My Favorites

Now that I'm finished with Drawing Lab, I've gone back through all the labs and picked my 12 favorites:

1. Lab 2: Taking It Further in Color, 2. Lab 6 TIF, 3. lab11-black-and-white, 4. ink girl1, 5. mindi portrait, 6. sean portrait, 7. Dr-Seuss "ish", 8. finding-balance, 9. scribble-dancer, 10. shy-green-dog, 11. dragonfly, 12. tired-bird-in-book

I feel like I've accomplished something... learned a lot... and tried some new things. All good stuff!

Can't wait for the The Art of Silliness 2 workshop with the author of Drawing Lab to start! Mary and I plan to work on it together along with a couple of other friends. :-)

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Ai Yi Yi - What a Week!

Almost a week and no post! Yikes! This week has been a doozy and it wasn't until last night that I slowed down and picked up a pen and brush and did a little artwork.

I finished this journal page. Love the picture of Agatha Christie. Not really a fan of her writing, but I just thought the photo of her in The New Yorker magazine was awesome. She just looks wise! Anyway, these were some of my thoughts on relationships...

And after lunch yesterday, this little guy appeared. I colored him with pastels last night. I was waiting for yet another meeting to start and was so tired, I couldn't even spell "bird" right! Ha!

Then, this morning I did the last lab for Drawing Lab's Unit 7 and the Tired Bird showed up there, too. He made it into a few sketches/painting this morning, but this one is my favorite. The book I chose to draw in is Faster:The Acceleration of Just About Everything by James Gleick. I thought it was an appropriate choice after the week I've just had! (Great book, by the way.)

I'm still not finished with the whole project, though. Still have to make-up the nature walk from Unit 6. Perhaps I'll get to that this weekend.

So, today has been quiet so far... Matt was off early for a bike ride and then to a seminar at church until after 2pm. Doing laundry, working on the Ephesians Bible Study I'll start leading early in October (gulp!), and just generally piddling! Hope you are having a wonderful Saturday, bloggy friends!

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Wednesday Wanderings

Morning, bloggy friends! Just wanted to share a couple of things with you...

One - I've been greatly inspired by a free art journaling workshop going on at Julie's place. I've always wanted to keep an art journal, have tried just a bit, but decided to finally seriously take a stab at it.

So - I bought the best watercolor spiral pad I could find yesterday (small 6x9 Wind Power) and made a cover for it. I thought smaller would be better... less intimidating. I put down two layers of gesso first, then a layer of blue acrylic, then pasted (with matte medium gel) and paint-penned to my heart's content. It was fun and I'm pleased with the result. Well, pretty pleased. Not too bad for a first try anyway, I think.

I had noticed the elephant on the back cover of a magazine a few days ago and then the saying popped out as I was cutting out words. (Believing that tomorrow can be different is always a good thing... the definition of "hope" which will never put us to shame... Romans 5:3-5.) Plus, I just liked the words "race" and "faith" going together... and in that particular order, too. Not sure exactly what it means yet, but I'll be mulling that over every time I go to open the journal. I'm going to prep a few blank pages next.... hopefully this afternoon. Then we'll see what happens. I'm excited about have a place to try out new stuff and to capture thoughts artistically. Sort of a "Commonplace Book" like Sally's that I read about here.

Two - drawing insects for Drawing Lab. Much more fun... and easier than I thought it would be. Now the scary part - color! There's five "Must-Do" labs for this unit. Not sure how I'm going to get those all done before Sunday! Then only ONE more unit before we're finished. :-) It's been good.

That's it. Off to a busy day - get dressed, whip up some banana pudding for tonight, dropping Mary off at school, work, appointment at the gym with a trainer to set me up on some sort of plan =:-O, pick up Mary, and pot luck neighborhood dinner. What does your day hold?

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Drawing Lab: Unit 5

This unit was on "Imagination" and I thought, "Goodie! This will be fun!" We only had to do three labs, but there were some really cool optional labs that I thought I would easily be able to get to. Well, things didn't go as planned this week...

First, I did the "Scribble" lab and really enjoyed it.

And I did the "Paint Blot" lab, which I didn't think I would like doing, but turns out I did like it very much. Here's one of my new critters. The other two are on smugmug.

But, this is the one that got me. Doodling! When I first read the lab I thought, "No problem!" Especially since doodling is really where I started with art.

