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 #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 #2- Dancin' Shoes

I was thinking today about how I am grateful in many ways for the opportunities my daughter has had through dance.

Beginning in Kindergarten or so, she started lessons in ballet, and has continued ballet and tap and progressed to pointe last year, five years after she first started.

She does really well in dance, and that's great. She loves it- that's the main thing. Will she make a career out of it when she gets older? Probably not. But I love that she has a positive activity that she can share with her friends at this confusing age, as she readies to enter her teen years.

Dance has made her body strong, has given her a good self image, and has afforded some great opportunities to dance with professional dancers in several versions of the Nutcracker- with the Miami City Ballet two years ago, and with the Moscow Ballet this past Christmas.

I decided to draw her pointe shoes, and tried something new for me here- I didn't pencil in any shapes first- just "went for it" with the Micron 05.

I have definitely been a "pencil and paper" gal myself. Drawing in graphite is my comfort zone, for sure. Hatching and crosshatching are somewhat new for me. Of course, I tried them long ago (you don't want to know how long ago) in college drawing classes, but I have never been a big fan of working that way myself.

Lately though, I gaze in awe at the fabulous pen and ink sketches I have seen in the EDM forums and elsewhere in some of the sketchbook pools on Flickr. It is pretty darn inspiring.

So I have decided that I too want to hatch and crosshatch! Yes! I can do it it! - at least I will try it and give it a go. I found out that it is pretty fun after all, especially when you throw a little watercolor on it.

I'm still behind in the EDinM challenge, and hope to do another sketch of gratefulness tonight. Yep- I'm grateful for the fun of art. Isn't art fun?

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....