Winter sprouts

A simple ink drawing done with a couple ballpoint pens.
This is the philodendron that sat all summer on our kitchen table. Originally  it was to get potted in the spring.
          It makes a quick subject and the arrangement of the leaves often catches my attention. Can't say I ever get it quite the way I'd like.

       I forgot to post this one yesterday. You can see the leaves have the same attitude as the one before but it ends up being an entirely different drawing.

Two lighthouses

This is a drawing done in Duluth when we were there in August. There there is a lighthouse on the end of each pier on either side of the canal.   This is the view of the lighthouses from the north side.

There are endless things to draw- especially at the waterfront.  We were on our way up the north shore.

I have been filling a 60 page 5" x 9" sketch pad every month or so. There should be some more Minnesota drawings to post.

The Mueller

      This fella stands between Shannon's yard and the neighbor to the South.
     I did the drawing while standing there myself under the shade of Shannon's Green Ash.
     I had previously posted the American Darling water hydrant- drawn in Florida but mfg. in Birmingham. Probably one of the earliest styles I remember.
     This drawing is a Mueller- cast in Albertville, Alabama.
     Later I'll post the Waterous-manufactured in St Paul Minnesota. It is the modern style, with a single casting for the top and the 3 outlets.
     Below you can see one of three or four pages of studies I did mostly from memory before doing this on location drawing.

     You could of course do endless research on the history of these babies, with all their iterations.
     This drawing was done in pencil on a 5 by 9 format.
   

You betcha.

Compass plant

It isn't very often that I trust my evaluation on what plant is what, however this Compass plant half dried up and ready for fall was pretty obvious. I was glad for the one remaining flower.
It was a mid-morning walk in the Baker Wetlands.
The sun was so bright, even with my sunglasses on & the sun behind my head, I still had to shave my eyes from the light reflecting off the plant.
This was done again in a 5x9 pad with pencil and a fine ballpoint.
Thanks fer lookin' ;)

The chair and the downspout

So here's a drawing I did last week last week. It was in the evening after working on the north side of the house. The gutter had been pulled out and was sticking out in the dark against the white chair. Maybe 10 minutes 15 to do it small - in a 5x9.pad. Leaves little question about what to leave out because you can't see most of the stuff that you would normally put in!
This is my first post done entirely on my phone...
No cheers please from the peanut gallery =)

2 ink farms

           These barns are always some of my favorite thumbnails, especially when done with a wide dark pen...    not much I guess, but a quick record of what you see that may be usable in the future as a watercolor or something...

Cymbidium Orchid

A number of these potted orchids were sitting around the house when we drove up to Georgia from Florida for a couple days.  This plant was in the room we slept in at Matthew's place. Their oldest still called it "Grammie and Papa's bedroom" for some time after we left. That is quite an honor, as some pretty important company has slept there since our visit.  I know very little about orchids. These are fairly small and maybe fairly common as well, but sure dressed up the house, as well as my sketch pad.

High Tower beach

This was the morning of our flight back to Kansas. We were taking a short walk on the beach, but I got separated from the ladies, as I was taking too long drawing. This was the view south. I was not sure if that was the real name of this beach or not....but I guess it is...
And the terns were being cooperative, though I did not have much time left to sketch...

Library Stop

When you "do" grand kids, your always "doing" the library.  This quick stop was just long enough for me to get a couple sketches done of the Suntree/Viera branch. This one was the more complete than the other. It is an interesting study of the shadows and reflections on the entry glass of the entryway.
Done in ink with a ball point pen in the 5 x 9 inch format I used most of this trip...

Boats & Stuff

You see these guys sitting on the rivers, the Banana and the Indian. There is between the kid's place and the beach, a whole lot more water and sea shells than there is dirt for sure...

 With 2 wide rivers and the ocean, there is never any lack of boats to draw.

Running up Merritt Island these are some of the sights we saw. A canoe hanging on the side of a dock. waiting I guess for some action...

Quick sketches of one boat and a few palm trees....

Sketches from the first town in Brevard County, Florida.

