wagonized

I should

I should draw more.  I should post more.  I should blog more.  I should visit more blogs.  Pilot pen in my "babylogue" Moleskine. 

Baby Ryan

Ryan is Lauri's baby.  He was born exactly two months to the day before Nora.  HB pencil. 

My 2009 Christmas cards

I have finally finished my Christmas cards.  They are printed and ready to be sent to my friends and family everywhere.  This year, it won't be a Scandinavian beauty (like in 2007 and 2008) but an American classic.  Pigma Micron 08 and watercolor. 

Pepper

One of the pages in my Moleskine babylogue has to address the Beatles.  Sooner or later, I have to explain to Nora what the Beatles have meant to me.  I had to illustrate that with some kind of Beatles image, so I did a quick little sketch with my Pilot pen.  I tried to Photoshop the gutter out -- though not quite completely on Sir Paul's suit.  

Adjusting the adjustable

I am absent from my own blog for days at a time, and I come back with a page of wrenches?  One wrench, actually, since there is only one lying around.  Pigma Micron 05 with a dash of Photoshop for the blue background -- as an attempt to make it interesting.

Cousteau-dian

This has been both an exercise and a duty.  I was wondering what piece to donate for a show aimed at raising funds for my friend Megan's friend.  I didn't want to give an old drawing, I wanted something fresh, and I had not done a pencil portrait in a long time.  I had seen a photo of Jacques-Yves Cousteau by Yousuf Karsh and had been toying with the idea of drawing him.  Gone are the days of whipping up a portrait in one sitting.  This one took a handful of evenings.  The more I draw, the slower I get.  HB pencil.

Teething

Nora, our vigorous little 5-month old, has been gnawing at this little plastic fish for days now.  She likes holding it, looking at it, and gnawing at it some more.  Pilot pen and colored pencil in my Moleskine "babylogue".

Dr. Pepper, Pilot pen and mary janes for baby

I am not fond of posting my little doodles, but it's as good as it gets these days.  I still carry around two sketchbooks in my purse (a small Moleskine and my soft cover 5.5 x 8.5 Canson) at all times but don't get too many opportunities to open them and scratch the paper with the tip of my Pigma Micron.

Scanner & friends

There is a bit of a mess growing on our dining room table and I am not sure what some of these items are.  But among those I know, there is a scanner, a baby monitor, a couple of hard drives, the little stuffed dog that always tips forward and a roll of film.

Pigma Micron 05 in my Canson sketchbook.

WNYC 93.9 FM

I would rather post a quick little drawing of my little WNYC tote bag than no drawing at all.  I did this during today's meeting and added some color with colored pencil when I got home.  

I just wanted to acknowledge the presence of this little tote I carry around every day.

Dan, Mike & Melissa

If I don't take a few minutes to draw during the day, they will be taken away from me.  Today, it was toward the end of class with my Freshmen.  I added a dash of watercolor later.

Worksheet

We were sitting in a meeting at school today, and my sketchbook was in my purse, so I used the worksheet someone handed to me to doodle on it.  Nothing earth-shattering or that would push me out of my comfort zone.  Just meeting doodles.  Pilot pen V7, my favorite of them all.

Can't get back up

The little stuffed dog that has been sitting on the dining room table can't actually sit.  The size of his head forces his whole body to tip forward, boom.  He's been like this for days.  

2B "fat" Cretacolor graphite in Moleskine.

Babylogue

 

I have kept a Moleskine (a babylogue?) since the birth of our baby.  It is full of anecdotes and drawings, like this one done quickly tonight of a bottle that has been sitting on my dresser.  We are trying to get Nora used to formula, hence the presence of the dark blue and gold bottles around our house.  

Pilot V7 pen in Moleskine.

Old brown bag

There is no shortage of camera bags at our house.  This one is probably the oldest -- its fake leather is almost gooey.  Eeew.  But it does look like it belongs with Gene Hackman in the French Connection.  Though I guess Gene Hackman never carried a camera bag in that movie.  Or did he.  I never saw it in its entirety.  

Pigma Micron 05 in sketchbook and a dash of Photoshop for the background.

Green tea ice cream

I've never had green tea ice cream -- I just found a neat photo in Yusheng's photostream on Flickr and wanted to do a little exercise in values. 

2B mecanical pencil (at least I think it's 2B -- it's the one I use at school) in Canson sketchbook.

Wagonized is really running on two cylinders.  So much so that I was prompted to enter my ID and password with Typepad to start this post!  Also, the days of doing a drawing in one sitting are over.  I did this one in 15-minute sessions throughout the day today.

Blah

Boring meetings can yield some interesting sketches, but that wasn't the case two days ago.  My doodles felt blah and I felt the same.  But it is the beginning of a new sketchbook -- a little 5.5 x 8.5 Canson that I keep in my purse.

11 weeks old

While Nora was taking a late afternoon nap, I was able to do a quick sketch of her after a picture her Papa took with his iPhone :-)

2B "fat" Cretacolor graphite on Canson paper.  Should have used HB, but too late.

Lime

It took me a few days because of a few interruptions, but I've finally managed to draw my new ride.  I wish it was green, but did you notice that one would be hard pressed to find a car manufacturer that makes a car in green anymore.  Most brands offer two or three shades of grey, a black, a white, a red, and a couple of blues.  So I got mine in black -- because that was the only 5-speed manual around.  Hooray for Chevy for making a fun and practical car.  

Pigma Micron 08 and watercolor in watercolor Moleskine.

I got a '69 Chevy with a 396, Fuelie heads and a Hurst on the floor

No, I didn't get a '69 Chevy.  I'm just quoting Bruce.  I bought a 2009 Chevy.  And the best part is, Obama guilted me into it. I needed a four-door car and couldn't help heeding our president's plea: "If you're going to buy a car, buy an American car".  So I did.  For all the cars I draw, you'd think I would have doodled it instead of the ignition key attached to my key chain.  But I don't know, it's one of those little changes.  No more Honda key.  

And it's the end of my spiral Canson sketchbook.  

After midnight

  

What was I doing last night after midnight?  Doodling the mobile above Nora's little bassinet.  And of course, no sooner had I finished the first fish than she was asleep.  Me, I had to finish the drawing first.

I've just seen a face

I used to draw those a lot: faces, usually seen in the newspaper or on Flickr, would end up in one of my Moleskines and I would add colored pencil in the background.  But then I moved away from that, because it became a bit gimmicky to me.  So I didn't draw faces with pen for a while.  Until yesterday.  The original photo is by Leroy Skalstad on Flickr.

Pilot V7 pen in Moleskine.

Three!

My blog is 3 years old today!  I thought a Volvo wagon would be an appropriate way to celebrate.  

Thank you all for continuing to visit, despite the obvious slowdown in posting lately!

Pigma Micron 08 and watercolor in watercolor Moleskine.  

Asleep

I have not had time to draw -- it's as simple as that.  But added to this, I have not felt the inclination to draw much either.  I beat myself up for letting drawing opportunities (however fleeting) go by, but frankly, I have not felt capable of drawing stuff.  I doodled on what seems to be the penultimate page of my Canson sketchbook last night -- and I didn't like it.  But here's some of it.  That's Nora doing what she does best: sleep.

Sensitive

Oh, the precious sensitive wipes.  They were sitting in front of me last night on the coffee table, and I was curious to see if I could draw while the baby was on my lap.  

Pigma Micron 05 and colored pencil in sketchbook.