essential pruners and on being a user

It's an ongoing job to beat back the determined green jungle. Trees, weeds, and assorted vines constantly try to take over the domesticated yard.

Pruning shears are my main tool of defense. I tried to capture the worn look of the metal.

Tech pen and w/c on (I think) Aquarius II paper.

I've posted daily drawings since March 26--a new record of dedicated posting for me. The rest of the summer will be more sporadic, but I aim to continue the quick-draw daily challenge. It's been creatively satisfying and a great learning process. Art supplies are my drug of choice!

sandal time

I drew this shoe slanted on the page, then decided to give it a grass base and a blue sky.

So I scanned it angled to make the shoe not slide down a hill.

Tech pen and w/c on Cachet sketchbook paper, which doesn't give me any leeway for making that one strap too dark. Once the paint is down, there's no lifting on this stuff.

it rocks!

This rocker belonged to my maternal grandfather. It lived a long time on a farm in Kansas; now we use it every day in NH.

Shaker-simple styles work well everywhere. I think of him and my farm explorations often when I sit here. We don't need a specific day to remember our lost ones; they're always near to mind.

Tech pen and w/c on Aquarius II paper.

chiming

Pencil drawing first this time, then w/c.

Ink for the black elastic string that holds the bars free of the wood base. They ring a lo-ong time.

summer earrings

My ladybug earrings never fail to get a comment or a smile from someone passing by.

Tech pen and w/c on unknown drawing paper.

minimal labeling

I'm fascinated by artists' posts with highly accurate drawings of products that include ALL the label print so beautifully. But I sure don't have the patience to print lots of teeny letters on my quick doodles.

Then I noticed that my Regina Vinegar has very little print on its label, so I gave it a try.

Fountain pen, w/c, and w/c pencil (washed) on Aquabee Super Deluxe paper.

Greeley tree

This tree in the local Greeley Park has a plaque, there on the far side of my drawing. But I was in the car, drawing this on a chilly day a couple weeks ago, so I didn't go read what it says.

I was intrigued by the two very different style of benches. Don't know which one is newer.

Pen, w/c and colored pencil on Aquabee Super Deluxe paper.

mixed media

I wish someone would make markers that wouldn't show overlapped strokes. Are there any out there I don't know about? I've got Tom Bows and Prismacolors already.

Anyway, I did the sky in blue highlighter. It looks like typical marker, unfortunately. But Cachet sketchpaper can't take much of a wash.

Tech pen and w/c for the tree outside my window.

exposed feet

It was 35 degrees yesterday morning and I'd covered my newly planted herbs in case of frost. Yesterday afternoon it was 70s and finally warm enough to wear sandals.

I don't like the feel of flip-flops, but they represent pool weather to me. The college students wear them year round, even here!

Tech pen and w/c in the Cachet sketchbook.

fantasy pen and ink

I was looking through a collection of pen and ink illustrations from late 1800s to 1930. Inspired, I created this scene after seeing Franklin Booth's work.

Nexus pen on 90 lbs watercolor paper, then some digital cleanup to fix mistaken lines. Ink is soooo unforgiving.

a cat a day

I noticed that Fen's head just seemed to be floating in front of her body, so I had to capture the moment.

I did quick imaginary lighting after she left, then noticed my unthinking mistake. See the anomaly?

Tech pen and w/c on Cachet sketchbook paper, which ripples with this much water and that shows in the scan.

the simple profile

To quickly catch the cat in simple ink makes me beam. Then I can see that practice works.

Faber-Castell Pitt brush pen on Cachet sketchbook paper.

pen page

A sketchbook page where I played with a Faber-Castell Pitt brush pen. I love the variation of line, even if it's not often planned.

The lively quality of variable line entrances me, even when the drawing is quite amateurish. I'm always about process over product.

closed . . . half open

When bored, draw what's close.

Pencil and w/c for the fist.