More sketches on the morning school run up South Tropical Trail.

The neighborhood pond.

The pond has turned into the fishin' hole for some of our grand kids 

We were getting ready to hit the road to the airport. My pens were all "dislocated" but I was able to grab one laying around the kitchn to use for a quick sketch of the morning reflections over the pond across the patio pool.

The drawings identify the pen I used. A Metallic Write dudes- a silver color, that gave an interesting effect. Much more gray in color, and more shine to the drawing, which reproduced better in the first.

Both drawings were from inside the patio door. I decided to do the top drawing to emphasize just the reflections themselves, and from a different angle of a different subject.

One of the sketch pads that contains most of these Florida posts.

Interiors sketches from Florida

Here is a reasonably finished drawing of the kids' front door looking over the kitchen counter and through the "tunnel". The date is wrong by a month- it musta been February 1^st.

Here was the view looking the other way through the patio door from the living room.

This cockeyed view of the hutch was inspired by the reflections in the glass doors that come from the sliding door opening to the pool.

This bedroom door stands open most of the time. We had done some work in the room hanging a home made barnwood valance over the window. This study is of the relationship between all the angles and serfaces on the door and the frame. The dark interior of the room adds just enough contrast to make the compositon work.

These were all done with ink in a couple different pads. Most were a 5x9 format.

Palm trees

Here are a series of palm trees done mostly in Florida late January & early February.  It was nice weather all the time we were there. We always do some errands with the family, as well as going with them on the school run, with the occasional traffic jam to go with it. But these local trips provide some opportunity to sketch trees that we do not see in Kansas!

Gas stops were another chance for some sketching of local trees.

              

  Some of these have a bit of explanation- some do not. Many are of the ubiquitous sabal palmetto- referred to as the cabbage palm I guess because in the early days they used to eat the knee high heads of young trees which resembled cabbage to a degree.  These trees are everywhere and take many shapes which are often dramatic visually. There are hundreds of other palmettos as well, some of which you seldom see.

You will have to forgive the occasional spelling error...

Transportation

Here are three drawings. 

2 thumbnails done while moving, and one a bit more studied. 

All done with a ball point pen in the same 5 x 9 pad.

First a quick sketch done from the truck as we passed this fella at the stop light.

And then here was a jeep sitting just long enough for a quick sketch. We were on US highway 1 running down through Melbourne.  Not sure if the palm was part of the scene or just got stuck there.

                While with the kids in Florida we stopped at the Sprint store and talked about options. This sketch was a byproduct of that stop. Not sure what the ladies were doing right at the time, but they did not need my help, so I was able to grab a quick sketch of another sabal palm. This is the palm of the south- at least Florida.  They are everywhere.  

                 Just hopped out of the car, leaned against it and started sketching.  The unfinished look of the car is nice.  Not sure if it was intentional, or if I just ran out of time.

Stuhr Museum Visit

                Here are some sketches and drawings I did at the 4th of July parade through Railroad Town at the Stuhr Museum on our trip to central Nebraska. Hats off to all the family we saw and the grand way they entertained us.                               There were reenactors of all types in this prairie reconstruction and the parade. This fella was reading an historical speech after the band had played. Some of these speeches were well worth hearing these days.                                                                                                                                                This little sketch was an attempt to catch the play between the white and black of the image. It was not the first sketch of the day, however, but just something of interest.    The deal for me is to not get sidetracked with all the stuff around the image that catches my eye. Not always easy, but maybe I managed in this case.

           

This caboose, was at the end of the run- it  was the last drawing of the day. We were gathered around talking just before leaving Rail Road Town.  But the caboose was there, sorta begging me to put it to paper, so .....

