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!

Blind Contour Friday

This is the old lamp next to my bed.

EM Challenge #14-What I See First in the AM

The dredded alarm clock. I am not a morning person...even if I have to get up (and I usually do have to) my brain does not function well until about 9am. Or even 10 maybe.

Draw something Halloween-EM Challenge #38

I figured I had better do this challenge before the Halloween decorations go into storage. We enjoyed watching our exchange student get such a kick out of Halloween-she had seen it in American movies at home in Thailand. She went to a Halloween party dressed as a cheerleader and carved a jack-o-lantern. Aor got a kick out of all the decorations around town--this drawing is of some of ours. Halloween is such fun time to decorate....it seems not to matter if Halloween deco is tacky and cheap...and long as it's fun!

Blind Contour Friday

This is a little light because I drew it in pencil-then colored the lines in Paint Shop. When I want to relax this is what I want.

Our Garage and B-ball Basket

One thing I have learned from Everyday Matters Group is that you don't have to have something "pretty" to make a drawing. So here is our garage...drawn on a chilly morning, and I drew in my nice warm car after taking the kids to school.

Oops, I'm a little late with my BC today. These are some of the scissors that live next to our computer.

Artist Date: City Museum, St. Louis

Wow, what fun!


Holy mackerel, if you have never been to City Museum in St. Louis, MO, take yourself on a date and go! It was so cool. A wonderland created by artists- out of all kinds of found materials and built inside and outside of an old factory. I was on overload the whole time I was there.

Click here http://www.citymuseum.org/3D.html for a really cool video tour. The place is literally a blast for kids from 2-92. We took our exchange student and my 65 year old mom with us. Full of slides, tunnels, falling water, and huge jungle gyms.



This is part of the huge jungle gym built on the outside. It also has a sculpture garden (with fire pits) and tavern underneath this. The place stays open til one am and we noticed a that after about 8 the kiddies went home and the teens-adults came out full force.



Lot of cool caves to walk and crawl through. If you use your flash or come after dark when these are lit by candlelight you can see the cool cave drawings.










These are a whole series of amazing spiral slides from 2 to many stories high and dimly lit (somehow that does add to the fun!). Look closely and you can see my 65 year old mom coming out of a 3 story high slide.
















Here is a squid or octopus or something mosaiced on the floor. The place is covered in mosaics made out of tile, pennies, little gears, china--cool! They also used parts of old buildings-they have two reception halls that are awesome-made with huge parts of old buildings.

My pics don't really do it justice, but the video tour gives you a neat taste of what is there. Oh yeah, we also went up in the arch and visited a great old neighboorhood with fabulous old buildings. I took lots of pics I hope to draw from.

Missouri on Dwellable

Flip Flop Flap

There maybe a flap about shoes in this house soon. You can't walk for tripping over shoes (I admit, some are mine). Anyway, couldn't decide what to do for blind contour friday--then I looked around and saw the shoe thing going on.

