I’m working this weekend finalizing the last ten percent of the book art… the above illo created with a Derwent Inktense pencil (Deep Indigo)… when you draw it looks like a pencil, but then you wet it and it smears very nicely… I bought a handful of these pencils last weekend and I am loving them!

Thank you for all of the nice comments re: our house selling. We are thrilled over here!

I am still fighting to make my deadlines and am now fighting a cold. Ugh.

On the up side, three parties have looked at our house this week!!! 

In other news: Natalie needs a flea collar, it was 70 degrees here yesterday with snow still on the ground, my house is as clean as it ever will be again (or cleaner, but that’s really not saying very much), Steve comes home today after 10 days away, and my friend Sherrie York gave me a nice book plug on her blog… thanks Sherrie!

Once I’m caught up I will be posting some of the drawing exercises in the book here. Bye for now!

I was fortunate to be able to attend Journalfest as a student last week. It was so fun! The first class I took was from Anahata Katkin, and here is some of the work I did in her class:

It was fun to mess around with collage and gel medium, and very fun to see Anahata create her lovely work. 

The next day I took a class from Orly Avineri. It was a process class where we talked about the attachments in our life… here is some of the journal work from that day:

Orly was wise and wonderful and I truly enjoyed spending the day with her. 

The third day I took a class with Theo Ellsworth:

He had us   S L O W   D O W N   to a snail’s pace, and I really appreciated the lesson from that day so much: Good Things Take Time! This class was also super special because sitting next to me the whole day was my son Wes (14)!

I came home to another major deadline hurdle which explains my non-blogging self.

Have a great Halloween, everyone! Be well.

Wes and I made it home from Seattle and Journalfest last night just in front of this snowstorm! A foot already and it’s still coming down. Yay!

Tomorrow I will post images from the three classes I took from Anahata Katkin, Orly Avineri, and Theo Ellsworth.

Now I will show you what kept me up much of last night:

(I think she missed us and/or was mad at us.)

Wes and I were going to go to the local coffee shop at 6am to draw and journal, but we slept in instead. Maybe tomorrow!!!

This morning there was a deer in our backyard. It was lying down behind our deck, and all I could see from my studio window was its head popping up. I decided to try and draw it. These are the first two drawings:

Awkward. I was “greedy” at first to get a “good” drawing of a deer. I might also have been slightly rushed, as I was afraid it would move at any moment. 

I started to slow down and relax into the process…

A definite “shift” occurred around this time… instead of trying to draw a great dear, I just tried to record my impressions of the image before me… just trying to “play” with the conte crayon.

Ironically, when I started not to care as much, that’s when the good stuff started happening.

My friend Karine wrote a wonderful post today about this very thing… go here to check it out!

And I’ll leave you with this quick gesture drawing of the deer going to the bathroom in Tom’s yard! (Tom is my 90-year-old neighbor). Ha!

“MY fish,” mixed media on wood.

Awhile ago I did this piece for a fundraising effort for A Place to Bark. It is on ebay right now and 100% of the proceeds go to the shelter; mine has one bid right now and it’s only at $20… if you feel like owning an 8″x8″ mixed media original piece, this is the time to get it!! Here is a link to all the art up for auction.

About this nonprofit:
A PLACE TO BARK’S mission is: To provide assistance and care to animals in need. Working together closely with other animal welfare agencies to help end the needless killing of adoptable animals. Proactively working to save lives, by spaying and neutering, eliminating needless deaths. We are dedicated to educating the public on responsible pet ownership and to helping those who would like to have their animals fixed by providing low cost spay/ neuter assistance to them.

Here is an illo that will be in the book! That’s my main job this week is to finalize all of the artwork… the fun part!!! 

How are you today?

Did I ever show you this? It was a piece done in 2008 for a contest… I won 3rd place! Each piece had to include a green cube… part of the sponsoring company’s logo…

I’m home from Portland… thank you to all of my wonderful students and the organizers… all of my classes went beautifully and I wish I had been more active with my camera. I do have a few things to share but not until I get my Photoshop Problem figured out (which is why you are seeing an older image, above).

House news: We had an offer on Monday but unfortunately in the end we were too far from each other on the price and had to let that one go. (We are very anxious to move, but we hope patience will pay off. But it’s very hard!!)

Okay, that’s it for now. My brain is mush. Still recovering!!

xoxo

Hey! I turned in my manuscript last night! 

I have lots more sketchbook pages to share… and life drawings as well, but tomorrow I leave for Portland for Art & Soul.  Regular posting to resume next week!