June30Art

Another killer hot day today... even worse than yesterday. We went grocery shopping this morning and I bought this plastic tray to make your own frozen pops... filled it with our sugar free lemonade, popped it in the freezer and enjoyed one during the heat of the day... yummy, I think I'll try my gran/grape Light next.
A tin for gift cards caught my eye at the check out, got it home painted the inside with white enamel paint... I NEED another palette don't you know. I also MODIFIED my Schmincke palette that I thought was too heavy... the flap/mixing tray side, I pulled the pin and removed that... NOW it's much lighter, I'll add a couple of full size pans of color and I think it'll work for me now.

June29Art

It's almost 10:30 at night and it's STILL 84 degrees... the heat just sucked the LIFE out of me today. I spent about 15 mins cutting a couple of rows of grass then called it quits because of the heat.
Hope it's cool where you are :-)

June28Art

Of all the things I thought they MIGHT do, this was not one. I'm speechless.. stunned... and scared for the future for myself, and for my grandchildren.

June27Art

Our TJ has a short wheel base, but not quite THIS short... I drew the wheels first and got them too close together... oh well still looks like a Jeep I think.

June26Art

Got a box of art supplies from Cheap Joe's today, I was out of some of my 'basic' colors, and my Micron Pen's are getting low on ink so I stocked up on those too... along with a sample pack of 300# paper. This raw Sienna looks a little dark.. may need to get some Winsor&Newton Raw Sienna instead.

More tote bag art... Jeb peaking out of a side pocket....

A colorful lizard on the opposite side panel...

June25Art

Painted the Jeb dog from yesterday's page on the tote bag today. Mixed brown by mixing red, yellow and blue fabric paint... until I got a brown... all that color theory really works :-)
Sea Island meeting tonight our speaker was from AIPAC, very interesting talk.

June24Art

Looked at phones today, Ron may get a smart phone, but I'm getting a dumb phone. I do not like talking on the phone, and I can't see paying more for a phone to access the internet than I pay for cable internet for the house. Especially since I won't use it much at all.... so a dumb flip phone for me.

Used fabric paint pens to paint on my Cheap Joe's Workshopper tote bag.. the paint actually bleeds when wet just like watercolor. Now that I know that I may be able to get some interesting effects.

June23Art

Picked up some fabric paint today, I'm thinking of painting my canvas tote bag... maybe some fun Zentangle patterns. I just got some bright primary colors...

June22Art

I have a smaller version of this brush that I like very much, it's marked with a 20 (I assume it's 20 cm) and is about 3/4 inch. This one is marked 40 and is about 1 1/2 inches, they are made by DaVinci.. synthetic with lots of snap, and you can cut a really nice line with them.
Spent this afternoon walking neighborhoods collecting signatures for Samuel Rivers. Samuel went with us today, he's such a dynamic and friendly person every person he asked signed the petition without hesitation.

June21Art

Great little story on economics... and how a pencil is made.

www.econlib.org/library/Essays/rdPncl1.html

Read the full essay here... might be something your kids would enjoy.

POST #2000

Didn't realize until later that this is post number two thousand... wow, that's a lot of daily drawings.

June20Art

I'm not very good at drawing people, so I put off this challenge as long as I could. I didn't get the shadows correct, the fellow and the girl next to him, got up and left. I'm glad I didn't try to include her too..

June19Art

Got my order from WetPaint today. I was really surprised at how heavy the Schmincke paint box is, even with the 'tray' removed. Using the blue tack to stick the half pans in, leaves a lot of room for other paints in the box. I'm not sure I'll use the box much, but I do like the paints made these mixing triangles today with some of them.

June18Art

Monday, Monday.. can't trust that day... I had one of those Monday's today at work. It was a gorgeous day in Charleston today, not too hot, a little breeze.... perfect, picture perfect.

June17Art - Father's Day

Father's day 2005 was the last time I talked to my Dad, I called to wish him a happy Father's Day and chat for a bit. He complained of not feeling well, and I ended the call with 'I love you Dad, and he said, I love you too'... two weeks later my Dad passed away. I miss him very much, I miss him the most on Father's Day... folks if your Dad is alive, be sure to tell him you Love him...

