THE INFAMOUS TOMAHAWK STORY

Jeffrey had a tomahawk. It was really just a rock, tied to the end of a stick with leather lacing. 

He kept it on his shelf.

“What’s this?” I asked.

“A tomahawk.” He said.

“What does it do?” I asked.

“Indians used to scalp people with it.” he said.

“What’s scalp?” I asked.

“Like this” he said, and proceeded to show me, grabbing a handful of my hair and tapping lightly by my head with the tomahawk.

“Oh, like this?” I said. I took the tomahawk and……

KNOCKED HIM OUT COLD.

‘Jeffy, wake up” I said. Nothing. I shook him. Nothing.

Oh oh.

I ran downstairs and said to my mother. “Jeffy, fell asleep, really fast. And he won’t wake up!”

I don’t remember if I got punished or not.

He still has the tomahawk.

Finger Painting

When I was in kindergarten finger painting was my favorite activity. I just loved it! What could be better than getting your hands INTO the paints as well as making a masterpiece!

One day the teacher sent a note home to my parents suggesting that they take me to a psychiatrist because all of my paintings were dark and brooding. Perhaps I was fostering some deep buried hostility or depression that needed looking into.

 My mother (being the brilliant parent that she was) instead of running to make an appointment with a shrink, asked me “why do you always use such dark colors when you finger paint?”

 I responded…..”Because by the time I get to the paints, all the good colors are taken.”

 Did I mention my mother was brilliant? She not only saved all that money on a psychiatrist, she also saved me from years of therapy! Thanks, Mom!




 

Draw what you see…..

Draw what you see…..draw what you see…..draw what you see…..


I see stinky shoes! Lol

So I drew them!

Owner’s manual

I understand that there’s no manual for life.
But I always thought there was an unwritten ‘owner’s manual’ for one’s body.
You learn early on what works and what doesn’t. What you can tolerate and what you can’t.

What I didn’t expect were the rules to change!

I understand that as you age things sag and droop, wrinkles appear. I was prepared for all that.
What I wasn’t prepared for was the not so subtle changes.

Like not being able to move the furniture anymore when I clean.
When did that happen? I used to be able to toss it around like doll house furniture. Now I couldn’t move that highboy if you told me there was a million dollars behind it! (And I could really use a million dollars!)

And don’t even get me started on food issues!
I used to be able to eat anything, anytime, anywhere.
Now I find my food choices dwindling at an ever increasing rate!

I have a (another) theory. We don’t die because we’re worn out; we die because there’s nothing left that we can eat!

I think I’ll go out in the garden and eat worms! Oh, wait, they probably won’t agree with me either!

What do other people do

What do other people do, who don’t have ART in their lives?

I know some people who don’t DO anything.
They have no hobbies, no interests, no distractions from everyday life.
How do they survive? What renews them, fills up their psyche? How do they even get up day after day without any of this in their lives?

I am so glad I have this.

My heart is full. I am grateful.

just for fun

I’ve been concentrating so hard on flowers (could you smell the smoke coming from my brain?)
I had to do something just for fun.

Whew!

I feel better now.

week four: flowers

Week four in Jane LaFazio’s Sketchbook & Watercolor Journal Style class is flowers.

It’s more challenging than you’d think!

Nature is an amazing (and frustrating) thing.

Who knew flowers were so complicated!?

really bad giraffe continuous line drawing

I have a small giraffe on my shelf and he practically jumped into my lap asking to be sketched.

 He regretted his decision!

 Results aside, I have to say I’m having a blast! I’m not even looking for my pencil (or eraser) anymore.

????????????????????

I was sitting in the waiting room at the dr.’s office today and I found myself wishing I had my sketchbook with me to draw all the characters I was seeing.

What’s up with THAT?

I’ve never had any desire to draw people before!

I feel like a version of that old (really bad) commercial
“Help, I’ve fallen and I can’t get up!”

“Help, I’ve started drawing and I can’t stop!”

  lol

more straight to pen

I think I like straight to pen. I think I also like continuous line.

I like the “sketchy’ way it looks.

The ‘red leaf thingy’, for some reason, I drew very small. It made it difficult to paint.

The gerbera daisy, meh.
But I like the font.
I’m trying to expand my ‘journaling’, trying to work on improving my handwriting and adding different fonts.

week three: straight to pen continuous line drawing

Continuous line drawing of a tin lighthouse from hubby’s collection. I really misjudged this one! Went right off the top of the page! (I find I look at the subject so much I forget to look at where I am on the page.)
It may not be accurate, but I like the loose, cockeyed style.

I’ve been trying to give myself a time limit (just a few minutes), to do these sketches fast.

purdy bird

He knew he was different from the other birds. His feathers just didn’t seem to be the right color. When he played hide and seek he was always the first one found.

