challenge 245--something "October"

The fall colors this year are incredible. While I sat across the street and painted this, my elementary-school-age neighbor saw me and came out with her art supplies and painted with me. It was fun.

I should probably refine this a little, but I might not. I didn't draw anything first--just went at it right away with paint.

Sketching at the zoo--challenge 183--something dangerous

I took an afternoon to sketch the animals at the St. Louis zoo. It was a gorgeous fall day and I had the most relaxing time. This counts for challenge 183: draw something dangerous. As I drew the lions, I wondered if they were sizing me up for a possible dinner.

Plein air painting, Babler

Last month I went out painting with the watercolor society. It was a wonderful morning of painting.

challenge 231--a junk drawer

Isn't it comforting to know that most people have a junk drawer and that it isn't just me?

challenge 234

This is something that belongs to someone else, which is what challenge 234 is. But what is it and whose is it? Anyone know?

challenge 226--draw a screw

challenge 105--scissors

challenge 16--a favorite tool

A few cruise sketches

Alaska, part 4

A rough sketch of mountains and more grizzlies
















Fireweed, a beautiful wildflower that grows everywhere in Alaska, color not yet added.














In Denali, at the Eielson visitor center, we hiked UP a nearby hill (1000 ft in 1 mile.) The wind was incredibly strong. We took shelter on the lee side to rest, and I painted this while huddled and fighting the wind. It was invigorating. It was also an advantage not to be a photo realist.











Sketches of Mt McKinley from the Eielson visitor center.

Alaska, part 3

After the cruise ended, dh and I ventured inland and went to Fairbanks and Denali.

A sketch in Denali at Polychrome, color not added yet.

I stopped taking photos of the animals and just sketched them and found that very rewarding.

On the way to Fairbanks we stopped at this lake to take pictures and sketch. I may add color to it.

Back in Juneau, I saw the Mendenhall Glacier. Will add color later.

Alaska, part 2

A tugboat in the Skagway marina













An island in the inside passage










Another tugboat










Sketch of Haines, color not added yet














Leaving Ketchikan

Alaska sketches, part 1

My mother-in-law took her children and their spouses on an Alaskan cruise in celebration of her 80th birthday. We had a great time. I was able to sketch a lot, and am posting most of my sketches, good and bad. (Ok, maybe not the airport sketches...)

A lady saw me sketching this totem and exclaimed, "Oh, I wish I could draw!", and that prompted me to rip out a blank page in my sketchbook, which I never do with my hardbound ones, hand it to her with a pencil, and say, "Anyone can draw." So she drew with me and did a good job on her own. Maybe she'll get herself a sketchbook and keep drawing.

A quick sketch of Ketchikan. I love boats and marinas.

Yes, the paper buckled. I don't mind.

The shoreline looked like this, leaving Vancouver.

Typical inside passage shoreline

More shoreline

Challenge 228--something that makes me laugh

I started collecting quotes from work when I started my part-time job last August. Some are from me and some are from the fun people I work with. Sometimes I will recall one of these quotes and the events related to it, and I often laugh out loud at the memory. Ok, maybe I'm easily entertained, but I do have some great people to work with. And so, to them, L, L, J and M, this post is for you.

And this poem is for them, too. A friend shared it with me years ago. I do not recall the author.

God, Hurrah! Part 3

Lord, we are glad for those who laugh

Who can be heard in a crowd having fun

Who have words of joy when visited

Who will smile or wink across the room at a meeting.

Lord, we are glad for those who laugh

Who will find a joke to tell to break the gloom

Who will turn to the comic strips though the headlines are grim

Who will carry hope in their eyes through the tears.

Lord, we are glad for those who laugh

Who say it is alright when it looks bad

Who are not afraid in the dark

Who know for sure God lives!

Doodles and sketches

Okay, it's probably a little morbid that I drew this picture, but no one involved should ever forget this event. How about this: doing drugs leads to one of 3 things: recovery, jail, or death.

Take your pick.









I taught a short drawing and cartooning class to kids this spring and one of the creativity exercises I have them do is to draw something out of a page of 20 circles. I realized it had been a while since I did that one myself, so I had some fun with it. I should do things like this more frequently.















Some doodles with a new marker.

217--an umbrella

Here is the deck umbrella in all its weathered condition.

Challenges 212, 213, and 215

212 is the mirror image I drew of myself in 213, the microwave, and my thumb, 215, as it held my sketchbook.

challenges 182, 199, 206, 209 210

210 Draw some underwear. These are my thin and life-saving long underwear that I needed for several winters when we moved from Texas to St Louis. I still wear them on winter days when it's really cold.

209 is draw a shadow. On our way to Minnesota last summer I saw this amazing shadow on a barn in northern Missouri. It would be interesting to sit and sketch it as the sun moved, kind of like a sundial.

206 is "we call it.." We call cats cats and kitties and kittens. In Britain they are mogs or moggies.

199 Draw a toe. It seemed odd not to include all of them.

182 Draw a truck. This old firetruck was sitting in a barnyard in Vermont.

challenges 197, 201 and 202

Challenge 202 is draw a cookie. I drew a spritz and a Russian teaball, two of the family favorites for Christmas.

201-draw a stapler.

197-draw a remote. We have so many in our house now, and I cannot keep up with the new ones and which buttons have to be pushed in order to use which electronic item. Too much technology for my likes.