knitting a camera sock

My husband has long used a heavy, ribbed, sock leg as a slipcover for his digital camera. I finally knit myself one and love how it cushions my camera.

36 stitch k2/p2 tube out of a bulky yarn, knit tightly. I bound off the end, with a 3 needle bindoff, to create a stretched square bottom.

Shut off that flash

Chaucer is learning to squint when he sees the camera coming.

adding to the hat collection

These I'm keeping. After the Monday blizzard and today's wind chills, I need a hat in every coat pocket.

Plus some bright wrist warmers.

This still applies

We've been very busy with travel, family urgencies, and relocating elderly relatives to new situations. Not done yet, so for a Christmas post I'm recycling the card and post I made in December, 2005.


Celebrate the Light!

elf delivery!

A basket of 11 hats and (tied with gold ribbon) 3 pairs of wrist warmers, sent to the housing unit where families can pick what fits them. The knitting elf intends to rest awhile now!

caricatures

The guy in front of me stayed turned like this for over 2 hours, talking to his seat mate. I suspect he had a strong neck pain the next day.

Maybe their noses weren't this big, but they *were* distinctive.

Pencil in the journal.

on the phone

I sketched in pencil, then later idly decided to do lines with w/c.

In the journal.

a humongous chair

This chair fully rises and tilts forward so the disabled can get over their feet to stand. It lowers the person into sitting too, and also reclines.

Amazing to watch and quite a relief for those who need it. Super expensive, of course.

Pen and w/c in the journal.

another quick scribble

Gel pen with a water wash.

In the journal. Breaks up the writing.

catch that pose

I managed to catch the cleaning pose.

He's not quite this colorful, but it gives the page more punch.

Ink and w/c in the journal.

imagining a fence

Just filling space with some barbed wire.

Pen in the journal.

then there's wood to burn

The last post was on wood saved. This is the firewood waiting to keep us warm. Wonky perspective but as all pieces in the journal--I draw fast and move on.

My grandmother on the farm saved everything burnable because they cooked and heated with wood heat. I save *some* burnable boxes for kindling, but this stack looks a little hoardish. It's nearly all gone now.

Charcoal pencil and w/c on 70# paper.

inherited driftwood

This piece, about 15 inches long, has been in the family for decades. My in-laws are clearing out their house, so I brought it home.

It will show up in future posts, with bears and dolls and cats, I'm sure.

Fountain pen in a B&N sketchbook.

Christmas knitting

Every year our school library donates needed things to the college-sponsored families in need. The fiber crafters among the staff make hats, scarves, mittens to fend off the winter winds.

So far my total this year is 8 hats, with 3 more on needles. Knitting has cut down on my drawing time, but these will do a lot more for cold heads.

mini stapler

Colored pencil on a little piece of card.

balancing rock

Doodling in the sketchbook, but then it turned into boulders. Something worth developing.

Pencil and w/c in the Hand Book volume.

reminds me of a phoenix rising

Sienna and transparent gold acrylic over an acrylic molding medium, scratched.

bird three

Drawn with a brush pen on acrylic background. The red, yellow, blue and white of the bird is from Sharpie oil-paint pens.

bird two

Water-soluble crayon (Cretacolor)on an acrylic background.

In the Hand Book sketchbook,

the first of a flock

I doodled this bird and then did it in a variety of colors and media.

This is acrylic rubbed with some touches of oil crayon. In the Hand Book sketchbook.

twisted hand

Anything to change the angle of my left hand!

Pencil in the Hand Book sketchbook.

dry brush and Jet Pens

Using a Sai watercolor brush pen, which works great for dry brush effects. These are only available from jetpens.com, a super site for all sorts of brush pens.

In the Hand Book sketchbook.

as if they were in a dark antique store

I glued tissue paper on light sketch paper, then doodled with ink: 4 pitchers, colored with smears of w/c and w/c pencils. I like the grubby effect!

pointing up

Practicing the pointing hand from a new angle.

Pencil in the Hand Book sketchbook.

drawing with recipe

Happy Thanksgiving!

A food-related post seems required today. After I drew the propped skillet, I added a background.

Have you ever made bananas Foster? This is a simplified, similar dessert:

Melt butter in a skillet. Put in bananas (cut lengthwise) and apple slices. Drizzle honey over the fruit. Brown on both sides. Remove fruit and continue to simmer honey/butter until it reaches a caramel level you like. Pour over fruit.

