A Bottle of Ink

My favorite inks are Noodler's Bulletproof Black and Lexington Grey...it's a love-hate relationship, though.  I bought myself some Lamy Safari fountain pens last year for my birthday (?) and the inks were highly regarded by other sketchers and Moleskine enthusiasts.  They are waterproof on cellulose materials and wash off of others, making them good for mailing addresses, checks, important signatures and pen and ink sketches...if you're patient.  Those who know me know that "patience" isn't my strong suit.  If the conditions are humid, it takes a while to dry enough not to smear or run when painted over.  I love to write and draw with it and the pens, so, I wait.

At the top of the label in this tiny sketch, you can see where the ink smeared when I tried to wash a tiny bit of blue over it.  It had been drying for an hour. 

Last night, I got out my bundle of Sakura Pigma Micron pens, my first favorite pens before I got the Lamys.  I'll carry them around for a back-up when I'm out and don't want to wait for the ink to dry.  In the meantime, I'm going to check out my sketchbook papers, maybe the sizing is interfering with the ink absorption?  Maybe some of the paper isn't cellulose?  I used two new types in this sketchbook, made for Utrecht by Canson, I think.  In the process of testing my pens (there were some older ones in the bunch), my kids decided they liked them, too, my daughter wants her own, to buy with her Christmas money.  We'll make a pilgrimage to Utrecht this weekend...and maybe stop off at Creative for a tube of Daniel Smith watercolor along the way!

19th Worldwide Sketchcrawl - Our Second!

The kids and I set out yesterday at midday and pointed the car toward Ward Parkway.  I got to the Plaza and turned to go through and the kids said they wanted to go to the Cancer Survivors Park on the Western edge of the shopping district.  The kids played a bit, letting me draw the view from my bench of the sculpture and the new building across the street.  We moved up the park to the front and it's new sculpture, a symbolic flame of hope.  I'll get a photo of it to get the colors in it.  It's really beautiful!

I didn't get to sketch this one as long, little attention spans grow shorter, so I'll add color another day.  I did manage a quick 'nother sketch of the kidlets checkin' out the acoustical properties of the parking garage that abutted the park!

We wandered into the Unity Temple on the Plaza, a church in the Beaux Arts (or is it Arts & Crafts?) style that I had attended once upon a time with my mother.  On around the corner, I took them into the McDonald's in the lower level of Seville Square and showed them the Bas Relief Mural of Seville Spain that my husband helped design while he worked for Art Works in Chillicothe.  I have an original ink on illustration board scale model of the final piece that he drew that I plan to frame when we get into a bigger place. 

Home for some rest and refreshment as the temperature climbed to about 85, then off to meet Daddy at Union Station for ice cream after work!  Some wriggly squiggles later, we headed out to Washington Park to run some outside and watch trains.  I worked on my perspective with the balustrade and park lamps.  Home, exhausted and sleepy!!

Still Drawing!

Really!  I did this today while the kids were playing at the Loose Park Spray Park.  The sun came out right after we were done with our other adventures and warmed the day up just enough for them to enjoy the water and me to enjoy drawing without sweating too much!  There was a red tail circling, scribbled him in, too.

 

Over previous weeks, I did a few sketches here and there.  The sketchbook's full and I need to make another, but have other things demanding my attention.  I committed to spending less time on the computer and more time with kids' activities, so we're doing stuff together, more than we used to.  Last week, we enlarged our model horse stable.  I built box stalls out of foam board and the kids each have room for over 100 small models now.  This week, Rianna and I are making leather halters for our larger models.  She's seeing how they are constructed and learning to handle glues, wire, and a craft knife.

 

EDM #019 - Handmade Tack

EDM #019 - Handmade Tack
Originally uploaded by SideShowMom.

Poor Gisa! This is the worst drawing of a horse I've ever done!! I'm posting her anyway...to remind myself, it can only get better!! She's a wee thing, an inch at the withers, and the tiny Native Show halter I made is extra-tiny! The headstall is a four-strand braid and the throatlatch is three strands, braided into the four at the poll, of cotton embroidery floss. So is the lead rope.

My eyes are normal, middle-aged and not as good as they used to be for close work like this, so, yes, I used a magnifying lamp and reading glasses for the details. The braiding - I have an idea that people think I braid tiny, short lengths of floss. That would be daunting...even to me! No, I use about 14-18 inch lengths, folded in half, and braid about half of it. I tie a knot at the end of the braid, so I can lengthen it if I want, and can make lots of halters out of one four-strand braided piece. I didn't learn to do the four-strand flat braid this small...I started with crochet cotton, just a little meatier and I have gobs of it. I got good with that, nice and even, then went smaller. So, with learning a new braid and scaling it down and trials...this took about 6 months to make, off and on.

Native Arab Show Halter
Originally uploaded by SideShowMom.

I'm still tweaking it, though. The tiny "jewels" are Balger blending filament French knots and one is pulling out already (I gave it to Rianna on Tuesday last week), so some Super Glue Gel is in order for those and the tassle knots. Halter number two will take about a day, using the pre-braided floss.

