Paper and Threads

I love watching the Winter Olympics and spent large blocks of time glued to the coverage.  Probably because of my lifelong interest in dance, and specifically ballet, figure skating is one of my very favorite events.  As I was getting ready to watch the Women's Short Program, I was surfing the NBC Olympic website and found this photo of Mirai Nagasu.  I fell in love with this perky, skilled, 16 year old while watching her skate at Nationals several weeks before.  Although she was being considered the US hope for the future, she appeared to be in a group with other world class skaters already.  I loved the entire coverage of the Women's event and have never been so impressed as I was with Kim Yu-Na's free skate on Thursday evening.  But I was even more thrilled that Mirai finished in 4th place!!   

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I still enjoy completing the EDM Challenges because they take me out of my comfort zone and help me decide what I should draw/paint for at least one of my daily sketches each week.  However, I regularly complete them 1-2 weeks after the challenge was published, as I try to settle on a specific image.  This time it was Challenge # 259: Draw a view from your pet's perspective.  We don't have a pet!

Challenge #258: Draw your closet

I sketched one half of my clothes closet.  We live in an apartment building in New York City - with the types of closets that were popular in 1926, i.e. no walk-in closets.  However, we are luckier than one of our sons who lives in a house from the late 1800s in Capitol Hill, Washington DC.  They have only a single closet in the original house and rely on armoires as in the past.  Here is my sliding door clothes closet (part of a post-1926 renovation), with only half exposed.

Challenge #259: Draw a view from your pet's perspective.

Although we don't have pets, I realized that my 5 month old grandson spends his days being moved from one place to another by the grown-ups in his life.  And he has a limited view from some of these spots, much like a pet.  It took me longest to decide how to answer this challenge.  Here is 5 month old Zachary's aquarium view when he is in his bouncey seat.

Challenge #260:  Draw your suitcase packed for a trip

This is my small suitcase that I take away for short train or car trips, but it is not yet packed for my March trip to Washington DC.

Challenge #261:  Draw an Olympic Event

Although the ice skating events are my favorite, I really love the "soaring" ski jumpers, with their extremely clean lines. 

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I haven't scanned the last 3 EDM challenges, yet. 

EDM Challenge #255:  Draw the Person Sitting Next to You on Bus, Train, Airplane

The best I could do was to draw the person sitting across from me, at the Society of Illustrators, waiting for the live figure drawing session to begin.  He was reading and therefore didn't know I quickly sketched him. 

EDM Challenge #256:  Draw Something Bubbly

There was a huge Kandinsky exhibit at the Guggenheim, and I was inspired by one of his paintings to draw these bubbly-looking circles.

EDM Challenge # 257:  Draw a Houseplant

This bamboo plant was a gift from students to my husband, and I'm amazed at how big these plants can grow from this tiny ceramic container and only water. 

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My days were full the month before Christmas, with Holiday preparation and activities, and Kate's wonderful Artist's Journal Class.  I still love completing EDM Challenges, but had enough art to do each day without them.  So here are 4 that I wanted to post before the end of the year (#250, 251, 253, 254).  The only one I completed during the week it was assigned was "Draw a Pine,"     (#252)and that was possible because I brought home a pine bough from the Christmas Tree lot where we bought our Christmas tree. 

EDM #250:  Draw Something You Got for Free

I received a Christmas t-shirt last year when I made other purchases, and this is the embroidered design on the front.

EDM #251:  Draw a Perfume or Perfume Product

This is my absolute favorite body cream and I need to use it daily during the winter months.

EDM #253:  Draw a Sock

This is one from a pair of Christmas knee socks which I haven't worn in more than 15 years.  Why do I still have them??

#254:  Draw Something Joyful

We had almost 11 inches of snow last week and my husband and I walked into Central Park by 8AM to enjoy it.  I love to be out in the snow and couldn't wait to bundle up and explore our area of the Park.  This drawing is of my husband in his sheepskin coat and mittens.  I still draw and paint family members from the back ONLY!  And I love how recognizeable they are!

Yesterday I took care of two of my grandchildren in the morning and then went to W57th Street area to see the fabulous Bergdorf Goodman Holiday windows.  They are really not to be believed!  This composite page has the reindeer design from Zach's pjs that I put in his Christmas stocking and one of the very small paper cutouts from a Christmas window in the jewelry display.

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On Monday we bought our Christmas Tree and I picked up a pine bough for EDM Challenge #252.  I was able to really study the way that the needles grew from the branch, and on this one there were 5 long needles from each little knob along the it.  Fascinating!!  I used my rigger brush and both tube watercolors and paint removed from the tip of my watercolor pencil.

Two of my grandchildren have birthdays this week, making the holiday schedule even more complicated.  Long time readers of  this blog may remember our frantic dash to London when Callum arrived 6 weeks early - and one day before Sydney's 2nd birthday.

 Tonight I'm taking my daughter, and Sydney to their first NY City Ballet production of The Nutcracker for her birthday.  My mother, Sydney's great grandmother, gave me a a small silver bracelet to give to her to wear to Lincoln Center.  We are very excited!

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Here are two EDM Challenges from several weeks ago.  One of my art goals for 2009 was to draw the EDM Challenges weekly, but I'm not as diligent as I was in years past.  I never did several of them, and seem to be late posting them more frequently. 

Here is my husband's lock for his gym locker and I think the only "coffee pot" among many in our apartment that I haven't drawn and painted previously.  This is a one mug Melitta coffee filter - which makes an acceptable cup of filtered French Roast coffee.

Now on to #250 and 251....

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EDM Challenge #246:  Draw a Pair of Gloves: 

I love my black shearling mittens, especially when it is really cold in New York City.  But they just looked like two black blobs on my journal page, so I sketched my black leather gloves instead.

EDM Challenge #247:  Draw Something Creepy

Approximately once each year our local TV channel shows footage from surveillance cameras in fast food restaurants - and after the restaurant is closed, the camera captures the image of rats in the kitchen.  It really creeps me out - and also makes sure that I never visit that fast food chain - because of course I can't remember which branch it was in this big city.

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Six years ago, when our first grandchild was born, I bought a very small Halloween book from the holiday table at Barnes and Noble.  It is shaped like this pumpkin, outlined in black, and the front cover is made from very soft velour and then stuffed.  It is a favorite with each one of our grandchildren - probably based on size, texture, color and a very simple story of children "trick or treating."  It remains in our book cabinet all year and is enjoyed by them regardless of the season.  The bat, witch's hat, black cat, and ghost are images I sketched from the book illustrations.  The vertical black lines are another experiment in varying the backgrounds of my drawings

I don't know what number this EDM Challenge is - #245 or 246 depending on whether the Free Choice last week was assigned a number. 

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Procion MX Dye Stock Solutions:

I use Procion MX dyes to "paint" cotton and silk and keep the primary color stock solutions (plus black) in the refrigerator - tightly capped and way in the back on a bottom shelf.   I made this batch two years ago and put them away to use again.  But for a variety of reasons, I haven't dyed another piece of cloth since then - and forgot about them.

I'm off to the Houston Quilt Festival tomorrow morning, to learn more surface design techniques and have a mini-vacation.  This is the 35th anniversary of Festival and my 25th year as a registrant.   My sketchbook will go with me and hopefully I'll at least have some sketches of conference participants in their colorful clothes when I come home. 

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I was very lazy about doing EDM Challenges last month and even worse about uploading them to my blog.  I finally decided to post them all at once - and catch up.  One of my annual art goals is to complete each weekly sketch because it:

1. Gives me a subject for one of my daily sketches each week.

2. Stretches my drawing and painting skills.  

 EDM Challenges #238 - Draw Your First Aid Kit - and #239 - Draw What Has Scared You

My husband and I are both physicians so we have First Aid items in random places in our apartment.  When thinking about this challenge, I immediately remembered my Aircasts - one for my right ankle and one for my left ankle.  I had two very serious ankle sprains due to mis-steps and the use of an aircast allowed me to walk within 24-48 hours and continue to heal during 3-4 months each time.  I live in a City where walking is really essential - my car is parked 3 blocks away from our apartment and the nearest bus and subway stop are both one long block away each.  I was really scared after my first serious ankle injury after moving back to Manhattan, because I realized how easily I could be apartment-bound.

EDM Challenge #240: My Favorite Pencils 

EDM Challenge #241:  Draw the View from Your Kitchen Window

This is my usual view - a beautiful stained glass window approximately 15 feet away, with lovely concerts that I can enjoy when both of our windows are open.

This is my current view.  There is work being done on our apartment building and there is a scaffold below the church window and a board protecting it.  I miss it!

EDM Challenge #242:  Draw a Favorite Tchatzkah 

I could find nothing around our apartment except my figure drawing mannequin.  I collect books and fabric and try to keep  tchatzkahs to a minimum.

EDM Challenge #243: Draw a Pillow

I love fabric and frequently bring back an interesting piece when we travel.  This is a pillow that I made with a piece of Fortuny fabric that I bought in Venice.  The fabric has an overall design of lions - only one of which I sketched.

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In Manhattan apartments, there are whole organizational systems created for under bed storage.  But we've resisted so far and I have only 2 items under our bed.

My First Briefcase:  I bought this brown leather briefcase at Frost Brothers department store in San Antonio Texas in the late 70s and used it for many years while traveling back and forth to the Hospital.  When we moved to New York City in the early 90s, I found that a large leather bookbag with shoulder straps made it easier to walk between our apartment and my car, so my briefcase remained in my office 99% of the time.  When I retired in July I almost gave it away.  This was a great opportunity to create a memory drawing.  For now it will remain under our bed in a storage container.

My New Papercutter:  When I took a bookbinding class last year I worried about my ability to cut Davey board at home without the wonderful commercial papercutter that was in the Studio.  I traveled around our neighborhood - from places like Kinkos to Staples - trying out their copy center papercutters on my sample of the book board.  This X-acto paper cutter was the winner.  I have used it to cleanly cut book boards for 10 watercolor journals and keep it under the bed in its original box for safety and storage.

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We just spent several days in Southampton with our youngest grandchild, Annabelle.  Our other 4 grandchildren live in Manhattan and spend lots of time with us.  Annabelle needs to figure out who we are and reestablish trust with each visit.  These are the first 3 journal pages from our visit.

When we arrived the pink hydrangeas at the house were finally in bloom and we brought one flower in to brighten an otherwise rainy Sunday.

This is Annabelle, on arrival in Southampton, sitting so nicely next to the pink hydrangea.  The circle to the left of the picture is one of the bubbles being blown as she plays with her cousins.

The following day Annabelle played with her cousin Sydney's flip-flops and I decided that these may be the only butterflies that I would see all week.  So this is my entry for EDM Challenge #235 - Draw a butterfly.

We had beautiful sunny days and after a morning walk on the neach with Annabelle, we took her to the village park and children's playground.  Wen we arrived these 4 "friends" were clustered together on the dock and I was able to rapidly sketch them before they swam off.

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EDM Challenge #234:  Draw Something That Belongs to Someone Else

We gave one of our grandchildren the Vtech Kidizoom  camera last week for his 4th Birthday.  It is a robust point-and-shoot digital camera made for children and he took 600+ photos during the first 24 hours!  I set up a folder for him on my computer and we saved a few of the first pictures.  Now I need to decide how I can take our 4 oldest grandchildren on a "photoshoot" in Central Park with their children's digital cameras. 

Posted by Shirley at 7:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Challenge #232:  Draw The Last Thing You Bought:

I am not a shopper, unless I'm in a book or fabric store.  The last things I purchased were books.  Two weeks ago I bought childrens' books from the Cat in the Hat Learning Library series: Clam-I-Am! and I Can Name 50 Trees Today for our grandchildren.  This week I bought two summer books for me to read on our travels. 