June16Art

Gracie napping in her bed by my desk... so hard to paint a white dog, easier to paint around her. Used that new Holbein Marine Blue, I really like that color.
Walked neighborhoods for Samuel Rivers this morning, trying to get people to sign a petition to get him on the ballot as an independent... we spent 3 hours on 1 street and only got 10 people to sign. Only 2 people refused to sign, and even they were nice about it. Samuel needs almost 2,000 signatures between now and July 10th... this is NOT going to be easy.

June15Art

Had computer problems yesterday, sounded like a fan motor having issues... would not stop. Made appt at the apple store for after 3pm today, they said be sure your software is up to date and backup your files... YIKES all my pictures are on this computer, so I went at lunch today and bought an external hard drive to back up the whole thing at once, got it connected and fired up the apple laptop... same fan noise started screaming... but I ignored it and the back up started... about 1 hour into the backup, the noise stops. I was afraid the darn thing had finally broken, so I packed it up and took it to the apple store. Fired it up there, no noise... they did diagnostics on the fans and the CD drive... gave it a check up and said it was fine. My warranty was up, but they did not charge me for the look at it... so it's home again... and working fine now. Same thing happens to me when my car is making a noise, get it to a mechanic and it won't do it.
Another rural sketcher make up drawing... week 20 a Jewel... so I drew a ring I made a couple of years ago at William Holland Lapidary School.

June14Art

Cooked chicken on the grill tonight... It's one of my favorite ways to have chicken. Off to the citadel for another Milton Friedman 'Free to Choose' video and discussion this has been really enjoyable and I've learned a lot. The series is available on You-tube, but the discussion afterwards with the economics professors is what makes taking the trouble to go to the school worth the time and effort.

June13Art

It's rained really hard the last few days, our yard is swimming in water. The robins have had a hay day plucking worms off the ground... and yet today, I saw this fellow with a piece of grass in his mouth and he collected a couple more before flying off, no doubt all this rain has played havoc on his nest. I think I used the wrong color for his red breast, it was more orange than this.

BOB CALL DEFEATED!!!

Back in January 2011, I drew this cartoon depicting the 'problem' 3 county councilmen in Berkeley County.  Yesterday the fellow top left LOST his bid for re-election.  The other two need to straighten up, or they will be next on our list to 'PRIMARY' out of office.  Congratulations to Ken Gunn for SOUNDLY beating Bob Call 60% to 40%... Jack Schurlknight... we're re-loading now, you're NEXT!

June12Art

Spent most of the evening trying to find out election results. I guess I'll find out soon enough... but I worked pretty hard for a couple of these folks and I'm really curious how they did. Turn out was shamefully low, barely 2% of the voters even bothered. Most of these were local county races, or state positions.... the problem starts right in our own backyards... we get the government we deserve.

UPDATE!!  Ken Gunn WINS Berkeley County Council FINALLY got rid of Bob Call...  all those doors we knocked on paid off... THANK you for voting today.

June11Art

Got behind on my Rural Sketchers drawings during Everyday in May, so I'm playing catch up on this one.  An empty glass, big heavy glass mug, was full of Crystal Light Lemonade... which I drank down way too quickly.  I love lemonade and drink a lot of it, year round, but especially in the Summer when it's hot.
Gorgeous day today, then torrential downpour tonight.  All my umbrellas in my car, none in Ron's car... so I got soaking wet going in to the meeting tonight, never did dry out until I got home.

June10Art

Finished up my last page for my imaginary trip to Greece this morning. Then yard work and other Sunday chores, rained all afternoon. Left my car at the dealership.... I'll call them in the morning to get an estimate on how much it's going to cost me... I hate having car issues.

Impression of Greece - final day

Our final assignment for our imaginary trip to Greece was to fill a page with boxes, and then fill each box in 5 mins or less with images from our trip.  Never one to follow instructions, I filled my page with circles, triangles, boxes and other odd shapes.  It made an interesting collage... especially since there was absolutely no method or design involved... I just winged it LOL.

