nanke's stuff

Yesterday my friend, Vicki, and I got together for a day of fun!  She brought me some wonderful goodies to play with (I'll show pics later), and we talked and laughed all day long.  One of the things we did was play with Aquabord.  I'd heard about it and read about it, but never tried it, so we gave it a go.  We each had a small (5 x 7) piece which we proceeded to paint with watercolors.  I haven't used watercolor paint in a very long time (with the exception of adding paint to quick sketches), and I always start with a sketch.  Yesterday I decided since this was an experiment, I would just go for it.  No sketch...... the painting shows it!  I definitely do better starting out with a sketch.

Anyhow,  I used a watercolor painting in one of my books as a reference, and jumped in.  I love Aquabord!  I love its texture, the fact that you don't have to stretch it or prep it in any way, and the way it takes the paint.  As for my painting itself, it definitely has some problems.  I haven't tried correcting them yet (my main issue is with the path that looks more like a wall).  When I finish this post, I'm going to try scrubbing it to see what happens.  If it works out OK, I'll redo the path and see if I can't improve on it a bit.  I'll show you the results - for better or worse.

Oh, by the way, I just remembered I can't upload pics from my camera because I'm not sure I know how.  (Sweetie, if you're reading this, stop grinding your teeth!).

I can't tell you how sad I am that Border's Books is being liquidated.  We've been going to their bookstores for decades - mostly to their flagship store in Ann Arbor.  We've watched with dismay as they made changes in their inventory.  It used to be that when you went into the store there were thousands and thousands of books covering all manner of subjects.  Browsing was such a pleasure, and we always left with several books apiece.  In spite of the changes (most of them not for the better as customers, but we understood them from a business point of view) we continued to be loyal customers.... which won't stop until our store is closed.

I was in one of their stores yesterday and bought a couple of books.  One of them is called Keys to Drawing With Imagination by Bert Dodson.  I was fascinated by the cover - such an unusual view with great, wonderful, detail.  It's a hardcover with a spiral binding, so it lays flat.  It contains the work of many artists, and is a series of exercises designed to help improve one's drawing skills starting from the ground up.  I decided to start at the beginning and work my way thru.  The first exercise is called Doodling and Noodling.  The doodle is just a continuous line that ends where it started.  The noodle is adding things to it.  So, here is my first lesson - some of my additions were the ones suggested in the book, but not all of them.  It's similar to Zen Tangling, except instead of using a variety of patterns, only one is used. 

I included a picture of the cover so you could get an idea of what drew me to this book!


                                                      

I haven't been doing much - the illness I had in March never completely went away and I've been trying to behave.  Behaving has never been my strong suit, but I've been doing my best.    Anyhow, I haven't worked on my man at all, but while sitting on the porch recently I decided to try my hand at something "arty".  I have to use the word loosely in this case.

So  first I did an ink sketch, and then later I used watercolors to fill it in a bit.   I'm not very happy with it, but on the other hand, at least I put an implement in my hand and did something with it!  So, without further adieu, here is my humble offering.

Well, I had a pretty busy day today doing a variety of things away from home.  I needed some work on my hair and the place where I go is about 35 miles from my house, so it's a major time-eater when I go there.  After that I had to go to a shopping mall (I avoid malls as much as I can) to have a picture frame engraved.  It was a gift from some dear friends in honor of our little grandson, and they weren't sure of the birth date of his older brother, so only 1 of the 2 frames was engraved.  I had to wait an hour for them to do it, which was fine except it ate up a bit more of my day.  Then I had a few other stops to make as long as I was out, so in short, the whole day was spent doing things other than drawing. 

However, after dinner I went back to the little old man I've been playing with (don't tell my sweetie, please), and did a wee bit more on him.  Little by little he's beginning to emerge.  I like fussing with him, even though it's slow going.  I don't care - it seems to suit me right now! 

On another note, apropos of nothing, after being so sick back in March and April, I've lost almost all of my sense of smell!  It's very odd, to say the least.  Enough of that .... here's my little old man.

