Sep14Art

Ron thinks he may have a shot as a "Rainmaker", seems whenever he buys a new bike it rains for a week.  Thus the flash floods in Charleston today, and rain will continue tomorrow and maybe thru the weekend.  So he just might be onto a new career.

Sep13Art

Spent most of the evening at the Harley Shop, turning in 2 of Ron's motorcycles to get this new Milwaukee 8 bike.  The orange paint job has gold metal flakes in it.  It sparkles in the sun and Ron is very pleased with it.

Sep12Art

 #SketchingNowBuildings a continuous line drawing of Manly Church, Liz calls this, feeling the edges.

 Next step a Negative shapes with shadows added, no line drawing before paint only.  I found this one challenging.

Third iteration of Manly Church, a Silhouette with shadows added, again, paint only no pre-drawing.

Liz calls this 'constructing volumes', a pre drawing with watercolor pencil, followed by ink lines.  For this lesson we didn't paint this version. I was supposed to go and do all these steps on a building but didn't get a chance to this week, and it is supposed to rain for the next 7 days here (which we need very much).

Sep11Art

December 7th Pearl Harbor day,  happened before I was born, but my father made sure his children never forget it.  That was a defining moment in history for his generation of Americans.  September 11, 2001 was a defining moment for my generation, and I plan to do my best to make sure the younger generation (now in high school) who were born after that day remember it too. 

Ron and I attended a 9-11 Memorial ride today, out to the St. Paul fire department.  Hot and humid today.  Afterwards, Ron took a test ride on a new Milwaukee 8 Harley.  He liked it very much it's a bright orange, for my artist friends, looks like Holbein's Scarlet Lake.

Sep10Art

Ron and I went on a ride today to benefit the SPCA, had fun and managed to NOT bring how a rescue dog, as we were on the motorcycles and couldn't traumatize the dog with that, had some cute little dogs, and a sweet border collie mix that tempted me mightily.  College football on tv tonight, we don't really pay attention to the NFL games. 

Wish I could credit the photographer of this great pre-9-11 shot of the World Trade Center and the Statue of liberty.  It is a beautiful shot and a favorite of mine.

Sep09Art

Long day today... time to feed the dogs and get some rest.  Busy weekend ahead with rides Saturday and Sunday.

Sep08Art

New sketchbook, old paint box, very much in need of a refresh.  Need to rethink my colors too, the only color here that doesn't need reloading is the 'Green Gold'... so it will not be in this box in future.  Off to Columbia tomorrow so time to go to bed.

Sep07Art

#SketchingnowBuildings Liz Steel's online class started today, I'm still reading thru all the material for week 1.  Basic line work, which will give me something to do during the meetings I'm in all day long.  Liz makes it look so easy,  it isn't easy for me, but I think it's a skill I can learn.  I like the way she breaks things down to the component parts and the skills needed to sketch buildings with confidence.

Sep06Art

Back to work today, always tough after a three day weekend.  A little hotter today too.  Picked up the concrete HOG I bid on this weekend, businesses decorated them and they did a silent auction on them to benefit MUSC Children's Hospital.  I bought it for a friend whose favorite color is purple, and we ended up getting another one for our front porch, just because they're so darn cute.

Sep05Art

The weather today was fabulous again, what a great weekend we had after Hermine left town Friday night.  I love cool temperatures like this, perfect for afternoon rides.

Sep04Art

I'm taking an online class with Roz Stendahl 'By Design', one of the many exercises in the class is to write your text in columns on your visual journal pages.  I don't usually write a lot on my pages, nor do I ever write in columns, or pre-paint/ink a page but I did all three on this page.  

Sep03Art

We went over to the Low Country Harley Shop to their annual 'Hog Fest' to benefit the MUSC Children's hospital.  Good food and fun, gorgeous weather too, as Hermine left us with a lawn chair blown over and not much else.

Ron

Cannon shooting free t-shirts got the kids excited.

Sep02Art

I'm taking a 'By Design' online class with Roz Stendalh,  it is a self directed class.  I've decided to watch all the videos, without doing the 'homework' and then go back an re-watch them one by one and do the exercises.  The class is very different from what I expected, but I'm learning so very much.  I couldn't resist her suggestions on color, and used that as inspiration for dragging a flat brush loaded with orange and yellow across this drawing, and onto the empty page next to it.  Roz adds lots of text on her pages, I rarely add text other than 'quotes' to my pages,  but I may be changing how I use and keep my journals.  Not sure if I'll embrace writing a lot in them, but stay tuned it just might be a bumpy ride ahead.

Sep01Art

Hurricane Hermine is headed our way tomorrow, made landfall in Tallahassee Fl this evening.  I worked in Tallahassee back in 2004, I do hope the big live oaks downtown survive the storm, they are so beautiful.