Laurelines

Is Kate here?

I came home to find my daughter's coat and gloves left on a chair, but she herself seemed not to be here.  Her belongings seemed almost alive to me, so strongly did they evoke her presence.  It was very odd.

(Click and scroll down, please. It's another long, tall drawing.)

Halfway through the Interiors month.  Farther to go.

Wally and Terri  and Kathleen have also participated in my Great January Interiors Event--it is great to see others struggling having fun with this topic, as I am. I've got several categories I want to tick off before I finish:  deep space as of an auditorium or theater or church, a shop space, more interiors of friends'  houses, more figures in interiors.  And the interior of a Chinese restaurant--which will happen tonight!

Making friends in the interior

The other day at  Foster's cafe, I met a woman who's a writer and teacher. She noticed I was sketching and asked me about it. And then she wrote about our meeting on her blog. I like what she wrote.  I love the thought of Carol Henderson and other writers working on the interior idea this month.  Elaine of Monkeypaints  had earlier joined me from England and Lin a fellow sketcher from North Carolina recently tackled the interiors topic, too. Maybe others are out there,  also nudged by the notion of monthly topics,  doing battle with walls, perspective, and deep and shallow space.  If so,  just know you've got friends.

Foster's cafe, where  I met Carol Henderson last week and where D and I go most Saturday mornings.

(Click and scroll down to see whole sketch.)

Though I'm a messy person,  I do make up my bed first thing each morning. Today, though,  it was irresistible to draw. The two pillows on the right reminded me of madly canoodling hippos.  The whole scene was just so rococco that it had to be rendered.  So I did.

Interior!

So I'm back on the inside track again--after  some days of competing demands. Still, I planned for this kind of thing by doing more than one interior drawing a day earlier, so there'd be at least 31 by the end of January. And now comes a weekend of interior drawing! Hmm, though, maybe I'll take Sunday off to recharge.  Brownie,  it's been a heck of a week.

Stubbornly fitting in figure drawing

Interiors *return tomorrow! Today was  car travel, some blind contour drawing (see below) and going to figure drawing group practically the minute I got home from DC. Whew.

This is one of my favorite models. She comes back next week. Lucky us.

*I have a  drawing traffic jam.  Tomorrow, normal traffic patterns should resume.

On the road again: BCF #24

It's been a whirlwind day and a half, if by whirlwind one means an insanely hectic, exhausting, yet  gratifying state of constant motion taking place over several hundred miles. And back. 

For less far-flung and road- weary Blind Contour Friday drawings,  please click here, the famous blog home of Niff and Sutter, two of my favorite artists in all the world.

On the road, in the rain, dark and late...

but interiors, nevertheless.  Done in the avant garde smudgy style.

In the car, taking our daughter C back to college.  Car interior was all I had.

Don't eat here.  Ever. The food was SO bad  (and expensive.)   I spent most of the 30 minutes we had  before the restaurant closed pushing my plate across the table and trying to draw.  No, I won't give you particulars----you might be the oppositional kind who'd go there just because someone told you not to.  Back home tomorrow afternoon.

Inching forward in the interior

At the Mexican restaurant last night, I thought I got a decent  spatial sense going on in my sketch, even though the building is one of those added onto 1920's bungalows with weirdly shaped rooms. Mind you, there was another row of people in between the girls and the way-hunched over guy, but the people quickly came and went, talking not of Michaelangelo, but of how drunk they got many times over Christmas. Extremely edifying, wasn't it. That's life in a college town.

Today I drew the dining room of my friend Moreton,  cookbook writer,  ex-restaurateur and now wonderful interior designer.

A kitchen, a bedroom

This is a corner of Laine's kitchen, but it won't be for long. She and her family are moving to a new house. For ten years, we've sat in this kitchen and made all manner of mischief  together--- and shared some sad and scary times, too.  Par for the course with kitchens and friendships.  Next month:  new kitchen,  new mischief.

Bedroom. Kuretake brush pen----when curvy things happen to straight lines.

Growing pains

I am struggling with these interiors. I know Chuck would say that drawing is the same proposition, regardless of the subject--you just look and you get down what you see.  But I've got years and years of a certain depth of field, a certain repertoire of images, certain subjects, etc and breaking out of that is....hard.  Last year, I forced myself to break out of my habitual color palette. That was easier because the new colors made me feel free. Here, I'm less free. At least for now. The purpose of my themed sketchbooks is to force myself to become more supple, more receptive, more engaged with more of the world out there and to make art that reflects it.

So  here are three sketches from yesterday and today. Click on thumbnail, then scroll down to see whole image.

Fireplace. Pencil and Cretacolor Aqua Monoliths.

Interior of Foster's Cafe.

Family room with tropical flowers. Pencil and watercolor. 

Interior with Nude

I'm devoting January to interior sketches,  but also continuing with my figure studies.  Here's one from last night. (Click to enlarge, of course, and scroll down to see  the whole thing.)

Blind Contour Friday #23 drawing will appear later today.  Will be back in the Blind Contour Fold next week.