smokin' egg

Done in very early spring while visiting in Georgia.  Matthew was smoking a pork butt for our evening meal. The "Big Green Egg" has a temp control sitting in the intake down on the left that is wired up to the readout you can see from inside the kitchen window.  The epitome of convenience.  I think the "Egg" could do one butt after another and not run out of fuel.                        This drawing was sitting in a forgotten pad waiting to have a few finishing touches added.  When I found it the other day I thought it better get done.  Like a lot of other stuff around here; painting the house, cleaning out the garage; finishing up the garden for the year, etc, etc... Done in a 11 x 14 inch Strathmore Sketch pad.
     You can go to the thumbnails pg to see a detail or 2.

Farmhouse south wall

White paper and white farm houses seem to go together well. A clear warm summer day, just before the change to fall starts  the air chillin'  & the leaves turning in earnest. Though the grasses have been ripe for days and have long lost their deep spring green.
I'll stick a detail on the thumbnails page (right side bar) for anyone wanting to get up close & personal...

chair back

The ol' desk chair - or so we call it - has served us well.  Now it makes a great place for a laptop to get plopped.  I do not remember the sun landing on the back of the chair as it was this particular afternoon. The juxtaposition of light and dark against each other is irresistible to draw.  After laying out the chair and getting the shades, I added the background.  Then I decided the darks of the chair did not stand out like the should, so I took some 4B lead to them.  It is probably ok now.  I may eventually do a composition that is more black and white, just to see how it would look. It would make an interesting watercolor.

Curb hardware... or bloomin' hostas

 These hostas were leftover from a makeover a Gramma's place.  They spent a winter in the compost pile, and then planted by the back door.  They did not take an extra year to bloom again as I half expected; was that because of the good compost? 

Nice to be able to stand up.   The big chunk of graphite laying on the easel was a gift from Deana who was cleaning out her closet.  The easel came from a neighbor around the block- "curb hardware"- believe it!  I actually have another lighter one from the same store as well. 

        I was keeping an eye out for an opportunity to use the graphite stick.   Had not done these plants when they were blooming, so I am glad I got this done.   Now (since Monday 8/31) I have a roll of heavy paper to use for these quick studies or for large project layouts: 8" diameter by some 62" tall that I can cut paper from one pc at a time.  It should last some years I suppose.  It is also from the same curb!

You can see that I did this on the easel standing by the hostas.
Here is the drawing; the easel; the hostas off to the side and the yard behind.











And a closeup.

Fairgrounds overcast

I had gone for a quick spin in the truck to see what could be found to sketch.  I rolled past the fairgrounds on Harper Street headed north then turned around above the inersection and headed back. Driving into the parking area on the very north end I could see that the scene I had originally hoped for - of a fellow tending a horse next to his rig - had changed.  Then when I saw this scene out my driver's side window I thought, "that's it!"  As I finished drawing a sketch the sprinkles that had been coming off and on started up again in earnest.  It was gray and overcast most the day on this Tuesday the 7th of July and by now at 5 pm it did not look like any hope of fair weather.  Seems like it was a 4-H group that was having a show in the arena, so there were 15 or so rigs around, most of them to the south in the gravel lot. There was a mother guiding a mount past my truck with what looked like her daughter sitting on the horse -they were getting wetter by the second as I drove away.  The grass and the trees added a good feel to the scene.          The watercolor painting was finished at home from the sketch done that afternoon on Strathmore 400 series 11" x 15" paper in a spiral bound pad.

4000 twice

Here is another of the pickup.  Again I just sat in the drive beating off the mosquitoes and did this drawing in the 90 degree heat.  Done in a smaller format of about 10" x 12" with the same 0.9mm B lead, with maybe some larger 2B. These drawings take a little more time than some simplier sketches - maybe about an hour originally sitting there. Then another 30 - 45 min. or so the next day.  Then some reviewing the drawing over the next couple days and tweaking it to improve some areas, and showing a little more depth and believability.

fiddled with the look

Had to change the design so the "follow me" gadget would show up. Some have been wondering why it was not available. Now it is. Let me know what you think. Here's a couple thumbnails I don't think you have seen before, maybe...

