Plein air day

Tomorrow is plein air day with my art group. I haven't been for several weeks but we are revisiting a private home in an older section of town. This house has been refurbished and is beautiful. Will all it's older world charm. Lots of antiques mixed in the furnishings. All kinds of old appliances, boxes, toys, etc. Even an old quilt hanging over the banister.

An upstairs bedroom was extra special with an old wicker doll buggy full of stuffed critters. A doily over the lamp shade, old signs, Beautiful brass bed, old children's clothes on hangers, and older wooden toys. Very serene and takes one back to a more simple time.

Outside is a nice pool with lush greenery, some plants, birdhouses, and other things to keep your interest.

Moleskine Project Pages So Far

Here are the pages I have been working on for the Moleskine Project book. Remember they are in the early stages. Several people have asked to see what I have done. Sorry the scans don't look too good but maybe you can get an idea.

Moley Project

I had a nap this evening so am not sleepy. I have been working on my Moley Project Book. I sketched out 3 1/2 double pages. One will have various postcards on it, one has a mailbox with a postcard sitting inside, one is a door with a card coming thru the mail slot, and another is a postcard hanging on a clothesline. I am adding little touches of addresses or messages to the postcards and some will show my sense of humor. And I am naming some of them. One is a snail crawling across a postcard and the name is "Snail Mail".

At least now I feel I have accomplished something. I hate slow art periods. And lately they are coming way too often and lasting way too long. I have to get myself together and fight thru it. As it tends to do, life gets in the way and one has to deal with it.

Dizzy Escapades

I gave the dogs their nightly biscuit along with the neighbor dog. The biscuits are about 3 1/2 inches long. I give the big dogs and the neighbor dog a whole one. And Dizzy a piece. She took hers and waited while Penny bit into hers. She then left hers and grabbed Penny's. Usually that piece would be small but this time it was almost whole.

When I got up, she knew I would take it so she took off down the hall and under the bed. Didn't come out until she was finished. Penny picked up Dizzy's piece and I had to give her another piece.

Quite a comedy show here these days.

Fancy Letters

I have always wanted to be able to do fancy lettering and doodles like Anita Davies does on her blog. I asked her once where she learned and she said that she has always done it.

Many years ago I learned two calligraphy alphabets. Chancery and Uncial. Chancery is very pretty but I was drawn more to the quirkier Uncial. I took classes with a local parks department for a few weeks. They never offered the classes again as far as I know. I would have taken more to learn further alphabets.

But the kind of lettering I want to be able to do is more like people do in their journals. I think it makes the journaling pages so much more interesting. Anita just seems to have the knack for it. A curley Q here or there; a spilled drop or two of ink. It just works for her. For me, it would probably look like I spilled the ink and tried to make it look ok.

I found a site that offers lessons for $20. I'm not sure if I would want to try that. I'm not sure how much I would get from the lessons. Plus right now money is tight and I don't need to spend on unnecessary things. And whether I want it so or not, lessons are not a necessity. There was a free sample lesson and I received it.

So the last couple of days, I have been practicing in my sketchbook. It's fun.

New Day

Well it's a new day. I haven't done any artwork for a couple days except some scavenger hunt items. I haven't scanned them yet and not too proud of them. I haven't done any more work on my prairie dog. Hopefully tomorrow.

I am thinking of entering a piece of art in the County Fair. If I am to do that, I have to get the paperwork done by Friday. I have one ready. Two more I could put in as miniature art. I shall see. I would need frames for those.

My Dizzy is ready for bed and won't go until I do. Her papa is getting up at 2 am so I am staying up to get him off to work. Try to explain that to a 5 month old dog who is tired and sleepy. I guess I should go in and lie down with her until his alarm goes off.

I found out that two of the ladies at the Drawspace forum are entered into the Moleskine Project. One is oliverandjazz/Kay who got the theme of "danger" I think. I haven't found out yet what theme Sonia got. It will be interesting to see what the others do in their books. Kay at her site will be posting what she does as she finishes them.

Postcard Art

I did a piece from one of my reference photos. This was taken at a private home that is restored to be like it was originally. The owners have a lot of antiques throughout the house and we were allowed access to both the inside and the outside. Beautiful house and wonderfully kind owners. I may use this card in a swap I will be in about a month from now.

Drawing Finally

I'm finally working on something. I decided to go a different way with my Moley Project Book. The theme is "A Postcard". I was going to do pages of the fronts and backs of postcards. Make them look like they had just arrived in the mail. I did two pages of that. But tonight I had a different idea.

I will now do my pictures in graphite and they will be different situations with a postcard placed in each picture. Like a dog chewing one up. One laying on a table. One dropping thru a door mail slot. All different things. The postcards won't really be featured and they won't have a lot of detail. But there will be one in every picture.