EDM Challenge #233:  My Favorite Drink

I love coffee and enjoy my first quiet hour of each day, when I drink several mugs of filtered coffee, and plan the day.  This is so important to me, that I must be able to make coffee in hotel rooms so it is ready as soon as I wake up and even before I shower and get dressed.  During a Christmas visit to London in 1988, I bought myself a present at Harrods - a Russell Hobbs filter travel coffee pot.  I have enjoyed it on many trips since then.

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This is the inside of the junk drawer in my bedside cabinet - SIMPLIFIED!  In the basket on the left front one pen represents about 50, one highliter about 12, one emery board about 6.  On the right front are individual packets of yearly Filofax calendar pages from 1993 through 2008.  The black leather zipper case in the back contains some information about renting apartments in Europe.  The compartments on the right back are in a plastic silverware drawer insert and contain much more stuff in each section.  On the far right back is an old Altoids tin and a pen case full of fountain pens that I love but no longer use!

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Last Tuesday was my last official workday, 40 years after I graduated from Medical School.  I made this trip from my apartment on the Upper Eastside of Manhattan to Albert Einstein College of Medicine regularly - and was always amazed that driving 10 miles against rush hour traffic in the City took me almost 40 minutes from door to door.  Of course I first needed to walk from my apartment to our garage - stopping at the fruit and vegetable vendor on the street to get fruit for breakfast.  Then I always stopped to talk with the Garage supervisor about her newest baby.  At the other end, I walked several blocks from the parking garage to my building - checking out the flowers that were in bloom or following the progress of autumn leaves or new buds in the Spring.

I love drawing maps and started each of my 3 London sketchbooks with ever more detailed maps of the area in Chelsea where my daughter and her family lived.   

We just returned from a Family Holiday at the Beach - and I need to scan and post at least one sketchbook page from our visit. 

Posted by Shirley at 8:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)

The few days surrounding Retirement Day were so busy that I'm finally able to post EDM Challenge #229 - Joys of Summer - just as we leave Manhattan for a "beach weekend."   For those in the US, have a wonderful, safe Holiday and draw and paint lots for all of us to see.  Be back next week with more journal pages about our long, early morning walks on the beach. 

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This is a drawing of my tote/book bag that I use for work.  It is made of a heavy canvas and has one zipper pocket and two mesh side pockets - one of which always contains my umbrella.  It is black and I decided to draw it with a Pilot Varsity pen and then brush water over the non-permanent ink.  I just felt like playing!

Tuesday was my birthday.  I spent the day in New Jersey with my 90 year old mother and then returned to Manhattan to have dinner with my husband and oldest grandchild.  Henry graduated from kindergarten last Friday - and came to stay with us -across the Park - for a few days because his siblings were still in pre-school each day.  We had a wonderful dinner at Naples 45 and then as we were walking back to the entrance at Grand Central Station, I took a photo of Henry and my husband carrying the left over pizza.

After getting Henry into bed, I only had enough energy to sketch some 90 second pose maniac figures - this time in different colored pencils,

The next evening I sketched from the photo.

I am currently doing a countdown until I retire - 40 years after I started my first full time job!  I have only 7 more work days - scattered over the next 2+ weeks!

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As a Grandmother of 5, ages 1-5, sticky to me means lollipops or melting ice pops.  This was one  just waiting for Callum to want/need it.  I'm told that Dylan's Candy Bar in Manhattan is amazing!

My husband is a Do-It-Yourself guy who can fix anything.  It was really easy for him to produce screws of almost any type or length for me to draw.

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My schedule is currently out of control and I'm trying to catch up with posting.  These were quick sketches from May 18th and 19th.

My Flash Drive - the amazing thing that allows me to carry all of my files from home to the office and back.  On Monday I was preparing the final med student exam and used this little guy all day!

EDM Challenge #224:  A Pitcher

This is such a cheerful rooster pitcher that I keep it on a kitchen shelf.  I'm not sure that he has ever been used!

Yikes - my book group is arriving in 20 minutes to discuss The Egyptologist by Arthur Phillips.

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This was a difficult challenge for me.  I could think of lots of sounds I really like (my grandchildrens' belly laughs!), but nothing I wanted to draw or could draw.  I could also think of lots of sounds I don't like.  After several days, I realized that one specific tape I made for my original old Sony Walkman got me through many long airplane trips and could still relax me instantly.

We took our children to see the musical Cats the first year it opened on Broadway and I loved Rum Tum Tugger's performance by Terrence Mann.  Several years later we saw Les Miserables where he originated the part of Javert on Broadway and sang the song "Stars".  Then he made another performance in Scarlet Pimperal and was the first Broadway Beast in Beauty and the Beast.  I love his voice and recorded his songs from these show albums for my Walkman. 

I stopped using my Walkman in the last few years, mainly due to the extreme limitation on size of carry on luggage (especially when we were traveling back and forth to London in 2006-07) and my need to carry my camera and charger, and art supplies, sketchbooks, etc in my carry-on bag.  I'm not someone who wants an iPOD in my ears all day long so I never spent time trying to recreate this music selection.  It may be time for me to learn about "itunes".

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EDM Challenge #222:  My Favorite Art Tool

I love Niji Waterbrushes!  I started playing with watercolor paints approximately 5 years ago and bought a series of round brushes from size 00 to 12.  I learned how NOT to spill my water containers, but never felt completely confident that I could paint in my sketchbooks in the living room, bedroom, or friends homes.  I was an "early" convert to the Niji waterbrushes and now even use them with watercolor pencils in the museum - where only pencils are allowed.  This year I found the large flat one which is perfect for painting large areas - and not getting too fussy in small areas.

I'm so nervous that I might lose one, that I have a new set of 4 waiting for me with my art supplies at all times!

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This is my 3rd year participating in this challenge.  I already complete one journal page per day, but I only upload a small number of those pages to my blog.  Shouldn't be a surprise that I don't upload drawings and paintings that I don't like.  This challenge forces me to upload each and everyone for 31 days - the good, the bad, and the ugly.  At the beginning of the month, this makes me a little more careful about choice of subject and may even make me less spontaneous.  Midway through the month I can usually overcome these feelings. 

Here is my journal page from yesterday May 1st.  We eat dinner at a restaurant in Grand Central Station before going to the Broadway theater - and almost always have Ceasar salad, a thin crust sausage pizza, and a glass of chianti.  Last night the play with Matthew Broderick got a bad review, so we savored dinner even more.

Here are several journal pages to finish posting from April.  The first is from a Gauguin drawing that was a study for his Dancing Girls of Breton.  The Morgan Library and Museum had the 5th installment of the Thaw collection drawings and I loved this one!  The second is from a reading at Barnes Noble by Arthur Phillips - author of the Egyptologist.  My book group is reading it this month.  He read from his new novel, but it was still fun meeting him.  This image is from the book cover - the colors are mine.

EDM Challenge 221: Hand-held game

I'm not a game player, but have a basket of cards from my children's childhood, occasional games of solitaire, and "War" with my grandchildren.  This set of cards has a figure skater from the 1984 Olympics, so at least drawing it game me practice with unusual persepctive with the skater body.

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I have 1000s of digital photos and not a single photo of the Moon.  As I contemplated whether I would see a moon over the buildings here in Manhattan, I remembered the song from the movie Arthur and the phrase "between the moon and New York City."  I painted the skyline around the World Financial Center and a moon - and hopefully can now get the song out of my brain. 

The weather here was magnificent this past weekend.  There are fabulous tulips everywhere I look and I took a small art stool outside Saturday to paint several of the orange red tulips that are in huge tulip beds and around the trees in planters along the avenue. 

On Sunday morning we left the apartment at 9AM and walked to the area I call the Duck Pond or Toy Boat Pond.  This year the concession stand is open again and the patio is a wonderful place for morning coffee.  We really missed it last year.  While my husband did the crossword puzzle, I drank my coffee and sketched and painted a cropped version of the cafe counter. 

Here is an earlier journal page I did while sitting in the same place.

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EDM Challenge # 219:  Draw a Window

Today several of us who met in Danny Gregory's class had another sketchcrawl in New York City.  We met in Grand Central Station and while I waited for them I sketched a ticket window for this week's Everyday Matters Challenge.

The weather was wonderful, so we walked over to Bryant Park, behind the New York Public Library,  and thoroughly enjoyed the wonderful flowers that were all in bloom, and the hundreds of chairs that are set up around the park for all to enjoy this fabulous area.  There were thousands of tulips, daffodils, pansies and hyacinths in flower beds and urns.  I was immediately drawn to the beds of pink tulips.

The Empire State building is visible above buildings on 41st St from the Park and we all did a sketch of the view.  In my sketch it is impossible to realize how tall it is behind the foreground buildings and trees.  I'll have to return to the scene and try again someday.

I ended the morning sitting in front more flowers - to document again the joy of sketching in the sun, on a warm Spring day, enjoying the company of Annie and Kathleen and surrounded by flowers in this fabulous urban setting.

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We really enjoy visiting Paris and since 1970, one of our regular stops in the City is Dehillerin kitchen supplies.  The old Les Halles was still across the street when we first visited and Pied du Couchon was still a modest restaurant with fabulous onion soup.  Over many years and many visits, we purchased some of our favorite kitchen tools at Dehillerin.  Here are 3 of the knives we bought for ourselves.  During one visit. we also bought each of our children one of the big chopping knives.

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Our weather is currently bizarre, with April showers, several snow showers, and teaser days for Spring.  We just returned from a morning of play in Central Park with 4 of our grandchildren and while they have quiet time, I thought I would try to upload a few journal pages from one week ago. 

While two of my grandchildren painted and colored at our dining room table last Friday, I played with my grand daughter's Sargeant watercolor pencils - obvioulsy hoping for lots of tulips before long.  The magnolia blossoms were partially open this morning and I see tulip buds in the huge beds of tulips in my neighborhood.

Last Sunday there were beds of daffodils blooming in Central Park - and they still looked very fresh this morning.  My 2 year old grandson doesn't understand why I won't let him pick all of the pretty flowers he sees!

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This is ME with my Internal Critic pictured in front of my "right brain."  I  tried to assign a particular human form to my internal critic, but I know that it is just a piece of me that I need to deal with. I feel as if I’m fooling myself when I try to create a person to blame. 

My critic likes perfection and can make me unhappy every time I make mistakes. This puts emphasis on product, not process, and I have to remind myself over and over that "play" is an important component of creativity, and perfection should NOT be my goal. Mistakes are a wonderful opportunity for growth to occur.

I also deal regularly with "fear of failure" and it is sometimes strong enough to keep me from trying something new. I think that working small, in a sketchbook, and everyday helps me overcome some of the doubt. But I have to really work hard to step out of my comfort zone and create tricks to get past the Internal Critic in my brain.

What does my Internal Critic look like? Half of my brain? A really small part of my brain? If so, where? Maybe I should have sketched a really small person and put her on my head - as if she were in my brain. When I try to picture her, I see a "bag lady" if I see anything - someone with an incredible number of opinions but no creativity, passions, skills or products of her own - just a mouth, thick frame glasses, and a bag of scripts.  The major scripts that she repeats over and over are the ones listed above.

I really haven’t made much progress changing my perception of my creative abilities. I’ve read enough about creativity, the origin of creative ideas, and how to stimulate creativity - so I am developing skills to deal with my critic. And every once and a great while I do something that even I feel is original.

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I need hand drawing practice so much, that I did two drawings of hands with thumbs.   But I found myself smiling much of the time, remembering that my 4 year old grand daughter Sydney called them "flums" not very long ago.  We all took every opportunity we could to have her say it, especially her 5 year old brother Henry who thought it was adorable because she was so earnest.

