May31Art

I'm little Miss Muffet, I drew a spider, and must admit it creeps me out to look at it. So thus ends the Every Day in May challenge, I did something every day in May, and stuck to the list except for one day. It was a fun exercise, I'll gladly participate again next year.
Now I need to catch up on my rural sketcher drawings, that I couldn't work in with the May stuff. That challenge is easier you have a week to find the subject and get it drawn.

Art Supplies - Sketch kits - What's in my bag

I LOVE looking at other people's art supplies, so I took the camera outside today... and took photos of my stuff...

This is my small 5x8 journal made my handbook. I use a big binder clip to cut down on paper buckling and it can hold the book open on windy days... had to include my hibiscus... isn't it gorgeous?

Inside the pencil pouch, is my small Bijou box with 12 half pans, a few pens and a niji waterbrush.  This journal and pencil pouch are in my purse and go with me everywhere, every day.

This bag holds all my painting gear along with a large watercolor journal made by handbook.  This is the journal I'm using for this class, and the one I took to New Orleans with me recently.

The pencil pouch on this large journal holds a Cottman pallet with twelve colors along with a water brush, pen and pencil.  For a quick trip, I can just grab the book with the pencil pouch and have everything I need to sketch.

If I carry the sketch bag out... I carry all this other stuff along.  The bag holds a lot of gear and yet is not too heavy to carry long distances.

This zipper pouch holds a couple of water brushes.  A watercolor pencil along with a pen or two.  The little yellow bottle hold enough water to refill a waterbrush 3 times.  This pouch also holds my compact plastic pallet.

This is the pallet open, it also has room for 2 travel brushes and a bit of sea sponge.  This is a new pallet for me, I've only had it about a month now.  I really like it, it holds a lot of paint, is light weight and easy to hold when you don't have somewhere to sit a pallet down to paint.  I also like that it is not nearly as heavy as a similarly configured metal pallet box.

This plastic lure box, found in the fishing section at Wal-Mart, holds more travel brushes, some full size flat brushes, a pocket knife, a bit of Mr. Clean Magic eraser, and a piece of white crayon.  Got the bright green water flask below at the liquor store.. it carries a nice amount of water and yet doesn't take up a lot of room or weigh too much.  I use a terry cloth wash cloth instead of paper towels... avoids having to deal with trash and I think it works better to clean waterbrushes. 

Here's the flask and a small round container for my painting water.  This container is water tight so that if I can't dump out the dirty water in my location (like a restaurant or bar) I can pop the lid on and take my dirty water with me.

One final pencil case, holds more pens, scissors, pencils, erasers, pencil sharpener, and ink refill cartridges.....

It all fits in the bag... ready for adventure.

May30Art

Season ticket holder hockey fans... so this assignment was a breeze for me.  Made some pimento cheese today... hadn't done that in a while... it sure was good.  Thanks to the EDiM project for reminding me how much I like it.

Day 5 - Thessaloniki Greece

This page is the least realistic, of what would happen to me on a trip, imaginary or otherwise that I can imagine.  Considering that for at least the last 5 years I've NEVER been anywhere without at least 12 watercolors, a water brush and sketchbook in my purse.  I RARELY use bleeding ink pens, I own them and I use them sometimes, but one of them being the only pen I have isn't likely, and if I have one color, I'd have 12.  The other thing that I did on this that I rarely do... I drew it 3 times, first with a black bleeding pen, using Quin. Gold for the color... horrid, then using a TomBow Sepia pen with Paynes Gray as my color, that turned out.. ok... so I did it again in the sketchbook I'm using for this 'trip'... the 'test' image actually turned out better, quite possibly because by the third drawing... I'm pretty bored with this, in spite of really, really loving the photo.  No WAY I'd draw something 3 times on a trip... so I've whined about this one enough don't you think?  It only takes up half the page, I may draw something above it, but right now I'm resisting the urge to tear it out of the sketchbook. 

May29Art

Today's assignment for EDiM just wasn't something I could do today. We had rain all day, so Ron drove my Jeep to work. I walked to the polling place to vote for my state Senator today, and when Ron got home after work I went to the gun shop for a ladies night shoot with 3 of my girl friends... 9pm dark rainy drive home... and so... nothing new to draw, pulled a couple of shells from my box of shells and drew them... it's a drawing, it's still May, I think it counts.

May28Art

We had a quiet Memorial Day, went out to lunch and Ron got 10 free wings as a veteran... it was really nice. We worked in the yard cutting grass, planting flowers...
The mailbox ... perspective gave me fits... cross hatched the shadows to cover up my bad lines.

