Mel's Seafood

Went to the meat market a little too early this morning so I had to wait for them to open. Did a bat turn in their parking lot so I could face the buildings across the street. A fine time to sketch!

But did I bring my sketchbook? No! I even thought about it walking out the door. "Oh, I won't be gone but five minutes. No need to go back and get it." Wrong.

But luckily I ALWAYS carry my Little Red Emergency Sketchbook (3" x 4") and a Pigma Micron Double-ought Five just for such occasions. Sketched my little sketch, bought my slab o' beast, then came home to paint.

If you're wondering what that red blob is on the front of the building, it's a ginormous crawdad. Mel's is a Cajun seafood place.

Convention Center Atrium

This is a bit of architectural detail from our new convention center. It has a soaring atrium with lots of natural light. The whole place has an E. Fay Jones vibe to it.

Process notes:
I got lost drawing all the support beams. Decided to call it done hoping the viewer would be able to fill in the rest of the story. And yes, two of those main roof beams are close together. That's not a boo-boo.

McWilliams Furniture Building

My intent on this was to do a really quick sketchy-sketch without details. I just can't seem to get that done. I'm in love with architectural details.

The Marino Home

A late-night doodle in the sketchbook. I'm working on:

• perspective on buildings
• rendering credible trees
• editing out details

I think the trees are coming along nicely but the struggle with branches continues. Building perspective is still wonky and I can't let go of the details.

Sigh.

Practice, practice, practice!

Elm Street Bakery

It's after lunch at Elm Street Bakery and Miz Dee and I are in a quandary again about where to sketch. We discuss several possibilities and none seem appealing.

I go outside to look around to see what I can see. Well! The very restaurant we're in is quite lovely from the other side of the street. We won't have to move the car or nuthin'!

Off we trot to take up a position on a planter with nice shade from a crepe myrtle. We don our Crazy Sketcher Lady hats out there in front of God-n-Everbody. We are some serious sketchers doin' some serious sketchin'.

We attract the attention of a photographer from the local newspaper. Oy. It must have been a slow news day. He jumps out of his car, takes a few shots, asks our names. He goes away for a bit and comes back later on and takes a few more. It's a *very* slow news day.

So, Miz Dee and I make the local paper, somewhere in the back pages, right between continuation headlines declaring Murder! and Bedbugs! I thought that was appropriate since we look kinda like bedbug infested mass murderers in the shot.

I got in a heap o' trouble when Hubby saw the picture in the paper. My Crazy Sketcher Lady hat is actually *his* boonie hat. He ordered it special to wear playing golf. It had gone missing since early spring. It was only missing to him, I knew right where it was: in my sketch kit bag.

He made me give it back. (pout)

Main Street Pizza

Downtown, late afternoon, Miz Dee and I are looking for a good sketching location. We prowl around in front of the buildings and back in the alleys, but nothing is catching our eye.

We plop on a bench rather exasperated. Told Dee I was just going to draw what I could see from here. That would be Main Street Pizza.

I was going to leave out the light poles and just draw the building, but the light poles and wires called to my little sketcher's heart. I luvs me some light poles.

Decided to make the poles transparent ala Gabi Campanario, the Seattle Sketcher. I've always thought his transparent people and vehicles sketches were cool.

As we sat and sketched, people in passing cars would honk and wave yelling, "Dee!" I can't take her anywhere and be anonymous. Maybe she really is everybody's third cousin twice removed on the husband's side. I'll have to ask her about that.

Hammond Shed

Miz Dee has dragged me out into the middle of nowhere to sketch a barn she spied and wanted to draw. The barn was a bit overwhelming, so I opted for the little shed next to it. I intended to add color to this when I started but got caught up in the visceral pleasure of crosshatching. Decided to just leave it as a pen and inker.

We were out on the old Hammond homeplace. Miz Dee said, "Oh I know these folks! I'll go knock on the door and ask permission to sketch the barn."