Posted by Shirley at 5:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (11)

I still love doing the EDM Challenges 3+ years after joining.  They always take me out of my comfort zone in some way, and at least give me a fun project for one of my daily sketches each week.  We were away during challenge #212, which somehow always means that I fall further behind.  But now I can post the last three weeks and begin anew.

 My Washington DC grand daughter and her Mommy

My very uninteresting microwave.  Our kids think we were the last family in town to buy one when they were growing up and this was recently passed on to us by one of them when our last one died.

I started quilting when we lived in San Antonio, TX almost 30 years ago.  There was a resurgence of interest in quilting right after the US bicentential, and I was working full time, had 3 small children, and loved to make things.  I always worked with fabric, so it was the perfect "new passion" for me - allowing me to carry around small pieces of a big project and make otherwise boring soccer practices, swim meets, or car pool waiting more enjoyable.  They loved the quilts and pillows that I made for them and now I'm making them for their children.  These are the tools in my basket as I hand quilt (belatedly) a wedding quilt for one of my sons.

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I fell in love with Seurat drawings during the MoMA special exhibit in 2007 and learned that there was a local source for the Michallet paper that he used.

Arches MBM Ingres (Michallet):  Originally designed by the mill for the artist Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, this type of paper set the standard for charcoal and pastel drawing and has been duplicated by many other mills around the world.  The letters MBM refer to the owners Morel, Bercious, and Masure who introduced the first mouldmade machines in 1883 (Info from NY Central Art Supply website).

Last year I bought a sheet at New York Central Art Supply and copied 3 Seurat drawings to try to learn the technique.  Then I used a photo of my son-in-law and two grandchildren to draw "in the style of Seurat" using a Derwent Ivory Black drawing pencil to try to develop the method for myself.  Today I used a photo of my 2 year old grandson with his elephant that we took Saturday to do Challenge #211.

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During the Medieval period, women wore only long shifts (chemises) under their clothes. Pantaloons and pantalettes were worn under dresses, especially in France, by young girls, but it wasn’t until the 1830s that women regularly wore bloomers with tight ankles and two legs attached at the waist with a draw string.

During the late 1800s and early 1900s, bloomers were shortened as skirt lengths rose and by the 1920s women were wearing short panties with wide legs, called step-ins or boy shorts. They were still commonly made of two legs which were attached at the waist.

During the 1930s and 1940s, women wore girdles and then by the 1950s panties as we know them.  From the mid-20th Century to the 1990s, granny pants became hipsters, then bikinis, then thongs.

The transition from bikinis to thongs, especially worn with cropped shirts and low waisted jeans, has resulted in more visible thong underwear and bare skin among my women medical students than I care to see. My kids call this sighting a "whale tail." What will the next fashion trend bring?

Posted by Shirley at 10:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (11)

 When this challenge was posted, I began a search for a shadow photo that I vaguely remembered among my huge collection of family photos - and finally found it.  My husband and I were taking our daily one hour walk along the beach, when our shadows spread out in front of us, over several wet footprints, and I snapped a photo.  I have no idea why our shadows are so bulky!

I also had a recent photo of my granddaughter Syd, in the snow in Central Park, that showed a great shadow in the snow.  I wanted to paint this photo anyway, so it is a smaller representation of a shadow.

Posted by Shirley at 9:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

We picked up two of our grandchildren from nursery school and walked them back to our apartment through Central Park.  There was a recent snowfall and Robbie (age 3 1/2) and his cousin Sydney (age 4) were having a fabulous time making and throwing snowballs and our progress was really slow.  On a bench, on one of the paths in the middle of the Park, we saw a beautiful pair of brown leather cowboy boots, a new red and black backpack, and an open bird watcher's book.  

We regularly watch Law and Order, so my husband and I looked at each other suspiciously and for an instant wondered whether we would next find a body.  There were no people anywhere in sight - in any direction.  I took a photo so I could show a Park staff member when we passed one of the them on the second half of our journey.  We never heard more about the event and hopefully the tourist who left them there was able to retrieve their stuff when they returned.  

Posted by Shirley at 11:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

I'm so happy that I brought a few of my favorite shells home from the beach this summer.  I sketched and painted many when we were taking our morning walk, but our grandchildren played with most of them and I saved very few.

Posted by Shirley at 10:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I usually drink Diet Coke from bottles, but painted the soda can that I could find.  I'm fascinated with the bold words "New York" which appear several times around the rim.  Do cans sold in other cities have a city-specific name?

We spent almost 4 months in the UK, in the aggregate, the year my daughter and her family lived in London.  I was always learning new words for objects, but these remain among my favorites because the British word connotes something entirely different in America.

Posted by Shirley at 12:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)

We have had minimal snow in New York City since this challenge was posted, so I went back to photos from a February 2005 trip to Paris.  It was the first time we were in Paris in the snow and it was a beautiful site.  This drawing was made from a photo that I took from the window of an apartment that we rented on Quai de l'Horloge early in the morning.

One of my 2009 Art Goals was to finish the pages in my 2nd Figure Drawing Practice watercolor journal.  I periodically sketch figures, faces, and hands from photos to obtain some fluency drawing the human body and experimenting with a variety of tools.  I'm finally willing to put faces on my full figure drawings - a major accomplishment of 2008!  Here are two figures that I sketched from photos during this wonderfully relaxing New Year's holiday weekend.  The rest of the time I've been reading, quilting, and binding 2 new watercolor journals for the New Year.

Posted by Shirley at 9:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

It is hard finding time to do a daily sketch over the Christmas Holidays - Unless the journal pages are fast and simple.

Here are beautiful Christmas trees that are put up for a month along the Avenue.

My new favorite Christmas candy -

Another Toy Soldier from Rockefeller Center.  I painted one last year and now should make this a tradition when I go down to see the fabulous tree.

The facade of the newly renovated Guggenheim is now visible again.  We took our oldest grandson for lunch and then a visit last weekend.

Finally did last week's EDM Challenge.  In our apartment, the children drink their apple joice from juice boxes or sippy cups.

Posted by Shirley at 4:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)

It was very easy to find cookies at work this week for the EDM Challenge.  And at home I made a fresh batch of Lemon Squares for our Book Group Holiday dinner.  Yum!

Last Firiday the secretaries decorated the Department office and it was fun trying to decide what Christmas decoration to sketch for a daily sketch yesterday since we had theater tickets and a late evening.  This is a Victorian St. Nicholas figure that is not as jolly looking as our fat American Santa figures.  Of course I ran out of room and he isn't as tall and thin as he should be.

Posted by Shirley at 2:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

My husband brought this 1.5 inch rubber lion back for me from Chicago when we were dating - 43 years ago.  It probably cost 50 cents - but it has traveled with us from home to home and still looks as it did when it was new.  I don't have any lucky tokens, but I would never think of throwing this lion away, and don't even show it to my grandchildren.  So it comes as close as anything to being a lucky charm.

I'm off to a meeting in San Francisco tomorrow and will spend an afternoon plaing hooky and sketching with two EDM members - I'm thrilled! 

Posted by Shirley at 9:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

                                                     Couldn't just draw one!

My husband and I cook a big Thanksgiving Dinner for our family and friends.  It is a marathon of cooking all day Wednesday and Thursday.  Over the last 15 years, the champagne and hors d'oeuvres portion has grown to 3 hours, followed by soup, turkey plus stuffing, veggies, rice, and dessert, for a total of 5-6 hours.  We love to do it, but increasingly need several days to rest up afterwards.

This year we only had this morning to rest because two of our children and their families were moving.  I went to my daughter's apartment and helped unpack the 3 children's bedrooms so they had someplace to sleep.  My husband went to our son's apartment to help them hook up their TVs. 

Posted by Shirley at 9:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)

I have my annual grandchildren's cold that went into sinus congestion.  This is my journal page documenting the event.

I routinely did the EDM challenges this year until I had to rely on photos for a baked potato or rope.  Those are on hold.  But I had no problem finding a remote - this is just one of 3 cable remotes from Time-Warner in our apartment.  And if I wanted one less complex, I could even have sketched the one for our window air conditioner.  That one baffles me!

This is a huge volunteer weekend for us every year as Goddard Riverside Community Center sponsors their annual Book Fair - during which new books are donated by the publishing companies in Manhattan and sold for half-price at Columbus and W.88th St.  I am off to work as a voluteer at the cookbook table again in a few minutes, but wanted to upload these before the whole weekend is over.

Posted by Shirley at 7:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (9)

Tomorrow I'm leaving for the International Quilt Festival in Houston, followed by a business meeting in San Antonio, so I wanted to complete this week's EDM challenge before I leave.  EDM Challenge #94 was Draw a Spoon.  This week it is Draw a Fork.  I posted the two of them together because they are a wonderful pair of salad utensils - shiny silver that I still can't capture. 

Posted by Shirley at 1:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

We didn't have any peanuts in our house - and I couldn't find anything to inspire me to do this challenge when it was posted -  until yesterday.  I then decided to learn more about how peanuts grow and looked at information and images on the web.  This is a painting of a plant with its flowers and peanuts.  I really didn't know that peanuts grow underground from shoots that arise from the above ground plants.  Very cool!

Posted by Shirley at 9:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

A hard challenge - and I'm not sure how or when I should reveal the full drawing....

I don't think that this should be very hard, based on the portion I chose to include, so I will post the full version as soon as there are a few comments.

Casey immediately saw that this detail was from a train engine - so I'm adding the full drawing today to finish the challenge.  My daughter chaired the Halloween Fun Fair for the nursery school and one of the highlights was a train ride for adults and children in the New York City playground that was used for the event.   

Here are 3 of our grandchildren enjoying the day. 

Posted by Shirley at 8:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

We were in Washington DC this weekend visiting our youngest grandchild.  I took some great photos of floating vehicles at Navy Day in the DC Navy Yard, but when we got back to my son's house, I found this really cute Dr. Rubber Duckie among Annabelle's bath toys and decided that this would be my answer to the challenge.  One duck - 4 views.

Posted by Shirley at 4:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)

Seemed very fitting to be drawing the back of this $10 bill while thinking about the historic House vote that hopefully will occur today....  Living in New York City, it is easy to see how lack of credit is going to affect the middle class as much as those that work in the financial district.  I'm excited about the possibility of keeping Mayor Bloomberg for 4 more years - to skillfully navigate the decreasing budget available to keep this amazing city afloat.  And I've never been one to endorse Republicans....

Re: the challenge:  This was hard work.  I was going to comment on how well Sandy had drawn both sides of a bill, when I looked at our new member's (Speck) drawing of many paper bills! 

Posted by Shirley at 9:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

This is a painting of my travel watercolor set - made by Daler-Rowney - and purchased on sale at Pearl Paints in New York City.  The only other time I saw this set was in a similar drawing in The Creative License - page 57 - by Danny Gregory.  I don't like the color selection as much as my palette of Winsor-Newton paints which I use at home, but I've learned to mix enough colors to make it workable - and it is small, light, and functional. 

Posted by Shirley at 10:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

I finally had to skip the peanut challenge and move on.  We don't have peanuts in our house and I haven't seen any around during the last few weeks.  But we do have multiple packs of disposable razors - yellow for me and blue for my husband.  I enjoy doing sketches from multiple angles so this razor was fun for me to draw. 

Posted by Shirley at 8:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Domenic left this message for me on the EDM message board and that led to our agreement to each sketch more figures and specifically faces by September 13th.

It was helpful for me to have the challenge because this was my usual fall back behavior when practicing figures.

I started the challenge immediately by sketching one figure with a face from a magazine photo, and then a face from an old master art book that I have.

But a real challenge for me was to sketch from the photo of a dancer, and actually feel confident enough to add a face.

