Retired and in Texas

Wow, it has been a very long time since I have posted here. So much has happened.  I retired from teaching high school art, we sold our house in Tennessee, and we have moved to Texas to be near our children and grandchildren. We are unpacked and settled,and now it's time to paint and sketch and design full time!  So here I go.  
I'm living in Helotes, Texas outside of San Antonio.  I'm obsessed with all old trucks, and there is a great old yellow rusty 1963 Dodge tow truck on the highway near my house. 

1963 Tow Truck in Helotes, Texas

And the same truck dressed up for Christmas makes a great Christmas card.

Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner

These were all drawn with brown ink in  Lamy Safari pen and watercolor.

I used a magazine photo for reference and added and changed a few things.
 I wish I had cooked these beauties,
but i had a protein shake instead - 3 weight watcher points instead of 20!

Our favorite comfort food.

A pretty little accident transformed into art.
It's hard to eat spaghetti off of a paper plate.

Eat Your Veggies!

Green vegetables are sooooooo good for us.  I love them cooked so many different ways, but especially tossed with olive oil and sea salt and roasted in the oven.  I should have painted the Brussel Sprouts  that I recently burned.  They looked awful but were really quite good - crispy and salty. Yum

More little sketches for my "Food Sketchbook"

I'm trying to fill up one of my sketchbooks with only food items or things that have to do with food.  I'm thinking spices next. . . .

This is from a really great grocery store in Texas called Central Market.  I could have stayed in there all day taking photos. I got to sample the bread!

Sweets from Valentine's Week.  I made pies and bought cupcakes.  The little pink tin was given to me by a sweet friend in France. (And I know she is reading this blog post!)  Somehow the tin turned out kind of wonky.

I painted some brussel sprouts and broccoli this weekend, but I'm not pleased with them.  Maybe I'll like them better another day.  I have lots of spice jars sitting here in front of me. One day soon they will be in the sketchbook. 

Recent Sketchbook Work

Here is some work that I have done in my sketchbooks since the beginning of the year:

I have been taking Vespa and scooter photos for years.  These are Micron pen and watercolor.
At one time I did a little oil painting of one little orange one that I think is posted on this blog a few years back.
They remind me of snails.

Sketching at Whole Foods on a cold day.  The checker was so gracious and warm about the Urban Sketchers drawing her while she worked.

I added the beets on the bottom left of these 2 pages on the Whole Foods sketching outing.   I had drawn the other veggies in previously but felt I needed one more healthy food choice on this spread for balance.  I actually stood in the produce aisle and sketched while shoppers were choosing their produce items.  Everyone ignored me, thank goodness, except one young lady who worked in the store. She walked over and rearranged the beets as I was drawing, and then she walked away.  She didn't say one word or touch one other thing, just rearranged.  Maybe she was a little protective of her beets.  Hmmmm.

Here is a close up of those beets - fast and loose.  I don't love standing up and painting.

I was hungry for something sweet a few days ago, and this was the result.  I meant for this to be ink and watercolor, but I didn't realize I had the wrong ink in my Lamy pen. When I started to paint, the ink ran.  I had to correct what I could and then use Prisma colored pencils to add the color.   This sketchbook particular sketchbook 
is devoted to food.

Greeting Cards

Before Christmas I took an online class from Sketchbookskool.com called Let's Make Greeting Cards.  It was a 2 week class full of great instructions about designing cards and great information about submitting designs to card companies.  There were many assignments for preliminary sketches and for formulating ideas.  It was taught by Salli Swindell, a very experienced card illustrator who sells her designs to major card companies as well as smaller independent card companies.

In week one our final assignment was to design a Valentine card. I did this one in Photoshop.

The next week a class member created a Christmas Card design exchange. We designed a card and sent it to an assigned  group of 6 people from around the world.Five of my group were in the U.S. and one in Germany.  I mailed the cards out on Dec. 11. I never heard from some of my group   so I am not sure they all received my card.  Most people posted a message on Facebook to say they had received the card. 

I created my illustration on card stock with Stampin' Up Blends (markers).  I had to attach the artwork to other paper because the ink from the markers bled through the card stock .  I didn't mind that because I loved using these markers.

 Many participants made copies of the design on a printer instead of hand drawing each card.  I tried that and the color was quite good, but not quite as good as the original. So, silly me, hand drew each card.  I also made the envelopes and created a hand drawn sticker to attach to the envelope.  And silly, silly me drew all of the stickers on the wrong side of the sticker paper.  When I pulled them off of the backing I realized it was the backing paper.  They looked pretty good and the backing wasn't real waxy or slick like most backing paper.  However, no matter how I tried to glue it to the envelope, it would not stick. I had to redo them.  

And here are the cards from my entire group.

Sketching

I have been drawing and sketching a lot lately. I have filled several sketchbooks and started a few others.  Because of sketchbookskool.com I now have a sketchbook or two with me every where I go, as well as pens, pencils, and a wee little painting kit. Here are a few of my latest entries in my sketchbook.

I was in Ft. Worth recently and visited the HEB Central Market.  It was a feast for the eyes.  

Sketches of my granddaughters goat.

Cemetery in the back or our neighborhood that dates back to the 1850's.

Sketches from the Farmers Market

Sketched this during Elvis Week in Memphis in front of Sun Studio.

I love Vespas.  I want to ride/drive one so much.  I have been taking photos of the cutie pies
on many of my travels.  

