nanke's stuff

I went back to the Museum of Natural History in Ann Arbor today in order to continue working on the drawing I started on Friday.  The main purpose as some of you may remember, was to practice drawing while wearing my contacts in preparation for my "new eyes".   However, I forgot that I have a pre-op appointment this week, and I'm not supposed to wear my contacts for the 3 days prior to it.  So, while I did go back and work on the bobcat again, I did it wearing my glasses.  It was still just as dark there, and he was still behind glass, so there was still a reflection to deal with.  Nevertheless, I did my best.  It still isn't a finished drawing, but he's definitely further along than he was.  I don't know when I'll be able to get back there, but I'd like to finish it.  Maybe I'll just wing it and try to finish it from memory. 

So, without further adieu, heeere's Bobby!

I definitely need to do something about the volume of email I get .... I simply can't keep up with it, even though I really want to and I really do try.  It takes up an inordinate amount of my time, and it's one of the reasons I haven't posted in way too long.  .....  OK, enough of the whining - I'll figure it out!

I'll be having surgery in early Oct. on one of my eyes for a cataract, then a little while after that, I'll have my other eye done.  I usually don't wear my glasses or my contacts (well, never my contacts), when I paint or draw.  I often work with very fine lines and I'm just more used to doing it without them.  My contacts are called "monovision", meaning that one eye is corrected for nearsightedness, and the other for farsightedness.   That way I never need reading glasses.   When I have my surgery, I will have monovision eyes (one of each).  The thing is, I'm not sure how that will impact doing art the way I'm accustomed to doing it.  So, today when my friend Vicki and I went on an outing to draw (we went to the Museum of Natural History in Ann Arbor), I wore my contacts to see what would happen.  It was slow going (not just because of the contacts, but also because I didn't do any warm up sketches before I dove right in).   The lighting wasn't the best, and the specimen was behind glass so I had a bit of a reflection to work around.  I didn't get very far with the drawing, as you can see.  I'm planning on going back again to work on it more, again while wearing my contacts.   I doubt I can do it this weekend, but maybe on Monday.  So, anyhow, here is the result of my first contact drawing attempt.

OK, I'll start with the recycling part.  I have lots of paper from my printer of things that for one reason or another didn't work out for me.  Some things I used and then didn't need anymore, others just made crummy copies ... it doesn't matter - I just kept all that paper.  I use it sometimes to test colors on when I'm painting, I use it when I glue things to protect my drawing table, but mostly it just sits in a pile.  Then I started doing contour drawings (mostly blind).  I really didn't want to use my good sketch books for them, and then I had this idea.  I would make little books out of the used copy paper!

What I did was put two sheets together, printed sides facing each other.  Then I used double sided tape to tape together the 4 corners.  I folded them in 1/2, also folded an 8.5" x 11" piece of card stock in half, and then used my sewing machine to sew them together.  I put 3 of my folded sheets in each booklet, giving me 12 pages to draw on!

Here's a picture of my first booklet, along with a couple of my blind contours.  I've made notes to myself on some of the drawings if I took a peek along the way.  I marked where each line started and ended, numbering them so I can tell later on what I did.  Hope this makes some sort of sense to you!

I have started avocado plants from pits before, and I decided I wanted to grow one again.  I know how to do it ..... toothpicks in their sides, hang them in water, they sprout roots and grow a shoot, and you plant them in dirt.  Well, I've been trying for several months to do it again.  I hung pits in water for weeks and weeks with nothing happening except they got rotten.  I don't like to give up once I start something, so I just kept at it.   Finally, one of the pits grew long roots.  It had about 5 of them, and I left it in the water until the roots were about 4 inches long.  It still didn't have a shoot coming out the top.   So, I put some dirt in a little pot and planted it, leaving the top of the pit uncovered.  All summer long I watered it, talked to it, turned it so different sides faced the sun, but still nothing. 
And then, one day I went outside and voila!!!! There was a tiny shoot sticking up!  It seemed to take forever, but little by little it began to grow.  And now, just look at its magnificent self!!!  It has leaves ...  it has a long "trunk" .... it's sturdy .... I love it!!!  I just hope I can keep it alive all winter.  Wish me luck!