadow turns them into cartoons, confused lighting, or makes the model unrecognizable.

My top goal is doing them in pen, but for now, pencil brings less frustration.

Pencil and w/c on Canson drawing paper.

assembling the shapes

Drawing with my eyes is another angle to mindfulness practice. I suddenly saw the puzzle-piece shapes in the cat's form and had to capture them on the back of the closest paper at hand.

The grayed lines of type showing through look a bit like wind he's hunched against.

#2 pencil on printer paper.

quick hands

Filling space, I drew in my lined journal, then painted on the back of the page (always moving on).

I wasn't going to post this hand but, rushed for time today, used it to keep up my daily postings. The red/blue leak-through (a cat drawn on the back) is an indication of my wabi-sabi** attitude toward drawing and the usual paint/ink splotches on my fingers.

I don't really have jaundice. It's always interesting (dismaying) to me to see how the slightest contour line adds such wrinkly age to body drawings!

Tech pen and w/c on thin journal paper.

**Wabi-sabi is the Japanese philosophy that embraces a beauty of things imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete. It is a beauty of things modest and humble.

beyond sadness

Virginia Tech.

Too much violence,
too much loss.

Prayers for some way
to bear it all.

Smooth and Flickr

I prefer smoother paper (like hot press) for my style of doodling ink and w/c. No snags for the tech pen and a different surface for the waterflow. Here I did the background first.

I finally got around to reinstalling my Flickr Badge. I decided to go with the non-flash to get a better view of the images and reduce download speed.

Refresh your screen to see a new batch, or click any image to see the uncropped Flickr collection. I only put the (slightly) better things there.

drawing in bed

When it's midnight under a dim light and I feel like drawing, there's the nondrawing hand and (see it there, upside down?) a bit of a sleeper's profile.

Tech pen on Canson drawing paper.

Mottled cat

I often see shapes emerge from my random doodles and strokes.

In this piece I was staring at the lines of purple and red and suddenly saw the legs and tail of a cat grooming herself.

So I fit in the rest (a back, head, and tongue) to bring her out on the page.

W/c and ink on 90# paper.

A new species

I was looking at this old doodle and the bird told me he needed a friend.

This guy emerged and told me his name.

Sometimes I'm just a channel for weirdness.

Pen and w/c pencil on a random rectangle.

same scene, different media

The watercolor version shows more true colors--gray cat in a green chair, painted on a pre-blotted yellow/blue page.

Then after Fen moved, I played the scene with a gray chair and orange cat, using dissolvable graphite and w/c pencil.

Color is relative in my art!

Cachet 65# sketchbook paper, which is entirely too thin for this much water.

Radiant kettle

My rainbow kettle calls me more strongly than the stainless and black original. And the colors reflect the heat of each part.

Natalie Goldberg, author of the inspiring writing book "Writing Down the Bones," also paints. She published "Living Color: A Writer Paints Her World" about her painting circumstances and process.

Goldberg's paintings are fascinating. She uses bright colors on everything, ignoring their true hues. A dynamic, energizing path to explore. Create outside the safe-palette box!

W/c on 90# Strathmore Wet Media.

Admiring Peter de Seve

Famous illustrator Peter de Seve has this amazing frog on his website and the cover of his sketchbook.

Playing with w/c pencils, I did a version of his frog. I changed the head and lips, took out the glass, to avoid doing a straight copy. Peter, your frog is clearly better!

I had intended to wash the pencil, but decided to leave the frog dry so layered shadings wouldn't wash into mud.

Colored pencil in a Cachet Studio sketchbook, 65# paper.

a sort of landscape

This may be a purple-ish road between hedgerows, along a bloody river and yellow fields under a blue sky.

Or maybe it's just brush strokes.

W/c and salt on 90# Strathmore. The scan distorted the colors of the red and yellow quite a lot. But you get the idea.

Egg Bunny

May the Light of the season bring you warmth and joy!

W/c and pen on Super Aquabee Deluxe paper.

Always trying to catch the cat

A still cat? Green fountain pen was the closest tool to grab.

I didn't notice the brush had purple paint on one side until I started dissolving the green into a wash. Let it flow.

Noodler's ink on Strathmore Wet Media.

Making my own color in a whiteout world

The only colors out the windows are white and brown. We got 4 inches of very heavy, wet snow last night. Every single branch and horizontal surface has a white layer.

This is an impressionistic rendition of the amaryllis bulb that's blooming in my kitchen.

Somewhere people are wearing sandals and lounging on green grass. Maybe we can do that here in July.

W/c and colored pencil on 90# Strathmore.

last burning of the season

It's a chilly damp week, probably the last week I'll burn wood to provide that toasty feeling. We bring in logs using our handy Brookstone canvas carrier.

The gray tin antique boiler holds kindling. The squared gray flat thing on the right is a burn barrier for the wood floor.

W/c on 90# Strathmore paper.

A tree with a story

Crystal said "draw a tree" so this image evolved on a loose piece of 90# paper.

I did the yellow first, random blotting of leftover paint included some unplanned blue dots.

A quick tree in pen and painted trunk. Then a bit of blue wash at the top and pink pastel at the bottom.

Suddenly this tree had a story (distant forest fire at dawn). Fiddling around brings out the unexpected!

The Bear Model

Here's the "sturdy and solid" bear model. My drawing has him looking forward more than he really does.

When you don't like reality, draw a better one.

And don't his fists look clenched? He's tense all over. It's tough to be a wooden bear.