Sometimes I add low-salt peanuts, too. Great when served with ice cream!

Oil pastels on 140# paper.

cat again

The standard cat curl.

Pencil in the Hand Book sketchbook.

metal paint tube squeezer

More things from the art table.

These are much more expensive from art supply places. But a beauty supply place had them at about 1/3 the cost.

Pencil in a Moleskine sketchbook.

7 bottles of liquid watercolor

Practicing ellipses.

Pencil in the Hand Book sketchbook.

ear focus

From life drawing, catching the contours.

Pencil on 70# paper.

oil accident more than abstract

This is the leftover paint from my last oil painting. It's on a "stay wet" paper that I left in the box for weeks. Even oils couldn't stay wet that long.

I enlarged one section to enjoy the texture. As you can tell, I didn't put the paint down in any sort of organized way.

chip bag

I like these chips from sweet potatoes.

Colored pencil in the Hand Book sketchbook.

the uncolorful version

He's a brown and gold tabby, but I painted him like our dearly beloved and passed gray cat. Now he has to stand in for her during modeling sessions.

Pen and w/c on Stratchmore drawing paper.

drawing from a video

I stopped a documentary and captured this guy.

Hard charcoal pencil in a Moleskine sketchbook.

3 seals

I put color around a torn piece of paper, then saw shapes that looked like swimming seals. Three eyes to guide you in.

Colored pencil in a Hand Book sketchbook.

drawing what's around

This Travel-Pro rolling tote is so handy! We have two of them, for local and distant travel.

Pencil in the Hand Book sketchbook.

orange splinters

I sliced up a small doodle and used colored pencil between the pieces. This would work better with a face or recognizable item, I think.

It's interesting that the w/c paper is thicker, but the pencil comes forward more in the scanned image.

On 140# w/c paper, then pasted into the Hand Book journal.

drawing as mindfulness practice

Drawing the same thing over and over, a left hand in all manageable positions, is a concentration and mindfulness practice in both seeing and media manipulation.

I always notice something, whether it's how difficult this hard charcoal pencil is to erase, or something new about how finger skin wrinkles.

Hard charcoal pencil on 70# paper. It got these pencils at Barnes & Noble, cheap and about 20 to the box. They are great to work with!

bad scan, unusual effect

The other side of the paper has a drawing in colored pencil. That ghost plus the light-struck scan made this quick sketch more interesting.

A thick spiral pad much larger than the scanner never works.

Pencil on 70# paper.

socks in sandals

I am never happy with slippers--too soft, can't step outside for the mail in NH weather. So I wear thick Thorlo socks in slip-on sandals. And if I have to drive somewhere I may not have to change my shoes.

And I don't even own a pair of white socks, so the horror of socks in sandals does not apply (I claim). These sandals are actually black leather, I just didn't color them in.

Hard charcoal pencil on 70# paper.

no chin, no wrinkles, half the neck

Beards simplify the whole profile!

Pencil on 70# sketchpaper.

a page of feet

Not mine. You can tell because I don't wear toe rings.

Pencil in the Hand Book journal.

still artists

I've discovered that the artists who draw life models stay nearly as still as the models do. Intense eye and hand movement happens, the rest of the body doesn't shift at all for the 20-minute poses.

paint moosh

Just pushing paint around.

Acrylic in the Hand Book journal.

Happy Halloween!

The witch may always wear black, but she has a colorful cat.

Rather pumpkin colored!

Pen and Cretacolor aquastix, in the journal.

survey says . . .

As usual, we are being deluged with election mailings. This is a survey card that I turned into a colorful piece and avoided filling out.

Ink and acrylic on card.

New England foliage season

On my walk today I picked up a maple leaf to paste into the journal. This paper is 6 3/4 inches x 8 3/4 inches, so you can see how big this leaf is. The very top of it got cut off in the seam of the book.

The scan, of course, doesn't do the color justice. It glows in the sun!

after a walk

Ankle deep and still falling.

and without my hat

Not witchy at all, but without my hat. In a handmirror.

Pencil in a Hand Book sketchbook.

witch closeup

Sketching another witch, with hard charcoal on a scrap of 300# paper. Blue sky and gold moon added in acrylic.