All the buildings in New York redux

I posted about this in August, 2011, but came across it again while updating some old links. Honestly, if you haven't looked at this project, head on over. Yeah, the guy is drawing all the buildings in New York.

Three Goodies

After mulling over it for awhile to consider my level of commitment, I enrolled in Carla Sonheim's year-long fairy tale class. I am fond of fairy tales, much more so now than when I was wee. Every year my teaching partners and I would teach fairy tales to our classes: the structure, folkore, similarities and differences, and artistry - visual and written - of classic and unknown fairy tales. Then students would write their own, illustrate them, print out the tale on pages that were sewn into a book. Then we looked at suns in art and they designed a sun cover which they batiked. It was all long, arduous, and fun as heck and the products were amazing. I'll post a photo or two when I run across them again. Talk about love-hate relationships....like most people, I live in Digital and Film Purgatory; what have we wrought?

So I continue to be drawn to them. I have several beautifully illustrated ones on my picture book shelves. Carla's delicate and whimsical style is perfect for the genre and I will enjoy going through these "assignments" and illustrating fairy tales. I am catching up, as the class started a few weeks ago.

One of our exercises if to copy faces with our nondominant hand to learn how faces"work" - I draw and paint  faces a lot (I love trying to draw faces from the newspaper, cops and robbers, living and dead, heroes and villains.) So I sort of jumped over that part, but did look at some faces while using my left hand and stylized them  as I went along. Then I went back and tweeked with my "good" hand. I did find that using my left hand allowed more freedom of imagination as I drew. More likely to get wonky shapes and lines to build upon. That was fun. These aren't final faces; I will play more until I choose the face I want for my  FROG PRINCESS!

Even if you decide not to take this on, you might enjoy watching that introduction at the top...and you really must see her paper doll tutorial

 2. 

Did you know that Michael's now carries Moleskine journals? 40% coupons make them quite palatable. A bit of art store guilt here, but I'll get over it and don't see my art store spending inhibited much. (Daniel Smith loves me. The Michael's selection is limited, and I actually have a love-hate relationship with Moleskines, but I do like their creamy-thicker- pages-one.  Since I only have (XXXXX) other blank journals on which to do my fairy tale drawings and light watercolor. I bought a red one. It will be perfect.

(Number was redacted to embarrassment of number of other blank sketchbooks, journals, ready signatures, and Anthropologie catalogs to gesso over that I also could have used instead of buying another one. I love using the word "redacted." It's so...current and important-sounding.)

3.

Saw an ad for "Double Scoop" gelatos, which I have put on my wish list. I love those creamy gelatos and will use the larger sizes. I walk around with fingers of various gelato colors quite often from rubbing them into my art work. Delish.

Tool Time

Husband Bob  just cleaned out the kitchen tools drawers. (He's the cook in the family so it was understandably annoying him more than me.) Among the amazingly large pile of Stuff We Don't Ever Use and What Is This For? and Do We Really Need Twelve of These? tools were a few I rescued for a second life in the studio.

Work in progress, playing with my new tools.

So I am putting these on trial. I've set aside a little place for them. I  used some to start a page...Hmmm...I may like that serrated circle edge or interesting potato masher pattern. And the little handle on the ...what-is that-anyway-a-special-salt-or-sugar-thingabobbie?....has a clever pattern for spraying.

The boy in the photo is my great uncle Les who I figure was about 3 at the time. Which makes this photo more than 100 years old.

This was part of a vacuum thingie for wine to keep oxygen out.  We don't have a bottle long enough in our house to make that matter much. :)

Promise. If I don't use them again in the next, oh, couple of months  (I shall put it on the calendar), they will lose their second life. It's just that I cannot resist a Texture Maker or Pattern Producer for the life (much more than second) of me.

My Valentine present

Lovin' this artist. Thanks to my dear Bob for finding it on my wish list!










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Out with the checks ...

and dots..











(It was hard. I did love those checks and dots).


In with the stripes




Painting our bright breakfast room this week. New yellows but still the room to welcome the new day, light and cheery even on a gray northwest day. Will show off the room when all the pictures are back up and new curtains done.


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