Apr30Art

Bye, bye April, just some circles with my colored brush pens.  Tomorrow I will start the Everyday in May challenge there's a Flickr group as well as a Facebook page and everyone is welcome to join in the fun.  Here's the list…Blogger wouldn't allow me to post the pdf, so I had to scan it and reduce the size, but you should be able to read it.  Join the Facebook group and you can download the pdf from there.

Apr29Art

Did this page inspired by the next lesson in Draw your Words.  It my first mixed media page.  I don't know if you can see them, but step one I cut out umbrellas from some origami papers I had and glue them down on the page.  I let them dry then used some colorbox ink (a pink thru purple mix of colors), and drug those around the page.  Found a quote about rain (which is what it did all day here), used a water soluble  graphite pencil to layout the letters, then used an extra fine Sharpie to outline the block and script lettering.  Finally I added some ink then pencil around the word Rain, the idea to make that word pop, not sure that worked.  This was fun but very time consuming, doing a drawing and adding a bit of watercolor usually takes me less that 30 minutes, so that appeals to my lazy side (or I'm busy and need a break side).

Apr28Art

Riots erupted in Baltimore over the killing of a black man in police custody.  There is no longer a leader in the black community like Dr. Martin Luther King, peaceful protests aren't happening. These days it is riots, car fires, destruction of a senior center, looting and wanton destruction. These riots accomplish nothing except destruction.  Very sad for the people of Baltimore.

Apr27Art

I finally mastered page 8 in my flute music book, on to page 9… I hope it doesn't take me 3 weeks to master like page 8 did.  Another long Monday for me, and so drawing something on my desk, my nail clippers.  I have really soft nails and break them a lot, which means I need nail clippers at hand to even out the breaks otherwise it can get really ugly really fast.  My father always carried a small knife and some nail clippers in his pocket, to this day I expect men to have these items in their pockets when I'm in need of a knife or nail clippers.  It is a disappointment to me that men don't seem to carry these bare necessities these days, so I have to provide them for myself.

Apr26Art

What a gorgeous day it was today, Ron and I washed off the pollen from our bikes and hit the road this afternoon.  We rode down Hwy 17 to Jacksonboro, stopped had some ice cream and then headed back to Charleston.  My little Honda Silverwing has been under cover for a long time, it was fun to ride again.

Draw your Words

http://daisyyellowart.com

I'm taking a free workshop (click the link above).  Below is my homework for lesson 2 on Block Letters.  I didn't have any index cards, so I used some of my colored paper squares to do my block letter practice. 

Apr25Art

Blind contour of me, these are done without looking at the paper, and without lifting the pen. So eyes end up on the nose.. so what as Yogi would say.  Rainy and cool today, headed out to watch the hockey game with friends.

Draw Your Words

http://daisyyellowart.com

I'm taking a free workshop (click the link above).  Below is my homework for the first lesson, a page of alphabets, put down the watercolor alphabets first and let them dry, then used a dip pen with red, blue and black ink.

Apr24Art

Planted flowers after work today, and then spent the evening watching the  Lapin Sketchbook Skool videos.  What an interesting artist he is, and how cool that he still has his sketchbook from when he was 4 years old…. so Moms out there, SAVE those drawings, of your little ones, some day the adult artists will cherish them.

Apr23Art

Not sure why I get the 'Draw Tip Tuesday' videos on Thursdays… but draw my feet was doable.  Went to the watch the Stingrays tonight, and we won 5 to 2 so the team will be back in Charleston next Tuesday.  Unless of course they win 2 more games in Redding.

Apr22Art

Where did this day go?  It's almost 11pm and I'm just now eating a bowl of ice cream and needed to draw something in my journal… so I did some art B4 bed, and drew my bowl of ice cream with chocolate syrup all over it.  

Apr21Art

Inspired by (plagiarized from) a new book I got today "Zenspirations Dangle Designs" by Joanne Fink.  It took a long time to do this so this is not for the lazy me.  I do like the alphabet she included in the book, and the circle dangles, are amazing.

Apr20Art

As usual my Monday's are hectic to the max, so this prompt this morning was fun to do.  Long skinny landscapes, one in water soluble ink and the other in permanent ink with color added.  Had to choose a Sullivan's Island photo for this one that included our ubiquitous Palmetto trees, and a quote from the Author of 'Out of Africa'.

