Self Portrait...again

EDM #62  Draw a previous challenge in a different medium than you usually use.

While it's true that I've used pencil many times, I haven't been using it much recently, so I think this totally counts as a different medium.  I've also been wanting to try another self portrait, so I put the two together and here is the result.  It's definitely my best attempt at capturing myself thus far, and I rather like it as a drawing on its own, too.  This is from a photo of myself on a boat on the way to or from Monhegan, a wonderful island off the coast of Maine.  If I could, I would move there and draw/paint all day, every day.  Jamie Wyeth does it, and look how good he is!  But really, if you're looking for a beautiful (in a rugged, Maine sort of way) island, hop on a boat and hike Monhegan for a few hours.  You won't be sorry.

As I mentioned, this is pencil on paper.  I don't really know my way around pencils.  I know there's a range from soft to hard, and I know how it feels to draw with them, but I don't know how to use a variety of pencils to my advantage--the soft lead for shading and the hard lead for details, or something like that.  I just grab a soft-ish pencil from my kit and start in.  I'll have to experiment and try to do more with them.

Seashells

EDM #61  Draw a grouping of two or more similar objects

This one was my mom's idea--seashells!  I chose three that she had sitting in a tray around a candle and drew them.  Shells are always on my mind when we're in Florida.  It's hard to avoid them, really, and why would you want to?  When I was little, I used to walk along the beach and collect shells.  I knew the names of all of them, and I found some very beautiful ones.  I'll need to re-learn all about these shells so I can share this pastime with Simon when he gets older.

I only brought charcoal and pencils with me to Florida, but I didn't want to draw black and white shells, so I brought out the trusty old Bamboo graphics tablet and Corel Painter Essentials.  I'd missed drawing with this program!  It's very different from doing art in the "real" (not digital) world, but I don't think it's less authentic (or...not much, anyway.  I'm still a traditionalist at heart, I suppose.).  It's true that I can do things on the program that I wouldn't be able to do in non-digital art, but if I think of this program as a separate medium, and not as a cheat, I'll be happier.  I did a couple of portraits on it yesterday, too, and found that quite satisfying.  I'll put one of them below the seashells picture.

Here's a portrait I did yesterday with the tablet.  I've been doing lots of portrait drawing, and I need to start posting more of them here.  I'm quite proud of some of them!

Ned

My step-dad died a couple of weeks ago.  Ned was a wonderful man, a wonderful step-dad to my brother and me, and a wonderful husband to my mom.  Everyone who knew and loved him misses him terribly.  I will always be grateful that he was such an important part of my life and my upbringing, and I know that he had a big hand in making me the person I am today.  I'm very glad that my son and I were able to spend so much time with Ned this summer.  I did a drawing of the two of them earlier this fall, and I'd like to share it here as a small tribute to Ned.

A very small automobile

EDM Challenge #60  Draw an automobile or a part of one.  We have a car, and I like our car, and I even think that it's a good-looking car...but I just didn't want to draw it.  This car, though, this car is adorable and I loved drawing it.  This is a little wooden Wegmans (officially there is no apostrophe) truck that my dad and stepmom got for my son last year.  You can take the top off and take the little drivers out, and there are three of those canisters for the back -- a blue and a yellow one to go with this red one -- but they're currently hanging out under the sofa with about 10 board books, 5 crayons, 3 pieces of chalk, 12 bits of other toys, a few things that will make me say, "oh, that's where that went!", and one or two complete surprises.  Last time we lifted the sofa, we found a couple of forks and a packet of lobelia seeds.  There might even be a few Cheerios under there, too.  Anyway, this is a fine little truck which holds snacks like a champ and even came with its own homemade book, full of photos of beloved people and animals.  And I think it's hilarious that it says Wegmans on it.  I nice remembrance from our time living in Ithaca, NY.

I used watercolors!  I got a small travel set (great for plein air use, if I ever get comfortable with them) and a Koi waterbrush.  I still have the same problem I had when I was a little kid, where I use way too much water and can't get any details (I marvel at beautiful, detailed watercolor paintings), but that's where waterproof pens come in very handy--instant details.

