Chair on iPhone

We went to dinner at Zeb's last night.  One of the items on Scavenger Hunt 552 was 'chair'.    I saw a wheel chair and decided to do a quick sketch on my iPhone.  Gene mentioned to the family that I was sketching the chair so they wanted to see the finished sketch.  Hopefully they will realize it was a sketch and not a drawing.  It takes much longer to sketch on the iPhone.  Too bad I wasn't sketching in a sketchbook.

http://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1451922

 Number 9, chair - an antique wheel belonging to Jannell.

We drove to Eagle Nest first where I snapped some photos of the horses that were out in the evening sun.  When we got home, Brandon and Gene visited on the phone and Brandon asked if there was smoke from the California fires.  We said no, and then when I looked at these photos I realized it was not foggy it was smoke.  Our eyes have been bothering us, but we hadn't realized why.  The air is thin here and now has smoke so we may have a reason to be a bit tired, too.

I want to do one more sketch for this Hunt which ends today.  I'll leave it for a surprise....

Hunting with a Pen

Scavenger Hunt 552 is well under way.  I sketched in the big book with a Prismacolor 03 day before yesterday and today.  I sketch directly with pen and ink or in this case a fine line marker commonly referred to as pen in sketching.

Number 5, cup of coffee or tea - the cup is red with white inside and green and red trim.  The wide part of the saucer is creamy color with spots.  Hard to portray in black and white.
Number 6, spoon - a larger serving spoon with holes, should be bigger.

Number 7,  view out a window of your home - this is out the bedroom window, all the others are pretty much just trees.
Number 8, contents of medicine cabinet - the counter serves here as a cabinet and general "junk" drawer.  I was going to draw a bottle of hot sauce that was there and forgot.

Still beautiful weather.  I took the day off yesterday from art.  Didn't do much of anything else either.

We went to breakfast at the Bakery today.  Pretty good food but we were there about an hour and a half.  We both had 3 cups of coffee while waiting on our food.  They did have some, though.

Hope your weekend is swell, too.

Feathers, Never Have Any

Feather comes up on the Scavenger Hunts once in a while.  We do not own a feather duster.  Gene picked up a random bird feather and kept near my desk in my studio for the Hunts.  It was interesting to have the mask on the wall here and then it came up on the current Hunt.  Nice.

http://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1451922

The sketch is in the big book.  There are so many pages in that sketchbook that it is nice to have some different items to sketch in it.  This is done with a Prismacolor 01 and watercolors.  I intended to use colored pencils as they are more friendly in the big book.  The colored pencils are downstairs and the watercolors were here.  So....

Number 4, feather - a mask with lots of feathers.  Maybe it is a Kachina mask.  It looks like it would fit over someones face but has't been used.  Time wise, about 30 minutes.

We went to dinner last night at The Enchanted Circle Brewing Company. 
https://www.facebook.com/enchantedcirclebrewing/
It sounds better than it is.  I couldn't find a website other than facebook.  The food was pretty good.  They didn't have steak which Gene wanted.  The fish tacos have battered fish.  We settled on burgers.  We were there about an hour and a half.  For some reason I feel it is not welcoming.  I went with Lou and her cousin when they were here and it was the same. 

There are not many dining choices here this year. The grill/bar are closed at the Resort Lodge.  Like all small towns help is hard to come by and also groceries it seems. 

The view coming back up the hill at dusk and the gazebo at the main intersection of Angel Fire.

552 Scavenging

It is a beautiful day here.  I went out to sketch on the porch and have coffee and my rice cake.  Perfect for scavenging for Hunt 552.  http://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1451922

The big book was appealing for sketching the house and landscape with the Zig Millennium 05 pens.  The pens have a nice smooth feel to them.  It was about a 45 minute sketch, even though it felt quicker.

Number 1, house
Number 2, landscape

Number 3, rock - the other big rock by the driveway.  You could damage the car if you hit one of these.  I think this is about 2 feet tall and 6 feet or more in length.  It is one rock.  I used the app, ArtRage, which I am not used to, so it took almost an hour and I could not get the text to write.  Too many settings for a quick sketch.

Sundown, Pastel from a Photo

This little pastel painting is from a photo I took a few years ago here in New Mexico.  Artists have to be careful when using a photo reference.  In this case, the shadow areas were very dark.  The mountain and houses were almost in silhouette.  In real life they wouldn't be that way unless it was almost dark.

I used the computer to lighten up the shadows.  The painting is only 8 x 8 inches so there couldn't be too much detail in the shadows either.  I like my compromise.  Plein air painting (outside) has helped me to see how photos can flatten and put things out of sync.

I started on a white piece of Pastelcard.  I used pastel and wet it with water and let it drip.  I planned on using the drips in the foreground, but the painting was small and didn't have much foreground.

Sundown

Pastel on Pastelcard

8 x 8 inches

I received some compliments on my sketch of the tree in the previous post.  It was a fairly accurate sketch of the tree.  I thought you might like to see a photo of the tree and big rock.

It was good to get out the pastels today.  It was a bit warm, got up to about 80 degrees.  I painted in the garage, out of the sun and wind.  Gene rode his trike to Eagle Nest.  He rode 21 miles.  He has been riding about 10-12 miles so he was pretty tired.  I went to pick him up and we had a glass of wine at the Saloon.  They have a couple of recliner couches in the back so we sat and relaxed for a while.  Nice.

We stopped in there a while back to see if they were open and if the restaurant was open.  The hostess/waitress said they were, but to be sure and call before we came as they sometimes run out of food.  Hmmm.

We will see what tomorrow brings.