picket corner

               

                This was an effort to record what I saw this day in October when the afternoon was about half done.  Fence in light and fence in shade casting shadows on the grass and on itself.  There is light on the edges of the dark pickets where the fence is not casting shadow on itself.

Old Sacramento

                I was looking at the back end of the cannon for this drawing.  So with the big hole in the side of the cannon it may make it hard to get the idea.
               This link will give you some of the history of this cannon, like the Mexican connection. You may even be able to find a photo of it before the "boo-boo" on the Kaw river...
http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2011/jan/27/history-buff-wants-recreate-cannon-called-old-sacr/                        What it does not tell you is how the cannon lost a chunk.  It sat on the south bank of the Kaw river for years and was fired over the river to raise bodies lost in the water (whether from swimming, boating, or "noodling").  They would merely load it with a charge, pack some mud in the barrel, and create some good noise!  Well one time someone over-packed it and blew out the side. One of the 2 pieces was recovered in North Lawrence across the river in someone's yard. I would guess that makes the piece airborne for a distance of a few football fields maybe. It was used as a doorstop at a farm south of town until eventually donated to the museum.

HC II

               
                This was one of my first recent (this decade) experiments last year with combining marker and pencil.  I was pleased with the results. The HCII is my name for the shopping center; I could not fit the actual title in with the "ultra fine" Sharpie.  It is a small drawing, in 5" x 8" format.     I was thinking that adding a little ink to a drawing would make it photograph easier with my poor system. It did too, but took me a few tries when "gimp"ing it to avoid washing out the contrast. What do you think...   Sometimes I do the ink first like in this case and then shade with pencil.  Sometimes I do most the pencil first and then soup up the darks with the black markers as in the previous drawing.

the end of Harper

               This is one that the photography process does not quite do justice.  If you could only see the original...   Oh well.  This idealic scene  actually shows the cut at the end of this neighborhood for the bypass.  Hence the symbolic nature of the title.  The scrappy old red cedars (and other 2nd growth wood) that had inhabited the property after farming was discontinued have been removed along with the hill, so that all you see now is what is left at the brow of the hill behind the fence line.  Beyond that is the new alignment of south Haskell Avenue.  Now you would see in this view a retaining wall as well as a jogging trail on the left.                        
               Done with pencil and marker on a 9x5 sketch pad in early January.  It was not too cold that day as I recall.

Stone & Stucco

               I had thought this place would be a good subject.  So one Saturday morning I made a stop here and put pencil to paper.  This one is all pencil, some of which I added after getting it home and looking it over for awhile. Trees and roof lines always catch my eye.

from the walkway.

                Standing on the walk in the late afternoon on a warm winter day, this is the result.  This is not the first time I have done this scene. There is one done from the left of this looking south across these trees and over the hill. This is a 5" x 8" drawing done with pencil and marker.  You never know who you may meet on a good day like this. Lots of neighbors, kids, parents to great grandparents all like a walk with the dog or maybe a jog.  If you go on a cold rainy day there will be many less people. One cold day along here I heard a strange noise and found a coyote on the path ahead.

double wind - double drawings

Original wind farm 

                   
                   These minimalist little sketches are the result of a few minutes forced rest from driving and a walk in a Kansas gale.  The wind was gusting at about 40 mph and it seemed averaging just below that.  I had to lean against a tree to stand up.  It was late November and the wind was not warm. We were on I-70 at a rest stop amid the wind generators that populate the landscape on both sides of the highway.  You can see one over the hill in the drawing below.
                   These original farmsteads were extremely dependent on the wind for the water that sustained their way of life. The same wind that made it almost impossible to function some days, and sucked the moisture out of the land. The wind had a double function- as a blessing and yet as a curse. And this day I was there plastered to the tree by this double wind- blowing at double its normal intensity.

