29 January 2011

J&B's House with Snow

I like the way my neighbours' house mimics the shape of the much larger house beside it, and I enjoy the changing shadows and skies behind all year round.

29 January 2011

Snowshoes Leaning Against Chair 

Thanks to my neighbours helping me shovel yesterday's very wet snow, I had the energy to go out snowshoeing  afterwards...but I was too tired to post - and prefer daylight for photographing.

28 January 2011

Scribble Drawing:  Ghost of Spring to Come

Storm continued all day and I felt like adding colour to this day's proper-date drawing.  I am still tending to crowd to the left (see the 2 posts below). 

26-27 January 2011

Blind Scribble, Tree Shapes

I was too tired to draw yesterday (26th) and so set about doing a scribble drawing first thing on the 27th.  I started with the tree on the left and then made the next tree over before opening my eyes.  Everything was farther to the left than I'd felt it was, so I kept adding things, mostly verticals, on the right, and still they veered leftward.  So I began again, below.

26-27 January 2011

Left-growing Tree Shape

Because I kept veering over to the left in my first drawing (above) I started this one on the far right side of may paper near the top - and still I wandered over to the left side, although I managed to get back to the right and even go off the edge there - so I knew I had reached the righthand edge!

Maybe the day's blizzard was blowing me askew:  when I went to post these two drawings, the power went out between when I opened this blog and when I clicked to post.  Since my computer was now running on its battery, I couldn't figure out why the posting absolutely would not happen! 

25 January 2011

 

 Spirit Fishing

 Another quickie from a blind scribble.  I was too tired after finishing building my closet and loading it to the hilt and thought I'd skip a day...but that siren in my sketchbook just yodeled louder.  I began the line at the fishhook end and continued until what became the fish end.  Then I opened my eyes, saw a head and a canoe shape, and went on from there.  I see this as the result of notching the upright for my closet making me realize how much I enjoy careful woodwork and how ready I now am to finish - and enjoy finishing - the canoe I began a few years ago.  Here is the partially-built canoe calling out to me.

24 January 2011

Strange Cat

23 January 2011

12 for the 24th

Time warp!  Thought today was the 24th until now.  Oh, well, here is today's, i.e. 23 January's drawing, warps and all.

22 January 2011

 

It's January & I Want to Hibernate Under the Covers!

I see I have more to learn about combining drawing from the subject (my nose), and drawing from my imagination (everything else); a disembodied nose set down by some absent-minded gremlin.

21 January 2011

Shoveling Snow

black Conte crayon

How might shoveling snow be rendered in a drawing?  I wondered about this as I shoveled.  The resulting drawing is a map of how I shovel my driveway, with the scale distorted; my driveway is longer in proportion to its width.   More isn't needed to indicate my shoveling pattern:  no one will use this as a guide to shoveling my driveway!

I began with the long marks going out to the sides, representing my pushing the snow from centre to edges, approximating the shape and direction of these sweeps.  The short strokes represent the sides of the snowbanks as I lifted each scoopful of snow, and the scribbles are the dumped snow on the tops of the banks.  Those things on the lower left are my doormat on the doorstep and my green cart.  The loopy marks are my footprints.  That line with Xs is the tread of the snowplow on the street, even though it hadn't actually gone by yet.

20 January 2011

Dragonlet Dancing with Cottontails

A drawing evolving from a random line; here it was the line of the dragonlet's back, and obviously a line too soft for a full-grown dragon's back.  Done for relaxation and to see how my brain identifies a random line.  It frequently gravitates to making unreal animals, as happened here. 

19 January 2011

Red Leather Stove Gloves

18 January 2011

Plans for shelves in my closet

Here is another way I use drawing; to figure out how to build something.  Fixed dimension lines are drawn with ball pen; they show the measurements of the actual space available and cannot be changed.  The "hard" information I gather (dimensions of what I want to put on these shelves) before making the drawing is also in ink.  Then the planning is in pencil, so I can change it as needed.  The scale is 1/8" to 1 inch.  Now I know the dimensions for additional materials needed, and what the next steps are (1st make uprights and long cleats, 2nd, mark measurements for cleats on wall and on vertical supports).  That is enough for now:  I might get my carpenter to do the actual building, and this ensures I get what I want.

The rough sketches are just that; notes for construction,which will be done to the scale of the drawing - and the actual space.

17 January 2011

Shake-to-light flashlight

Oh dear,  I didn't sit back and check for distortions, but then no one plans to build one from my drawing!

16 January 2011

View from my Chair by Window

I went to working loosely and making bigger marks using "Walnut" ink and the Walnut felt-tipped drawing stick.  I love using this ink; it can be lifted, layered to get deep darks, applied with a nearly- empty stick for lightest tones, and has no cleanup routine.  The next use of the stick softens it, as long as you continue to use this ink.

15 January 2011

View from Nyna's Couch

I'm colour-hungry and large-mark hungry!  Time for something different....

13 -14 January 2011

Nyna's Kitchen

I began this the evening of the 13th, starting with the wood range, and finished it the following evening.

This was more than I could draw in a single evening after shoveling out both my driveway and my woodhouse; besides, supper was now ready and I was hungry!

12 January 2011

My Old Snowboots 

(Unfinished; too sleepy)

11 January 2011

 Clayton Murray's Own Composition

 

A Charlie Parker Piece

Two guitar pieces played by Clayton Murray this evening at the monthly ArtsTuesday at ArtsPlace, Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia, a gathering to present 3 short pieces by 3 different artists; one musical, one visual, and one performance.  I didn't have my sketchbook with me; I tried to commit the shapes I saw to memory to draw at home afterwards.  Drawing with charcoal while there would have been better:  music is not so linear.

10 January 2011

Lip Salve Jar

This drawing about 4.5 x 5" (11.5 x 12.7 cm)

(Most are a full page in 9 x 12"/23 x 30.5 cm sketchbook)

9 January 2011

Tool Jar, blind contour drawings

First, I did a true blind contour drawing, not looking at my paper at all from beginning to end.  Next, I drew the jar again, stopping my pencil while checking where I was on my page, and then continuing drawing without looking until checked again.

8 January 11

 

While Sitting by my Woodstove

Number 2 in a stove series...?

7 January 11

 

Amaryllis, all 4 blossoms open

6 January 11

                                             Farmstead at 71 Marshland Road from Highway #1

    This is the second old farmstead I see on #1 between home and Bridgetown; probably they'll become a series.

5 January 11

 

Amaryllis, 3 blooms & bud (on left)

4 January 11

 

Red Dwarf Amaryllis, 3 Bloom, 1 Bud

3 January 11

 

Dwarf Red Amaryllis, 2 Blooms Open

I like working in series, and this is the first of a series of amaryllis drawings I expect to do, both of this one as it unfurls, and of others barely showing their buds now.

2 January 11

Jennifer by Heather's Stove, In the shawl Her Mother Wove

 

Sometimes I draw exactly what's in front of me, willy-nilly:  my friend's foot was there in front of me in the left foreground and so I put it in.  I wanted to show the presence of someone else besides Jennifer (and me). 

1 January 11

33 Southside Drive from Hwy #1
Unless otherwise noted, all drawings are done in a 9 x 12" (23 x 30.5 cm)