Warmth

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

(Well! That lettering didn't work out, did it?)

Got a brochure in the mail today for CPE sessions in faraway, warm resort locales. I took one look at this cover and thought, "Ohhh...I want to go there!"

Kudos to the advertising guys for this company. They made me want their product.

It was cold, wet and icky today. I wanted to be anywhere warm. The chill was seeping through all my layers of clothing. I just couldn't get warm enough.

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Process notes:
I was tired of the same old title lettering I've been using. It's quick, easy, and brainless so I tend to use it quite a bit. I wanted to experiment with a different kind of lettering. Um, *FAIL*.

I couldn't figure out which parts of the letters should be fat and which should be just single lines. I guess I need to work out the whole alphabet so the letters will at least appear to be from the same font type. I've got a mixture of styles going on here. Not good. But a sketchbook is the place to work through that kinda stuff, right???

Christmas Loot - Returns

Monday, December 27, 2010

Hubby gave me three really cool hoodies and some gloves for Christmas...all the wrong size. He said he was afraid the hoodies would be too large when in fact they were too small.

Bless his heart, in his eyes I'm still that little slip of a girl he married 30 years ago. I so love him for that. He can make that kind of sizing mistake year after year after year.

But he thinks I have gigantic hands.

So tonight we exchanged the three little girly hoodies and big boy gloves for one big boy hoodie and two pairs of little girly gloves and a girly scarf...just exactly what I needed.

He's such a sweetie. I think I'll keep him around for a while longer.

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Process notes: Those red bows on the gloves aren't permanent fixtures. That would be waaay too girly-girl for me.

Added bonus of buying stuff today: 60% off after-Christmas sale!

Possum Christmas

Saturday, December 25, 2010 - Christmas Day

Clan Speck gathered at the farm this evening for our Christmas celebration. There were 16 folks this year and food for 50.

The evening was enjoyable and uneventful - until we were about to leave. Hubby was locking up the garage when he saw a nekkid tail disappear around the mower, then into the well pump alcove. He found two teenaged possums huddled there, bedding down for the night.

The alarm was sounded and the whole house emptied to see the critters and to take photos. Much ewwwwing and squealing ensued.

I learned that if you poke a possum with the handle of a leaf rake he will curl up in a ball and "play possum." You can pick him up and tote him away by the tail. Learn something new every day.

The possum pair were relocated to the edge of the woods via tail (by two of the Brothers Speck, not Hubby.)

The farm dogs didn't seem interested in chasing them, didn't even bother to sniff them as they were being toted away. Those farm dogs are worthless as critter chasers! They were probably sharing their dog food with the possums.

The possums will probably find their way back to the doghouse and spend the night there. Good Grief!

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Process notes:
The critter drawn here does not resemble an Arkansas possum in the least. Please don't get the impression we have some genetically altered possum species living here.

The title of this entry in my journal reads "POSSOM CHRITMAS." The spellchecker on my Pentel Pocket Brush Pen was broken. Managed to fix Christmas digitally. Gave up on trying to fix all the possoms. I *knew* that didn't look right.

Wrapping Paper

Friday, December 24, 2010 - Christmas Eve

Actually it is 3:00 AM Christmas Day. I should go to bed but I'm not at all tired. I've cooked all day for tomorrow's family gathering while Hubby played golf. I was happy not to have him underfoot all day.

He and his golf buddies came in from the course and shed man-smells in my living room for 2-3 hours while making lewd comments* about women golfers on TV. (eyeroll) Why do they revert to junior high locker room mentality when they run in packs???

Realized I hadn't wrapped the gifts for the nieces so I dug out an old but unopened roll of wrapping paper. There's no telling how long I've had this. It had the cutest peeping characters on it. Had to draw.

I have to get up in just a few hours but do I brush my teeth and put on my jammies? No! I pull out the watercolor palette and the waterbrush.

I'll probably pay for the lack of sleep tomorrow.

Sigh.

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*"Grrrr...She can grip my club like that any time she wants."

The Mailbox

Thursday, December 23, 2010 - Hubby got his mom a new mailbox for Christmas. He worked on getting the post put together and mounting the box on the post.

My job was to get all the stickery bits on the number holder thingy. The white background oval was a reflective sticker and the numbers were peel-n-stick.

When I was finished I trotted it in to show him. I held it up and asked:

Me: "What do you think???"