No Competition

                   
                     "No competition" is the companion sketch that goes with "the original wind-farm"; it was the view just down the hill to the left of the first sketch.  This barn and silo sit on the property with the stone house in the other drawing.   Over the horizon just beside the windmill you can see the head of the wind generator off in the distance. Windmills will always have a function to provide cheap water in remote areas.  Electric wind generators have yet to prove their long term viability. Maybe there is no competition between the two. The wind here has this double function one way or another- providing water and power for the mid-west.
                     Both these sketches were done in my 5"x9" pad with only the extra fine Sharpie I had in my pocket.

Table time

           Did a boo-boo on the time. It was actually 9:53 am, but the sharpie I was using bled a bit and turned it into 5:53; or my fingers just shook too much. The November morning sun was coming in this east window enough to give some interest to this setup at the kids place.  We were all there for thanksgiving.  If you look out the west side you can see Pike's Peak.  Now today in the spring I hear that they are cleaning furiously so they can put the house on the market for a pending move cross country.  Hey, I just noticed that the date of this drawing was somebody's birthday...
           Looks like this drawing was done in a 5" x 9" pad, with ink shaded some by pencil.

Watertower pumphouse

              We were a little early getting "down the hill" to Eldorado.  After a stop at the $ store for some decorations and getting a fillup of gas for $1.67 per gallon, we still had a few minutes to kill, so we drove the 1/4 mile north headed out of town to this location.  It was a steep drop on the old drive off the highway into the mud and the rain, but we made it in & out ok.  I put down my window to draw, but the rain managed to blow in the window so that I ended up looking through the rain running down the window to  do the drawing.   Finished it at home the next day.   Again, I have some pics of this tower but was looking for the chance for a location drawing.  Glad it finally happened. The results are more spontaneous for me than working from a photo.  More spontaneous, yes, but I did not say more true to life.  I have never seen a round pump house at least not with a wooden cistern built above the stone.  Some early Kansas farmer had a creative mind, or else a good memory from "de olt contry?"  Someday maybe we can look inside! The old farmstead is no longer occupied.
             Done in an 11x14" sketchpad with Sharpie markers over pencil.

sign of change

                  The sign company was loading out a sign for installation.  I show no date, but am guessing it was late November.  I had taken a few minutes to find something to draw when I came upon this boom truck sitting here late in the day ready to load the crated sign. Or maybe he was off loading it. No one was around for the entire time of my sketch -must'a gone inside to check his paperwork??      
                  I did this in a small sketch pad with nothing but an extra fine Sharpie. There is a point when they are neither totally new nor totally exhausted when they are great for line drawing. Drawing is always an education; you learn a lot about the subject that you did not know before, and about how poorly you actually see it. Sometimes I start first with a pencil for the basic view, but did not do that in this case. It does look a lot like pencil in the reproduction though. Maybe that is because getting a photo of this drawing that would look decent digitally was not easy with our camera.  I ended up "Gimping" ("photoshoping") quite a bit extra in this case just to clean up the background.

tea cup on the table

               It does not seem that I am done doing drawings that include this table.  This tea cup provided a good point of interest for a wide bare strong grained table end.  Here we had a good opportunity to use the pencil shading to some advantage (I hope!) in expressing the tone and the texture of the table top. Black marker ink on the other hand makes a good foil for the subject and expresses the void behind the corner well.  At least that's my take on it....
               This table is one Dad bought used and refinished many years ago...
                Not sure if the cup came from Grandma Ruth or Grammie Harvey.
               The chairs are needing a lot of work, but the table is still beautiful.

Centennial Park Gazebo

           
             One of my winter Saturday morning walks.  It was cold, but if I hid behind a tree along the creek I could keep my fingers working long enough to manage this quickie.  Think I finished it up some at home actually.  Did more than one on this walk.  This is the only one that amounted to anything.  I had been looking for an angle which would do this subject justice.  Maybe this is it.  I like the over the horizon focus- it gives the drawing some sense of purpose or anticipation of climbing the hill and arriving at the shelter.           Done on 5"x 8" Strathmore Sketch in pencil over marker.