I've been remiss in updating this blog, but I have done lots of drawing during naptime.  I've been very much enjoying the Julia Kay Portrait Party group I'm in and have been improving my people-drawing techniques.  I'll post some of my portraits soon.

A Sign of Fall

EDM Challenge #59  Draw a sign of fall.  We were going to go apple picking, but the weather was horrible, so we wound up at Trader Joe's picking through their selection instead.  It's a shame, because I really enjoy apple picking and I think it would have been a fun family activity, but apple season is basically over now and we missed our shot.  However, Trader Joe's apples will make delicious pies, I'm sure.

I've been wanting to try some new styles and mediums, so I ordered a set of pastel chalk online.  It arrived in the mail a couple of days ago and I've been having fun experimenting.  I've found that working with white paper, even white paper that says it's good for pastels, is frustrating, so I've been trying to do things on colored paper.  This red paper was from a little book of assorted-color construction paper that I took out of the diaper bag.  There's plenty left for toddler art, don't worry!

Old Hat

EDM Challenge #58  Draw a hat. This hat has been in my husband's family for years, probably since he was in high school. His brother got it originally, but somehow we wound up with it. It comes out at Halloween and other similar occasions. A little while ago, I put it on my son and snapped a photo.  So when I saw the challenge to draw a hat, I thought about this photo.  It's not that the hat has any significance, the photo is just adorable.

I used oil pastels, which I've struggled with in the past.  This time I drew on a large piece of paper, thinking that I would be able to get more details than if I tried to draw on something small.  In general, I think it did work better.  I struggled with the colors, though -- they don't mix the way I expect.  Drawing the fake hair was fun!

Tempting the Highlander

EDM Challenge #57  Draw a picture frame and the picture in it.  I can't believe I drew this.  This is the silliest picture in our house, but it is a very nice frame.  Here's the story:  My mom wanted to give Shawn and me a nice frame to put one of our wedding photos in, and rather than keep the photo that comes with the frame, she replaced it with a photo she had cut out of a newspaper.  The article was about romance novels, and the photo she cut out was the cover of the novel, "Tempting the Highlander."  She thought it was particularly appropriate and hilarious because Shawn wore a kilt at our wedding and I wore a white dress, and the cover shows a man in a kilt and a woman in just enough white cloth to cover the important bits.  She thought it would just be a funny little thing that we would throw away as soon as we had our wedding photos developed.  Well, here we are seven years later, and the clipping is still in the frame!  We liked it and kept it, and then we got used to it, and now I never want to change it.  Even funnier is that this picture has apparently been something that our friends are kind of afraid to ask us about!  When I showed my drawing to a friend this evening, she said, "Oh!  I'm glad to know that story!  I've always wondered about it."  She had even asked another friend about it while we were out of the room and that friend admitted that she had also wondered but had never asked.  If anyone else who has wondered about this odd little picture is reading this blog, I hope this clears some things up!

I used colored pencils today.  Usually I find myself wishing for bolder colors when I use colored pencil, but this picture was so muted to begin with, it kind of works.

More Portraits

Okay, I'm having a really good time doing portraits.  It's amazing -- in the few I've done so far, I've gotten quicker and more confident.  It's true that there's nothing like drawing every day to make you want to draw every day.

The first portrait is charcoal, but the second is charcoal pencil!  See?  I can branch out.  The second portrait was also done very quickly, which was quite fun, actually.

Portrait Party

It looks like I'm allowed to post the portraits I'm doing for the Julia Kay Portrait Party (JKPP) group on Flickr.  It's been great fun so far!  Here are the three portraits I've done.

Self Portraits

EDM #56  Draw a self portrait.  It's been a narcissistic few days.  I was excited to draw a self portrait because the last one I had done was years ago and it made me look like a scary Emily Dickinson.  So I started in on these self portraits and I just couldn't seem to get them right, so I kept going and did three of them!  Maybe I'm pickier with these than with portraits of other people because I know what I look like pretty well, so any little deviation is noticeable.  For whatever reason, though, I am not happy with any of these self portraits I'm posting.  I'm not posting the one that I didn't finish where I looked like Lindsay Lohan (seriously!  I have no idea how that happened).  Anyway, here are my three failed self portraits.  I'm going to keep working on it at some point, but I'm going to take a break from staring at photos of myself for a little while.

