nature, pets, art and life
Ears are one of those areas I really don’t feel comfortable drawing. If a dog’s ears flop over, then you don’t have to deal with any of the inner ear structure. Maybe that’s why I’ve avoided dogs with upright ears until this point. I’ll work through it slowly, little bit by little bit….
There is quite an assortment of shells that live on my main work desk. Some are tucked away inside glass jars while others, the larger ones, rest on my desk. One of the shells came from my parents journey around the US in a motor home. They spent 3 months traveling through the lower 48, up the east coast to Canada and home. The previous owner/creator of the shell was probably a conch or similar mollusk that lived along the gulf coast. I’ll need to do a few more studies to feel comfortable with the shape.
Off to tackle some paperwork for taxes. I’ve been dreading it for the past 2 weeks. My date with the accountant is in one week. Urgh!
Charcoal and conte on brown builders paper. Still part of the 28 day challenge for February.
I didn’t manage to sketch yesterday. We went to celebrate a friends birthday with a wonderful brunch. After the meal, we took the dogs out for another 5k walk under the sunny warm skies. After that, I started feeling ill and everything cascaded downhill from that point. Anyway, today I’m slowly getting back to normal and took the opportunity to pick a branch from one of our shrubs. I’ve also included an image so you can see how small the leaf buds actually are. The above drawing is about 3″x 4″ and done in the moleskine sketch book. I added a quick touch of soft pastels for color.
I decided to take a little break out of the day to work a bit more on Charlie. I’m still trying to figure out what I’m doing with this image so progress is slow. Today I pulled out a box of Faber-Castell soft pastels and started playing around with colors. It’s pretty obvious that I don’t work in pastels, but that’s ok. I’m having a blast at laying down a mixture of colors. Unfortunately the spray fixative is empty so I’m unable to secure the pastels. Probably a good time to break and head back outside into the sun! Who knew the mid 60’s would feel so wonderful!
Image size: 2 feet x 3 feet
Spring is forging ahead in our part of the country. We’ve had above average temps for most of the winter. Today should end up in the low 60’s, rather shocking for this time of the year. Many of our ski resorts are closed due to lack of snow which is a bad omen for the summer fire season. But outside the trees are awakening. Green growth and buds are swelling. I’ve already seen rafts of daffodils blooming as I drive back and forth to Eugene. Early flowering trees are already showing their stuff in downtown Albany. Our ornamental plum tree isn’t quite up to flowering stage, but the buds are swelling. A fun experiment with dots of black and a few flicks of soft pastels.
Sketch size: 3″x 5″(7.5cm x 12.5cm)
Moleskine sketchbook, black .03 pen, soft pastels
Charlie is slowly emerging on the paper. At least, I think it’s him! His colors are tough to match with my current stash of charcoal/pastels. He has beautiful fawn colored marking tinged with a light rusty brown.We will see where it all ends up. Maybe his coat will take on a completely different color all together! Currently, he’s experiencing the under drawing color possibilities (greens, white, grey, brown and black). This is day 12 of the 28 day drawing challenge. What the heck am I doing inside on such a beautiful sunny, warm day! Off to enjoy a little light before it’s gone. 🙂
Jack Richeson Charcoal and drawing crayon sticks, Brown Builder’s paper.
2 ft x 3 ft size
Wednesday was filled with my brother’s issues and it took up most of the morning/early afternoon. I was exhausted when I got home. It always amazes me how much energy it takes to work with a ill/disabled loved one. Last fall, I collected several ginkgo leaves (and stashed them in a notebook) during the first weeks of his month+ at ICU. The leaves has been floating around in the notebook, accompanying all appointments/hospital visits. Keeping a journal to track of the layers of health problems has been vital. Wednesday I pulled out a leaf and tried a sketch.
It was fun to work with pointillism. Maybe something to work with on another day.
Moleskine 5×8 sketchbook, .03 black pen.
I had to start early today since the afternoon/evening will be spent in Eugene dealing with my brother (hopefully in a positive way). I’ve started working on an image of my friends dog Charlie. He is a Chihuahua/terrier cross and such a cutie. This is a breed I’ve never considered owning, but he is such a looker and so full of life. Chihuahua crosses are one of the most prevalent dogs up for adoption at the humane societies throughout my state. Over the past couple of years I’ve snuck in a few photos of the little guy as he sits on P’s lap. Eventually that will become some sort of portrait of the two of them, but not yet. However, C passed along an image I saw posted on FB of Charlie sitting, yet again, in P’s lap. It spurred my interest in trying to figure out this little face into something fun. Most likely it will become a print since I have another another Chihuahua friend yearning for an image. We actually have new neighbors who own one, but I already dislike the dog. The owners put it outside and all it does is scream (and it can go on for hours!). Sounds like something is getting killed! Eventually, I’ll have to go and complain (not my favorite way of meeting the renters). Why is it we seem to attract neighbors who are nutters?
Above is a rough crazy sketch with the eyes out of whack. Below is the start of a larger image on the builder’s paper. It’s a basic rough in using vine charcoal as I attempt to figure out his proportions. The finished piece will be about 2ft x 3ft (61cm x 91cm). Probably more of the larger drawing to come tomorrow!
Top sketch: Moleskine 5×8 sketch book, .03 black pen.
Bottom sketch: Builder’s paper, vine charcoal
Monday has been quite the stormy day. The wind gusts almost blew the bird feeders off their hooks and dumped out the majority of seed (filled just yesterday). I kept hearing big “plinks” as something was hitting the sliding glass door. It ended up being individual sunflower seeds being blown out of the feeder. The birds didn’t seem to care one bit as they continued to busily consume spilled seed on the deck. It’s not just been windy, but rather rainy too. I doubt I’ll even attempt to wander out to the compost bin due to the over saturated ground. The dogs don’t mind it one bit. They continue to track in more mud. March 10th can’t come soon enough! I’m still debating if I should even hire a carpet cleaner before they leave or just wait until after. Meanwhile, the cats are all snuggled down in their heated beds. Quite the life! They don’t have to venture outside if they don’t want to. All the essentials are taken care of inside the garage (food, water, kitty litter, scratching posts, and even toys). I attempted another quick sketch of MeMe today. Moby had to come investigate what I was doing and dragged his wet hairy chin across the page. Oh so helpful at creating smudges!
Moleskine sketchbook and a .03 black marker.
Not certain what happened to Sunday since it went by so quickly. We went to brunch at Eats n Treats in Philomath and then Dave had to go into work for a while. The ‘while’ turned into all day, which I kind of expected. He had been putting off paperwork for 3 months and it finally caught up with him. That boy need a firm deadline or nothing gets done! I meandered my way back through Corvallis, picking up wild bird food, dog food and a new bed for the one Moby destroyed, goodies from Trader Joe’s and back home. House projects took over the afternoon and the day slipped into night. Dave eventually made it home after a surprise thunderstorm. We really don’t receive much electrical activity and the storm cell put on quite a show. I sat on the couch watching it grow closer and closer. The dogs were less than impressed. Moby tried to hide in any corner with possible shelter, Zeek too was rather upset. Reggie could care less. Eventually Dave made it home with fresh tuna for dinner. We managed to eat by 9pm. I grabbed a small moleskin sketch book and did a quick sketch of MeMe before the day ended.
5″ x 8″ Moleskin sketch book and a black 0.3 drawing pen.
Sticks, Stones, and Paper Stew Blog 