IF: Airborne

I am sort of surprised by how much the line drawing with a permanent marker is pleasing to me at the moment.

permanent marker on cardstock

The Illustration Friday prompt for today was "airborne" and inspired today's daily sketch. I am always curious to see what others will do for the week's prompt, but I like to get mine done early so as not to get distracted by my own first conception. I went with maple seed pods but later also considered dandelion seeds, paper airplanes, and hot air balloons.

King of the Beach

Last week I went on a mini-adventure to Pleasure Bay and Castle Island, just a short distance by bus from downtown Boston. I grew up by the ocean, so this really felt like a find, because it was so close and accessible by public transport.

I sat by the water with my feet on the damp sand, letting the tide come in around me as I sketched. There were several after school programs that I had brought their classes in addition to numerous families and individuals.

I did some sketching on index cards. Nothing fancy, but it was good to take the time to slow down. Visiting the ocean is good for that in general as well.

cardstock and sharpie pen

There was one teacher in particular who struck me as king of the beach, leader of all he surveyed. Most of the other teachers were sitting higher up, at the edge of the beach in the shade, but this one was right among his charges by the water. Originally I was just going to draw the landscape without people, but after I was added him, several of the kids soon happened as well.

One of the groups of kids were very interested in what I was doing. Their teachers were nervous that they were harassing me, but they were really fun to interact with. Next thing I knew, I had an impromptu art class sitting around me to whom I handed out index cards and pens/pencils.

I really like the idea of these small pieces of art, because they are achievable and portable. I don't really want to have them hanging around the house though, so I would prefer to give them away. This card is already gifted, but if you would be interested in a future random small piece of art as a postcard, go fill out my postcard form. There are no promises about future topics, media, or frequency, but this is a great opportunity to get fun mail!

Yesterday: Hallgrimskirkja

My plan was to do a sketch of the Boston city skyline last night for my "yesterday" prompt, as we had spent our first day in Reykjavik, Iceland. Turns out after not much sleep on our red-eye flight and then running around town all day I crashed out as soon as I showered after dinner.

 

So instead you get a quick loose pen sketch of Hallgrimskirkja, a large Lutheran church near the center of Reykjavik. Yes technically on Friday, but I am hoping to take advantage of being in GST for this one.

IF: Stormtrooper

This week's Illustration Friday prompt was "Storm." You would think, given the recent New England weather, I would have lots of inspiration in that direction. It turns out not so much.

No 2 pencil on Moleskine

Yes this is a bit of a regression in that I abandoned color. Honestly I am just grateful I finished anything at all. It turns out that the extra time stuck at home has just lead to a lot of discovering how much I can get done when I am not being interrupted at work all the time, rather than the crafting I thought I might do. But despite that, this sketch is still out before deadline!

Spinning Wheel

Seriously, I was not sure if I was going to make this week's Illustration Friday post, but as the prompt was "wheel" it seemed like it would be a shame to miss. My poor Ashford Traditional has not seen any use in longer than I want to discuss, but at least it can have a brief moment back on the blog.

Crayola colored pencils in aqua green, black, light brown, mahogany, maroon, yellow orange in Moleskine

I admit that I want to fuss with this one still, but just getting it out for the week was the important thing. I had lots of trouble with the color, and looking at the scan it could use some more color built up on the treadle. But hey, more practice with color is always good.

Now I just need some time to do some actual spinning on my wheel as well. We will see.

White-breasted Nuthatch

Unfortunately I did not manage to get a drawing done for last week's Illustration Friday prompt (myth) due to Arisia. I do still plan on doing it though, but it seemed like a better idea to put up this week's prompt (wings) first.

Today Majes and I saw a number of small white-breasted nuthatches over by the Sheepfold in the Fells. They are quite small but they have big voices and lots of personality. I can relate.

Crayola colored pencils (black, brown, cerulean, cool gray, gray, light orange, slate, taupe) in Moleskine

One of the thoughts in the back of my mind in starting these prompts was that I would really like to figure out color. My tendency is to work in black and white, just since it seems simpler. So it was good to push myself a little. I didn't use anything fancy for tools, just some colored pencils that we had around the house.

PS. I had a really hard time figuring out what style to consider this for Illustration Friday. Generally I default to figurative rather than realistic, but I am not sure which is more applicable. Thoughts on the difference?

Mermother

This week's Illustration Friday prompt is "ocean." Please excuse the scanner artifacts. In the end, I just opted to post despite them. The important thing is doing the art, and I need to not agonize over the digital image to put up. I have a fondness for mermaids and naiads, so I decided to step a little out of my comfort zone by relying less on a single reference image.

It turns out that much like last week, a number of people had similar ideas about directions involving merpeople. In particular, I really loved this sweet mergirl and this lovesick octomaid.