Also!  I just joined the Julia Kay Portrait Party group, so I'll be doing more portraits of other people.  I'm not sure if it's okay to post them on my blog.  I'll check that out.  I'm hoping that doing more portraits will help me get better at likenesses.  And I'm sticking with my old friend charcoal for now.  I like it.

Digging in the Sand, and a Doorknob

EDM Challenge #54  Draw someone or something you love.  I love many people, but this is the guy I wanted to draw.  Someone told me that the drawings I do of my son will be more meaningful to me than photographs.  I can already feel that -- I love having photographs (many, many photographs), but there's something about taking the time to draw a person that ever so slightly alters a relationship, in a good way, I think.  I've spent hours--days--gazing at my son's face and hands and feet, but it's not until I see them with my artist's eye that I notice certain tiny things about him.  In college, I drew my roommates a lot (they were so patient and kind!), and so I feel that I know them in a particular way, that I never would have felt if they hadn't sat for me.  I plan on drawing my son many, many more times as he grows up, and I know that it will help me notice tiny changes in him as he matures.  That is an exciting prospect.

I used charcoal because I've been feeling really comfortable with charcoal portraits recently.  At some point I'll need to branch out, but right now, I'm having a really good time!

EDM Challenge #55  Draw a doorknob.   I'm not sure how legible the text on the drawing is, so here's what I wrote:  This doorknob is on the nursery door, and it's the loudest doorknob in the world.  It's so difficult -- you finally finish the bedtime routine, tiptoe away, try to shut the door quietly, and "clatter, thunk!"  It also doesn't help that we have a cat who has a "thing" about closed doors, and he knows just how much noise he can make by hitting the doorknob.
These keyholes always make me think of Alice in Wonderland.

I used gouache.  I was going to put pen on top of it, but I wound up liking it with just paint, so I left it as is!

Mouth Planter

EDM Challenge #53  Draw a mouth.  I went for a walk while I was thinking about which mouth to draw for this challenge.  I passed a dentist's office that had a mouth on the sign, but I didn't really feel like drawing that mouth (and all those teeth!).  I thought about whether to draw my own mouth, or my son's mouth, or one of the cat's mouths.  Then I walked into a garden center that I've been meaning to go to for ages and saw this planter.  Well, it was too perfect to pass up -- it had to be the mouth for this challenge.  It's a rather large planter, and very striking, but I'm not sure I'd want it in my garden.  It would be like a huge, bizarre Chia Pet.

I used charcoal -- it seemed appropriate for a concrete subject.  Plus, I really love drawing with charcoal!

Tootsie Roll and Rover

EDM Challenge #52  Draw a dog.  I don't have a dog, but my mom and step-dad have a lovely one named Tootsie Roll.  We had a chocolate lab named Tootsie Roll many years ago, and when they got this Chesapeake Bay retriever/lab mix from a rescue shelter, it was impossible to call her anything else.  So now this Tootsie Roll is the second of her name.  Rover the cat is so called because my step-dad tends to call every cat Rover, so they decided to make it official.  Rover has been kneading Tootsie Roll ever since he was a kitten.  Now he's an enormous cat (not fat, just big) and kind-hearted Tootsie Roll keeps putting up with his pummeling.

I used gouache today, and am happy with some things and unhappy with other things.  I like Rover and the tail end of Tootsie, but I had a tough time with her front end and face.  Still, I'm happy with it overall.  The blue sofa was an afterthought -- I realized that drawing the sofa protector wasn't enough because it looked like they were just floating in mid-air.  I didn't want to do too much, so the sofa is barely there, but at least it gives some context.  Also, their sofa is not blue.

