A Couple of Sketchbook Pages

Summer has washed over me with warm whispers of "do nothing important, especially around midnight." I have acquiesced. Here are some images from the last week or so in my sketch book. Plus a new gimmick. Dustin and I have put a temporary hold on "Teacher Breakfast" in favor of the more caloric and life shortening "Teacher Burger". There are 4 points possible each for "meat", "bun", "fillings", and "condiments" and 4 additional discretionary points for us to award based on things like restaurant aesthetic, side dishes, nice waiters, etc. That means 20 possible. Vote now for what burger we take our gourmand scalpel to next week. With all this new found free time I can indulge you, my noble blog followers, in your choice of sketch subjects. What shall I draw?

Cindarrella

Christie likes pirates. And Cinderella. So I decided to combine the two into a retelling with this image as the cover. As usual my relationship with photoshop ran hot and cold. Some days we clicked together like a well oiled machine while other days found us mixing like a syrrah and PB&J sandwich meal. Our main reason for fighting was that I would try using transparent colors but she would find it amusing to turn whole sections of the picture transparent.

Oh well. I think photoshop and I may need to take a break, slow it down some, have some space so that I can explore other interests. Like Christie. And Illustrator. But mostly Christie.

The Big Dog

I went back to one of my favorite places and basked in the sheer sunniness of May in Walla Walla. I perched myself on the flood bank of Mill Creek with a fetching view between two cottonwoods complete with an excellent depth perspective and glowing light. As I was happily painting the color of the river I heard and felt the mighty footfalls of what must have been a prehistoric canine holdover. Far behind the beast was his owner spewing the pleas "leave him alone, good boy, come on!" all three of which the dog ignored. I realized my end was nigh and, refusing to meet my fate head on, simply decided to go out doing what I loved: staring at nature and painting.

The dog thundered right up behind me, touched his nose to my scalp, and, before devouring me whole, sniffed mightily. The sniff nearly wrenched my head from my shoulders but still I refused to turn and behold my end. After a few seconds of continuing to glower over me the mesozoic menace must have heard some small animal dying and thrashed off through the underbrush followed by its "master". I lived and finished a painting.

Don't Climb the Trees in Everglade Terrace

There were always long shadows on Everglade Terrace. Even on the sunniest of noons the gloom reached out across the street toward the finely mowed lawns of the Willow Grove housing development. Every Willow Grove child knew that something was not right about the curious park across the way though, of course, this understanding didn't prevent the inevitable. Each summer, there were reports of missing children and despite all the grown up furor about how kidnappings were on the rise the local children all knew what really happened.

The stupid children would climb the trees in Everglade Terrace.

And that was that. They never came back. The police would do the cursory harassment of the local oddball residents, the firemen would dredge the river, and the photographs would appear on the milk boxes in the school cafeteria but the shrewd children all knew better. You never climb the trees in Everglade Terrace.

Not Yet Finished

I miss blogging. I miss having a lot of things on my plate but a good many things have sat on the back burner, not forgotten, just simmering. Maybe I am coming back for a taste. This weekend I did my first painting since February and the flavor was good. So good. It was a bit offsetting at first but the thrill of laying some pigment on a rough, thick sheet of paper was back quickly. Spring is here. Art is on!

I am back.

This one was painted from just outside Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle. You can see the mountains beyond the Sound as you look west. The painting was only about 5 by 8 inches. The weekend was great.