Aug31Art

Last day of August, the calender says Fall is around the corner, can't tell it by the weather here. Well I guess 90 is a little cooler, but not that much cooler.
The rural sketchers week 35 drawing was a garden tool, my trusty trowel was small enough to bring in and sit on my desk to draw... so there it is...

Aug30Art

I was inspired by Ann Romney's speech on Tuesday, and have been working on a drawing of her since then.  Finally, settled on one that I liked.
If you missed it, you should give it a listen, I'm sure it's on YouTube somewhere.
Still raining here... I'm about sick of the rain.

Aug29Art

Another great day for the frogs in Charleston, not quite as much rain today as yesterday. I heard on the news Issac was downgraded to a tropical storm so it'll be over soon.

Aug28Art

Boy Hurricane Issac dumped a lot of rain on Charleston today, rained so hard my satellite tv was out for about an hours this afternoon, and that rarely happens. The frogs in the swamp behind my house were loving it... singing as only frogs can. 
Tried a paint only (not pre drawing) entry today and I think it captures the soppy rainy wet day we had today. Keep the people of Lousiana in your prayers because the hurricane goes ashore in New Orleans tonight.

Hurricane Issac hits New Orleans....

and the Kayaks take to the streets in Charleston SC...

Aug27Art

Here comes Issac....

Aug26Art

I just love going thru the back to school supplies, they have some of the coolest things for kids these days. I could not resist this lion pencil case, also available in donkey, sheep and dog. I also got a $5 desk lamp, but it's too bright and blinds me, I may use it to get better shadows on things. 
Ron and I worked in the yard this afternoon... so taking it easy tonight.

Aug25Art

Drew my Pandora bracelet, my girl friend in Atlanta gave me the bracelet for Christmas, I've been adding red and white beads to it.  It is one of my favorites.  Then I heard on the radio about Neil Armstrong passing away, very sad to hear about it.  Glad in a way that he got to witness the Mars landing, if only we'd had a man on Mars instead of just a robot.  Of all the things our government spends millions and billions of dollars on the NASA program was the most inspiring and money well spent in my opinion.  Sad that their mission has been changed these days.

Aug24Art

The rural sketchers are making me stretch again... this time people on the street... except I did people on the beach... I think that counts.

Aug23Art

I made a remark earlier this week about taking the bull by the horns, and someone suggested I should draw a bull. This is a Texas longhorn, it is not a bull however, it's a cow... but I liked her horns and her face... I think she looks pretty good and I found a nursery rhyme to go with her. Thus today's journal entry is complete and now I can throw some paint of loose paper... TTFN (ta ta for now)

Aug22Art

Found this picture of a Flamingo, and it was labeled as an Orange Flamingo, most people think of flamingos as pink, I think I read somewhere that their color is affected by their diet.  Wonder what color I'd be if my diet effected what color I was?  That's something to think about...

Aug21Art

Ever have so many problems you just want to bury your head in the sand like an Ostrich and hope they'll all just go away if you don't look? Me either, I'm one of those take the bull by the horns and wrestle that sucker to the ground kinda gals.  Tonight while cooking dinner my husband came in the kitchen and said, "My sweetie is the best in the world"... and I said, "Well send her in here to help me with dinner!"  Lucky for me he also thinks I'm funny.

Monochrome

I'm afraid my scanner cropped off part of this painting on both sides, I did this on 11 x 15 size and my scanner bed is max 8 1/2 x 11 (standard copy paper size)... so it looks a bit odd. What I liked on this was the sparkle I got using dry brush on the water... and I liked the clouds (hard to see on the scan so trust me the clouds are good) I'm not happy with the house across the water, looks odd, and I do not like the dolphin reflections... they are too dark and not broken enough as they would be on wind blown water. You can't see it due to the cropping, but I was not happy with my attempts to add the overhanging tree branches... doesn't really look like anything. All in all it was an interesting exercise that I enjoyed doing.

Aug20Art

I love wandering about in book stores, I especially love the bargain book section at Barnes and Noble.. so yesterday while browsing through the $5 books I found a little book by Sachiko Umoto named "Illustration School Let's draw cute animals"... it's a delightful book with tons of animals of all kinds in it. In the book I learned how to draw a Guinea Pig... my grand daughter Ashton has a couple of these as pets... they are very cute.

Aug19Art

Took some brushes for a walk today, making marks, seeing what they can do and what this paper will do too.  Added a few doodles for good measure.  Hope everyone had a great Sunday.

Aug18Art

Soooo bad for me, but I ate one anyway.... I LOVE yeast rolls, and O'Charley's has some of the best...hot, melt in your mouth good. So that's where we went for dinner tonight, after the Italian place told us there would be a 1 hour wait... way past my limit on waiting... so we went to O'Charley's instead... and didn't miss the Italian one bit. We had a very lazy Saturday... have to move a bit more tomorrow.

Aug17Art

Took my big sketchbook, and my little one down to the pond near my house. I spent about 30 mins sitting in my car in the shade, watching and sketching the young Great Blue Heron that was wading in the pond. When I got home I looked up on the internet and found this about young Herons: "Immature birds are duller in color, with a dull blackish-gray crown, and the flank pattern only weakly defined; they have no plumes, and the bill is dull gray-yellow" That described my bird exactly, he flew away when someone walked up to the pond... it was getting hot, so I flew home myself.

