Pencil Shavings

365 Days of Art - Day 37 it's a zoo around here

My last day at the zoo for a while.  The 365 challenge was actually great to do here.  I was really forced to look and study before I drew anything, which was a really good lesson for me.  I have a tendency to start drawing and look later - which usually leads to a lot of false starts!

This is one of the fish that lives in the hippo tank (talpia I think they are called) the like to hang out at the glass and watch the kids, who like to hang out and watch the fish!

I also did some really quick gesture drawings of the ostriches. We all know what they look like but they are actually a bit difficult to nail down on paper because their proportions are so different from other animals.

 I have enjoyed my time at the zoo and I hope when the kids are at school I can do a morning every couple of weeks to keep my observation skills sharp.

I'm still not quite ready for painting.  The act of holding the brush up is a bit much for me right now.  I am hoping that my healing keeps up the pace it has up til now.  Then I should be painting in a week or two

365 Days of Art - Day 36 (I forgot the waivers!)

 I was reading in a magazine recently that you should always have model release forms with you if you are going to take a picture or  draw someone that you see in a public place.  I'm sure how practical that is in reality.  I know that my models from couldn't have signed even if I had the forms with me.

I have been enjoying my mornings at the zoo while the kids are at camp.  Many times we go to the zoo and just have a quick peek into the exhibits and move on, trying to make the most of our day.  But knowing that I have an hour of drawing to do makes me look for a quiet spot, hopefully with a bench to sit on, in the shade, and wait to see what will present itself.

I hung around the side of the gorilla exhibit, but only managed a few quick gesture like sketches, because they were just too busy.  However, given the economy of line I think I managed to get the essence of her.  I also met a young artist who asked me some questions.  It was very rewarding

to talk to him, and to encourage him, even if I had to be very truthful in telling him that, in fact, very few artists get rich.

There was a nearly empty seating area near the African Savannah building.  I sat down to see the ostriches, and much to my surprise two zebras came walking right over to me to see what I was doing.  I took some pictures and then sat down to observe and sketch them.  Once again, I got the basics down after watching them for a while, but with their constant grazing, (and the ostriches flapping and running around) I had trouble getting a good look at their stripe pattern, and just did the best I could.

It's been a good week.  Tomorrow is our last day, but I might come back to the zoo on my own when the kids are in school.

365 Days of Art - Day 35 (the remix!)

Well - I am back.  A little tentative, a little self-conscious, and still nursing the wounds that got me in this mess.

But, I am back in the saddle (so to speak) for the 365 Day Challenge, and even though my arm is still hurting me, my hand is working and so am I.

After taking a highly unscientific poll of my community and my online artists colony, I am not restarting the days, just picking up from where I was so rudely interrupted.

It's zoo camp week for my kids so I stay at the zoo in the mornings (before the rush of parents exasperated with their kids and looking for diversion) when the grass is still dewy and the animals are fresh and curious about what the day will bring.

I've been taking hundreds of photos too, so there will be more "zoo" in the future on these pages.

There are some real challenges about sketching the wildlife, in the "wild".  It's not at all like working from a photo, because these guys are busy and moving around in the mornings.

The elephants were so busy playing with the new toys the keeper had put out for them, and snacking on some treats that had been left for them, that I could only do gesture sketches of them as they wandered.

I have learned (or rather re-learned) a lesson from this.  Keep your eyes on your subject.  Really look at them, or it, for a long time before you even put that first mark down on paper.  Especially with live animals.  Sometimes you will never get the right "pose" but you can capture their essence if you are a good observer.

I'm working at being a good observer.  Which my injury has actually forced me to do.  Because I cannot draw and redraw for as long as I please.  I definitely have limits to how long I can work on one drawing before I need to move and stretch.  So observing carefully helps me not waste time on the paper going back and going over.

Rainy Days and Tuesdays

It's raining today.  It's the second day of zoo camp for the kids, and I was going to take my sketch kit to the zoo to get some work done, but the rain will make that challenging.

I'm not fully back on to the 365 Day Challenge. I my arm still isn't quite up to that, but i have manged to put pencil to paper just a bit to make some kind of drawing.  I am hoping that soon I'll be ready for the full hour again.

Yesterday I mostly wandered the zoo just after opening, listening to the animals and watching the peacocks, and the pea hens with their chicks.  There was a chance to see a lot before the crowds arrived.  I was discouraged by the behaviour of the zoo patrons yesterday.  The peacocks are shedding their tails and I saw a woman chasing one trying to get a feather.  I hope he turned and pecked at her.

I found a feather a few minutes later and gave it to a little boy, who thought I was some kind of magical creature handing out treasure.

I took lots of pictures - so there will be zoo drawings in the future, they might just not be from life.

Me, Unplugged

In a few short hours I will be unplugging and having a weekend free of electronic stimulation (I hope).

I'm taking the kids to a cabin by a lake.  I'm hoping that I will get to relax and work on healing all my wounds, physical and otherwise.  I really want to be able to hold a brush or a pencil by Monday so I can hang out and sketch at the zoo while I wait for my youngest to finish her camp.

