I love knowing that my drawings can be an inspiration to people that read my blog. Recently a good friend of mine spent some time looking around my blog and discussing the blind contour drawings with his daughter, a second grader. After their discussion, they both tried it out for themselves. Check out the results. Since they both did a coke bottle, I thought I’d join in. Here’s my drawing, with a little color added in photoshop.

More blind contours at Inkfinger!

On Wednesday nights I take my kids to church and I get a little time to relax and hang out with a few of my artist friends. It’s a small group, but we get together and talk about art, God, and what the Bible has to say that relates to artists, or things we deal with as artists. We also use this time to work on art…whatever we want. This is our second year meeting together. Things kind of died off in the fall, but we began a new year with some goals and a few new members and I look forward to it much more because now it seems there is some purpose to us getting together…and dare I say, a little more commitment to the group from all of us. The last three weeks, we have set up little still-lifes to work on while we talk and discuss. Some of us paint, I usually draw…I can’t stay later and work like they can because I have to get my kids. Anyway, Julia brought these things which belonged to her grandma. It is a little tin…it had “colgate” stamped on it but her grandma kept her loose powder in it, a pearl necklace, a beautiful greenish brooch and a handkerchief with pink flowers. I was really frustrated as I began drawing. I pulled out my 02 micron to use because of the fantastic details, but soon discovered it was almost completely worn down and it was very difficult to get a solid line. But I didn’t have anything else to use, so I pushed on…and then began to love the way the pen was making my drawing look. I think the line almost looks kind of old, like the subject and it created kind of a neat look. Anyway, I would have loved to add color, but barely finished drawing before it was time to go, so you’ll have to imagine it.

Last year I posted this drawing I did of a small handmade photo album I had created for when I returned to work from my 6 week maternity leave. I had to have some way to show off my kids, so this is what I came up with. A lot of people commented that they would like to have instructions for making this. Since I totally made this up as I went, I had to create the instructions myself. I am teaching a book arts class right now, and so tonight in class we made this book. Of course I had to write out the instructions in order to teach it so now I have them to share with you.

You can download a PDF of the instructions HERE

The ladies in my class did a wonderful job on their books. Here are some things we discovered:
It is important to have an accurate paper cutter.
An oval or round bead works better than a bead with corners.
We used a paper punch (1/8 “) rather than a drill and it worked great. (You punch the holes as far apart as the width of the bead.)
This project took me a full two hours to teach. You could probably make it within that amount of time.
If you do try it, let me know how it goes. If you have questions I will try to answer them.

I drew this tonight while I was watching my all time favorite show ever, 24. I have watched it from the beginning. It rocks!

These are a couple of recent pages from my journal. I have been busy planning a birthday party, so I haven’t taken time with posts. And can you believe, I didn’t even turn my computer on all day yesterday? Anyway, the first sketch was done at Joe’s Crabshack in Ann Arbor, where Sam and I went on a date on Friday night. Afterwards, we drove into town and went to Border’s bookstore and killed like an hour and a half reading books & magazines. Saturday morning I woke up and started cleaning about 9:30. The party was a 5:00. We had about 20 or so people come, all family and some close friends that are really a part of our family. At 9:30, we still had all the Christmas decorations up, including the tree. Max helped me take the entire tree down, and also helped with packing up the Christmas village. He was awesome. I could not have gotten it done so quickly without him. So by the time my mom and dad arrived at about 2:30, almost all the decorations were down and packed up and we were basically working on cleaning the house. By 3:30, we started working on the food. I made 8 individual strawberry cakes (Strawberry Shortcake was Savannah’s chosen theme) from little 5 inch or so heart cake pans. The cake was white and we frosted them with pink cherry flavored frosting and dashed red and pink sprinkle dots all over for the seeds. We topped them with a little squiggle of green frosting for the top of the strawberry. They were very cute and the kids love having individual cakes. We also made a big cake for the rest of the guests, which my sister did an amazing job with the lettering. The party was loads of fun. We had tacos, spanish rice, bean dip and chips. I thought I had enough, but we ran out of drinks, sour cream, tomatoes and bean dip. Sam and Jason made a quick run to the convenience store around the corner for more pop, and the rest was not a big deal anyway…everyone got enough, and since it was my family, they were all fine with it. (But, next time, we WILL have enough). So everything was going great, except when it came time to light the candles and Savannah to blow them out, Karson started screaming and crying. All I could figure is that he wanted a chance to blow them out too, so Savannah, being the sweet sister that she is, left one for him. Our birthday present to Savannah was getting her ears pierced, which we did last Monday, so that on her birthday, she could have them to show off at school. Savannah got 20 pairs of earrings for her birthday (at her party), so she is all set for a long time, and she loves them all and can’t wait until she can start wearing them (in about 6 weeks!). This other sketch is from last weekend when we went to Sam’s cousin, Betsy’s wedding. Their family business is going to fairs during the summer with their food trailers and selling food like fried veggies, hot dogs, fries, sausage, and shake-em-up lemonade. So at the reception, it was no surprise to see that the favors at each place setting were carmel apples. We brought about 10 home. They were delicious. I actually sketched this at the reception.