Him: "Are those her numbers???"

I tipped my head and gave him a look, wondering when it would dawn on him how silly that question was. Yes, of course those are her numbers. I looked up her address to make double-sure before I stuck them on both sides of the thingy.

He seemed earnest in his query and was waiting for an answer, so I gave him one befitting the question.

Me: "Nope, I just picked some random numbers to mess with the mailman's head."

Sigh.

Decorate!

Wednesday, December 22, 2010 - Finally got the house decorated for Christmas today. Better late than never I guess.

I've been wanting to draw these decorations since I pulled them from their box two weeks ago. Yes, I procrastinate.

I love the solemn little snowman. He's my favorite.

Comp Book Covers

Sunday, December 19, 2010

I've been having a ball making composition book covers. This blue one, "Awesomesauce", was my experimental model.



I started with a piece of blue shirting material and Mod Podged it down to both back and front. Next I Mod Podged the maps down, let it dry, then drew on it with metallic gel pens. A final cost of Mod Podge finished it off. The Mod Podge made the cover slick and durable. I can't feel the texture of the background fabric now.



The "Book of Whatever" was filled with my ramblings on pens, inks and journals before I made the cover. It came out so cool I didn't want to pack it away on the shelf. It has a map on the back too, cut from an old atlas I got at the thrift store for $1.00.

What's so cool about Mod Podge is it is stupid-proof. Thick or thin coats dry equally well and equally hard. It can be sanded smooth, so anything coated with Mod Podge can be sanded down (or off) as well. I don't know why it took me so long to discover this great stuff.

Nose Hair Trimmer

Journaling:

Since Hubby passed the mid-century mark he started growing hair in unexpected places. Decided he needed a nose hair trimmer so we bought one tonight.

He asked me to take it out of the packaging and get it ready to go. I did so and he headed off to the bathroom with it.

(RRRrrrRRRrrrRRRrrrRRRrrrRRRrrrRRRrrr....)

"Good grief," I thought, "I *know* he doesn't have *that* much nose hair."

"How's it working?" I yell through the door.

"Not too good. Did you put the blade in it?"

"The blade was already in it. It cut fine when I tested it on my arm."

(RRRrrrRRRrrrRRRrrrRRRrrrRRRrrrRRRrrr....)

I stick my head in and watch him swirling it around in his nose.

"It doesn't seem to be cutting," he says.

"Let me see it."

He hands it to me, I look at it, then hand it back to him.

"It would work a lot better if you took the safety cap off."

Pen Obsession

Journaling:

Bought another pen tonight to add to my overwhelming arsenal of writing instruments. This one is a Pilot G-2 Gel Rollerball Ultra-Fine 0.38mm. It is actually for guerilla sketching instead of writing. It's a little scratchy bit it will do.

My writing pen obsession is becoming an addiction. I need them all! Every one I tell you! They will be mine!!!!!! Bwahahahaha!

...And a new pen case to hold them all.

Electric Car

I was making shorthand notes on a painting I wanted to do of a slice of life in the day of the triplets. What I wrote was "trip in elec socket." Translated, that meant a triplet down on all fours sticking a knife in an electrical socket.

Days later I wanted to do a rough sketch of the scene to figure out placement of the characters and perspective and such. I dragged out my little notes and found the written "trip in elec socket" note.

Well, my little brain went all kinds of places with that. How cool would it be to take a trip in a car that looks like an electrical socket? Too cool, that's how cool.

The other thought was to be an electron and take a trip down the wires then out on the worldwide electrical grid. That would be more cool but I couldn't figure out how to sketch that.

M-I-L's Annual Visit

My mother-in-law comes for an annual visit each year late in the summer. She makes her rounds to visit the homes of all her children at least once. I guess she does this to assure herself that her children aren't homeless, living in squalor, or abusing their kitties.

In the past we were the last ones on the circuit so we had some advanced warning that she was on the move, but she surprised us this year and started with us, and early at that. Oops. She did at least call and give us 48 hours notice. Usually we get just an hour and a half to prepare for her arrival.

She doesn't go about doing a white glove inspection or anything, but I do want the house to look nice for her visit. There's a difference between everyday tidy and "mother-in-law clean" as her daughters-in-law call it. She laughs at that. She says all we really have to do for her visit is flush the potty, clean the litter box and spray a little air freshener. She's a good-natured sweetie and I adore her.