The rollercoaster ride of self doubt

I hate the rollercoaster ride of self doubt, don’t you?

First comes the high of that one drawing/piece that hits the perfect notes. You are pleased (and just a little bit amazed) it turned out so well. (Actually, I like this part! Lol)

Then come the days when EVERYTHING you put your hand to is rubbish. You can’t even draw a decent line!

Your mind goes into overdrive. That niggling little voice in your head grows louder. It was a fluke; you don’t really have any talent.

Someone makes a thoughtless comment. (I have enough trouble dealing with my own insecurity; I don’t need your help, thankyouverymuch!) As a side note here, whatever happened to ‘if you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all’?

It’s hard to shake off the negativity. It hangs in the air.

(sigh)

Bad day.

Okay I know it’s cheating, but

I know I’m supposed to be doing this in watercolor. But I needed the comfort and control of my markers!


And it’s still practice, right?

HAPPY ST. PATRICK’S DAY!

maybe it is just me, but does it bother anybody else to see all the signs for ‘patty’s’ day? it makes me wonder who this patty is?

it’s not PATTY’S day it’s PADDY’S day!

Makes me crazy!
okay, i feel better now. i’ll get off my soapbox.

thank you for your attention.

Enjoy your corned beef and cabbage!





Stylish Blogger Award

Timaree from Freebird Drawing just presented me with the STYLISH BLOGGER AWARD! (Wheee!)

I’m tickled pink! (pun intended! Lol)

 

Thank you, Timaree!

As a recipient I’m supposed to tell you seven things about myself and then pass the award on to (up to 15) other bloggers.

The hard part…seven things about myself.

Um, okay, here goes:

1. I like to eat chocolate ice cream with fresh bread. (Sour dough is the best!) Yum!

2. Even now, at the ripe old age of mumble mumble I am very naive.

3. I want to try every art and craft known to mankind before I die.

4. I am left-handed. (But I can do a lot of stuff with either hand!)

5. In my head I’m still 22.

6. When I was a little girl and would color with my mother I would get mad at her (and jealous) because she would make plaids and paisleys on the characters clothing, and I couldn’t!

7. It took me years before I could call myself an artist.

Now to pass the award on:
1. One of the first blogs I ever stumbled upon. Mary Ann Moss at Dispatch from L.A. http://dispatchfromla.typepad.com/ I just love her style, her grace and the best part is she takes us along for the ride when she travels!

2. Kim Henkel has a lovely blog here at Letting in the Light http://www.khenkel.blogspot.com/

3. Marianne Walker at I Like Markers does amazing things with markers at http://ilikemarkers.blogspot.com/

4. Pat from Lost and Found http://patpitingolo.blogspot.com/ is on an artistic journey and welcomes friends!

5. Elizabeth Remy at Lost Coast Post does the most incredible journal drawings http://lostcoastpost.blogspot.com/

Not that any of these bloggers need a bit of help from me but, they are a few of the blogs I visit on a regular basis and I think they deserve this award!

If the bloggers mentioned above want to pass on the award, you do it by copying the picture of the award and pasting it on your blog. Link back to the one who awarded it to you. Then, tell seven things about yourself and list links of up to 15 blogs to whom you want to pass the award.

This is totally voluntary, no pressure! You can choose to participate or not, it’s up to you.

As Timaree says, “There should be total freedom and ease in blogging.”

Have fun!

Sketching and Watercolor: Journal Style

One of the great things about living in a subtropical climate is the flora. Things we used to struggle to grow indoors up north sprout like weeds here!

Poinsettias were a hothouse item up north. Here they’re shrubs!

Week two of Jane LaFazio’s Sketching and Watercolor: Journal Style-Leaves

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, FLUFFERNUTTER!

Need I say more?

I’m spilling over with excitement!

This is so cool I just had to share. (The technique, not the drawing, lol.)
http://www.joggles.com//tombowmarker-video.htm

Joggles.com has a new tutorial on using Tombow markers. The very last technique is using them with ‘canned air’ (the stuff you use to clean your computer keyboard) as sort of an airbrush technique! So cool for backgrounds. I just tried this one, and you don’t really have much control like you would with a real airbrush, but still….Oh the possibilities!

I tested all of my markers (Bic, Sharpie, Copic, etc.) just to see. It worked with all of them.
(I know, it doesn't take much to excite me! lol!)

The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree

When my boys were growing up they would get frustrated when they would try something new and they weren’t perfect at it the first time out. (They get this trait from me, I’m sorry to say.)


I would tell them. ‘Nobody is born knowing how to do these things. We all have to learn.’

I find it interesting that I can give this advice but I have such a hard time taking it for myself!

sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't

I keep trying to get the perspective right when drawing a spoon. Trying to show the volume of the bowl. This one is better, although the honey needs a bit of work (you knew that was honey dripping off it, didn't you?)
So, here's another one for 'spilling over'.

