Today is the Virtual Sketch Date

The Virtual Sketch Date has come around once again. The photo ref was an ornamental cabbage. Beautiful image. Great colors. Lots of veins. I am not so happy with mine. I couldn't match the colors of the ref photo and I went in too fast with the purple in the center. Once the purple is there, if it is too dark, it's there to stay. Plus the colors are more muted than my usual or for my taste.

About 1/4 into the picture, I almost gave up and tossed it. The only thing that made me keep trying was the fact that I had signed up to do the sketch. Several times in the process, I was tempted to stop. But I think the picture I ended with isn't bad, just isn't what I wanted it to be.

Postcard sized on Bristol Smooth paper with colored pencils.

U S Safari

Three of my safari trade cards have arrived in their new homes in the US. I figure the ones going to Canada won't be there until next week. And the Australian ones, and one to Portugal will take a couple weeks or so.

I decided to do these in graphite. I miss my graphite. I decided the african safari animals would be a good time to be comfortable. The next trade on Drawspace will be Undersea Items. That will be in late Sept. and I will go back to colored pencil for those.

These are ATC size (2.5 x 3.5), the size of baseball cards. I collect them. I have over a hundred cards saved in the sleeve inserts for baseball cards placed in a binder. This trade was for 10 cards. I won't know how many for the sea ones until we have the sign up period.

Virtual Sketch Date

This is the week of the VSD (Virtual Sketch Date). The photo reference was posted on the site on Friday. The drawings are due to be posted on our blogs next Saturday. The last time I looked, there were around 23 takers who want to participate. Each month we have more people and that makes it so nice to compare all the different mediums and styles.

I haven't started my drawing yet. I haven't yet decided whether I will do just graphite or add some color. When I start on the drawing, it will probably become clear to me how I will do it. Looking forward to seeing all the results.

I did some grocery shopping today so no artwork was done. I don't like days that I don't produce something. I did go thru my colored pencils to make sure I have the right colors for the 3 kits I have from Ann Kullenberg's website. I need to order a few pencils. I thought I had all the colors needed, but I would have had to substitute a couple colors. One is a portrait and I am looking forward to trying that.

Pondering

I find it a curious thing that I will look at my blog and realize that it has been days since I posted. It seems like I post every day. Not so though. I just looked and here it is 4 days later. Another example of how time flies.

I have every intention of posting daily. I read posts of others daily. It seems like I would realize that I had not posted daily. Maybe I am just enjoying other blogs so much that I imagine I posted too.

I am participating in a Safari ATC Exchange in the Drawspace.com forum. There were 11 people signed up so I had 10 cards to do. I decided to do African animals. And for this one, I went back to my comfort zone and did them in graphite. So delicious to get into my rut again.

All through my drawings, I kept thinking that "this would look nice when I added the color". So I am getting used to my art as being in color. But there is something so delicious about putting my trusty mechanical pencil on the paper and having something emerge with just some lines. Delicious comfort.

All my safari cards were mailed yesterday. 3 to Australia, 2 to Cananda, 1 to Portugal, and 4 to US states. The ones in the states should be getting them on Wed or Thursday. Then I can post the results. I may wait till they are all received, as I have 7 on one picture file and 3 on another. It's nice to see them all together.

Here is the latest of my Vacation Dreams Postcard that arrived in India.

Colgate

Here is an Everyday Item postcard that I sent to Conno in Australia.

More Vacation Dreams

I hate to push my dolphin down. I kind of like looking at it when I come to my blog. but it has been 3 days and time to move on.

Two more of my vacation dream vacation cards have arrived at their destinations. These two went to a husband and wife in New Zealand. They are grekslay and prickles. We have been in several trades together and several scavenger hunts. I have enjoyed getting to know them a little.

My two places in these two vacation dream cards are Montana (in watercolor) and a little village (colored pencil). I am not an outdoor person but the Montana scene was so pretty. It is a place that my hubby would love to be. I would love to be there with a camera or my art supplies. The little village looks so inviting that I couldn't pass up the chance to capture it on a card. It looks like a lovely and interesting place to visit. Both reference photos are from the Wetcanvas RIL.

Swim with the Dolphins

Well my dolphin finally arrived in OZ. I sent this postcard to Sue/Bigs in Australia. I really like this card. I found the reference in the RIL at Wetcanvas. I thought swimming with the dolphins sounded like fun. I really enjoyed doing this one, and I like how it turned out. It is one of my favorite, and my hubby and Sue really liked it too.

Still life duos

I joined a project in WC where we will be doing 6 still life pictures. Any medium but only two items in the still life. Each one following will have one of the items discarded and a new item in its place. The purpose is to try different things with color, lighting, or anything else you want to work on. I finished my first one tonight.

I am not completely satisfied with this one. It's ok. Not real good. Just passable. I don't like the background. I don't like the colors in the teapot. I do like what I did with the colors in the bowl. It is colored pencil.

The next one will have the same red bowl with a plant sitting in it. At least I think that is what it will be. It won't have the same background. I may set it on a cloth or a white paper. And I think I will put the light overhead We shall see.

Postcard Exchanges

I have been working on my postcards for the exchanges I am in at the Wetcanvas site. I still have 3 or 4 to finish for the everyday items, and I am about half done with the holiday dream cards. Here are two that have arrived at their new homes.

I joined another exchange. This time on Drawspace forum. This one is for ATCs. The subject is safari. I will be doing animals from Africa and doing them in graphite. Time to get my graphite fix. I have 9 to do and have one finished.

I am also involved in a secret colored pencil art exchange. We are assigned one name and we do one piece of art 5x7 and send to that person. We haven't been told if the same person has our name. They will all be mailed in time for them to be at their new homes by the end of the month.