I love painting and drawing at the zoo.  I really want to be able to do that.

although, if I cannot, I hope I can still take a picture or two :-)

Have a great weekend my friends and I'll catch you next week!

Just When You Thought It Couldn't Get Any Better....

My husband woke me up about four hours too early this morning to drag my scraped, oozing, brused body downstairs so I could then drag the recycling bin from the pantry to the back door so he could dump it into the blue bin and wheel that out to the alley.

Huh? The only explanation I can think of is that he had accidentally stepped in something unfortunate while taking the garbage bags out.  I suspect I won't ask him, because he hates it when I point out his um.... Insane Idosyncrasies^TM .

I also woke up with a whole new symphony of pain in my body from the faceplant/wipeout/dermabrasion I did on Monday night.  I have muscle pains in my neck, back, shoulders, abdomen, and in the muscles of both forearms.  The bruises are starting to surface too.  Which is making it difficult for my husband to actually want to be seen with me.  I have a bruising near both eyes and my right arm is swollen to about a third again it's normal size. I'm just glad that the weather is good so I can wear short sleeves and not have any of my wounds wind up sticking to my clothes... although in reality if it was cold I wouldn't have been out playing ball in the first place.

The good news is that we might be heading out to a central Alberta Lake with the kids for a little break from the city.  And I can probably hideout behind my enormous sunglasses for a few hours and the hub will at least acknowledge that he knows me!

Good Thing My Doctor Likes Me

Or she might have been offended when I kissed her!

OK... in the interest of full disclosure... I didn't really kiss her.

But, she did tell me that the pain and mobility issues I'm having are all due to swelling, and that the elbow and wrist joints are fine.

and that means that when the swelling goes down, the pencil will be picked up and I can get back to work - and I'm really, REALLY excited about that.

I'm also really happy that so many of my friends, colleagues and cyber-artist-commune residents told me to stop being childishly stupid and get over having to push pause on the 365 Day Challenge.  I will be happy to get back to work and start at Day 35 and work from there.  I'm hoping that the swelling has gone down by next week so I can sketch at the Zoo while the kids are at camp... I love sketching at the zoo.  :-)

Frustration in Overdrive

 Now seriously the fact that I am trying to type this blog with only my left hand should be my biggest clue, and only confirmation needed that I have to put myself onto the disabled list for the 356 Days of Art.  Despite that, I have tried several times today with brushes and pencils to see if I could do anything. But with two bad hands, a wrecked elbow and bruises aplently on my lower body the simple act of sitting to work is a test of stamina and toughness.  I think that I need to just admit that I need to stop now.

A good number of my artist friends have insisted that when I am healed I should start back at Day 35 and continue from there.  A great writer friend said that in reality starting over would negate all the great stuff I have done so far.  In fact the there was no one who said just soldier through and do what ever you can.  And not a single person (aside from myself) said that I should start over at day 1.  In fact many suggested that since this was not a question of giving up, or deciding that I didn't have the time, that it didn't really count.  After all if I wasn't hurt I would be drawing right now.  I am committed to this, and I do want to continue.

So I think that I will just rest up and give myself the time let my skin,muscle and bones heal.  While I keep pecking away one handed on this blog and trying to not give in to the frustration.

365 Days of Art - Day 35 - never give up - unless...

you wipe out running to first base in your softball game and tear the skin of your palms and elbow and sprain the thumb of your drawing hand.

My elbow is also pretty seriously wounded in a really bad scraped up (oh that's what that would look like kind of way) and I skinned my right leg from thigh to shin.  I broke my glasses in half, and have a scrape on my nose and forehead.

I tried to convince myself, as I lay in bed trying to find a comfortable position to lie in , that I could still complete the challenge.  At 3am I couldn't stand it and got up and tried to hold a pencil, and could not for more than a few seconds.

I am not a quitter.  But I can't complete the challenge.  At least not now.  I am going to have to take a few days off to heal up.  The question for me is, do I start over at day one again, or do I say that since I was willing but physically could not draw, that I can resume at day 35.  I'm not sure of the answer to that one yet.

365 Days of Art - Day 34 - sweet!

Another sweetpea flower on the 365 Day challenge for Sunday, and another drawing from a picture on the computer screen.

By the time all the activities of the day had settled down enough for me to do my drawing the sun was sinking and I couldn't plunk my butt down in the garden to draw, and my husband has refused my request for more ear drawings.  (how selfish!)

I worked on this one for about 40 minutes before I started mixing up colours on my acrylic palette to start testing skin tones for my new painting.  There is no magic formula for making skin tones, but I'm working with ultramarine blue and burnt sienna for the deep African skin tones I need.  I'm good with the fair and nearly translucent skin of my kids, but this is a new challenge for me and an exciting one.  I'm pretty happy with the variety of shades I can get with this mix (and with adding zinc white to the mix for the lighter areas.)  I think that in the end the skin colours will glaze nicely over the underpainting, and I hope I'll get a really nice deep and complex painting from it.