EDM 165 - Draw the front of your house

This is the front of my townhouse condo. It looks pretty sad, with an empty window box and dead perennials in the garden. There are some tulips poking up through the ground, and yesterday I saw a fluorescent orange nubbin of the rhubarb coming up. We have lived in this house for 16 years, and we have filled it with love and laughter, friends and family, tabby cats and books. It's been a good place to live, and I wish I could have done a better job portraying it.

I succumbed to the hype and bought a Moleskine sketchbook. I have the watercolor sketchbook which I like a lot. But this new one I'm not so sure about. The paper is very slick and smooth, the pen seemed to slip and dance across it. It's also quite yellow. It absorbed the paint quickly so it was difficult to get a smooth patch of color. I think it worked much better with the water color pencils and no water. The whole experience threw me off a little, I felt very hesitant and unsure how to lay the lines and paint down. (And aren't there a lot lines! )

EDM 163 - Draw a deck of cards

My parents went on a Mediterranean cruise and all I got was this lousy deck of cards! Used cards! I'm sure I got more than that, because my parents are very generous people, but it seemed appropriate here.

"Each player must accept the cards life deals him or her; but once they are in hand, he or she alone must decide how to play the cards in order to win the game." Voltaire.

I like this quote, it is one of those that seem designed to pull you out of yourself and give some perspective to whatever situation you find yourself in. Like envy over someone else going on a cruise while you're slaving away, or people being excited over the first robin or crocus of spring while you wake up to snow on the ground, and a vicious wind. Instead, play your cards right, and you, too, can be waving goodbye from the observation deck. It's not what you have but what you do with it that counts.

This is Pigma and Staedtler pens, and watercolor pencils, in the Aquabee watercolor journal.

EDM 162 Draw your breakfast

Here is my breakfast and it makes me a bit sad. I caught sight of myself unexpectedly the other day and thought "Who's body is that, and what happened to my own?" I never minded aging, never was one of those who wanted to be young again. I was looking forward to the wisdom and patience that comes with age. I didn't realize that you paid for that with an expanding waistline. And I don't know how it happened. I walk to and from work, half an hour each way, and I do a Deep Water workout class twice a week. The only culprit can be a sloooooowed down metabolism. So no more bagels and smoked salmon cream cheese for breakfast, it's Special K and a banana. And sadly, no more evening snacks of a glass of wine and a bowl of potato chips. I think that's the real reason. I'm so glad I've reached the level of maturity and wisdom to know that if it tastes good, it gotta be bad for me. Sigh... Just when you can afford the cost of the good life, you realize you can't afford the calories.

EDM 83 - Draw a body of water

Finally, I have something new to put on the blog. These are American Pelicans near the weir on the Bow River. The river is deep and fast there, and the weir churns the water up quite high. It creates a kind of rolling motion that is quite dangerous for people, and also for fish. The fish are tossed up to the top of the water and into the waiting beaks of the pelicans. It's like dinner delivery for pelicans. Sometimes, they are so stuffed, they don't even bother with the fish, they just float serenely, knowing that the next hunger pang will be instantly gratified. They are fat and lazy, and have an enormous sense of self-entitlement, just like a tabby cat. Maybe in my next life, I'll come back as pelican (or a tabby cat).
This is done with water color pencils in the Moleskin water color journal. It is part of my homework for Watercolor Pencil magic, the chapter on water and skies. In the three weeks of the class, this is the only thing that seemed good enough to post here. It has been a truly humbling experience, albeit a valuable one.