Kentucky street the next week

         
          This drawing is of the south side of the "Kentucky Street" posted two days ago. Yes I know I forgot to post it yesterday like I promised...  This drawing was started a couple weeks or more after the first one.  It has plenty to interest me and I had a good place where I could sit in the truck on a chilly morning in the middle of running a few errands. There is lots of contrast in tones as well as direction of movement in a subject like this. Done in ink over pencil in a 11" x 14" format but with much more attention to detail than some quicker sketches.

the ladder backs

          The first thing to catch my eye here was the double diamond shape made by the highlight on the top of the two front legs together in the center of the left drawing.  I could have caught that with out doing the chairs, but I got distracted by the lights and shadows of the "ladder backs".

             

         These were Kim's new chairs.  Not really new; not even terribly recent for her, as she found them used a few months before we showed up for Thanksgiving.  The armchair I did a little more squat than is actual. You may need to click on the post to actually see the 2nd drawing.  In the drawing of the 2 chairs I was more intent on showing the length of the back, which of course I over did there.  In the second it is understated.

          Both of these drawings are done in a mid sized format with .9 mm lead.

Kentucky Street

           
          One of the houses along Kentucky Street that are fun to draw. The alley behind is interesting as well, that is where the recent "behind Carnegie" is located, as I had mentioned before.  I have done this place both back and front now as well as others along this row.  I can think of 7 or 8 drawings in this half block either in the alley or along the street.  I will post a drawing tomorrow from the same half-block; actually of this same house from the south.
           This particular experiment with ink over pencil took some days to get it to satisfy me.  After sitting there starring at me for a week or 2 I finally added some more pencil and ink.  That is a risky thing to do if you are too enamored with your own work.  But what did I have to loose?

early afghan

           You may have seen this couch before; don't remember right now if I have posted any other sketches of it. It is upstairs at Gramma's house, where we often are for a game of Mexican Train. The afghan is an old motif seen more often maybe 40 years ago.  It is a baby size; at least not full size. But it has been on the couch a long time. There is a good contrast between the couch and the color of the sunflowers in the afghan.  Does make me wonder where the afghan came from.  Who made it? My mother, or my wife?  actually probably someone else entirely, like Gramma Ruth herself. 
          This small sketch was done with marker and pencil. Nice to have some variety of subjects to post. The earth is full of stuff of interest for ink and paper. 

behind Carnegie

                    We first visited the original Carnegie Library in the early 1970's with Margaret Thomas.  This little rental has been sitting there in the alley behind the library probably longer than the Carnegie building.  The alleys almost always seem more interesting than the main drags.  That may be partly because there are less expectations there of the results. Google street view does not normally show the alleys, at least not yet.   I have drawn a number of the places along here.
                   This drawing is done entirely in pencil, due to what I perceived as the subtle nature of the shadows and highlights.

Behind Louis's place

             Many a Saturday morning the lot falls to me to take Grandmother Ruth to the hairdresser Louis. It is one of the few activities she does in the week that she can always remember when it is and who does it.  Any changes in the last few years are much harder to remember. As she says, "My memory goes on vacation" to which I reply, "Oh, and when is it coming back?"       I have an hour or so to run errands, or draw after dropping her off.  
          This drawing was done behind Louis's place in a 5" x 9" format on Strathmore sketch paper with pencil and marker.          Somehow the jpg did not get downloaded originally. Sorry folks...

Window Plants

          They sit in front of the window in the waiting area of the old police station built in 1950  Looks to me like they are just waiting for someone to sketch 'em, so here goes...  Actually as is often the case, this drawing got touched up some after arriving home later in the day.   I figure if you get something on paper you can evaluate it later and make improvements the next drawing.  Does that work for you??
           Done in an 11" x 14 " sketch pad with Sharpie markers of various types.

old farm pond

          The farm pond at Prairie Park has belonged to the city since before we came to the neighborhood in 1978. Somehow it got the name "Mary's Lake." Maybe that was the farm wife- or the daughter...    This view is toward the southwest where the stone farmhouse once sat just past the end of the dam.  
          I remember in Eudora before we had 5 kids being totally frozen and in pain after a short sketching walk. It was about 20 degrees that day. I still do stuff like that today as you can see from the notes on this sketch.  The ol' stone farmhouse used to sit on the horizon where you see the crane boom in this drawing.  The lake has frozen and thawed at least twice since then; here it was in the process of freezing the first time, so you can see reflections in the water not frozen yet.         
          The problem with marker ink in this sketch pad is that it shows through the thin paper from behind as you can tell in this photo.