Sherlock

EDM Challenge #51  Draw your TV and favorite show playing.  I've had a very busy time at work recently and haven't been able to draw at all for the last couple of weeks -- I've missed it so much!  This was a really fun challenge to come back to.  I don't know what my favorite show is, but we've been enjoying watching the BBC Sherlock series, so I thought Benedict Cumberbatch might be an interesting person to draw.  I also drew part of my TV, but I was more interested in depicting the character in the show.  The challenge also states that I am to journal about why I like the show.  Well, I don't know much about journaling, but here's what I think. I like the Sherlock Holmes stories, so I tend to like adaptations of them, as long as they're done well.  This modernization of the story works particularly well, in my opinion -- especially the use of technology.  I think the writing is great, the acting is great, the music is very effective.  The only thing I don't like is that I've now watched all of the shows that have been made so far and I want more!

I was also very interested to do this particular challenge because I've been wanting to try my hand at more portraits.  I'd love to get better at likenesses.  I didn't quite nail it with this one, but I think the idea comes across.  If you've seen the show, I hope you recognize the character, at least by the scarf and coat!  I used charcoal because that's the only way I know how to do a portrait right now.

Homecoming

EDM Challenge #50  Draw your home's entryway and journal your thoughts and feelings about "homecoming".  Here's what I wrote on the drawing:  "After walking in the front door, through another door, and up a flight of stairs, this is the first you see of our apartment's front door.  I had never noticed the orange walls before.  Looking now, I can't believe I missed them!

"Friends of ours had a baby today - a little baby boy - and I remember the first time we brought Simon home.  We had left our apartment a couple of days before, and we came home completely new people, with a completely new person.  That is an amazing homecoming.  I'm very excited for our friends as they start their new life at home with their new little person."

I used oil pastels for this.  Not for any particular reason.  It just seemed like it would be fun and I wanted to celebrate 50 days-50 drawings by doing something a little different!  I'm going to relax a little bit now that I've reached 50.  I'll still try to draw something each day, but I might not worry too much about doing one of these challenges before midnight (I still have 40 minutes!).

Three Drawings and I'm Caught Up!

It's been a busy week!  Very long work days have meant no time to draw.  Today, though, I did three quick drawings, and now I'm caught up!  I wanted to do 50 days--50 drawings.  After that, I'll be more relaxed!

EDM #47  Draw a challenge from the past 1-46 that you didn't try before.  Challenge #26 said that I could draw anything I'd like, or a vegetable.  I drew an ocarina then, so this time I drew an eggplant.  This was shortly before I cut it up and roasted it.  Roasted eggplant is lovely!

I used pens today!  I've never done anything quite like that, and I'm not sure it entirely worked.  It was fun, though!  I think I'll check out some tutorials online that address cross-hatching.

EDM Challenge #48  Draw something that represents your new year's goal or resolution.  This photo is awful!  Here's what it is:  a messy bookshelf on the left, a neat bookshelf on the right; boxes and mess on the left, a nice corner to read in on the right.  The words in the middle are: "Having a baby, no child care, and working from home has really not helped us have an organized house.  Simon will be two soon, though, and it's time for us to get it together!"

I used a pencil, and it was so frustrating not being able to make anything dark!  Soft lead from now on.

EDM #49  Draw your refrigerator.  Our kitchen is not made for a refrigerator.  Or counters.  Or running two appliances at once.  Here's what's written on the drawing:  "This refrigerator does not fit in our kitchen.  We can't open the door all the way because of the heater closet.  you also have to squeeze past the dishwasher (bottom left) to get in there.  And it's better than the previous refrigerator!  I am grateful, however, to have working appliances in a nice apartment.  Even when the lights dim every time I boil water for tea.  Magnets: Bagpipes, a piano that plays The Entertainer when pressed, a bunch of tiny Vermeer paintings, Jack Nicholson's "Here's Johnny!" moment, and magnets from the vet and various restaurants.  And a key."

I used charcoal, then went over some lines with a charcoal pencil to get a little more detail.

Happy Holidays!