May27Art

We do not have wimpy clouds like this, but the prussian blue got away from me and it is so staining, I couldn't lift it... and it soaked in and dried up way faster than I thought it would. I should have stayed in the house and painted the clouds out my window... maybe that would have worked better.
We lost our oldest kitty today, we don't really know how old Millie was, we've had her 13 years, and she was full grown when we got her at the pound. She was a sweet cat, we buried her in the garden at the side of the house... she used to sit in the window and watch the birds and butterflies in this section of the yard, she was always a house cat, so now she is in the garden at last.

May26Art

This was a tough assignment, I cook simple stuff, meat, potatoes, vegetables a salad maybe. Something I've been thinking about making just need the cheese and pimentos.. LOL is some good homemade pimento cheese.  i don't much care for store bought pimento cheese, too much mayo not enough cheese.  I like to grate my own cheese too, I think it tastes better. 

May25Art

Today the kids made tissue paper poppies in red and white with blue centers.... even the littlest ones managed to finish today, and having their supplies in bags worked out great. The older kids made the same poppies and in addition strung red, white and blue beads to make stretchy bracelets. Even the boys enjoyed making the bracelets, but the little girls really enjoyed it.

May24Art

Ice Cream sandwich, a favorite treat. I drew this from a picture, I'm not allowed to eat them anymore... still my all time favorite cold treat.
Just in from seeing part 3 of Free to Choose by Milton Friedman at the Citadel. Discussions of economics... I always hated economics in college, now at the age of 61 I'm going back to school for my least favorite subject... YIKES.

May23Art

This is a cup I got on my recent trip to New Orleans, had a flaming hurricane in it... really bad for me, but really good as a treat, and I kept the cup. Now I use it to hold all my pencils, pens, comb, rulers, old office name tag etc.
Testing voting machines this morning at the election commission office, seemed to be working fine. Went to a townhall meeting put on by my Congressman Tim Scott tonight. He is alway informative and optimistic.
Got the kids art projects for Memorial day all pre cut out, and separated into bags, hopefully we'll get finished if I'm more organized with their supplies. I seem to waste a lot of time handing out paper, pens, colors etc, and they end up with no time left to finish the project. So I'm trying something different, putting everything into a bag (like a brown paper lunch bag) for each child, that way they'll have everything they need as soon as the class starts.

May22Art

Had to label this, so everyone would know what it is... cause it doesn't look much like an ear to me now.
Stanley cup hockey games are making me crazy, especially these left coast games that start so late. It's 10:30 and they are just past half way in the 2nd period... LA just went ahead by 1.. Still lots of hockey I'll be lucky to get to sleep before midnight.

May21Art

This was a tough assignment, lots of things make me happy, in truth I'm a pretty happy person most of the time.  I love it when Beau sleeps beside my chair, makes it easier to draw him.  He's a happy little dog and his sunny disposition makes everyone who meets him happy.  

This assignment reminded me of music too, the song from 'The Sound of Music', raindrops on roses, and whiskers on kittens... these are a few of my favorite things.... I have a very LONG list of favorite things, pens and watercolors, painting, and creamy white paper, my parrot who greets me every morning, and calls me when he wants something 'Come mere' he shouts LOL. 

One of my favorite bible verses is... Today is the day the Lord has made, rejoice and be glad in it.  

Day 4 - Imaginary Trip to Greece

For really quick sketches, I am learning to use my brush pens.  I did this sketch twice, the layout sketch I had a glass of wine instead of the olive oil bottle, but couldn't get the stem to look right... so I went with the bottle instead.  I used a Kuratake brush pen that has ink that bleeds when water touches it...which can actually give some pretty nice effects for black/grey and white fast sketches.  I debated leaving this black and white, and then painted the bread, and couldn't stop myself adding more and more.  This page took about 20 minutes total, I can work fast when a party is afoot... only thing I enjoy more than painting is a good glass of red wine, some fine cheddar and a bit of warm bread dipped in garlic and virgin olive oil.  Let the PARTY begin. 

May20Art

Sat in my adirondack chair and drew the street light across the street. Lots of looping wire and colored clips up there that I never noticed before.  Compared to the beautiful street lights some of you have drawn, this one is pretty plain but it does it's job and for that I am grateful.

