Illustration Friday - Propagate

 

Chia Todd

colored pencil on green paper

2.5 x 3.5 inches ATC

OK this weeks word was a tough one.  I think my resulting image betrays my usually disguised weirdo side, but here it is anyway.  This was inspired by my son's decision to allow his Ag teacher to shave his head last week with a pair of sheep sheers.  It has taken some getting used to and I think this is my subconscious way of saying that I prefer my son with at least some hair on his still young head.  I am including an image of the freshly mowed head below.

 

Illustration Friday - Adrift

 

Wilson!!!!

2.5 x 3.5 inches ATC

marker, colored pencil, and gel pen

available for trade

You know you are watching a really good actor when he makes you want to cry over the loss of a soccer ball. :)  I love Tom Hanks!  This is actually a requested image for my son Todd.  I told him what this week's Illustration Friday theme is, and he suggested this scene from the movie Cast Away.  To work up to it, we watched the movie together.   It was a nice way to spend our President's Day holiday together. 

Winter Wonderland - Friday Morning at the Taylor Farm

 

Click on any picture to enlarge

A rare event occurred in East Texas this week.  A foot of snow fell in Dallas and a more moderate but still impressive 5-6 inches fell on the little plot of ground that we call home.  Most of the snow fell on Thursday night and continued into the early hours of Friday morning.   I know that this is not exciting news to most of the rest of the country, especially with the record snowfalls the nation has been experiencing, but it is something that we almost never see here and it causes quite a stir.  The schools shut down and kids rediscover a fascination of the world around them.  Even the adults become more light-hearted and find it easy to set work aside to marvel at the change of scenery.   Artistic types like myself start waxing poetic and try to capture the moment in memory, image, and words.   Above are just a few of the pictures I took Friday morning, as soon as there was enough light to shoot in.  The last is a picture of my 14 year old son Todd with his first ever snowman.  Sadly he was knocked down and half melted by the end of the day. (the snowman...not Todd).  

The only unfortunate side of the whole event was that we lost power sometime in the middle of the night on Thursday which didn't get restored until Sunday morning.  We spent a couple of nights sleeping next to the fireplace, but I finally broke down on Saturday and got us a hotel room.  Ahhh Adventure!

Illustration Friday - Muddy

 

2.5 x 3.5 inches ATC

The Potter

Life like art is messy.  Don't be afraid to get your hands dirty.

Sculpture and ceramics was my emphasis in college.  I really love 3D work even though most of my art these days is 2D.  In ceramics I considered myself more of a hand builder.  I could throw a decent pot but I never felt I had a flair for refined form on the wheel.  The best thing about it was getting good and sloppy muddy.  I loved being in my paint stained and clay covered overalls.  I felt like a real artist.  I am a much cleaner artist now that I have to make art in more professional "teacher clothes", but a good dirty apron still helps me feel free and creative.

Illustration Friday - Focused

I purchased the coolest little digital camera this week. It is a Panasonic DMC-ZS1 Lumix.  It has 10.1 megapixal resolution, a 12X optical zoom, 25 mm wide angle, 3 preset aspect ratios to choose from, and approximately a gazillion preprogramed settings to make your picture taking experience a confusing but joyous event.  My absolute favorite thing about it at the moment is the pinhole camera setting.  It knocks down the color a notch and gives that beautiful softened and darkened edge created by a real pinhole camera.  You can even get glorious closeups of flowers, bugs, still life setups, whatever, without using the macro setting.  The photo above was one of my favorites so I paired it with a quote for this week's theme but I am including several more images below.  I took all of these yesterday in Lowe's garden department.  Click on any picture to enlarge.

Illustration Friday - Clumsy

Non-Dominant Hand Drawing

Gel Pen and Pitt pen

in my left handed moleskine

I have always been a klutz, but this weeks topic had me remembering much of the last year in which I was recuperating from a broken wrist.  I call my left hand the stupid step sister of the right,  but I was forced to function left-handed almost exclusively for several months while my right hand was healing.  Of course my biggest fear was that it would not heal completely and that it would hamper my ability to make and teach art.  I still had about three months of the school year to get through at the time which was challenge enough.  However, my students were very understanding and patient, and we completed the semester without much hindrance.

One of the things I did to perk myself up and feel better about the whole disaster was to start a left-handed sketchbook.  All the drawings and writing are done entirely with my left hand.  It is far from full, but I still occasionally add entries into it and really enjoy the challenge of working with a clumsy, less than obedient hand.  I admit to being much more sympathetic to my students when they break limbs now.  Every year there is at least one or two who do.  Now I pull out my left-handed sketchbook to give them a little extra encouragement that they can continue to make art and make it through the year.

I am including several of the earliest sketches below, chronicling the healing process.  Click on any of the pictures to view them larger.  Have a happy and SAFE week everyone!

Illustration Friday - Wilderness

Paper Collage

9 x 12 inches

(click image to enlarge)

To the dull mind nature is leaden. To the illumined mind the whole world burns and sparkles with light.  (Ralph Waldo Emerson)

In the spirit of the theme and being "green", this weeks submission is made entirely out of discarded wallpaper samples with just a speck of mulberry paper and pen for the white parts if the eagle.  I also lightly tweeked the scan in Picasa to bump up the saturation and add a bit of evening glow to the sky.  I had considered cheating and using an ATC card that I had made about a week ago before I knew this week's theme, but I am trying to be good and produce something new and specific for the topic each week.  I am posting the card below just because.... I liked it, and it also fits. 

I hope you all enjoy the MLK holiday!  It gives me a little extra time for art making, so I love it!

Snow Spirit

ATC 2.5 x 3.5 inches

mixed media