Drawing questions

While sitting in the car waiting for Super G (Mom) to conduct her business at the post office I sketched up this ATC. For some reason none of the pictures I took of it were in focus! But this is the best of the lot.

I enjoy drawing like this but for some reason can't get myself to do it in the infamous Red Sketchbook. Can't wait for December when I have to send it back. I'm ordering a different color next time! So what do you think...is this cartoony type of drawing OK?

Speaking of Mom going into the post office by herself we had excellent news at her Monday neurosurgeon visit. Instead of seeing Anne, the physician's assistant, we saw Dr. Handsome (name changed to protect the innocent and describe the doctor!). He took off the neck brace! So Mom is well on the road to recovery. We signed her up for Dial-a-ride and are soliciting friends to drive her to various activities which are integral to a happy life for her. Getting her to ask for help is a huge hurdle. She has agreed to online grocery shopping. I know what she likes so that will make it easier.

The limitations set by Dr. Handsome were only two: no lifting anything weighing more than five pounds (did some serious culling in her purse!) and no driving until evaluated at her next appointment in October.

Mom's good news is also good news for me. I am anticipating going home early in a August.

The Big Guy has started moving boxes over to the new house. We can't move too much because the building inspector has to approve the new electrical first. But the boxes are in the bedroom half of the house which wasn't damaged in the fire.

I have been dreaming about decorating the new house. Want to put bead board half way up one wall in the master bedroom and paint it a shade of green with a lighter green above. Want to get one of those beds that is a top bunk with a work space instead of a bottom bunk for my studio so the grandchild will always have a place to sleep. Want to put my antique sleigh bed in the front bedroom for mom when she visits along with the dresser that holds a TV. The middle bedroom will be a dedicated guest room for the landlord's mom who visits from Mexico (she is going to teach me Spanish and I am going to teach her English!). I want to get a rectangular table for the kitchen but will probably settle for the round one we have already. Hope to be able to set-up my drafting board in my studio, too. It may be too big.

So, I am looking forward to the end of this adventure with mom and starting over in the new place. I'll keep you posted.

THE TENNESSEE QUILTS

I finally finished the blocks for Anna Maria Horner's project making quilts for people who suffered losses in the recent floods in TN. They are wrapped and ready to be mailed later today. Look at Anna Maria's blogspot for info on this worthy project. If I weren't measuring challenged this would have been a snap. I'm sure it will be really easy for you!

I'm on a roll with the food quilt. I think I have cut enough squares and I purchased the buttercup Kona cotton I want for the corners (not a jellyroll :( - couldn't find one I could touch!). Now all I have to do is cut the buttercup (after I decide what size it should be) and start sewing. Maybe today? After Sunday lunch with the Mom's gang, and games and desert with her gentleman friend.

The Red Sketchbook - Red Dog

Page Two!
Red is my favorite (don't tell the other three) granddog. I couldn't find an actual picture of him to draw from so improvised. He is Rhodesian Ridgeback and Boxer. If he weren't trained so well he would chase, catch and eat cats. But there is always at least one in the house so he has to mind his manners. We were privileged to have him (and his Akita big brother, Truman) live with us for three months when we lived in the Twinkie (a 20' antique Corvair RV). It was quite cozy but we got to know the dogs very well and came to really love them. Truman bonded with the Big Guy and Red with me. He is always very happy to see me and I am happy to see him, too.

Maybe I am over artist's block with this sketchbook. Two pages is a good start and I am actually looking forward to doing one of the cats you have sent me. I also need to find a picture of my late cat, Bear. She was a beautiful mix of Siamese and calico. She looked like chocolate drink powder in milk which had not been stirred enough. She was right up there with Roxy as the best animal friend in the world. She was 19 when she died. Like Roxy I had gotten her at 4 weeks old. She came home in Artquiltmaker's sweatshirt pocket.

It is really hot here at Super G's. In the triple digits the past three days. I'm melting!

The red Sketchbook - Baby Roxy

Going thru my 'edit blog' page I found that I had never posted this drawing! Or this post...so some of it is outdated, for example, I did make squares for the TN flood victims, JJ suffered mightily from his sunburn but WLs T-shirt protected him and I peeled but had no pain from the sunburn (give me ten years and I'll get some ugly bumps on my skin :( .....)

Didn't fix the thumbnail but may yet do that. Baby Roxy has grown up and is shivering from cold lying on my lap in her G-ma's Flower Garden crocheted coat. So read on for an early summer blog...........


This is The Best Dog in the World at four weeks old. She is the first drawing in the red sketchbook.

BTW, thanks for all the great dog and cat pictures! We sure have some handsome 'animal companions', don't we?

Once again, looking at this drawing in the photo shows me a glaring defect! The thumbnail needs to be toned down! My eye just zeros in on it. So I guess this is just iteration number two and not the final!

