live with intention.
work to the edge.
listen hard.
practice wellness.
play with abandon.
laugh.
choose with no regret.
continue to learn.
appreciate your friends.
do what you love.
live as if this is all there is.
– M. Radmacher
These eyes are from the final image… notice the more rounded iris on the left… still a bit cross-eyed… but nowhere near as bad as in my first draft.
Over the summer I painted this fella from a photo in the Sktchy app on my phone. First I drew in a rough sketch in pencil and then painted a light base layer.
I’m using an Arteza Watercolor Journal – 9 in. X 12 in. This paper sucks up paint and I knew I needed layers to get the desired contrast and vibrancy.
Better. I even thought I was done. But no. I’m sure you can see it too… there’s something wrong with the eye on the left. His eyes aren’t tracking correctly… he’s cross-eyed in my journal but not in his photo. (I’m sorry I can’t show you the photo but he owns the copyright and I don’t have permission to post it. You can see it linked to my work in Sktchy.)
Anyway… it sat on my desk for months before I attempted the fix. It’s subtle, but I rounded the iris on the left hoping to separate the two irises and correct his focus. It seems to have helped… sort of… not entirely, but it’s time to move on, turn the page and select another victim.
I’ve heard it said that every day you need half an hour of quiet time for yourself, or your Self, unless you’re incredibly busy and stressed, in which case you need an hour. I promise you, it is there. Fight tooth and nail to find time, to make it. It is our time wealth, this moment, this hour, this day.
– Anne Lamott
Auuuugh!!! It broke! If I tried gluing back together it would only break again because the clip would put too much torque on the cap.
But look… there’s a hex nut holding the clip and top together. If I can remove the clip I can screw the top together and glue it back onto the cap.
Since it’s one of my older pens AND I have one of the newer versions already inked I wasn’t afraid to mess around.
Superglue to the rescue!
Not bad. I’ll be able to cap the pen and at keep it for home use.
Too bad that the clip keeps it from rolling off the table… I guess I’ll have to MacGyver something for that.
One for the road and one for home. Win – Win.
Where the spirit leads, the feet will follow…
down distant paths for unmapped miles.
Heads forget but hearts remember.
The art of living knows no bounds.
(from an advertisement for Prana)
Making the simple complicated is commonplace;
making the complicated simple,
that’s creativity.
– Charles Mingus
I’m still working on going directly to paint without using pencil guidelines.
Trouble is, I seem to need those guidelines to get the horse’s hooves on the page too.
(Transparent Red Oxide and Indanthrone Blue… both Daniel Smith.)
Everyone is born creative. Everyone is given a box of crayons in kindergarten. Then when you hit puberty they take the crayons away and replace them with dry, uninspiring books on algebra, history, etc. Being suddenly hit years later with the “creative bug” is just a wee voice telling you, “I’d like my crayons back, please.
– Hugh MacLeod
Mistakes never equals disaster.
– Tommy Kane
There is no substitute for hard work.
– Thomas Edison
Thirteen sketchbooks bound!
From left to right:
Two – Fabriano Artistico Hot Press Extra White 140 lb. / 300 gsm (72 pages/book)
One – Fabriano Artistico Cold Press Traditional White 90 lb. / 200 gsm. (84 pages/book)
Two – Fabriano Artistico Hot Press Traditional White 90 lb. / 200gsm. (72 pages/book)
Eight – Strathmore 500 Mixed Media 90 lb. / 190 gsm (84 pages/book)
I can buy commercially made portrait and landscape sketchbooks containing acceptable paper, but I make books so I can have the size and format I like, here nearly 7.5 in. square, with paper that’s better than merely acceptable. And I like to dress up my books by covering the front with sparkly acrylic ink painted paper. It adds personality as well as keeping me oriented so I don’t have random upside down sketches included when I’m done.
I really should shelve all my unused sketchbooks together and take a complete inventory since I have no idea how many others are waiting in the wings… but can there be too many?
Not if they’re used. I’m off to get some sketching done!
ASICS
Anima Sana In Corpore Sano – a sound mind in a sound body.
Dana Burrell... Art 