Everyone on the forum was working or had started their art. I hadn't even thought about what I would do. Well I finally sat down, figured it out, and finished it. Now I am just waiting for the address of my recipient. I can't wait to see what I get. It's like an early Christmas present.

Is it really Wednesday?

Where did the week go? For that matter, where did the year go? Next it will be Christmas. Seems like it was just yesterday. For all you young ones out there, the older you get, the faster the years pass. So enjoy the ones you have now and don't wish them away.

I used to wish it was a different time. Like "I wish Christmas would hurry", "I wish the weekend would get here", " I wish I could retire". Well a wise older woman told me not to wish my life away. She was probably in her 90s and she lived to 100, almost 101. I was at her 100th birthday, and she was enjoying every minute of it. The next year I was at her funeral.

She was wise. I am now looking at the front side of retirement age, and the years are just flying by. I blink my eyes and a month is over. I have often wondered what causes it to seem to get faster. Is it because I move slower and it takes me twice as long to do the same things I once did in half the time? Is it because the days are more precious the closer I get to the end of my life? Is it because I have found more interests that occupy my time?

Younger people these days often say they are bored. I haven't been bored for quite some time now if ever. Even as a child I stayed busy. I loved to read. I collected and read everything about movie stars. I played with paper dolls, jacks, pick up sticks, modeling clay, and played "jeeps" with my two brothers. We stayed busy for hours.

TV back then was only a couple of stations; I don't think there was cable tv. Our tv was black and white and more snowy than clear. But when I watched it, it was the most wonderful thing. There was always a radio going in our house with country music.

There was almost always something on the stove cooking (a pot of beans or a pot roast cooking until it caramelized) or cinnamon rolls, yeast buns, or cookies baking. And sometimes even homemade fudge. We liked the fudge to fail (not set up) as we got to eat it as "spoon candy". Just yummy. My mom was a "from scratch" cook, so nothing was guaranteed to turn out just right every time. I didn't know how to cook that way so had to learn at school. I still cook from a recipe.

I miss those days. It was so comforting and safe. I knew there would be someone there when I came home from school. My mom didn't even drive. She was always there. We never had to come home to an empty house. We didn't have much else, but I think safety and comfort is so important.

So I grew up with the ability to entertain myself and not have to have constant playmates or electronics to keep me entertained. And if I didn't have something, I just pretended like I did, or I made it from the modeling clay.

All in all, there is not one day of my past that I would want to revisit. Not if I had to go thru some of the stuff I went thru afterward. Once was enough for the bad or hard times. Instead I feel so fortunate to have special memories to look back on. And I have no children to bore with the "olden days" memories so I guess you are elected.

Wee Hours

It's 2:25 am and I am still awake. I just finished a vacation dream card (the second one today). These I will be mailing to New Zealand to a married couple who are both in our project. I can't post them until they reach their new owners.

I have been doing some landscapes for this challenge as well as ones with multiple images from a country. Both have been nice to do. It is harder to put several things on one card and make them look like they belong together. But it is satisfying when I finish one.

I watched the opening of the Olympics tonight. Quite a show. Very intricate mechanics and electronics. I enjoy quite a few of the different sports during the Olympics and will be watching quite a bit. I just hope that they don't interfere with my main priority...The Young and Restless. Can't miss that.

More project postcards

Here are the two postcards that arrived safely at their new home. Both of these went to WildGoose from Wetcanvas. One was for the Vacation Dreams and one for the Spring Fling.

I finished another vacation postcard today. It will go out in the mail tomorrow.

No new art

No new art that I can show. I finished two more postcards, and I'm working on one more. The two that are finished are one for the Everyday Items exchange, and the second one is for the Holiday Dream exchange. That one is sites of England.

The card I am working on it for another vacation dream. It is for Australia. I had to stop working for dinner but will probably finish it and mail all three tomorrow. I am trying to finish the Everyday Items project and get farther along on the vacation one.

I signed up for an online acrylics class on painting pets. It's a 6-week class, and we will be painting several animals. I want to learn to paint in acrylics like Jody in the Animal and Wildlife forum of Wetcanvas. She does such a good job. I would like to be versatile to have a painting medium to go with my colored pencils.

I have paid the $30 US for the class, found my supplies, and now wait for the 27th to start. There are many other classes at the site. $30 for new students per class. Here is the link to the classes: http://www.lvsonline.com/

Everyday Item

Here is the latest of my Everyday Items that reached its destination. This time to France.

My cell phone is with me most of the time. It is how I keep in touch with my husband when he is in his truck and on the road. I am able to have his dinner ready when he gets here. If he has to go out of town, he can let me know to get all his clothes all washed up. He can keep up with things that go on at home while he is away.

My phone is also a help when I have to drive. Since my leg has a disability, I am more secure in knowing I don't have to walk in case of a car emergency. I can just call for help from the security of my car.

It has also come in handy when I can't find a certain spot I am looking for like a new doctor's office, a new spot for our plein air outings, and other times when I need to find directions. And with all the new super sized stores, when hubby can't find me in the store, he calls to get directions to my area. The first time he did that, I had to laugh.


My phone also links me to my parents who aren't getting any younger. Before I had my cell phone, I would panic if I couldn't get them on the phone. A couple times I went to their house to make sure they were ok. They live in a rural area and sometimes the house phone doesn't work for days. We got them a cell phone on our family plan. That allows me to be free from the stress of knowing they are ok, that they can get from point A to point B and have communication if they have car trouble, or are out at night.

I know that some people feel cell phones are a nuisance, but in my case I have found them to be very useful. And I don't ever want to be without one.