B pencil

These things seem to go in cycles, but at the moment I have a number of women in my life who are expecting new additions to their families. I wanted to do something more with the radiant beauty of a woman carrying new life. Apparently my vision of merpeople bear live young.

Knife's Edge

I am very lucky that my incredibly talented friend Allen Holt agreed to join me as my accountability buddy to start making art more regularly. As I have managed to get myself active again doing several different media, so I am hoping this will encourage me to actually blog more regularly. Go us!

To that end I am going to be trying to among other things, to start doing the Illustration Friday prompts again. It has been a while.

This week's prompt is "edge." I had some interesting ideas about working with negatives and silhouettes  but in the end I opted for the more straight forward route in an effort to actually finish. As I gain momentum, I definitely want to play more away from my comfort area. For now though the important thing was to be just making the time to sit and make art.

graphite pencil (B-6B) and charcoal (4B and white)

This is my favorite knife in my our kitchen, although I have a little paring knife that is a close second. I have little hands so it is about as big as I am comfortable working with, and the blade is just the right width to be great for chopping prep.

IF: Tales and Legends

This week's Illustration Friday prompt was "Tales and Legends". Being a huge fantasy geek, my mind immediately turned to my favorite subject for legends: dragons.

I am not what is is about dragons, but I have been fascinated with them since I was little. Just like people, sometimes they are described as being helpful and sometimes malevolent. And although I fight it, I have to admit that I identify more than a little with the hoarding characterstic attributed to dragons as well.

2B pencil on plain moleskine

Usually when I sit down to draw I will look for reference photos first, but this drawing was sort of fun in that I didn't bother. Welcome to the inside of my brain.

Stitch

This week's Illustratation Friday prompt was "stitch." Obviously this was one I couldn't skip. Sometimes I have to force myself to sit down and work on the IF, but sometimes, like today, the image of what I want to do springs full formed into my mind.

drawn with a size 0.7 Staedtler pigment liner in a plain moleskine

Knitting is huge in my life right now, but I really enjoy crochet too. And finally needlepoint, which I haven't done all that much of this year, but I do really like to do. (Needle crafts shown in alphabetical order to avoid favoritism.) Stitches are so fundamental to a lot of my crafting. On tiny creation building upon another until you are holding a finished object. As the YarnHarlot points out, it gives you hope that any small action or any individual can make a difference.

IF: Little Things - Worms

This week's Illustration Friday prompt is "little things". I immediately thought of my latest pet project: worms.

Salvbard is helping me build a wormery, and I am so excited! Since we don't eat much processed food, we have a lot of vegetable scraps. But we live in an apartment, so a compost bin is not an option. I love this idea of a way to reduce our "green waste".

This drawing was also a chance to try out my new 9B pencil. Mmmm, it is so smooth to work with. It is like all of the pleasure of working with charcoal, and it scans better. The only potential problem might be that it is so soft that it will probably transfer off the page a bit with time and wear.

Art Friday

Fridays are really fun at Chiquita's school, because they are our special art day. No not actually in school, it is both an after school program and the posting of a new Illustration Friday.

The after school program is really neat because it is run solely by parents who are passionate about art. Each week there is a new project, which is done out on the playground if the weather permits. Today was an experiment in monoprinting. Now I have absolutely no experience in monoprinting, although Amy of the Creative Mom Podcast speaks of the fondly, so it was really fun to watch. Afterwards we hung up the prints to dry on a clothes line while Chiquita ran around the playground after her friends.

I also mentioned the Illustration Friday prompt. We don't do the prompt every week, but I do pretty much always go see what it is. This week's prompt is "hats", so I pulled out my model head and one of my favorite hats.

I bought this hat years ago at a L.L. Bean outlet store. It is my absolutely favorite if I will be out in the sun, such as when we are out hiking, canoing or just waiting for the bus in the summer. It has at least a 2.5" brim all the way around and a tie to keep it from blowing away. The fabric is slightly water resistant, but lets your head breathe.

IF: Pheonix

I love the fact that the phoenix is the first Illustration Friday prompt of the new year. It just seems so auspicious. This was a quick sketch on a unprepped moleskine page I did while hiding in a Starbucks yesterday from the cold weather. It was done in watercolor pencil that I later wet with a damp natural sponge.

Happy Thanksgiving!

This is my first participation in Illustration Friday. I worked it in simple line drawing with my Pigma Micron pen in my moleskine from a photograph of my partner's Thanksgiving table from last year. (Apologies for the photo of the image, my scanner is still at home while I am visiting family.)

So what did I end up packing?

• Moleskine
  
• Pigma Micron Pen 02
  
• HB pencil
  
• kneadable eraser
  
• WIP: Rogue
  
• WIP: scarf
  
• yarn & pattern for child's sweater (unlikely to get to)