I still work on faces, hands, and figures some days each month. Here are 3 of the journal pages I did in June. These came from the NY Times Sunday Magazine and a Bloomingdale's catalogue. I'm still waiting for the day when I can add a face to a full figure. Somehow, I sketch grotesque faces when working this small or make them comic book simple. Oh well - maybe 2009!
I had one more Cachet Linen Watercolor Journal from my original purchase, and decided that I would take it to Washington DC with me every time I visit Annabelle. It is the same type of journal that I used for our multiple trips to London to visit our other grandchildren when they lived there. The 3 London volumes are part travel sketchbook and part grandchild visual journal because lots of the drawings are of their toys, or experiences in their lives.
I printed my previous sketches of Annabelle's house, the US Capitol, and two facades of Eastern Market (before the fire) on plain paper with an ink jet printer and collaged them on the first two pages of this DC journal as an introduction. Those drawings can be found in the Washington DC category on this blog (see category list on right hand side of the webpage). I completed 5 pages during our first visit with her and most are already posted. I did the following drawings this weekend.
I asked my son and daughter-in-law about their favorite newborn toys - and painted both their favorite rattles and her new crib mobile. They think her favorite animal on the mobile, based on the kicking and cooing of a 3 month old, is the donkey, so he has a portrait by himself.
On Sunday afternoon we took Annabelle on the Metro in her stroller to the National Museum of Natural History. At the end of our brief visit, they went to feed her and I stayed in the rotunda to draw the elephant to document her first visit there and the fun we had on our adventure.
I sketched and shaded the elephant with a Derwent light wash pencil and then blended all of it with my small Niji waterbrush.
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.
A basket of cloth napkins that we keep on a shelf under our side table in the dining room.
My daughter and her husband gave me a book containing every entry to my blog from its inception through the Canada map on the first day of our recent Quebec vacation (almost 2 1/2 years). I'm thrilled with this 250+ page book and will treasure it. As the active mother of 3 children ages 4 and under, she outsourced the formating through <blurb.com> You can see the same dust jacket on their website for the next day or two at:
http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/259206
The last two days I took a 10 hour case-in bookbinding class at Studio on the Square in New York City. Two of us requested this special wc journal class and left with lots of knowledge and a beautiful book. Although I recycled 7 books for watercolor, I wanted the option of making my own bookcovers and now I can! The finished book is 7.25" by 11" and has handmade marblized paper for the endpapers. Will it be too precious to use? I hope not!