EDM Challenge #46  Draw something holiday themed (Chanukah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, Winter Solstice).  When the original challenges came out, this challenge happened in December, so it would have been natural to have chosen one of the subjects they recommend.  In September, though, it felt a little odd.  I had left on a shelf a couple of wooden ornaments we had gotten for Simon for his first two Christmases (one each year at the Christkindlmarkt in downtown Chicago), so I decided to draw those as my Christmas-themed drawing.  But then I thought, you know, I work at a synagogue, and Rosh Hashanah is just a few days away.  I should really be drawing something for that holiday!  Drawing number two is apples and honey, the traditional treat symbolizing the hope for a sweet new year.

I'm much happier with drawing number two.  I would have thought that flat wooden ornaments would have been much easier than an apple and a little honey jar, but the ornaments turned out kind of bland, and I really like the apple and honey!

Medicine Cabinet

EDM Challenge #45  Draw your medicine cabinet (the inside of it).  I'm afraid I didn't feel terribly enthused about this particular challenge.  I'm sure it's because I just don't care about my medicine cabinet.  It's the place where I mostly throw things that I need to look for when something has gone wrong.  It's not well organized, everything in there is tippy and rolls into the sink if I so much as look at it, and it's impossible to open without getting a smudge on the mirror.  So, with that as my introduction, here is my drawing of the inside of one of the sections of my medicine cabinet!

I used watercolor pencils -- I didn't think I'd be able to get any detail with gouache.  I think I'd like to have used pen and ink, but I don't know how yet (a future project!).

A Day at the Zoo

EDM Challenge #44  Draw an animal.  It was a beautiful, perfect day today, so we took Simon to the Lincoln Park Zoo, a favorite free city activity of ours.  I had SO MUCH FUN!  At first it was scary to take the sketchbook out of my bag, but once it was out and I was drawing, I had the absolute best time.  I'm kind of getting into this drawing in public thing!  I told Shawn that if he ever needed to get me a present, it would be a day at the zoo (or some other place, but the zoo was perfect) where I get to draw and he and Simon have a great time looking at animals.  Plus lunch.  My present should involve lunch, too.  Then Shawn came up with the idea of doing a sketching scavenger hunt at the zoo, where you roll dice to determine which animals you find and how long you sketch them.  It sounds like a great time, I think!

Because I was doing this so quickly -- it was basically gesture drawings of animals -- I used charcoal.  The only problem is that no matter how carefully I turned the page, it still got smudged.  I cleaned them up a bit when I got home, but is there a way to avoid the smudges?  I didn't want to bring a can of fixative and start spraying things at the zoo!  Any tricks and tips out there?

My Celebrity Flower Pot

EDM Challenge #43  Draw something china or ceramic.  This is a flower pot I got when a movie was filmed at my workplace.  They brought in a couple of plants to brighten up one of the offices they used as a set, and then they gave the plants away after filming.  I don't think this flower pot actually made it into the movie.  I also have the other one, which actually was in the movie, but it's not as pretty.

I started with waterproof pens and then filled in with watery gouache.  I didn't know how to show the dirt that's clinging to the inside and bottom of the pot, so I just put brown splotches!

Shawn and Simon

EDM Challenge #42  Draw something you are thankful for.  I am thankful for my family -- for their love, support, good humor, and sense of fun.  I've drawn my husband and son, but I'm thankful for my entire family -- I'm not sure I'm up to drawing everyone, though!

I'm so happy with how this turned out.  There are little things I don't like, of course -- the water around Shawn's head, the fact that the paper started to dissolve in one place where I got it too wet, the flatness of some of the colors -- but overall I'm really, really pleased.  It actually looks like Shawn and Simon!  This was from a photograph I took this summer when we went on a whale watch in Boothbay Harbor.  It was a beautiful day and we spent a good three hours out on the water.  No whales, unfortunately, but they did give us vouchers to come back.  Perhaps next summer.

