Dumb movie and bad conte crayons

I saw possibly the dumbest movie last night. the Dukes of Hazard. I was expecting a dopey movie, but yikes! This was awful.

Saw Time Bandits with my son tonight. I saw it in the movies when it first came out and still liked it. My son thought it was great.

On to the contes. I'm just not getting the hang of the conte crayons. I was way overworking the pot on the right and finally decided to call it quits. I'm going to try one more conte crayon drawing then move on.

Conte drawing...take two

After a miserable first attempt, I turned the paper over and started fresh. Yesterday I plowed in with reckless abandon with the conte crayons. This time I took it slow. drawing ovals has always been difficult for me, so of course that is what I choose to do for my second attempt with the conte crayons. I had a fleeting thought. I have been working so much from reference photos maybe I lost my touch with life drawing. It is much easier (for me anyway) to work from a photo. Time to get out the old sketch book and start drawing from life again.

I didn't finish the drawing last night but here is a photo of my set up and progress. The white in the drawing stands out much more in the photo than live. I think the flash had something to do with that.

Conte Crayons

I tried the conte crayons last night. The results are mixed. I enjoyed trying them and will try another piece tonight. I was a little heavy handed in my use. But you have to learn from doing. I got some good advice for my next piece on wetcanvas from Robin who has posted here. Hi Robin :-)

Fire Flower

Here is my latest flower. I am not that happy with it, but what can you do? I think it a composition thing. There doesn't seem to be one. Maybe if I play with the cropping a bit.

I started out using tube watercolors, but soon found I am not good at mixing colors and applying them, so I went back to using watercolor pencils. I like the watercolor pencils a lot, I'm glad I bought them.

Now on the some conte crayon drawings. I have never used conte crayons before so this should be interesting.

Iris's

Well, here is the first of the flower series. I had planned to go heavier with the inking and put in a background but I was too happy with the piece as is and am afraid to ruin it. It has a stained glass feel to it. I want to push that idea more.

Times Three

I'm still working on the large size flower piece. It is taking longer than I excepted. Over the weekend I had an extra few minutes so I wanted to get down an idea I had for a charcoal piece. An hour and a half later I was still working on it. I finished it last night. It came out pretty different than what I had in mind. That is what is great about charcoal. I can add, subtract and move things around without a problem. Now to finish the flower.

Flower Studies

I have been working on some small flower studies. They were a warm up to bigger pieces. I wanted to try different approaches and see what I like and don't like. Then I sprained the thumb on my drawing hand. I was done with the studies, but now I can't work until my thumb feels better. Here are the studies.

Finished

I finally finished the graphite log drawing. Whew! I don't know how much time I put into it, but it was a lot. Now on to some flower pen & inks.

Working Hard

I have been on a graphite piece that is taking me forever. It was suppose to be for a show at the Ridgefield Guild of Artists, but I have missed the deadline. Oh well. The piece is coming out pretty good I guess and since I have put so much time into it already I am determined to finish it.

Meanwhile, with some free time at work I did a test for the next piece I want to do. I want to do a combo pen and ink with a wash. Here is the piece I played around with. This is a mess, but I am happy with what I was able to do. I want to do a couple of more test pieces, then on to the final piece.

Butterfly

Here is the weekly drawing image. I started as quick sketch. But I liked the way it was coming out so I put a little more effort into it. It's not what I would consider a finished piece, but I think it came out pretty good.

A new month of blogging

I'm positive I have read A Bridge Too Far. But I'll read it again because it is good and I like reading anything to do with history.

My cold never broke though to a full blown cold, but it still lingers.

I'm working on a series of ducks right now. I almost have the first one done. I am pretty happy with it. I would post it in progress but I am using charcoal and I am afraid to smudge it when I scan. I don't like to use fixative until I am done, so you'll have to wait.I plan to do two more of the same picture, just different techniques.

I am also working on a pencil of a butterfly for the weekly sketch over at wetcanvas. I'll post that up when I'm done. Here is a link to the drawing thread if anyone would like to see the original image and what others are posting.

Monday

Reading - A Bridge Too Far by Cornelius Ryan. I think I have read this before. It seems very familiar as I read.