Why I love Google

Are you a member of the look it up club? (I’m gonna show my age here, lol.)
When I was growing up, clubs were ‘in’. The Mickey Mouse club, special secret clubs with decoder rings (Captain Midnight, Dick Tracy, the Hornet…..) Everyone was a member so why it was considered a secret escaped me.

My parents jumped on this band wagon. We were members of the ‘look it up club’.
 
We had a full set encyclopedia with yearly addendums. A huge one volume encyclopedia (that was used mostly for pressing things) countless dictionaries and a myriad of other reference books.

I got into the habit of looking everything up. My parents wouldn’t tell you how to spell a word when you were in the midst of writing a report. Their response was…. (you got it!) “go look it up”.

It got to the point that when I had a question about anything I would make a note to go look it up later.

I would start looking something up and an hour later finally find it because, on the way to my topic, I’d stop and read half of the volume! (Smart parents, right?)

This is why Google is my best friend!

I love Google.

Big pink puffy heart love.

(And I still get lost looking things up, but now it’s because of links!)

So tell me, were you a member too?

one step forward, two steps back! lol

I love other peoples watercolors. The members of the class are doing some incredible work!
Mine, not so much, sigh. (But, it is only the first week, after all.)
So, I'll hold my head up and keep on practicing. Onward and upward!

Here’s an amusing story…

As I was working on the first Jane LaFazio lesson, I used a piece of watercolor paper to test my color mixing. Just splats and squiggles, nothing interesting.
Or so I thought.
Husband walks by and says, “Hey, I like that one!” lol


So…… in true ‘making lemonade out of lemons’ fashion, I took my black micron pen and outlined the splats and squiggles, titled it ‘Abstraction’.  And voilá!

Looks like I meant it to be something! Hahahahaha

Here ya' go, honey!
Isn’t art fun?

Hey, if Jackson Pollock could do it.......

New Additions to the Etsy Shop



'yellow hibiscus' note cards



'bluebird zentangle' note cards

 















'wonky garden' note cards












'just a note' note cards

(running it up the 'ole flagpole to see if there's any interest! We shall see!)

Hey, look at me! I’ m ‘doin’ watercolor!

And it LOOKS like something! Wheeee! 

I signed up for Jane Lafazio’s

Sketchbook and Watercolor: Journal Style online class. This was lesson one.

It was supposed to be fruit, but we had eaten all the fruit! I didn’t want to wait until I went to the store, so I grabbed these peppers from the fridge. (You could tell they were peppers, right? Lol)

Trying to remember to keep specks of white for interest and sparkle (kind of hard to do) and I totally messed up the shadows. But hey, not bad for my first still life, if I do say so myself!

(note to self: work on color mixing for shadows! lol)

Apropos of Nothing

I love bamboo. Tall, wild growing, 'free range’ bamboo.
It’s beautiful to look at but the best part is the sound it makes on a windy day. An interesting ‘clacking’ noise as it sways in the breeze and the stalks knock against one another. It’s an amazing, fascinating sound.

To sit and listen to the bamboo is like auditory valium!


my first 'real' watercolor



longboat key resident

Picture taken by my friend on Longboat Key.

Sketch is my interpretation of the photo.

(done with inespensive Crayola color pencils)

Thank God for Photoshop

Or at least thank Adobe for Photoshop! Who can take your nasty messed up failure from this:

To this:

Maybe not my best, but much better than it was!

It was just one of those days where everything I touched turned to *#@^!

(note to self, need to work on your 'art journaling' technique, save up for Diana Trout's online class!)

March Sketchbook theme: Spilling Over

Isn’t it cool when things are so serendipitous?
My cup runneth over for being a special guest on the blog AND it fits this month's theme!

I love popcorn

Unfortunately popcorn does not return my affections. I had forgotten this fact and I indulged the other night.

You know that line from PRETTY WOMAN? ‘Big mistake……. Big…….HUGE.’

Well, that was me. I’ll spare you the gory details (you’re welcome.)

 The other part of this story is…….

 I had forgotten my love/hate relationship with popcorn when I was at BJ’s last week. I now have a CASE of popcorn sitting in the pantry. It laughs out loud at me every time I open the cupboard door!


Popcorn, anyone?

Sunday mornings

when i was a little girl, on Sunday mornings i would crawl into bed between my parents, and my father (a writer) would tell me a story. (an original story he made up.)

my mother would go downstairs to make breakfast.

on this particular morning the story was so enthralling she stayed to listen.

 i don’t remember what that story was about. what i do remember is lying in bed between my parents, listening to the most spellbinding of stories, feeling completely, utterly safe and content.