Eggplant from the garden

She Took My Hand

My pastor asked me to illustrate this for him.  He lost his mom a few years ago, and this poem means a lot to him.  I lifted the image of Jesus and the boy from a painting by Greg Olson called "Take My Hand."  I added the mother's hand going off of the page.

Colored pencil and Micron pen on Strathmore colored pencil paper
8' x 10"

More sketching with Sketchbook Skool - Homework assignments for the past ?? weeks.

Assignment: Sketch nature.

Assignment: Sketch a patterned ceramic piece with ink and watercolor.

Assignment: Sketch a self portrait.  This is colored pencil.

Assignment: Sketch something that you pass every day and make it look worthy of capturing in ink and watercolor.

Assignment: Sketch an object in ink using the hatching and crosshatching technique to create form.

Assignment: Sketch a teacup.

Assignment: Sketch nature.

Watercolor Sketching

I ventured out with the Memphis Urban Sketchers today.  The weather was glorious, one of those perfect days you dream about in the middle of winter - not hot, not cold, flowers bursting with color, clear blue sky.  It was good sketching weather in Elmwood Cemetery, the oldest active cemetery in Memphis.  It was originally built before the Civil War with the intentions of being a park, a garden, a gathering place for social events, and a cemetery. We don't think of cemeteries in those terms anymore, but the original plan has turned this landscape into one of the loveliest spots in Memphis.

Scratchboard

I love scratchboard.  It is a wonderful surface for those of us who like to draw. It forces me to study my subject and creates beautiful contrasts.  This is a piece I created for my son and his family of their much loved pet and hunting dog that passed away recently.  As I was scratching and creating the different kinds of fur around Tex's face, in my mind I could actually feel him. The fur on his neck was wavy and soft.  His muzzle was bristly and his ears were like velvet.  I loved this dog too. He was a sweet and gentle soul who loved his family and had a passion for hunting and running through fields.  My son took Tex out one last time a week before he died.  Tex was so excited  to be out in the fields and tried so hard to run and do what hunting dogs do, but his old tired body just would't cooperate.   There was a lot of love between my boy and his dog.

Draw It Like It's Hot

I started a new class in Sketchbook Skool before Christmas.  That was probably not a great decision because I am really behind.  The class is about illustrating food with creative lettering, directing us to create hand drawn recipes.  Here are some pieces that I have already done. 

We had to draw objects from our kitchen to fill the page. The were doodles of food related objects called Foodles.

Next we had to draw a meal we ate that day:

Then we had to play with lettering:

My Granddaughter gave me this prompt for one of my lettering practices.  She has become a master  at lettering at age 14.

Then we finally got to a recipe illustration. This is just a warm up for the grand finale recipe illustration, I think.

More recipes to come.

More Drawings for Sketchbook Skool

Last week's assignment for Sketchbook Skool was from a wonderful book illustrator  Jill Weber. She taught us how to make a little accordion fold book that was so very cute.  I was in San Antonio visiting the grandkids when I was given this assignment, and I was so inspired by their funny little dogs, Mac and Charlie, that I just knew I wanted to make the book about them to give to my granddaughters.  We were really supposed to make it about ourselves (which I hope to do in the future.)  I would like to make another little book about my sweet marriage of 48 years.

For this project I used some nice heavy drawing paper by Strathmore which I cut 3" x 17." Instead of cutting it with scissors I scored the paper and tore it so the edges would be a little deckled.  Then I folded the long sheet in to 8 sections by folding it in half and half again and half again. I took lots of pictures of both dogs, attempting to capture their personalities.  Mac is a little lazy and loves to sleep on the top of the pillows on the couch. His fur is a very white and is very soft.  Charlie seems to be a little worried all the time.  He likes to stay very close to your legs for protection.  Carlie's is not as white, has some buff colored and is a little more wiry.

I did the drawings in ink and then added watercolor.  I labeled each page with a torn piece of brown paper.  I painted a very rough design of polka dots on the back of the paper to repeat the dots in the drawings.  I used a limited color scheme to keep the unfolded book from being too busy.

I cut pieces from an old reference book to use as the covers. I liked the color and the texture of the old cover.   I painted on the front and back cover pieces with acrylic and added words and details with a white gel pen.

 

  

 

Practicing Some Lettering

I started a new session of Sketchbook Skool called "Expressing."  The first lesson is on adding text to your sketches to tell a story, to date, to title, to enhance, to journal.  I love to fool around with lettering.  I would love to have the time to perfect my skills.  First homework assignment said to find 2 fonts and play, so that is what I did late yesterday after a very tiring (but very good) week at work.  Lettering is so fun and takes me to another place in my brain (along with a glass of wine).So I ended the evening relaxed and happy.  Here is my first homework assignment.

Spiral Drawing

Miguel Herranz demonstrated "spiral drawing" in week 5 of "Stretching" in Sketchbook Skool.  He instructed us to find a scene and focus on one thing we found interesting and draw it near the center of the page.  Then instead of working out the entire composition we were to draw in a spiral or circle out from the center to the edges.  I think I must draw complicated scenes like this because this didn't seem strange or different.  I started with the "one way" sign and worked out from there.  This is really not the scene I wanted to draw but was the only thing I could find from a shady spot in the old Cordova neighborhood near my house.  I want to draw some of the older more interesting buildings from the early part to the last century.  But there were so many cars parked everywhere that I couldn't find a place to park myself without sitting in the very hot sun.  The vantage point that I chose was the back of a restaurant (now out of business) that had an interesting pattern of railings, walkways, and great shadows.  I didn't finish the entire scene.  I was satisfied with the incompleteness of the drawing.