Sept30Art

A bit of sun today in Charleston, but only a bit.  Cloudy and rainy, but nice and hot and humid too.  Did a continuous line drawing, except for the raindrops of course.  The picture of Joaquin is from the National Weather service website, note where I am.  It is more likely to make landfall north of us in North Carolina, everyone on the East Coast is watching this one.

Sept29Art

Watched a lot of hand lettering videos lately, so the evening got away from me.  Lettered this quote and used some Gelatos and a stamp, I was too lazy to go get the block for the stamp, so it's smudgy. In spite of all that I like how the page turned out.  I've a new knitting project a Dr. Who scarf... it might be finished in the next couple of years.

Sept28Art

Last little 100 calorie popcorn package cooked for me tonight after my flute lesson.  I really like Jessica, she gave me some great tips and we actually played together tonight.... it was scary and fun at the same time.

Sept27Art

Do you see those hints of red/purple on the page?  That's a local winery's Red Muscadine Wine that I spilled tonight on my page, my desk, and my keyboard.  My keyboard now has a plastic cover... so that spilled wine, wiped right up.  The sketchbook didn't come away clean, not only this page is spotted, so is the light beige fabric cover... Hey I'm a red wine fan, usually pinot noir but I like this muscadine wine too, and I'm a klutz, so I knock things over and red wine stains... I'm ok with it.  

Sept26Art

First thing this morning, I almost walked into a HUGE spiderweb, stretching completely across the walkway, from the crepe myrtle to the rose bushes... had to knock it down before we could leave the house. The only way I saw it was due to something big the spider had caught in the center, didn't see the spider, hopefully, he was napping in the rose bushes.

Sept25Art

We went to downtown North Charleston for dinner tonight.  Boy has North Charleston changed since the last time we were over there. Lots of restaurants, taverns, outdoor cafes, people everywhere having fun, live music, and good food.  We ate outside at a sidewalk table of the Italian restaurant, and really enjoyed it.  

Sept24Art

Participating in a challenge at http://OrangeArts.ning.com create a small ATC sized artwork of your hometown, that had to include a building.  Here's my submission, with watercolor and ink… the white is watered down gouache used a dip pen to draw the lines… the rest is transparent watercolor and micron ink pen.

Sept23Art

What a nice surprise at the Smart Car dealership, when we went to pick up the car after it's tune up, they handed me a rose, had to draw it.  Sad to hear about Yogi Berra dying last night.

Sept22Art

I do think Schmincke translucent orange (PO71) is my favorite orange watercolor paint.  Combined with Daniel Smith's New Gamboge (PO153) to create this pumpkin.  Holbein Verditer Blue for the shadow and Windsor and Newton Raw Sienna for the ground color, with Sap Green from American Journey.  I love to explore colors and there is a difference between manufacturers, you have to find the colors that work for you and that you like.  These are some of my favorites.  

Sept21Art

Got the call from the Dermatologist, the biopsy on the spot on my ear is another basal cell carcinoma.  Surgery will be October 15, they dug such a huge hole out of my hand, I don't know if I'll have an ear left when they dig this one out.  Ron said I'd be like Van Gogh, he always makes me laugh.

Sept20Art

Gave drawing the bike another try, pencil first, then pentel brush pen.  Lots of confusing engine stuff, but it sorta looks like my bike.  The orange paint added to fool your eye into not looking too closely at the drawing.

Sept19Art

We spent the day washing our bikes, not sure of the origin but people call Harley Motorcycles… hogs.  The Harley Owners Group initials is H.O.G. and we are members, so I thought a pink pig getting a bath was a good page to remember the day by.  Tomorrow we RIDE!

Sept18Art

More word art,  this time I used Zig Calligraphy markers for the lettering and the color.  I'm not a big fan of markers, I find it difficult to get smooth color over larger areas.  Watercolor is much easier for fluid color backgrounds.

Sept17Art

I took an online class recently where part of the assignment was choosing a word for the year.  I chose persistence… never give up, never give in.  My little Jack Russell terriers show me every day how persistence pays off, there is no quit in those dogs. 

Sept16Art

This is my 4th… as in 4 times I've had to purchase a new keyboard because I spilled something on it.  This morning coffee… just took out the A and S keys… but with 2 A's in my last name and 1 in my first name… I NEED an A key… so yet another keyboard purchased today.  Tried leaving the plastic on it… but I can't type on it with the plastic on it… sigh… I will try to do better, as I have vowed 3 times in the past… maybe this keyboard will last longer than it's predecessor.

