Work Done Last Week

This is a bit late only because I had scanned all the pictures onto my laptop and then the power cord went out. I was a bit upset about that because I knew that replacement cords would be expensive, however a local computer repair shop was able to get me a new cord for about a third of the cost of the item if ordered from Dell computers. That lifted my spirits until I realized that my newly scanned pictures would have to be scanned again which meant that I would have to download the Epson scanner driver for Windows Vista. I never wanted to do this in the past because Vista was always messing up the programs. But I wanted to put my pictures on my blog so I needed to buckle down and get the driver and get the scanner all hooked up. To my surprise Vista did not have any problems with the driver and so now my scanner works on my desktop. The scanner is easier to get to when I need it than it was before. Now I am happy!

About my drawings:

The red flower drawing is done in colored pencil and is of a boquet of carnations.

This drawing of Chickie is done in fine tip markers which means that I cannot erase my mistakes. My drawing makes Chickie look like a vulture. Not a good likeness at all. I need more practice with ink.

The still life of fruit was drawn just before the Chickie picture and the problem with it is the banana is a bit off. If you follow the banana around the orange than it would prabably be growing out of the orange. Oh, well! Need more practice with composition and pin.

The drawing of the tulips my hubby gave my for Valentine's Day is much better, so see, practice does help.

Why did I draw a dagger, a needle and a pin? I do not know, I just did. What had happen was that one of the shows I was watching had a sword used in it. It looked cool and as I was watching I was thinking to myself, "self, do you think you could draw that sword?" "Well, yes I will give it a try. It looks like a fun subject for a drawing." So I drew it. Now as to the pin and needle? I cannot tell anything but that the images popped into my head and said, "draw us!" So I drew them and this is what I got. All in all it was fun. My boys loved the dagger, go figure!;->

I did finish another colored pencil drawing last week that I had started years ago. That drawing will be uploaded this weekend.

Now go create some art!!!

The Week We Have Had!

Oh what a week we have had! I had scanned in all the drawings I had done this week to my laptop, but before I could put it on my blog the power cord burned out. This caused me to be mad because when I checked how much a new one is on the Dell website the cord was $69, holly cow! After searching the web to find a cheaper version I decided to call a local computer repair shop. It was a good call because they said that they could get me a new one for $28 which includes shipping. The bad part is that it was five minutes before they closed on a Saturday and that I would have to wait until Monday to order a new one and that it would take a week to get. After I realized that it would be a week before I could use the laptop and get to the scanned drawings, I would have to hooked the scanner to the desktop computer. I just did not want to do this because it runs on Windows Vista and I did not have the driver for the scanner to work on that operating system. Plus the scanner was down in the art studio and the computer was upstairs in the office. Okay, I was being lazy! To slove this problem I had my 15 year old son fetch the scanner and all the cords to it. Good thinking, isn't that the reason one has children, to fetch things? ;-> Once the scanner was upstairs I went online to Epson and found the driver and downloaded. To my surprise there was no problems getting the scanner to work on Windows Vista (not my favorite operating system, laptop has Windows XP, much easier to use, no tears!)

Now that it is working my only problem is rescanning all the art work from this past week. I will do that later, for now I scanned in the journal drawing I did of the mishaps of this week. Like I said it was a crazy messed up week. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, right?

(Note to self: Always check journal page for errors and fix before posting on blog.;-)

EDM #211 In The Style Of. . .

Salvador Dali (1904-1989) surrealist painter~


I have been intrigued with the works of Dali for quite some time. I have other drawings done in his surrealist style. It is a lot of fun thinking up strange arrangements and then drawing them. My family believes that it is just my crazy thinking or the dreams I have. I do have some wild dreams and thoughts. Really it is just a vivid imagination and that helps when it comes to thinking of subjects to draw. I had lost this imagination while the pain in my body was taking center stage, but now I feel my brain coming alive again. I am very happy about that.

About this drawing~ Well, I could tell you what it means to me, however I would rather you come up with your own thoughts about it. It is done with both pastel pencils and colored pencils on blue paper. The paper has a lot of texture and to get the black all black took a lot of time to achieve. I had a blast doing this drawing. So much so that I forgot to do the dishes before hubby came home, oops, my bad;-) He was understandable, he knows how I get when I am deeply involved in an art project. (he is such a nice guy;-)

Here is a site with more info and paintings of Dali, enjoy!
http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/dali_salvador.html

Happy 26th Anniversary!

My husband bought me a rose, a card and a t-shirt for our anniversary on the 12th. He bought himself a pair of work boots and said that they were from me. I just did not feel that that was enough. For 26 years of marriage I thought he deserved more than that so I painted him the rose he bought me and I wrote him a poem, which is on the back of the painting.

