Nov30Art

I drink my one cup of coffee a day from a china tea cup, I like it because it loses heat very quickly.  I don't like super hot coffee, and I also drink tea from this cup in the Winter.

Nov29Art

Tonight I tried to combine two creative things at the same time, watching Jennifer Edwards Kitterly Arts Video Podcast and doing a drawing in my sketchbook.  Jennifer Edwards is a beautiful woman, with peaches and creme skin, she is not jaundiced as my painting of her might indicate sigh.  I enjoy her podcasts because like me she loves to knit and also draws,  I've followed her blog for years and it is so cool to finally hear her sweet voice. Check her out at https://knitterlyarts.wordpress.com/

Nov28Art

Amazon delivered the rest of my angel tree gifts today, so I met Karen for lunch and turned them over, they'll be giving them to the Salvation Army this coming Friday.   Flute lesson tonight, didn't get fussed at too much for not practicing a lot over the holiday.

Nov27Art

Busy weekend, Ron and I spent Friday morning at the doctor's office (along with lots of sick people) we just needed refills on prescriptions.  Afterwards, we took the motorcycles out to Folly Beach, had dinner out there, at a little place called Island Grill, fresh shrimp so good.  

Saturday we shopped till we dropped for our angel tree boy, and I got myself some new boots.  Went to a hockey game Saturday night after 2 periods with no scoring on either side, the Rays scored 5 goals in the 3rd period to win the game 5 to 1.

Today we participated in the 39th annual Abate Toy Run to benefit the Salvation Army.  I found these two patches to add to my biker vest.

Nov24Art

Ron and I went over to his brother Tony's house for Thanksgiving, Kathleen outdid herself.  We had a wonderful meal and enjoyed the visit very much.  We have so much to be thankful for, I hope everyone had a great day today.

Nov23Art

Yesterday was our 13th Anniversary,  I met the love of my life late in life, but I'm so thankful for him every day.

I didn't know what day it was this morning, when I filled out the weather and date on my page today.  As soon as I finished writing Tuesday, I knew I'd made an error, and the Chicago song came to mind.  That song has been bouncing around in my head all day long.  Plucked a couple of leaves off the crepe myrtle to color today. 

Nov22Art

Late night popcorn, I must admit I ate it out of the microwave bag and didn't draw it until after it was all gone, so this is what I imagine popcorn looks like in a red striped bag.  I don't buy 'butter flavored' popcorn, I add actual butter after I pop it, so wonderfully good.

Nov21Art

Time to think about all the things we have to be thankful for...

Nov19-20Art

Busy weekend ending in a great ride for the Toys for Tots today.  Here are a few pictures from today.

Nov18Art

Picked up our Thanksgiving Ham from the Honey Baked Ham store tonight.  I had to eat a little tonight, it is delicious, hope there's some left by next Thursday.

Nov17Art

My palette of gouache was dried out and cracked, but adding water brought it back to life.  I need to practice more with it, getting the paint to blend on the paper is very different from regular watercolor.  He was fun to do and I think the paper held up very well.  Besides being smoother than I'm used to, it also seems to have quite a lot of sizing on it.  Maybe I'll try a two page spread tomorrow.

Nov16Art

Just watercolor here (no gouache today), from a photo of the fires going on in the mountains of North Carolina.  These fires are near where we were last month on our motorcycle trip.  Believe it or not the smoke from these fires is causing visibility issues here in Charleston SC, over 300 miles away.  Prayers for everyone in North Carolina,  I have friends and family there so stay safe everyone.

Nov15Art

Jeb sleeping by my chair was the perfect model to try out colored pencils on this paper.  This smooth paper works very well for colored pencils, at least for my minimal skills at colored pencils.  Maybe tomorrow I'll pull out my gouache palette and see how it works on this paper too.

Nov14Art

New sketchbook so I'm adjusting to the format, the paper and somehow the evening got away from me.  I don't know if you watched it tonight, but the new series MARS is going to be a good one.  It's on National Geographic channel.