Sept15Art

The idea was to practice noses… some worked better than others, and true to my ADD I included some hands and ears and a mouth or two.  Labeled them in case you couldn't tell what was what LOL.

Sept14Art

More brush pen drawing, used colored pencil to color my little Elly the Elephant. Another exhausting Monday, traveling to Columbia and back.  It was gorgeous weather today, clear sky, low humidity and low 80s I couldn't have ordered nicer weather.

Sept13Art

Playing with my Pentel Pocket Brush pen, Quinacradone Burnt Orange and Raw Sienna… for the coffee colors. Took the Harley Trike to a empty parking lot to practice changing gears without having to worry about balance.  Only stalled it out a couple of times, able to shift from 1st to 2nd and back down again, still having trouble finding neutral..  more practice needed, much more.

Sept12Art

While it isn't officially Fall, today nice cool weather with a bit of rain.  My Crepe Myrtle has started to change colors as has my dogwood tree.  The rag weed is in bloom and giving Ron sneezing fits. So I picked up one of the crepe myrtle leaves to paint today.  I painted this first, then added ink afterward,  very different from how I usually do a drawing.

Sept11Art

For my mother and father, December 7, 1941 (Pearl Harbor Day) was a moment in history they never forgot, and my Dad made sure we always remembered it too.  For me, the moment was Sept 11, 2001… I will never forget that day, where I was, what I was doing, what it was like with only the Air Force jets in the sky, but how happy we were to see them up there.  I watched some of the memorial service this morning, but got so emotional I had to turn it off so that I could work.

Sept10Art

 Just fooling around with my brush pens, the pentel brush pen is totally waterproof, but the new pen (a Pentel Pigment Ink pen) isn't, the ink smears if I drag my hand thru it, even after over 10 minutes to dry (estimated time it takes me to feed 4 dogs).
While I was really disappointed yesterday about the implant failure, thinking about it today, I'm glad it failed when it did… better in the dentist's office instead of 6 months from now in the middle of dinner somewhere.  If it was going to fail, I'm glad it did it when it did… now it'll get put right.

On September the 10th 2001,  an early evening view of the World Trade Center, so beautiful… who realized that evening how fragile they were.

Sept09Art

I was looking forward to finally getting the caps on my dental implants today after 4 months of visits and checkups… but it is not going to happen.  While the dentist was trying to screw on the connector, 1 of the implants came out… the other 3 are fine, this one just didn't bond for some reason.  So a month to heal, and we start over with that one.  Oh and it hurts BIG TIME.

Sept08Art

Tuesday, feels like Monday, hard to get back to the grind after a long weekend that was so full. Read Danny's habit blog post today, and then forgot to post to my blog for the first time in forever… guess my habit isn't as set as I thought.

Sept07Art

No labor for me, labor day.  Barely left the house except to practice changing gears in the drive way, which prompted a trip to the store to buy some boots.  My current shoes aren't going to work for shifting gears.

Sept06Art

I traded in my Honda today, and came home with a new Harley Davidson 883 Sportster.  I tried to draw it, but failed miserably on 3 attempts, so for this journal entry I just drew the tank and seat.  

Sept05Art

Spent the day at the Hog Fest, a benefit for MUSC Children's hospital today.  There was a car show, bbq contest and bands played all day.  Concrete pigs/hogs were decorated by local clubs and businesses, some of them were very elaborately decorated.

Sept04Art

No rain at our house, we went over to the Harley Shop for the 'Hog Fest' opening night, benefitting the MUSC children's hospital.  Chowed down on wings and voted in the contest for best chicken wings. Tomorrow voting on the best BBQ… hoping to get some sketches during the event tomorrow.

Sept03Art

Great quote, now I need to get to work on some poetry/painting.  I can't remember where I saw a border like this, but I liked it and did it first with zig clean color markers to color the shapes.  I used watercolor paint on the quote…not much drawing here but I'm pleased with the page over all.

Sept02Art

Fooling around with my travel mop, that little brush holds a ton of water, which makes it difficult to control.  Does anyone ever really control watercolor?  In case you can't tell what that drawing is, it is a bottle of nail polish.

Sept01Art

Back to an 8 1/2 x 5 1/2 inch Landscape format, Global Arts Hand*book watercolor journal.  Seems small after the 8 x 8 square format book.

Back to school themed page, partly because I frittered away my drawing time watching my Craftsy class videos… Marc Taro Holmes has really taught a great class with lots of great tips that I am eager to try. http://citizensketcher.com