Eating - Homemade chicken soup. However, I added brown rice to it and the rice soaked up all the soup. So I guess it is homemade chicken rice now. Still tasted good.

Watching - The Bad News Bears (the original with Walter Matthau)

Feeling - Like a cold is coming. Bleh!

Working - on a charcoal piece. So far so good. This cold is slowing me down though.

MoMA

Reading - The Artist's Sketchbook magazine. Has an article about making your own playing cards. Not for playing. The idea is to cut out 52 cards and once a week make a card. You can do what ever on it. Paint, draw, scribble, write or all of the previous. Both of my kids want to try it. We'll see how long it lasts with them.

Watching - Not much. The Olympics have bumped the couple of shows my wife and I watch. I have the original Bad News Bears on DVD to watch tomorrow night. Last time I saw that movie is in the theaters when it came out. I hope it holds up. I remember it being pretty funny.

MoMA - I went to and joined. This was my first visit since the renovation. They did a great job. I walked around with a big dopey grin on my face. Some great stuff. One floor was devoted to drawing. My brain overloaded with excitement. Two other displays that caught my attention.

One was a large room that had a video on one wall of a line of about 25 people standing there looking at you. It must have looped at some point but I could see it. There was a young kid who said "Is this it? People just looking at you?" He got a laugh from most of the people in the room.

The other was a separate room. It was a dark hall that walked in to into a dark room. The room was back lit wit ha soft red light giving an odd affect of the walls in the room. You couldn't walk into the room just look into it. People kept bumping into each other coming and going from the display because the hall was so dark. I kept thinking the artist was watching and laughing about the people bumping into each other and trying to navigate around each other. Then I thought that was the real piece.

Snow Beagle

I finally finished Wuthering Heights. It was a slow read but good. Very dark book. I can see why it wasn't a big hit when it first came out.

My art room is starting to get into shape. The walls are painted, but the trim still needs to be finished. It hasn't stopped me from working. Here is a pen & ink of our Beagle, Bailey. This is from the snow storm we just had. He plowed out into the snow, posed for the picture, then ran back inside.

Birdies

Wetcanvas has a weekly drawing thread. I picture is posted and every submits a drawing of the picture. Here is mine. Charcoal on Strathmore paper.

Wet Canvass

I just joined and art forum site called wetcanvass. It is huge. Over 75 thousand members. My head is spinning with all there is to read.

Lots of White stuff

We sure got pounded with snow today. 16". My legs are killing me from walking through the stuff. The snow was over my knees. Here are some pictures when the storm was only half over.

This is our front door.


Snow overhanging the roof of our garage.


Our back porch. I was just barbecueing last night.


Bailey plowing through the snow with no fear.


Bailey getting out of the snow as fast as he can.

Updates

Listening: Cajun music. I subscribe to Live365 internet radio. I've been listening to a cajun station all morning. Love it.

Reading: Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte. Pretty dark book, but good. I love reading books that take place in the 1800's. It gives you an idea of what life was like back then. I find the small things interesting. How people call on each other, dress and so on.

Eating: Home made chicken soup. A little bland but good.

Working: Colorizing some more gags for clickwheel. I hope to be creating new art this weekend. I have al ot of dusting and setting up to do first.

Hank no more

We had to return Hank. He was aggressive. He bit and tore my shirt sleeve and he snapped at my wife. Then we found out another family returned him because he bit their kid. Nice dog. It would have been nice if the shelter told us that up front. We are happy no one got hurt in out house.

Comic Update

None. The floors are done, but we are replacing all the trim. So my art room is not up and running yet. I am working on new installment of Mermbut Gags for clickwheel, but very slowly. I am too tire to put much effort into it.

Hank is home

So far so good. Hank and Bailey are getting along well. Hank even gets along with the cats. Well, one cat so far. The other has been up a tree for a day and a night. We have a tree service coming today to get the cat down.

Hank did immediately get into the cabinet under the sink.



But Bailey came over to tell Hank we don't do that here.



The grate on our refrigerator seems to bother Hank. He keeps knocking it off. I put it on, he comes over and knocks it off.



I hope that ends soon. Hank also is constantly on a food patrol. He got to be such a bother during dinner I had to put him outside while we ate. I don't think our food will be safe during the superbowl. We'll have to find a tall table to put the snacks on.