A Watched Pot

 

It's been a busy two weeks.  Since my last post, I have:

• Made two trips to the vet with different dogs 
• Dropped off  an overdue library book (haven't paid the fine)
• Stopped by the hospital for a fasting blood test (I hate them, but the doctor has been insistent since the heart surgery.)
• Watered the almost-dead garden, since the predicted rain did not come
• Participated in volunteer proofreading for Distributed Proofreaders
• Assembled a new bed frame and hauled off the old one

While assembling the bed frame, I almost stepped on a tiny frog on the porch.  Before relocating it to a safer location, I took some photos.  The frog,  an excellent example of camouflage,  was cooperative and cute--for a frog.

All these activities left little time for drawing and painting.

Monday evening, I peeled and cut up some potatoes for supper.   I dropped the peeled potatoes in an old Club Aluminum pot we paid $2.00 for at a local auction. While the potatoes were boiling, I realized there was enough time to make a quick drawing.  I took my pencils, pens, and watercolor, then painted the scene in my Strathmore Watercolor  Visual Journal.

A little practice is better than no practice at all.

Vegetable Sculptures at the Farmers Market

 

My garden has produced almost nothing this year because of the heat, so I took a trip to the Fayetteville Farmers Market to buy some vegetables. I took my art kit went with me. My kit is minimal:   a mechanical pencil, a kneaded eraser, a Pitt pen, a Winsor-Newton watercolor field kit, a Ninji waterbrush, a moleskin journal, and a Canon Powershot, all stashed in a reusable black Wal-mart shopping bag.

 I wish my yard looked as fantastic as the town square garden.

 

 

 

 

There was a contest for budding vegetable sculptors.

 

The winning sculptor would receive a Chia Pet.

The market wasn't very busy, so I listened to some of the musicians, talked to some of the exhibitors, and took a some photos.

Taking a seat on a stone wall, did a quick pencil I sketch of the market.  I'm not thrilled with the result, but the more practice I get, the better the results should be.

I'm looking forward to doing more drawings on location this fall.

Things That Are Blue

Another miserable, hot day. I wanted to go out and sketch at the Washington County Fair or the Fayetteville Farmers Market, but it was just too hot to bother.  The opening game for the University of Arkansas Razorbacks is this evening, so there will be traffic jams.

Rather than risk life and limb on the highway, I collected and assortment of items of various shades of blue to sketch and watercolor. I found a Pledge bottle, a putty knife, an iridescent glass bottle, and a crocheted dog toy that the Yorkie loves to chase into the kiddie pool.

More practice in color mixing looks like a good idea.

Willdlife in the Neighborhood

Yard work has kept me from doing as much drawing as I'd like.  The temperatures have been in the high 90's, low 100's with just enough rain to make the grass grow....but not the vegetables :( .  There have been some opportunities to photograph some of the local wildlife around the house. Each photo gives me some material to use in a future project.
 

The deer really enjoy eating the neighbors' birdseed.

 

While watering the vegetables, I found this huge moth in the phlox plants. It stayed around for a series of photos.

Some Roadrunners live in the neighborhood. This one stopped by for a shower while we were using the sprinkler on the roses.

 

Sketching at the Auction

This afternoon, I went to a local auction to bid on a tea caddy, a Kollowitz lithograph, and some other items. Since auctions usually involve long periods of sitting,  I brought my sketchbook and a mechanical pencil. With these minimal tools, I sketched a butter churn, a split oak basket, and a Flexible Flyer sled.  It was a great opportunity to practice sketching and, as long as I didn't wave my pencil or sketchbook during bidding, I didn't inadvertently bid on items I didn't want.

When I returned home, I inked the sketches, then set the butter churn and the split oak basket into a composition, including the name of the auction house.

I'm really looking forward to using some of these sketches as a springboard into other projects.

Teapot and Teacup

I took some time earlier this month to draw a teapot I found in a box of items my mother had inherited from a great aunt. It's nothing special and there are generally several on Ebay at any given time. I used a Tombow water soluble pen to draw, then shaded it.  I used a burgundy Micron Pigma pen to draw the flower motif.  I've debated painting the flowers and still need to finish the composition.

 

After drawing the teapot I had to draw a teacup to go with it.  I used the same drawing tools, but included the teacup story as part of the composition. The ocher line across the page is part of an assignment in an online sketchbook class.

New Camera and Online Classes

Amazon sent a "Daily Deal" last week featuring a Canon Powershot for $49.00.  My only digital camera is a 10 year old Sony Mavica that requires floppy disks. It's the digital equivalent of stone knives and bearskins. The reviews on the Powershot were good, although it was an older model camera.  I ordered the camera and am slowly learning how to operate it. 

The picture below is a silk shibori ribbon dragonfly broach I assembled from a kit purchased from Shirbori Girl Studios. The kit is very simple and comes in a variety of colors. I posed the finished dragonfly on a cantaloup leaf in the garden and tried my new camera.

Joggles has sent out their list of Fall classes.  There are so many terrific classes! My wish list is SO long, but I have some time to whittle it down to a manageable list based on finances and time considerations. I've already completed several of these classes and will upload some pictures of the finished projects later.