Sherri's Meanderings

Been a while

It's been too long since I've updated my blog, it's been nagging at me like a spoiled kid. "When ya gonna update me?? Huh?? whine...."
Lots been going on, art classes, vacations, sabatticals, and lots of life.

]]> I'm just getting back from my 8-week sabattical I get every 7 years from work. Pretty nice. A chance to shake off the work routine and catch your breath.

Mom proposed a 10 day cruise to Hawaii, and I was a little unsure at first. I'd never been on a cruise, but thought it might be fun, just us "girls".

Before Dad passed away 4 years ago, he and Mom had gone on quite a few cruises, all over the world. So Mom knew what she was doing and what to expect. She flew down from Spokane, and we flew to San Diego. From there, we took a bus to Ensenada, Mexico. Our ship, "Rhapsody of the Sea" left from there on Sept 18th.

After 5 days at sea, which was very cool... no land to be seen ANYWHERE... we finally came to port at Kailua, Hawaii. Stayed the day, and on to Lahaina, Maui. We stayed in port there 2 days, then back to the big Island, to Hilo.

After doing so much shopping, we decided to take a bus tour up to see the Kilauea Caldera (volcano). We actually hit several stops along the way... Rainbow Falls, the Akatsuka Orchid Gardens, the Thurston Lava Tube and finally to the volcano and the Jaggar Museum. Truly amazing! No lava currently flowing, but vulcanologists predict activity in the next 3-6 months!!! After that, lunch at the Kilauea Visitors Center.

And, finally on to the Mauna Loa Macadamia Nut Factory. Actually, it was more like a huge gift store selling all flavors of macadamia nuts. Yum!!

Finally, back to the ship to get ready for our second "Formal night". Funny, I don't typically get dressed up, but it was fun. We even got a formal picture taken!

The ship traveled overnight, and we woke up to Waikiki Beach on Oahu. Mom & Dad took us to Waikiki when we were in High School, but I hadn't been back to Oahu since. Still, there were a lot of memories there. The hotel where we stayed, Park Shore, is still there with a fabulous view of Diamond Head and across from the zoo and the beach. The Moana Surfrider, where the Banyan tree is in the courtyard is there, and all the shops.

After the long day of exploring the entire strip, we headed back to the ship to finish packing. We left the ship around 9:00 to head to the airport... and we flew out at 1:00 to L.A., and from there, home. We got in around 12:30, and crashed at a hotel across the street from the airport. Mike picked me up the next day, and I saw Mom off on her flight home.

I made blank journals for both Mom and me, and we had a lot of fun recording our journey. Sure helps to remember the little experiences you would typically forget after time, but those experiences add so much color and texture to memories. At the end of my writing, I had purchased a tropical sticker that said "Paradise Found". But I realized that for me, paradise is being here at home, with Mike. And Sean, Peach, Tahoe, Sierra, and the 2 rats. "There's no place like home".... right on, Dorothy!

What kind of cookie are you?

I saw this little goofy thing on Lauren's blog, and thought it would be fun!!

]]> Hmmmm....... interesting. My favorite cookie, btw... as long as it's soft, chewy, and tons of chocolate chips!

You Are a Chocolate Chip Cookie

Traditional and conservative, most people find you comforting.
You're friendly and easy to get to know. This makes you very popular - without even trying!

What Kind of Cookie Are You?

Making journals

What started out as a way to have a sketchbook "my way" is turning into a fun hobby!

]]> Book binding is becoming a fun hobby for me. It's relatively quick, as long as you have all the materials, and the learning curve isn't too steep!
My biggest challenge now is finding nice paper I like for the pages inside... I have a whole bunch of old sketchpads from various classes that aren't full, and have been ripping the pages out and cutting to the right size. I think that's the biggest chore of all, cutting all that paper!!
I've run across a lot of "Gotchas" along the way... if using fabric on a book, make sure the glue won't seep through! I have a book with embossed felt on the cover, and didn't realize how the felt would suck up the glue, and then not stick!! I ended up with glue all over the book (in all the wrong places), on my work surface, my clothes, and me!
A site where I've gotten most of my materials and inspiration is Volcano Arts (http://www.volcanoarts.net). Christine teaches classes in bookbinding as well as metal working. In fact, her studio is about an hour away, so one chilly weekend we drove down to pick up supplies. What a wonderful lady! She gave my husband and me a tour, and it's obvious she really loves what she does. If you're looking to do some bookbinding, I'd recommend checking out her website.

My first book was from a kit from Dick Blick. It was easy, and I'm saving ALL instructions and reusing them for additional books. The one below was from the kit:

And this oriental-inspired book is for a friend, with the supplies from Volcano Arts (the Kanji cloth was purchased at Michaels, and the misc. beads at a local bead shop).

I'd planned on uploading more pics, but for some reason, only these 2 came out. I'll see if I can get more uploaded soon!
Gotta get back to my books!
:D

Catch up!!!