                                     

          In the scene above I liked the figures in front of the tree and how the shadows played across the Main Street with the Depot sitting across the grass.  Not sure now if this was done before or after the next.  It was done with a ball point pen right from the get go. Little if any pencil involved, in a small Canson sketch pad - 5" x9" format.                                                 

   

I had brought my sketch pad, against my better judgement- this was, after all, 'sposta be sort of a family time you know...  It was the 4th of July parade, with a band and speeches!  And there were too many people around -  don't wan'a make a scene! But eventually I broke down, opened up the small pad, and pulled out a pencil.  This was the result.  Started with pencil and finished later with ball point pen in the 5x9 Canson pad. Nothing fantastic, but a good memory, some good practice, it kept me out of trouble, and gave some folk something different to talk about!

American Darling

So here is a close-up drawing of the fire hydrant. I had time while the ladies were shopping to find stuff to draw. This drawing was one of the results. Not only do hydrants have a great deal of character, they often do as this one does, hide a lot of history. Their web site indicates this hydrant has been in production for 50 years.

Twin palm

An ink drawing in the parking lot of our favorite grocery place... ALDI.  If you have not been to this one, you have not seen these palm trees, or the fire hydrant either!  This is in Melbourne, FL on our 2nd trip there. We don't get to draw palm trees in Kansas!

Maximilian Sunflower

 

This is my first drawing from the garden adjacent to the Nature Center. I had been thinking it would be a great place to draw.  It was such a warm day as you can see by the notes- especially by early November standards.  We used to hope for the first snow by this time! As I was drawing the moths kept landing on different flowers, so one got added to the drawing. This particular clump of sunflowers is very large, and tall, with many shoots and flowers.
As I was drawing a bunch of school kids came by headed into the center. As it turned out some of them go to church with us, and there mother was along as well. I believe this is a Maximilian Sunflower. When I asked the girls at the desk in the Nature Center they could not tell me for sure.   This was in a 9" x 12" format on some Strathmore paper with pencil and ball point pen.

Sketches of cars & trucks

 Here is a collection of sketches of vehicles done over the course of several months last year... 2 local, 2 on Dorothy's street, and 2 on a road trip in Arkansas.

 I was waiting for tires to be put on the Accord, so had about 1/2 hour to use up.  Parking lots always have subjects.  This was one of 3 pages of 5" x 9" sketches  I did in that time frame. These
were done with a ball point pen. 
A smaller sketch than the first one. But done at the same time. Cropped from the full sheet,

This was done at the same time as Carport lighting.  I was waiting for the ladies to finish their stuff inside. It was very warm out for a November evening, so I was just kicking around the street with a sketch pad. This was the open door of our pickup as I walked back to the house.

We had spent a stressful night in a cold rundown motel. This was actually probably someone working in the area from further north who had also spent the night, and maybe a lot of nights, as they were redoing the large conference room.  All the carpet had been stripped off the concrete floor and  the new was in rolls waiting to be installed. They were having a big pro wrestling convention in town the coming weekend and were a long ways from being ready for the full house they were predicting....               You can see a junco bird sitting at the top of the evergreen. He was getting ready to head north late in the winter like we were doing....

Here was another vehicle at the motel in Jonesborro. Not sure if this jeep also had out of state tags so I am not sure if it was just us or them as well that was getting out of Arkansas!

SS,44 & Cypress

I have done a number of drawings in North Lawrence, some dating back to the 1980's. I was sitting in a newer parking lot and this is the scene I found.  A cypress tree, a sleek "cabin cruiser" for sale and a fellow walking down the sidewalk.  No date on this one.  Seems the format is 9" x 12"- Once again done with a pen of some sort.  
6/18/17  I forgot to say that the tree is a cypress. There is a row of them along N. 2nd. As there are in a few places in Lawrence. At one time the largest cypress tree in KS was in Lawrence .

elevators & tankers

This empty parking area along the tracks in N. Lawrence is a good place to get a view of the grain elevators and the angles they create against the tanker cars on the rail siding. Lots of interest along the railroad.  It was 60 degrees on the 4th of November with a clear sky when this drawing was done. 9 x 12" format on Canson paper.

Alley addition

I always made numerous trips through town. On one such trip I was headed down the alley when this scene presented itself to me.  People were coming and going out of the Re-store, as well as the construction site. A garage was ready to start going up that would soon partly obscure the old stone and brick behind it to the south.