Laurelines

My *last foody sketch

The thing I was looking forward most to sketching during the food month was fish and yet I didn't manage it until the last day. So, here it is, a trout, sketched and painted very quickly, before the cat leapt upon us both, fish and artist, and did incalculable damage.

I've mostly enjoyed Food month, though I didn't learn as much as I did during Interiors month. I'd already drawn and painted food a lot in my life and *will continue to do so. But I'm discovering it is a good thing to alternate difficult topics with easier ones, less colorful with more colorful, less structured with more structured and so on. And just the sheer act of sketching every (*#!#@*) day is a fantastic boon, really. Really. I'm not kidding.

March comes tomorrow and with it, trees. You come, too?

Nearing the Foody finish line!

Another month almost over and another sketchbook of topic drawings almost completed!

Here are a couple of funny, little things:

Petit four means little oven in French. These small cakes were so named because they were made in coal-fired ovens after the larger cakes were baked, when the ovens had cooled down.

Yesterday, I went to a dairy goat farm near my town to make some sketches related to food, different from anything I'd done so far. Celebrity Dairy makes some of the best cheeses I've tasted anywhere. There are 120 baby goats now at the farm, from one week old on up.  The goats are more adorable than you could possibly imagine. Their little wobbly 'mehhh mehhhs' tugged at my heartstrings. It was SO cold, they were shivering and calling for their mothers. So was I.

You can tell I've never drawn goats before. These early sketches make them look like llamas, like big Bambis, like...funny-looking, goatlike creatures. But! I'm going to get better--- I'm going to go and draw them often over the next months. Fun!

Laurelines is one year old today

In the year I've been blogging, I've done a lot more sketching and drawing, though not as much painting as I'd planned. I've 'met'  and met some of the most interesting, kindest and wittiest people on the planet (you all know who you are :D.) I had intended Laurelines to be an art blog, not a personal blog, so when I was first tagged a few months ago, I resisted. I resisted the second and third times. When the fourth time occurred close to this anniversary, I decided enough was enough. So, Evy, Chuck, Sutter and Lin, here are my answers to those Four Things:

Four Jobs I've Had:

1. art critic for small newspaper and freelance features writer

2. antiques and decorative arts curator for a university

3. museum programs coordinator for a state art collection

4. cake decorator

Four Movies I Like:

1.Providence

2.Etre et Avoir

3.Remains of the Day

4. Gandhi

Four Place I've Lived:

1. London, England

2. Edinburgh, Scotland

3. Cambridge, Massachusetts

4. Carmel, California

Four TV Shows I Watch:

1. Countdown

2. Today Show

3. TV 5 (the French channel, to keep up with my French)

4. Will and Grace

Four Places I've Vacationed :

1. Paris

2. Stockholm

3. Rome

4. Ocracoke Island, North Carolina

Four Places I'd Like to Visit:

1. Near the Arctic Circle in Sweden

2. Iceland

3. Norway

4. Venice

Four of My Favorite Dishes:

1. Roast duck or duck confit

2. Kedgeree

3. Lobster

4. Poached eggs on toast

Four Sites I Visit Daily:

1. All the buddies on my Arty Blogs and Writer Blogs list

2. BushWatch

3. Washington Post

4. Bois de Jasmin and NowSmellThis

Four Places I’d Like to Be:

1. Anywhere there’s good snow and great scenery for crosscountry skiing

2. Paris, almost always

3. Sweden, cross country skiing ;D

4. Switzerland, cross country skiing. Can you tell I’’m obsessed with my new sport?

Four Bloggers I Am Tagging:

The tag, for me, stops here ;D.

A Field Guide to the Nut House

I fear this is a phenomenon we're all going to get used to,  my losing it near the end of each month-long themed sketchbook.

So, these are a few things I had lying around, things that, in one guise or another, to one mammal species or another, are allegedly edible. I was playing with dip pens and reed pens and old ink bottles of ink and things. And guess what, I'm giving a dinner party tonight. Hold each other very tight, you out there, and be glad you've got other plans.

It figures

Since my little figure drawing group has ground to a halt, I have to catch as catch can. Here are two drawings from this week's sessions at my house with the model.

And look at this earlier one, too, from my Figure Drawings album at left, the mirror image of the one above--It amused me how similar the two poses are:

Do you?

Eat escargots, I mean?  I don't, though my husband does. I spent many hours as a little girl watching snails in the garden. I know too much about about them for that.

Here, just quickly because I had little time, I used a dip pen and a bunch of inks I've had forever and never used. I LOVE this medium! Now I know why Niff and Sutter use it so often.

Bijoux carrots

These were so jewellike in color, you could have strung them together and worn them as a necklace. I say 'were.' I ate them.

Sprouts and limes

Some things are just plain old fun to draw. These little plump, ponytailed, netted bags of limes and Brussels sprouts are among those things. It can be hard to come up with daily food images that are interesting enough to render, though you wouldn't think so, what with all the food there is in the world. Anyway, my nice husband, ever on the lookout for sketch subjects, found the key limes for me at Wholefoods. It was the work of a minute to find their little sprouty companions. 

Head today, food tomorrow

Out of town yesterday, returned today. I'd scheduled a model for this afternoon and here she is. Food drawings return tomorrow.

Scroll down for complete image.

Drawing from the egg

We artistes speak often of drawing from the live (i.e. nude) model but how many of us can say honestly we've drawn from the nude egg? Julie, for one, can but that's beside the point. (Katherine's eggs are still clothed.) Without further ado, then, I give you....the egg (and the sea salt, the spatula, and the pan):

To wrap up a bit of business left over from yesterday, I asked if anyone could see me in the drawing of the spoons. One or two wise---people---proffered answers. Here's the correct answer:

There I am, upside down at about 11:55 of the clock. You do know about objects reflecting upside down in concave surfaces? No? Well, read this: http://newton.uor.edu/facultyfolder/deweerd/research/opticsovertea.pdf. I'm sure it's all very interesting. not that I would know. I only made it to the opening sentence. Thanks to everyone who entered into the spoon guessing fray!