I think this gets me caught up with all the sketches I've done lately.

]]> It took quite a while to get them all scanned and uploaded, but now I can try to keep up to date and not have this hanging over me.

By the way, these are in no particular order.

Please take a look and comment if you like. Thanks for stopping by!

Click to enlarge image.

EDM #44: Our goofy hairy kitties, Peaches and Tahoe.

EDM # 87 - Who doesn't love left-over Chinese for lunch?? :D

A very quick sketch of Robert DeNiro

EDM #55: I'd sure love to have this doorknob on my front door...

EDM #79: Some ears!

Fun Friday...

EDM #100: Landscape from our backyard

EDM #57: Very crooked picture frame, but the picture is my Grandma when she was in her teens.

My "creative licence"

EDM #70: What I'm afraid of...

EDM #60: My fun car!

A cool combination... Starbucks and new Derwents!

EDM # 16: My favorite tool... my PDA!

EDM #102 : Plug

EDM #76 : Pointsettia

EDM #92 : Red Paper Bag

My angel

EDM #52 : Sierra

EDM #90 : Something with wings

I think there are a few more that I've scanned, but that's it for today. As I look through these drawings, each one represents something in my life, a memory, an experience. These treasures have been treated a bit too lightly, and deserve a bit more work. So, I plan to add a bit more effort in recording my moments. Hope to see that effort in upcoming images. Thanks for looking!

Just journal sketches, no challenges

Here's another batch of recent sketches

]]>

A quick sketch of my best friend's cat, Phrettin

Just a few sketches

Quick Starbucks sketches

EDM Challenges 2 and 23, and a bunch of other stuff

I've been drawing, but not posting.

]]> Apologies for the number of pics, but I've been drawing more than posting.
The holidays were very hectic, and I'm just now getting back into the regular day to day routine. These are the first batch... got a bunch more I need to scan and post!
Click for larger image

A Cambodian Girl : graphite EDM #23: My son's foot: graphite

View from a neighbor's yard: Moleskine & Caran d'Ache watercolor pencils

Our hiking boots: Moleskine & Caran d'Ache

EDM # 2 Draw a Lamp: Moleskine & Caran d'Ache

An unusual man

Found this pic in a magazine, really liked it!

EDM Challenges - #6 and #101

Two more challenges complete! Take a look...

]]> EDM Challenge #6 "Draw your favorite well-loved object... or childhood toy". Well, VaaVaa is a puppet I got when my son was only 2 or 3 years old. He and I played quite a bit with VaaVaa, until Sean got old enough to play with other, newer toys.
VaaVaa went on the shelf.
We just recently found VaaVaa, and I realized what a precious time it was when we played... So VaaVaa is very well-loved!

Click to view larger image

The next challenge is #101, "Draw a bar of soap". This was part of a birthday gift. It smells wonderful!!

Click to view larger image

Holiday journal entries

This year I journaled often during the holidays, thinking about past, present and future.

]]> It all started with Christmas Memories...

to decorating for Christmas...

A fun Christmas tradition, The Nutcracker!

Christmas ornaments Sean and I made with Sculpey clay...

My Christmas present!

Christmas Eve at Bill and Vittie's... Always lots of fun, good food, laughter, and this year, a special treat! Sean and Terra had a baby, and this was Aidan's first Christmas! And!! Bill, Amy, Olivia, Rachel and Zach came from Florida.

Afterwards, Bill had rented a condo in Tahoe for the week. We all got a chance to go up, play and relax. Such a beautiful area!

And finally, the welcoming of the New Year!

My backlog of challenges

Hi!
I've been drawing, but not posting. I've not been a member of the EDM group long, so I have a lot of catching up to do. I think there are over 100 challenges to do! 'whew'!!
So here's my challenges so far.

]]> This is for the egg carton challenge (#93). Unfortunately, we eat the "eggs-in-a-box" so that's what I drew!

The "draw a spoon" challenge (#94)...

The "Draw your phone" challenge (#13) and "Draw an eye" challenge (#33)

The "Draw something sweet" challenge (#96)

The "Draw a present you've received" challenge (#97)

and
The "Draw something representing a New Year's Goal" (#99)

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Christmas gifts

This year has been a mixture of homemade and bought gifts... one I did for my brother Tom and his wife Lois is a colored pencil painting of their two dogs...

]]> Sophie and Sammy. Last Christmas I promised I'd do this for them. Lois supplied me with several photos of them, which I took Sophie from one and Sammy from another.

The colored pencil portrait took quite a while, as I am taking classes towards my MFA and working full time.

Here's the final...

Another book by Danny Gregory...

I just got my copy of "The Creative License: Giving Yourself Permission To Be The Artist You Truly Are" and am really enjoying it!!

]]>
This is a book I highly recommend to ANYONE who finds they like to draw but feel they're missing something inside... the permission to go forward, the encouragement to do what we feel is so rewarding, and the motivation to tackle a drawing a day.