Yesterday, while at the FIT Museum looking at the Gothic Fashion exhibit, I decided to even sketch the face of the mannequin when sketching a fabulous silk evening coat.  Her eyes are wonky, but I could have resorted to my "blank face" and didn't.  I love Margaret's frames that she puts around her journal pages - and quickly discovered that I'm not patient enough to do those fabulous frames, not even her dots!

This was a good mini-challenge for me.  I definitely need to have a specific goal to keep me stretching my daily sketches.  Hopefully Domenic hasn't forgotten and we'll get to see his figures from our challenge before long.

Posted by Shirley at 8:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (12)

We have two ceiling fans in our apartment, but I sketched part of one for a previous challenge.  This journal page shows multiple views of a battery-operated personal fan - and I have no idea where it came from.  However, it was perfect on that very hot night in August 2003 when New York City and much of the East Coast had their last blackout.  That was the very last time it was used, and I almost didn't remember I had it because it is so small (3 3/4 inches high) and inconspicuous sitting on a corner of my book shelves.  The image on the bottom right is a frontal view when the fan is on.  It goes so fast that I couldn't see the soft black "blades" at all.

Posted by Shirley at 8:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

This was a very difficult challenge because I immediately thought about "stuff."  But the "stuff" I always wanted a decade, or a year, or a week ago, I either got or no longer want.    I am extremely fortunate that I did get the big things I wanted.  I have a fabulous husband , 3 grown children with wonderful spouses, and 5 grandchildren ages 5 months to 5 years.  I have a medical career AND I am a wife and mother - something considered impossible/improbable when I was developing my dream.  I saw many parts of the US and had an opportunity to live in several regions that partially shaped me:  The Northeast, the Midwest, Southern California, and Texas - and now I live exactly where I want to be for this time in my life - New York City.  And I have always had creative passions and the ability to move among them in cycles to keep me happy and to make things for those I love.  So after a full week contemplating this challenge, and because I am surrounded by many people who have to learn to live with ill-health, I chose to paint my stethoscope and continue to hope that I have "good health."

There are fewer EDM members posting this challenge than most - so I think others must be struggling with it. 

Posted by Shirley at 12:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)

My son and his wife in Washington DC have two cats - his and hers from before they were married.  So this sketch was made from a photo of Sammy meeting baby Annabelle and her stuffed Jellycat Bella shortly after she was born.   

Posted by Shirley at 7:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (15)

We were at the beach with our daughter and grandchildren for a week, and I finally found a bench I wanted to sketch.  We had shrimp tacos for dinner at LaFondita in Amagansett, NY and the garden sculpture company behind the restaurant displayed this granite and wood bench on the edge of the pond.  The wood was weathered like the traditional benches along the streets near the beach and the composition and balance between elements was extraordinary.  If only I could have studied and painted the grain on some of the wood.  The brown-pink painted square behind the bench is my painted background for the sketch.

Posted by Shirley at 10:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)

The image that I kept returning to for the EDM Challenge "Draw Something Dangerous," was my precious little 3 year old grand daughter Sydney who can now ride her two wheel bike without training wheels!  She rides it on a quiet street in front of their summer house with adults all around her, but she is soooo tiny on it!

My sketch doesn't show the joy on her little face, so here is one of many pictures taken while she whizzed by.

Posted by Shirley at 8:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

We saw this truck parked along 79th Street in New York City when walking to nursery school last Spring.  My grandson, who loves Superheroes, was fascinated by the truck mascot that was wired onto the front grill - spiderman dressed as a Mets Fan!  Fortunately I had my camera with me so took a picture of him. 

Posted by Shirley at 11:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)

EDM Challenge #180:  I had a really difficult time with Challenge #180 - Draw Something in Your Favorite Color.  I did a Color Project after being inspired by Laura several years ago and you can see both of our many entries by going to the category list on our blogs.  How could I possible select one color when I love them all and don't consider any drawing done until I add watercolor washes.  Then one evening my son sent me a photograph of my newest grandchild Annabelle's delicious pink feet.  It was then that I decided that I had to sketch and paint them for this challenge in honor of both of my grand daughters.  Sydney lives in a pink room with pink comforters and quilts and for years seemed to only want to wear pink clothes. 

EDM Challenge #181 Draw a Trash Can:  I couldn't find any interesting trash cans to draw until I walked around a corner in my office building and saw this behemoth - in a hallway where some room renovation was being done.  I wish the colors were more interesting!

Posted by Shirley at 8:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (9)

We just returned from a long weekend, mini-vacation at the beach.  I wanted to upload last week's challenge as soon as I returned home and then will more slowly post some beach sketches.  

Posted by Shirley at 8:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

My husband and I were walking to our grandson's school in London to pick him up when I saw this wonderful row of 4 phone booths.  Usually they were single or in pairs in neighborhoods we visited - so I had to get this photo to later play with perspective.  And I never did!  That is my husband in the red baseball cap - waiting for me to catch up!  It was a nice challenge for me to draw this and I listened to Danny's recent Podcast while I sketched and painted it.  A good quiet Sunday afternoon.

Posted by Shirley at 2:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (11)

I'm always happy when I can post an EDM Challenge before the next one is announced.  These exercises are great for me to do and I try to stretch my skills a little with each one. 

We were on vacation when the "Sparkle Challenge" was posted and I really wanted to try to capture the light of a gem stone.  I'm not very good painting reflections and I kept looking for a big stone.  I even took a photo of the Hope diamond when we were in DC.  But then I decided to just draw a Bulgari bracelet from an advertisement and move on.

I also took photos of cute little Capitol Hill houses with flags blowing in the breeze on our trip to DC because I knew that ! couldn't draw a moving flag.  Then, at the end of my taxi ride to Union Station following my meetings, I looked up and saw the facade of the station.  I grabbed my camera, took several photos and headed inside for my train back to New York. 

I loved the Seurat Drawings Exhibit at MoMA NY and was especially fascinated with the paper (click on the Conservation button).  This is especially interesting because I don't even sketch with Conte or charcoal.  I looked up the Michallet paper and learned that the modern day equivalent is available at NY Central Art Supplies.  I bought a sheet while I was there on Saturday just to experiment with it.  I ripped it into smaller pieces and now will play with it, using Seurat's drawings as my inspiration.  Here is #1 - done with a 1/8th sheet and a Derwent Drawing pencil. 

Posted by Shirley at 12:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

We were visiting Annabelle, our newest granddaughter, this weekend in Washington DC.  She and her Daddy had their first pool party together the day before we arrived.  And during our visit we walked to the childrens' playground in Lincoln Park.  A quick sketch of her bathing suit (you can't see the cute ruffles on the back), her hat, and two of the toys in the park were sketched together for last week's EDM Challenge - Summertime.  More sketches from our visit to follow.

Posted by Shirley at 10:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

A basket of cloth napkins that we keep on a shelf under our side table in the dining room. 

Posted by Shirley at 9:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

I was able to photograph and sketch a small foot bridge in Central Park, New York City.  Landscapes aren't "my thing" so I need to be forced to consider trees and bushes. 

I missed several EDM Challenges when I was on vacation in Quebec.  This sketch of an inuit piece of jewelry was finished this week from memory.  The background pink color was my addition - the Inuit pin was just the ice cubes, figure, and base.

Posted by Shirley at 4:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)

A quick sketch tonight for EDM Challenge #171: Draw Ice Cream

I love ice cream and had this photograph mounted as part of a storyboard collage that I did for a project about me. 

Posted by Shirley at 8:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

EDM Challenge #169 Draw a Piece of Cake: This loose interpretation of the challenge was done the last day of April and never posted because of the Every Day in May Challenge which started the next day.  So I uploaded it now with EDM Challenge #170.

EDM Challenge #170  Draw a Zipper:  This is a still unused Swarovski crystal zipper.  Each zipper tooth has a rhinestone set into it creating a single line of rhinestones when the zipper is closed.  I wish I could have captured the sparkle in paint, but that is totally beyond my skills!

Posted by Shirley at 7:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I couldn't do a serious sketch of our newspaper, because I never read it.  The New York Times is delivered to our apartment by 6:30 each day and I dutifully bring it inside for my husband.  However, I have many things to do that are higher on my personal priority list and I get my news from the WNBC Early Morning Show, WNYC NPR radio during the day in my office, and the Lehrer news hour in the evening.  So with this challenge, I bring you a charming paper hat made from the front page of yesterday's newspaper!

Posted by Shirley at 11:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (12)

My husband gave me this antique gold Elgin ladies' pendant watch as a wedding present.  When very pregnant with our first child, I sat down for a cup of coffee and the watch, which was hanging down over my big belly, plunged into the cup.  Ever since then watchmakers have been puzzled by the rust on the movements and no repair has lasted very long.  I still wear it to work and use it to attach my required ID - not to tell time.  It has a wonderful patina and still has great sentimental value.

Posted by Shirley at 10:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (15)

This is one fish from an entire row of fish (face to face and back to back) in a stone wall that forms the entrance to the main door of the Ukrainian Institute at 5th Ave and 79th Street in New York City.  It was much more difficult to sketch than I thought because I kept getting lost in the flourishes.  I also wasn't able to show the 3-dimensionality of it as much as I wanted because I needed to keep the stone lighter in color than the background.   I decided to post it anyway and then sketched and painted 3 of my favorite fish designs just to be colorful and playful.  This image was taking from a small area of the background on a Tibetan painting at the Rubin Museum of Art in New York. 

Posted by Shirley at 4:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (14)

I found this challenge to be really hard because of the perspective that I chose.  There is much too much detail on the facade of my brick and granite 16 floor New York City apartment building and decisions needed to be made about how detailed I wanted to make the sketch.  I definitely chose not to make the upper section bricks part of my sketch.  I'm in awe of artists who can sketch and paint entire brick facades!! 

I share my house with many other families as I live in a 16 floor New York City apartment building.  In Manhattan parlance, these buildings are either "pre-war" or "post-war," i.e. WWII.  Our building was built in the late 1920s and I was able to locate advertisements for it in the archives of the New York Times.  Our architect, who was doing bathroom renovation, also found a piece of a newspaper that was buried beneath the bathtub in the master bedroom bathroom, so we have proof of the date when it was under construction.  I also located and printed the 1930 census pages for the building and now have several very interesting pages about the occupants at that time.  At the same time I printed out the 1930 census for the building 2 of my 3 children live in - showing Babe Ruth living there with his wife's family.

I will have to try it again from across the street so I can sketch it straight-on and concentrate more on the actual structure.  My stimulus for this might be to make notecards that I can use for the notes that I never get around to writing!  

Posted by Shirley at 7:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (18)

My two oldest grandchildren started to show an interest in my point-and-shoot digital camera just as they turned 3 (because I take so many pictures of them)!  I taught them how to hold it carefully, focus until the green light came on, then shoot.  They LOVED taking pictures and when unsure what we could get them for their birthday, we bought each the Fisher-Price children's digital camera.  It is very simple, but can actually take reasonable photos.  We recently took our cameras around the neighborhood, and my granddaughter took one photo - straight ahead- for every 10-12 steps she took!  I had to delete a few from the card so she could capture the building at the end of our walk, the external facade of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  I uploaded their JPEGs to their own folders on my computer and each got to select one for a 5 X 7" print to take home.  The only down-side of these cameras for them is battery use! 

Posted by Shirley at 2:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (11)

We don't play cards - and the only deck that I could find in the apartment came from a Benefit Dinner for a Health Care non-profit organization that we attended.  Loved the joker - so that was good for sketching.  The individual cards each had a single Medicare fact printed on the face side.  Wish I had something more exciting! 

Posted by Shirley at 8:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

I got behind last week when I was working on my blog entry re: recylcled books.  Here finally are the last two challenges:  Body lotions that smell good and my Breakfast.

Posted by Shirley at 5:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (10)

This barely qualifies as an award, but I couldn't find the quilt ribbons I received many years ago, and I've been thinking of sketching it anyway. 

