Angry Chicken.

Well, March has zipped by.  I spent part of it in the fetal position, and the rest of it scurrying around for a local play.  Somewhere in there, these doodles managed to appear, all at church.  Keep your eye out for the angry chicken.  He bites.

Trying to loosen up a bit here, fooling with cross hatching.  I need more practice.

This feels uptight

Bwaahahah!!!  Giant chicken head crashes right into 'This Little Light of Mine'!  Muhuh-wahahah!

Frightened citizen on the left....

I know these are nothing stellar or earth-shattering.  Keeping a pen pressed against paper was a major accomplishment for me.  April's gonna' be better, right?

Sunday Doodle

I do this not out of boredom, but because of my fidgety nature.  Give my brain something to do truly does help me listen better.  I retain more.  Knitting has the same effect.  Didn't have any fresh paper, but was elated to find a black Pitt pen in the bottom of my bag.

Pen, Paper, Wood, Wool.

Howdy!  Here I am, snow bound again after being lured outdoors by a fake spring.  Hopefully, Real Spring will arrive any minute now.

After a day of fussing and gathering and scanning, looking for camera cords and answering to my name, this post is Finally coming together.  Having just discovered the Picassa collage maker, I will proceed to overuse it in one post.

First up:  a truck load of sketches from several Sundays.  You'll notice I've ditched the circle format when it suits me.



Secondly, one of my children went to Arizona to hang out with Uncle Jeff.  Uncle Jeff has a homemade CNC router used for his amazing all-wood clocks.  Said child was given free reign and came home to surprise his mother (moi) with these wooden versions of my mandalas. He gets bonus points and extra pudding.

























The wooden image on the left is less clear because they didn't program the router to cut deep enough into the wood.

Lastly, there has been yarn, much making of yarn:


Something about winter makes me want to spin and dream of knitted projects.  No knitting--just dreaming of knitting.  And in preparation for this summer's Ren Fest, my satellite has pulled out her drop spindle and begun to hone those skills.  I will be sharing a booth at a small local festival and plan to sell fiber of all ilk, including hand made drop spindles.  Our children will be shunted into the crowd and forced to spin in public as advertisement.  We'll pay them in yum-yums and free time to hang out with the belly dancers.

On the left, is my daughter's first hand spun yarns.  The orange merino is her firstest first, the lime she Koolaid dyed and spun herself.  On the right is her current yarn, something not-merino.  She's starting to get the hang of drafting and is producing what will be a bulky two ply, maybe for some leg warmers or fingerless gloves.

So, there it is, Lemon Drops:  a fresh post and a new week. I'll be back soon!

Sunday Circles

Hi-Ho! Super Speck here, leaping life in a single bound.

So, the regular sleeping and I? Not so much. Something about the lack of sun, and my inevitable sink into a depressive state....makes me crazier than normal this time of year.  All this means that I went to church today on about 90 minutes of sleep.

Turns out 'Exhausted Cathy' = 'Super loose sketching'!!!.  Yay!



She looks like some kind of new Godzilla, with the super-robotic beefy arm at the left and her mega Medusa seaweed hair on the right.

And this?  Something about a crescent moon and half-dying-Tim-Burton-marijuana-plants-that-don't -really-look-like-marijuana and ovary-eggs-nestled-in-a-cross-hatched-world-of-fibrous-vessels.  I'm trying not to think about it too hard:


While stumbling around in a half-awake stupor was greeaaaat for unlocking that scary subconscious drawing monster, my outlook was horrible and I ended up taking a 3 hour nap this afternoon.

After that:  auditions for 'Steel Magnolias'.  My 'nervous while waiting' lobe kicked in and I turned out this tight-sphinctered piece of dreck:


There has to be a balance somewhere. While I want to be all loose and free all the time, sleep must be had. Otherwise I become a public safety hazard and wreak emotional havoc upon my world. I also know that trying to do this every day gets old, wearily old. All of the sketching so far has reminded me that creating daily is not optional for me. A couple of other fun projects have crept onto my work table. When they're fully gestated, I'll share them with you.

The circle format, even with the addition of color, is starting to feel a little stale, especially when I see them lined up on the blog.  But drawing still feels right and I don't believe the format is exhausted yet.  I would like my style to take a more sophisticated turn.  Pen is not as natural for me as pencil.

Practice is in order.

Sunday found me completing three circles, two started during church.


My first scan was accidentally in grayscale, but I like it that way:



Chunkier:

And one drawn during our 'Star Wars' marathon:

Something about the flair of a Jedi's robes during a light saber fight made me want to go here.


Have you been drawing at all?  Leave a link in the comments.  I'd love to see what you're up to.

Here it is, my first post of 2011. I am officially sticking my tongue out at last year and looking toward the horizon.