I've tried keeping journals in the past, and I've illustrated them just because it was fun. But it wasn't something I kept up, and by and large, these journals were more of a place to vent. Not a fun thing to look back on and reminisce. So I would stop. Who wants to read all negativity??

NOW.... I'm just recording my day, the beauty, humor, the interesting, anything that catches my fancy. And I love going back thru the pages, and showing them to friends. Much more fun!!

A big challenge for me, is to draw in pen, which Danny encourages. I find this forces me to do more contour drawing, and I get away from the sketchiness I automatically do with pencil. When I draw with pencil, I sketch in a few lines and erase. Over and over until I get what I want. Ends up looking nice, but takes forever, and and is not spontaneous. I've known for a while that I need to really loosen up in my style, and in keeping a journal, I do just that. I'm not precious about anything, but focus more on getting the idea or soul of the image, not exactly the image.

What a concept, huh?? How long have I heard teachers say that's what we're aiming for?? Geez, I AM trainable, just takes me a while... :)

A new motorcycle for ME!!!

Geez, I'm so excited!! Mike bought me a BMW 2004 R1150R motorcycle and I can hardly wait to get it!

]]> But I have to admit, I was really concerned at first. I have a little BMW F650 CS which I totally love. She's light, comfy, fun, and goes where ever I want. Only problem, she's a one-cylinder and tough to take on long trips.
Here she is... my "YEEHA"

So, Mike bought me a BMW 1200 GT. Big sucker, but really pretty. And absolutely wonderful on long rides, smooth, lots of pep.
But me having 2 bikes just doesn't seem right... I really don't want to give up my 650.
So, a couple of weeks ago while out at A&S Cycle in Roseville, I saw this really cute bike, an R1150R. I sat on it, and amazingly, I could *almost* flat-foot BOTH feet!! It had a lower seat. And, I was amazed how light it felt. So when we got home, Mike started thinking about how that might be a good solution... and found a bike for me on eBay and bought it.
Hmmm... well, ok, cool. I think. I was still pretty unsure about the whole thing... I LIKE my 650CS!!!!!!
But then yesterday, I figured I should at least see how this model rides, so I trucked all the way back out to A&S, and test-drove their model. And, now I'm majorly way jazzed!!!!!!! Here's a pic of my new baby, as she was on eBay...

So, what do you think of her?? :D

Here's a part of what was on the eBay listing...

2004 BMW R1150R has many options and is in great shape. It is under Factory warranty until April 2007, for options it has ABS brakes, heated grips, Hi and Low windscreens, BMW SYS Bags, with lower pipe for full size left bag [stock muffler is included], BMW rear rack, tank bag, hi and low seat,lower pegs, barbacks, throttlemeister throttle lock.
It is in great shape and has not been down, the tires are about 40% gone, brakes are like new, oil has been changed every 2000-2500 miles by service shop.

I guess I'll know more about her after we pick her up... she currently lives in Tempe, AZ.

Drawing the figure from the inside out?

It's hard enough to draw the human figure, but to do it from the inside out? OMG...

]]> A recent entry in the Every Day Matters forum linked to this unusual site. It shows an animation (flash) of an artist drawing, first a skeleton, then the body, then clothes on the figure of a woman. How wonderful to know the body that well to recreate the entire thing, from the inside out. If you've never seen it, it's well worth it!

In my Figure class, we recently had a similar assignment, to take a sketch we did in class, and laying vellum over it, draw the skeleton. Whoa, I didn't have any anatomy classes under my belt! Thank goodness for amazon.com and the wealth of books written on "anatomy for artists".
So, here's my sketch:

and here's the skeleton:

The assignment seemed so totally huge, but once I got into it, I actually enjoyed learning about the "human infrastructure". There are several books I would recommend for those who want good anatomy reference books: "An Atlas of Anatomy for Artists" by Fritz Schider, "Anatomy, A Complete Guide for Artists" by Joseph Sheppard, and "Atlas of Human Anatomy for the Artist" by Stephen Rogers Peck. I also highly recommend anything by Robert Beverly Hale, a man who taught figure drawing at the Art Student's League of New York.

Still not an EDM challenge, but...

what the heck? I really enjoy drawing figures, so decided to do just that!

]]> Here are 2 that were fun to sketch, from photos. The first one I found by "googling" figure models. I came up with this. It was one of the few decent poses on the site. I love drawing nudes, but the way they're posed is a whole different can of worms.

The next one was from a picture I found somewhere... I just loved the unusual look on the man's face.

Not for EDM challenge, but...

it was a bunch of fun anyway! Enjoy!

]]> This was kind of fun, I had intended to use my Caran d'Ache watercolor pencils and experiment more smooshing them around with water. But, when I finished, I decided to not touch them with water. Maybe the vase could use some water, but oh well....

I have no idea what these little "pumpkins" are... got them at Costco a few weeks ago with a bunch of fall flowers.