But I couldn't do it. I couldn't relax enough just to draw and play around. I couldn't get past trying to make it look like something. This was especially disappointing because what really got me going with drawing was a book called Praying in Color. The whole point was to use doodling as an aid to allow your mind to focus. It worked beautifully for me way back when and I still have a prayer journal full of meaningful (but crude) doodles. Now I'm wondering if I could still do it. After this lab, I'm thinking not.

I'm sad I got stuck on doodling and didn't get around to any of the optional labs. At any rate, I'm still learning a lot and looking forward to the next unit. I think I only have two more before we're done with the book, Drawing Lab.

Blessings, bloggy friends!

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Drawing

Up early this morning, I grabbed a pen and did the first lab in Unit 5 of Drawing Lab. It was simple: make a scribble on a blank piece of paper and then see what you can turn it into. My first attempt turned into a dancing girl. It made me think of my friend, S, who recently died and the words she left us with - "Don't cry for me. I'm singing and dancing in Heaven... two things I could never do here on Earth!"

And my second scribble turned into a mother and child. I think I like them both.

Finally, I added these two faces to my 100 faces collection. They are numbers 6 and 7 and were drawn during a meeting today at work.

Be well, bloggy friends!

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Drawing Lab: Unit 4

Ah! Finished with Unit 4 (Inspired by Children and Childhood) in Drawing Lab. The assignment was to choose 5 of the 7 labs. I choose Scribbly, Contouring Toys, One-Eyed Monsters, Collaborate with a Child: Drawing, and Collaborate with a Child: Words. You can see them all at my SmugMug account here. But these are my favorites:

A sweet purple one-eyed monster

Me and Mary (Mary drew me and I drew her!)

Mary's famous words about her hair! :-)

This week's assignments were harder for me. Not sure why. Maybe I'm just getting tired. It's been a fast-paced week! Still learning a lot, though.

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Seven on Sunday

Hi, bloggy friends!

1. We (Me, Matt, E, and Mary) had a wonderful and profitable time in D.C. at American U's preview day. It's a great school and E is moving forward with applying there. We're not sure she can get in.... and we're not sure we'll be able to pay for it if she does... but what the heck! It's the "Furby way" as a sort-of friend once said of us! :-) All kidding aside, we're praying that God will open doors for her to attend college there next year.

2. I'm reading this book because I've felt led to get our church's web ministry team going. Wanna help?

3. I'm listening to this book and it's good.

4. I'm awaiting this book and this book and this book in the mail. (I love you, George!)

5. I added another completed lab to Unit 3 of the Drawing Lab project I'm working on with this online group. It's supposed to be a Dr. Seuss-like neighborhood. I'm pleased with how it turned out. I'm learning so, so much doing this!

6. Here's a cool link to two ladies who are working through Collage Lab in a year by doing a lab a week. Nifty, huh? CD, you and I could so do something like this!! :-)

7. Sigh. I'm sleepy. Hope you've had a restful and worshipful Sabbath day, bloggy friends. 'Night.

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Drawing Lab Unit 3 - Finished!

Technically, I'm finished with Drawing Lab's Unit 3. I've completed all the "Must Do" labs but want to do at least one of the two optionals. This whole unit is about being inspired by famous artists. I have loved, LoVeD, LOVED these labs! Makes me want to know more about other artists, their stories, and their processes.

You can see the first three labs I completed here. And here's the last two:

Lab 17: Tracing Leonardo

Lab 22: Modigliani Portraits (Go here to see Modigliani's work)

I think this last lab is my favorite. I drew both quickly last night and then used watercolor to paint them (*early*) this morning. Inspired by another participant in the A.R.T. group, I used my new charcoal pencils to give some depth. I'm super pleased with them. The assignment was to do portraits of your parents, but since I had just sketched them both last week (and made my mom mad in the process!) I decided to do The Boy and The Girl with the idea that I could maybe use them somehow for the couples shower invitations I need to get out soon. And I think I will! I can just see these side-by-side on a postcard invitation, can't you? If The Girl likes the idea, I think I'll use them.

So, Unit three is officially finished, but I think I'll at least do the lab on Dr. Seuss. Who can resist that?

Have a lovely day, bloggy friends!

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Is It Really Wednesday?

