Sam wanted me to go to Michael’s today (last day of a sale) and pick up some Acrylic paint for a new project he has me working on. It was such a gorgeous day today (in the 60’s & sunny) and even though I knew that I was going to have to miss my Sunday afternoon nap, I couldn’t pass up being *told* to go to Michael’s, so I asked Savannah to come along and decided to take advantage of the nice weather to do something I have been wanting to do since the Spring. You may remember, back in the Spring, that I mentioned that I wanted to go and draw this house near us that has all kinds of stuff in the yard. I was a little afraid to do it…never did. Today was the day, only all the plant stuff in their yard is kind of overgrown, so we decided to find another house with some cool Halloween decorations. Savannah and I saw many houses for possibilities, but I was searching for one on a quiet street. We finally found one, and pulled over to the side of the road in front of the house. We got out our drawing stuff, and even though we had brought chairs along, we decided to sit on the ground near the curb. The family who lives there had their inside door open, so they could see us, so I decided to go let them know why we were going to be sitting in their yard. They were very nice about it, but I am sure they thought it was kind of weird. So, we drew for about a half hour or so. It was fun. As we were drawing we talked about the decorations, and a lot of the time we were drawing the same thing at the same time, which was pretty funny to Savannah. There were some things she noticed that I accidently left out, like the string of jack-o-lantern lights hanging from the top of the window. If you look at her drawing, she drew a few of them. Obviously it didn’t take as long for her to finish her drawing. She drew some things from the neighbor’s house on a couple of other pages, and then was ready to be done. Just as I was trying to get my drawing to a point where we could leave and I could finish it up at home, a little boy came out of the front door carrying a little halloween bag of candy and handed it to Savannah. That made her day, and we thought it was very nice of them to do. When we were done, I went up to the door and knocked again to say thanks. The kid’s dad (I assume) wanted to see my drawing…he gave me his email address, told me his name, and we said thanks and headed back home. I have to say, this was by far one of the best times I have had with Savannah. Being five, I doubt she was just going along with it to please me. She really seemed to have fun. I had a blast drawing the same thing as her, too. It’s neat to look at our drawings together. I hope she will want to do it again sometime.

Oops…sorry that I forgot to mention that this drawing was for EDM Challenge #38, Draw something Halloween…I made a list the other day of all the EDM Challenges I haven’t done. It is longer than the ones I have done now. So now, I am just going to use the list of challenges I haven’t completed when I happen to not know what to draw. And I will still try to keep up with current ones. We have a month-long challenge to draw in a museum. I really want to make a trip to the DIA, but I need to find a day to do it, and a friend to go along. (Becky V.?)

For Blind Contour Friday. Check out the other blind contours over at inkfinger.

Yes, I know, it’s too early for Christmas. But I am working on these for a deadline coming up. This ornament is actually from a drawing I did last fall of three Shiny Brite ornaments. I cut apart the drawing (it has been sitting around my workspace…didn’t really know what to do with it) and turned it into 3 ATCs. This is the first one I did. I really love these ornaments on our tree. Yeah, they are old, some of the stuff is coming off of them, but to me they remind me of special times at Christmas with my family. We probably had a few ornaments like this on our tree. I don’t know really where all of ours came from (we probably have at least 30) but when we got married, Sam’s dad gave us some Christmas Ornaments for our first Christmas tree and I think that is where most of them came from. I wish I had some of Grandpa’s old ornaments…or little (vintage) Christmas village that we got to play with at Grandma’s. But I have the images & memories to hold on to, and that enough for me. I am very lucky, I think, to have such wonderful memories. I am sure the holidays of my past were not without some bad circumstances, however, I am so glad that those are the things that I don’t remember.

watercolor pencils, watercolor crayons, Prismacolor pencils, white Gellyroll pen, Pigma Micron 05 black pen, red Zig Writer

A tiny jar of Raspberry Jam from some friends of ours. Can’t wait to try it out on a PBJ or some warm toast! Raspberry Jam is my very favorite, although I am not really a huge fan of jam. I always put more peanut butter than jam on my sandwiches. Mmmm. This is making me hungry. Maybe I will just have to go make myself a PBJ with my new Jam on some soft bread with a big glass of cold milk. It’s funny that something like a PBJ that I’ve eaten all my life, still tastes good to me after so many years. You’d think I would get tired of them. Maybe I like PBJs so much because they bring up good memories from when I was a kid.

