Portraits of Amanda

 I did a few portraits of Amanda while on our trip to Europe, when we had idle moments... which were... few... 

The first was at the Saskatoon Airport before our journey had really even begun!

We were at the airport hours early, so I thought I might as well get started on the drawing! 

The next wasn't until our third or fourth day in Amsterdam, when we stopped to have a meal at the Vegan Temple Bar - I pulled out my small sketchbook - which I carried with me EVERY DAY of the vacation... JUST IN CASE!!

The next was waiting at Amsterdam Centraal station

While we were waiting for our train to France! 

A few days later when we were in Boulogne-sur-Mer, Amanda actually joined a work meeting via her computer. 

The meeting was so long, not only did I DRAW a picture of her... 

I also managed to COLOUR it!? 

finally, on our first morning in Paris, I woke up STUPID early and could not get back to sleep. Amanda was still sleeping, so I drew the apartment from the little table I ate breakfast at. 

The temperature on the afternoon when we arrived was +38°C and stayed around there for most of our stay... it dropped to 31°C in the middle of the night... 

The apartment we rented was NOT air-conditioned, however... Nor did it have screens on the windows... So I didn't feel really confident about leaving the windows open all night and not having bats or rats or mosquitoes or any other number of pests joining us! We got enough flies and mosquitoes in during the hours we were there and awake and had the windows open! 

I still have three or four pictures (or maybe five..?) that I started while I was in Europe, but need to finish up (mostly colouring... and touching up here and there...?). And then the plan was to finish filling up the sketchbooks I'd taken on the trip with drawings done from the thousands of photos I took while there! 

Amanda in her Office

Amanda had an appointment this morning and then bussed to work and was going to walk home so texted me to see if I’d wait after class and we could walk home together… I stayed late after class to finish things and clean up then made my way to her office.

She wasn’t quite ready to leave.

So I drew a picture.

Then we walked home together.

(The line drawing was done in the office, colour added later at home)

Old Peugeot

 I've been telling myself I need to get out and do more drawing/painting. I told myself, starting in June, I'd get out EVERY DAY and go for a walk or a bike ride and stop and draw something I saw... That didn't happen. (Well I did get out and do that a couple of times... but nothing I felt like sharing here...)

So I told myself I'd do it through July. I did get out for a bike ride on the first of July... but it was SO HOT... and there were SO MANY PEOPLE all over the place - at least where I was riding (for Canada Day!) I didn't end up stopping and doing anything. 

Yesterday, the second of July, I did go for a bike ride AND I did stop and draw an old Peugeot bicycle that I spotted locked up by the arts building on campus. 

Old Peugeot in my sketchbook! 

Of course I've been carrying around pens and small watercolour kits everywhere for the last month... actually I've generally carried a sketchbook and pens everywhere I've gone for DECADES... I just haven't made much use of them for the last few years... So when I sat down to draw, I found that all of my rapidographs were either empty or clogged and the first few staedler pens I tried were dried up... nevertheless... I found ONE that still had ink and I drew a quick sketch with that. 

I had neither pencils nor a thin liner pen that I might use to sketch out the general shape first... so I just started with the brake levers and went from there... things got a little screwy out towards the wheels - especially the rear one... but I did the thing. 

I didn't end up adding the colour until the next day (today), at home...

Will I get out for a walk or ride today and do another drawing...? I don't know. It's more of an intention than a MUST DO RULE. The kind of black and white thinking which says I MUST DO THIS EVERYDAY is the sort of thinking that leads to deciding I've failed if I don't do it one day, and just give up on the whole idea... and I'm trying to NOT do that!

Hopefully there will be more stuff posted here over the next few weeks...?

It's Been a Minute...

 I have not been doing a lot of drawing for the last little bit... 

So here's a thing... 

Amanda looking at some social media site and drinking some tea the other evening.

This was done in a little sketchbook I started in 2021 that I have not finished. It is all sketches of Amanda. Maybe this year...?

I did another sketch on Friday as well... but I was even less happy with how that one turned out... Maybe the next one. The plan is to get out and ride or walk to places and do more drawing.

Waiting...

I should clarify, this has nothing to do with the previous post. Just a regular waiting room for a regular appointment!

Of all the places I have to wait for appointments of people, this is my favourite. It is usually very quite and comfortable... (Today the radio was on and I had to listen to commercial radio...) 

Monday, 19 February 2024

 Royal University Hospital ER

My mom is in hospital. She hasn't had a great year. It's a long story...

Cory the Cross-Country Corythosaurus

 Dinovember Day Nine

Cory the Cross-Country Corythosaurus (on a Concorde!) 

27cm x 35cm (~11"x14")

Acrylic Ink on Strathmore 400 Mixed Media Paper

Okay this one it up so early because I actually did it the other day... I thought I might try and get it to my pal Cory for his birthday, which is today... alas... I did not mail it off, so... he will have to wait until Xmas!

Mike the Messenger Maiasaura

 Dinovember Day Eight

Mike the Messenger Maiasaura

35cm x 27 cm (~14" x 11")

Acrylic Ink on Strathmore 400 Mixed Media Paper

Tried to go a little faster and looser on this one. I kind of like it... 