I think this will be a better fit for me. I was having trouble getting motivated with the theme. Now I am looking forward to it. In fact I am working on one right now. A prairie dog holding one. This is not finished but just gives you a hint what I'm talking about. Reference photo by Just Chaos from Wetcanvas.

Dizzy Groomed

Haircut

Today is haircut day for Dizzy. We will finally find out what our baby looks like under all that hair. I will so miss the hair tho. She looks more like a baby with it. I will take in a baby and bring back a big girl.

Next World Wide Sketchcrawl

The next sketchcrawl will be on Sept 19. It will be the 24th one. I will be trying to decide on a place to sketch that day. So anyone who plans to participate, write the date down on your calendar and don't forget.

Five Days

It has been 5 days since my last post. Wow hard to believe. I didn't plan a break but I guess I needed one. I will try to do better.

Tomorrow Dizzy goes for her final puppy shot plus rabies. Then she can get groomed. She looks so bad like a dirty dust mop. She sure is a playful little thing and not afraid of much. She plays hard. She doesn't mind getting out in the wet grass or coming inside with muddy paws. She just sits and starts to clean them up. Of course she wants to put her dirty face right up to mine. Muddy kisses are not the most pleasant.

I guess if you didn't already know...I am a dog person. I love dogs so much and especially puppies. That's why our dogs get spayed quickly. No puppies allowed to stay here for 6 weeks unless they are joining the family for the duration.

I haven't done any art since the self portrait. Another dry spell I supposed. I need to get busy. I have the new scavenger hunt printed out and also have several dog portraits I would like to start. But I just can't seem to get started with anything.

So until some art energy sets in, you get words instead. Well maybe a few more Dizzy photos.

Self Portrait for the Scavenger Hunt

I haven't done a self portrait for many many months. I may start a new thread in the Artwork for Life forum to do a self portrait a day for a month. The scavenger hunt had a self portrait on the list.

More 60s

Here are more of my 60s ATC for the trade at Drawspace.com

Go-Go boots, Smile, Hippie Mouse, and Platform Shoes.

Peace, Love, Groovy

I worked on a few 60s cards last night. Such colorful times. For me thankfully no drugs, no free love. Just wonderful memories. The music, the clothes, the times. Here are the 4 cards I have finished. 2 for Peace. 1 for Love. And 1 for Flower Power.

Squirrel

I finished my postcard piece for the trade on Let's Make Art. I used a reference photo by just chaos from Wetcanvas and Flicker. I have a fondness for squirrels. I don't want to touch one or have them as a pet or anything. I just like to see their antics.

When I worked at an office, we had a squirrel who lived at the office complex. He/She would come to our office door and wait for the receptionist to let me know he was hungry. I named him/her Crackers.

Some of the girls I worked with were scared to death of Crackers. I had to go out and get between Crackers and them so they could make it to the office door. He wasn't trying to bother them; he just wanted to be fed.

I tried several things from our snack closet but the only things he seemed to want were the peanut butter filled crackers. I would go to the door with the crackers, hold them out in front of me, as he followed me to the grassy area. He would probably have taken it directly from my hand but I didn't want to take a chance on getting scratched. I would throw the crackers onto the grass, Crackers would grab one, and run up the trunk of the nearest tree and eat.

I really enjoyed the time I had feeding him. It's nice to know that a wild animal "knows" you. He would come running when I was outside and wait while I went inside to get the crackers.

Crackers went missing one day and never returned. He/she would run across the driveway in front of cars in the parking lot so may have gotten run over. Any way I missed my little Crackers and still have the fond memories.

Here is the postcard of the squirrel. It goes out in the mail on Monday.

The 60s

I don't usually sketch out practice ATCs. I usually just sketch them directly on the Bristol. But today I wanted to try some ideas on cheap paper. I did do one on better paper but I'm not sure I will use it. It is on watercolor paper and I don't like using watercolor paper with cps. Here is the one card I did today.

More Dizzy

Many Faces

A watercolor painter at Wetcanvas is going to do a picture with a bunch of faces. He is asking for volunteers to send him photos so he can include them. I sent one of hubby and me. I think it sounds like a fun thing to do. Can't wait till he does it. So far he hasn't gotten many responses. He just needs the photos pm'd to him. Here is the site for the thread:

http://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/showthread.php?p=8020969#post8020969

Whiskers

I purchased a tiny little dog toy at Target the other day. I have it sitting on my desk. It has been waiting to become a model for an ATC. Using that and my new little puppy as inspiration, I did an ATC of 3 whiskery puppies.

More Dizzy

Here are more photos of my baby. She is so sweet and so entertaining. Right now all three dogs are on the floor asleep behind me. Dizzy has her head against Penny's rear. So sweet how much they have already bonded.

