baby Sophie and friends

drawing friends today as I have most of the year

Happy New Year to friends who visit here and many thanks to you all for your comments and encouragement!

bits and pieces

my sister and other bits and pieces from our day out

sketchbook page

inside Bygones

drawing inside "Bygones" while my sister, visiting from North Carolina, did a little shopping.

second look

I've drawn this once before in a different sketchbook.

Reindeer Collision

they played "pictionary" in Recreation Therapy today, I love Jody's earless bunny tailed reindeer so much that I had to take a photo and share, still smiling though the impact with grandma has crumbled his antlers and repositioned his nose!

also, of course, a daily drawing.

christmas day

Itemus and Becky in the lobby and keeping me company while I worked, allowing me to draw them though I did them no kindness with my poor judgement of proportions and added more pounds then is there, sorry! Frenchie waiting to go home and Billy again kindly modeling for me, yikes! my sense of proportions are totally gone by then, sorry!

dining room table

hope everyone has a happy holiday!

click image for larger view

scribbles

Linda and Tasha in her santa hat and me not able to look up 'cause of a crick in my neck which is better now

caroling

a quick sketch of the three fellows who came caroling last night

Patti and Gerri

keeping me company and letting me draw them while I was at work, not a very good likeness of Gerri though and again problems with proportions on both, everyone else had gone upstairs when Christmas carolers came in and sang for us, I scribbled them quick while they sang, it made for a nice night at work.

sketchbook pages

friends

I switched to the "new" Blogger tonight, it said it would only take a few minutes to transfer all the files, guess my blog is too big, about five hours later this post is finally published.

Aquathon

it's very hard to draw a pool full of swimmers! the best I could do was try and focus on one person at a time and then pieced all my scribbles together in Photoshop to recreate a bit of what I saw at this year's Aquathon (in this event residents have folks pledge an amount for each lap they swim, the monies raised are then donated to a charity, this year the "Make A Wish" foundation were the recipients) I'd like to try and do an illustration of this using my sketches as reference, we'll see how that goes.

scribbling friends

waiting

museum scribbles

at the museum just scribbling here and there and not paying much attention to capturing a whole scene or creating a well composed page (which are two things I'd like to work to improve)

thank you Rosa!

a yummy day, Rosa's Christmas lunch! just a small bit of a much larger gathering, there were seven at the table, I got in a quick sketch of two before my plate was served, nary a thought to drawing anymore once it arrived, yummmmmmmmy!

figure drawing

oh dear, many problems in this one, proportions and the way the torso and legs are attached, I tend to focus too quickly on details, must remember to try and capture the gesture and flow of the pose first.

and oh yipee, I look forward to this every year, the latest edition of American Illustration is now on-line!

scribbling

Brian looked so cute this morning in his big puffy coat, kinda like a turtle, his head just barely emerged out of his warm shell, but I didn't watch my proportions very carefully as I drew, this is not what I was going for, his head is too big and the coat too small!

doodles from dvd

watching "Sketches with Frank Gehry"

Bill

he has a great face, reminds me of Peter O'Toole

it blinks too!

Gail is at the ready if Rudolph fails in his duties :)

click image for larger view

added 12/10: thanks everyone for your comments. And Jana, yes, I will try and write more about the people I draw, I've wanted to, it's just finding the time, especially since I write so poorly, it takes me forever to get the words out.

Debbie

Debbie keeps surprising me because she is always agreeable to having her portrait drawn no matter how badly I've butchered any previous attempts, today even allowing me to try and capture her still in curlers under the hairdryer, not something most ladies would allow I think! I'm lucky to have such accommodating friends :)

figure drawing

attended a new figure drawing group tonight although I don't know how long it will last since only two other people showed up, I so hope it continues, I don't understand knees (see above) and would like a better understanding of foreshortening too.

thank you Amanda! now go see Maira

Amanda introduced me to the New York Times monthly column "The Principles of Uncertainty" written and illustrated by one of my favorite artists, Maira Kalman, it is up today and is wonderful, go see! and check the archives too!

sculpture and hat forms

scribbling at the Edward V. Valentine Sculpture Studio at the Richmond History Center

and also. . . I went to the exhibit "Time for Design" at the Visual Art Center, one part of the show featured the work of hat makers Ignatius Creegan & Rod Givens, this is a photo of hat forms they use in their work, I didn't have time to draw them but I wish I had, the shapes are wonderful and very strange to see after viewing Valentine's busts of famous folk, these like a collection of busts of some famous alien or robotic citizenry!

sketches

wiggly baby Sophie and Carol and Barbara

Bill

hats out of the bag

Annie's unpacked the holiday hats :)


Joanie too!

sketchbook page

drawing from stilled images on dvd's, these from "But Who
Gets to Call It Art?" (and the answer in this documentary is Henry Geldzahler)