Apr19Art

We got almost everything planted before the thunderstorms rolled thru Charleston, tornados did some really bad damage in Aiken SC, it just dumped a lot of rain on us.  Working in the yard always wears me out, going to feed the dogs and call it a day soon.

Apr18Art

We got our container garden planted today, and the heavens opened and rained on our baby plants.  If we get some sunshine tomorrow we'll be working on the flowers in the front yard.  Friday night the Stingrays started the 1st round playoffs with a win, unfortunately tonight they lost.  They'll be playing in Redding the next 3 games, then back here for game 6 if needed.

Apr17Art

Sketchbook Skool started today for the 'Stretching' Klass.  Jonathan Twingler challenged us to use a paper towel and pour ink on it, close the book, then open it up and see what (if anything) we saw.  Flowers, birds, duck, and a bunny, and a tiny girl's face.  I was surprised the pattern on the paper towel made such interesting patterns.

Apr16Art

What happened to Spring?  It was down right COLD today, the A/C didn't kick on even once, and I wore sweat pants and my fuzzy slippers instead of flip flops and shorts.  The rain let up around lunch so I was able to get in a walk with Gracie and Jeb.  Watch a John Muir Lars video on sketching wild flowers tonight, part two coming next month.  He really breaks things down into easy to understand parts check it out here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7n4dgftoaxc&feature=em-subs_digest

Apr15Art

I filed our taxes via E-file yesterday, so for the first time in a long time April 15 wasn't tax day for me, just another day at work. Rained this morning, a bit of sun during lunch, where my bank was robbed while I was in the drug store picking up a prescription.  As I was walking out the police came flying into the parking lot of the little shopping center and yellow tape went up around the bank, a short time later I heard helicopters flying around the neighborhood.  On a boring artist note, today I flushed and refilled two of my Lamy pens, I need to do two more tomorrow.

Apr14Art

Haven't done a palette in this sketchbook yet, I've been using my little palette lately as I'm trying to minimize my load to a single pencil case and a sketchbook only.  While at home I have access to tons of pens, markers, acrylic paint, water and paint brushes… but my plan for out and about is this little palette a small and a medium waterbrush, and a micron 01 pen and a Lamy Joy loaded with Platinum Carbon Black Ink or other fountain pen depending on my mood.  I'm thinking about taking a trip to Chicago this July to visit my grand children and to take an Urban Sketchers workshop taught by Barbara Weeks while I'm there.  Hopefully, grand daughter Laurel will join me at the workshop. Get more info here  https://chicagosketchseminar.wordpress.com/2015/04/13/meet-or-instructors-barbara-weeks/

Apr13Art

After a full weekend, and an even fuller Monday… I'm devoid of energy for the week ahead. Looming 'deadlines' that I only found out about today, remind me of an old saying, 'Lack of planning on your part does NOT constitute an emergency on my part'.  Wild daisies soon to be gobbled up by the SCDOT, in their effort to strip the Interstate near Charleston of every tree and every blade of grass, while I sat in traffic on I-26 today, I sketched a few Daises.. enjoying the sunshine after a morning of rain….poor Daises, poor trees, evil SCDOT is coming to get you all.

Apr12Art

Lesson learned today, buy an Atlas, keep it in the car, for when the GPS sends you around in circles.  I picked up Daisy from my brother Dick's house in Dacula Ga, I punched in 'home' on my GPS when I left his house, 30 minutes later, I'm confused about where the heck this route is taking me.  The GPS wanted me to use I-20 but the GPS didn't know that today on I-20 the Master's Golf tournament would be dumping thousands of cars onto I-20 about the time I'd be going thru Augusta Ga.  I struggled with the GPS for well over an hour, going in circles sometimes, trying to find a route back to I-85… finally, instead of home I told the machine I wanted to go to Greenville SC… finally, the GPS and I found
 I-85 and headed back to Charleston.  Daisy was good on the trip and she and Dixie shared some quality time barking in the backyard.