Pritzker Pavilion

EDM Challenge #41  Draw a landmark of your city.  It was difficult to choose a landmark -- Chicago is full of them!  Finally I decided that I would draw the concert hall and lawn where we have spent so many hours enjoying amazing music.  This is the Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park, and the criss-crosses hold speakers so you can hear even if you sit at the very back of the lawn.  The pavilion was designed by Frank Gehry, and it always makes me think of the Simpsons episode where Marge hires Frank Gehry to design a concert hall for Springfield (he's inspired by a crumpled piece of paper), which closes, declines, and eventually is turned into the jail.  The character Snake then escapes the prison by sliding down the walls, yelling, "No Frank Gehry-designed prison can hold me!"  I'm pretty sure it's supposed to be about Disney Hall in L.A., but it makes me laugh all the same.

I dug out my old vine charcoal that I got for my figure drawing class many years ago.  It was fun to use it again.  Now I need to see if my fixative still works -- does that stuff expire?  It's been over ten years....

Folded Frog

EDM Challenge #40  Draw something with folds.  I met my friend Naomi at summer music camp many years ago.  One of the first things I learned about her was that she was obsessed with Monty Python (also a passion of mine) and frogs.  She's also very good at origami and she taught me to make these little jumping frogs.  We made so many of them that summer, and I have continued to make them occasionally over the years.  When I started working at a synagogue several years ago, I made dozens of them as place cards for the congregational Passover Seder.

I used gouache today.  I'm very pleased with how some of the shadows turned out, and less pleased with how sloppy the back left leg is.  I like the background, too -- I needed to add some color, or else it would have been a terribly boring drawing.  I did make a mistake in the writing (I was thinking ahead and skipped a word) and I tried to cover it up with paint, but it just didn't work!  Oh well -- no big deal.

Toothbrushes

EDM #39  Draw your toothbrush.  Years ago we were at a new music event that had a silent auction and drawing.  You could sign up to win different prizes, and we put our names in for a Sonicare toothbrush.  It had been donated by a dentist, and she was so excited to give it to us when we won!  We both used that toothbrush for a long time (there are removable heads...we weren't sharing a toothbrush).  A couple of years ago, though, Shawn went to Tanglewood for a couple of months and I bought a cheap toothbrush to use while he was away.  I guess I got back in that habit, because I've bought several more since then.

I used watercolor pencils today.  I think gouache is much better for bright colors, but for more muted colors like these, the pencils are nice.

Pumpkin

EDM Challenge #38[1]  Draw something related to Halloween.  I make pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving, but not usually at Halloween.  If you show me a pumpkin, though, I'll think of fall apple picking and Halloween before I'll think of Thanksgiving.  So I don't quite know what to make of this pumpkin pie dish--perhaps I should start using it at Halloween, too!  This was a gift from my step-mom a few years ago, and I like it very much.  It's a very pretty way to serve an otherwise unremarkable-looking pie.  There's a typo in the recipe in the next to last line -- "pasty" instead of "pastry".  I contemplated fixing it for the drawing, but decided to copy it faithfully.

I used gouache for the painting and then charcoal pencil for the recipe.  I wanted to use pen, but I still need to buy a black pen, and it wouldn't have shown up if I'd used brown.  I need to get around to an art supply store!

Drawing at a Museum

EDM Challenge #38[2]  Draw at a museum. Today's challenge did not go as expected, which was not a bad thing!  We went to the Roy Lichtenstein exhibit at the Art Institute of Chicago -- it's closing on Monday and I love his stuff and wanted to get in to see it.  It was an amazing exhibit.  Very well curated, as always, and I learned a lot and got to see some of his paintings up close.  I went through the whole exhibit and then went back to the one I had chosen to draw.  It had a "do not photograph" sign on it, but I thought that was to do with the camera, not with copying it.  There was a bench right in front of it, too.  Anyway, I got my stuff out and the guard came over and told me that I wasn't allowed to sketch that painting.  Did she really think I was that good?  And it's not as though there aren't photographs of it in the world.  Here's the link to the wikipedia file: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Little_Big_Painting.jpg

Well, I'm a shy person and I hate being yelled at by guards, even gently, so I apologized and basically ran away from the exhibit.  Then I went into the modern wing and sat down to draw a sculpture I like.  I had just gotten my book and pencils out when I was approached by someone.  At first I thought, "what is this, a moratorium on sketching at the Art Institute today?"  But no, it was a student at the Art Institute whose project was to draw his own portrait, and then be drawn by a few different people.  I guess with a blank sketchpad in front of me, I looked like an artist!  I said sure, and did a little 10-minute line drawing for him.  My hands were shaking!  It was so cool to be asked, though, and to be a part of this kid's project.  It was such a unique experience.  This drawing in public thing has really opened my eyes.  There's a plein-air painting group in Chicago -- maybe I'll look into joining them!