I was looking at The lazy Quilter's blog this a.m. and saw that she is also (along with artquiltmaker) making 12 1/2 inch squares for the flood victims in Tennessee. I guess I'd better get my act in gear and do it, too. I really want to so should just sign off and get myself in gear!

Had quite a day yesterday at Hurricane Harbor with the best boys in the world. They went on the scary slides, I just floated the river with them and went in the wave pool. When I was a kid we had a place called Pop's Willow Lake. It was a series of concrete pools of all different depths, very shady with grass all around. HH reminded me of that on steroids! The tag line all the workers say instead of 'have a nice day' is 'have a Magic Mountain day'. I figured out what that means: Spend every red cent you brought with you today! It has been almost twenty years since I have been to a theme park and I had forgotten how expensive it can be. Luckily I couldn't get the amount I thought I would need from the ATM so got $50 more. Came home with $19.75 and feel lucky to have that. Cost almost as much as Mom and me flying home on Monday! Hope the boys took away some good memories! Have no pictures as the camera isn't waterproof. Did I mention we are all sunburned? Bad Aunt Gramma! Did I mention walking on concrete threw my knee out (again!)? Oh the price of fun!

Better pull out fabric for that 12 1/2" square!

ATC Fauna from my house

Did a quick little sketch of the animals who live with and around me in the place we are leaving. The Big Guy found us a house to live in so a lot of the stress of the past few weeks has been alleviated.

The main character in this cast is Roxy - the best dog in the world. Orangey is the "Easy Street Cat". He lives at the club and only allowed us to feed him while we were there. He is the rat master. And then we also have the wild ones, deer, snakes, birds, squirrels, skunks, racoons from hell (the dog's biggest challenge_, mice etc. If it weren't for the Board of Directors mismanagement the place would be paradise to live in. But we did enjoy being there.

Now it is on to the next phase in our lives. Stay tuned!




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Cat ABC I mean ATC!

Another Atc created while thinking about the infamous red sketchbook. Didn't work on "red" yesterday as the boys have come to visit! That is the human boys - grandchild and nephew - the best boys in the world!

Anyway, perhaps this little alphabet cat will turn into the whole alphabet of animals, or specifically, catz and dogz. The title page of the red sketchbook has a "D" dog I may expand on.

Have to go now - Super G needs a shower.

The Red Sketchbook

THE INFAMOUS RED SKETCHBOOK!

Have I groused recently about the red sketchbook project I have been unable to start? Guess what? I actually started it. Perhaps artist's block is gone.

Had a venti latte on my way home from 4th of July BBQ with Mom at SBdaughter's (apaperaddict.com) yesterday so of course I couldn't go to sleep. Set up a makeshift desk on my bed - the one with the brand new mattress that is soooo comfy - and started drawing away!



Am using the webcam as the cord for the camera still hasn't turned up so you get a little bit of background in the picture :[. This is the title page. May color it in later but it's a start anyway. See the D for Dog?



And here is the author page. Love the cat icon after my name!

Have you ever tried to hold something to get a straight picture with a webcam? Everything has to move backwards or perhaps it is mirror image....... A bit of a mind bend for me.


And here is the first layer of the first drawing. It isn't done but I have a good start. This is my beloved dog Roxy when she was just four weeks old!

Stay tuned for the final version.

Calling all dog and cat lovers!

Help me fill all 80 pages!

If you have a picture of your dog or cat I am collecting them to draw and put in my book. Send them to me via the comment section of this blog and I will send you a photo of the final drawing. And your furry friend's drawing will go into a museum with art house co-op.

Bulldog

Sitting at Starbucks the other day I drew this in my pursebook (a sketchbook which also has lists, phone numbers, and other ephemera) without much thought. Now I wish I had drawn it in my 'raining dogz and catz' book. I may still.

Going to see my granddogs tomorrow and will take my camera. Want to draw them in my book. My granddogs also have a kitten, Reagan, who looks like a baby version of the Easy Street Cat, Orangey. So he will get his picture taken and sometime I will draw him in the sketchbook, too.

I did the title page and have started a drawing on the first page of Roxy as a baby lying in my hands. I hope it turns out well. I have printed up several pictures of the cats and dogs I love or have loved to draw. Bulldog, above, is my interpretation of a dog from a magazine.

Now I'm worrying that I am doing too much 'fine' art drawing. But it doesn't matter right now anyway cause Mom came over to the table to play solitaire and I can't draw because that shakes the table. So I'll just blog for a while.

I have misplaced the cord for my camera which transfers pictures to the computer. The Big Guy says I can get one at any Radio Shack, probably Circuit City or Best Buy, too. In the meantime I took the above picture with my webcam. That worked but isn't as accurate as the camera.

Hopefully, my next post will be out of the 'catz and dogz'. Keep your fingers crossed.