Silent Sunday – February 11, 2018
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365 Days of Art – Pigs Three Ways
….day 41
I love art work with pigs. I don’t know why but I’m drawn to pigs. I enjoyed the blind contour drawings of the cows so much that I decided to do some with pigs. Rather than show you all my weird blind contours I’ll show you the rough copy of a pig I did for scraping technique with acrylics.
I found that the scraping technique this time around lost a lot of the detail of the pigs.
With the middle one I went back over some of the lines with a light green marker. I then decided to take a chance with a black micron pen I added some more detail to all three pieces. Should I have left them as they were? What do you think? I know how I feel about it but I wouldn’t mind your input.
Cee’s Which Way Photography – February 9, 2018
…..thanks Cee for hosting Which Way Photography
It’s a snowy day in Toronto and there are two more days of it to come on Saturday and Sunday. In many places you can’t tell where the path begins or ends.
365 Days of Art – Cows Done Blindly
…..day 40
In Carla Sonheim’s year-long class we were assigned to draw an object of our choice. The hook is that it had to be a blind contour drawing. No peaking at all. I did that with the first three and for number four I peaked a couple of times.
Then without looking at the drawings or the photo the drawings were taken from we had to draw the objects again on a larger piece of watercolour paper using ink with a dropper or liquid acrylic poured from the bottle (with a small opening). Before the ink or paint dried we were then suppose to lay two more colours of paint across the top of the paper and then scrape it down the page with a credit card.
The first attempt I did on a cold press watercolour paper and I almost lost the image completely. I switched to a smooth hot press paper and the image under the paint was stronger. The black ink on the second painting was overpowering and I much preferred how the red and purple inks turned out. Do you have a favourite?
365 Days of Art – Chinese Brush Painting
…..days 38 and 39
I started these late last night and then finished in the wee hours of this morning. So I guess that still counts as a painting a day.
I’ve always liked the simplicity of Chinese Brush Painting but there’s nothing simple about it. I can see why Chinese artists take years to master their craft. I took this book out of the library as a reference. It’s beautifully illustrated but I’ve discovered that I’m not very good at following directions from a book. I’m in too much of a hurry to take the time to read all the directions. I’m much better with a video demonstration but I did enjoy this process so I think I will go back and read some of the chapters.
WPC – Tour Guide of Toronto
….thanks to Word Press for a theme close to my heart
People always ask me if I’ll move away from Toronto when I retire. I can’t imagine living anywhere else right now. I live in the southwestern area of Toronto more commonly known as New Toronto or South Etobicoke. I love being 15 minutes from downtown (depending on the time of day) and being able to take advantage of all the city has to offer. On the other hand, I feel blessed to live where I do. A century ago people used to travel to this neighbourhood from downtown because they had cottages here on the lake. A few of those old structures still stand today but they are quickly being eaten up by renovators who appreciate the value of the land.
My father recently moved back here after living in Oshawa for 20 years. He feels like he’s come back home. Nothing beats the view of the city skyline that I see everyday at the bottom of the street where I’ve lived for 39 years.
I love the nature trails and beautiful parks that you can find all over the city. The big one in my neighbourhood has wonderful hiking and biking paths that wind through Colonel Samuel Smith Park and the Humber College grounds. Part of it is a naturalized area with a pond in the middle and Lake Ontario at the south end. We have more wildlife here than we do at my cottage. It’s not unusual to see coyotes, foxes, beavers, turtles, o’possums, racoons, skunks and the occasional deer. We have birds and waterfowl galore. In the summer many people come to the park to take advantage of the beaches that line the eastern side of the extension to get relief from the heat or to paddle or kite surf.
If you’re not into nature the city offers the best in museums, art galleries, aquariums, recreational sports and the best restaurants.
365 Days of Art – The Bad With the Good
…..days 36 and 37
Not everything that I make do I necessarily like. This is a journey of learning and practising skills in art. I started with watercolour still life and then landscapes when I started painting at 50. I’ve dabbled in so many different art genres that I haven’t mastered one. I’m going back to basics. Here are two studies of apples and bananas. I need to keep practising.
Share Your World – February 5, 2018
….thanks Cee for bringing us Share Your World every week
What would be your ideal fantasy way to spend Monday?
In an ideal world I would get up and go for a brisk walk for an hour, take a few photos along the way, come home to a nice hot cup of coffee and a breakfast of bacon and eggs and then settle in with a good book for an hour or so. After that I’d putter in my art studio and work on some sketches or tackle a paint project. This could take an hour or several hours. Later in the afternoon I might go for another walk or get in the car and browse at a few stores. My husband would cook a magnificent dinner (which he does most nights) and settle in for some TV watching afterwards. If there’s nothing on TV I’d probably phone some friends and have a good gab and make plans to get together during the week.
The reality is that the weather has been so cold that my walks have suffered lately. I did finish reading a book yesterday and after dinner I talked to a friend and we made plans to get together on Friday.
What one person that you are out of contact with would you like to say thank you to?
I need to write to my friend Mike from university. Every year we exchange Christmas cards (well he sends me one and I sent one this past Christmas) and when he was in town he used to call us from the airport on his way back home. This year Mike surprised us with a poster that he sent through the mail. It wasn’t just any old random poster; it was one that my husband had designed and silk screened when we were at university together. It was in pretty good shape and we had never saved a copy for ourselves. At the time we all belonged to a theatre group called Curtain Call and every year we wrote and produced a play that we performed for the student body. Thank you Mike for thinking of us and sending this wonderful poster. I’m thinking for having it framed or mounted.
List your favorite toys or games as a kid?
Games
- Mensch Aegere Dich Nicht (a German board game similar to Sorry)
- Monopoly
- Chinese Checkers
- Snakes and Ladders
- Dominoes
- Cards
- Hide n’ Seek
- Red Rover
Dolls – a baby doll that you could feed and she would wet herself – I named her Dorothy-my younger sister was more into Barbie dolls
Slinky
Etch A Sketch
Yoyo
Easy Bake Oven – I don’t think I owned one but I had friends who did
What did you appreciate or what made you smile this past week? Feel free to use a quote, a photo, a story, or even a combination.
Last week I helped my neighbour by feeding her cat everyday while she was in the hospital and then on Saturday I picked her up and brought her home. Later that day I also went with my daughter to visit another good friend who’s in a rehab hospital. We sat with his and watched a movie, Mama Mia. He loved it and said so several times. It was a joy to see him so content and I remarked that he was just a romantic at heart. He turned to me and said, “Yes, I really am.”
Mundane Monday #146
…..this week’s theme is keychain
Thanks to Trablogger for this week’s photo challenge. Not only are we to photograph a keychain but to make the photo more interesting we were instructed to keep it minimal, blur the background and use the rule of thirds. Here is one that I think meets all three criteria.
Here are the others I took. They don’t meet all the criteria and some don’t meet any of them, other than the fact that they are keychains.
Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge – The Letter Y
…..today’s prompt needs to start or end with the letter Y or start with the word Why?
A Gallery of Yellow
My Mini Yoda
