inviting a squirrel to lunch

This squirrel was very calm with a long attention span.


The tree bark looks a lot like elephant hide.




He watched me a long time from each position, but came down for a cashew.




Then he went back to relax on a branch.

Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S8000. It has a 10X zoom that I love.

feet collage

I used one of my simple line drawings of feet as an element on a collaged page in the journal.

I like how cartoony the feet turned out.

With acrylic paint. It works so well on unsized paper like this.

hospital lobby

Drawing while Jim was in surgery. This was the most interesting corner in a lobby of chairs.

Pen in the journal.

Jewish monument in Wittenberg, Germany

Our tour guide, Katia, said the bubbles here represent the truth that bubbles up in spite of oppression and the weight of those who try to cover it up.

mini angel

Practicing with my oil paints, I did a little sketch similar to a postcard I bought in Germany.

all that hair!

Lots of practice on hair here. He was watching a really good film on Antarctica and for once, stayed really still.

Pencil on Strathmore drawing paper.

the Tour de France

Every year I watch the Tour de France. I love the scenic helicopter shots of the countryside and the villages as much as the excitement of the race.

Here's a page in the journal. An idle bike motif design (with very lumpy wheels) and a drawing of the little fan. Still so hot! (and in France it is, too.)

Ginger and Fred

The dancing buildings, named Ginger and Fred, in Prague. Designed by Frank Gehry.

We were told there are offices and a restaurant inside.

things to do while healing

This collage was inspired by Jim's recent rotator cuff surgery. Things to do for the first few days after coming home.

same Teva, different color

Jim's foot in purple w/c pencil on sketch paper.

form and value shapes

Practicing seeing the shapes of the values in a still life.

It's so hot he didn't move through this drawing.

Pen in the Rag and Bone Journal. Supersmooth paper, unsized.

Perfect for pen, no good for w/c.

big babies

Walking along as it was getting dark, we encountered these huge toddlers.

These sculptures were along in a park along the river in Prague. They had oblong rectangles for faces.

The tops of these heads were about 7 feet high.

Teva sandals

For homework I drew a foot in a sandal. The buckles were a lot more interesting than the actual foot.

Pen on the Aquabee hemp paper.

more homework

This is homework I like doing.

Pencil on the Aquabee hemp paper.

hands as homework

I'm taking an actual figure painting class. After our first in-class drawing session, our homework assignment was to draw hands and feet.

Pencil and pen on the Aquabee tree-free hemp paper. I really like the weight and texture of this paper.

Five years--blog anniversary!

I just realized that InkTracks is five years old this month. I replaced the first bad scans on July 9, 2005, so that's the official first post in the archives.

My first post is something I'm still drawing regularly.

This is post number 1173 out of 1825 days since the start. That's a posting rate of 64%. That's good enough for me.

I post about a third of what I sketch, draw, paint and collage, plus various photos.

a dose of color

I've not been playing with my acrylics and needed a color fix. I tore up a painting of random stripes and collaged it over a failed sketch. Both have been improved with the new combination.

Acrylic on 140# Arches.

Penguins in Prague

Along the river, just south of Charles Bridge.

I just watched a 2008 movie titled The Brothers Bloom, with Adrian Brody.

It had scenes from Prague, places we'd been, and in one scene I could see the glowing penguins along the river.

beneficial bricks

We found this in a square in Prague.

For a small sum you could paint a brick and they'd add it to their tower.

The money went to a fund for the mentally handicapped.

I don't know if you could choose to take your brick away with you.

I saw artful heads everywhere in Prague

art on the buildings

All over Prague the buildings have these unexpected and beautiful works of art. I don't know the name for this type of installation, but they seemed to come from all eras of construction.

(Having no text wrap here is frustrating.)

who is this?

This sculpture is in the Berlin Hilton. I loved the personality that radiates from this depiction.

The name on the pillar is hard to read, but looks like Ludwig Demient, and he lived 1732-1834.

(edited to add--the name is Ludwig Devrient. Correction is thanks to the comment I was delighted to get from the hotel's e-visit to this very post!) A fabulous place--everyone should go see Ludwig for themselves.)

98 years old in that day and age? Wow!

Four bears on the Fourth

Not that bears have anything to do with the holiday. Can't claim the color scheme is quite right.

This was just a practice painting in acrylic. I like how the blue paint pooled in the gesso--no clue how I did that.

On gessoed cardboard. Too big to scan, so photographed merely for the record.


And strong evidence that I don't know how to photograph shiny acrylic.

Hilarious and awful

I read a regular newsletter from a famous and highly articulate Canadian painter. And I'm not one to police word usage, in spite of having been a professional editor. Creativity in English is one of the things that makes our language so interesting.

But this phrase from his current letter was so awful and funny, I couldn't resist sharing. (Name withheld to protect his intellectual image.)

"I'm laptopping you from . . .(location) . . ."

Aaaghhhhh!!!!!

sketchers in Prague

In the 3 days we were there, I only saw a few sketchers. But they were all doing excellent work.

These two are on the Charles Bridge (foot traffic only, where there was a glass-player, multiple art vendors, and various performers.

This guy was outside Prague Castle, doing a sketch of the view of the city.



























This was an artist working in colored pencil from photographs.

papertrimming essentials

I'm always needing my utility knives to trim paper down for bookmaking or more portable sketching sizes.

Tech pen and colored pencil, in the journal (which ends today after the weeks of vacation entries).

 I start a new volume tomorrow, a Rag and Bone journal with heavy paper.

Happy July!