Journaling:

Mom and Martha (one of her BFFs) arrived at 11:00. Gave them the grad tour. They declared the house to be "neat as a pin." (They didn't look closely at the baseboards.)

Ate lunch downtown at the bakery. Had a turkey club with jalapeno sauce. It was flavorful without being hot. Yum! Then we all had a piece of cheesecake. How could we not after staring at the pastry case all through our meal?

After lunch we came back home and collapsed into the recliners...the women did anyway. Hubby ran off to the bedroom for a nap and to avoid all the girl talk.

We chatted for the next several hours about Girl Stuff - families, babies, sewing projects, charity work, church affairs, cooking, hair, makeup, and of course, men.

Went out to a late supper at a Cajun place. We all had seafood lasagna. I was underwhelmed. Won't order that again.

Packed them off for home around 10:00 pm. A long day, enjoyable, but was glad for it to be over.

M-I-L Visit Tomorrow!

Journaling:

My mother-in-law is coming tomorrow for her annual visit and bringing a friend of hers.

The bathroom is starting to resemble a science experiment. Eek! Much cleaning needs to be done and Hubby has (conveniently) disappeared.

Our old bathtub long ago lost its finish so the porcelain is now soft and porous. Everything sticks to it and stains. Requires three different applications of toxic chemicals to get it looking clean.

M-I-L says company is always good motivation to clean the house. She's right, but dang I hate doing it. I don't see those grimy baseboards on a day-to-day basis, but when I know company's coming they're glaringly nasty. Oy Vey.

Dear Diary

Journaling:

I've been bitten by the journaling bug. I blame it on Clairefontaine paper and Exacompta journal refills. While looking for sketchbooks with CF paper I found the sister company Exacompta. They carry a line of gridded journal refills in nice leather covers.

I've always had a lust for gridded paper - so many possibilities!

I was just about to click the "buy" button when I realized I already have a journal full of slick, creamy, gridded paper with a nice leather cover. I pulled it off the shelf and started writing and writing and writing.

Apparently I have a lot more to say than what I have space for in this illustrated journal. I don't like to write in it because the paper is too rough. Plus, Hubby snatches it out of my hand to show to complete strangers. Eeek! Don't want strangers to read my deepest, darkest secrets!

I've tried keeping a journal many times in my life, but writing on lined paper is too much like writing on school notebook paper. Suddenly it feels like I'm taking notes in 9th grade Civics and I'm quickly bored with the whole thing. Gridded paper doesn't seem to cause that reaction. Humm....

Poverty Point

Hubby, Mr. Hotdog and I took a road trip down to the steamy Mississippi Delta territory of southern Arkansas and Northern Louisiana. We feel compelled to take at least one educational roadtrip to a historic site each summer.

Most are just interesting for the day then quickly forgotten. Not so with Poverty Point. It gave me a *lot* of brain candy to chew on. They have lots of interesting puzzle pieces out there and not a lot of answers. It's like the culture developed time travel but forgot to invent the wheel. Yep, lots of questions still remain.

Journaling:

Poverty Point in Epps, Louisiana is a massive pre-historic earthworks site dating to around 1500 BC. The advanced society who lived here were primarily hunter-gatherers. No evidence of domesticated crops have been found. That's amazing since it is estimated that over 1,000 people occupied this site at any given time.

Highly decorated clay objects have been found as well as intricate stone carvings, yet no trace of pottery has been uncovered.

It seems that a people with the engineering skills to design and build this site would figure out to put a thumbprint into a clay ball and keep going, turning it into a bowl...doncha think?

Dreams

Journaling:

Yesterday Hubby and I drove down to Lake D'Arbonne State Park in Louisiana where Mr. Hotdog and Cindy Lou were camping. It started pouring rain as we crossed the state line and was still pouring when we arrived.

Instead of staring at each other in their tiny camper we decided to drive around and tour the state park. After getting lost looking for the spillway we decided to go shopping in Monroe. (Yes I realize that isn't a logical cause and effect but I understand what it means.)

I had admired Cindy Lou's new purse she had bought there last week on sale and decided to get one too. It was large enough to drop my journal in without being too huge. My old purse was too tiny for that. Now I can have a 5" x 8" sketchbook with me at all times instead of the tiny 3" x 4". I'll still carry it too in the front pocket.

