Stuff and Nonsense

I plan to spend my weekend with this bad boy, or a reasonable likeness of him as I try to lay it on a canvas once and for all. I'm tired of thinking about birds and rocks. Time to exorcise that particular demon. Acrylic in moleskine.

Here are a couple of mediocre and pretty silly sketches from the last week or so.

Trying to draw people. NOT my strength by any means. Poor girl has a chin for days, but I like her foot ok.

Ink and watercolor in watercolor sketchbook

Ok, another trial tonight. A little bit better but still disappointing. You know what really stinks? My sister took up sketching like a month ago and is a hundred times better at drawing faces than I am. Clearly I need some professional help. I think a figure drawing class is in order. Or at least a little more practice. Mechanical pencil in moleskine.

November sketches

From the clothes and closet sketchbook

Sketching things in my room while I was watching the tube. My sweet Gussie...

This is a badly executed sketch. Unfortunately I drew the bird in pen and had a hard time fitting the telephone pole in around him. Hey that's why I sketch things out before slapping paint on a canvas. Usually I use a pencil first and my hands-down-favorite tool, a big pink eraser. Inelegant and poo-pooed by real artists but a true friend to me.

Oh, for the Powers of Regeneration...

I'll settle for a cup of Darjeeling

There is a time for everything...

and a season for every activity under heaven... Ecc 3:1

Ahead of the Storm

Finally finished this guy. Poor thing has been moved around from one place to another while I worked on other projects, neglected, unfinished, and let's face it, unloved. This is a Western Marsh Harrier from Europe. Which has absolutely no significance other than I'm a nerd who sits around reading books about animals I've never seen. He's now on the shelf, stacked in front of all the other finished paintings, where he will go on being neglected but at least in good company.

The whole time I was painting I kept thinking how sick I was of painting feathers but I think there may be one more bird painting still rattling around in my brain. Not now. Can't face it yet, but soon.

Layers and Fossils

According to a friend's facebook post, today is World Gratitude Day. I'm all over that idea. I will say it all day, everyday; having an attitude of gratitude makes all the difference in the way you view your life. I've actually had more than a few tough days in the last week. I had to remind myself how good my life really is more than once, and it really did put my problems into perspective. Another thing that calms me down and takes away those worries for a time is painting. Without a doubt I have found my Element. I can't imagine any prescription medication could calm me down any more effectively (BTW, I HIGHLY recommend the book The Element by Sir Ken Robinson, Ph.D for anyone who has kids, teaches kids, or just feels like they haven't found their niche yet)

The painting above was done for an online painting course I'm taking. A study in layers and abstracts. Well I think that pretty well describes us all. We are all studies in layers and abstraction. I have a hard time with a pure abstract so I added some fossils; ammonites and turritellid gastropods. I guess my thinking was that here are some of the most common marine fossils and still some stand out more than others. We all leave a distinct impression on this world. Here are the progress shots:

Daily ephemera