Dueling Dusters

This one's for Elizabeth.

[This is what popped into my head when she said we could have a 'dust' contest! ;)]

Elements

This month’s theme over at the Sketchbook Challenge is Elements!

It’s day seven.

I got…………………. nothin’.

Not a thing.

Not one single idea.

Nada, zilch, zero, zip, bupkis.

Not even one little pun!!!!

Oh, the inhumanity! LOL

Light Bulb Moment!

I think I’ve finally solved the problem of how to corral all my loose journal pages!

I was trolling the internet and came across this YouTube video.

This would be perfect to use for my pages because it doesn’t bind them permanently! 

Perfect!

 score and fold 

 punch holes

 add brads

 mark (inside) center of cover

 glue accordion binding to cover

 slip in journal pages

Voilá!

Many thanks to Laura at Following The Paper Trail for a great idea and tutorial!

Totally Boring Post

My computer has been acting a little, shall we say, ‘twitchy’ the past few weeks.

So I thought it would behoove me to make a backup, just in case.

I’ve been loading so much of my artwork into it I didn’t want to lose any.

So I spent the day making backups and then cleaning out old programs, deleting here, uninstalling there, running antivirus software, cleaning out cookies and spyware and defragging.

It runs like a top now!

But by the end of the day my eyes felt like “two burnt holes in a blanket” as my mother used to say. (Ever wonder where these sayings come from? Because that one is definitely strange. But I digress….)

 Anyway, I thought I’d take a break and illustrate my day. 

(I love how you can take artistic license and make your self portrait look so much better than real life! LOL)

Father Was an Executive

My father was an executive, in business and in mentality. 

And he dressed the part.

Business suits, white button down shirts with French cuffs, and wing tip shoes; right down to his sock garters (we won’t go there!)

My mother once bought him a pair of Levi’s for Christmas. 

When he died (20 years later) they were still in the drawer with the tags on.

He even wore a sports coat and slacks when he mowed the lawn!

My question is….Is that classy or just anal? LOL

"Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Moe"

Just messin’ around, trying different styles and brushes. 

Trying to find my comfort zone within the medium.

Pipes

Water is a big part of our city here.

We are surrounded by it and have over 400 miles of canals filled with it.

We have two water processing plants.

We have duel water to each home (primary for drinking and secondary for lawn watering.)

It’s a vast and intricate system used to keep the streets from flooding and to provide us with water for living.

 These pipes are part of the whole complex system. They stick up out of the ground all over the city.

I had no idea what they were when we first moved here. They don’t have them (visible) up north. (I guess they would freeze if they were above ground.)

Over the years I’ve come to think of them as ‘urban sculpture’. I think they are quite lovely, always standing at attention come sweltering heat or torrential downpours.

Looking for something different and interesting to sketch I thought I’d give them a go. I might even turn it into a series (if my attention span doesn’t wane too quickly!)

(I also thought they’d be easy subjects [HA!] to sketch ‘en plein air’. But I have to admit I cheated this time. I took pictures and came home and sketched in the comfort of my air conditioned house.)

Watercolor Bliss Lesson 4

I’m in Alisa Burke’s Watercolor Bliss online class.

This is lesson 4:

“Add variations of color and value to add depth, to find control and comfort when working with different brush sizes, explore how you can use lines to add details and washes to your subject matter.”

Sounds simple enough. Looks simple enough when she demonstrates.

Bwahahahahahaha!

This is what I get:

Uninspired, flat, dull, boring, uninteresting, tedious, dreary, unexciting, lackluster, mind-numbing, lifeless………I could go on.

What am I doing wrong here? Any suggestions?  I thought I followed Alisa’s directions. Apparently not. LOL

(I do see I need more contrast with the background color. This was a poor choice.)

Although, these two aren’t complete disasters.

I think this one could use more pen detail.

(I like squares, LOL!)

Okay, deep breath, chin up, soldier on and PRACTICE. PRACTICE, PRACTICE!

Don't you just hate it when it's not perfect on the first (or second, or third...) try? LOL

Last One, I Promise!

Okay, this is the last pun for the June theme of the Sketchbook Challenge (pathways). Be grateful we’re running out of month so I don’t have time to do the ones still stuck in my head! LOL

"the beaten path"

Mommy Moments

December 1986.

Son1 is six months old, happily lazing in the playpen.

I am baking Christmas cookies.

Nat King Cole is playing on the stereo and I am singing along.

It’s unusually warm so I have the front door open. As I bake and sing, I dance back and forth between the kitchen and my beautiful baby boy.

At some point I pick him up and we dance around the living room, singing and laughing and just enjoying what I will come to call a ‘mommy moment’.

As I twirl around, I see the mailman standing outside the front door watching me with my son.

I freeze, starting to feel embarrassed, but then I realize he’s smiling at us, enjoying this moment as much as I (not to mention the cookies I left for him in the mailbox!)

 I throw my head back and laugh out loud and continue to dance with my son in my arms.

Christmas, cookies, beautiful baby, all is right with the world.

(a special memory on this special day)

Happy Birthday baby boy!