In July 2005 I reconfigured my job description and gave up clinical medicine and training of young physicians - retaining my role in the medical school  3 days per week.  I wanted to have more time to spend with my grandchildren and just have fun.  My hospital colleagues presented me with this lovely clock which now sits on a shelf in our apartment library.  I tell everyone that it is the wristwatch commonly given to men at retirement!

Saturday I received the Kind Heart Award from Mellanie - and the award is so pretty that I wanted to post it here and thank her. 

I don't know where the award originated, but appreciate the kind sentiment.  EDM is a wonderful community of fellow artists - all working hard to improve their skills, and support and inspire others.  I am grateful for the advice so freely given on our message board and the comments left on my blog that spur me on.  I'm hoping that everyone who sees this on the EDM Superblog will realize that it is a really big thank you from me to the active members of EDM. 

L  

Posted by Shirley at 6:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

I have two favorite kitchen tools.  My 36 year old Kitchenaid was posted on this blog in 2006 when I was doing my color project during yellow month.  So this time I sketched my 30 year old Cuisinart!  They are very reliable machines and have been used regularly for many years.   We don't cook as often anymore, but the Kitchenaid was used twice recently when Sydney, Henry, and I baked cookies.

Posted by Shirley at 8:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (16)

This was a really, really hard challenge for me.  I'm not sure that any piece of my popcorn has "volume" and due to the lighting in my favorite painting place, I also don't have shadows.  At least the popcorn-eating was enjoyable.

Posted by Shirley at 7:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)

This sketch was inspired by a photo of my grand daughter after a bath.  The blue and white puppy towel probably belongs to one of her brothers, but on this night it was hers.  Unfortunately I am not good enough to make the sketch look like her.  Maybe next year!  For now I can just be happy that I am putting faces on my figures - a huge accomplishment for 2008.

Posted by Shirley at 6:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)

This is my Italian hero sandwich, purchased at a local market for lunch last week.  My favorite sandwich is a prosciutto and mozzarella panini - but I don't have a good local source!  The cherry tomatoes were added at home for color - and challenge - when sketching and painting my sandwich.

Posted by Shirley at 8:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

New York City Brownstones are really red-brown and have wonderful, decorative columns and porches for their front stairs.  This sketch was made from a photo that I took in the East 80s during the spring (hence the flowers blooming so nicely). 

Posted by Shirley at 10:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)

EDM Challenge #154: Draw a Lemon

I wanted to try to capture the moist cut surface of the lemon and used Masking Fluid to create the appearance of membranes.  I need to learn to use even a thinner application tool !  I love lemon flavor and wish I had time to make lemon squares with this lemon before bed! 

Posted by Shirley at 10:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (21)

Four lemon-scented soaps in a clear plastic bag, purchased during our October 2005 visit to Sorrento, Italy: 

I need to spend time working with reflections - more now than ever!  It took me several days to find something to sketch and paint - and then I could see the reflections on the plastic, but just couldn't make them sparkle.  I know that these areas should be bright white, and the next time I try this I will mask the areas and try that. 

Posted by Shirley at 7:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

We keep salted white pistachio nuts in a hand blown glass bowl on our coffee table (when the grandchildren aren't there) or on the fireplace mantle (when they are).  There is no relationship between the size of the nuts on the napkin and those in the bowl - I just wanted to sketch some bigger. 

Posted by Shirley at 9:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)

I am enjoying documenting my annual handmade ornaments - and still have lots more to sketch.  My plan is to continue sketching the collection in the week before Christmas again next year when I sit down after busy and joyful days to do a daily sketchpage.  Over the years each has been photographed individually and on the Christmas tree, but never painted.   

EDM Challenge #150: Draw a Candle

I love candles of all shapes and sizes.  But we only burn candles that are in globes of some type in the apartment to prevent fires.  I have two of the above Simon Pearce handblown glass candle globes that are always on my dining room table and they are used constantly.  It was very difficult for me to capture the sparkle of the flickering flame against the beautiful clear glass - but I just knew that I wanted to try.

Posted by Shirley at 9:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Progress Report for 2007: 

I copied my Goals from the 2006-2007 Progress/Goals entry on this blog and recorded 2007 PROGRESS after each Goal.  I am currently reflecting on where I am and where I want to be at the end of 2008, so my 2008 GOALS will be posted this weekend.

1. Continue to sketch/paint everyday in my large Moleskine watercolor sketchbook.

 I did do a daily sketch - and sometimes 2-3.  On a few days when I was too busy to even open my sketchbook, I did my daily sketch the next morning and then another one at my usual time in the evening.  The majority of my sketches are pen with watercolor washes.  Most of the time I used the large Moleskine watercolor journal (I'm halfway through the 5th for the year), but I also added sketches to my London sketchbooks and all 3 recycled books that I made. 

2. Complete each EDM weekly challenge and try to expand my skills by what I choose to paint for the challenge.

For the second year, I did all of the EDM Challenges in the 3-10 days after they were posted and tried to stretch my skills slightly by what I chose to sketch.  I posted all of them on my blog, as one of my planned 2 entries per week.

3. Make plans for how I will use my new Eliz. I recycled book.  I'm currently considering using it for more London sketches -  from photos that I have taken during our visits.  I have another Cachet journal for my London Travel Sketchbook Volume 3 and decided that I want to continue to use the same journal type for all of my London travel. 

I completed 3 full Cachet Linen Watercolor sketchbooks during our London travels.  There are approximately 150 pages in total from our 6 visits to London - my goals certainly were exceeded and I will always treasure these books.  One sketch that I never posted was added as the final page to honor the birth of our grandson last Christmas in London.  This sketch was made using colored pencil from a postcard I purchased at the Guercino drawing exhibit we saw at the Courtauld Gallery at Somerset House.

My Eliz. I recycled book has been used for playful sketches of Big Ben and most recently the Tower of London from photos that I took - using different techniques, even collage.  If you look closely you can see I used the Holbein Henry VIII painting from the Tate Britain exhibit for the collage.

4.  Recycle another book since I have more paper from my previous purchase.  This time I will look for an old New York book that I can use for special days out and about my own city.

I recycled two additional books - one for New York and one Michaelangelo Sonnet bookfor some of my figure drawings.   

5.  Spend more time sketching human faces and figures.  I'm not sure yet whether I want to take any life drawing classes because I love the challenge of learning on my own.  I collected some copies of Holbein's portraits and Rodin's figure drawings from our museum visits this week.  And I now own two Hockney drawing/portrait books.  I will recreate some of these pieces from the 16th C, 19th C, and 20th C for fun and then immerse myself in my city and draw people to try to develop my own style. 

I was very productive sketching figures - or body parts - and almost filled my recycled Michaelangelo Sonnet book for some of the sketches and my Moleskine for the rest.  I alternated among Derwent light wash pencils, Albrecht Durer watercolor pencils, Zig Millenium pen with watercolor wash, and 2B pencils for the sketches. 

My references included:  Greek and Roman sculptures at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, photos of dancers, photos of nude figures from an artist book  I purchased just for these exercises (The Nude Figure by Mark Smith), and occasionally even real people!  But very few of my figures have faces - a goal for 2008!

6.  Read some of the new art books on my shelf - starting with Betty Edward's book on color.

I continue to read art technique books, but never opened Betty Edward's book.  This year I did 5 lessons from a Watercolor Skills book by Linda Elsworth.  There are 5 more lessons to do, but I was temporarily derailed by a lesson on landscapes, my least favorite type of sketching/painting. 

In May 2007 I decided to finally start an Eric Maisel book entitled The Creativity Book - a year's worth of inspiration and guidance (it has been on my shelf for several years).   There are 2 exercises to complete per week and I am now on Week 31!  I have done some sketching and painting, but mostly writing, as I explore creativity in general and my creative dreams in particular. 

7.  Make a "larger-than-journal size" watercolor painting of the house my daughter and son-in-law rented this year in London so we have a personal visual memory of this wonderful year when they return to New York mid-year.

I did this painting and included it as part of a big "London" Christmas gift that I gave to my daughter and son-in-law.  The gift also included a DVD of all of the photos (1000s) that I took of their family and London and a Guest Book that our family kept everytime we visited them.  I printed some of my sketches for the book and even included an essay re: my reflections on our visits.  I was also able to make a photo collage of them at the moment when they were leaving New York in May 2006 and then leaving London in June 2007.  The children grew lots during the year and and another grandson was born there mid-year.

8.  Be a visitor in my own city and keep a Manhattan "travel" journal.  I now have scattered journal pages throughout my daily sketchbooks. 

I did continue to sketch in NYC throughout the year - and even started a series of sketches entitled "10 blocks from Home."  My New York City sketches, however, are scattered through my New York recycled book and my regular Moleskine sketchbook.  This occurred because I used whatever book I had with me when I decided to sketch.  Since I use both sides of a page in my Moleskine, I can't easily move these sketches - and I just have to be OK about this level of disorganization!

Posted by Shirley at 8:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (9)

We have a short broom to sweep the fireplace hearth - and I'm not sure that we use it as much as our grandchildren.  Normally it is kept in a copper pot with kindling, but I like to sketch at night in our library, so here it is resting on my leather ottoman.  I found that drawing bristles is hard!

I just remembered that I sketched the fireplace almost two years ago when this blog was less than one month old.  Here is a copy of that drawing with the copper pot - but no broom.

Posted by Shirley at 7:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

EDM Challenge #146:  My two favorite foods are good bread and ice cream and I could have both for supper and call it a wonderful meal!  This is a Skinny Cow mint and chocolate fudge ice cream cone that I sketched and painted really quickly before I ate it.

EDM Challenge #147:  Draw Something Wood

This small wooden box has inlaid black marble squares and one brass square on the top. 

EDM Challenge #148:  Draw Something Soothing

This Christmas Door Doll, that is 20 + years old, is wearing a Tara Aromatherapy Neck Wrap that was given to me by my daughter last weekend as an early Christmas present.  It gets heated in the microwave for 2 minutes and then provides at least an hour of moist heat to your neck muscles - relieving all computer strain.

Posted by Shirley at 6:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (10)

I'd rather sketch 10 buildings - or many figures in motion rather than sketch and paint a tree.  So this was definitely a stretch for me!  I love the gold-orange-red trees of autumn so I take many photographs on my walks.  This tree was on the sidewalk across the street from my son's house in Capitol Hill in Washington DC.  I had no time to sit outside this week and paint, so I was happy to have my recent photo.

Posted by Shirley at 2:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (15)

It was difficult for me to find something square in my apartment.  I have a kitchen timer and a square alarm clock, but I kept looking for something else.  Then I found an old 3 1/2" computer disk and disk holder - near my stash of transparent tape which is in a square red package.   In this age of CDs, DVDs, and flash drives, I haven't carried computer files on a diskette in more than 2 years, so I sketched the diskette as a ghost. 

Posted by Shirley at 7:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (11)

EDM Challenge #142:  Draw Something Hot:

When I looked for something "hot" all I had to do was look at the small burns on my fingers.  I toast English muffins and bagels in a toaster oven daily - and as often as I remind myself that all parts of the appliance are HOT, I burn a finger or two! 

EDM Challenge #143:  Draw Spices or Herbs

I love cinnamon, even mixed in with my vanilla ice cream.  And I love anise - and the fascinating shape of star anise.  So it wasn't very difficult for me to quickly find spices for sketching.

Posted by Shirley at 6:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

We have accumulated many unused Virgin Atlantic travel toothbrushes from our trips between London and New York last year.  They are all in the cabinet in our guest bathroom in case one of our guests forgets a toothbrush.  I love the many colors - and the toothbrush was always accompanied by travel socks and one pen in the same color in the travel pouch. 