Aug16Art

My grandmother made me Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls and I loved them as a child, alas my mother did not keep any of our childhood toys, so my dolls are long gone. So for some reason I can't explain, I was thinking about these dolls and the hand embroidered heart with the words I love you on the inside of the heart ... my grand mother's were both really kind and loving women. I hope my grand children will think I'm kind and loving too.

Aug15Art

The rural sketcher week 33 is to draw the same tree as we did on week 3 and 19... Palmetto trees don't change much during the course of a year... so I did this of the tree on our state flag. How about a bit of history on how the tree got on our state flag.? During the American Revolution, there were fears the British would attack Charleston. Construction of a fort to protect the city began on Sullivan’s Island. It was built with double walls of stacked palmetto logs and sand in between. When 11 British ships arrived on June 28, 1776, to assault the unfinished structure, an easy victory was expected. Instead, as Dr. Walter Edgar recounted, “The fort’s construction rendered the heavy fire… ineffective as cannon balls either bounced off the spongy logs or buried themselves harmlessly in the sand.” The British withdrew in disarray. The state flag at that time was just a cresent moon, in 1861 the Palmetto tree was added to the flag in remembrance of this battle.

Aug14Art

The dogs love this ball, the tangle of colored rubber causes it to bounce in surprising directions... so they love chasing it.
The tangle was harder to draw than I thought it would be...

Aug13Art

I love the movie UP... and Kevin was such a cool colorful bird. Meetings tonight so not much time to draw... the restaurant we usually meet and eat at closed... so we missed out on the fellowship before the meeting. Very sad the place closed, sign of the times I suppose.

Aug12Art

Mitt Romney chose the Congressman from Wisconsin to be his Vice Presidential running mate. A wise choice... time will tell. I've been a fan of Ryan and his budget plan for several years now. The media always portrays him as killing Medicare, while in fact his plan will SAVE Medicare from going broke. 
Ron and I spent most of the day working in the yard, until the rain drove us in for a break.

Aug11Art

Watched an interesting movie about Georgia O'Keefe today.  She was an amazing artist.
We had plans to work in the yard today, but the afternoon rain stopped that plan, we'll have to get it done tomorrow morning before the afternoon heat set in.

Aug10Art

My pills were laying on the page of my sketchbook, waiting for me to take them, while I was trying to decide what to draw today... and it hit me... draw the pills... so there they are... larger than life, because if they were this big no way I could swallow them.
Modern medicine, without it, I seriously doubt I'd be alive today.  I do hope the government bureaucrats don't destroy the best medical care in the world.

Aug09Art

We have two of these plastic adirondack chairs, one white and one yellow... I sat in the yellow one to draw the white one during a break in the rain today... I wanted to do a negative drawing of this chair but got lost... so I reverted to my contour drawing...  and a wonky drawing of a chair is born LOL.
I LOVE these chairs they are so comfortable to sit in, and yet light enough to move around, stack one on top of the other... no painting needed, no hassle yard chairs...  that's all I have to say about my chairs.

Aug08Art

Happy birthday to my Mom.. she's 87 today. We had a nice long chat on the phone tonight, I'm lucky my Mother is doing so well......
Tried some very wet color blendings... didn't quite work as I'd hoped. The paper in this sketchbook has some sort of coating... the water just beads up and sits on top of the paper... or rolls off if you tilt the book... so I learned something here.

Aug07Art

My stuffed Dogbert doll serves now to keep my laptop screen open... I have a 20" monitor hooked up to laptop... I like having a BIG screen.
Rained all day today.. cooler, but soggy humid... one thing I can always complain about is the weather :-)

Aug06Art

Behind again on my rural sketchers, sketches, doing the mailbox stuffed full was a stretch of reality.  We don't get much mail these days other than advertisements and political stuff.  Almost all my bills come via email these days... it would suit me if the mailman came once a week.

Aug05Art

Met Joseph's Mom Sara at the Piggy Park BBQ in Columbia this afternoon. Traffic was a nightmare, never could figure out why, no wreck, nothing... just stop and go all the way... frustrating. Quiet around here now without Joe.

Aug04Art

Anne Watkins did a series of flowers recently, her lovely flowers inspired me to give it a try.  Mine don't look much like hers, but it was fun... so that's all that matters in the end.
Worked in the yard today, until it got so hot I couldn't do any more...

Aug03Art

Did this based on a photo of my artist friend PAMO... if you've never seen her cartoons.  Give her blog a look, she is a very funny lady, I love her style. pamoart.com/

Aug02Art

New phone... grandson has helped me learn how to use it.... I already like it much better than my old one that I couldn't even answer.
Worked in the yard a little this afternoon, then spent the evening at the Doc-in-a-box... I've had an upset stomach for several days now, and finally decided to get professional help.

Aug01Art

I'm in a much better mood today, now that the house is cool again. Being hot and sweaty makes me crabby too.
Big crowds at Chick-fil-A today, perhaps politicians should lay off picking on Chick-fil-A.

Joseph took my picture while we waited in line to order our chicken at Chick-fil-A