UHaul dish packing paper

I keep a pile of this paper on my art table for padding, protection, idle sketching, gluing and more. It's the perfect size and weight, cheap and makes good fire starter in the woodstove.

The scan shows great textures that's not apparent to the eye.

B pencil.

taking a knitting break--to sketch

Brief halt to get something sketched. I started the second red and black foot. Obsessed.

The yarn ball winder.

B pencil in the journal.

sock mania

I got some gorgeous red yarn while on a trip last week. Inspired by a photo of Yarn Harlot's February 14 post of pink socks with black toes and heels, I started this variation.

Note to self--knitting on size 1 needles in black can make you crazy.

This photo does not duplicate the deep red rose of the yarn. It's the best red ever.

idly striping

I've been knitting socks this winter. This is my fourth pair since New Year's Day. I'm practicing techniques and testing out needle sizes.

Size 3s are too big for a good sock fabric--too loose and stretchable--but this is multiple-color dk yarn I had in the stash. I'm seeing if I really want to fiddle with making my own stripes compared to using self-striping yarn.

If I knit thick socks or slippers with this yarn, I'll work on size 1s or 2s.

the painted variation

I used gouache out of the tube, thick, no medium, with a big round brush. Then I used some water to melt into some areas.

Just to push paint around. On gessoed cardboard.

feet first

In the journal, with a General's 2B graphite stick. I never quite knew what the mark would be from the square-ended stick.

The blue comes from a light-struck scan, but I like it.

another angle on the driftwood

I started with pen and crosshatching. Added pastel coloring later.

On Strathmore drawing paper.

lots to look at

I drew this fast, standing. The inside of my friend's cottage, which is full of fascinating kitschy stuff.

Pen on 70# paper.

doodling

Random shapes and textures, using a super pen from JetPens.com. It's a double-ended fiber tip. One end is gray, one is black.

This is in a sketchbook with a spiral, so the scan isn't light-tight. I kept the blue tint and whitened the background.

double reflections

There's a lamp and its reflection in there, and a doubled reflection of the window behind me. Turned out to be a fascinating exercise in subtlety.

Hard charcoal pencil (from Barnes & Noble, the gray ones) on Strathmore drawing paper.

Bakshi and hands

Random sketchbook page. The guy is Ralph Bakshi, film director, being interviewed on TV. He didn't move much, made a perfect model.

Pen on Strathmore drawing paper.

cafe people

Pen in two different sketchbooks, two different days.

icicles blocking my view

Outside the third story window in the back. This picture was taken about 2 weeks ago. The icicles got a lot thicker, then we had some melting last Sunday and we knocked all of these off.

They're growing again . . .

rumpled pillows

With a Cretacolor hard pastel, on Strathmore drawing paper.

charcoal, blended

I prefer the sharper lines of unblended charcoal, but it smears too badly. Blended and shaded with a stump.

On Strathmore drawing paper.

William Kentridge

I love the charcoal drawn animations by South African artist William Kentridge, as shown in the PBS series Art in the 21st Century. His episode is named, "Anything is Possible" target="_blank"." A portion is available at that link.

And the Russian phrase he uses in his art, "I am not me, the horse is not mine" is the quintessential guilty denial. Makes me smile.

In the journal.

new journal by ecosystem

I love the bright orange of this new volume, and the matte cover takes stamp ink very nicely.

Usually I just do colorful acrylic smears and streaks, but this cover called for stamping.

smudgy people

Last November I was in this Boston coffee shop. Another sketch found in the traveling sketchbook.

I loved the lineup of people and had time to draw all of them while my companions had snacks.

Pencil on Strathmore drawing paper.

smudgy cars

When the urge to draw hits, I am even driven to draw what's in front of me in the parking lot.

That's Eastern Mountain Sports.

Hard charcoal pencil on Strathmore drawing paper.

smudgy travel sketches

I found a sketchbook I'd been carrying last November with sketches I hadn't posted.

A father and daughter in the airport. The large horizontal curving thing is a pillow piled on their suitcases.

Pencil on Strathmore drawing paper.