Give a gal a pencil

I  had not drawn anything for several days.   It's been too hectic around here.    And I was starting to get interested in altering a book so that took me astray.        Well, the book can wait another day, I just had to pick up a pencil and do a couple quick studies from pics online.      

The first one is Ingrid.     The second is Serena.    They just look like Ingrid and Serena to me.   

I sure wish I could make eyes look right.   I almost always like the eye on the right side of the drawing, but not the left one.   Maybe I need to get out the eraser too.    LOL    

Thanksgiving Day

Who blogs on a holiday?  Who has time.      Well just a quick minute.    Here's the Thanksgiving card I mailed out this week.    You may be on the receiving end.         This is one corner of a collage we did at the Mixed Media group last year, with Roberta as instructor.     I knew this would come in handy one day.  These are my folks.       My aunt had them pose in this position, as they were often puttering in the garden.     Give my mom a pair of pruning shears, and my dad a shovel or pitch fork, and they were right at home.       I'm truly grateful that I learned my love of gardening from them.    

Hope you have a happy Thanksgiving.      Janene

Profile

Here is a new profile I'm working on.    

Drawing a chicken thief

One of the photos I'm drawing from is a mug shot taken in 1912 of a chicken thief.      He looks so cocky!   I liked the rakish angle of his hat and raised eyebrows.    is he trying to look innocent?      Imagine posing for a mug shot like that?    Bonnie and Clyde move over, I would not trust this guy for anything.    LOL    

 I tried to capture his expression.    I was half satisfied yesterday when I looked at it again, but when it set it up to take a picture all of a sudden I could see how "off" the eye on the left side is.  It's too close to the nose and not at the right angle.    Now that I can see the errors, maybe I can fix them.   If so, I'll be posting his pic again later.     There are lots of changes to be made, not just that eye.      My friend Vivian remarked that straight on poses are hard to draw.     Perhaps she is more right than I first thought.     Maybe it would be easier to start over!   

BTW I found this mug shot on EBAY - a great source for images.

Drawing in the gallery

Last Sunday Phyllis and I sat the gallery together.    Between visitors we had some time to watch the Julie FeiFan Balzer's video workshop "All About Faces".   We decided to pull out some paper and our pencils and do a little sketch along with her on the little DVD player screen.          Here are two I did very quickly.   One was supposed to be on a tag, so I just drew a little tag first.    

I think I will start playing some of the workshops I ordered in the studio while I"m working.     It will be fun to try the new techniques while watching  rather than watch it and then later try to remember whatever I might have learned.   

I should have taken pictures of what Phyllis did, because although we were sitting side by side and watching the same video, you couldn't tell from the results, they are that different.   In fact they don't look like Julie's either.  

Something very special

A friend has got a few of us involved in making a necklace.     In looking for things I could use in mine, I dug out some old jewelry.   This is a piece my mom did in teachers college back in the 20's.      I wore it a few times when I was a young teenager because it went well with a sweet dress I made over from one of her college dresses.   I remember it was a pale green and pink print on dotted swiss.      My mom taught home economics so you can bet I learned a lot from her.    There was not much she could not do.   From baking to sewing, she had it all down pat.

Here is the necklace, I set it on an envelope my dad mailed back from Alaska (where he was working in a copper mine) around the same time period.  They did not meet until the mid 30's.   What the heck, I think I'll post their pictures here as well as the jewelry.    

Mixed media show and tell

Yesterday the mixed media group met in Lodi.     We had no particular project to work on so we had show and tell, then took a jaunt next door to the bead shop to look around for the first time.  Amazing beads.      Every kind of bead imaginable - and prices from 10 cents apiece, to way up there.   

First I will show you some of the show and tell items.      Linda McAllister did a collage on theme of what she is thankful for.     Her senses and movement.  Being able to get out and go.      So important and so often just taken for granted.     

I like it very much, I like the sense of movement in it, and also the sense of joy.   I like that she used some music in the background because this month as I have been thinking about all I have to be thankful for, I was considering the music in my  own life.   I'm thankful that there are composers and musicians and arrangers, and producers that bring the incredible sounds into our lives.      And the sounds of nature. windy days and dogs barking.    LOL   I hear that a lot.     And their little toenails as they run across the room, and their growling when they wrestle or pull on a toy.
My granddaughters choral group has introduced me to a lot of new music these past few years.       They don't always sing the tried and true pieces.  They experiment with new composers and other culture's music.      I'm thankful for that and the importance of music and art in the schools.

I sure get off the track sometimes, don't I?   Anyway then next photos are of work shown by Frances this week.    One is a carving she did awhile back.  It was done in pine.      She is grateful for her hands, her art, her kids and particularly for the life of her son that barely survived a motorcycle accident this year and is still recovering.  The next photo is one of her experiments on Yupo paper.       She is so bold and imaginative.   She just "goes for it".   At 81, she is an inspiration to all of us, and we are thankful she is one of us.