Michelle's Drawings

NaNoWriMo

2009-10-13T19:46:00.000-07:00

I'll be participating in this year's National Novel Writing Month. I don't know if I'll finish, but it's my fourth year to participate, and if I do finish it will be my second marathon of 50,000 words.

Good luck to all the other WriMo's!

Comfy Shoe

2009-07-21T16:34:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite shoes, Privos.

Gourd Video

2009-07-21T11:51:00.000-07:00

My first video, drawing a gourd in Painter.

Gourd

2009-07-17T20:07:00.000-07:00

Small yellow gourd, Painter 2b pencil, about 20 minutes. Still not doing well with the time limit. I am enjoying the process. I also recorded the drawing process, and I'm going to see about converting/ processing and posting that file tomorrow.

Tape Measure

2009-07-16T15:20:00.000-07:00

Stanley tape measure, also Painter 2b pencil with maroon color. This one took a little less time, about 15 minutes instead of 20. The shading and proportions could be better. Maybe tomorrow.

Lego Tree

2009-07-15T09:35:00.000-07:00

Lego tree on the top of my desk, my latest experiment with Painter and my new Bamboo tablet.

About 20 minutes, Painter 2b pencil colored green. I'll be trying some shorter drawings this week, trying to get the hang of digital burns.

News Flash to Me - It's 2009!

2009-07-14T11:44:00.000-07:00

Of my blogs, this one probably has the most posts. I posted 46 drawings between August and October of 2006, and the last post in 2007.

I'm about to start my twelfth year teaching and my fourth year teaching high school art in Texas. I don't teach classes at Michael's any more, unfortunately. I will be updating this blog as frequently as I am able over the next few weeks. That may be once a day and it may be once a month, depending on my other projects.

I'll be practicing using my Bamboo tablet and Painter on my computer to get better at digital media. I have to say the one thing that gets me most is that I can't turn the tablet to make line direction easier like I can with paper, and that's fairly frustrating. Otherwise, I liked my old tablet so much that when I decided to take it to school to use, I had to buy this new one. I do wish the new one had a slot on the tablet itself to store the pen, instead of the separate pen stand.

New Drawings Soon

2007-02-05T15:58:00.000-08:00

I no longer have a scanner at my house, so it might be a while before I get some more drawings posted. I'll try to make some digital drawings and bypass the scanner altogether, but I just might have to break down and purchase one of my own.

ETA 7.14.2009
I guess "a while" equals more than two years.

No Drawing Today

2006-10-17T20:26:00.000-07:00

No drawing today, I start a new job tomorrow and I'm getting ready.

I'll try to post two tomorrow.

Burn 46

2006-10-16T22:15:00.000-07:00

These are my current favorite shoes. No one that I know likes them even a little, but I still wear them all the time. I wish that I had more like them in different colors.

Spectracolor dark green colored pencil. These are taking me a lot more than four minutes. I'm going to have to get myself a timer and stick to it.

Burn 45

2006-10-14T12:08:00.000-07:00

The zipper pull on my favorite hoodie sweater. I should have put some texture in the background. Spectracolor crimson red. Kept breaking like my Prismacolors. Annoying, that.

Burn 44

2006-10-14T12:06:00.000-07:00

Oops. Forgot to post these yesterday. My phone, that I almost never use and can't check the voice mail on it. Purple Spectracolor.

Burn 43

2006-10-12T21:46:00.000-07:00

My watch, Spectracolor burnt umber. I wear this on a chain around my neck. I've had it a long time, but people that I know still act surprised when they see me check the time on it.

Some people don't notice things. In my life, mostly boy people.

Burn 42

2006-10-12T21:43:00.000-07:00

Melted candle, Spectracolor dark green.

Burn 41

2006-10-10T22:09:00.000-07:00

My glasses, done with Spectracolor pencil in warm grey.
There's something wrong here. I know that the two bars behind the lens couldn't just disappear, but it looked right while I was drawing it.

Burn 40

2006-10-09T17:24:00.000-07:00

I've been going walking with my mother some mornings. The other day she found a twig with some oak leaves and acorns attached.

It makes a really good drawing subject, and I think that at some point I'll do an extended value study.

Burn 39

2006-10-08T19:45:00.000-07:00

I like to draw with mechanical pencils. It takes a while to finish them, but I find it a soothing way to pass the time.

I like this brand of pencil the best. I think that it's a Pentel. On the side it says P205. I like the .5 mm better than the .7 mm too.

