Paper and Threads

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)

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)

 

My husband and I take care of our youngest grandchild on Fridays and when weather permits, love to walk him in his stroller to the Boat Pond Cafe in Central Park.  It is just opening most Fridays when we arrive to get our coffee.  This week Park crews had heavy equipment cleaning up mud debris from the Thursday evening thunderstorms.  My grandson, who turned 1 at the end of July, had a wonderful time sitting in one of the big chairs with us, eating snacks, and watching the bright yellow vehicles moving around the walkways.

Moleskine watercolor journal, Pigma micron pens, and mostly Winsor-Newton tube paints.  The base layer of paint copper roof and awning were done with Daler-Rowney viridian from my cylinder travel set.  

Posted by Shirley at 11:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

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)