Random sketches

Some more ideas to go with the Egypt thing and the sketches for the chakra series of acrylics. I think that the only one that stayed as planned was the sacral chakra. I really like the idea behind the lekythos but it needs to be reworked. That top olive branch needs to be a bit more droopy with the weight of those fruits.

Blast from the Past

So way back in 2000, my stampin friends and I decided to participate in this cool paper study project that Michelle found. It was to be our way to keep in touch as she was off to the East Coast. Note to self: Xmas windows In NYC

We'd only gotten a few projects in when life threw us all into a dither and the book found a quiet nook on a shelf and sat neglected. It's moved with me everywhere because I can not bear to let it go after Michelle went through the trouble of putting it together for each of us. And now.... digging through it again. I want to make this my project to finish this year (2014) just commit to one page a month. I can do that.

It will be interesting to see how things have changed, or not, since 2000.

Love it!

I really like the look of this. I think that I am going to redo it and use more precise blocking lines than just the main horizontal and vertical axis. There is way too much going on in this sketch to not use them. Things get off balance quickly.

#5 second post

Bottom right, look who I found peeking out at me when I took the lid off of this box. Perhaps I should quit saying that I can not draw people. I don't prefer it. But I guess I can do it. When I have tons of time. Of course what you don't see is the mistake I cropped that makes me say I can't draw people.

Another mannequin angel, a stained glass idea inspired by Michelle Ward and the stained glass windows in the old churches. I think I was reading Iris Johansen at the time, Beloved Scoundrel, a pomegranate and fig sketch.

Ahead of the Holiday

Written 2 weeks ago and forgot to post:


So while I was gone I had a productive week of a different kind than normal. One of the things that I did was start the process of putting up outdoor décor for the coming season. Why? Well for one, we already had a light dusting of snow and everyone pulled out their parkas. So since we got the hint that Ma Nature is ready for a little Winter action decorating is fair game.

And so is the picmonkey scrapbooking affair. Yes. I said affair. I do believe that I am in love with picmonkey. There is a great new theme that is being rolled out as we speak. I've been able to make something that makes my geeky little heart squee.... and I want to see if I can do this with a real snow man.

Check it out....

 



 

Can you see the snowman in the bottom pic? I don't know if you can open this and see a bigger picture. I hope you can. Because building the "Snowten" was almost as much fun as stringing the trees together and making the digital scrapbook pages. It is all definitely way more fun than the necessity of the left hand photo: I hate pulling the branches down and arranging them. These trees were bound tighter than .... never mind. It would have been mean to say.

 

Let's just leave it an observation that if I lived in China and had to assemble these things I would have lost all patience with the standards of which they wind lights around branches.

 

Any way.... can't wait to see how they look at night. Oh... and lest you think I am a spendthrift: two sets of mini trees were 7.00 each and the two four footers were a steal at 5.00 each on clearance many seasons ago. Crap.... now it is all getting rained on. :(

 



Artifact box #5

Among the mess I started unpacking I found a box of Somerset Studio magazines and sketch books. Some were filled, others were only partially full and one was almost embarrassingly bare. the good news there is that I don't have to shop for more sketchbooks.

Here you can see two examples of why twitter knows me as @glyphgeek, a sample of my fascination with all manner of earthen vessles, the beginning of some kind of old engravers styled corbel design (middle bottom) and a sketch for a mannequin angel. If I had to guess I would say it was from the period when I obsessively watched Stargate SG-1 and continued through the point in which I moved out of my fathers house to begin this crazy 8 year quest.

When the jar and papyrus sketch popped out at me I kinda swooned. Sometimes I have some really good ideas. And that was one of them. It started an idea for a series of rubber stamps. Seriously need to get back on that track. Just have to figure out how to get around a couple of speed bumps.

And we're back

Some how after getting the 'puter back life got away from me. No worries. It didn't take this long to debug. Just life.... So while I was gone, we began holiday prep, did some Holiday baking, had two holidays: Thanksgiving & Dr. Who 50th Anniversary, a birthday [Happy Birthday Matthias Reim], the inaugural game night, a freakishly poorly planned trip to vacate storage... in a blizzard, blistering cold weather, began a new blog, kitchen organizing to begin.

Notice I didn't say to finish. I am hoping to get that under my belt before game night number two in which we maybe play Killer Bunnies™ or Gloom™. In either case I am hoping that Monday is a baking day with a good friend and that the whole process is easier with things in their new homes and  that we can get some more mileage out of a poorly planned pantry.

Poorly planned seems to be a theme. We'll just pretend we don't notice okay?
Yes.... Dr. Who constitutes a holiday.

Game night involved making dinner for 6, playing Apples to Apples and Jell-O shots because we are adults... kinda. I think we are all secretly 12 years old because being an adult with the frustrating "stuck in the middle" blues is not the best way to be an adult. It was fun to kinda be 12 again. And even more fun to conspire to regularly visit our twelve year old selves. Hey, something has to make these stupid grown up messes easier to handle.

Yeah... three trips to empty the storage unit. When the plans were made the forecast was mild. The morning of the move we awoke to blizzard warnings and finished the last load just as the worst of the blowing and snowing began. Lots of cars in the ditch, people crashing public transportation, fish-tailing and assorted consequence of a poorly planned pre-Winter snowfall.

The result, this is the mess I have to figure out:






























Um... yes, because managing two blogs is so friggin easy, I've started another one. This one is at Wordpress. For reasons hashed out here. And because I know I can most easily organize the topics under the heading of Amateur Germanologist with the Wordpress format. Not to mention the connectivity Wordpress offers.

Lest all this activity make you think that there won't be any art, no worries. I found lots more tucked into just about every box I've opened so far.