So I didn't get to keep the drawing, of course, but I asked if I could take a photo of it.  I'm incredibly pleased with the fact that in ten minutes, with shaking hands, I managed to do a drawing that kind of actually looks like the kid!  I think drawing every day for 38 days has started to sharpen my eye.  I need to do a few more portraits and see how they feel.

Drawing in Public!

EDM #36  Draw in public.  I have to say, this challenge scared me a lot.  I am accustomed to drawing--and making mistakes--in the privacy of my own home, not under the scrutiny of strangers.  It's been years since I've taken an art class, and it's been ages since I've been able to go and just sit in a cafe or a park with nothing else to do but draw.  This was the challenge, though, so I went to a neighborhood cafe, ordered an iced coffee and sat outside at a table.  I found myself kind of rushing through this -- trying to get it done before anyone noticed.  There were people sitting nearby and walking by, but no one seemed too interested.  But very near the end, terror of terrors, someone came over to see what I was doing.  He turned out to be a very kind man.  He told me that I should do the drawing in color and sell it to Roost (the shop in the drawing) for fifty bucks.  "And two extra dollars for a nice gold frame." Good entrepreneurial spirit.  On the whole, it was a very pleasant experience, and I should do it again.

I chose charcoal pencil, my fastest medium, not knowing when Simon would wake up from his nap.  I got more and more detailed the longer I was allowed to sit there, but it's still very sketchy.

Keys

EDM #37  Draw some keys.  I skipped #36 (draw in public) because I couldn't go outside during Simon's nap.  Hopefully I'll be able to tomorrow.  These are my work keys.  I'm not sure what one of them does.  I do love my pretty little Edelweiss Swiss Army knife -- I need to always remember to take it off my key ring whenever I fly.  I don't want to lose it!

I used my charcoal pencil today.  I thought keys would work well with it.  Honestly, my favorite part of this drawing is the key ring.

A Bicycle Built for Two (or three)

EDM Challenge #35  Draw a bicycle or a part of one.  My boss and his wife ride a tandem bicycle together.  It's totally adorable.  They are going to have a baby in September, and I really, really hope they get to recreate this scene.  I hope it brings to mind a nearby picnic on the lake, and not a lonely, sad, empty bicycle.

I had fun with this one -- trying to fill most of the page with paint.  I used a lot more paint than I usually do!  I don't know what to do with backgrounds.  Do you start with the background and hope that it doesn't bleed through to your foreground stuff?  I started with the bike and then painted things around it, but you can totally tell.  Is that just something I have to live with if I'm using watercolors?  I'm terrified of oil painting, but it would be nice to just paint over an already-dried background -- or something I didn't like!

Look, it's fall!

EDM Challenge #34  Draw a fall leaf.  When I first started these challenges, it was mid-July and the end of summer seemed ages away.  I scanned the list to see what I had to look forward to and I saw 34, draw a fall leaf.  34 days from mid-July?  There's no way there will be any fall leaves yet.  But here we are, the end of August, and fall is definitely in the air, even if the temperature isn't cooperating.  This is one of the millions of black locust twigs that will fall on our street over the next month.

Gouache on cold-press paper today.  I don't feel a huge difference between cold- and hot-press paper.  I can feel that there is a difference, I just don't see it affecting the way I'm working with it.  I'm trying to choose hot-press for the more detailed subjects and cold-press for the simpler ones, but I'm not sure whether it's helping.  I wish I'd been able to get a finer line on the top of the twig, but overall, I'm pretty happy with the way this turned out!