New Year's Eve was a quiet evening with a few friends. There was 'Settlers of Catan', finger food, and fireworks at midnight. My friend Deanna was here. She's an artist (and high school art teacher). We broke out the Mandalas and markers:


This one's mine. It was going downhill fast but seemed to level off and end in a good place.

Deanna's

Pen and ink happens to be one of her favorite mediums, so it was no surprise that this lovely design evolved under her hand. I am inspired by the way she brought color into it. And that's the signature of a creative mind, don't you think?

My daughter's also been caught up in the spirit:

Lots of color! She's responsible for the first picture too. I'm so proud of her for throwing herself into any project that comes our way.

I took a break after this, my head being full of other details. Real life elbows it's way in line and has a way of taking precedence over personal projects and cyber-life. But here I am anyway, Super-Speck in the face of the universe, determined to keep moving forward.

So, smaller works out pretty well if my pens are fine enough. I pulled out a set of India ink markers from Faber Casteel. I was able to get the level of detail I wanted with the smaller format circle. This means smaller doesn't take less time, doggonit.

What I love about this doodle is the flagella on the edge.  This is an effect that's long fascinated me.  I don't care so much about what's in the circle, much preferring an image with some focus.  We shall see what tomorrow brings.

Smaller...

These are 3 or 4 inches in diameter, done in my pocket sketchbook. I thought smaller would be quicker, however it is also...well...smaller. Much less room for detail and harder to get the kind of contrast and depth I found in the previous pieces.

This is my favorite of tonight's efforts:




It seemed kind of small and sad until the 'flagella' appeared.  Now it has more life.

This one is just....meh...nothing to write home about.  I blame it on the show my family was watching.


I have a few more pages with this size circle, so will keep trying. On larger paper, I scribed a circle with a dinner plate. It is so empty, yet full of potential. The idea of drawing into it has me holding my breath.

For Solstice

#2

Drawing in Church

WARNING: LOTS OF BRAIN SPEW, ONLY ONE PICTURE. PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK!

There is an idea floating around the creative community that piques my interest.  And though I am not one to follow fads, this idea dovetails nicely with my nature.  It is the concept of Zen drawing.

Now before there's any eye-rolling, or fleeing from the blog, lemme' esplain.  No.  There ees no time.  Lemme' sum up:

-I believe firmly that 'Zen Drawing' is somebody's catchy phrase to either sell something or to make themselves feel cool.  Nothing wrong with feeling cool.  Or selling things.  It's just that I'm about as cool as I'll ever get (not very) and I don't really need more things.  Really.  House full.  Money limited.

-I am a chronic doodler.  It is a condition I've had from a young age and will carry to my death.  My daughter recently was peeved with me for this very habit.  I had a long phone call.  There was a pen and an envelope near by.  I covered it with mindless patterning.  The envelope was important to my child.  This habitual practice is hard-wired.  Right up there with hangnail-picking and lip-pursing.  An investigation of the loose paper in my home will reveal meeting agendas, old bills, graph paper, letter heads and the occasional receipt covered with black ink, preferably felt tip.  No napkins though, never napkins.

-I focus better while doodling.  This is a proven fact.  ADD runs in my family.  I probably have it.  If my hands are empty and I have to sit during any kind of meeting, I will create endless tasks for myself, even if only in my head.  I will make mental notes, watch the clock, look for faces in the wood grain, check out everyone's wardrobe and hair.  It's detailed business.  You ever been to my church?  I probably know what you were wearing and can give you a rough estimate of how long you've owned that garment.  I know when people have haircuts and when the shade changes a minute step towards red, blond, brunette, etc...  This behaviour is not by choice.  The grey matter demands activity, stimuli.  It is a slathering, hungry beast.  And it must be fed.

Doodling (or knitting or spinning, especially spinning)  satiates that beast.  Simple activity calms the stimuli-hunger pangs just enough for another part of the brain to absorb information on a different level.  It's as if I can feel part of my mind hovering above the inner gears of basic function.

-This is not new.  Lots of people doodle.  Some of them use props.  Some of them are more free-wheeling.

-This is also not suddenly my new medium that's going to make me rich and famous.  Yes, my most successful artwork has come from extensive doodling.  Yes, perhaps at some point I will turn from felt tip pens and scrap paper to India ink and a high quality surface.  But not now.

Still reading?  Alrighty then!  All of that blather is to say that I have begun to draw during church.  It helps.  A lot.  I can listen to readings.  I can focus on the sermon.  I can sit through a Bible class.  I can stay awake.

I will, starting today, post these drawings here.  It may not be weekly.  I may fall behind.  Or forget.  Or become depressed.  But I will try.  Starting now: