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.