Shoes

I love shoes.

I don't have many of them, but I absolutely love them. They can make or break an outfit. They make up for my lack of... stature (yeah, I'm a shortie). They can tell so much about the wearer too!

Look around you at the shoes people wear. See if they match the person (if you know them), or try to image what the person is like who wears shoes you find interesting. It's a fun "people watching" exercise in observation.

What kind of woman would wear these shoes?

Comfort

According to dictionary.com

com·fort

   [kuhm-fert]  Show IPA

–verb (used with object)

1.

to soothe, console, or reassure; bring cheer to: They tried tocomfort her after her loss.

2.

to make physically comfortable.

3.

Obsolete . to aid; support or encourage.

–noun

4.

relief in affliction; consolation; solace: Her presence was acomfort to him.

5.

a feeling of relief or consolation: Her forgiveness affordedhim great comfort.

6.

a person or thing that gives consolation: She was a greatcomfort to him.

There quite a few things that bring me comfort. Like the steady breathing coming from the sleeping little girl next to me. She passed out tonight, she was that tired. We're at my family's house since we'll be leaving early tomorrow for the beach. But I'll be blogging from there. No break this time.

Something else that brings me comfort - a hot cup of tea or coffee in the morning and afternoon.

What brings you comfort?

Friendly animals

"Nice to mooooooo you"

I've been in the mood for drawing animals - funny ones. Well, I mean, with funny expressions on their faces.

Lately my mind has been going a million miles a minute, and it just won't stop. Even when I'm trying to sleep. So I decided to sketch slightly wired, a bit wide eyed and insomniac animals. Yeah. Nice to moo you.

Ever had to deal with insomnia? How did you get over it?

Asleep }{ Illustration Friday

This week's Illustration Friday prompt was "asleep."

Since this week has often found me contemplating my many moves and dislocations, I also wanted to include places where I've spent some time in this week's drawings. I would love to play a guessing game with you all - where did I find inspiration for the three drawings below? The answers are at the end.

1) A landmark asleep

markers, watercolor, and gesso

2) A volcano asleep

watercolor

3) A city asleep

colored pencil

Did you guess all of them?


Drawing A: France (do I have to say what this is? So easy!)
Drawing B: Japan (Mt Fuji, harder)
Drawing C: San Francisco (hardest in my opinion - the hills and the colorful houses are supposed to represent that city)

Soaked }{ Illustration Friday

Trying to catch up. 

This week's prompt for Illustration Friday was "soaked." It's pretty appropriate since we've had nothing but rain lately. I like rain. I like the way the earth smells after it, the cool air that lingers once it's passed, the pitter-patter sounds on the window. I even like thunderstorms, always have. It reminds me of my childhood. The city I grew up in has one of the highest incidences of lightening hits in the world. 

In any case, soaked. This isn't a very original illustration, but it's what I kept going back to. It just seemed the right thing to represent it. 

mechanical pencil on recycled paper

Safari }{ Illustration Fridays

Giraffes to me represent majestic and elegant beauty. Their grace reminds me of ballet dancers. 

So when the prompt for this week's Illustration Friday turned out to be "safari" giraffes were the first thing on my mind. 

I already had a few drawings of giraffes laying around:

sharpie and color pencils 

But I did a new one of course.

Markers and watercolor

And this one has nothing to do with giraffes, or safaris really, except maybe that he's an animal?

graphite

Still, I like my little guy up there. He's stuck.

Opposites - real life and fairy tales

February's prompt for the sketchbook challenge was "opposites." It had me stumped. I really didn't know how I wanted to represent opposites. Then today...

Actually let's go back a bit. I've been participating in this online painting class, Get Your Paint On. For this week's assignment, I reinterpreted a scene from a fairy tale and drew this sketch in my sketchbook in preparation.

I liked the idea so much that I've been perusing my complete collection of the original Grimm tales (it's a hefty book with lots of inspiration). I was doing exactly that in the cafe while taking a break from real job related work (oops!) when I noticed a man. 

I couldn't help but wonder... And this is what I did.

There’s a man sitting in front of me in the café. He’s carrying lots of plastic bags and I don’t know if he’s homeless or not. He’s wearing a sun hat and a heavy jacket. Is he just keeping himself warm from the cold outside? Does he have anywhere to go? Is he happy? Is he safe? He’s sleeping. It must be nice in here, nicer than anywhere else he has to go? I keep thinking that at one point, this man was someone’s baby. Did he feel loved? Did he know his parents? Did they hold his hand as he took his first steps? I hope he feels loved.

I actually don't think fairy tales and real life are opposites. I think they are pretty close sometimes....

(ETA - the print was hard to read...)

Highly prized - a collection

A couple more sketches in response to the January prompt of the sketchbook challenge - "highly prized."

School and learning:

(this last guy is another student)

An almost leafless tree: (Fall and winter are my favorite seasons of the year) 

As a brief reflection on this blog... I'm surprised at how much sketching I've been sharing here. It's not my best craft, but it seems to be dominating my life right now. I've always liked a challenge I guess. I just didn't imagine the blog would be a place for me to be exposing these sketches to the world! 

Blogs seem to have a life of their own, eh? 

What have you done on your blog that has surprised you? Do share a "surprise" post if you'd like. I'd love to see them.

And thank you everyone for your well wishes and your comments on the fish. Your comments always encourage me.

"It's a helluva start, being able to recognize what makes you happy." - Lucille Ball (quote taken from the incredibly fun silly III class).

Highly Prized sketch

I'm finally posting a sketch for the January prompt of the sketchbook challenge - highly prized.

Sorry about image quality, it was taken with photo booth in the dark.

Yep, both my laptop and some coffee are both highly prized, and they usually go together.

Of course my daughter and my husband are my most highly prized, but I couldn't do them justice sketching. And my books... I may still draw them.

What's your highly prized object?

Sketching without guilt

Not many words today. Having fun with the little one and thinking about feet.

Did I have a resolution not to be critical of myself? And just have fun sketching without thinking about how they look? If not, I ought to have.

Sketching fellow students

Yep, still at the library... sketching fellow students instead of studying. *sigh*

(sorry about the quality - this was taken with photobooth in the dark corners of a library)