Not getting any money for this, but if anyone from Pentel reads it, I'm available for an endorsement deal.

Burn 38

2006-10-08T19:43:00.000-07:00

I've "borrowed" some of my dad's tools over the years. This is one of his hammers. I really like the Koh-i-noor woodless pencils. They're working very well.

Burn 37

2006-10-07T16:52:00.000-07:00

I bought my sister a clock at Pottery Barn. It sits in her living room collecting dust, but it's pretty.

The perspective got messed up, the actual clock's much slimmer than this one. But, if I waited until I made a perfect drawing, I'd never post one, right?

Burn 36

2006-10-06T20:49:00.000-07:00

Bill the Cat, spokesman of a generation.

Anyway, my brother Bob's got a stuffed version of him. Can't call it plush, though. It has no fur. If you've never seen the Bill the Cat doll, it's unsettling. According to Bob, Berke Breathed wanted him to be anything but cuddly. I have to say, it worked.

Burn 35

2006-10-06T20:46:00.000-07:00

Working with the Prismacolors again. I don't particularly like mine, they keep crumbling. I'll have to buy some new and see if it's age that does that.

WD-40 can and some caps, Blue Violet Prismacolor pencil.

Burn 34

2006-10-05T15:39:00.000-07:00

My friend Brian owns his own business. He does computer stuff, hardware, networking and other stuff. Not sure exactly what he does, but he's pretty good at it.

He has this Bluetooth thingy, which he asked me to draw. It's got a brand on it somewhere, but I didn't feel like drawing the "m."

Burn 33

2006-10-04T20:11:00.000-07:00

My brother loves video and computer games. I spent some time with him today. While he played Guitar Hero with my friend Brian, I drew his wireless controller.

I used these really cool woodless colored pencils that I just picked up from Michael's. They're KOH-I-NOOR Hardtmuth. I really like my woodless graphite pencils, so I wanted to try these. I like them so far, but I'll need to test them a bit more.

Burn 32

2006-10-04T16:54:00.000-07:00

One of my friends has a contest with another friend. They try to find the tackiest souvenirs and give them to one another. My friend found, in Rouen, France, a snowglobe of Joan of Arc being burned at the stake.

I found this tacky thing below at the giftshop on the second level of the Eiffel Tower. It's a red, plush keychain with gold stitching. It's wonderfully horrible. Prismacolor pencil, violet blue.

Burn 31

2006-10-03T09:02:00.000-07:00

Last year I went to California to visit my friend Tom. His sister married one of my friends here in Texas, but my sister and I have been out to visit him a couple of times. It was really fun. I posted some pages from my journal on Calliope Arts, if you'd like to see them.

One of my teacher friends used to have her students bring her a bit of sand from their vacations. She had a collection of little plastic boxes full of sand, labeled with their origin. I wanted to save some sand from my trip and put it in a container. I wanted some shells too, but the beach at Hermosa was picked almost clean.

It took me a while to find a suitable bottle, but I got this one at an import store. It's got the sand from Hermosa, and the tiny shells we found.

This is in Prismacolor Sepia colored pencil.

Burn 30

2006-10-03T07:13:00.000-07:00

More of the mannequin. I went searching for colored pencils last night. Turns out I own about five sets of watercolor pencils, and then the Spectracolors that I've been using. Those were a gift from a friend.

This drawing I did with my Prismacolor pencils that I found buried in an old art tool box. I'd forgotten how sometimes they can crumble as you sharpen them. This color's called Crimson Red. Though you might think "red" sufficient, it's not.

Spectracolor has a Vermilion Red. It's orange, really.

Burn 29

2006-10-02T17:03:00.000-07:00

One of my students gave me a goat skull at the end of the school year in May. It's really cool. I've never owned a skull before. This is a close-up of its eye-socket.

Classes at Michael's

2006-10-02T11:06:00.000-07:00

I'm teaching classes at my local Michael's Arts & Crafts store, starting with a demonstration this Saturday, September 16th from 10am to 12pm. I've got a whole slate of classes for kids and adults, and they'll all be on my October Google Calendar later today.

If you're not in the area and can't attend, please let me know what you think about the descriptions. If you have an idea for a class, please let me know that too.

Thanks for visiting, and I hope to see you soon!

Burn 28

2006-10-01T08:49:00.000-07:00

And the ever-popular:

Higgins Ink bottle!