Apr11Art

Busy Saturday for Ron and I, 8 hours at the county convention today, took forever but we finally got a complete new set of officers elected.  Not one single board member ran for re-election. We got home in time for a rain storm and to let the dogs in the house before heading to the last Stingrays hockey home game of the season.  Huge crowd turned out for the game tonight and the boys did not disappoint, they defeated Indiana, 3 to 0.  Tomorrow I head to Atlanta Georgia to pick up my Mother's Beagle,  Daisy she's coming to live at my house.  I told Mom when she got Daisy that if she got where she wasn't able to take care of her, I'd take her.  Mom is in her 90's now and Daisy has gotten to be too much for her.

Apr10Art

Stingrays Fan party tonight, our season ticket buddies, got together for lots of laughs after the party tonight.  Last game of the season is tomorrow night, then the playoffs begin.  The last time we won the Kelly Cup was in 2009, time to bring the cup home again, I think this team could do it.

Apr09Art

Another pre-painted background, I tried to draw the flower with a white gel pen, but the background wasn't dark enough to show up, so I got out my blue ink pen to try and outline the drawing.  The ink pen clogged up and wouldn't write over where I'd already drawn with the white… but in spite of all that I think I like how the page turned out.

Apr08Art

Inspired by Mizz Dee's page yesterday with a pre-painted background, I pre-painted this page last night.  Needing practice with faces, and drawing my mannequin I drew all the fun faces, then found this cool quote about not having time to spend on faces… and that my friends is how this page came to be.

Apr07Art

I'm reading a book about the 1950's and the Korean War, this quote by Secretary of State Dulles in caught my eye and I wanted to save it in my journal.  We grilled chicken again tonight, along with some pork ribs that we'll eat for dinner tomorrow.  We're off to the local H.O.G. meeting tonight.

Apr06Art

My blogging buddy Carl D'Agostino inspired this page with his cartoon today.  I haven't used pencil to set up a page in a couple of years, so lately as I'm trying out new lettering styles, I've been using pencil to layout the lettering, then inking it.  My problem comes with using an eraser, I've tried kneaded erasers and white plastic erasers, both can and do smear my ink… so I'm about ready to swear off the pencil or to just leave the pencil lines on the page and forget erasing.  The problem is, sometimes (most times) I don't end up following the pencil lines exactly.

Apr05Art - Happy Easter

It was a beautiful day in Charleston today, a bit cooler than I'd hoped for.  This evening we grilled out steaks for the first time in 2015, nothing tastes quite so good as a fine t-bone cooked over a charcoal fire.  I hope all my Jewish friends has a happy Passover Seder and Happy Easter to all my Christian friends.
Gracie was my patient companion while I used my cell phone to take this photo, this little dogwood tree is only 7 or 8 feet tall, but it is covered in blooms, my big tree in my front yard is going to be in full bloom sometime this week I think.

Apr04Art

I finished our taxes today, this is the first year since we've been married that we actually got a small refund coming from the state, we owe Uncle Sam, but what we overpaid the state should cover that.  We went over to Mount Pleasant and finally found the Palmetto Armory store, I got some pictures of the bridge on the way home, and added it to my journal tonight.

Apr03Art

The wildflowers in my yard and in the empty lot that Gracie and I walk in at lunch are in full flower now.  Some of the are quite beautiful and delicately small and it makes me wonder why these tiny beauties were allowed to remain wild when so many other flowers were tamed and cultivated.

Apr02Art

Ink, watercolor, colored pencil, stencils, and colored ink… spells a fun page.  Gorgeous Spring day today in Charleston SC, not too hot, not too cold, just right. Took Jeb and Gracie for a walk today, and after work Ron and I fixed the spot in the fence where Jeb was escaping.

Apr01Art

No April Fool's pranks for me today, that is the down side of working at home, nobody to play the fool with, except the dogs and cat, the birds don't care as long as the peanuts and little red boxes of raisins are on hand. Speaking of birds, our kitchen window nesting sparrows are back, and the pair is feeding a chick in the nest right now.  We can't actually see the chick, because when it sees us (or the parents see us) the chick stops peeping, and gets still and the parents stop, or leave without going in to feed the baby.  We try to spend as little time as possible at the kitchen sink, because that's the window the nest is in… we're eating out a lot… having to don't you see, we've got baby birds in the window.