Fountain pen (and a slight dissolving of some lines) for the half-open hand, on random paper.

intense, purely brilliant paint

I'd read about M. Graham watercolors at www.handprint.com and that others liked them, but the brand isn't widely distributed.

Now I'm hooked! I ordered a basic range of colors and played with painting my salt shaker in intense colors.

I LOVE the pure pigment mixability, the intensity of the hues, and the quick rewetting quality. For the passionate colorist, it's fabulous!

salted shapes

This is a salt shaker I've had for years, so I know its contours well. Being able to put them down with a brush and w/c is a separate challenge.

I layered twice to darken a shadowed side (working from imagination).

I found an old tube of hardened yellow ochre, so cut it open and put the chunks in water. Makes an always available wash.

floating heads

No internet via cable for several hours this morning. Suddenly I was isolated from the world!

Minor filler post, meanwhile: One way to cope with the constantly moving cat is to only do the head. (Working to keep the daily posts going.)

Tech pen, water-soluble pen, and w/c on hemp paper.

enjoy your grapes

The cork is thinner and longer than reality.

The point was to practice shading with hatching, which is so much harder that simple paint flow.

Tech pen and pastel on unknown paper.

peaceful for the moment

When the cats sit in the windows to feel the air and watch the action outside, they inevitably fight over the same sill.

For once, Fen won this round. Chaucer is pouting.

Tech pen in sketchbook

got mail?

Random little doodle of the mailbox. The side white box is for newspapers. It's a company-issued plastic that droops in multiple directions.

Tech pen and w/c on unknown paper. I cut rectangles of various papers and have them in a stack to grab for doodle urges.

symbolic bird

In my vague, occasional quest to be able to draw a representative animal without a reference, here's a somewhat robin-like bird. My colors.

Tech pen, w/c and pastel on Mudlark journal paper.

key splash

I have keys, lots of scannable store-tags, a teeny light, and a screwdriver on this keychain.

Tech pen and w/c on unknown paper.

emerging flight

Process:
swab w/c paper with water
drop on color with separate brushes
wait
spray paper with mister
wait
squint, turn image, look for shapes
stroke yellow on as filler
randomly draw squiggle lines
randomly draw lines along edges of color
finally see a bird-like form
outline a bit of it
Call it done

in memory

About 4 years after my mother died, we happened to be visiting one of her favorite places in Germany.

For us Oberammargau was a 20-minute tour bus stop with our traveling show of 35 high school students and 12 adults doing 5 countries in 10 days.

I raced into the gift shop and bought this wooden hippo because she would have loved it as a present.

Tech pen and w/c on Cachet sketchbook paper. The Chinese characters say "sunrise."

bagged

Scanning drawings in the spiralbound sketchbook usually means light leaks in around the spiral.

Ignore that upper left gray patch; it's not shading.

Tech pen and w/c on Super Aquabee deluxe.

3 candles

The candles are white in a clear holder, but that was my takeoff point.

I drew with a brush in blue, then went back to add more colors.

w/c on 140# watercolor paper

non-electric, all the way

I never understood the attraction of electric can openers.

A high-end handcrank works better, costs less to buy and run, stores more easily.

In a long power outage, you can still open cans of fruit stored for an emergency. Ask me how I know.

Tech pen and w/c on Mudlark journal paper. I just read the sticker on my journal, not Lulu at all.

head out of the sand

"Bird face" is what I put into Google images, looking for something interesting. I found this ostrich.

I don't understand his muzzle construction, but this is what the photo looked like to me.

Pencil and w/c pencil on Lulu journal paper."

hitchhiker

This was drawn as my hand rested on the table, but turned out so much like "thumbing a ride" that I had to rotate it for posting.

In drawings of my left hand, my angled little finger is always a memory of how I broke it.

Tech pen on Lulu journal paper with writing showing through.

"draw me" tree

I pulled into a parking space and saw this strange tree right in front of me. Had to draw it, then and there.

Process:Derwent Graphitints--left dry to keep detail--on SuperDeluxe Aquabee paper.

Happy May Day!