The quote is from Tim Scott, my Congressman at least for a few more months.  My street has been gerry mandered into Jim Clyburn's district, I guess we live in a hostile environment, surrounded by Democrats LOL  I knew about Gloria, she's the neighbor across the street where the street light is, she's a Democrat, but that's ok, we can enjoy talking about things other than politics and sometimes we talk about how bad BOTH parties are.

May19Art

Got up at the crack of dawn to drive to Columbia SC for our state GOP Convention.  This convention was not nearly as interesting as the one last year.  Made me wonder why our attendance was required, they could have sent an email and said, this is what we're going to do, we're so sure you'll agree no need to even vote.  Long drive home, I'm tired maybe I'll feel different tomorrow but I don't think so.  Night all.

May18Art

High Tide at the marsh near our house, lots of color in the marsh grasses now, greens, purple, flashes of red.  Didn't see any birds today, so didn't include one, this is a hang out for the egrets and herons usually, but they like the pickings closer to low tide I think.

May17Art

Storms rolled thru this afternoon, we even lost power for a while... and yet not one drop fell on my yard. I don't eat much bread (I love it but it spikes my blood sugar) usually bread grows mold before I even eat half the loaf. I was able to find one slice with no green fuzz on it to draw, it joined it's brothers in the garbage after the portrait was complete. I wish someone would sell half loaves... I'd buy them if they did.

May16Art

Still haven't gotten any rain around here... I gotta go water my flowers since I didn't do it yesterday. The squirrels are really active these days, must be love in the air for squirrels... they are driving my dogs crazy.

May15Art

Cooked lots of chicken, and some pork butt steaks on the grill this afternoon... drew the stop sign down at the end of the street, and read a book while watching the grill. I'm so glad the weather man was wrong about it raining all day... clouds are moving in though... so maybe it'll rain tonight. My flowers will like that.

May14Art

Confession time, I did have Manicotti for lunch and I did add parmesan cheese on top, but I did not draw this before I ate it, I ate it, THEN I drew it from looking at the box (it was a frozen dinner thingy). I tried a white crayon as a resist for the cheese it seemed to work on the top one, not so much on the one in front. It was VERY good, and is one of my favorite things. I don't see drawing food as something I will ever be good at, I love to eat to much.

May13Art - Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day, to all the mothers out there. Called my Mom and had a nice chat, she did get the postcard I sent her, and said she already has it framed, Mom's know who to make their kids feel special.
This is another double duty painting, sea oats in the breeze, and for Rural Sketchers week 19 my Palmetto tree again.

Day 3 - Agios Nicolaos Crete

The challenge in this lesson was to do 3 20 minute sketches, one had to have people in it YIKES, and we were to spend 20 minutes TOTAL, sketch and paint. I always like to do the hard stuff first, so I did the people(Bob and Sue totally imaginary), I cheated a little and only did their backsides, it was fairly easy to paint this. I decided I REALLY wanted to attempt the harbor, and all those cool orange roofs, I trimmed this down to the barest bones, and figured I'd only do two sketches so I'd allow myself 40 minutes for this one. While I did go over the 20 min mark, I only went over 10 minutes, so I added the little map of Crete, that took 5 minutes. Wrote the fake journal stuff and I was done in the 1 hour time limit. About the journal text, people that view my daily journal pages, are used to my cursive text, some may have followed my sketchbooks long enough to know why I write in my journals this way, for everyone else I'll explain why (and maybe keep from getting dinged in class for my handwriting). A couple of years ago, my grandson Joseph informed me that he was not learning cursive writing in school, that they were learning to keyboard, and how to sign their name in cursive but that was all. Well his grandmother was appalled, and that Summer Joseph learned to write his cursive alphabet while he was with us. I informed my other grand children that if they wanted to be able to read their grand mother's journals, they better learn cursive writing, from that day, until now, almost all of the text on my journal pages is written in cursive. I must admit my handwriting has improved doing this, because I do try to write as clearly as I can. So that's what that is all about.

May12Art

How about some computer buttons? I actually purchased a button creation software years ago... to be able to put cool buttons on a website.
Breakfast meeting, came home and worked in the yard a bit, then out for a lunch meeting. Lots of stuff going on in SC, over 200 candidates (both Democrats and Republicans) were thrown off the ballot for our upcoming primaries June 12, only the incumbents were exempt from this new 'rule'... so the people of SC lose the chance to vote for who they want. The incumbents have no idea how mad the people of SC are that they pulled this... crap... this is all candidates for State and local offices, like county council, and court clerks etc.

