Remembering Warmer Days

Today we have had more snow than any December. It is cold and windy. So I thought I would think of a warmer time. I was sitting on the deck and began sketching my grill. As I progressed I realized I had managed to capture another image within the grill. I realized that the reflections that captured in the grill was actually a picture of my house.


What do you unintentionally capture in your drawings?
Another warmer day at the beach.

Back to Work I Go

I rejoined the workforce this week after 10 months of semi-retirement. You would think that I should have lots of time to sketch and post, but alas the to-do list seems to get in the way.

I have managed a few sketches from time to time, just not found the time to get them posted. This morning was a good opportunity for me to get something posted. I found a new pencil the other day and finally ordered one. It is the MLP2 Zebra, a 9mm 2B flat lead mechanical pencil. This morning I made a quick sketch while I was at the coffee shop.


Better detail of the sketch.

More Waiting Room Art

The other day I made a trek to the doctors office for my annual poke and prod session and did some sketching while I did the obligatory wait. I spied the lights over the reception desk and decided to sketch them.

When I went to one of my sketching classes I showed some of my sketches done during the week between classes to the other folks in the class. Someone mentioned that they looked like wine glasses from their viewing angle (upside down).

Dabbling in Color

Well, I have finally scanned another sketch class effort. I first sketched the flower with pen and then added the watercolor. It was fun, but I can really see that I need some help and practice with the colors.

Hopefully I will get more opportunities to work with this approach.

Last Class of Summer

The last class of the summer we went to the National Botanical Garden and did our sketching. I started with a charcoal pencil for a while.


Then I switched back to Pen for these.


I used white charcoal pencil for highlites.

Getting Nudged Back Into Sketching Again

Well, I promised to be more consistent with my posts and to do more sketching. Guess I didn't count on all the interruptions that come with selling a house and moving.

The house is sold, we are moved and life is slowly finding a new pattern for normalcy.

I decided to give myself another nudge and signed up for another class at the Smithsonian. This is a sketching class on Saturday mornings with Max Karl-Winkler. It is sort of like a sketch crawl on the National Mall every week.

Here are a few of the sketches I have made in the last couple of weeks...


More to come ... you'l just have to take my word for it this time.

99 Things

Saw this here, and thought I'd try it ...

Here are the rules: Bold the things you’ve done and post on your blog!

1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band – high school band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo.- can’t even sing in a crowd
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea.
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill – called a mental health day
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise – a Navy cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language – do computer languages count?
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied -- I'm satisfied right now.
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted – does a caricature count?
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business –Consulting Software Engineer
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving -- why do people jump out of perfectly good planes?
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book.
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Kissed a stranger at midnight on New Year’s Eve
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee

Nudge Me!

Bosses of a publishing firm are trying to work out why no one noticed that one of their employees had been sitting dead at his desk for FIVE DAYS before anyone asked if he was feeling okay.

George, 51, who had been employed as a proof-reader at a New York firm for 30 years, had a heart attack in the open-plan office he shared with 23 other workers. He quietly passed away on Monday, but nobody noticed until Saturday morning when an office cleaner asked why he was still working during the weekend.

His boss Elliot said "George was always the first guy in each morning and the last to leave at night, so no one found it unusual that he was in the same position all that time and didn't say anything. He was always absorbed in his work and kept much to himself."

A post mortem examination revealed that he had been dead for five days after suffering a coronary. Ironically, George was proofreading manuscripts of medical textbooks when he died.

You may want to give your co-workers a nudge occasionally.

Thankfully I got a nudge from Anna (See.Be.Draw) and decided to wake up. We all go through our dormant periods and some times it takes a nudge from a friend to get us back in the groove. I might not be completely back in the grove but I think this nudge from Anna might help me get started.

While I Was Away...

On my last visit to India I stayed in the Ellaa Suites Hotel in Hyderabad. During my stay the hotel hosted the Hyderabadi Food Festival. There were all kinds of food dishes representing many food preparations from all over India and especially from Hyderabad. One of the features were Hookah pipes with a variety of herbal fruits. The pipes were a variety of shapes and colors.
Some very interesting sketch material.

Now, where was I?

My last post was all too long ago. I have been whirling about in a daze it seems. Between work and taking care of two houses 100 miles apart, I have not taken time to post any new sketches.

Since my last posting of images, back in May I have been to India twice and to New Mexico again. My stays in India were mostly work and little play, but I did manage a couple of sketches.

My trips took me to Hyderabad, in the southern part of India. Hyderabad is known for a lot of things but the one that most people notice first off is the rocks. Yes, rocks. There are these very unusual rock formations all over the place. Most of them look as if they are man made. I noticed one formation not far from the hotel I stayed in and took time to sketch it.

Blog Award! Me?

Thank you Mike for my nomination for the Blog Award! I am honored to be a mentor. Although, I could take some lessons from you as well. This is a heck of a way to get me to update my much neglected blog.