Dizzy

We got a new addition to our family today. A four month old white Schnauzer. She hasn't been groomed yet and will be next week. She has been introduced to the big dogs and so far ok. We are controlling the amount of time and situation so that our moose of a lab won't send her rolling. So far so good. They want to play but it's just a problem with the difference in sizes. Plus I have to watch carefully as Penny is sooooo jealous.

Here is a photo of my new baby. We are pretty sure her name will be Dizzy. I had a poodle named Digit, after she died, we got a salt and pepper Schnauzer named Ditto, and we want to stick with the "D"s.

Mill Creek

The art group went to a local park that has just been renovated. I'm not sure I really like the "new" park. I miss the old shady trees that were there. Plus they aren't finished yet. They are going to put the county building on the same grounds. I thought it was a shame to take away all the old trees and put a building in but they didn't ask my opinion.

Here are a few photos of the park and some of the birds who live there. At least the ducks seem to like the new pond. Before there was just a canal there where they could swim. Now it's like they have a lake and they really use it.

In fact the one duck with the ugly red bumpy face took off and circled the whole park and landed back in the water. I guess he couldn't have done that if there were more trees in the way. What I found unusual was that there was only one baby in the water. Usually you see a whole trail of little ones behind a mom. But the little guy was the only one and none of the other birds seemed to have any babies.

Last of My Bird ATCs

I finished the birds for the Drawspace trade. 17 birds now finished. Hopefully I can get the envelopes addressed and stamped and get them mailed tomorrow.

Drawspace Birds

I got another 4 bird ATCs finished last night. I think I only have 5 more to do. I'm trying to do some birds that I haven't done before. The Barn Owl is one. I've always wanted to do a Barn Owl but for some reason kept putting it off. Well I can cross that off my list.

Worldwide Sketchcrawl #23

I did do a couple of pages for the sketchcrawl on Saturday. Hubby and I took a drive and stopped a couple times so that I could sketch. Not the best things I have ever done, but I had a good time.

I slept late so got a very late start. About 2:30 I sketched the new 6-inch wooden artist model that is on my desk.

Next I did a feather that sits on top of my monitor. It is one of two feathers from Bozo my cockatiel.

Then we went to a country bar and grill and sat outside in the parking lot while I did a very bad sketch of the wooden Indian out front.

After that, we traveled on a winding road on the back side of the river and stopped once so that I could sketch Lake Ming and the recreation area around it.

I Think I Can Fly

This is my next bird ATC. This little bird looks like he is about to try to fly. I just know he is scared and thinking to him self "I think I can, I think I can. Hes'e ready to try but scared all at the same time of failure.

60th Anniversary

This is a photo I took at last year's anniversary dinner and another photo but not sure where.

Happy Anniversary

Today is my mom and dad's 61st anniversary. It has been a bumpy ride but a good and long one. They married when Mom was 15 1/2 and I think Dad was 21. I came along a year later and my 2 brothers 3 and 4 years after that. Here are some photos of them thru the years.

WW Sketchcrawl #23

Saturday the 11th is the next WW Sketchcrawl. A day for everyone to spend time sketching. I have no idea where I will do my sketching but I will do something somewhere. I hope everyone takes a little time to do some art.

Brass Goose

I visited the local Goodwill store on Tuesday. I found several things that will eventually be models for my art. I found this little brass goose. So sleek and pretty. I just had to use it for one of the bird cards I am doing for trade.

Andy Mathis

I got acquainted with Andy Mathis when he was active on the Daily Painters site. I always go there every day to see the new paintings after I check all my other daily blogs. He had a painting of a puppy that I recognized from one of my photos I had uploaded to the Wetcanvas Reference Library. So nice to see it all painted.

He is a veterinarian from Georgia and also paints. I just came from his blog and enjoyed looking thru his posts. He has a couple of dog videos that are cute. Real short ones but I can get my puppy "fix" without the danger of bringing another dog home to live. Much safer than looking at puppies in person. Just not quite as satisfying as having them in my arms and smelling that delicious puppy breath.

I emailed Andy after seeing his painting and told him I really liked what he had done with it. He answered and then sent me a Giclee print (he sells prints of his work). I really treasure it and will eventually treasure it more as my Friday is 10 years old and some day I will not have her. But I will always have the print. Thank you Andy.

You can visit Andy's web blog here. http://andymathis.blogspot.com/.

Canadian Goose from CALM

Four More Birds

American Kestrel

Here is an American Kestrel ATC that I did for the Drawspace trade. I took the photo at CALM. The docent brought this one around and I was able to get really close photos. This is a female and is smaller than the males. I think this one was about the size of a smaller parrot. It was larger than my cockatiel. 2.5 x 3.5 inches in colored pencil and pen and ink.

Bud's eyes

This is the same little basset hound. I did him last time asleep and this time awake. This is ATC size and I loved doing just the eyes. He's a beautiful dog and this may not be the last time you see him.