Thandi the Track Tyrannosaurus

 Dinovember Day Seven (which I didn't get to posting yesterday) 

Thandi the Track Tyrannosaurus 

35cm x 27 cm (~14" x 11")

Acrylic Ink on Strathmore 400 Mixed Media Paper

Chris the Cyclocross Carnotaurus

 This was Dinovember Day Three... and I somehow completely forgot to post it HERE!? 

Chris the Cyclocross Carnotaurus

35cm x 27 cm (~14" x 11")

Acrylic Ink on Strathmore 400 Mixed Media Paper

Bobbie the Bikepacking Brachiosaurus

Dinovember Day Five. 

Bobbie the Bikepacking Brachiosaurus

27cm x 35cm (~11"x14")

Acrylic Ink on Strathmore 400 Mixed Media Paper

Colours seems bit muted on my screen... hmmmmm.... 

Bernie the BMX Baryonyx

 Dinovember Day Four (a day late...) 

Bernie the BMX Baryonyx

35cm x 27cm

Ink and water soluble crayon on paper

I had a lot to do on Saturday, so I had to do this one quick!!!

A Visit from Adelle

 

Our friend Adelle stopped by for a visit last week. 

New Shoes

 I got some new shoes. 

While waiting for Keiran on Saturday, I tried to draw them... not my best work... but, it's something!?

July Colours

 I started experimenting with some funner colours from this Holbein Acrylic Gouache set I picked up... a while back... It's been fun. I used to paint fairly abstracted things in vibrant colours a LONG TIME AGO... and I kind of miss it. 

Yellow Rabbit on Pink Background  - 28cmx35cm (11"x14") - acrylic gouache and ink on paper

Based on a photo I took last weekend of a jackrabbit that startled me while walking in an alleyway downtown, killing time while Keiran was in a singing lesson. 

Pink Surly Karate Monkey on Blue-Green Background - 35cmx43cm (14"x17") - acrylic gouache and ink on paper

It's my Purple Surly Karate Monkey... painted in pink... mostly from memory... 

American White Pelican on the South Saskatchewan River

 

American White Pelican on the South Saskatchewan River

30cmx30cm, Acrylic Ink and Gouache on Paper

Time for Bed

 It's been a while since I made a comic. So I made a comic. 

Birbs of Saskatchetoon - STILL More Last Pages

 STILL Finishing up the last few pages of the Birbs of Saskatchetoon 2022 Sketchbook Volume 2... yesterday's pic of the Surly Big Fat Dummy felt lame without a background... so...

was a little impatient with this... smudging and smearing ink all over. Couldn't be bothered with finer details on the bag - making it look like a flat mess... Kind of just want to be done with this project... 

Waiting

I haven't been posting much here, lately. Probably because I haven't been drawing or painting as much the last few months. I did do a few drawings while sitting in waiting rooms and offices over the few months, however...

Finnegan aged out of the Pediatric Diabetes program, so in February we went to meet his new adult endocrinologist. Diabetes sucks chunks, but it's made slightly less awful when you have decent people keeping an eye on these things and it was a huge relief to meet the new doctor and find he was competent and compassionate. 

Colours are funny. The wall in the background here is the same as the one behind Finnegan... but in the picture above with Finnegan it looks more yellow (it's green in the sketchbook).

New sketchbook. pages aren't as thick and sometimes stuff bleeds through. 

Just after I'd started a woman sat down in the black chair and noticed I was drawing, she apologized and asked if it would ruin the drawing. I'd mostly sketched out the line work, so it made no difference. 

A quiet afternoon as the Saskatoon Community Clinic. Again, about halfway through this one, a group of four came in and sat in some of these chairs... They were less aware of what I was doing. 

Same place, a couple weeks later. I think I did the colouring, for this one, after we got home and despite having taken a reference photo (below), I did it from memory... which, obviously, is not always 100%. 

I never take pictures while drawing in waiting rooms - This was while we were waiting in the examination room. 

It was a long wait, and I brought along one of my Derwent Inktense Paint Pan Travel Sets and tried colouring there with a limited palette. (most of these I've coloured with Derwent Inktense pencils - as it's a bit less messy when on the move and can even be wetted later, if there won't be time to dry before the book has to be closed and squirrelled away)

Same room a couple weeks later, different angle - looking at the chair I was sitting in in the previous picture. 

This fellow joined me in the waiting room. I only got a brief look at his face, because whenever I looked up he'd notice and look over at me! Most of it was done from memory afterwards. 

New Ukulele

It was my birthday this past weekend. The family surprised me with a ukulele!? So, obviously, I spent a day messing around with that (instead of doing all the things I'm PLANNED to do on the weekend...)

Portrait of the Artist as a Turtle Playing a Ukulele

My first thought was “I should see what the library has and how-to-play books or sheet music for ukuleles…” when I said this out loud, Keiran looked at me like I was some kind of idiot (a look I am quite used to getting, at this point) and said “there are YouTube videos for that…”

Sure enough, there are a LOT of YouTube videos on how to play Ukulele - and lpads on how to play specific songs. Did I watch any of the basic how to play videos? ƑÜ¢K NO! I went straight to the How-to-Play specific songs videos!

It is the cutest little purple ukulele, but I gotta say, it is hard to squish all of my fat, sausages-like, turtle claws on that teeny-tiny fret board and shifting positions is hard…