Rianna Asleep

Rianna Asleep
Originally uploaded by SideShowMom.

Everyday Matters Challenge #54 - Draw someone/thing you love.

My daughter's been home sick from school all week. Seems like Strep, it's going around, but I can't get her in to see the Dr til tomorrow. She looks so young still when she's asleep. She turned 7 Saturday. It's the cheeks! This was done a little larger than usual... about 8 x 10 in a 9 x 12 sketchbook with charcoal pencil. I haven't used charcoal before, in any form. I like it. I'd like to try some a little softer, this was a General's 2B med charcoal pencil.

EDM Challenge #84 - Bread

EDM Challenge #84 - Bread
Originally uploaded by SideShowMom.

Does everyone know about cinnamon sugar toast? Toast, butter, cinnamon, sugar. I mix the cinnamon and sugar in an empty spice bottle so we have it ready. Rianna eats it most days for breakfast and tried to eat some today but it scratched her sore throat. We use wheat bread, going through about a loaf a week, sometimes more. I grew up on Wonder Bread, though. It was supposed to be healthy, or something, now we know better. I have baked bread from scratch, some black rye bread that turned out heavy as a stone, what a texture that had! Our current infatuation is for the dough balls you can buy in the freezer section. You thaw them in the microwave for a few seconds, the put them in a greased pan with greased plastic wrap over them to rise for 2 hours in the oven with the burner off. It stays just warm enough. Then you bake them for 15 minutes, nice and fluffy! I like bread!

Sleeping Kitty - Finished

Sleeping Kitty - Finished
Originally uploaded by SideShowMom.

Rianna picked out a new kitty at Crown Center Saturday. Tinalina is an orange tabby who sleeps on her own fleece bed and her tummy goes up and down like she's breathing. She's stuffed! It was hard to really define the features of the toy with the pattern in the fur and shadows being very soft. Graphite in my hedgie.

Union Cafe at Union Station, Kansas City, Missouri

1/19-20/07
Originally uploaded by SideShowMom.

We got to come to Union Station for a while and run around a little to burn off some of the stir crazies before the snow hit yesterday afternoon. Some little boys with their dad and uncle invited us to play "duck, duck, goose" in the middle of the floor here. Lots of running and squealing! Then we walked across the Link to Crown Center and had lunch at Fritz's train cafe where your food is delivered by trains! When we were done, I checked outside and the snow had started so we headed up to Zoom, the toy store, and the kids picked out a toy each to buy with their Christmas money and we skee-daddled on home just in time!

Album Cover

Album Cover
Originally uploaded by SideShowMom.

After the Master of the Arabian Flute CD by Mohamed Naiem. The flute is an Egyptian Ney or nay, made from reed, it has a haunting sound. I had to make a paper cd envelope for it so I did some of the cover art, too. I left out the calligraphy, but may add it in later with some white ink, if I'm feeling ambitious. General's Layout pencil on 24 pound inkjet paper.

PITT Pen Color Chart

PITT Pen Color Chart
Originally uploaded by SideShowMom.

I recently started a new sketchbook so I had to make a new color chart of my PITT markers. I love these things! The light cool grey lives in my pen case that follows me everywhere. So does the sanguine set, you just never know when you'll want to draw henna designs! I also keep the flesh tones handy, I'm not real great at mixing them in watercolors yet and end up wasting too much time at the park. They've expanded their selection, I think there are 48 colors now, including a lighter flesh-tone and many other lighter shades of colors. 103 and that turquiose are wonderful to use! Danny Gregory used to use them in his journals and I liked what he was doing, and my art store had them on sale, so I bought some. Wish I had some more greens, but they do blend a little while still wet. I run into Utrecht and grab a couple every once in a while, just pocket change really, and will slowly accumulate all of them. Art supplies! Love 'em!

Kids

Geordan Playing Dulcimer
Originally uploaded by SideShowMom.

This is a super-quick gesture sketch of my Cub playing my mountain dulcimer. He really had fun strumming with the picks and trying out notes on frets. I bought it a gazillion years ago at Silver Dollar City on my Open Water dive certification weekend. It was the first trip I'd taken by myself, too. I can still play some tunes on it!

Edit: Yeah, the dulcimer's on his lap backwards, he insisted!

Last night I curled up in the rocking chair with my daughter. We both drew, she in her pink sketchbook with my prismacolor pencils and PITT markers, and I in my hedgie with my sanguine pigma microns.

EDM Challenge 101 Draw a Bar of Soap

EDM Challenge 101 Draw a Bar of Soap
Originally uploaded by SideShowMom.

Sandalwood soap I received from my Secret Santa partner in the Henna Page gift swap. Smells great, but I don't want to use it up! Pencil in my hedgie...that's watercolor paper!

Here's a song I remember from Girl Scouts...

