Sunday, July 16, 2006

Spelunking Into Fabriano, Topple Walking, Tanks and Clouds!


This is my painting table/drawing table, a spot where I spend a lot of time. The painting in the background is called Spelunking, acrylic on canvas 48"x48", I finished it in April. My drawing table sits in my kitchen, we have quite a big kitchen, with lots of room for my arting. This table is similar to one my Dad built to put in his den at home and I fallowed in his foot steps and made one for myself, the materials for it were a gift from my folks. I love it and I take good care of it! We all need a mongo huge table to work on and this one is 49"x 72". It is made with 3/4" or 5/8" MDF and has 2 coats of Melamine paint, which does not scratch easily and is very easy to clean with an abrasive cleanser. For those of you who read my painting blog Dear Treehouse this is a bit repetitive, sorry!


R and I went shopping on Bank Street (near city centre) and found a pretty well stocked art supply store called Loomis. I had done some online searching to see what kind of sketch books they sold and was pleased when I saw Fabriano sketch books. I was even happier when I got to the store and found this one. The paper is very heavy and smooth, nothing comes through and I very much enjoy drawing on in it. They do sell Moleskines at this shop, but not the sketch books, and the books they do sell, they were asking me to sell both my arms and both my legs and the only time I would ever consider selling an arm would be for Leya Evelyn's indigo painting. I also got a larger Bristol stetch book with smooth, thick vellum, I always did like drawing on vellum.


First page of my sketch book, trying out a few new colored pencils by Derwent. It is so interesting to draw with several different makes of colored pencils, they are all so different. Prismacolor's are very soft, but fairly waxey, they need sharpening often. Derwent's are very smooth, hard and also a bit waxey, but in a different way and they don't need sharpening as often. I also have some Ticonderoga Core-Lock which are very similar to Prismacolor only not as soft and the core-lock promises break free leads. Ha! What a crock! The type of pencil sharpener seems to be a big determining factor in how often one gets a break when sharpening.

The first drawing in the upper left hand corner is Jacie's version a tank; however, it is sure to get blown to pieces by the enemy, as it has the brightest of red trim and some gold sparkles. Poor army, to be so ill equipped! Sigh! Topple Walker appears to be telling a fish story in this next drawing! I then moved onto some bright yellow clouds with silver lining!

R has gone on a motorcycle ride with a friend from work. They left early before it gets too hot! Yesterday the temps were up in the high 30's with the humidity (About 100 F) and today will be much the same. Last night R and I went for another exploration of the neighborhood, (it was such a steamy humid evening) this time we discovered a more upscale area with homes around the $500,000 mark, we love to comment on each house as we go. We ewwww and ahhhhh over landscaping, fencing, the immaculately trimmed shrubs and R points out the value of the cars in the drive ways. Last night there were 2, $80,000 cars in a driveway, a BMW SUV and another BMW sports car. R is car crazy! I love to look at concept cars of all kinds. I first caught the bug when we went to the Toronto car show a couple years ago. I don't even drive, but I love looking at the designs and like with art work, I am very fussy.

I've been reading some blogs from Israel and Lebenon lately, nightly actually! They are often far ahead of North American TV news reports and give a much more personal perspective of what people are experiencing. It makes me afraid, I am sensing that with all the conflicts currently happening now, and the cost of operations rising and the threat of it all, that someone is going to get nuked. I really feel this!


Comments:
OMG! I have the exact same pencil and paper clip holders! The grey, steel ones from Ikea. Sweeeet.
 
Post a Comment



<< Home

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?