The barn on Michigan

           The plans to do a drawing of this vintage barn came to me one day on a cold walk through the neighborhood.  I was getting my "morning constitutional" while waiting for Grandma to get her hair done.  It was not too cold to sketch, but I had walked too far and now needed to move at a good clip if I  were to get back in time.  Not that Gram-ma would worry- she is like a toddler in her inability to remember time. Or like an animal that never remembers the close calls, but moves on without worry.  It is me that worries if I am late to pick her up.

Not the end of the grove

          While  walking through where we had hundreds of times in 35 years I found this scene where there had been a second growth hedge and locust wood. There are now about 20 trees left in this patch of wood now so far.  Used to be King Radio in the '80's when we would play hedge apple bowling in the parking lot.                   
          I could not resist the urge to sketch the crane, the building frame and the tree together.  The construction crew was gone for the weekend.  They were not getting any overtime, as the weather has allowed them to get well ahead of schedule this winter. The building is for the school district that has leased the property.  It has been an education for this guy watching all the construction going on here in our "neck of the woods" this last year. 
          Done with pencil and extra fine Sharpie over the top, in a 9"  x 12" Strathmore sketch pad that is easy to carry on a walk where you do not know what you will be getting into for sure. 

Place-mats

           This is the third sketch posted this week that I used to help me finish the drawing "Christmas Birthday."  This was a quick study of the positioning of the place mats on the dining table. Which were interesting in their random arrangement and contrast of color with the dark table and the highlights, shadows and reflections you can see. The place-mats had nothing to do with the final drawing, but  it helps to do sketch studies that are spontaneous to keep an eventual finished drawing from being too stale.
           Because this drawing was done in a pad with light weight paper, you can see spots from the marker drawing on the previous page that bled onto this page. Sometimes the effect is nice.  Maybe not so much in a pencil drawing. The chair back in the front of the drawing was a study of its own, with no attempt to make it fit the scale of the table...

Lamp study

             I had already done a line drawing of the kids dinning room, but did this drawing in an effort to better understand the issues involved in this part of it.  So this drawing combined with the room drawing were used along with a photo or 2 to record the tonal variations  to produce the finished drawing  "Christmas Birthday."

Poinsettia

          Here is a sketch that was done at the time of the original sketch of "Christmas Birthday" (posted Jan 16th). It made a good study to inform the finished drawing of the dining area.  I was attracted to the lights and shadows coming from the windows reflecting on this little table.  A pencil sketch with potential for a finished drawing or painting as a seasonal highlight to help remember the joys of the season and the Christ of Christmas.

              In the next couple days I will put up a couple more sketches done in preparation for finishing "Christmas Birthday."

the Woodshed

            On a recent visit to Schonberg's Tree Service to "help" with a modification  they were doing on a grapple, I took some time to do some drawing.  I was of little help to Justin, other than letting him see that he could weld it back together as good as the old guy.  But the drawing was somewhat successful.  It was chilly in the shade, but this second drawing was done sitting in the full sun where it was very comfy.  I have photos of Phil's wood shed from some years back and had thought it a fitting subject for a drawing, so...                        Done on some 9" x 12" format paper in pencil and marker, I am reasonable happy with the result.  The darkness of the firewood in the shadows and the negative spaces it creates against the lighter background and foreground make for a nice composition.        
           Done 1/16/15 about 1:00 pm.  I recorded the temp at 60 degrees, but it was not that in the shade early in the day I don't think.