The library features citizens' collections in this showcase. Mine is a different sort of collection...I filled it up with art journalling. Click to see it closer. Since they can't flip through the books, I made color copies of many of the pages. Maybe someone else will catch the bug.
Decorated my new Moleskine with paint pens. Worked pretty well. Sketch is of my office at work.Now, who to tag? I don't know who's done it before so forgive me if I'm tagging you and you've already played.
Trying to get back to drawing each day. I'm not crazy about the way this spoon turned out...probably to impatient to look at all those reflections carefully. But I like the little border.
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!
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.
I didn't get much drawing done for some reason. Too much serious lounging on the porch I guess. But here's one on a toy from the toybox.
Then I tried to do a watercolor of a nearby island. I usually just color in my line drawings, so it's definitely trial and error trying to watercolor. I worked on parts of this too long and muddied it up...and then stopped before I probably should have on other parts. It could have used some darker darks.
Used my artistic license and got rid of all the houses and the choppy water. Pretty breezy that day.
I did the doodling in my Moleskine and then cut the pages apart and glued them onto playing cards.
They're colorful anyway!
with that page from this weekend. I tore some tidbits from the literature we picked up from the park and played wtih the watercolor pencils. Thanks for the nice comments yesterday....isn't the internet great?! I don't know very many people in my "real life" who are into journalling. There are a few who understand, but most people think it's kind of cool...yet seem to wonder why you'd spend time on drawings that aren't always all that good. In my "virtual life" I have all you folks who really get it!
Saturday we went to Morton Arboretum to wander around and enjoy the day. I was with Joe and he's not a sketcher, but I got in a fast one anyway. This is a sculpture by Patrick Dougherty. Very cool and very sturdy...though it makes me think of one of the 3 little pigs houses...built of sticks! 
The 17 year cicadas were everywhere...and the noise they make is other worldly. I still may add some color or something to these pages.
Looking up....like a rustic church.
Just trying a new profile pic.
Route 66 is quite the tourist attraction...which seems kind of amazing because you kind of have to hunt for the old time tourist attractions and restaurants that are left. It draws a lot of people from Europe who tour the road.
Sorry for the smudgieness...I really need to fix these pencil drawings. This is another attempt at drawing someone I know...this time my niece. I drew this one upside-down also. Definitely have a long way to go, but still I'm encouraged. I looked back at some old posts and this is a face I did a year ago...and really, I've never tried to draw faces so you could recognize them.
I tried drawing my daughter using the upside down technique. Once again I think I drew the head too skinny, but overall definitely an improvement. I used pencil for the first time in ages...and I mean probably a year and a half. I had forgotten how messy they are and my drawing is full of smudges. And I did find myself erasing again...but surely I could learn to control and use that eraser wisely. Ahhh the power of an eraser....to be used for good and not evil.
Ok, after looking at this, I took it back out of the scanner and reshaped her hair. I think that helped alot! Must remember to leave room in these heads for my poor victim's er...model's brain.
You know what's funny about these? Each time I forget to flip my book over before I start drawing. So now you have to flip it over to see it right side up! I drew this with the square at the bottom and was going to journal at the top. Duh.
After watching Danny Gregory draw a portrait I decided to try turning my reference upside down and give it a go. I'd done this before years ago and it did not turn out too well, but this time I think it really helped. My drawing doesn't look like Mike -I drew him awfully narrow! But it does look more like a person than my faces usually do. Somehow upside down, I did not get all weirded out drawing nostrils and eyes...upside down they are just a series of shapes and tones. I need to try this a lot more, but I'm encouraged by the result. Isn't that a neat word? en-couraged. Yup, I have a tiny bit more courage now.
#90 Draw something with wings. Can't wait for the robins to start coming back.
#93 Draw an egg carton. Somehow I could not work up enthusiasm for drawing this but it got me moving pen across paper anyway.
What a sweet present. I loved it when my kids would bring home things they made for us. Mike made this little clay bowl in grade school. Now they are young adults....time sure flies by!
I have a lot of old buttons to choose from for a drawing like this. I love to attend auctions and estate sales and buy vintage buttons and trims. I really did do this drawing today....despite the date. Sometimes I still find myself putting the wrong year on checks too.
I decided to go through the challenge list and label the next several pages....commit.
I need to cut out the procrastinating, and catch up on those challenges! If I just trim a few of these surfing minutes I'd be doing a lot more drawing. Then I would be getting more creative time and I would be a lot less snippy with everyone!
These sheep belong to Sandy Ryan. She bought something from me on Etsy and through email, I discovered her wonderful business Homestead Farm. She and her husband have lots animals including sheep....and they sell the most beautiful wool from their sheep. Many of their animals are rescued animals and they are lucky to live out their lives at Homestead Farm. If you knit or craft with wool you will want to check out their site.
This is Fox Canyon...one of many beautiful canyons in the park. You walk on a bridge spanning this to get to the lodge. 
It was pretty cold out today so we stayed by the fire. At home when the fire needs to be stirred I always wish we someone would come along and do it for me. At the lodge an employee comes along every 20 minutes or so and stirs it up and adds a log if needed. Ahhhh........
Jennifer sketching........there's another fireplace back to back to this one (behind those partitions) but that side was all set up for a wedding reception. 
Aunt Pat and Jennifer showing off our sketchbooks. About the time we were done we needed to move a bit because a couple getting ready to be married by the fire.
Want a bite to eat? I love the old part of the lodge best...lots of huge logs and stone and wonderful rustic furniture made for the lodge. It was built in the 1930s.
Aunt Pat shows Jennifer and I some of her new works. She is painting a series of images using ink she made from pokeweed berries that grow in her yard. She combines them with watercolors and ink drawings. The ink is the fushia color you see in the background of the first painting....and it is combined with orange to make the background in the second painting.
This is my drawing for the day...I got caught up in the detail. The beams and such were very dark backlit by the light streaming in the windows, so it was hard to see details. I bet my ink is low in that pen after drawing all those dark shadowy areas! We had a great day. It's so fun to go with others who like to draw...they don't mind sitting and spending a while to sketch!
As the journaling says, these are ornaments on my parents tree. I haven't a clue to get that great shiny look in a moleskine with watercolor pencils, but I still like it. I'll call this EDM challenge #98: draw anything you like.