One of our wonderful daughters-in-law, besides many other things, is a Detroit Derby Girl detroitderbygirls.com roller derby skater.  She is just awesome and skates on two teams - The Pistol Whippers, and the Detroit Derby Girl travel team.  Saturday the travel team went to Cincinnati to skate in a bout against the Cincinnati Rollergirls.  My sweetie and I drove to Cinci Saturday morning; our Nashville son and his family met us there, as did Cool Whip (our skater's on-track name) and our other son.  We all stayed at the same hotel, which gave us a bit more time together.  Our two grandsons, Clyde who's 3 and Oliver who's almost 4 months old, also came.  We knew that the children wouldn't be able to stay for the whole thing, so the plan from the beginning was for my sweetie and I to leave with them and take them back to the hotel.  It was a night bout, which made it even more certain that we  would be taking them out. 

Well, both boys were over-tired, and the poor little darlings were just beside themselves in the car - sobbing loudly.  Back at the hotel we were able to calm them, settle them, and get them to bed, afterwhich, sweetie and I turned in ourselves.  The next morning we took the kids to breakfast (all the other adults, having had a rather late night, were still sleeping) and had a great time with them.  Later we were joined by the others and hung out together before we all departed for home.

Today I did a wee bit more on my pencil version of Dot Man.  Little by little he's coming together, but I still have a lot more to do with him.  So, here he is!

P.S.  The Detroit Derby Girls won handily!!!  THEY ROCK!!!!!

Today my dear friend, Vicki, and I had a date.  We went into Ann Arbor to ramble around in a couple of thrift shops where we each found a thing or two we just couldn't do without.  I'll let Vicki tell you about her finds here: http://vickiholdwick.blogspot.com/, and I'll tell you about mine.  My purchases were modest - a wonderful little purse to use when I need just the minimum amount of "stuff"; a small vase to replace one I recently gave away filled with flowers from my garden; and a very cute wicker basket that I can hang on a hook in my studio to hold .... ???  (I'm pretty sure it will somehow fill itself up in my absence).  After eating lunch in a wonderful vegetarian restaurant (now you carnivores, just chill - the food is delicious and you don't even notice the absence of food with a face), we went to Michigan Book and Supply to browse around in their art supplies.  I bought a little 6 x 6 Bristol sketch book which I absolutely did not need.

After all that we came back to my house.  Vicki, being the computer geek that she is (her word, not mine, but it does fit, I have to admit) solved a problem I was having moving things from my desktop to an art folder.  (Thank you soooo much, Vicki).  Then we played with various colored pencils, water soluble pencils, and water soluble crayons.  I gave her a sketchbook to mess around in, and she came upon this small piece I had done awhile ago.  Then she demanded to know why it hadn't been posted here on my blog.  I had no answer or excuse for her, but did say I would put it in.

It's a very small colored pencil and ink sketch that I did just to play.  The truth is, I don't do enough playing with my art toys.  Maybe this a great reminder to myself to just relax and play with it more!  So, once again, thank you, Vicki!! 

I've been in Nashville tending my grandchildren while my daughter in law had surgery.  She's doing fine, I had a great time with the children,  and I've returned to the Mitten.  I decided I brought the N'ville weather home with me because it's been beastly hot and humid  (Temp in the 90s!) ever since I got back, much like what was going on down there.  I don't do well in that kind of weather (does anyone?), so I am ever so happy that I live in a time of air conditioning.    My friend, Vicki, told me today that it was hot before I got here and that it might Not be my fault (she's very nice that way)! 

So, now that I'm home, I started drawing again.  I decided that the Dot Man had served his purpose by getting me back to work, but I'm still not quite bursting with creative energy.  Today I started on another version of him, this time in pencil.  This is just the preliminary drawing done with a hard pencil lead.  I put on a CD of Trumpet Concertos, turned up the volume,  and started.  It didn't take long before I was totally immersed in it and the time flew by.  It felt really good to be back!  Here he is, in his humble beginnings.  The scan isn't very good ... perhaps next time I should close the cover of the scanner - wadda ya think?