Book 41

New sketchbook, this one portrait orientation and different paper.  it is a Hahnemuhle 'Nostalgie Sketch Book' withe 90 lbs paper.  This paper is very smooth, the fountain pen just glides over this paper.  Not so sure it'll be that great for watercolor, I'm thinking colored pencils will like it a lot too.

Nov13Art

Rained all day today, first rain we've had since Hurricane Matthew over a month ago.  We did the weekly grocery shopping and other errands today. It was really cold today too, half way thru November so I guess it is time for cold weather now.

Nov12Art

I do not like Starbuck's Coffee, and frankly I don't know what a Latte is, or why people drink them.  Today at McDonald's for breakfast a woman bought a Latte (who knew Mickie D's had Lattes).. that was all she got and her total was almost $4... when they handed her the cup, it was like a normal cup of coffee size.  I can't believe someone pays $4 for a drink that size and there is no alcohol in it.

Nov11Art

Found a 4 TB external backup drive today, fairly easy to set up, so I'm good to go.  Stopped by the Harley Shop for their Veteran's Day celebration while there picked up some parts for my motorcycle.

Nov10Art

Tech issues today, my external hard drive crashed, so I lost all my backups... sigh.  Tried to stop by Staples at lunch to pick up a new one, but they didn't have what I needed.  I have the day off tomorrow I'll see if I can find one then.

Nov09Art

My family called these Soda Crackers, even though the box they come in is labeled 'Saltines'.   In other news, Donald J. Trump will be the 45th President of the United States.   I do believe there is more drama on Facebook today than before the election, and that says a lot.  A large number of people paid no attention to the media who hated him, nor to the political elitists in both parties that hated him, they voted for a man they hope will 'drain the swamp' that is Washington DC of the corrupt politicians and bureaucrats.  It will be a big, ugly job and he may just be the man to get it done.

Nov08Art

My favorite Senator Tim Scott won handily tonight, I may not be able to stay up to see who finally wins.  My grand daughter Ashton voted in her first election today... so proud of her doing her civic duty as a citizen of the United States. Good night, sleep tight.

Nov07Art

Tomorrow the madness ends, the election will be over and the sun will come up on November 9th and a great many people will be really disappointed and another great many will be glad. Whichever group you end up in, be thankful we live in a country gives us the chance to participate.  Some people have never had a choice, they have always lived under the boots of tyrants.

Nov06Art

I really hate when it is dark at 5pm... sigh.  Hockey game today, ended in a surprise overtime win for the Rays.  They are struggling to meld as a team right now, which happens every season, hopefully they'll get it together soon.

Nov05Art

Slept very late today, then went to the Harley Shop for the Chili cookoff, saw some friends we haven't seen in a while.  Almost convinced a friend to buy a new bike, it was a beauty and fit him like a glove.  Rode around a little and did some retail therapy.  The Urban Sketchers announced their dates for next Summer July 26 to July 29... no conflict with my Women's Freedom Ride in June... so my Summer is BOOKED for 2017.

Nov04Art

Just another attempt at drawing the sea shell that sits on my desk and mocks me.  Weekend coming soon looking forward to it.

Nov03Art

Warm colors vs cool colors for the same scene part of today's homework.  I decided to keep the scene pretty simple and limited my colors to 3   Warm:  Quin Gold, New Gamboge (by Daniel Smith) and Translucent Orange (by Schmincke).
I used 4 Cool: Mineral Violet, Verditer Blue (by Holbein), French Ultramarine Blue and Cobalt Teal (by Daniel Smith).  

Nov02Art

Moonshine Hwy28 NC, this is a conglomerate of several photos I took at overlooks on Hwy28 last weekend.  I'm taking Vinita Pappas Fall class and this week's lesson was about watercolor journal paintings, quick and juicy and loose...  back to watching the Cubs and Indians... I don't even LIKE baseball usually, but this is history and I want to see what happens.

Nov01Art

Tried something different today, took an old book and used matte gel medium on the paper, then drew the leaves and colored with my Tombow markers, the markers blurred the black and didn't want to blend... but I liked the effect and it was fun to do.