Paper and Threads

These are the journal pages that I did on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday - the last until the end of the summer.

Sydney and I sketched together and she drew hydrangea blooms while I sketched her - which was her request.  It doesn't look like 6 year old Sydney, although she said I got the hair drawn correctly!  I never used to draw family members, so at least I'm now trying to capture a likeness.

I love sweets and was tempted by a freshly baked cookie and a Dunkin Doughnut most of Saturday afternoon.  I succombed to one, but not the other!

I was awakened when a bathroom hairdryer slipped in its holder, turning it on, and couldn't get back to sleep.  So I moved out to the sunroom and listened for the birds to wake up while I read.  There was suddenly a very different, insistent chirp, right outside the screen door and it was a beautiful cardinal.  This was drawn from a photo since he flew off pretty quickly.

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We were at the beach 3 times last month, including the 4th of July weekend with our children and grandchildren.  Here are some of my random journal pages for those visits. 

The Hydrangea Variant in my Daughter's Garden:

Poolside While the Children Swam:

Group Dinners on the Patio Next to the Grill (covered):

Rabbit Drawings to Remember How Much the Bunnies in the Yard Scared Annabelle (age 3):

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My husband and I love early morning beachwalks and I spend my time, while walking, learning about the changing ocean, sand, shells, and creatures.   It is even more fun when our friends visit for a week because they can help identify some of the creatures brought in with the tides. 

I found almost a dozen sea robin fish skulls over the last several years, but this year found this very interesting 3.5 x 2.5 inch skull right at the surfline.  There is a very small black shell trapped within making it seem likely to be from the ocean.  We searched all animal skull images with sagittal crests on the web and found one identical image  - uploaded by someone who also couldn't identfy it.  Since then we sent the photo to a bird watcher, a veterinarian, and a  reptile/amphibian expert, but we still don't have an answer.

I also found 2 dead Portuguese Men of War.  Jeff needed to identify them for me - I've never seen one dead or alive in the ocean or on the beach.

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The Central Park Drawing and Art Meetup Group met at Grand Army Plaza in front of the Plaza Hotel last weekend and we sketched the Zodiac Heads sculpture by the Chinese artist and activist WeiWei.  There are 12 large heads - arranged in a semi-circle, on tall sculpted poles.  They are really impressive and can be seen until July 15th! 

I decided that I liked the "bull" best and did 3 sketches.

I did the first sketch as a "one-liner" because I love Picasso's bulls and toreadors that were all done with one line.  It was hard.  The second was done with ink and watercolor and the third was a side profile done with pencil.

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I'm posting 4 of the 19 sketches done last night at the Society of Illustrators Sketch Night - two 5 minute sketches and two 20 minute sketches.  The long poses were drawn with a watercolor pencil and then shaded with my Niji waterbrush.  And they are on watercolor paper which is too big for my scanner and were thus photographed.

Posted by Shirley at 9:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)