Burn 27

2006-10-01T08:46:00.000-07:00

Today's a day for finding random things on my drafting table to draw.
I give you:

the all exciting brayer! Yay!

Burn 25 & 26

2006-09-22T21:38:00.000-07:00

Spectracolor red colored pencil, my iPod charger.

This one's my lovely foot.

Burn 24

2006-09-21T20:46:00.000-07:00

I used Staedtler Pigment Liner for this one, size 03. My jeans crumpled up on the bed.

Burn 23

2006-09-20T21:18:00.000-07:00

I have one of those posable wooden mannequins. I've drawn it so many times I couldn't even count. Still trying for interesting compositions. Crayola colored pencil.

Burn 21 &22

2006-09-19T19:39:00.000-07:00

I decided to try some with pen instead of colored pencil. These are both drawn with Staedtler Pigment Liner, size 03.

Burn 20

2006-09-18T20:43:00.000-07:00

Spectracolor black colored pencil. I really like how scanning in grayscale goes so much faster.

Burn 19

2006-09-17T19:57:00.000-07:00

My shorts and leg, seen from above. It's an odd vantage point to draw something, but it turned out alright. Not sure what color pencil here, but it scanned sort of orange. It wasn't orange, but there you go.

Burn 18

2006-09-17T19:53:00.000-07:00

This box came from Indonesia. A friend of mine brought it back from a vacation she took with her boyfriend. They went to see his parents when his dad worked there. It's got wonderful carvings on it, that I couldn't do justice to in four minutes though. Spectracolor burnt umber colored pencil.

Burn 17

2006-09-17T18:05:00.000-07:00

I'm a little behind, but I'm going to post three today to catch up. Here's the first one, it's my backpack/purse, Spectracolor crimson colored pencil.

Burn 16

2006-09-14T21:14:00.000-07:00

I got this little woven fiber and wood box in France. I wanted a souvenir from the market in St. Remy, and saw a chair. It's the chair in the first burn drawing.
I'm not so good at bargaining, but I talked the guy down 10 Euro for the chair, and asked him to throw in the box too.

This one I'll need to do again, taking my time. I'm not satisfied with the detail on it at all, but the idea's to get something on paper, not to make something that you're neccessarily happy with.

Happy Birthday to Melanie!

2006-09-13T22:15:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday to my sister Melanie! Love you!

I spent the evening at her house having dinner and watching Justin Timberlake get grilled by David Letterman. It was interesting watching him scramble for words when Dave asked him about the Superbowl wardrobe "malfunction."

Burn 15

2006-09-13T22:12:00.000-07:00

Four-minute burn number 15, in black Spectracolor. This one I scanned in grayscale, so it's a much smaller file size. Also, I took a bit more than four minutes because I really got involved in the shading.

My father's got some until recently unidentified trees in his backyard. This came from what we think is a redbud. He let me borrow it to draw under the condition that I had to give it back.

Burn 14

2006-09-12T21:26:00.000-07:00

Again, Spectracolor Design pencil, this time Indigo Blue. Though I was thinking, maybe next time I'll just use a non-repro blue, and you can imagine the drawing, kind of like you get to imagine the details that I put but don't show up on the scanner.

I got this mirror waaay back in high school, or shortly thereafter. It's a great metaphor, because the friendship broke too. It's too bad, she was a great person, one I admired a lot. I don't think I ever told her that. I'll just think it at her, really hard, and hope she picks that up. From her non-friend, that she hasn't seen since the early 90's. Yep, it'll happen.

Burn 13 (extra, extra!)

2006-09-11T20:40:00.000-07:00

Just because I didn't know which I'd want to post, so I scanned them both. This one's in Spectracolor purple pencil, but the purple didn't scan well. Too bad I really don't like pink.

They're items on my writing desk, and it probably took more than four minutes for this one. Though I didn't time it. If you'd like to make sure that I keep accurate time, you're more than welcome to come over and hold the stopwatch for me. ;)

Burn 12

2006-09-11T20:36:00.000-07:00

Burn 12, items in a basket in my bathroom. Spectracolor sepia pencil.
I did some shorthand strokes for the basket instead of using strict observation, mostly so I wouldn't be working on it until next year.

Burn 11

2006-09-10T19:20:00.000-07:00

Burn 11. Sometimes when I did the burn with my students, I'd tell them to draw their hand or their foot. If no objects seem interesting, you've always got your appendages.

Spectracolor colored pencil, my hand.