I used watercolor pencils which I had not used much before, so I was a bit awkward with them. It was a bit difficult for me to get the vase to look clear. The original vase has a lot of texture on the side, it looks like bark only glass. It is a very pretty vase. One of my sons bought it for me from a yard sale.

The painting is a bit rough, but my husband thought it was wonderful. As long as he liked it that is all that matters.

My Work for the Week

I decided to keep a food diary for a day. That was a eye opener for me on what I actually eat, which is not much at all. Why am I over weight then? Because of the pain and problems I have in exercising. It cause more pain so I do not do it. I would like to walk but I need someone to go with me to hold on to. I do manage to go up and down the stairs a few times (my art studio is downstairs) and I try to use my rubber band strength building things. It will just take me longer to get the weight off.

This is a day when I did not know what I wanted to draw so I doodled and then wrote about finishing Danny Gregory's book, The Creative License and what I learned from it. The main point of the book, "You are an Artist, now get to work creating and have fun!"

And finally this drawing is my take on the EDM challenge #210 draw some underwear. One of my sons was playing with a new box of 96 Crayola Crayons and I thought it would be fun to play with them too. I used a metallic crayon on the heart but it does not show up on the scan. There is just a little sparkle to it. Have you ever noticed how certain smells take you back and bring up past memories? Crayons are one of those smells. Every time I open a box it is fun to take a deep whiff of them. Childhood rushes to the front of my memories. Go open a box and take a whiff. A box full of joy! Now create a drawing with crayons or finger paints, be a kid again.

My Baby Kitty Mooch

As I was listening to Philosophy Talk on the web I got out some colored pencils and drew my baby kitty Mooch. Ok, he is not a kitten but he is my baby, well at least one of my babies.

I had quite a time getting enough black pencil on the dark blue background paper. Originally I wanted to draw him on black paper and use the highlights to make him stand out, but I did not have any black drawing paper. I am not sure if it would have turned out. It was only going to be an experiment. It has been a few years since my last colored pencil drawing so I was a bit rusty. I really do like working with colored pencils. Many of my pencils have disappeared which means I need to go to the art store and get some new pencils. Hey, any excuse to go to the art store is a good one.

I think that I will have to draw my other baby kitty, the dog, the bird (in pencil this time), the two rats, the grandbabies. . . . . . . . . . .

I did not manage to do art everyday because of too many appointments and a husband who was not at work this week. Having a husband following you around is about the same as a child wanting all your attention. All in all it was a pretty good week.

I finally found a doctor who believes me when it comes to my pain. He said that indeed I had Fibromyalgia, which I had told the other doctor about and he just blew it off and treated something I did not have. The new doctor gave me some shots around some points of pain and then a whole bunch of medicine to control it. The doctor also gave me medicine for my cholesterol and a diet pill to help me with my weight. I told him that it was hard to exercise because of the pain and balance problem. In order to walk someone has to go with me and no one wanted to or I was in way too much pain to go. I really do not eat much but because I do not move much either, the weight has gone up a bit. Now that the pain is being controlled I can get moving again. I still have a jerky head and feel as though I am on a rocking boat all the time. The doctor said that for now we are working on the pain and in two weeks he wants to see me again so we can deal with the jerky head symptoms. He explain that my brain is still thinking I have pain and some of the medicine takes a few days to work. So I have to wait to see the jerky stuff goes away. I did tell him that my ears are always full of fluid and that that might be the problem. He checked my ears and sure enough there was some fluid in them. One of the pills I take may help that but I will have to wait to see. It is good to be able to do things without a lot of pain.


About these two pictures:
The pencil drawing is weird, I know. I started out drawing ellipses and then it turned into this tube thing that spits out ellipses. I had a lot of fun working on this and trying to get the tube to look clear and that ellipses were actually falling out of it. My family just shook their heads and smiled, probably thinking that, "oh there goes mom again drawing weird Dali type pictures again." Well, I do like Dali and yes I have painted a picture or two that are strange but hey that is just what is in me and what my brain and hands want to paint. Art is to express! So I express!

This colored drawing is a doodle. I was waiting for my art student to show up (which for some reason she did not) and decided to doodle something. My 9yo son's Crayola markers were there and so I drew a doodle picture with them. It was very relaxing.


Art helps me to relax as I am expressing! I love being an Artist!!!

First Thing-A-Day, Feb. 1, 2009

I played with my camera today for my first Thing-a-day creation. It was a pain trying to figure out the Thing-a-day website. I had a hard time uploading this photo. I think that it is on there now but part of the top is cut off. My photos are large files when I take them and I am still working out how to get them smaller for the web. Just when I think that the file is small it turns out that it is not small enough. Oh well, I will get it sooner or later.

I love how the sky's blue shows up in the icicles. This photo was taken through the bedroom window because there is no way to do it outside. I thought that the spots on the glass would show up, but they do not.