May 6th's prompt was to draw a timepiece. My timepiece is the Livingston County Courthouse in Pontiac, IL. This is just a block from where I work, and I really do often look at it for the time. It's been beautifully restored and the public may come in and view it. It's the centerpiece of our town.

St. Mary's Church

The Documented Life Project prompt this week was to draw what you see, so I drew the church across the street from my shop. I drew it on some sewing patterns that I'd printed on the gelli plate. The oranges are not quite as crazy as they look on that page on the left.

I drew it during breaks at work, and then pasted it into my journal when I got home.

Documented Life Prompt: Cut up a magazine...

This weeks prompt was to cut up a magazine and use it in your planner. I did that, and I also used literature I picked up at the Chicago Creative Expo. I used an Artful Blogging magazine, and it happened to have a lot of butterflies in it. I am thinking spring in the city here!

At the Lake

I didn't draw too much up at the lake. I spent most of my time floating on an inner tube. Which is, of course, ideal.

I find that I have trouble drawing this little place. Of course, when I look at the cottage, I see it with all the memories I have of growing up here, and that's hard to capture. I'll just have to keep trying!

Pu'uhonua o Honaunau

And in the spirit of getting off my duff and doing more artwork, here's a page from my sketchbook. I'm working from some of my vacation photos from Hawaii. The mark in the middle is a postmark that I got while I was on the trip. In the future, I'll be sure to tell them I want it over on the edge of the page.

Just a Little Card...

I did a wonky little drawing of the house where we stayed while we were in Hawaii. I used several photos from different angles...and that's probably part of the reason it looks a little off kilter. Couldn't possibly be my rusty drawing skills, right? I still kind of like it though, so I used it to make a thank you card for the owners. I hope they like it.

Arkansas

A while back I went on a road trip to Arkansas with my sister-in-law. I only made one drawing...Susette moves fast and I'm a slow sketcher. One day I took off to the town of Van Buren. It's a quaint little town with lots of great shops. The day I was there it was cold so I sat in my car to make this sketch. As you can see I was into it at the beginning (the top) and ran out of interest (and room!) as I moved down the page. Good practice though. I'm gearing up to take a trip pretty soon and this time we have lots of sketching time planned in, so I need to do some pre-trip drawing to get loosened up! As you can probably tell by the lack of posts, I'm probably pretty rusty!

Peace Tag

I have a bunch of these shipping tags so I'm going to use them to draw on each day in June. I don't know what I'll do with them then....maybe I'll tie them to the Christmas packages this year. I haven't been drawing lately, and I actually felt shaky!

This one is of the Catholic church in our town.

Another Route 66 Building

I've been working on another building to make into a postcard. This one is a really charming old gas station in Odell, IL. It's been restored and if you're ever travelling the old highway you should stop and see it. Making these are not quite as fun as my usual wing it drawings in my journal...but they have to be a pretty good representation for a post card. I think I may just use them as a jumping off point and create a collage that includes the drawing as the final design. I've set up a drawing table in my office and if it's quiet I sit in there and work.
On other fronts, I've been getting to go bike riding lately, which is one of my favorite things to do. So much fun it hardly seems like it'd be good for you!

Old City Hall Shoppes

This is the antique mall I have started managing. We needed an image to use in print ads so this weekend I made this:
I hope it works out OK and reads well in print. Much of the time it will be really small in an ad...I'm not sure if it's too detailed. But I think it gets the idea across...we're in a neat historic building.

Autumn....

Autumn always makes me think about going back to school. Today I actually did...just for the day to pick up some records I needed. It was fun walking around campus though....seeing what has changed and what has not. The Union is a great building and changes very little through the years.
After I ran my errands, I sat in the Union and drew the windows along one wall. I used to love to sit in here or on the terrace just outside this room and study. It's even more fun to sit and draw....sometimes it's great to be out of school.
The last line says, "The Union looks today pretty much the way it did when I was here in the 80s and as it looked when my dad was here in the 50s....and probably as it did in the early 1900s. Sturdy and dignified."

Autumn was the September topic at The Art Blog Challenge.

Another Chicago Page

I drew this light fixture and the opera singer on our Chicago crawl-tonite I added the Hancock Center from a photo Aor took. We are looking forward to going up in the evening one day soon to see the Christmas lights and have dinner.

Chicago Sketchcrawl & Challenge #41

Aor and I met Lindsay and Lisa to sketch Chicago. It was wonderful to meet these artists/bloggers in person! And very cool to see their sketch books and tools....Lindsay was sketching in a journal she bound herself. Aor did her first realistic sketches...which were very good! Lisa was working with some water soluable graphite pencils I would love to try.
















We met by Marshall Field's and set to work sketching the famous clock (challenge #41-draw a city landmark!). There was a nice supportive feel to being out sketching in a group. One man (who looked like he would like to join us) gave us the thumbs up as his wife hurried him along. Pretty soon we were well chilled...so we grabbed some cider and coffee and headed into the Chicago Cultural Center.
















Lisa suggested we be brave and sketch people...we were brave enough to attempt that, but chicken enough to draw each other instead of strangers. Don't go by my sketches of them....Lisa and Lindsay are actually lovely ladies. The cultural center is a very beautiful building with wonderful mosaics covering the walls, floors and ceilings, fabulous light fixures and stained glass skylights.

I would love to do this again someday, and I hope we will have some more Chicago area artists join in!

Bright Little Shop

This little shop is owned by a friend, and she just moved it to this location on the square. It was raining yesterday, so I decided to sketch it from the car. You can see where I got carried away on one side of the drawing and drew the door all the way down to the curb. I may transfer this to some watercolor paper and try to make one that I can send to her.

I used watercolor, then I went back in and tried out my new colored pencils.

Everyday Matters #29 Architecture

This is the courthouse in our town. We have a wonderful little square-2.5 of the sides still have the original buildings. One whole side is now a parking lot. It seems to me that many of those who have lived here all their lives are the most likely to undervalue the old buildings. They scorn the Mayberry-ness of it, while those of us who came here later in life cherish that same quality. I've got nothing against progress as long as it does not erase the past at the same time. Ok, stepping down from my soapbox now.

Street Scene

I am doing it --I am actually drawing daily--and enjoying myself too. This is scene from downtown, but away from the more picturesque square. It started out as just a picture of the tree, but then I decided to fill the page. I drew it on the inside cover of my Moleskine so as not to waste any pages. This another of those midnight drawings-but I am trying not to go to bed until I have drawn something each day.

Believe it or not that store really is called "Lots of Stuff."

Home Again Antiques

For a couple of years my mom and I ran an antiques shop from this building on the square. It was fun but not profitable. So we finally decided to move our stuff to an antique mall nearby. It was sad to close the shop, but now we still sell--we make money, and don't have to be there everyday! Yea! More time to draw!