Burn 10

2006-09-09T20:35:00.000-07:00

Here's the burn for today. It's some bottles that I keep in my kitchen. They're hard to draw, so this is actually my second attempt.
Design Spectracolor colored pencil, in purple.

Burn 09

2006-09-08T19:04:00.000-07:00

This one I did just a few minutes ago. I seem to have a problem with my grocery produce trying to grow after a few days in my kitchen. I've had a sweet potato sprout purple stems and leaves which looked really cool, so I planted it. Now I've got this onion. The top of it looks like several scallions. It was fun to draw. Once again, colored pencil. This color's called Indigo Blue.

Four-Minute Burn Rules

2006-09-08T18:59:00.000-07:00

There are some rules to this, self-imposed of course. The drawing must take four minutes. It must be of actual objects in front of you. No erasing allowed. Most of the time they're monochrome, but that's not a rule, really, just that it's hard to make multi-colored four-minute drawing.

I have a hard time not using "undo" when I do these in Painter on my tablet, so I'm glad that I'm using colored pencil for most of them.

Burn 08

2006-09-08T13:07:00.000-07:00

This is my lunch from yesterday. I drew it yesterday, but I'd brought some files home to work on so I forgot to post it. It's colored pencil again, this time burnt ochre maybe. Or sienna, or umber. I get those all mixed up and I don't have the pencil in front of me. It looks really red on my monitor. But I'm almost completely sure that it was ochre. Of some kind.

Burn 07

2006-09-06T19:08:00.000-07:00

My computer speaker and monitor. Painter IX with Wacom tablet. Gouache brush, size 05. I forgot to post this one too. Man, I'm going to have to work on that remembering thing.

Burn 06

2006-09-05T17:24:00.000-07:00

This one turned out a weird color from the scanner. I used a raw umber colored pencil in my burn journal, but when scanned it looked too yellow. I adjusted the colors a little but it still doesn't look right.

Burn 04 and Burn 05

2006-09-04T19:02:00.000-07:00

Here are the two burns that I did today to catch up. Both done on paper in my newly made journal, with Design Spectracolor colored pencils.

This is my mother's camera, and yes, the perspective's a bit off.

Stuff on the kitchen counter.

Burn Journal

2006-09-04T18:55:00.000-07:00

I found that I lacked motivation for the four-minute burns. I pondered why, as they only take four minutes. It seemed to be lack of things to draw in the small area around my computer. I don't really want to move a still life on and off my computer desk every day, so I decided to try drawing on paper and adding the middleman scanner back to the mix.

I made a journal this morning, and then made two burn drawings to catch up.
Here's the journal, and you can see the two burns above.

Burn 03

2006-09-02T08:45:00.000-07:00

I went to bed early last night, tired from who knows what. Here's the drawing for yesterday, and I'll post one later today for today.

Again, Painter IX, 2b pencil at 50% gray, four minutes. Doesn't look very good. Next one will be a different brush. Maybe I can get better effects with that. I'll try colored pencil or marker.

Burn 02

2006-08-31T19:36:00.000-07:00

This is my iPod. I was going to draw some chips and salsa, but I was hungry.

Painter IX, four minutes, 2b pencil at 50% grey. Not happy with it. I think that I might start doing that thing they made us do in Drawing I, create a frame for the drawing before drawing it.

Four-Minute Burn

2006-08-30T19:23:00.000-07:00

My first year teaching I met an enthusiastic fellow teacher, without whom I doubt that I would have gotten through the second semester. He attended Parson's during the summer for his MFA, and brought many of the ideas he got there back to the high school. One of these he called the "four-minute burn."

An extremely simple idea. Each and every day, make a drawing for four minutes. I took that to my Art I classes and even had all of my classes make a sketchbook, wherein they did a four-minute burn at the beginning of every class period. The practice helped my students enormously. I still possess some before and after drawings that I would post if I didn't take copyright law and intellectual property seriously. While the students gave their drawings to me, they didn't give me permission to publish them.

Now I'd like to practice what I preach. I'll be making a daily four-minute burn for as long as I can make myself. I will be using Painter and my Wacom tablet to create the drawings though, so as to take out the middle man of the scanner.

Here's the first of what I hope will be many. A chair that I bought on my trip to France.

First Post to Michelle's Drawings

2006-08-28T16:05:00.000-07:00

I went to France this summer, and saw many great things. I got to see the asylum where van Gogh lived in St. Remy. If you look at the photo really closely, you can see me making a rubbing on the column in the cloister.