Had to go by the big box craft store to see if they had the new Strathmore Visual Journals. Alas, no. Only the store in Dallas got them. But I couldn't leave an art supply store empty-handed now, could I? I had to buy *something.*

I've been daydreaming about painting with oils lately, but I needed supplies. I picked up a palette knife and some odorless paint thinner. Couldn't find either one locally.

These two items represent dreams more than reality since I don't even own any oil paints or a canvas on which to paint. But sometimes it's good to have things that represent your dreams so you don't forget and lose your way.

Shapes

Saw this cool photo on Flickr as a thumbnail. Couldn't really tell what it was that small but I thought the shapes were fabulous. On closer inspection discovered it was an interior shot of a shopping mall (I think.)

Went back to the thumbnail size and drew the major shapes then added additional bits to balance out the elements.

I wanted to capture this because I've watched a lot of painting shows where they talk about painting the major shapes and shadow shapes. My brain could never see the shapes, I could only see the details. When I saw the shapes in this photo I had an "Ah-ha!" moment.

New eyes now with which to see my world.

Anne Elizabeth's Diary

Journaling:

This is the illustrated diary of 12-year-old Anne Elizabeth Rector who lived in New York City in 1912.

She kept her diary faithfully for a whole year, from Jan. 1, 1912 until Christmas Day of that same year. I suppose new amusements awaited her under the Christmas tree after that and the diary was abandoned.

What is so magical about this book are Anne Elizabeth's illustrations of each entry. They are charming little ink and watercolor drawings reproduced from her original diary. I only wish I could draw as well now!

The entries contain her struggle with her mother to allow her to take art classes. Neither her mother, father nor grandmother think a girl needs to attend art classes. I can so relate to that...especially her entry where she offers to give up piano lessons. There's a conversation I had with my own mother many times.

How different my life would be today if I had only read this book when I was 12!

Anne Elizabeth's Diary Entries:

January 1, 1912
Daddy gave me all these art supplies for Christmas. Mother gave me one thing, this book. She instructed me to write in it every day. I shall draw here too. Mother need not know.

February 17, 1912
Today I wore my new woolen dress. It is a brown challis with a yellow lined collar and cuffs embroidered in brown. Mother got it to fit perfectly. Another battle about the art class. She does not think we have the extra money. I said I could stop piano lessons.

Die Cat Die!

Journaling:

Cheezburger the Porch Cat has a new tormentor. This is one pissed off little mockingbird. He starts dive bombing the poor cat anytime Cheezy pokes out even a whisker in his view.

The bird sits on the shepherd's crook a few feet from the porch and screams at Cheezy. The fact that there are humans on the porch doesn't deter the bird at all. He is out for Cheezy's blood.

Fish Heads

My computer nest/creative space/office reeks of rotting fish heads. I've turned the whole room into a kitty sick ward and have been feeding them next to their respective cat nests. That's the only way I could monitor just how much and of what exactly is going down each ailing cat.

I've tried the rillyrilly stinky stuff for sick cats, the regular stuff of the same brand, the exceptionally cheap (29 cents per can) exceptionally stinky food, and have even tried pureed chicken and turkey baby food in a jar.

One cat is eating but is finicky, the other cat is still bad. But I'm about to be overcome by this horrendous dead fish head smell.

Remote Controlled Air Show

Mr. Hotdog, Cindy Lou, Hubby and I all went to a remote controlled airplane airshow this afternoon. Met a bunch of really nice folks who were crazy about flying.

Saw a cool little plane with a KISS (the rock-n-roll group) theme that sounded like "a pissed off mosquito" as one guy said. Also saw a spectacular crash and the sorrowful remains of same.

The guy that crashed his plane then brought out his little jet plane. It would fly as fast as 150 MPH (I think that's what he said) or as slow as 5 MPH. You would be able to walk past it as it was flying.



The Rascal
Top speed: 60 MPH
Wingspan: 53"
Engine: Magnum .52 cu. in.

This the the Rascal in her starting stand. The bright blue things are swimming pool noodles used for cushioning so the plane doesn't get scuffed up.

The Rascal is a 1/7 scale model of an actual plane. The fuselage has a transparent red vinyl section to show off the interior structure.

The owner of the Rascal was obviously an Arkansas Razorbacks fan. He had a Razorbacks license plate on the front of his starting stand.

I think this visit got Mr. Hotdog fired up to get his RC planes out of storage and take up the hobby again.