Posted by Shirley at 9:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (11)

During our year of London Travel, I filled 3 Cachet Linen spiral watercolor sketchbooks.  I love having the envelope in the back of Moleskine notebooks and quickly realized that I needed to find and buy large envelopes to glue on the inside of the back cover of these sketchbooks.  As we traveled around London, I collected a few postcards from Museum exhibits so I could have inspiration for future drawings.  The postcard that I laid across this envelope, on the inner cover of London #2, is from the Royal Academy of Art Rodin exhibit.   

Here is my sketch from the postcard.  The writing on the page from January 7th says "sketched on a 747 somewhere between London and New York." 

Posted by Shirley at 8:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

This is a ship lantern that we purchased on Rue Jacob, Paris, in an antique store specialing in nautical objects.   Many times over the last 2 years I almost sketched it just because I like it so much and see it every day.  This challenge made it the perfect choice.  We had it hanging in our home in Texas, but it now just sits on a surface in our dining room in our New York apartment. 

Posted by Shirley at 9:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (11)

This is a child-size, really soft, light blue bear - really gentle and cute in spite of the scarey face I seemed to give him.  Between grandchildren visits to our apartment, he sits in a little car that we gave Henry (now 4) for his first birthday.  When Henry outgrew it, the car came to our apartment for all of our grandchildren to use.  I take them for walks around our busy Manhattan neighborhood when we don't need to have a stroller with us.  It is a perfect toy for an urban baby! 

Posted by Shirley at 10:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

There is nothing that I appreciate more than my programmable coffee pot.  The coffee is ready every morning when I wake up and I thoroughly enjoy my first mug of coffee of the day while slowly waking up and planning the day's activity.     

Posted by Shirley at 6:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)

We took Henry and Sydney to the Central Park Zoo following the Carousel last week, arriving just in time to see the penguins being fed.  The penguin house is dark - with a climate controlled space for the penguins which means water droplets across the windows.  In addition, they move too quickly for me to draw in the dark - so these were sketched from a few of my favorite photos. 

Every penguin has a numbered tag and the animal feeders have a clipboard with a long list of them. This is to insure that each of them is first fed one "special fish" that is loaded artificially with
their vitamins.

Posted by Shirley at 8:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)

We took our grandchildren Henry (just 4) and Sydney (2 1/2) to the Central Park Carousel this week.  We arrived just before 10AM so we were able to see it before it started running.  I even took Sydney to see a nice little horse - but there was no way this otherwise adventurous child was going to get on that horse!  So grandma had a ride on a big horse, all alone, hoping to change her mind - but no.  "When I'm bigger" was all she said!  Henry was also very cautious and rode in the cart behind one of the horses with Grandpa. 

Tonight's dinner salad.  I really did have to sketch and paint it before eating.  I wasn't looking forward to this, but like most EDM challenges I'm glad I did it. 

Posted by Shirley at 7:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (13)

This is our mahogany library ladder unfolded.  The bottom step folds under the second step and then both together fold under the top step.  It always takes me two attempts to get it open and closed.  It seemed like a great challenge to sketch the perspective in this angled view.

Posted by Shirley at 8:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

We had to disconnect our scanner to have a window air conditioner fixed and then developed modem problems with our computer - so I'm finally uploadng last week's and this week's Everyday Matters Challenges at the same time.  I bought this peach just for the challenge and unfortunately can't eat it because of allergies.  It looked delicious! 

Posted by Shirley at 3:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

I always love doing the EDM Challenges and try to make them a learning experience.  I still have a great deal of difficulty with reflections, so I chose my clear green plastic spray bottle for this sketch.  I think the transparent surface is recognizeable, but the few light reflections that I saw aren't very apparent.  More practice needed!! 

Posted by Shirley at 2:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)

I love books, journals, paper, and almost anything sold in stationary stores - so buying school supplies was always a thrill.  Now my purchases are year round, not just in September, and I love it when we start a new project at work and need to look through catalogues for new supplies. 

At home I'm currently obsessed with the Levenger catalogue and new items for their "circa" notebooks.  Although I have some in all 3 sizes, and even a leather cover for my junior size notebook, I carry the compact notebook that contains index cards in my purse and use it all day long.   I have a punch that makes those great holes along the edge of the card (two pages can be cut from each 5 X 8" index card) and then the tabs wrap around the black circle discs.  Pages are really easy to add or remove - which is the beauty of the system.  The cover of this compact notebook is translucent plastic and I painted a daffodil on watercolor paper which shows through.  The pen that I use for everything is a medium Pilot Easy Touch - I don't have the obsession that many people have for fountain pens!

Posted by Shirley at 5:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

I actually did EDM Challenge #129 before this one.  I walked around and around the apartment looking for a view that I felt like drawing.  Some views were boring, some too challenging, some not blog material (bathrooms).  This is the view from my dining room to a tiny stretch of counter space in my kitchen.  The perspective isn't as wonky as it looks - the counter actually is slanted and there are triangular shelves above it where we keep espresso pots and a few favorite cups.  Our coffee pot and cannister of coffee take top billing on this stretch of counter!   

Posted by Shirley at 1:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I really tried sketching my grandson Henry's face in this sketch - done from a photo taken of him just as he turned 3 last summer in London.  And in spite of my efforts to improve figure/face sketching in 2007 - it was scarey!  I think I might have been able to add a generic face, but I'm going to stay away from people that I know and love for now.  The next photo in the sequence has him winding up, leg raised like a real major league pitcher ,to throw the ball.  Baseball is big in their house!   

Posted by Shirley at 12:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)

We were riding up WhiteHall in the front seat on the top deck of a #11 bus when I took this photo of storm clouds gathered over Trafalgar Square and the National Gallery.  During most of our recent visit, black clouds alternated with sunshine and there were periodic drenching rains.   

Posted by Shirley at 9:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (12)

This was a really difficult challenge for me.  I clearly need more practice seeing, sketching, and painting textures.  The pie-shaped section is my attempt to paint a close-up of the bathroom sponge surface.  Out of frustration I added a foam brush - a quasi-sponge! 

Posted by Shirley at 8:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

SWAN IN HYDE PARK, LONDON.  As I type this Hyde Park remains evacuated and Park Lane closed as police use a robot to investigate a suspicious car parked in/near the underground car park (under Hyde Park with entrance on Park Lane).  This follows the discovery of a car bomb on Haymarket at 1AM in Central London.  We spent the afternoon at Westminster Hall and Parliament and the crowds didn't look as if they even knew that there was a huge area closed around Piccadilly Circus. 

I took this swan photo when we were here in December. 

Posted by Shirley at 1:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (11)

We arrived in London on Tuesday and the only interesting yellow object to sketch was my grandson's toy tractor.  It gave me lots of practice with perspective and he always remembers pages in my sketchbook that relate to him.  Even my 2 1/2 year old grand daughter asked to see a page of her toys that I did last October - that are in a London travel sketchbook that is back in New York.  I photographed my journal page and then resized it with Photoshop Elements. 

Posted by Shirley at 9:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

EDM Challenge #122:  Drawing shade was really difficult for me because it required me to paint a landscape.  I took a photo walking through Central Park last Friday, with my husband and grandson, because I wasn't able to stop to sketch it.  Then I procrastinated and did 4 journal pages since then - including the next challenge.  The area of the Park is so beautiful that I will also include my photo.

I simplified this scene and structure considerably from the photo (or I would never have done it).  Here is the photo:

EDM Challenge #123: Draw a Bell

I have no bells in our apartment except for Christmas ornaments which are packed away.  Then my husband remembered my bear - complete with his own bell.  I was a frantic mother when my two sons went on a camping trip in Alaska and there were so many bear/bear bell stories that my boys brought me this really cute, plush bear.  I sketched it for the first time on a journal page that I prepared with a brown wash - right after I developed my blog at the beginning of 2006.  And I sketched and painted it again for this challenge.  Here are both versions.

Posted by Shirley at 2:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (10)

My husband had these earrings made for me for our 25th wedding anniversary because I liked  black roman coins in gold jewelry that I saw somewhere with him.  He then gave them to me at a lovely dinner in a villa in Padua, Italy - so the roman coins returned home!  The coins are more black than painted here.  As I was sketching the front and back of one earring last night, I also "googled" Roman coins and was able to identify my coins as Gordian III - from approximately 240 AD.  There are many, many images of Gordian III coins and I would need to better see the images on the reverse side of my coin to be more specific.  Both earrings use the same image on the front of the coins. 

I used gold gouache for the gold casing and back of the earring.

Posted by Shirley at 7:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)

May 23rd: EDM Challenge #120 - Draw a Flashlight

We have lots of flashlights, but I love how long this one is - I guess to use in tight spaces.   

May 24th:  More Figure Practice from my new book - a book of nude photos for artists by Mark Edward Smith.  I need lots of practice and will be very happy when the Every Day in May challenge is over so I don't need to upload sketchbook pages every day!  Some of my practice figures would be best left unseen!  And I still hate rough paper. 

Posted by Shirley at 3:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

  May 19th:  I sketched my EDM Challenge while at the Metropolitan Museum of Art yesterday on the World Wide Sketchcrawl.  Rocks are a little hard to find in my immediate neighborhood and the weather was too awful to go into Central Park to paint one of the big rocks.  So I painted 3 big rocks that make up the side wall of the Temple of Dendur (15 B.C.E.).  This allowed me to really focus on the engraved drawings - which are wonderful.  There are approximately 5-6 figures down each side of the Temple and I don't think that any two are the same.

May 20th:  I walked 10 blocks from home, looked around, and sketched a small piece of the roofline of the Jewish Museum on 5th Avenue in Manhattan.  There was a man sitting on the one of the benches painting the facade in a wonderfully loose, impressionistic style.  I sat on the curb (because 5th Avenue was closed to traffic) and tried to just capture a little of the essence of the complicated architecture and decoration.  I love the aged copper portions.

Posted by Shirley at 4:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

  It took me awhile to decide what to sketch for this challenge - and finally sorted through old photos to find one of me 40 years ago with my long braid.  It was cut one year later and I never let it grow that long again.  I still need lots of practice sketching faces and my husband says that it doesn't look anything like me. 

Posted by Shirley at 9:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)

    I draw everyday so my commitment for this month is to upload one of my journal pages for every day in the month - which I never previously have done.  This one will be out of order because I wanted to post my EDM challenge today.  On Sunday I'll upload all of the other sketches.

Three "sorta" round wheels:  I was leaving the International Center of Photography exhibit several weeks ago - really inspired by Henri Cartier Bresson's philosophy about impulsive actions, when a red pedicab pulled up to the light as I was crossing 6th Avenue.  The beautiful driver, then sat up and placed her hands on her hips - exuding power and confidence.  I managed to quickly take one photo before the light changed and she pedaled on, but I was fearful about sketching from the photo because I couldn't figure out how to sketch so many spokes on 3 wheels.  I even asked for advice from this group - and sketched "the anatomy of a bicycle wheel "from our bike rack at work.  But, when I saw the magnificent tandem bicycle in the large painting by Ramon Casas at the Barcelona exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, I realized the wheels had NO SPOKES - and I might never have noticed if I weren't obsessing over this photo.  As soon as Karen announced the challenge for the week, I knew I had to do this - without spokes. 

Posted by Shirley at 9:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (12)

EDM Challenge #116: Draw Something Green:  I searched all week for something green that was interesting and exciting enough for me to use for this challenge.  I gathered up my apartment green objects for my Color Project Green month last year, so I was more interested in finding something in another environment.  Today I went over to the new Greek-Roman Galleries at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City and sketched the south end of the gallery for an hour.  Then as soon as I started to wander around the space, I found wonderful Roman glass from the 1st C. A.D.  This green glass vessel is only 6 inches high, but so beautiful!

