10 Lords a-leaping

This is my 100th post on this blog. It's been a little more than a year, and so it seems fitting that this post continues with something I started a year ago. This fellow was tricky to draw, and I think that when his feet finally land on the ground he will prove to be rather short and bandy-legged. But perhaps he is a good lord to his people. I think his face looks kind and wise. Well, that's the story I'm gonna stick to.

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, and travelled safely, and that your families are all happy and well. This lord is expressing my happiness because I got an iPod Nano as a gift. Although I try not to be materialistic or gadget-ridden (or boastful), I have to say that I absolutely love this thing. The whole concept of it is so clever and convenient. And best of all, I get to be (for a short time anyways) as cool and hip as my 14 year old niece, who also got the same thing from Santa.

9 ladies dancing

Here is the entry for 9 ladies dancing, one lady dancing and the other eight in the wings looking for their toe shoes. This is my second foray into drawing people doing things and this was a little bit harder, as this dancer wanted to show off knees and ankles and collarbones. No hiding behind aprons and gumboots for her, so I had to pay more attention to proportion. I doubt that she would make the Royal Winnipeg Ballet troop, as she seems to lack the statuesque leg length required. But she has a good hairstylist. This was done with watercolor tube paints and Caran d'Ache watercolor pencils, and Pigma pen. The whole project is going a lot slower than I had planned, because I seem to be spending too much time in the kitchen. But homemade chocolate truffles are perhaps worth the time and effort, and I will persevere.

Merry Christmas to everyone who reads this blog. To those who comment, thank you for your support and encouragement. It means the world to me. To those who don't comment, thank you for visitingand I hope you left with a smile. May you all have a joyous season and a wonderful year to come.

8 Maids a-milking

Last year, I had begun to illustrate this song and had a lot of fun doing it mostly because I like to draw birds. Then I came to this one - 8 maids a-milking. I had not had much (any) experience drawing people, I had never taken a life drawing course. And so I was somewhat overwhelmed at the thought of drawing 8 or more people doing anything. While I dithered over that, the entire season came and went and the moment was lost. I decided that perhaps I would postpone the project and spend the next few months practicing my figure drawing skills. While I dithered over that too, the entire season came around again! On one of my previous posts, a lovely supportive commenter suggested that when in doubt it helped to cartoon or do simple line drawings and have some fun with it. That seemed to be excellent advice in this case, and I also decided to just draw one figure doing the action and try to use symbols to represent the rest. It took quite a long time, this poor little maid was drawn and erased in her entirety four times. Trying to draw from my imagination also proved to be quite a challenge, I found. It's much more difficult than following the lines of solid object in front of you. So here is the first of the latter part of the song. And the lovely, supportive commenter was right, drawing that little cartoonish cow was a lot of fun!

EDM 148 - Draw something soothing

There were a lot of candidates for this challenge. I had planned to make soups this weekend to freeze in smal containers to take for lunches. It is a job that I find very soothing. But there has been alot of food posted on this blog and I wanted to do something different. So I chose these products which are very soothing to someone who lives in a winter country. The Jergens lotion soothes parched, itchy skin and it's lovely cherry almond scent soothes the soul. The Blistex lip balm soothes cracked, chapped lips. The little blue bottle is lavender essential oil which I use to ward off the constant colds and flus that surround those of us who work in a public institution. It's also relaxing and soothing. I could also have added a CD called "the most relaxing classical album in the world...ever!" Cheesy title, but fabulous music, although I couldn't quite fit it on the page. There were also two little round lozenges for soothing sore, dry throats but (of course) the tabby cat knocked them off the table and so far under the stove that they were irretrievable. She seems to think that drawing and painting is a team sport, and all still life setups are simply cat toys waiting to be discovered. And that was not so soothing.

After previewing this, I see that the shading on the lotion bottle did not show up on the scan. Too bad, as I worked hard on getting the subtles shadows.

EDM 147 - Draw something made of wood

This is a drawing of a wooden pelican (I hope you could tell that's what it was). We bought it when we were in Puerta Vallarta a few years ago. We like to travel but we don't buy a lot of souvenirs or trinkets, partly because of the weight restrictions on air travel, and partly because neither of us wants more stuff that has to be dusted. Mostly we take photos to remind us. But Shawn enjoys things made of wood, being a carpenter and all, and so we have a nice small collection of carved animals and birds. I chose this one because during our visit I enjoyed watching the pelicans at sunset swooping low over the waves to catch their dinner. When perched on a rock or the edge of a fishing boat, they look so graceless and awkward. But when they take to the air, they suddenly become sleek and fast and graceful. I also liked the posture of this fellow. He looks almost meditative. It is made of very hard, shiny, dark wood, while the base is rough and unpolished. Watercolor in the Moleskine journal.

EDM 144- Draw something square

It took me a long time to settle on what to draw for this challenge. It seems that many things are not real squares - rectangle seems to be a more common shape. This is a piece of cake that we made for our recent extended family dinner. I'm a pretty good cook, but since I don't like sweet things very much, I have never baked much or practised much with deserts and things. I'm way better with main courses, and appetizers which are my real favorites. But you can't have the family over for dinner and not offer a desert. That would just be bad karma. But there were some boxes of cake mix high up in the cupboard waiting for just such a situation to occur. Shawn whipped up the cake and swirled the yellow batter and the fudge batter together ever so prettily. And we baked it in our swell new oven - first time for baking a cake. Later I decided that we were on a roll here, and I should make some chocolate icing from scratch. Really, how hard could it be? That was when I realised it had been so long since I had baked a cake that I couldn't remember how to make icing. Sadly, I had to check for a recipe. Oh yeah, there's butter in it, not just milk and icing sugar and lots of cocoa powder. It was pretty when it was done, especially when the sprinkles hid the slight lumpiness. And my gluttonous family ate the whole thing! Except for one piece that I saved for the next day, and it became the inspiration for square.