SDIM- Otis, our Pug

I just did a spread for my Gratitude sketch journal about the newest member of our family, adopted two days before Christmas 2007.

Otis, our pug, belonged to neighbors two doors down, but he walked into our garage just before my daughter's big Nutcracker ballet performance, and when we tried to return him we found out that his owners were moving and were looking for a home for him.

He is great in all ways except that he wasn't totally housebroken. He is 3-1/2, and set in his ways, so this has caused us much consternation, but we are getting there. He is used to having three long walks a day, and more if he doesn't go to the bathroom right away. This is nearly impossible for us, so trying to get him to jibe with the routines of our other two dogs has been the big goal.

Anyway, here is a sketch of Otis along with some of my journaling.... It is Conte' pencil (3B) and three shades of Conte' crayon from my portrait set in my hand.print sketch journal.

Every Day in May #9- Being Pampered

Mother's Day is tomorrow, and my family is so sweet. They made me a great dinner tonight- planned it, cooked it and cleaned it up! Who could ask for more?!

I was happy to have the time to do two drawings today for the Every Day in May challenge. I'm only one behind now for my goal of having a total of 31 drawings for the month in my Gratitude sketch journal.

It's late, and I am pretty tired for some reason, so I don't feel like writing a lot write now.

Tomorrow, we are taking a drive down to Ft. Myers to visit the Edison summer estate. It's an amazing place, and I haven't been there for at least twenty years. I'm looking forward to getting some sketches in while there.

I am also looking forward to spending time with my husband and daughter. They are always so good to me, and that makes me feel grateful tonight.

Every Day in May #8- Living in Ozona ( ie. paradise)

I was really in a painting mood today and wanted to break out the acrylics, but I am going for a somewhat cohesive look in my Gratitude sketch journal, so I decided on the drawing/illustration style I have been using so far in the journal, using the Micron pens and watercolor.

I primarily used a Micron 01, but I wanted some thicker lines in certain places and added a 08 Zig Millennium line for those. I drew some, painted some, and then drew some more over the painted areas, but found that my pen (especially the thin 01) didn't like going over the painted paper. Maybe it just wasn't dry enough.

I'm up in my studio, listening to the sound of Osprey outside. They have a very distinct call. In fact, it is a bit surprising to hear their high-pitched, rapid-fire cheep cheep cheep since they are a more powerful bird. If you are unfamiliar with osprey, they are birds of prey and are something like a hawk or eagle. I often seeing them fly with a fish in their talons. They like to be up high, and build their massive nests up in tall trees, and many times build them on platforms that have been supplied at the tops of telephone poles for them.

Just across the street, we are fortunate to have a nest in view. Unfortunately, I can't quite see it from my studio window, but I can hear them out there. Just about 1/4 mile down the road is a large marina, and a osprey couple builds a nest there on top of the marina sign every year. It is built amazingly low for an osprey nest and you can get a really great view of their goings-on.

I LOVE the tiny little town where I live. It's called Ozona (I know, the name is funny but I like it!) We have been here now in this house for the past eleven years. Prior to that, my husband and I moved around in Florida a lot because of our jobs, and never had a place longer than about two years or so.

We've put roots down here, and have called Ozona home, and it feels really nice when you live in a house that you know that you will keep for a long while.

We can paint our rooms whatever colors we like and not have to worry about keeping them neutral for re-sale. We can build things the way we like them for our family and the dogs (a dog run, for example).

I live one street over from one of my sisters, and I can tell you that it is a wonderful thing to have her so close by. We get together frequently, and it is nice for my daughter to have her aunt and uncle right around the corner.

Whenever I am out gardening or in the front yard doing something, neighbors honk and wave. I know a lot of people here, another advantage of staying in a place for a long time.

Ozona also attracts a lot of artists and creative types. We have writers and musicians, etc, as well as a good number of visual artists living here. It is a tiny, quirky, old-Florida, go out on the front porch and sit a spell kind of place.

Ozona is lovely, and I am grateful to live here.

Every Day in May #5- Every Day Matters

This morning, I was reading through some of the comments I have gotten from many of you wonderful people about my blog and my work, and I felt so good about it all. It made me feel really grateful for this recent foray into daily drawing that was basically spurred on from reading through Every Day Matters posts, so I decided to make an entry in my Gratitude sketch journal about it.

Doing these little daily drawings and journaling has given me a small tidbit of creativity to look forward to doing during the course of each day.

Today, I decided right away what I would do, but it took me until late this evening to finish it. I worked a little on it between other tasks and commitments, and it never felt like a chore. It was what I wish I could have spent more time doing. Some days are just busier than others, and today was one of those for me.

But if we give in to the day-to-day grind without including art, we never improve with our skills. For me, it seems the more I do, the more I WANT to do. Every day does matter so much- especially with art. I am so grateful to be able to express myself in this way.

Every Day in May #4- A Powerful Book

So far, all of my gratefulness entries in my Gratitude sketch journal have been pretty lighthearted, but today I was pondering gratitude for something much more simple yet important- something that most of us take for granted every day- having our basic needs met, and being safe and free from oppression.

I just finished the short biography Night last evening by Elie Wiesel, who won the Nobel Peace Prize, as well as other many other impressive awards and medals. His name is truly synonymous with the word "survivor," He lost his entire family in the Holocaust, and would have died also at age 16, if not for the liberation of the death camp at Buchenwald on April 11, 1945.

I have read books and seen movies about the Holocaust, but when I visited the National Holocaust Museum last month and saw the most incredible exhibit there, I felt like I had experienced the information in a much more personal way. I watched the tape rolling while it showed the list of one after one of the over 400 laws that were passed when the Nazis took power, stripping everything away from the Jewish people, little by little. First, things as strange as not allowing them to buy eggs, then requiring their identification with the wearing of the gold star, and then much, much worse.

These people were financially destroyed first, quickly followed by the most inhuman of acts, meant to destroy them mentally and physically, until they had given all they could give. Once that happened, they were either left for dead or were taken to be killed. It is still hard to wrap my mind around the craziness of all of this, and the sheer evilness of it too.

This sketch is vastly different from my last Every Day in May sketch (the one of Spring, and my Gerber daisies. It is much darker.

I used a Micron 01 pen, but penciled in a few lines to help me stay on track. The text was difficult to draw. Being "perfect" is not my forte.

For some reason, as I did the dark hatching and crosshatching, the drawings of Edward Gorey popped into my head. Maybe it was just all that black crosshatching.

Night made me sad as I read it, but it also made me very grateful to have the life I live.

Every Day in May #1

I'm jumping on the "Every Day in May" bandwagon, along with many of my new acquaintances from the Every Day Matters forum.

I thought it would be fun to do daily sketches for things that crossed my mind that made me happy that day, so my theme is Gratitude.

I am a few sketches behind, since I am just beginning this on May 4th, but plan to do a few extra to "catch up" and get my 31 drawings done for my little Gratitude sketch journal.

I chose to start a new journal for this- a Handbook brand that is in the square format. So far so good, but I've just done the intro pages, so am counting that for Day 1. Kinda silly, kinda fun, nothing too deep today. I was thinking as I made dinner that I was grateful for olive oil. Hmm....