Posted by Shirley at 2:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (12)

Our general supermarket is one-half block away and I take frequent walks there to pick up a few items at a time.  We also have several specialty shops with produce and prepared foods 1-2 blocks away and a butcher, fish shop, and bakery within the same area.  Each of the stores has shopping baskets for those of us that walk there and only carry home small bags of groceries.  This basket was sketched from a photo that I took early yesterday morning when I was purchasing milk, yogurt and a banana for breakfast because Friday is the day we take care of one of our grandsons. 

Posted by Shirley at 12:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (11)

I had a great deal of difficulty selecting something from my everyday life that was ugly, kept for sentimental reasons, and worthy of a sketch.  Our almost 35 year old salad spinner, purchased by our first Nannie for our small kitchen in LaJolla, is now cracked, but still working.  It is really ugly, especially with a crack in the lid.  It is also probably vintage and nearly a first edition!  But I just didn't feel like sketching and painting it.  So I selected my very favorite, brown leather, pocket-sized Filofax - which was purchased new when we moved to New York City in 1993.  The snap on the small piece  which closes the notebook is broken, and the estimate to replace it was $50 approximately 5 years ago.  A new comparable Filofax was only $85 and I just wasn't ready to retire mine.  So I made a small quilted wrap for the notebook and added a long piece of velcro along the end to close it.  It is still my only calendar and general all-purpose  notebook and it travels everywhere with me in my purse.

Posted by Shirley at 6:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (11)

There are many wonderful, artistic fences in our neighborhood, but New York City is much too cold to wander around and spend time outdoors sketching.  So I opted for a really simple sketch of the fence for our apartment building service entrance.  Most apartment buildings in the city have a main entrance and a service entrance - or multiples of both depending on the building size.  The service entrance is used for deliveries and remains locked much of the day.  What is sometimes surprising to folks who live in other parts of the country, everything, or almost everything, can be ordered and delivered to your apartment.  My personal favorite is our fire wood delivery man and the Christmas tree delivery guys because I love the holidays in the city.  Even all of the very good restaurants deliver right off of their regular menu, although if I'm eating that well, I want to enjoy the restaurant ambience for those prices.

Posted by Shirley at 8:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)

Last weekend (3/16-17) we had freezing rain and snow - precluding even walking because of the winds.  This weekend was much warmer and New Yorkers ran a marathon in Central Park and filled the playgrounds on Sunday morning.  We met our son, daughter-in-law, and grandson in Hippo Playground in Riverside Park.  He loves the slides - and I was warm enough to sketch the hippo sculptures.  There are buds on the trees and the early spring flowers have stems about 4" above the ground.  This is as close as we have gotten to "fresh"  - wonderful fresh air to cure winter cabin fever.

There are two groups of hippo sculptures - that children climb on and adults sit on.  Here are two pictures that I took of the "animals."

Very few New Yorkers even pay attention when I'm sketching, and while I was sketching the hippo head with open mouth, a woman kept talking to her friend and actually put her foot right up into the mouth obscuring my view.  And I was standing not more than 4 feet from her! 

Posted by Shirley at 8:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (13)

We had spectacular onion soup at the original Au Pied du Couchon in the old Les Halles area of Paris in November 1970.  The soup was delicious and the thick, melted layer of cheese extraordinary.  My husband and I perfected Julia Child's recipe from Volume I: Mastering the Art of French Cooking and bought these soup bowls  to use for the last minute cheese melting step and serving. 

After the Les Halles market moved out of central Paris and Au Pied du Couchon underwent a significant face-lift, the soup was the same, but the ambience of the old place was gone.  The marzipan pig was saved from my dessert plate from one of our later visits.  Somehow it survived the trip home and is now rock hard from years in the china cabinet.

Posted by Shirley at 9:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (13)

I adore candles and all varieties of candle holders, but now limit myself to using only closed varieties, i.e. globes of some kind, because of fire hazards.  My painting of the flame needs lots more work - I should have made it bigger and just concentrated on the wonderful colors that I saw.  However, I love this Dutch brass candle holder that we bought on the Rokin in Amsterdam in 1989.  The antique brass shop had/has been in the family for well over 100 years and was then managed by a father and son named Hart  This piece is estimated to be from ca 1770 and sits in a prominent position in our apartment for my constant enjoyment.

Posted by Shirley at 8:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (10)

My husband and I love sitting in the front seat, on the upper deck, of a #11 bus as it winds it's way between King's Road Chelsea and Trafalgar Square/Strand, London.  We are on vacation when we are in London and have lots of time to really look at all of the buildings - which all look so cool from our aerial position.  I "examined" this clock on the front of the west entrance to Westminster Abbey during every busride, thinking about how much I would love to sketch it.  I had practically memorized all of the details - and therefore sketching from one of my photos was easier and more pleasurable.  I used my W-N gold gouache again for the gold on the clock.  Since I sketched it in my WC Moleskine, I had to simplify the center section of the clock because of space and it is not accurate!

Posted by Shirley at 7:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)

I usually have a problem doing the EDM weekly challenge when we are in London.   However, the light bulb from the lighted globe that we bought for our 3 year old grandson Henry for  Christmas burned out last night and I sketched it before taking it out to shop for a new one.  I'm having fun playing with a Winsor-Newton gold gouache and used it for the brass bottom on the bulb.  Although the photograph doesn't show it, it actually glitters on the page.

Posted by Shirley at 8:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

We are currently back in London with our fantastic grandchildren.  That means less quiet time, more fun, and "news on the run."  Since I have my laptop with me to keep up with work, I read the quick headlines on Google News which is displayed everytime I open the internet.  We also see short segments of BBC news before or after Henry and Syd watch Dora or Diego.  I'm trying to remember how to work with photographed (i.e. not scanned) sketchbook pages.  I plan to upload my daily sketches from our trip soon.

Posted by Shirley at 2:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

This past week was hectic, as I met various deadlines at work and got ready for another visit to our London family.   I tried to think of other examples, but only had one pickle left in my jar and no Sour Tarts in my local store.  I love lemon flavor, but only when sweetened.  My daughter and her two children eat fresh lemon and lime slices - the thought makes my mouth pucker!  I need to play more with paintings of citrus fruit cut surfaces to get more texture - maybe during a less busy week.... 

Posted by Shirley at 1:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

Several weeks ago I sketched my quilting supplies and a quilt that I was working on while too sick to be more active.  In this sketch I included my cute little blunt-nose Gingher scissors.  When air travel restrictions were relaxed and these scissors were allowed on airplanes in the US, I was horrified to lose a pair while passing through security at DeGaulle Airport in Paris.  The gendarme didn't say a word, he just reached over and dropped them into a plexiglass box full of confiscated items.  Strange that nothing was said on the prior trip through DeGaulle in the other direction.

These are the scissors that I drew for the EDM Challenge - 26 years old and still perfect.  I first learned about Gingher scissors when I started quilting and now have the above 8" shears, 2 pair of small embroidery scissors, 1 pair of the craft scissors, 1 pair of pinking shears, 1 pair of applique scissors (which I don't use), one pair of clippers, and 2 pairs of the blunt-nosed scissors sketched above.  It took awhile to convince my family that all of these were fabric-only scissors, but they have all survived and perfomed quite well.  I think this qualifies as a Gingher collection!

Posted by Shirley at 5:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

In our kitchen we use a glass cannister of Kosher salt and a pepper mill to season food - and really don't have specific S and P shakers that we use during daily meals.  However, my daughter gave me a set of miniature salt and pepper shakers that we put out on the dining room table when we have a group dinner - especially on holidays.  Roz told someone in the EDM group that she has calligraphic gold gouache in her watercolor palette and I thought this was a great excuse to buy a tube of glittery gold for myself.  My local art store only had Winsor-Newton, not the Daniel Smith color that Roz has.  You can't see it on the scan, but these tops really glitter as you move the page around.  The darker color is the gold.  The lighter color is Winsor lemon that I added for the light reflection.  I love the effect of the sparkles!!    

Posted by Shirley at 4:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)

I wonder if I will be the only EDM member without exercise equipment to sketch for this challenge?  When considering what I really do to stay healthy, I could only focus on really good weight control and daily walking.  Obesity is such a major problem in America.  When research data is displayed at national meetings that I attend, and the average weights of the study subjects are reported (regardless of the type of medical study), there is always a chuckle from the audience when comparing the numbers from the US in comparison to the study populations from other countries.  The only way that I have been able to maintain an ideal BMI as I age is to weigh myself every morning and rein in my food selections and portion sizes.  By walking, I really don't mean that I am Julie or Penny (or other EDM members) who walk a fixed distance every day.  By living in a city, however, I now walk almost everywhere that I want to go.  My car is parked 3 blocks from our apartment and when I get to work I park several blocks from my building.  All daily errands are done by walking in my neighborhood and carrying home the packages.  Our car remains in the garage, except for work days and we walk long distances in the city on weekends.  It is almost exactly one mile with stroller(s) between our apt and that of our grandchildren.  This is a huge difference from our previous life in Texas, where the culture is garage door openers and car trips even one block to the covenience store for a newspaper.  During those years I took 2 ballet classes each week in the evening after my husband came home from work and our children went to bed.  Although I do take occasional ballet classes here in Manhattan, I can't fit everything that I want to do into my usual work week.  I now buy walking shoes that move comfortably from work to play and wear out one pair of these shoes every several months.       

Posted by Shirley at 8:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)

I sketched a photo of Sydney and Henry in Hyde Park - intending to do a "city park landscape" painting.  But I never got around to finishing it when we were in London, and today decided to add a watercolor wash to both of my grandchildren and then call it done.  I have a series of similar pictures of the two of them.  Sydney, who just turned 2, says to Henry "hand!" when we are walking with both of them and sweet boy that he is, he takes her hand and walks with her. 

Posted by Shirley at 6:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)

I feel as if we now live in a world of power strips and plugs that are huge and heavy to recharge our electronic devices.   And when we go to London we need equally large UK plug adaptors in which to plug these huge recharger plugs to allow us to recharge everything while we are visiting.  I too wish we lived in a simpler world - where all of our modern conveniences were interchangeable.  At my daughter's home in London there are separate DVD players for those DVDs bought in the UK and those from the US. 

Posted by Shirley at 9:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (11)

I buy soap less than once each year because the soap provided in hotels is so yummy.  And the minute you open one bar, they replace it with a new one making it hard to resist taking the replacement home.  Lemon trees are plentiful on the Amalfi Coast and everything comes in lemon-flavor.  I bought several packages of these small soaps to bring home, but was disappointed that they really don't smell like I expected.  The Peabody Hotels have live ducks that "march" into the lobby and swim in the fountain several times each day - making the duck the logo for the hotel.  I couldn't resist these cute white soap ducks after watching the ducks for several days in the Peabody Orlando.  I have no idea which hotel provided Gilchrist and Soames soap, but I haven't yet opened the  cleansing bar or exfoliating soap. 

Posted by Shirley at 9:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Henry and Sydney went to meet their new brother on Wednesday.  Callum James was born Tuesday at 7:38 AM - 4 lbs 14 oz - and 6 weeks early.  Fortunately, he was absolutely fine right from birth and both breathed and fed well.  We are all very relieved.  There was just no way that this baby was going to wait until his due date!  The plan now is for Mommy and baby to come home tomorrow.  Then we can celebrate sister Sydney's birthday (no one told her it was yesterday) and Christmas.  One of their uncles and aunts are flying in on Saturday - fog conditions permitting so we look forward to a wonderful family Christmas celebration far from home.

 This was Sydney at Christmas in 2004 and then 2005.  She started life even smaller - 3 lb 13 oz and was discharged from the NICU at dinnertime 12/24/2004.