June09Art

Sad that there won't be a triple crown winner again this year, but I'm proud of the trainer and owner for thinking of the horse first and pulling him from the race. I've always loved horses, owned a couple of horses in the 1980's.. such beautiful gentle animals.   

June08Art

Remember the tv show, 'That was the week that was?' I liked that show, I liked that I didn't have to pay attention as long as I watched that show on Friday... I knew what was up... compare that to now, I'm a news junkie... I don't know when it started, was it the OJ trial that everyone watched even at work, the tv was on in the break room tuned to the trial, and again on 9/11... was that when I started watching the news so much? Maybe part of the problem is the fact that there are hundreds of channels now, and nothing worth watching. I don't care for 'reality' shows, or 'game' shows, or talent shows.. doesn't leave much. I seem to like shows that nobody else likes, so they get cancelled. I should probably turn the idiot box off and read more.

June07Art

It's been an art supply week for me, today my brushes I ordered from Sterling Edwards arrived.  I have his landscape book/dvd and I've been watching his DVD's on artist network tv... decided I just had to have these brushes LOL  Now I'll be able to paint just like Sterling don't you think?

June06Art

Well in the thumbnail my rocks like a bit like a small pile of dog poop... Rocks aren't my thing obviously LOL

Watching the Stanley Cup finals, LA could wrap it up tonight... but so far no score from either team...

June05Art

Rural Sketch for week #23... I was going to draw my hydrangea, but this rose bud caught my eye... just starting to open up.  I'm behind a couple of drawings, I try to catch those up.  The pebbles is going to be tough, sandy soil around here, now many pebble.  I do have some rocks that I bought on a trip to Helen Georgia a few years ago, maybe I'll draw them.

Went out the Berkeley County for a meet and greet for Ken Gunn, we've worked very hard for his campaign, 7 days from now we'll find out if it all paid off or not, it all comes down to turnout.  Will the people go to the polls.  Same issue in Wi today, who will show up and vote?  We'll find out soon enough.

Color Charts

This is a chart of the colors that I've had in my new pallet for a month now... doing this color chart made me decide to change a couple of colors.  I just don't like Thalo blue, I love Opera Pink, but rarely use it, so I don't think it needs to live in my palette... and finally Holbein's Leaf green I forget who had this on their pallet and so I bought some and added it to mine, it just doesn't work for me either alone or in mixes... so it's out as well.

This is the chart for the new pallet.  I added Quin. Magenta, Prussian Blue and Holbein's Marine Blue.  I'll use this pallet for a month or so and evaluate again.  

Here's the chart that I'll carry with me (in case I forget which color is which)

June04Art

It's been quite a journey... the 5 year anniversary... has been a goal, it isn't a guarantee of course but it means my chances are better that the cancer won't come back.

June03Art

Went to Michael's today and got plastic storage boxes 40% off, including a long one that my long hake brush will fit in... yippee.  Had to get this Martha Stewart Elephant punch... totally didn't need it at all...  resisted buying the edge punches w/ corner punch included... they were very cool, but very expensive. Drew my elefant punch, and glued a couple of them down, you can't tell but their ears are cut out too.  

Day 6 - Greece - Santorini

Santorini, almost our last stop on the imaginary trip to Greece.  Wouldn't you know it... left my pen AND pencil at the hotel, so had to do these snippets without drawing.. thus the wonky arches.  I framed with a pen when I got back to the room and made of note to buy more blue paint for my next trip to Greece.  I could have used a couple more shade of blue today.

June02Art

Went to the gun show this morning, get myself a new bright orange gun bag.  Now I'll be able to find my bad in the sea of black gun bags...  Got some cute earrings too, several vendors have jewelry for sale at the shows, I assume so the men can buy a trinket for the wife so maybe she won't be mad he bought another gun LOL.

June01Art

Today was the last day with my first graders, when I see them again at the end of July they'll be second graders, and those kindergartners will be in the first grade... and I'll get a new crop of little ones. We just had fun drawing whatever they wanted today, including drawing on the white board and practicing writing their names in cursive. I'm going to miss them for the next couple of months...
Went out to dinner at Chillis tonight, I love their onions/jalapeno appetizer, and they have a sugar free Margarita too...