Double Chaucer

Colored pencil and a water-soluble Derwent pencil, dampened floor.

In the Handbook journal.

a montage of (the) cat

Pen, in the Paper Blanks journal.

2 charcoal cats

Using a variety of charcoals, on Strathmore drawing paper.

double cat head

It's been awhile for posting, but I never stop drawing the cat.

Pen and w/c in the journal.

2 chaucers

More of the ever-present "cat on footstool"

Pencil on Strathmore drawing paper, cut out and pasted in a lined journal.

keep filling a page

I had painted on the opposite page and this one was all besmudged and spattered. So I covered it with graphite cats and filler watercolor.

Looking forward to getting out of the lined journal.

filling the journal

Moving through this lined journal, anyway I can. The man is from a youtube video. He stayed so still, talking about how he knew how to draw, that I could totally finish him!

I paste in other drawings to help fill the pages when the lines are irritating.

Pencil.

lines come and go

I'm in a journal volume with lines, so for the next month impromptu sketches will have to suffer through them and the see-through images on the back.

I captured this sitting position without the head, then Chaucer moved. Of course.

So I finished with a close, but slightly generic, cat head. Pencil.

cats always near

I haven't drawn with charcoal in years. It grinds into my fingers, gets all over my clothes, smears into blurs, and I hate having to fix it.

But coming back to it once in awhile reminds me of the joys of intense black and the versatility of charcoal.

The matte fixative was sooooo chemically penetrating--smelly 2 floors up in the house in spite of spraying in the garage--that I resorted to hair spray on these.

On a heavy cardlike paper with good tooth, plus Derwent aquatone orange and conte white.

the three minute pose set

Chaucer was lying in front of the woodstove when I noticed his first pose. Like any good life model, as soon as I finished one drawing, he'd move to the next pose.

I'd grab a new media choice and keep drawing.

In order: w/c in a brush pen, marker plus w/c, fountain pen plus w/c, and pen alone, on Canson drawing paper.

when is the food coming?

Fen looks like a restaurant patron waiting for the server to show up.

Pen on journal paper.

8B pencil and tortillon

I've been skimming through Fast Sketching Techniques by David Rankin. He recommends using a 9B pencil and a smudging stump (the hard rolled tortillons) to have a range of values and quick application.

As a professionally trained artist, he had to work to relax into, and accept, fast, wonky sketching. Funny to think how he teaches it now, when most of us are trying to go the other direction!

I like the method, 2 simple things to carry that provide a large range of values with a painterly feel, no crosshatching.

And as Rankin says, using the tortillon to add values makes the technique something like a dry, single-hue watercolor sketch.

P.S. I used 8B graphite instead of 9B. 9B is relatively difficult to find!

Mr. Frowny Face

Chaucer wants to know why I'm drawing him instead of fixing his dinner.

regally sour

I don't draw Fen often because she always looks the same and has few positions in her physical repertoire.

She spends 90% of her days either leaning against the sofa arm or in a sleep curl.

Pencil on the Cachet Studio paper.

wrist warmers, too

I finished the second pair of warmers from the Hacho yarn. These are short, a simple ribbed pattern (30 stitches on size 4 dpns.).

I finished by switching to a narrow horizontal band at the wrist, alternating 2 knit rows, 2 purl rows (twice), then binding off.

And enough yarn left for Chaucer to play with, too.

Blending in

Speed bump on the hall rug.

Chaucer says, "Cats nap where they need to."

Cat closeup

The real version of this drawing in a Moleskine. She closes in, reminding me it's time to get up and make breakfast.

Catch that biker!

Chaucer likes to sit on top of the TV and pat the moving pictures. The time he was trying to catch cyclists was hilarious!

Photo in lieu of art pics. Will get the digital camera going soon on recent creative projects.

Hot cat

Is it ever going to cool off? Chaucer thinks his fur coat is too warm.

Checking in

This is where Chaucer goes when he's bored with the lack of activity around here.

And I'm doing summer things that aren't producing drawing. My learning time is filled with the fascination of new knitting techniques and construction (like entrelac, Moebius bowls and bags by Cat Bordhi www.catbordhi.com , afterthought heels, short-rows from both directions, reverse gusset and flap).

But I dare not turn this into a knitting blog or I'll be lost in the obsession with gorgeous yarns and pointy sticks!

And podcasts! Are you listening to any of the fascinating podcasts out there? Try www.odeo.com for one source of lists of them.


A picture of Chaucer exploring my art table, as it was set up last summer. Just to post a drawing-related pic, since I've posted so rarely this month (and feeling guilty about it).