Oct31Art

Happy Halloween ... hope all the little kids had fun tonight... none dropped by my house.. I don't think there are many kids in this neighborhood.  Most of the people on this end of the street are too old, and the few young people on the other end of the street don't have kids they have dogs that they run down the street with.

Oct30Art

Watched a youtube video on drawing a scary tree... I kinda like how it turned out.  Amazing the things you can learn on YouTube... lots of foolishness, but good stuff too.

Oct29Art

Everyone in New York and New Jersey... be safe, hurricanes are nothing to fool around with.  I will keep you all in my prayers, please check in here when you can, your Blogging friends are thinking about you.

Oct28Art

Halloween decorations at the Wild Wings cafe today, had a coffin with an evil clown mask inside... reminded me of the evil clown in the movie 'It'.  I watched amazed as a parent lifted up a child to see inside... I thought it was pretty scary looking, luckily the kid seemed ok, and didn't scream or anything.  So do you really not like clowns? or did you always think they were fun?

Oct27Art

Ran errands all morning while Sandy dumped rain on us.  These brown birds in the parking lot caught my eye and I came home to google them and find out what they are... brown headed cow birds.  Not many cows around here.  In the grocery store parking lot they were fighting over some bits of crackers on the ground... bold birds not afraid of people at all.
Beautiful sunset tonight... Sandy is done dumping water on us and headed to New Jersey ... stay safe up there.

Oct26Art

Caught up with my sketches for the Rural sketchers group with this drawing of my tooth brush and tooth paste... and a quote with the word 'teeth' in it...
Another work week done... weekend ahead looks like Sandy is going to dump water on us tomorrow... but is headed up North... ya'll get ready she's coming!

Oct25Art

Hammered out the by-laws for our 9-12 club... finally, have a document we agree on... yippee.  Met with Ron at Gilligan's for seafood... yummy hushpuppies, fried shrimp... ate WAY too much.
Got a Holiday catalog from Cheap Joe's, great deals on these hand-book watercolor journals... so I order 3 more... along with enough other goodies that I got free shipping.  I am a signature member of BEAs...  Buy Excessive Art Supplies...

Oct24Art

Too much water in my brush for the shadows on my hand... I'm trying to use real watercolor brushes and not just my trusty water brush in this journal.  Learning curve on controlling water.
Got a call from my daughter today, her husband got a job in Chicago... so they are moving to the windy city... WAAAAAH... too far away for my taste.

Oct23Art

The sweet gum tree has a few yellow leaves, even fewer red ones...still mostly green, or brown and on the ground.  I used to love reading Erma Bombeck in the newspaper, I miss her funny way of looking at life... who is doing this needed humor for today's women?
Is anyone else having trouble with the 'new' image uploader?  It hasn't worked for me in a couple of days now... I have just been using the old one, I suppose I should report the issue somehow.

Oct22Art

I think I'm really going to like the paper in this journal... handles watercolor very well.  It's going to take a bit of getting used to the format.
There are only a few leaves on my crepe myrtles that are showing color and I plucked them off since none have fallen off yet.  My dogwood tree is dropping it's leaves without ever actually turning red like they usually do.  So not much color around here this Fall guess we just didn't get enough rain this year.

Oct21Art

This is as big as my scanner can scan these pages... it is about a page and a half.  Found these date stamps, when I dug out the new sketchbook... thought I'd give them a try.

This is the other side, I kind of like the idea of writing more, and not having to worry about privacy issues.

Used photoshop (very badly) to stitch the two pages together... this was a pain in the neck and I seriously doubt I'll be doing this much.

Book 18 Title page

Decided to use my handbook watercolor journal for book 18.  It is 5x8 landscape format, that will be a challenge for me, especially working two page spreads.  Time I broke out of my boring rut and did something different for a change.

Oct20Art

Went to see Atlas Shrugged II today... it was very good even though they changed all the actors... it is one of my favorite books. 

Hockey game tonight.. so headed out for dinner and some hockey.

While shopping Amazon I came across this book on sketching... it is interesting and I'm working on the exercises as you can see on my final journal page.

I'm a fan of this fellow's blog and when he published this book I had to have it... It is available on Amazon... and a treat for the eyes... he is an amazing talent.  Check him out at http://mattiasa.blogspot.com

Oct19Art

Long week, looking forward to getting some rest this weekend.  My husband made spaghetti for dinner... it was so good, I ate way too much.
Only a couple of pages left in this sketchbook... not sure which sketchbook I'm going to try next.  I have a hand*book watercolor sketchbook in landscape format that I think I'm going to try.  I have a large book that I used for my trip to New Orleans and my imaginary trip to Greece, so I know I like the paper very much... scanning my pages may be a challenge as my scanner bed isn't long enough to handle a two page spread... and I'd need to stitch together the pages... about time I learned how to do that don't you think?

Oct18Art

Drew one of Beau's cute infant socks, I got him the little socks with paw prints and doggy pictures... perfect for my puppy doggie.  Having trouble loading to Flickr tonight... to tired to fight it.

Oct20Art

I have a Maxine calendar on the wall beside my desk... she has her witches hat on for October... after a long day today... I drew Maxine and shared some Shakespeare wisdom.