I did this little watercolor sketch in my journal the other night. Just thought I’d share it with you. OH! This can be my “something ceramic” for the Every Day Matter’s Challenge! Yes! (I’m typing in the title of this post now.)

I am sorry about not getting my blind contour posted before I left for work today. I was busy last night working on a project and ran out of time. I actually drew this during one of my thrid grade classes today. The only problem was, I still had to answer questions and help the students with their drawings and had to be interrupted several times, which, as you might guess, is not a very effective way to do a blind contour…so since I kept getting distracted, I had to look to locate my position on the paper again, but I promise I looked as little as possible.

See the other Blind Contours over at Ink Finger.

Sam volunteered to take all three of the kids along with him when he ran up to the mall this evening to pick up his glasses. I was so excited. I had started this drawing while the kids were eating their dinner of chicken nuggets, applesauce and frozen peas (still frozen – they don’t like them cooked). So I was really glad to have the opportunity to finish it up after they all left, in peace and quiet! That almost never happens. In fact, I can’t remember the last time Sam took all three of them somewhere and I got to be home alone.
Anyway, I finally got to a page of watercolor paper in my new journal (I bound it with drawing paper and watercolor paper), so I was enjoying my drawing, and enjoying capturing the moment. I was thinking that this drawing was really cool, because it will be neat to go back and look at how my refrigerator looked at this moment in time. It so reflects our life right now. Some of the details that you may not notice are listed below, because I think it is interesting, and thought you might like to know them. In my journal, I may go back and do some writing and labeling on top of the sketch.
Starting on the freezer section, Left side…
Hanging in the clip is a dental appointment reminder on top of a postcard reminding me of another appointment.
Beneath that paper is my summons for Jury Duty at the end of the month along with the Juror’s parking permit & a map of where to park.
There are several miscellaneous magnets and photos of our friends and the kids.
The remote for my new under the cupboard mounted cd player which Sam gave me for Christmas.
In the little “My Little Artist” clip is Savannah’s certificate and award for when she was the Warner Star a couple of weeks ago…the coupon is for a free ice cream at Meijer. Clipped to the Western School District calendar is an invitation to Sam’s cousin’s wedding this weekend.
On the lower part of the refrigerator, you can see the Fridge Phonics, which have been carefully arranged by Karson, who plays with it the most. I did not draw every letter, but in real life, they are all there.
I also did not draw all the little animal magnets that are stuck there. I just drew the zebra.
Above the zebra is a drawing that Savannah made for Karson. It is a choo-choo going through a tunnel (which happens to be Karson’s favorite episode of Rubba-dubbers) and a monkey (Karson’s favorite animal) hanging out in a tree. The big face in the sky is Tub from Rubba-dubbers. I think she got a pretty good likeness!
Next to the drawing is a little magnet for poison control and above the drawing is a Degas’ dancer magnet, the only souvenir I bought when I saw the Degas exhibit in Detroit (last year?)
Oh and I should mention that although we have a “convenience center” in the door of our fridge, it had to be disabled the first day we moved into this house, because Max (just a little over a year) was having way to much fun with it!
Someday soon we are going to need a new refrigerator, but we are putting it off because this one is really old…and we are thinking that we probably are going to have a hard time finding one the exact same size to fit in the space and that we might have to redo the cupboards above it because of that. Anyway, I had fun with this challenge. I’ll add some links to others as I see them posted. I’d really like to try the inside of my refrigerator, too. But that will have to wait for another day.

Other artists’ drawings of this challenge:
Check out the inside of Lisa’s refrigerator.
Here is an inside view of Penny’s refrigerator.
Take a look inside Jenna’s fridge.
Rayna’s fridge drawing is colorful and its contents are labeled.

Sam got this sideshow gaff from a guy a while back…I think he traded him some Brill plans or something. Anyway, it sits in his office, just inside the back door, to welcome all of our guests. I know it’s weird, and I am surprised our kids are not totally freaked out by it. I was looking for something unusual to draw, and this is what I came up with. His name is Jules and you can read his story here. You’ll have to scroll down a little, it’s after the 2 headed baby and the siamese fetus skull. I did this drawing in one of the journals Sam brought back from Indonesia. The first is a blind contour…but since it is such a wierd object, I decided I had better sketch it too, so you could see that I wasn’t just forgetting that I had already drawn an eye socket when you see three.

What is your favorite flavor? Cherry, Lemon, Lime, Strawberry or Orange?

This box of Dots was purchased by my sister-in-law for decorating Christmas cookies. I had never used “Dots” for decorating, but they worked out great – they became the eyes and noses of all kinds of silly cookie characters. My favorite flavor is Strawberry. What’s yours?

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