Why I love to be outside

Reason 1.  Great places to sketch are outside.  When you’re outside, you can sit down and sketch what you see.  None of this drawing from pictures stuff…although I’ve gotten a lot of use out of pictures this winter.  :)  We’ve been having amazing weather this month…sunny, in the 70s…even the occasional tornado won’t get us down.  It’s Michigan, it’s March, and it’s warm!  Ironically, back home they had a really weird snowfall last week – craziness.  I’m just gonna say it: I’m glad I’m not in charge.

Saturday I had a couple of hours between morning activities and work, so I took advantage of the great weather and rode my bike downtown. The challenge: sketch this church with just my pen.  Two hours later, I was rushing through the watercolor washes, wishing I knew how to make brick buildings look like they were made of bricks and not adobe…and keeping an eye on the clock tower – didn’t want to be late for work.

 Reason 2.   Binoculars work best outside.  There’s something wrong if you’re only using your binoculars indoors.  I’ve been dying to draw these new binoculars of mine for months now…and a couple of weeks ago, I finally got to it.  I really do love them…and with this mighty fine weather, going bird watching is more fun than ever.

 Reason 3.  The beach (and associated rocks, trees, etc) is outside.  This is from a picture of one of my favorite places back home…I’d been looking at the Urban Sketcher website (it’s great, btw: urbansketchers.org), and there’s a guy who uses this box style.  I thought I’d give it a try. Not sure if that’s legal, but I like how it looks.  I definitely like the outside box…it helps me know where to stop – that way I don’t feel like I have to compulsively fill the ENTIRE page before I’m done.

 Reason 4.  Snow is outside.  I love snow.  I rarely snows where I grew up, and living in Michigan during the winter has been a treat…especially when the air is above zero.  Below zero, well, that gets a little iffy.  I like being inside to look at the snow that is outside — not sure if I would like inside so much if snow were there…

Beach house

 This was drawn from a picture I took on a very windy morning in Bandon.  I was pretty excited about it as I was inking it in…and then started to get more and more apprehensive as I started to paint.  Hmmm.  It is what it is, I guess, but it’s not quite what I anticipated.  Oh, well.  I’m trying to be brave and branch out into 8 1/2 x 11 land.  I’m sure things will improve

Have you seen it in the theater?

 Last fall, they were showing Gone With the Wind at the Michigan Theater…I’d never actually see the movie before, so it was really fun to have my first exposure in such an old theater.  There were people dressed up in civil war era outfits – mostly ladies, really – and when you sat down, I remember looking at the curtains on either side of the screen in all their red velvetness … And the curtains that covered the side walls….and all the gold/yellow plated stuff all around…chandeliers, etc.  I could be making this all up, but I THINK that’s what was there.  I KNOW the seats were those old auditorium seats – definitely NOT the ones that you can lay your head back on, with a cup holder, and that lean back so you can really relax and enjoy the show.  These seats were from the good old days:  You actually had to support yourself with your own muscles and everything.  Mmmm.  You know – the old movie theater feel.

And so the other day I parked my car across the street and sketched the Michigan Theater.  I didn’t have too much time, so I took a picture and finished it up at home that night.

My living room

 Well, here it is.  Maybe I should have finished it, but I think I got distracted with flying birds and the Michigan Theater, and never got back to it.  Since I’m looking ahead to moving in a few months, I’m starting to feel a little nostalgic about things, and my living room is one of the places I like to spend time — that’s a good thing, I think

Beaches…

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 My parents sent me some art supplies for my birthday – super fun to open!  So, as a thank you, I sent them this picture.  I had started working on it awhile ago … I was drawn to the gorse … Continue reading →

Where does the time go?

It seems like my best thinking time is that half hour or so before I’m done at work (if things are slow, that is).  That’s when I’m solving all my problems, figuring out exactly how I’m going to spend every minute once I’m home, what I’m going to pack for my next trip . . . how I’m going to pay for my next trip…it just goes on.  Brilliance.  That’s what it is.  And then, something seems to always happen when I clock out.  I’m not sure if it’s the freezing that happens while I’m waiting for my car to warm up so that I can drive home, or if it’s just the drive home itself.  Maybe it’s the walk back into my apartment.  I don’t know.  But all that inspiration and drive and got-it-togetherness that I’d been scheming all seems to get lost somewhere along the way.  It’s only a 20 minute transition, but apparently it’s an important one.  And then, I’m back at my house, staring at a sketch book, or maybe a computer screen, or maybe thinking about reading a book . . . most likely thinking about what’s for dinner . . . and I’m not sure what I’m going to do the rest of the night.  Weird.

This sketch is the clock tower in Chelsea.  I took a picture of it while my sister was visiting in October.  It’s a cool building.  I don’t know much about it’s history, but it’s right across the street from the Jiffy Mix factory (awesome), is bordered on another side by the Teddy Bear factory (no comment there), and on a third side by some high-speed train tracks.  There’s no longer a train that runs through my home town, and the ones that did were big and slow — probably because they weren’t transporting people.  it’s funny that “stuff” is never really in a big hurry, but people sure are.  So I’m admitting right here and now that I’m a little fascinated by the Amtrak trains.  Especially when they whoosh by.

A sketchbook vanquished

Sunday afternoon I cleaned and then headed out to sketch…I had this building in mind, and thankfully, it was still there when I arrived  It’s the Ella Sharp Art and History Museum…which has some really interesting displays, if you ever need something to do on a Saturday afternoon.  Sunday was a beautiful day – I’d say it was warm, but that’d be stretching it a bit.  I did, however, park my car in the sun, and actually opened the window for some air — and so I could see better.  Apparently, you need a special windshield washing fluid when you live in a place like Michigan…water works great on the Oregon coast where it doesn’t freeze, but not here.

The good news: This was the last page (or these were the last pages) of my sketchbook!

Mom and dad sent me some sketchbooks for my birthday – this is a little tiny one, that I’m liking more and more as I use it.  I snuck it into work one night and started drawing mom and dad’s house…apparently, it resembles it enough that my 3-year old niece recognized it!