Oct16Art

Remember that 'Debt committee' that didn't get anything done? The reason nothing got done was Nancy Pelosi chose really strong minded Democrats for her side, and Boehner chose strong Republicans for his... so nothing got done... If I'd been in charge of that... I'd have made Pelosi pick the Republicans and Boehner pick the Democrats... then they would have BOTH selected people that were moderates and could compromise with each other.... So if the USA ever wants a monarchy I'm ready to be the Queen... LOL

Oct15Art

Poor Beau has a 'hot spot' on his butt that he won't stop chewing... so he's wearing the cone to give it a chance to heal.  He has also been scratching at his front legs... so much so he got them bleeding yesterday... so now I've put infant baby socks on his back feet... so he can scratch a little but can't hurt himself.  Needless to say as the head nurse Cratchett around here... I'm getting the cold shoulder from Beau.

Oct14Art

Not so lazy Sunday around here, I did a weeks worth of laundry, went to the grocery store to pick up the stuff we forgot to get yesterday.  Ron made my platform for my computer... yeah... I've gotta wait 24 hours for the glue to set before I can use it... Bathed two dogs ... Walked about in the Barnes and Noble after wings for lunch, I got May Whyte's book on painting portraits in Watercolor, and ordered 3 books from Amazon today.  Time to wash my hair and get ready for bed.

Oct13Art

Breakfast this morning, our Congressman Tim Scott had a question and answer meeting with us.  He's doing a great job and will be re-elected handily.

We have a whole new hockey team this year, only 2 players from last year are back... got some really promising looking young men, faster, tougher and bigger than last year's team... we'll see if they live up to their potential this season.  Our team is now affiliated with the Boston Bruins which is part of the reason we have a new team. Big crowd tonight which made it exciting too.

Oct12Art

Been a tough week... I'm ready for the weekend... and planning to sleep late tomorrow AND Sunday.

Oct11Art

Drew a little spider... then off to a debate watching party... way past my bedtime now... that 5am alarm is gonna be a tough one.

Oct10Art

The daily commute to Columbia is wearing me out... 4 hours driving, 8 hours working... doesn't leave much time for anything else.  This week is almost done and, hopefully I'll be able to get the rest of the things I need done, done so that I can work at home as soon as possible.
Oh a sort of exciting phone call today, I answered the phone and the woman on the line asked to speak to the Governor, I said, oh I'm really sorry you have the wrong number, this is not the Governor's office.  Then she wanted to ask me a complicated (what sounded like a lot of legal mumbo jumbo) question, and could I offer advice... I said wow, I surely don't know, maybe you need to ask a lawyer about that.  She said, oh, yes a lawyer, I'll do that and she hung up. ... Hello can I speak to the Governor?

Oct09Art

I took a Soup in hand to work today and my spoon agreed to model for me.... I discovered I do not know how to draw something concave... I know how to shade something to make it look round, but how to make it look concave?  That's something I'd like to know... suggestions anyone?

Oct08Art

How about another elephant, this one is my screen cleaner, the cloth on his belly is treated with anti-static and he is used to clean the dust off my screen.
Long day for me today... up at 5am to drive to Columbia SC then home driving in the rain... just in time to make the meeting tonight... off to bed to do it again tomorrow.  Gonna be a tough couple of weeks for me ahead.

Oct07Art

A part of getting new a computer is the cleaning off of the rats nest that is my desk... and the discovery of long lost items buried under papers and bills and drawings... among the treasures discovered is my little elephant punch...
Spent the day doing laundry and watching Football games.

Oct06Art

Figured out how to set the resolution so that the text and icons are nice and large... I am VERY pleased with this new iMac... very pleased.  This monitor/computer weighs 30 pounds so the wire box I had my old monitor on is now strong enough to support the weight.  We went to Staples, Office Depot and finally Lowe's where I got 4 legs (screw already installed) on sale for $.61 each, and a wooden board that will need to be cut (and sanded) and then my husband can build me a platform for this computer.  All the office stores monitor stands had weight limits of like 20 pounds... Since I spend most of my day looking at a screen I like the screen at eye level to avoid head, neck and back aches from looking down.

Oct05Art

I have a new iMac, unfortunately it is still in the box, and won't be hooked up until tomorrow...  so no artwork to post right now... because the scanner has no brains :-)

Oct04Art

This week the rural sketchers challenge was a bicycle.  I found a picture at an interesting angle... and drew that.  I don't have a bicycle anymore, bad knees and bad back stopped by bike riding quite a few years ago.  I used to ride a lot and was a member of the SBL (Southern Bicycle League) and went on my 100k (Century) rides as well as weekly 20 mile loop rides with groups from 4 to 25 riders.  It was a fun group to belong to, my girl friend in Atlanta is still a member, she even judges bicycle races at the college level.  So the bicycle drawing brought back lots of fond memories for me.

Oct03Art

More cartoon dogs... debate tonight.  So I've gotta get dinner done early, so that we can go to the party over in Mt. Pleasant... a bunch of friends are getting together to watch the debate and yell at the tv together... fun for political junkies like me.

Oct02Art

Rainy day today, then sun, then rain, then sun again... muggy and hot in between. My husband and I were voter number 3 and 4 this morning at the polls. Went to the Dr this afternoon and got my flu shot... feeling achy now so I think I'll have a glass of wine and go to bed.

Oct01Art

I was cruising the internet and looking at 'famous cartoon dogs'... this little fellows picture can up... except it didn't say who he was... he looks so familiar to me... but I can't place him or the cartoon he was part of... does anyone know who he is?  Do you recognize him?