No 'Plug Ugly' Here

EDM Challenge #66  Draw a fire hydrant.

I learned about "Plug Uglies" when I watched "Gangs of New York" several years ago.  As the sum of human knowledge is available on Wikipedia, I invite you to look there to learn more.  One thing that I didn't actually find in the Wikipedia article, which makes me doubt my memory, is that these Plug Uglies were employed by a particular fire company, and would go and sit on a fire plug in front of a raging fire to make sure a competing fire company didn't get there first and get the money.  I'm not going to get into the socialism debate because I'd rather politics not be a part of this blog, but I'm just glad the fire department operates differently now.

This is drawn from a photo I took this fall when our family was in line outside Hot Doug's (are you in Chicago?  Go there.  Yes, you'll stand in line.  It's worth it.).  There's a fire plug right in front, and it's one of the things my son was amused by while we waited to get inside (that's my mother-in-law steadying him...she wasn't in the drawing originally, but I added her in so you could see why his arm was pulled back).  Isn't his raincoat cute?  It's got alligators on it!

I'm in love with the 8B pencil.  It feels so good to draw with, and I love making the shadows.  I do not know how to effectively erase, though.  I'm using a Prismacolor plastic eraser, which came with my pencil kit, and I can't remove even the lightest lines and smudges.

The Nose Knows

EDM Challenge #65  Draw your nose, or a friend's, or a pet's.  Our toaster oven finally toasted its last a couple of days ago.  Since we also have no working oven at the moment, it's necessary that we get  a new toaster oven as soon as possible.  I took the opportunity while Shawn was researching toaster ovens online to draw his nose, and then I was having so much fun I just kept going!  I also occasionally weighed in on toaster ovens.  Truly, Shawn does not usually look this wild and intense -- I think I must have caught him while reading a particularly vitriolic review of  a poor oven.  I do find myself liking the slightly Rohan-ish look of him in this drawing.

I used a new charcoal pencil -- soft Pitt Charcoal by Faber-Castell.  It broke the first four times I tried to sharpen it and now it's a much shorter pencil than earlier this evening!  I hope it's okay now, because I enjoyed using it and I don't want it to disappear after a couple of sharpening sessions.

That's hard to read, isn't it?  Here's what it says along the side: "How could I stop after drawing the nose?  I just had to keep going.  This is Shawn, who let me draw him while he researched toaster ovens online.  Ours just gave up the ghost.  Our oven is on the fritz, too.  If the stovetop goes, we'll break down and order out!"  Up top it says: "(Doesn't he look a little like a king of Rohan here?  Pretty intense.)"

The Kitchen Sink

EDM Challenge #64  Draw your sink.  The sink itself isn't much to talk about.  It's a nice stainless steel sink that has been working fairly well for us.  However, it replaced another perfectly good sink and also took away much needed counter and cabinet space.  And this unnecessary kitchen renovation happened with about 10 hours of warning for us, at about 10:00 the night before.  And now, four months later, it's still not done.  And I will never get that cabinet space back and now I keep dishes in a cardboard box in the other room.  Do I sound bitter?  I shouldn't, I know.  We have running water and all sorts of luxuries.  I just need to remind myself of that whenever I start cursing the space.

This was done with watercolor and pen and ink.  I used a proper pen, with a nib and a bottle of ink.  It was fun!  Dip, draw, dip, draw.  I could see the rhythm of a calligrapher being quite calming.  Is it time to learn calligraphy?  I did find that my handwriting became much fancier with that pen in my hand.

Snowball in the new year

EDM Challenge #63  Go on a nature walk. Pick up items. Draw what you find.

Everything is snowy (finally! hooray!), and it gets dark early these days, so my nature walk result was a snowball on a white field at night.  My son threw his first snowball, too, which was fun for all!

Charcoal today.  It felt right for snow because of the texture that's automatically there on the paper.

Happy New Year!  Here's to more blogging, more drawing, and some wonderful things in the year to come.

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.