watercolor on moleskine
I thought I would round out the week by posting an Everyday Matters challenge. These are great for my watercolor practice. I’m actually not doing too badly with my watercolor experiments. I’m so proud of myself. At the beginning of the year I swore that no one could ever convince me to try watercolor. Now I’m just naturally attracted to it. It must just be the right time…
pitt artist pen sketch
It’s been a while since I’ve worked on my Everyday Matters challenges, but on one of our walks I saw an opportunity to do one. I saw this 1954 GMC flatbed truck. I remembered that drawing a truck was on the list and this was a lovely truck to draw. It’s not really very rusty and appears to be in good condition. I’m definitely going back soon to do a more detail drawing and then try applying color.
It was so nice to have a chance to recharge a little. My husband had himself a little “staycation” and we hung out and had fun around town. What he liked best was sitting in the sun and taking walks around town with me. He claimed he was practicing for his retirement. It’s nice that he knows how to relax because I can get pretty wound up about things sometimes.
pen and colored pencils
It’s been a while since I’ve done an Everyday Matters Challenge. To be honest, I didn’t do these specifically for the challenge. I was drawing cat cards for various swaps I had signed up for. So imagine my surprise when I went to check what the next EDM challenge would be. When I saw “draw a cat” on the list I just started laughing out loud. I had cats on the brain and I just couldn’t get away from them!
These are a combination of sketching some neighbor cats from life and some other sketches I had in my sketchbook
Here’s another one:
ink, watercolor, and colored pencil
After weeks of drawing tiny faces on tiny cards it felt good to get loose and do some simple sketching. I was shocked at how well these feet sketches turned out. If I had carefully tried to draw these they wouldn’t have come close to looking this good.
I have been neglecting my sketching lately. I have absolutely no excuse. I read this great post by Anita Davies about finding time to draw. This woman is busier than I will every be, but she always finds time. Check out the post. She will inspire you.
This must be the most unromantic and uninteresting subject under the sun. Well, one of them anyway. I think that is why I chose this Everyday Matters Challenge 126 – Draw a Sponge. I just needed to draw something that I didn’t care about.
For a whole week I have been going around looking at things and wondering whether or not I could draw them. Now I don’t know why I was doing this since I have proved to myself that generally if I sit down and focus I can draw most things. But for some reason I decided to sit and stew about it. It’s like I get drawing amnesia and suddenly I’m in remedial drawing sitting in the back of the class and staring out the window. Then my inner critic starts chastising me about not drawing. Grrrrrrrr.
Fortunately, the marvelous Sarah gave me the nudge I needed and I am back! Thanks Sarah!
What is this inside of us, this silent observer,
Severe and speechless critic, who can terrorize us,
And urge us on to futile activity,
And in the end, judge us still more severely,
For errors into which his own reproaches drove us?
~T.S. Eliot
Here is a sketch I did the other day while sitting outside of my favorite coffee shop. I’ve always had trouble drawing cars. I think it’s because I’m not really interested in them. But I realized that I could do this for Everyday Matters Challenge 60-draw an automobile, or part of one.
It was fun to do because I just started with a ballpoint pen and no plan at all. I was actually approached for the first time while drawing. He was a sweet little gray-haired man and he poked me in the shoulder ( I was wearing an mp3 player and was basically senseless at the time). I looked up and he was smiling so sweetly at me that I forgot to be annoyed. He said that he thought that it was a nice drawing and he really admired people who could draw, since he couldn’t draw a straight line. I thanked him and he told me a bit about his grandson who did computer graphic work. Funny, I was always worried about drawing in public, but the first time someone actually noticed me it turned out to be an extremely pleasant experience.
I have only a slightly sunburned neck and these daffodils to remind me of the glorious 78 degree sunny Saturday last. Now its cold and rainy again. Anyway, enough with my complaints about the manic-depressive weather patterns around here. I sat and worked on more flower drawings. This is the best of the lot.
I started with a pen drawing and then painted everything with acrylics. After that I used watercolor pencils. I hope that someday I can capture that amazing radiant yellow that makes daffodils the cheery flowers they are.
Another quick post. Popcorn is so strange. But it’s really fun to draw. It’s another one of those things that I’ve never really looked at. That’s pretty sad considering all the handfuls of popcorn that I’ve shoved into my face in my lifetime.
It’s totally sunny and 70 today. I can’t keep up with the weather. Earlier this week it was cold and rainy. I’m heading outside with my sketchbook and plan to bask like a turtle.
Thanks everyone for stopping by and checking out my drawings! I’ll be posting new art soon.
I thought it would be fun to go back to my Everyday Matters challenge list. This is one of the less glamorous subjects. Guess I should get a new toothbrush soon.
I’ve been gone for a while, but I’ve had a wonderful week! Birthday celebrations (mine), guests from out of town and a general sense of well-being that comes from looking in the mirror and realizing that even though I’ve grown a year old, I still don’t have any crow’s feet. YES!!! Life is good. Now back to drawing.
I’m posting some drawings I’ve done last week of my husband Michael. I’ve decided that should work for EDM Challenge 42 – Draw Something That You are Thankful For. Well I am thankful for Michael, my best friend and all-around favorite person. I could go on for quite a bit about all the wonderful things about him. But I’ll skip all that mushy stuff. He knows why I like him so much and that is the important thing.
The drawing above is an attempt to work with watercolor pencils. It seems that everything I’ve been trying lately has been such a struggle for me. While I like the drawing, I don’t like the muddy look of the shadowed side of the face. I also know that I would much rather use a hot press paper than cold press. The texture of this paper was really unsuitable and I struggled mightily with it. But you don’t learn if you don’t try, right?
This is a quick sketch of Michael I did while we were sitting outside having coffee yesterday. I don’t know why I like this one so much. I think because I feel I really captured his characteristic squint/frown that he gets when he’s reading the paper. I used my sepia Pitt Artist pens and then colored it with watercolor pencils when I got home.
Thanks for stopping by. Hope you come again.