100 Things About Me

Apparently a bloggy thing to do....so here goes....
1. I have too great teenagers-a boy and a girl
2. I am married to J who I met when I was 14!
3. I love art!
4. I love gardening!
5. We live in a 100 year old house that we are slowly fixing up.
6. J and I (and the kids) love to ride our bicycles.
7. I love dogs.
8. I was born in Hawaii.
9. I try to be organized but find it hard.
10. My favorite color is red.
11. I drink Diet Coke.
12. Growing up, I spent summers at my granddaddy's lake cottage.
13. I still go there as much as possible.
14. I cannot play any musical instrument.
15. I wish I could.
16. I am addicted to decorating magazines.
17. I love chocolate!
18. Chicago is my favorite big city.
19. Red is my favorite color.
20. I am a Christian.
21. I walk every day for exercise.
22. I used to be skinny.
23. Now I am not.
24. I have short hair.
25. My eyes are dark brown.
26. I am interested in history.
27. I am interested in preserving older buildings.
28. I like to go fishing.
29. I don't like to clean fish.
30. Books....can't have too many.
31. I recycle.
32. My favorite way to recycle is to make something over.
33. I am an antique dealer.
34. I stop for garage sales.
35. I think you can tell a lot about a person from their home.
36. Nature inspires me.
37. I go hiking whenever possible.
38. I went to a Big 10 university.
39. I accumulated a lot of credits but no diploma.
40. I think most parents need to pay more attention to being good parents.
41. Basketball is my favorite sport to watch.
42. I used to swim on a team.
43. I worry too much.
44. The porch is my favorite part of the house.
45. Soups are my speciality.
46. I like music from the late 1970's.
47. I like music from the 50s and jazz too.
48. I love it when it snows.
49. I like to go fishing.
50. I like target shooting.
51. I know how to knit and crochet.
52. I don't mind doing laundry.
53. I don't like to put away laundry.
54. It always amazes me when people are mean.
55. I have a fire in the fireplace most days in the winter.
56. We have an exchange student from Thailand living with us.
57. I have never traveled to another country,
58. but I would like to someday.
59. I am trying to get into shape.
60. Making stuff is such great fun for me!
62. I make scrapbooks.
63. I don't care for Sinatra's singing.
64. I do like Dean Martin's singing.
65. I like romantic comedies--even though the critics rarely do.
66. I don't watch daytime soaps.
67. I do watch Desperate Housewives.
68. I always buy used cars.
69. I have a room that I use for artwork and sewing projects.
70. I used to have studio outside of our house but found I didn't use it because I like to be at home.
71. Someday I would like to build a treehouse.
72. I do not like shopping for clothes.
73. My favorite type of garden is the cottage garden.
74. I just love to shop in office supply stores.
75. I love to be near the water.
76. We love to take backroads when we travel.
77. I want more roses in our yard.
78. I want less grass in our yard.
79. I like trees.
80. I like to be around positive people.
81. I avoid negative people.
82. I get really excited when I receive something personal in the mail instead of just bills.
83. My sisters and my mom are my best friends.
84. I am kind of scatterbrained.
85. I used to work as photographer for a newspaper.
86. I now think 100 is a very large number!
87. I have painted some very large murals.
88. Little kids make me smile.
89. Someday I'd like to live on the water.
90. Log cabins....I am very attracted to log cabins.
91. I am still in love with my husband after 23 years of marriage.
92. My kids are great people that I love to be around.
93. I like to find ways to save money
94. and still have great quality stuff.
95. I think it is important to volunteer
96. so I have in the schools, at church and on community committees.
97. I have an aquarium.
98. I like to go to museums.
99. I love chocolate ice cream.
100. I love to laugh and to make others laugh too.

Humiston Woods

Today I went to Humiston Woods after wasting too much of my day taking a nap (I was going to go to Starved Rock). Humiston Woods is a small nature preserve nearby. It was such a beautiful day today! I actually stayed out a little too long and it got dark on my way back to the parking lot.....spooky! We have a full moon tonite too.

Everyday Matters Challenge--draw a leaf

This is Everyday matters challenge #34. The leaves are really getting brilliant around here!

Joe's Birthday

We had a little wine after dinner, and before it put me to sleep, I got this blind contour done....I really like this one!

Blind Contour Friday

I was looking at all the great blogs I have on my favs list and was inspired by Paula Becker's http://www.paulabecker.com/blog/index.php soup drawing. Well, I don't have any great homemade cream of mushroom soup, so I grabbed a can of Campbells. To see a bunch of great blind contour drawings, follow the Inkfinger link to the right.

Fall Bike Ride

Today we took a bike ride along the I&M Canal. If you live near this path and have not tried it....do! It's a beautiful path. We rode from Ottawa to Utica, walked around the Burgoo Festival for a while and rode back. I did not have time to sketch, so I was trying really hard to remember what some of the path looked like...and then I came home and drew this from memory. This is the first time I've tried to memorize a scene to draw later.

If you knew me you would laugh. I am famous for my bad memory. Or infamous. For my friends and family it is a big joke and a pain in the butt. I take tons of pics to gaurd against losing wonderful memories. Drawing helps me to remember too... when I look at a drawing done earlier, it brings me right back to that place and time.

At the Park

After church today I sat in the park and drew one of the pedestrian bridges. They are one of the neatest things about our town. They make it much easier to get around on foot since a small river runs through the middle of town. I have tried to draw this before but I always got frustrated because I got all caught up in details. Today I was able to loosen up and I like how it turned out.