Posting Again, Finally!!

Busy, busy, busy!!! I bet you thought I wasn't posting because I wasn't drawing LOL Not so! Actually I'm teaching a drawing class right now, also have an oil painting student, doing lots of plein air painting and continuing with the Flower-a-Day series. Oh yeah and then there's the rest of my life, husband, three teenagers, dog, rabbit and turtle and garden to take care of LOL I need sleep!! Here we have #8 black boot and 9 Oriental vase from the WetCanvas scavenger hunt which I am woefully behind in. Someone won the first hunt and they are well into the second now. I'm left in the dust! The others are in my large moleskine cinnamon raisin bagel from Dunkin' Donuts, Cafe Allegra a restaurant down town which never got finished because it started to rain, and the prayer garden at the new school my daughter will be attending in the fall. I went for the bagel and sketched while she was taking entrance tests. I'm hoping to get back into the sketching groove again, I miss it when I don't draw everyday.

drawing
sketching
moleskine

My New Small Moleskine

I have a new small size moleskine that I'm carrying around in my pocketbook in an effort to create more opportunities to sketch. I also carry the landscape set of Faber-Castell brush pens, and I'm thinking that I will need the "bright" set too. That should give me enough colors to tackle man-made and natural subjects. I am sooo hooked on these moleskins!


sketching
drawing
moleskine

Squidoo

First there were websites, then blogs and now lenses! Yes, you guessed it there's a new craze taking over cyberspace! Squidoo.com allows you to build a free "lens", a single page on the internet that allows you to share, links, photos, music, videos, on any topic you choose. I've built a lens in conjunction with ArtByUs.com, a site that I sometimes use to auction paintings. This single page hosts my bio, links to and describes all my blogs, shows examples of my artwork, and (if I can ever get the link to work!) links over to my auctions/sales at Art By Us. Pretty cool! One really neat thing is that RSS feeds will update automatically, so snippets of my latest posts from my blogs will be timely and allow you to simply click on the headline to switch over to the blog and read the whole thing. The other enticing thing about lenses is that they automatically come with relevant advertising and you can earn money automatically if purchases are made from your lens. You may have noticed the Squidoo logo over in the sidebar, it's that hideous orange thing LOL!! Please take a moment and visit my new lens and while your there, if you would be so kind, please rank my lens. A better rank means more exposure and better results on search engines, and I would appreciate that greatly. Also there's a guestbook where you can leave comments or ask questions. See you at Squidoo!!

squidoo

Sketching Scavenger Hunt

The Artwork From Life Forum over at WetCanvas is hosting a sketching scavenger hunt! They have posted a list of 26 items, the first person to sketch them from life (no photo references) wins. These are my first 7 entries, the pitcher is done with a Derwent terracotta pencil, the hat with Aquamonolith pencils and some H2O, the broccoli, the vacuum cleaner, the geranium with Faber-Castell Pitt brush pens, the dog a 2H pencil, the boy at the computer a sepia Chinese brush pen. If you'd like to participate, it's not too late just get over to WetCanvas and sign up. If you'd just like to take a peek at what everyone is doing here's the thread.


sketching
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art

Lots of Blind Contours

I was first introduced to "blind contour" drawing in high school and have loved it ever since. Just recently I learned about Niff and Sutter's Blind Contour First Friday. Niff and Sutter are the authors/illustrators over at Inkfinger, a fabulous blog. They choose a topic for the first Friday of every month for a blind contour drawing and people participate and share their results. I didn't get on the list for this month but I'll be participating from now on! Now, if you think I can't draw worth a hill of beans based on these sketches LOL let me tell you what a "blind contour" drawing is. A blind contour drawing is made by looking only at your subject, you're not allowed to look down at your paper and you're not allowed to lift you pen off the paper, the drawing must be made in one continuous line. You might be thinking at this point "what good is that? The results are terrible!!" This exercise is not about results it's about training your eye and your hand to work together. Danny Gregory's book The Creative License, explains and takes you through the process in detail if you've never done it before. It's actually a lot of fun and really produces tremendous results in increased skill if you dedicate time to these and do them reguarly. I labeled all the drawings but I don't know how ledigible the writing is in the scan so here's a list of some of the things I drew. See if you can pick them out. Windchimes, lounge chair, geraniums, gas grill, flood lights, a jar, the crank handle, my dog. These were all done in a hardback Canson sketchbook, 9x12, with a black uniball vision pen.




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blind contour

The 4th of July!!

Went down to the beach this afternoon before the thunderstorms began to roll through. The beach is less than 10 min. away and I usually don't go on holidays too crowded LOL but I thought it would be fun to sketch all the beach-goers. The building is the nature center.All in my new moleskine, with my favorite Faber-Castell brush pens!

sketching
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moleskine

The Elephant's Trunk

On Sunday I went to a really, really big outdoor flea market called The Elephant's Trunk. I take my son there every year for his birthday. He just turned 16. We're both flea market/antique show enthusiasts. This is such a festive and fun place we had a blast and bought some neat stuff too! These three sketches complete my first moleskine sketchbook!! I have another one ready to go, can't wait to begin it. I have to think of a really good place to got and sketch because I always like a new sketchbook to have a really nicely done sketch on the first page. That kind of sets the tone for the whole book. It's all in my head, I know it's just a sketchbook LOL Uniball vision pen, and Faber-Castell brush pens...love those things!~

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The Elephant's Trunk

The 10th Annual International Sketchcrawl

Today was the 10th International Sketchcrawl. People all over the world gathered in groups or went out individually and sketched their world!! That's exciting!! You can check out the whole thing at the Sketchcrawl Forum. I also had a paint out today so I painted first then sketched my painting set up. By then it was 1:00 and HOT so a lunch break and a yummy icy drink, then back for more sketching. All this took place at the Florence Griswold Museum of American Impressionism, Old Lyme, CT. Everything is in the large moleskine, uniball vision pen and my new set of 48 Faber-Castell brush pens...heavenly!! If you'd like to see my painting from today check it out at Art & Life.

sketching
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florence griswold museum
sketchcrawl
moleskine

Waiting at the Orthodontist

Making good use of time here. Did this while I was waiting for my daughter during her orthodontist appointment. All the poor parents bored and waiting, especially poor after putting braces on their kids teeth at an astronomical cost LOL. Large Moleskine, uniball vision pen and Faber-Castell Brush Pens.

sketching
drawing
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moleskine