Fire and Ice, Marine Corps Artist

I posted awhile back about Kristopher Battles, Sketchpad Warrior. This post is a link to Michael Fay, one of the other Marine Corps artists. I wish them well and anxiously await their blogs. They sketch, paint and write about their daily situations with such candor. Wish them well with me.

Teapot and Shoes - Sketches

I didn't finish the latte today. Have some more tweaking on the ellipse,of course. (Thanks Joanna for the advice!)

I sketched last night for the Scavenger Hunt and almost didn't post it, but this is the last day, so here it is.

I drew #10, teapot, which is a teapot that my mother had. It was old when I was little, must have belonged to her mother. It is a creamy color with orange touches and black or very dark blue around the center flower. It is sort of a tall shape, the sketch isn't too far off , really. Most teapots I have seen are more rounded and close to the table. I had previously sketched my Oriental teapot and the metal teapot used on the stove, so was surprised to find I had a third teapot as we don't drink much tea. For you that don't live in the southwest or southern part of the USA, we usually drink iced tea if we drink any. We make it in large quantities so a little teapot is just not practical. :) Many make sun tea, putting the bags in a big gallon or larger glass jar full of water and set it out in the sun until the right color. Then sweeten, or not, and serve over ice in large glasses. We drink it summer or winter, all year long.

#11,shoes, these are Gene's feet in some sort of beach shoes that he wears for every day shoes. They do look comfortable. :)

Both sketches are in my handmade sketchbook with a Micron 05 pen in burnt umber.

Latte Pastel, Table Sketch

I finally started a painting. I decided to do small paintings for my show in March. If you have been reading my blog you might remember the latte sketch . I do like blue glass and that started the painting project. This still needs a few tweeks but it does convey the idea I had in mind. I also love Bolivia so added in the aguayo table cloth as well. This is 5 x 7, soft pastels. It is on Art Spectrum paper dry mounted on illustration board.

Last night I did #9, table, for the Scavenger Hunt on wetcanvas.com. This is the coffee table, minus quite a few items that make it hard to see all the table top in real life. That may be the reason it is in such bad perspective, or just sketching with my feet up with the lamp light shining on my sketchbook, watching TV and the table in the dark. Ah well, it is another sketch. It is in my handmade book that Sue gave me with the Micron 05 pen. Extremely rough paper. Sketch about 6 x 6 inches. About 15-20 minutes.

Art on the Mailbox

I am still not painting. I did dabble a little looking for something to "create". In the meantime, I will show the mailbox in the ice storm. It looks neat, like a house. I painted it with acrylics and it has held up for about 9 years. It appears to be in dire need of a paint job. I will add that to my list of projects. Just thought you might like a peek at some "cool" art work. Eh?

Sketch iMac

I'm still not in painting mode so sketched for a while and had a glass of wine. For the Scavenger Hunt #7,computer and #8, brush.

I sketched my old iMac (out of proportion) and some brushes on the desktop and a few other things. I use this old iMac to look at photos and listen to iTunes mostly. The brushes are just a few of them, I didn't feel like drawing the many more that are there. Ha.

When I went to post my sketch on wetcanvas I had to laugh. Kivrin had posted a sketch (scroll down to post #42) of Kivrin's old iMac that they listens to music on. Well, that is a sketch of my "new" iMac. So you see that I'm not too up to date. Ha. But is is a great iMac and I have really enjoyed it. I've had it about a year. A hand me down from Joanna. I just can't get rid of the old ones. Each has some special quality that makes it different. Kind of like your favorite car or old shirt, you know what I mean? I have a Powerbook, probably about six years old. It has the 13 inch screen, I think and has good sound for a laptop. It has OS9 on it, but plenty of games and music. I still like to take it on trips, but the battery is dead and it has to be plugged in. The memory is about full as well. Won't go on about all the others .. another time.

On the new Blogger you can categorize your posts. If you scroll to the bottom of this you can look at posts of pastel paintings or sketches. I haven't put the old posts in categories yet, but you can see posts since I have updated my blog in their categories.

Out the Window

I haven't been able to get in the painting mode. I need to. I need to do (maybe if I said create, it would help) a painting to donate to the Family Crisis Center fundraiser dance, Celebrating the 60's, onFebruary 3 in La Grange, Texas. I do (create) a new painting for this benefit every year for the auction. (For information and tickets, call 512 321-7760) I also need to work on my show at Daddy's Grille on March 17. Did I mention that here before? It will be a solo show from March 15 to April 15, with a reception on Saturday, March 17, from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. It is always nice to have new work for an exhibit, right?

I was sitting staring out the window and this box of pastels that Jennie gave me for Christmas was sitting there and a small piece of Wallis paper. I decided to see if I could sketch some trees out the window with the colors in the box, which don't look like trees sitting there in the box. :) They look a little bit bright to get the shadows and deep woods look, don't they?

This is the result, about 4 x 6 inches. It is a pastel sketch to me as the white paper is showing through. Thanks for looking and helping me get inspired!

Sketches for Scavenger Hunt 25 and more

This sketch is one I did as I was watching TV, in my Canson sketchbook, which is almost full, by the way, with my Micron 05 pen in burnt umber. I was sketching the light only, not looking at shapes, so the porportions are a little skewed, but it is interesting, that if you paint the light, you end up with the shapes! Fun. This is about 2/3 of the page, it was an old page with some notes and coffee spill. The horse sculpture is On Demand, done by our friend Charles Force. It is beautiful, the sketch does not show the beautiful form of the horse.



Here is some bits of shelves done just before the horse sculpture. Also on a scrap page of the sketchbook. Just to do some sketching without a scavenger hunt list. Sometimes it is hard to sketch to the list although the discipline is good, just to keep me sketching.





I'll start the Hunt sketches with #5, clock and #6, rough texture (the material that covers the couch) This is in the Canson book with the Micron 05 pen.




These are my least favorite of all the Hunt sketches. #1 silverware was done with the ZIG Millennium pen and a wash of red watercolor, but the paper is not made for watercolor so is splotchy and bled through onto the sketch of #2 , bowl, #3 drinking glass, #4 trash bin. My trash bin was made by Gene and holds two plastic trash cans for recycle and regular trash and you can sit on it, so it gives an extra seat in our small kitchen. The bowl is handmade by Lea and is blue with wildflowers.