She did, but the Hammonds had moved away long ago. Dee started chatting up the current resident and by the end of the conversation Dee had convinced the lady that they were related somehow, third cousins twice removed on her husband's side or something like that.

By the time the poor lady had processed what Dee had told her and realized her husband didn't have any cousins, we were long gone. Dee is crafty like that. I stood back and marveled at the skill of a master. (grin)

Pizza Hut House

Went to play at Miz Dee's house today. I arrived while she was out getting lunch so I sat in her driveway and sketched. Waiting is always an appropriate time to sketch.

I whipped out the little red emergency sketchbook (kept in my purse just for emergent sketching situations) and drew the odd little detached garage across the street. The house has this same roof line. Dee later told me the neighborhood refers to this house as "The Pizza Hut House."

We played in Dee's guest room closet today, cleaning things out in anticipation of swapping her office and guest bedroom. Dee was ripping and snorting, tossing and tossing and tossing. She was ready to be shed of stuff.

She tossed some vintage linens into the yard sale pile, and I, in a rare fit of retentiveness, told her she should probably keep those. Gasp!

Holy Cow! I don't know what came over me. I don't remember ever recommending somebody keep something when they were bound and determined to get rid of it. I must have been getting tired.

I could not, however, convince her to part with the seashell collection or the pile of old curtain rods. Sigh. Ya win some, ya lose some.

Final tally: Almost barren closet, one big bag of trash, HUGE pile to go to a friend's yard sale. Yay!

I started chuckling at one point and Dee asked why. I told her usually you can't beg, borrow or guilt a friend to come over and help clean out closets. I actually *volunteered* to help her do hers and enjoyed every moment immensely.

I ain't right.

High Rise Urban Sketching

Today Miz Dee and I got to sketch from Our Town's only skyscraper. We were at the nosebleed-inducing altitude of the third floor.

This is a view looking west:
From left to right: the hospital, a lime green apartment building, and the funeral parlor. The street doesn't really go under the hospital's portico, I gorfed the perspective on that. Oh well, I still have happiness for this sketch.

This is Our Town's City Hall:
It's a cool looking art deco building built in 1927. I've always wanted to sneak up and see what's in the tower section.

Wolfe Street

Had an hour to kill so I started sketching. A view from the big conference table towards the front door at Wolfe Street. I left out the ginormous Pepsi machine in the corner. It clashed with the chandeliers.

Sunset on Rbician

Was poking around on Flickr studying shapes in the thumbnails. Found one of some minarets, but that's not what my mind saw. I morphed the shapes into a kinda futuristic sci-fi landscape. Thought it came out kinda cool.

Dubbed the new planet "Rbician."

Federal Courthouse

Sketching with Miz Dee today and a new sketching recruit, Miz Betty. Security was tight at this courthouse. Lots of permissions had to be granted beforehand and lots of meetings and introductions made once we arrived. We were finally allowed into the courtroom just short of a full body cavity strip search, the promise of five years indentured servitude, and the surrender of a firstborn male child. Sheesh!

In the courtroom I was in sensory overload. Exquisitely detailed moldings and marbles were everywhere! I halfway expected to look up and see this:



Had a hard time settling down and deciding what to draw. There was so much eye candy in here my head was spinning. Decided to start with a small warm-up sketch of the alcove behind the judge's bench.


Then I had to capture the chandeliers.


There were four in the courtroom and they were huge, maybe four or five feet across. I was surprised that they were completely opaque. The light was reflected off the ceiling only. No warm glow through the globes. Maybe they were marble also. What a concept!

We got a late start and wrapped up rather early so I only got these two little sketches done. Must go back! There's a month's worth of sketching to do in this room alone much less the rest of this magnificent building!

Cane Creek, Part 2

To be continued....

Sketch Scouting

Journaling:

Went driving all over the countryside this afternoon with Miz Dee, scouting out possible sketching spots. Found this funky little diamond-shaped bank building, no more than a 20 x 20 square really.

