The Lap Model

Full blown "me" mode.  Slacking & procrastinating.  Playing catch up.  Sketches 17-20:

First up, a brush pen.  The uptight and grumpy inner critic growled.  "What up slacker?  Brush pen?!  You've barely used the thing - can't try something new.  It will take forEVER to be any good.  QUIT!"   It's obvious the artist was on edge here.  Too tight, too rushed, too eh.  I did warn that some of these could be kind of awful, so, yeah.  Since I am a novice with the brush pen, we shall call it a warm up page.

Continuing on with the brush pen, but with looser strokes and more focused on the task this time, even though I was simultaneously watching a Bronco game.  Fortunately they were doing quite well and not a close game, otherwise there would be no cat to sketch.

More Milo, now with my favorite Zebra F301.  I obviously put off sketching until feline paralysis kicked in.  (Also known as cat-on-lap syndrome.)  It's a nice treat to get more than the usual butt, back, & ears pose.

As I finished typing this, Milo returned to "his" lap.  I am trapped.  I'd take a photo to show you, but there are too many "Look at my goofy cat on my lap" pics on my phone.  See drawings above and right.  Since I can't get up, I guess it's nap time... or I could draw... the cat... again.

He's snoring now.  Supper may be late,

Fossil Walk

Yesterday was National Fossil Day and our university museum declared it a free day.  My college self sketched in this museum eons ago.  I've always wanted to go back.  Also, I wasn't able to fully participate in Sketchbook Skool's  museum drawing lesson last April.   The planets aligned & pages of fossils & fur are now in my sketchbook.

6:30 pm  Gather sketchbooks and pens.

6:45 pm  Walk through museum doors with anxiety and excitement.

6:50 pm  Meander... Where to start?

6:52 pm  Empty area found.  With my back to a corner & Roz' warm up mantra in my ear, commence sketch of hugemongous leg bones.

6:55 pm  Two college guys appear nearby.  I start on a whale-ish skull and am distracted - hoping they ignore me.  Mojo gained is quickly fading & I move on.

Other than the fun coincidence of seeing my daughter's college friends, I was alone for about 30 glorious minutes.  Just me and some very old and very skinny buddies.

Then the program for kids ended and a constant trickle of families flowed through the museum.  I need to work on maintaining focus in the midst of varying distraction.  One more page of bones after the mammoth and I moved on to furry specimens.

I intended to sketch people too, but the kids were in zoom mode and I stuck with fur & antlers.  Six pages added and 40 minutes till closing.  The sketching bug was giving way to the food & couch bug.  I wrapped up with a page of blind contours.  Fun stuff.  A yearly museum pass sounds like a pretty cool deal right now.

Oh, and I'm counting these three pages for #inktober 14, 15 & 16.  Halfway there!

Couch with a View

One busy weekend later - three drawings behind.  Tonight was catch up time.  #Inktober 11, 12 & 13 complete.


A relatively quick view from the couch.

Milo moments.  Sleeping cats seem motionless... until you try to sketch them.

Milo chose to end the portrait session.  The headline of the yet-to-be read paper was perfectly positioned.

Skin & Bones

I missed a day.  (#inktober)  I didn't quit.  I win.

Day 7 - I like Halloween decorations that make you smile.  Day 8 - Foreshortened fingers.

Day 10 - View from the couch on a rainy autumn evening.  Farmer (and cat & dog) snoozing while the pen scratches away.

Berries & Boots

Inktober continues!

Day 4: Schwartzbeere (delicious local wild "black" berries that have overtaken my garden) using various pens.   The current Sketchbook Skool homework is illustrating a recipe.  I've picked a German fruity coffee cake called Kuchen.

Day 5:  Okay, the little scratches above the shoes happened on day 4.  It's wheat drilling (planting) time and we're rather busy here.  I neglected to take even 5 minutes to sketch on day 5.  Instead of beating myself up, I'm cheating.  Thankfully, there's no such thing as art jail.

And then tonight, after returning from the field - my worn old hiking boots.  Old non-geometrical stuff is great for late night I-don't-know-what-to-draw panic.

#inktober... 6 down, 25 to go

Inktober Begins

Advance Inktober warning: I will be limiting time spent on photo taking & photo correcting, depending on the busyness of the day.  It is easily a time sucker for me.  I apologize in advance for not-so-great shots.  I have also decided to throw caution to the wind (blown to the next state yesterday) and try different pens and techniques.  It's likely some of these are going to be kind of awful and I'm (mostly) fine with that.

For day one, a Tombow water soluble brush pen.  Naturally, Milo moved seconds after the pen touched the page.  Maybe 20 minutes later both pets were restless & the light faded, so we headed inside with an incomplete drawing.  The splotch is from today.  It's an iffy first page, but it IS a start.

Day 2 - Added another magnet to this ongoing ballpoint pen project.  This is in my comfort zone.

Day 3 - It's supposed to frost tonight, so I picked a bunch of tomatoes.  They lay on the counter and pretty much said "We are day 3."  I stuck with simple lines and used a few of the recently purchased Staedtler fine liners.  I need more of these pens.

 
Three down. 28 to go.  Oh, and I almost forgot the whole hashtag thing -  #inktober.  I hope I did that right.  Stop laughing.

August, September, Inktober

While in the time-sucking land of Facebook this afternoon, I clicked a link to the October sketching challenge Inktober.  I'm in.

The idea is to create an ink drawing every day in October and then share it online with the hashtag inktober.  I know me.  This is not so simple.  First, I'm awful at follow through.  Second, I spend ridiculous amounts of time editing a post.  Third, the next round of Sketchbook Skool starts Friday, further limiting "idle" time.

My house. My rules.

1.  Sketch in ink every day - any size - any pen. 

2.  Post the sketches every 3 days, so we should wind up with 10 updates by Halloween.

3.  No dessert until a sketch is done.  I'm serious about this.  Don't test me.

4.  If it just can't happen one day.  Don't give up.  Pick up a pen and get busy on the next day.

Join me.  At least a few of you artsy people know you can do this.  I can also hear some of you saying "Nope, I can't draw."  First, I don't believe you.  Second, okay, then just doodle.  Try some zentangles or stick figures.  Think of it as art therapy.

Here we go!