Wow! I am so loving the colors of the leaves. This week they are especially beautiful. I can’t resist picking them up and tucking them in between the pages of my journal. Today, while my students were working with liquid watercolors, I did some wet-on-wet atc sized paintings of just color. Later when they dried, I drew leaves (we have quite a collection in the classroom since we are doing a fall leaf project) and cut them to the right size. They aren’t for a particular swap. Anyone want to do a trade? Let me know your email and we can work out the details.

You’ve probably been wondering what happened to me…why I haven’t posted for so long…again. I will be honest and admit that I haven’t been doing a lot of drawing lately. I want to. I have tons of things to draw, things I want to draw. I just haven’t. I’ve got a lot going on, but then, that is probably really just an excuse. Because I have had a lot going on before and had plenty of opportunities to be creative. And I know you don’t want to listen to excuses.
So, anyway…I drew this mask, which I took to drawing class last week, and of course, it’s not finished…and I probably won’t finish it…it really is just a sketch. This is one thing that Sam brought back for me from Bali. It’s pretty cool. But the hair is a little creepy. That’s the part I didn’t finish…it was taking forever to draw and I ran out of time. And other than a few quick sketches while I was waiting for Sam to run into Target and grab something, I have not been drawing. I have been making some ATCs lately, but I have even been behind on those. What do you do to get yourself motivated? I seem to be having a hard time with that.
Tonight Me, the kids, and my sister’s family got togther to carve pumpkins. It was cute. I let the kids draw their own faces and then I carved them out. Of course, I kind of had to help Karson with the drawing part, but he thought it was cool when it was done. My brother in law took some great pics…I’ve got to get them copied to my computer so I can post them. Here it is a week before halloween. I have no idea what my kids are going to be…I guess that will be one thing I will be consumed with this week. I was hoping to make some costumes, but I don’t know, I am running out of time.

I will post again tomorrow. I am making it my goal to post every day this week, so check back soon.

No, it’s not Sam’s head…and no, this is not one of the treasures he brought back from Indonesia. Just something laying around in the basement that I picked up and decided to draw after I realized I hadn’t done a BC yet. I did it with a turquoise marker first, but I couldn’t see it very well, so I did another drawing on top of it with a Black Sharpie. Pretty weird, I know. But not as weird as what came in the mail today.

Tonight in drawing class – a lesson on value drawing. I wish I had the pumpkins of my students. They were terrific, I think…but they weren’t quite so confident. I often draw with my students. I don’t know that it is the proper way to teach a drawing class, I mean, I get up and walk around every so often and comment or help them with their drawings. I find that not only does it help me relax and make it more fun than me just sitting there waiting for them to finish, but I encounter things with my drawing that I can bring up, that I may have otherwise forgotten to teach them. So as we are working we do little mini-lessons on stuff like reflected light, how to draw shadows, etc. Anyway, three of my students were missing tonight, but everyone seemed to really get into their drawing, and I can tell they are incorporating the things I am teaching them. I can see a lot of growth already. Oh, and I should mention, that I didn’t exactly finish mine. I did the clone stamp on the background (right side) and I know it looks terrible, but trust me, it’s way better than leaving it white!

This is the first of many little treasures that Sam brought back from Indonesia. And I love it because it is so personal. While he was staying in Wamena, they went to the market where he saw this guy set up in a tiny little booth about 3’x3′ where he handcarved stamps and sold watches. This guy must have been very experienced…I mean look at the image it stamps. It is so crisp…and the letters are so tiny! The flower is native to indonesia, but we aren’t sure what kind it is. I love this and can think of a million uses for it. What a great gift. I would’ve never thought of it! There are many more fascinating treasures, which I am sure will be the subject of many future posts. Sam brought back a bunch of fantastic necklaces, too. He will be selling them through ebay. You’re gonna want one! I’ll post the link when he gets it up there.