Westlake (China) 2004

Micron pen in the 6x8-in drawing sketchbook.  I think I've drawn this before in another medium.  I know it didn't come out as well as this.

Had just one page left.  This was in my head.  Amazing what I'll find in there when I'm not overworked or under pressure.  That Inktense is really intense IRL.  So, YAY!!  Sketchbook #13 is finally done (#6 art goal in 2011).

Inktense Blocks & GIMP

My truck passed CA smog yesterday.  That's an enormous monkey off my back.  I celebrated with a drive to my "closest" brick 'n mortar art store (30 miles) and unintentionally came home with $100 of art supplies, including a set of Inktense blocks.  I really haven't been thrilled with the Inktense pencils I've had for quite a while. I find them clumsy to sketch with outside the house BUT I've really "clicked" with these sticks with & without wash.  Going down, they feel like I wanted the Prismacolor art stix to feel like.  Right before this sketch, I put down the first line with the art stix -- I got a clear wax line, bleh.  I'm seriously considering taking this set on my trip.

The sketch is Basilica di San Vitale in Ravenna, Italy.  I (finally) downloaded GIMP last week (been meaning to for 2 years).  I tried some smudging in the blue sky to get rid of strokes that the wash didn't smooth enough.

Buddha 2004

Charcoal in the 6x8 drawing sketchbook.  I took the reference photo in 2004 near Shanghai where monks have carved like a hundred Buddhas into the mountainside.  I didn't see the belly button in the reference but I thought he needed one.

Dang it, I'm actually doing better on the 2011 art goal (use up sketchbooks) than on the 2012 goal (use up acrylic paint.)

Stonehenge 1985

I got my first camera just before my first overseas business trip.  I had a long layover in London so I had time to take local tours before the tour of Western Europe.  I lost alot of pictures because I didn't load the camera properly and I didn't recognize the clues that it wasn't operating properly.  I learned all that in a photography class I took a year AFTER the trip.    Compared to today, I hardly took any pictures!  Just a couple at each site but I got the important tourist shots.  I lost the few pictures I took in Scotland, London, Holland, Germany, and Venice, though I did get to go back and retake my London pics. 

I got to see Stonehenge before they put an ugly fence around it.  That day, that grass was soggy from rain before we got there and the rain clouds weren't that far away.  This sketch is part oil pastel (the green) and part hard pastels.

Another travel sketch

Bought some hard pastels to play with because I liked the earth tones.  This is Tallinn, Estonia from a picture I took in 2006.

Landscape practice

Hmm, looks like the scanner washed some color away.  Getting some landscape practice in for an upcoming trip to an exciting place!  Right on the edge of sanity.

These are done from travel brochures with inktense pencils and new water brushes.  Not sure about either one, might go with my trusty ol' water brushes which seem easier to fill and the Koi pans.

WDE from 4-1-12

Chinese Ink in the 6x8 sketchbook. I actually did a couple more 6x8's for a total of 5 references.

How disappointing...

OMG, it's been two whole months since I posted my last art! Well, I did do Sketchcrawl in January and I draw on my desk pads at work and at home. It's nothing that fits the scavenger hunts because it's not from life and it's too big to scan. I fill up the top page once a month.

Whoa, I just checked my acrylic pallet. The paint from Jan 1 is still good! I should use it, LOL!

More?

Okay, it's not acrylic. Oil pastel very quickly, I think it shows. Maybe a future mola? I don't know, I've had a couple weeks off the side job and four days off the day job. I'm finally feeling

mentally relaxed which helps the art to flow. It is done in a sketchbook that has only a few pages left (2010 art goal) .

Mola #3

I was on a roll last night. Acrylic on 9x12 inch cardboard off one of the pads of paper I actually finished last year.
Edit: picture update to make it look less like a yellow brick road.
Edit2: picture disappeared!

Happy New Year 2012

I had time! I used it to paint another mola attempt. Not yet true to the style but it's getting there. I do like how the panda turned out. 8x10 inch acrylic on watercolor paper mounted on--I think it was a book cover in a previous life.

Almost forgot, 2012new years resolution: Very simply, use up as much acrylic paint as possible. The goal post is actually to get to a point where I have only Golden Opens and Golden Fluid acrylics.

As for last year's goals, I only finished one sketchbook. I closed out several writing journals, but I only count one sketchbook. So if I use up as much acrylic paint as I can, the sketchbooks and paper accumulation will take care of themselves.

Smooshing paint

Except for my vacation time, I've been too busy this year to sketch or work on art.  The lack of creativity has been frustrating when I have had time.   Does anyone actually read these shareholder updates that the companies are required to send?  I found a new use for them!  I'm scribbling in them.  Since it's something I'd throw away anyway, they're less precious than sketchbooks or pads that I spent money on (even if I only paid $1 for the pad.)  I will throw them away when I'm done.

It's time again to make decisions on my 401k.  All these funds feels like throwing money into a black hole.   I'm really good at my job but these financial things might as well be printed in Greek for all I understand of it.  I have seen an advisor--then it's like Greek translated into Korean and when it gets back to English, the original meaning is lost so the information is still useless to me.

I have a pad at work next to my keyboard.  When I have trouble focusing, I doodle on the pad.  Sometimes it looks like zentangles, mostly it looks like a to-do list with little sketches inserted between the blocks I cross off.  I think I have panda on the brain.  Lately I've been drawing pandas. 

PS:  Jo, thanks for visiting.  Congrats on the new house.