Cat's Eye

EDM Challenge #33  Draw an eye.  I've worked a lot on drawing human eyes, but I realized that I've never tried to draw a cat's eye.  So when I thought about which eye to draw for this challenge, I figured it might be fun to try to draw our cat Nigel's eye.  I had to do it from a photo or else I would have had to keep waking him from his nap (I wish he had the same compassion for us in the middle of the night).  Cat's eyes are interesting!  I wasn't able to show the layers and textures that you can see when you really study them, but I think I got some of the cool stuff across.

I used gouache today and kept wishing that I had a good way to draw the fur.  I tried a fairly dry brush with barely watered down paint, but it kept looking more like feathers than fur.  Hopefully the drawing looks more like a cat than a rooster!

Metal

EDM Challenge #32  Draw something metallic.  This is a pot that I got on serious sale at Now You're Cooking in Ithaca, New York, where I worked for a little while after college.  I learned so much working at that store -- when and how to use certain cookware, how to hone and sharpen knives, what to call some of the very specialized tools, as well as how to deal with customers and use a cash register.

I went back to gouache today.  I've been very happy with some metallic textures I've gotten with charcoal, but I decided to challenge myself and try it with paint.  I didn't do any pencil sketching before I dove in with paint, which is why the handles are a bit smaller than they ought to be.  I'm not sure what I like better -- I like the freedom and devil-may-care feeling of just starting paint on a blank sheet, but I also strive for accuracy.  I'll have to do more and see what feels better.  I am, however, very happy with the copper color.  I went a little overboard with the white on top of it, but there were a lot of reflections!

Collection

EDM Challenge #31  Draw something you collect.  I'm not really a collector.  I'm a hoarder, certainly; I don't throw things away easily.  But I don't tend to try to collect a bunch of one kind of thing.  At least, that's what I thought when I first saw this challenge.  Then I thought, no, wait.  I definitely collect musical instruments.  Shawn and I both do.  It's kind of a habit of ours.  And it's so much fun to go into a music store and look around and try a bunch of stuff--and then you think, hey, I could learn to play this!  Most of our instruments are totally useful.  We gig with them and they've paid for themselves many times over.  That blue piano, though.  What are we going to do with it?

Colored pencils today.  No reason, I just didn't know what I was going to draw beyond the first two pianos, and I didn't want to use paint for those two.  Instruments are very monochromatic, really, and I thought I didn't want to just use black paint for a black piano and blue paint for a blue piano.  Then I started adding the other stuff, and I guess paint would have been nice.  I like this, though.  It feels sketchy (in a good way).

Poang

EDM Challenge #30  Draw a chair.  This is the oldest, rattiest chair in my house, but also the only one I can actually say anything about.  My mom and step-dad got this chair sometime in the 80s, I believe.  It had already been worked over pretty well by several cats by the time I took it with me after college, and since then our two cats have had quite a time with it.  It's got rips and stains and there are bits of fluff and string hanging from the back where the cats really work at it, but I still really like it.  When we finally get rid of it (and I know that eventually we'll have to), I'll be rather sad to see it go.

I had such a good time with the charcoal pencil a couple of days ago that I decided to do this one in charcoal, too.  It's a beige chair with light wood, so color wouldn't really add all that much.  This is a "hard" charcoal pencil, whereas the appliance challenge was drawn with a "soft" pencil.  I'm not really sure which I prefer.  This kind of felt like a messy #2 pencil, and I think I prefer my charcoal a bit...fluffier.  But I do like the result.  My charcoal pencils also need sharpening and I have no idea how to go about that.  Any suggestions?

Andersonville Water Tower

EDM Challenge #29  Draw something architectural.  I live in a city with amazing architecture and I work in a historic building, but I'm not going downtown today, so I chose something iconic from the neighborhood.  This is the Water Tower in Andersonville, on which they paint a Swedish flag, to celebrate the neighborhood's Swedish-American heritage.

Watercolor pencils today.  I was originally using them as a way to do a quick sketch, and then I was going to go over them with gouache, but I wound up liking the lighter, simpler look of this.  I wish I hadn't done the brick part of the building, though.  It's too dark and you can't really tell what it is.  I did enjoy doing the clouds, though.