Haskell driving range

A quick trip by truck one rainy day to a spot I often pass on the Trek if the weather is a little more dry.  I faced toward the ball field over the top of the driving range toward the trees south of where the red tailed hawks nested this spring.  At the time the young 2 or 3 that survived could still be heard squawking for some attention in the trees as you passed- if it was not raining too much. Why should they hunt for food when complaining works just as well.  I have not seen or heard one of the offspring for a month or so now, so hopefully they are off on their own doing ok. This was a quick sketch, as I was not inclined that morning to fuss with it and also I was wanting to catch the mood and the tone of the scene before another downpour started.                                                               This was done on a Strathmore  140lb pad about 11" x 11" using only part of the paper. I could stand to do more of these quick studies.                            

phone time

 Yah, so I had some opportunities to sketch folk on their phones.  This is a very typical pose as you well know.  These are small thumbnails about 2" tall.

 Cross legged and index finger supported head.

This guy is working his thumb pretty hard.

 Quick sketches like this teach you a bit about how things really look.

South Park south

I figured there would be a place around South Park where I could sit and sketch something of interest. Ta da! Here it is. I actually returned to this place 3 times.  After about 90 minutes of drawing on the first afternoon, the threatening storm finally chased me off with some sprinkles.  Only a couple landed on the paper - and that was through the open car window on the way home. This place attracted my attention  for a number of reasons.  The porch, the roof line, the view down the side of the place, the car, the bike, and on and on... Yah, I know I am not 'sposta get sidetracked by all the details.  So where do I stop?  I had some time, a pencil, and a little white paper left in front of me. There musta been a little breeze too, as the mosquitoes were not pestering me.       Most of the first session was getting the  basic lines down, then I made a stop another day to check on some of the shading. The kid who owns the toad in the driveway walked by and commented how nice it was to find this place to live, and that, "you even got my car in it!"  Then a couple days later on the last stop to finish the drawing Stephanie came with me as I was able to pretty much complete it.
As you can see this was started on the 18th of August about 5 pm when the temp was 78 degrees. Done on Strathmore Sketch 60 lb paper with my trusty Pentel .9mm B lead.

O'Connell bridge

 I was trying to remember when this painting was done.  Sometime the last week or two of June, as it was before "South wetlands". So it was late in June.   I had been thinking that something like this would be interesting, and I had been by here a few days before this.  It was a nice hot day with little breeze and little cloud cover too.  This is less than two miles from home by bicycle and so late afternoon I was able to make it to the spot. I liked the relationship of all the elements together. The bridge, the truck and the cranes sitting on either side of the bridge with their booms aloft. The 2 warning signs on the ends of the vintage bridge framing the new construction....                                 This 11" x 15" was painted directly over a pencil sketch in a Strathmore 140lb watercolor pad.  That is a nice way for me to work.  Gives the spontaneity of a drawing while doing most of the color work in the studio.  Below is a detail of some of the equipment.

connections

This was one of the more interesting sketches to do while sitting at the terminal in Minneapolis.  We had just flown over Rebok's house as we came in. We had only a few minutes to kill. These 2 fellas were sitting where the pilot had been eating his burrito. They were having a lot more pleasant time than their expressions would indicate. They were probably 25 feet away from us but I could hear their accent well enough to guess they were eastern European.

An hour and a half later while waiting at the baggage claim in Kansas City I was standing next to them so I asked where they were from.  One was from Hungary, and the other from Lithuania. They asked me were to find some food and so I told them where the map was of the terminal.  They asked if we had been in Kansas long.  Only since 1970.  After that our bags came so I did not get to ask why they were here. I assumed they were students...