Posted by Shirley at 12:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

We cleared our apartment of desserts and sweets after Thanksgiving, so I brought home a candy from the candy dish in our Department office.  I am struggling to learn more about painting reflections and thought that the cellophane wrapper would be a huge challenge.  Fortunately, no one can see how poorly I achieved the desired effect in this scan.  I brought home a second piece yesterday and tried Jana's Mask-it trick, but that wasn't any better. 

I leave in an hour for a 6 day business trip without my laptop, and now realize how much I enjoy my daily review of the EDM group site.  I'll have lots to catch up with when I return.

Posted by Shirley at 7:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Last Sunday I explored Bryant Park, the space behind the New York Public Library.  A free skating rink and 100 artisan Christmas shops were set up in the park and Christmas decorations were everywhere.  The sky was clear and the late afternoon sun was on the Empire State building and the Chrysler Building.  I sketched and painted both of them, and tonight collaged the wreath that I painted last week on both buildings.  However, I'm not proficient enough in Photoshop to do it digitally, so I cut out the wreath, used restickable glue (like post-it notes) and put the wreath on each building before scanning.

Our family Christmas card each year is a Manhattan holiday design - next year I might be able to make my own. 

Posted by Shirley at 9:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)

I am really, really bad at painting reflections in glass and metal.  So I actually drew spoons for 2 days to try to improve my skills.  In reality, I would need to paint reflections every day for an entire year to understand what I am doing.  As I type this I realize that I never even cropped the second sketch so it is very obvious that I am using the Moleskine watercolor journal now for my daily practice.  I am able to use both sides of each page using watercolor, so I am enjoying the process and results as I flip through my visual record of the recent weeks.

Posted by Shirley at 12:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)

EDM Challenge #90: Draw Something with WingsI was in London during the "Wings Challenge" and saw mostly pigeons!  However, on a long walk past Fortnum and Mason, I saw this wonderful large glass peacock that was a major feature in one of their window displays.  My husband had just patiently had coffee while I sketched St. James Church and I decided not to push my luck and his patience.  So I took several photos and waited to sketch and paint my bird until I returned home from my travels.

EDM Challenge #91 - Draw an Apple:  I don't eat apples and I therefore had to find one to sketch and paint.  I wasn't working wet enough to get good blending of all of the colors, but I try to share all sketches, whether I like them or not.

EDM Challenge #92 - Draw a Paper Bag:  We didn't have one brown paper bag in our apt, so I begged a small one from my neighborhood grocery store, folded it, and carried it in my pocket the rest of the day. 

EDM Challenge #93- Draw Eggs and an Egg Carton:  My husband immediately told me how wonky the egg on the left is - which of course I knew as soon as I drew it.  But I bore easily and couldn't bring myself to start over or repeat the sketch the next day.    We're trying to clean out the refrigerator before we gather our groceries for a big Thanksgiving dinner, so we won't have a fresh dozen eggs until next week.  So here is my egg carton and last 2 eggs.

Posted by Shirley at 8:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)

I have 100s of buttons in my studio from my many, many years of sewing.  When we lived in Texas I bought an old English oak button cabinet to use as a side table, and the buttons that I sketched tonight were some of the lovely metal buttons that came with that table.   Each one has a very intricate design, regardless of how small.   The two largest buttons in this group are 3/4 inch and the smallest is 1/2".

Last Saturday I spent the day between the New York City Garment District and Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) with my new fried and fellow EDM member Paula.  She is from Brazil and currently studying at Columbia.  I have walked past the Garment District sculptures at 40th and 7th Ave many times, but on Saturday joined Paula in taking a few pictures of the large button, needle, and garment worker.  It sometimes takes new eyes to make you see something that is so familiar!  I thought that I would include it as another sketch for the Button challenge.

Posted by Shirley at 10:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)

I have never sketched a flag - and was lucky enough to have one in front of a historically landmarked building in my neighborhood in New York City.  I want to do multiple sketches of this beautiful building that was the home of a light opera composer in the early 1900s.  In the 1930 census that I viewed its value was already estimated at $1,000,000 and it is well maintained and now contains several luxury apartments.  I was able to do the sketch while standing in front of the building and then take a photo of the flag when it was blowing to sketch and paint at home. 

Posted by Shirley at 12:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

The grid format was perfect for sketching my lunch today.  My work always far exceeds the amount of time I have in any day, so whenever possible I bring lunch and eat at my desk while reading, answering email etc.  Some days lunch is provided at meetings and I have some control over the menu so the choices are reasonable.  I'm not a health freak - and it takes alot for me to pass up potatoe chips, french fries, juicy big burgers, melted cheese, tacos and fajitas, and large loaves of freshly baked bread.

In the past, when I didn't bring lunch to work, I seemed to eat all relatively unhealthy things that were available in the building and growing older means slower metabolism and the need to reduce calories.  The sandwich is smoked turkey and fresh tomato on whole grain pita.  I only sketched half.  I bought the tomato from a produce cart halfway between my apartment and garage on my way to work and it was really fresh and delicious.  The remainder is self explanatory.   

Posted by Shirley at 5:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)

I looked at traffic signs all week as I drove from home to work and back again.  Our streets are very wide and I suddently realized that 95% of the traffic signs  are along the sides of these 4-6 lane city streets and highways.  I never remember seeing half of the signs that I saw when I was patiently looking (and trying not to hit the cars in front of me).   My favorite was the yellow and black sign in the middle of this drawing - on a signpost in front of yellow and black arrows.  An undivided city street suddenly acquires a center median and all traffic needs to move to the right.  If you fail to do so, you plow into the sign and a huge row of black rubber containers!   My second favorite is the "Don't block the Box  - Fine +2 points" sign.  I wonder if our EDM members would have any clue what this sign means?

Posted by Shirley at 2:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

I love books and bookstores, and while the big superchains really allow you to browse and read all day, I like the personal selections and recommendations of independent bookstores.   This is one of several in my neighborhood.  I also love specialty food stores, but when I looked at my favorite green grocer/food shop, the facade just wasn't as interesting as I thought.  Too many piles of fruits and vegetables on large shelves across the front and no architectural interest above the level of the awning.

Posted by Shirley at 3:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

When the EDM bread challenge was posted last week, I took this photo in Baker and Spice, a wonderful bakery and gourmet food shop in Chelsea, London, UK.  It would have been wonderful to spend time in the bakery, sketching and painting because the smells were wonderful, but it was hard enough even getting a photo due to the size of the space in front of the bread counter.  I love bread and the most wonderful part of moving back to New York from Texas is the incredible variety of bread that is available fresh every day within walking distance of our apartment.  I was very uncertain about painting it, but tried to stay loose and just see what happened!  The walls were actually painted the brick red color that I tried to match. 

Posted by Shirley at 3:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

I have never sketched/painted water, and don't believe that my skills are up to it yet.  In addition, the only outdoor water I saw during the challenge week was the muddy brown Thames in London and it looked gross.  I did accompany my 21 month old grand daughter to her first swimming lesson at an indoor pool and decided that was going to have to be my sketch for this challenge.  You have to look really carefully to see the small patch of pool water on the bottom right!  The beautiful blue color of the water was of course due to the colors of the pool tiles and walls.

Posted by Shirley at 11:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

I sketch and paint anywhere, and rarely use space in my very small, very crowded textile studio.  My goal this year was do at least one sketch every day and to explore watercolor washes with pen and ink.  Most frequently, I don't have time to think about the sketch-of-the-day until in the evening after work and then I want to spend time in our library with my husband.  So this half of the couch is my current workspace.  I work in journals that are no bigger than 6 x 9 inches; use both a travel set of watercolor paints and a palette with dried tube watercolor paints, Pigma micron and Zig Millenium pens, and Niji waterbrushes.   I intended to sketch more of the couch, bookcases, leather footrest and chair, but ran out of space due to poor planning.      

Posted by Shirley at 10:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

When I first read the EDM chalenge, at 5:30 in the morning, I thought that it said traffic light.  So I grabbed my camera when I left for work and took a photo of the traffic light on my corner.  I didn't want to get run over as I stood in the intersection sketching and decided a photo would have to be used.  After I sketched and painted it, I realized that Karen's email said "streetlight".   Since the streetlight is the single pole that holds everything, I sketched it too.  The height has been shortened to make the composition more compact.  There are endless varieties of street lights in my neighborhood (one light or two) and traffic lights (single and fixed to the pole or double and triple and suspended over the intersection on a long arm that is attached to the street lamp pole).  Since this is such a walking city, I also included the Walk - Don't Walk signs that are on the street lamp pole.

Wednesday night I was in mid-town Manhattan and noticed that they have much nicer lights on their poles.  Before this challenge, I never realized that there were regional differences in street lights on the main streets in the City!

Posted by Shirley at 3:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)

When this challenge was announced, I sketched an ear in pencil because I lacked the skills to paint it in watercolor.  Then I decided to take photos of each of my grandchildren and practice.  The ear on the left is Robbies and it was painted in a Super Aquabee.  The two on the right were painted in a Moleskine watercolor journal.  It is definitely easier to scan the Moleskine.  I used alizarin crimson, winsor lemon, burnt umber and Payne's gray. 

Posted by Shirley at 7:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

EDM Challenge #80: Part 2

Although being with my whole family makes me happiest (see part 1 below), my Bernina 1030 sewing machine is also a source of enormous happiness.  I have had a sewing machine for 50 years - sometimes a rented one (poor student days) and sometimes a very inexpensive one.  The above Bernina was purchased in 1989 and as I told my husband, it cost almost as much as our first car - a new VW bug purchased in 1967!  I don't use the sewing machine for days at a time, but when I need to have it serviced I feel very lost.  The months leading up to Christmas are busiest - but I also set aside one week during the cold weather in February and call it "creative week."  I try to arrange my schedule so it is the week before President's Day so I have an extra long weekend before I need to go back to work.  I love immersing myself in projects all day, every day, for 8-10 days and each year have done something different - including making lots of baby clothes for our first grandchild who was due 4 months later, dying silk for a wedding chuppah and making the 6' by 6' pieced top that was then quilted, cutting out fabric pieces for group wedding quilts, and planning and making baby quilts.  Two year's ago I designed a machine quilted whole cloth quilt with cotton velveteen on one side and 100% pima cotton on the other.  I made 5 of these already for immediate family members and still have more to be made.  These quilts precipitated the last emergency service visit - velvet lint buildup that paralyzed the feed dogs!   

Posted by Shirley at 3:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)

This week I've been trying to think about EDM challenge #80 - what makes me happy?  I'm thrilled when I am with all of our adult children, their spouses, and our growing group of grandchildren.  We take care of our youngest grandchild Robbie on Friday and last Friday I posted a sketch from the Central Park Boat Pond Cafe - done while he sat with us for an hour.  Our London-based grandchildren then spent the weekend with us (an absolute joy for my husband and I) and Saturday morning we watched the penguins and seals being fed and the Widelife theater play at the Central Park Zoo.  I did these sketches very quickly in the Petting Zoo area - the first two are the large sculptures along the pathway and the 3rd sketch was the perky little LIVE llama that seemed to be saying "I'm the cutest - sketch me!"  And then stayed still for 2 minutes for me!

There was lots of discussion about Moleskines this week among the EDM messages.  I HATE the format for the watercolor journal, but I do like the paper and I love how it scans.  I finally became comfortable with using more than one journal at a time and next will try an RKB Fat Pad with Fabriano 5 watercolor paper that I bought in London.  However, this is risky because they don't appear to have a US distributor.

Posted by Shirley at 7:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

This sketch was made from a photo from Morguefile.com because I didn't have any live models when I returned from work tonight.  I rarely use pencil, but don't know how to shade well in pen and can't make convincing skin tones in watercolor.  I think I might make lots more ears this week and try to work on some of these deficiencies. 

Posted by Shirley at 8:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)