The end of the crappy sketchbook. - Basketball

This is a glorious moment.

I have used the last page in the crappy $2 sketch book that I've been carrying around in my purse.  I took it to my son's basketball game.  The last time I sketched at his game I got the kids sitting on the bench and the court - but I didn't draw any action at all - so this time I focused on nothing but action.  It was fun - and lent itself to using lots and lots of pages and then the crappy book was done and there was much rejoicing.

Now I have added a new- much better - sketch book to my bag.  And I have yet to draw anything beyond my name in it.  I find the quality somewhat intimidating.  God help me if I ever get a moleskin.  

Weekly Sketches

Kids at Science City, geese at the park and of course - my own children.

Brush pen on the left (which I'm still getting the hang of - and sketch&wash pencil on the right)

In my endless quest to read all the books about making art (and thus avoid actually making any art) I picked up a copy of The Complete Watercolorist's Essential Notebook from the library.  Above are a few pages of me practicing techniques from the book.  One of my favorite bits from the book so far is the advice, "Life is too short to paint on bad paper."  I am ignoring that advice above.  That paper is only slightly better than painting on a thick paper towel.  I hate it.  But I am way too cheap to just throw it out, no matter how much I hate it.  So it stays around.

Zoo Trip

My mom gave us a Zoo Membership for Christmas!  So I will be drawing lots and lots of animals :)  (and people looking at animals) It's nice to see that I'm already better at it than I was over a year ago when I did the first zoo drawing lab.

Waiting for the sea lion show

My boys on the Tram

Drawing Lab 45: Drawing out your Passions

I very nearly just skipped this lab.  I feel like at least every single year of my childhood some well meaning teacher or other would have us do this.  Tear up a magazine and make a collage about yourself.  And I don't know - but somehow pictures from 'This Summer's Best Cheesecakes!' never really did much to help me express the inner-most workings of my soul.

But - then I was having a shitty day. And I was stressing out about this huge life transition I'm facing (my baby is growing up, and soon I must go out in the world to seek my fortune (i.e. get a job (ack!))) and I thought - what the hell, I clearly need to process this all somehow - so I may as well do this lab at the same time.  So I wrote about it for the proscribed amount of time and I cut up magazines and glued them and even though I still feel like it's a crappy collage with no artistic merit whatsoever (even though I added paint!) It did help me process my feelings and I was able to do some productive work with the rest of my studio morning, which otherwise would have been wasted in stress and anxiety and cookies.

This was supposed to be about "discovering my passions"  But ya, I feel pretty confidant that I already know what my passions are - and I also feel pretty confidant that even if I didn't - I'm not likely to discover them in a couple of kid's nature magazines and comic books.  There's a Vegetarian Times in there too that someone gifted a pile of to me - but really, I don't subscribe to magazines for my self.  My passions are not lying around the house in a disposable format waiting to be cut up and glued down.