You Just Never Know

It's kind of amazing how trying something new can take you in a direction you never anticipated going.  It has been true with singing, as I've written about before here, and now I'm finding it true about sketching too. 

See this sketch?  I did it last October, and I did it because I was sitting at a place where this was the view. But I became instantly absorbed with painting the details on the buildings ... it made me look closely and I really enjoyed trying to draw all of that detail. 

 Here's another sketch I did a while back, just because it was what was in front of me.  Who knew that doing that plain old bank building would be so fun to draw?

To to my surprise, I have discovered that I really like drawing buildings.  They give me the chance to figure out perspective and usually mess about with foliage shapes and colors.  I like adding the trim and the texture or decorative bits.  In fact, I am loving it.  The other day I sat in my driveway and painted the house across the street.  

 Yesterday I was out and about running errands and I drew a bit of the town center in the next town over.  So far I'd avoided drawing cars (those pesky cars so often parked in front of charming buildings, annoyingly getting in the way) but when a big white limo pulled in in front of the gelato shop, I had to include it. And I kind of like how they add to the scene.

Now, as I'm out and about doing things, I find myself looking at the shops and houses I drive past all of the time, thinking "Hmm, that'd be fun to sketch!"   Here's a house in my sister's neighborhood that looked so cozy and tucked away behind a lush garden.  In fact, my sister and I were together and both of us sketched it -- it was really fun to see how differently we did the same thing.

This afternoon I have to take the dog to the vet's, and it has already occurred to me that that might be a fun spot to draw, too.  Oh dear.  I will have to add 45 minutes to every errand for drawing time.

Maybe one day I'll work my way up to adding people.  Who knows where this adventure with pen and paint will take me next...

And she does that on horseback?

This past weekend, Miss C participated in a vaulting demonstration at the barn where she rides. I'm amazed at what she can do on a walking, trotting, or cantering horse -- some of these things I can't even do on the ground!

(By the way, if you get a sound error message box before the video comes up, just click the X in the upper right hand corner and you can see the slideshow without sound.)

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Artistic Problems

I haven't been spending that much time in the sewing room since I finished "Serenity," but I did make another quilt recently,  about two weeks ago.  I wrote last time about the community chorus I'm in and our party to celebrate the chorus's 25th anniversary and the director's retirement.  As a thank you from the chorus, I made this quilt for her. The green fabric in the border and the block backgrounds has pale music staffs and notes -- very soft and pretty.  On the back are a photo of the full chorus and everyone's signatures.  Making this was truly a labor of love.  I was happy to see her delight at receiving it, too. 

Meanwhile, though, I've been spending more time drawing and painting.  It is remarkably reassuring to me to know that this is all learnable, and to be seeing progress.  At my April ranch retreat recently, I too time to do a bit of outdoor sketching, which was very enjoyable.

I even attended an urban sketcher's "sketch crawl, hosted by local artist Richard Sheppard, right here in my own town.  I had such a good time meeting fellow sketchers, getting tips and new ideas, and being out and about sketching with others.  I sat myself on a benchand did a page spread featuring our local corner candy store.

And just to keep myself going, I've been participating in a challenge called "Every Day in May" where the task is to draw or paint something (duh) every day in May to a daily topic.  It's been very fun and I've surprised myself a few times.

I was pretty happy with both of these.  But mainly I'm just having fun doing them. Tomorrow's theme is "Something Creepy" which had me stumped for a bit as all I could think of was spiders and I didn't want to paint one of those.  Here's what I'll post in the group tomorrow:

Yeah, I hate clowns.

Now I'm torn... when I have time, do I sew? Do I sketch with pen and ink? Do I paint?  Such problems.