May11Art

Today the kids made Mother's Day cards for their Moms. The older kids wrote notes for their Mom's and signed the cards in cursive. They all really did great cards I know their Mom's will treasure.
Today the challenge was to draw something with wings, first thought was a bird, but butterflies are so beautiful I couldn't resist trying one with my PPBP... I do believe it's beginning to run out of ink.

May10Art

Went to a showing of "Free to Choose" by Milton Freidman at the Citadel tonight. The video was first aired in 1980, Jimmy Carter was President of the United States, how things have changed, and yet they are the same. It was a very interesting evening with two political science professors leading the discussion after the viewing.
So I was glad for the apple assignment, drawn from my imagination, because I don't have any apples.

May09Art

Paper is a biodegradable, renewable, and sustainable product made from trees. Growing/harvesting trees provides jobs for millions of men and women and working forests are good for the environment providing clean air, clean water, wildlife habitat and carbon storage.

That's all I have to say about this brown paper bag.

May08Art

New uploader on Flickr... I am NOT impressed.  This is the egg carton for today's every day in May challenge.  I did it with the PPBP,  it's a wonky drawing, and yet sort of appealing in a way.  Thank goodness my actual eggs look way better than this... in this drawing they look closer to rocks than eggs.

May07Art

Journal about a SPOON, wow that was a tough one... silver spoons and who was born with one, and who wasn't has been in the news lately.  I not only wasn't born with a silver spoon in my mouth I'm 61 years old and I don't even OWN a silver spoon. So that's all I have to say about spoons...  

I found a cool quote/poem about pink, I love Opera Pink and decided to use it as the background for my metal/plastic composite spoon.  

May06Art

The closest holiday around here, Mother's Day which in the USA we celebrate on the second Sunday in May. The EDiM challenge was to draw a holiday card, so I drew the card I made to send to my mother.

A Mother's Day card for my Mom. I'll send this tomorrow and give her a call too, haven't chatted with Mom in a while, she's probably been busy planning my baby brother's wedding.

May05Art

Out and about all morning for meetings. Got home late in the afternoon to watch the Kentucky Derby on TV.
Simple lines, can't get much simpler that a Hershey's Kiss, drawn from memory, because I'm not allowed to eat sweets any more.

Day 2 - Kalamata Harbor, Greece

On an imaginary trip to Greece, today we went sailing off Kalamata Harbor. The trip is imaginary, the harbor is real and can be found on NOAA nautical chart #54301. My user name here is Capt. Elaine, not many people know that, the title is for a USCG OUPV 6 pack license. That means I can captain a boat that carries 6 paying passengers. So planning voyages and plotting courses on nautical charts is something I'm very familiar with. I thought it would be fun to find the chart for the harbor and include it on my page.

May04Art

Today the kids did a blind contour of a coffee cup... it was fun, and a few of them cheated and looked... they got a real kick out of watching me do a blind contour on the board of the coffee cup... We practiced doing flowers so they'll be ready to make Mother's Day cards next Friday. I can't tell you how great my Friday's are, when I walk in that school and the kids see me and run up to hug me... and want to know what we're going to draw in art today... I always tell them it's a secret they have to come to the art room to find out. This is one of the most rewarding things I do every week and I think I have more fun than they do.

May03Art

Another double duty drawing, a Shop window for this weeks Rural sketchers drawing, and EDiM3 - anything I want drawing. Off to Goose Creek for a meeting tonight.

May02Art

Double duty page, make up Rural sketchers breakfast drawing, a coffee cup, with minimal lines (my PPBP challenge for this week fewer lines). I normally do make New Year's resolutions, for some reason this year I did not make any.... and as luck would have it day 2 of every day in May was to draw something to do with your New Year's resolution... so I drew a box, flooded it with two of my favorite colors, Schminke Translucent Orange and Daniel Smith's New Gamboge... when that dried, I looked up on the internet the Japanese symbol for nothing... practiced it a couple of times and then added to the page, I apologize if I mangled this and serious students of Japanese writing I hope will understand and forgive.
Loaded up the Jeep with our collection of cardboard boxes, and took them to the library where they have huge recycle containers for cardboard. That was my good deed for the day, time for a glass of wine as the sun has gone down and night is here. Life is good.

May01Art

Chamber of Commerce weather in Charleston today, just beautiful. Grilled port ribs and steaks on the grill, ate some and froze the rest. I like cooking the meat ahead of time so I can have quit dinners later on. Sat in the yard and read a book, until it got too dark to see out there.