I now have to select 7 blogs which I feel should be nominated. This is not so easy because there are so many blogs which demonstrate the sketching/paintings style and skill which I draw inspiration from. Most of the following blogs are already on my ‘Amazing’ list:

Not in any special order
Jeanette Jobson - Illustrated Life
Karen Blados - Sketch Blog
France Bellville - Wagonized
Juj. – Everything Is Contextual
Terry Banderas – Ink and Watercolor
Susan Buchanan - an Open [sketch]Book
Miguel Herranz – free[k]hand

To accept:
Right click on the award to save it to your computer. Then you can insert it into your blog.
The rules of acceptance are:
Put the logo on your blog.
Add a link to the person who awarded you.
Nominate 7 other blogs.
Add links to those blogs on yours.
Leave a message for you nominees on their blogs.

Watchfull Eyes

I thought I would sneak in another post before I head for the airport - off to India.

It seemed as though everywhere I looked I saw surveillance cameras while I was in England. The were on street posts in London, they were on lamp posts in towns along the railroad, and they were on all sides of the Six Bells Pub.

This is sketch is of cameras I saw in London. Done with the Pilot Hi-Tec-C pen and washed with a waterbrush.
This sketch of cameras in a town along the railroad is also done with the Pilot Hi-Tec-C pens, but without the wash.

New Pens Put to the Test

For Christmas last year my son gave me a set of Pilot Hi-Tec-C .3 mm gel pens. The set has 10 different colors. When I learned of these pens I thought they were waterproof. But on experimentation I found that they were not. At first I was disappointed but later I decided it was a good thing. Here is a photo of some of the pens. These are not easily found in the U.S. of A.This is a simple color chart I made and used a waterbrush to create a wash effect. I found that the Blue and Yellow did not wash as well as the other colors.This is a drawing I made of some chimney pots while I was in England. I used the Black pen and a waterbrush to create the wash effect.

Back Home for a Short Visit

Well, I am back home for a short visit before I dash off to another part of the world. My London trip was mostly business and I seemed to get very little time to myself. But I did take time over the weekend to tour London and do a little sketching.

This sketch is a tree in the church yard next to the Six Bells Pub, where we had dinner several times. The tree had been cut back reveling very gnarled limbs. There were tufts of leaves indicating new growth here an there.

Just Some Doodles Before I Go

I thought I might get in one more post before I zip off to London. The other day I was waiting for my bride so I decided to work on some pen techniques. This first is the result of a scribble that morphed into the start of a face.This next is a preliminary drawing of a breast stroke swimmer - a project that has been bouncing about my mind of late. It needs work . . . but the concept is getting clearer.

Artomatic Preview

These are previews of the five drawings I will be putting up at the Artorama this weekend.
A drawing of my Dad as he posed on his adobe brick making machine in Albuquerque, NM.
Arthur's Shoe Repair. Arthur retired last November and I have a feeling that this sign is not long for this world.

This is a crane (Duh..) it seems to be a dominant sight on the landscape these days.
This is a re-do of my RFK Camera Guy in my sketch book. Just before I went to Albuquerque I was at a Nationals baseball game and he caught me on camera and put my mug on the big screen - I made fan of the game!
This fountain in Albuquerque always intrigued me so I had to draw it. The big 'pots' are actually made of copper and I tried to find out what they are called - nobody knows! The best I could find was Bahri - so the title of this one is "Los Bahri" until I learn better.

Busy Making Art?

The last day of the figure drawing class one of the other students declared that she was going to participate in Artomatic (see the link in sidebar) and wanted someone to share her space with her. Trinka (our enthusiastic instructor) talked me into participating with Ami. Soooo. I have been trying to get stuff ready while traveling to New Mexico and now having to dash off to London. So I will be trying to get some posts in before I leave and provide a preview of the work I will be putting up at Artomatic.

This drawing was the last one I did for the figure drawing class using the Nexus art pens and oatmeal speckletone paper.

A Figure Drawing Experiment

I came across Cachet Earthbound sketch books from Daler-Rowney and am fascinated with the paper - oatmeal colored Speckletone. It really has an interesting feel and enhances figure drawing. I want to try some other things with it as well. Here I am using Nexus Art Pens (yellow-ocher, and light-sepia) from Koh-l-Noor and Conte pastel pencil for highlighting.

Back to Figure Drawing Class

I tried something different in figure drawing class this time. I wanted something loose and maybe a little color. These were done with watercolor.

Small Works

Every day before I would go to the hospital to visit my Dad I would stop by the local Cyber Cafe to check my email and catch up on work related stuff. One day I was inspired to make a quick sketch and all I had handy was a business card...so I did a quick sketch on the back side of the card.
That night I was at one of my favorite restaurants in Albuquerque and was inspired by the line of Tequila bottles on the bar back in front of me. So, once again I grabbed a business card and sketched a small drawing.