Stopped at an antique store right next to a railroad crossing. All the structure of the signal tower caught my eye as well as the rusty connector plate joining two rails.

Drew all this from memory after I got home. Should have whipped out the book and drawn on the spot. Pffft!

I have come to the conclusion that I have a love affair with rusty stuff. If it's rusty, I want to draw it.

Nana's Attic - Day 1

Journaling:

Nana finally got the new roof she's been wanting for so long. Gone is the buggy cedar shake, replaced with new decking and architectural shingles.

Lots of buggy cedar bits fell into the attic so cleaning and vacuuming was first up on the work order today. We also replaced several flooring panels that were rickety or missing.

Progress was slow today due to the unexpected repairs to the floor, but we should be able to finish up tomorrow. The left side doesn't seem to be as nasty as the right side.

I dread lugging the dozen or so big Christmas tubs back in here. Makes my back hurt just looking at them.

Nana culled about 8 big tubs to be donated or to go to the storage unit. That will make it much easier to find what she needs in here without having to move a bunch of stuff first. Yay!

Pointy arrow notes:

<--This side (left side) still icky. Start here tomorrow.

<--Ancient suitcase containing Daddy's scrapbooks

<--More cooking stuff

(middle back) X-mas stuff goes along the back; now in upstairs bedroom.

(middle) Cooking stuff to go on new shelves plus lots more in bedroom.

-->(right side) Cleaned and organized

--> 45 years (or more) of memories all neatly boxed & labelled.

--> two bags of trash

McKinney House

Went out sketching with Miz Dee all day today. We met at the Henry Crawford McKinney House in El Dorado, listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is a magnificent old mansion built in 1925 just after the South Arkansas oil boom. It has expansive grounds with a carriage house, pool house, reflecting pool, pergola, vineyard and stables.

It sat vacant for decades and was taken over by vegetation. In the last few years it was given to a local historical society and they are slowing bringing it back from near ruin. The grounds are still rather decrepit but I think it makes them more interesting than if it was all newly manicured.

There are still traces of its former glory here and there even though the grass has taken over the tennis courts, the fountain is growing weeds, and the swimming pool has been filled in. There are several huge outdoor tables made from a single slab of flagstone. There are enough flagstone pavers on the property to pave a Wal-Mart parking lot.

The estate must have been magnificent in its heyday with roaring parties until dawn. I can imagine F. Scott Fitzgerald driving up in his yellow Rolls Royce.

So, enough about the history. Here are the sketches:

East wing,view from the reflecting pool
I was quietly sketching away when a big ol' bullfrog croaked right next to me in the reflecting pool. Scared the peedoodle outta me.


Old fountain with vineyard behind.
The only thing growing in the vineyard now is poison oak. That little figure thingy in the top of the fountain is a pudgy little boy holding a goose. The goose's head is broken off.

Miz Dee Painting
The Ninja Sketcher strikes again. After I finished the fountain I turned to talk to Miz Dee who was, as she said, "spraddle-legged" on a bench. She thought I was sketching the pool house behind her. I was, kinda sorta, but that wild looking orange sketching hat was begging to be drawn. It had a personality all its own. I need me one of those.


This is the sketch she was working on. She had just started blocking in the first color washes in this photo.

And here is the final


Off to lunch for an hour to cool down, then one more sketch for the day.

The Pergola
I probably should have sketched this from a different angle to show the striking architecture and shadows, but in the humid Arkansas summertime you have to pick the view from under the big shade tree.

This was a wonderful, wonderful day!

Courtyard Fountain

Journaling:

A wonderful afternoon of sketching and visiting in a quiet courtyard downtown. The weather was perfect, the company excellent, and the drawings divine!

Met Miz D. for the first time today. It was like we had known each other all our lives and just had to catch up on the last 30 years. She draws and paints beautifully but it's hard to convince her of that.

She is passionate about illustrated journaling and is trying to spread the gospel. Well, now there are two of us. "For where two or more are gathered together..."

Squee! We might be on to something big! Woot!