Drawing A Day Catch Up for December

Posted on by Sandy Webster

I kept up my practice each day while company was here for Christmas. Here they are with the haiku.

Patrick likes this cup

for a very large serving

of Turkish coffee.

 

Very tiny bowl

shaped by the inside patterns

of a southern gourd.

Does anyone use

these Christmas mugs if it’s not

the Christmas season?

 

I think that this mug

is crying out for some hot

cocoa and bourbon.

These plastic boxes

just sit in the cupboard and

wait for leftovers.

 

I’ll only have one.

One piece of cheese and only

one crispy cracker.

I ate some of these

red grapes much more quickly than

I was drawing them.

 

These small mandarins

are so easy to peel and

so easy to eat.

You brush it on first

then scrape all the tiny bits

with a spatula.

 

A tool that opens

several bottles of beer.

Some good and some bad.

The chestnuts roasting

by an open fire won’t help

the bad flavor.

 

There’s candy and nuts

still in the bowl just waiting

to be eaten up.

Friends and family

told me to keep my phone close

wherever I go.

 

It is a good thing

for me that I’m right-handed

and can use this glove.

 

Okay. That’s it.

Til later in 2020.

Happy, Happy New Year.

 

 

Christmas Break

Posted on by Sandy Webster

Our doctor friend loaned us some puzzles to work on. So we started with this 1000 piece one with loads of tiny figures working out in a very large gym. Then I took breaks to the studio to work on the Sandy Heads. Marla helped me put the bases together that go with each of the four heads. The printmaker Sandy head was finished a while ago, but not the base. Now it is.

Here are the other bases.

The starting pieces of the writer Sandy…..right and left brains still to be worked out.

Homemaker Sandy collecting a whole lot of parts.

And my present project is Explorer Sandy.

First I carve out each side of her head to put her bits and pieces into. The left side is a collection of bottles of pigments and other collectibles from places. The right will have a deeper hole for all the bits of things randomly collected.

Then I collaged old maps all over her head of the places I have been. I think there will be a boat sailing around between the places….maybe lots of boats.

Her forehead has Australia front and center….Tasmania just to the right of the compass.  I put Australia here because it is always on my mind regardless of where I am.

This morning my son Patrick cut out a top part of a very large dictionary, three inches down from the top and four inches deep. It will be laid across the writers head after I fold over some (many) of the pages to make it stand out like “hair”.

I am going to post the really great gift from Marla of the old book turned into a sewing kit. We all got one from her this year.

I just think it is so clever!

Also here are the Charles van Sandwyck books that I received for Christmas. This first one was a used in perfect condition and is hard bound. The others have luscious soft covers.

And another one that is just gorgeous!

And inside it.

And the owl one.

And inside the owl book.

And because it looked somewhat familiar….downstairs tucked in between some other Nature books I found this one that I must have bought in Vancouver many years ago.

They are all such an inspiration as I work on my Bush Book.

It has been a great holiday. Our favorite masseuse David is finishing up the last one of us to get a full body massage. Our three guests head home tomorrow. Lee and I do laundry and put the beds back together and then just get on with things.

The puzzle took two days to complete.

Til next week or whenever I need to talk/share.

 

Working on the Bush Book – An Update

Posted on by Sandy Webster

I have been working on the Bush Book as well as my Drawing a Day with Haiku. I like the meditative-ness of both books. Here is the Bush Book as it is now. I added some insects to pages because I was afraid I would finish it too soon. It is not quite half way finished and there are so many more things to draw into the leaves. So I will start at the beginning and you can see what has been added to some pages.

A grey fox in the crease. I used too much water in the painting and the page tore on this fold but because it was such good paper that Lorraine used, I could easily glue it back together. Note that there are now tracks along the bottom pockets.

I added the blue tailed skink a while back to this page.

This double page now has a painted lady butterfly and a walking stick.

I don’t think I posted this page with the river otter, imperial moth, fresh water shrimp and marten.

I just love this page so nothing else was necessary.

O’possum, poplar moth, Carolina wren and great blue heron. Bird tracks have been added.

And the pages to come. Far left is a copper head snake, bluebird and a large box turtle on the facing page. Then one very large bumble bee taking up two pages. And the last one I have drawn in is a shield bug (the house if full of them right now), a white lined sphinx moth, mourning dove and nuthatch. These should keep me busy for a bit.

Today I am killing time waiting for the kids and our friend to arrive later. The house has been vacuumed, their bedrooms readied, pond filled, laundry finished, pot of chicken soup is on, our friend and doctor just stopped by to bring a couple of pecan breakfast rings for Lee. She will come back Christmas for dinner and promises to bring a puzzle….a hard one. I have not put a puzzle together in maybe thirty years.

That is all I have for now. My Iphone is not willing to let me see more than just the last six pictures when I want to download them to this computer. Hope one of the kids can show me how to get it to cooperate.

Til later.

Have a wonderful holiday season.

 

Lots of Drawing This Week

Posted on by Sandy Webster

This is how the book looks so far. It took a couple of days to do the very large toad. On the next page I have sketched in a opossum that is about the size of the rabbit…then I will return to birds and more small things. Here is the toad….he was so much fun to do. I love how his fore legs hide under the leaves.

The other day a friend in Australia told me that my drawings like this reminded her of the work by Charles van Sandwyk. I had to look him up. If you like this type of illustration take the few minutes to look up his you tube videos. They run one after the other and are simply wonderful. Here is an image of his that I downloaded.

When Lee and I were wrapping presents yesterday he got very sad because he said he could not remember where he put some presents that he bought me. I knew he hadn’t done this as he would have no way of being able to do it. So after he kept going on about it I told him we could find something on Amazon that he could get me. He wanted it to be something that I really wanted badly. So we looked up books by Charles van Sandwyk and found three available on Amazon. He was so happy to see how much it would please me to have just one but insisted on getting all three. So lucky, lucky me. I will keep them close as I continue working on my Bush Book.

Also lots of Drawing a Day and haiku. Here is a catch up on those.

A ladle with holes

is good for getting things out

of some hot water.

 

Cleverly made tongs

for gathering up salads

to serve hungry guests.

This is a tool for

brushing dirt from mushrooms

in need of cleaning.

 

A cake tester brush.

Whoever bakes that many

owns a bakery.

Maybe the whisk broom

is not named for its cleaning

but the sound it makes.

 

Dust pans used only

to be handy and willing

to carry messes.

These herb chopping tools

are something we never use

when we have a knife.

 

I reach for this knife

and use it for every

cut and slice needed.

 

So that is all for the week. It is dreary and damp today. I will go up and check on Lee and heat up some chili for lunch. Heating soup-like dishes and lighting a candle have the same effect….it makes you feel warm all over.

I will get another post off before our family arrives a week from today. Then it will be after Christmas before I have time again.

Til then.