Wow! It's really already Wednesday? Boy. This week has been zooming by! And we're leaving tomorrow to go to DC for college preview day with E. Everyone is going except The Boy. And the dogs. :-)

Speaking of dogs, here's a picture for you of The Boy's "puppy" who is living with us until the Big Wedding. (Monday was M's bday. None of her pictures turned out very well, but Dingo's did! Ha!)

And I'm still plugging away at the Drawing Lab book with the Artists of the Round Table online group. I'm learning so, so, so much. They are already talking about the next book that will be work shopped. Journal Spilling and Collage Lab have both been mentioned. I'm pulling for Journal Spilling!

I've finished three of the five required labs from Unit 3 and plan to do one optional. All due by Saturday! Don't think I'll be making that deadline! But, here's the three I've done so far:

Lab 18: One Liners

Lab 19: Picasso Dogs (really had fun doing this one!)

Lab 20: Miro Abstract (mine is inspired from this painting)

Blessings to you all, bloggy friends!

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Drawing Lab Unit 2 FINISHED!

Hooray! I finished the second unit assignments for Drawing Lab. I'm working through it with an online group called Artists of the Round Table. Pretty cool group... lots of encouragement and activity. Drop by and see what's going on there.

So, I had already posted Lab 9 (Blind Contours) and Lab 11 (Cheater Blinds). Here are the final three labs to finish out Unit 2:

Lab 16: 100 Faces Project - Make 100 different faces over weeks or months. (For this unit, I had a to complete a minimum of three, I think. Goody, ANOTHER project!)

I like doing these. It would be cool if I could get all the way to 100! I've completed five so far:

Then there was Lab 13: Eyedropper Faces - Draw a series of faces freom a photo reference using only an eyedropper and toilet paper.

I had a hard time finding acrylic black ink and then I had to buy a regular eye dropper from the drug store. But I liked the results! Here's my favorite two:

And finally.... the dreaded Lab 10: Coffee Shop - practice direct-response drawings while drawing live at a public place, such as a train station or a coffee shop.

Gasp.

I.did.not.want.to.do.this.one.

But.I.did. (!)

I went to Panera, felt claustrophobic it was soooo crowded. I was paranoid the people I was looking at to sketch would see me and either get mad or ask if they could see what I was drawing. Ugh. Anyway, I sketched four different people. I didn't get much of the background, but I think I captured them pretty well. Here are two of the four sketches. For the others, see my SmugMug folder. Honestly, it wasn't so bad. I wouldn't mind trying it again, but maybe in a place that's not quite so crowded.

This whole thing has been really, really good for me. I've already learned so much. It's kept me busy, but I *LIKE* it. Hopefully, I'll be a little more timely on the next unit.

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Drawing Labs

Oh, my! It's Thursday! Can't believe it. I don't know about where you are, but here in N.C. it is hot, hOt, HOT!

I find myself scurrying again to complete the second unit of the Drawing Lab book I'm working through by the deadline. I've completed two out of five assignments so far! Gulp. Here they are:

Lab 9: Wrong-Handed Portraits - draw a friends face, using only a permanent marker and your non-dominant hand.

I did this with my mom and dad while I was at home earlier this week:
My parents probably think I'm a little bonkers. They don't get this whole forty-something-trying-to-find-my-creative-self thing. I catch my mom giving me some weird sidelong glances. But, she's honest, if not anything else. She was less than impressed with these wrong-handed drawings and when I tried to explain that the point of the exercise was not to end up with a drawing that looked "good" she still didn't get it. That led me to try to sketch both mom and dad with my right hand in pencil. I was pretty happy with the results although I ended up ticking mom off. She said, "That's just a little old lady!" and made me erase a few wrinkles. I had no idea she was so vain!! :-) When I showed her sketch to my sister a few days later she laughed so hard it made her dizzy. Ha.



I've skipped Lab 10 for now and went to Lab 11: Cheater Blinds - draw from family photographs, using a modified blind-contour drawing technique. I got a little OCD with this and stayed up waaaaay too late doing the drawing over and over (and over) again. But I learned so much! I finally started just seeing the shapes and curves of the photograph. Here's the photograph I chose to work from. It's one of me I actually like taken by a friend a few months ago with her iPhone.

And here's the black-and-white "cheater blind" contour drawing:

And then I took it into Photoshop for "technicolor."

That's all for now, bloggy friends! I've got so much in my head floating around that I want to tell you about, but no time right now. All is good. Hope you are, too.

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