"Oh I wish I were a little bar of soap (bar of soap),
Oh I wish I were a
little bar of soap (bar of soap),
I'd go slippy, slippy slidey, over
everybody's hidey,
Oh I wish I were a little bar of soap (bar of
soap)!"

Kleenexes

Kleenexes
Originally uploaded by SideShowMom.

When you send your significant other to the store for tissues because you have a cold and are out, what do they bring to you? Something nice and soft? Or sandpaper?

Couldn't let the day go by without a bit of ink...

Challenge #92 Draw a Brown Paper Bag

Challenge #92 Draw a Brown Paper Bag
Originally uploaded by SideShowMom.

Ok, so it's not brown...yet. I'll do that tomorrow, it's getting late and I wanted to get something up tonight. Pigma micron in my new hedgie!

I'll also get the link in the group page in the morning!

Bon Soir

Christmas Angel

1-6-07
Originally uploaded by SideShowMom.

This porcelain angel vase has been on my parents' mantle and by my Christmas trees all my life. Delicate porcelain prayers for Peace on Earth.

If you come to my Flickr in the next week or so and see something strange there, fear not. All shall be right soon! All my photos are still there as are all my sets, they are just hiding til Yahoo gets my money order in the mail!

Blogging & Bribes

1-4-07, originally uploaded by SideShowMom.

Hi Everyone on the Superblog! Michael was kind enough to add me today! Thank you!

I've been inactive for a while, since about May, and am on day 4 drawing again! I finished re-ready "Everyday Matters" this morning and am making a new batch of pocket moleskine-like sketchbooks as this one is on it's last two pages. If you'd like to look, they're on my flickr in the Making Books set here.

Hi to all the new EDM members! I look forward to seeing your work as I go through the links of the challenges and blogs! I am also getting more active on the Botanical and Naturalist group, Hi to you, too!

Rianna's in first grade and has homework every night (!). Tonight it's addition and subtraction of numbers up to 20. She get's real stubborn about getting started so we did some bribery today after some tickling to get her woke up and alert. Rold Gold pretzels are a good bribe for her but I didn't want her filling up before supper, so she only got 1/3 of a stick per right answer!

Trains Today

1-3-07
Originally uploaded by SideShowMom.

I drew my son's newest locomotive. This is Diesel. Not Diesel 10, but another rascal on the Sodor Line. Geordan really has train fever, he'll either be an engineer or a life-long hobbyist.

I started three new hedgehogs today, this one's only got 2 pages left!

Yesterday's Drawing

Keyboard
Originally uploaded by SideShowMom.

Drawing what's in front of me at 10am, here's my keyboard. I spend way too much time in front of it...something to cut back on this year. Most of the time is spent wondering if someone's answered a post of mine, commented on a photo or drawing of mine, or done something else of interest to me...

Quite narcisistic, I think.

A certain amount of self-focus is necessary to one's health and well-being, but to the exclusion of getting things done. Just not healthy.

Something to think about this year.

Seriously.

New Year's Day, 2007

New Year's Day, 2007
Originally uploaded by SideShowMom.

A new day, a new start! I'm taking up my drawing again and re-reading Danny's book to start off. I've lost sight of the reason for doing my art and dropped it except for the henna art.

Hydrants and Firefighters - EDM #66

Hydrants and Firefighters
Originally uploaded by SideShowMom.

When I was 6 or 7, I went to vacation bible school in Smithville. At the end of the week, there was a parade and I got to ride on top of a fire truck.

When I was 12 or 13, a girl next door used her toaster and it caused a fire that burned the kitchen of the duplex on the other side of ours. The girl's family had to move and lost some of their possessions due to smoke and water damage. There was a crack in our kitchen wall from the firefighters chopping out the burned bits with their axes. Our apartment smelled like burned plastic for a long time.

Hydrants
Originally uploaded by SideShowMom.

When I was going to school at DeVry (1986-88) there was an explosion at a gravel quarry near 87th street and Blue River Road near Swope Park. Someone had set fire to a trailer full of fertilizer that the quarry used to blast out gravel. When the fire company arrived, no one told them what was in the trailer and it exploded, killing six firefighters and injuring others. The blast could be heard 20 miles away and broke windows all over the area. I was in the area, staying with a friend. I heard it. There is a memorial there now.

Rianna on 9\11
Originally uploaded by SideShowMom.

When I lived at the car shop, Storm and I volunteered with the Red Cross Disaster Aid Teams as monitors. We would listen to a scanner for fire calls. When there was a fire in an occupied residence or more than 2 alarms called, we called the RC to send the IRV (Immediate Response Vehicle). It had blankets and coffee and relief items for firefighters and victims. One time there was a fire across the street from the shop. We went and watched the firefighters work. They are so efficient, fearless, tireless and courageous. Their lives are at risk every time they leave the station. People have so little respect for what they do, I see so many cars not pull over and stop when emergency vehicles have their lights and sirens on. What if it was their loved-ones' lives at stake? There's a new station being built near our apartment. We'll make sure they know they're appreciated!