Portraits, portraits and edamame

I am having a great time doing portraits for Julia Kay's Portrait Party on Flickr. I can't stop doing them, but I can be like that about many things. Like when I love a certain food, I will want to eat it for every meal. Right now I am really into edamame. So it's lots of edamame and portraits.

We will be going back to Bali soon, so I am getting into my Bali mind set. This is a portrait of my friend Yanti.

And then I did beautiful Yanti again, mixing it up a bit with more dramatic color and pencils.

A quick watercolor of the Easter tulips before they got tossed. I added some digital lines using Corel Painter. Digital art is a total unknown area for me, but I am curious about it. It is quite awkward for me to make my hand move the cursor to do the work or go the direction I want. It is not like moving a pen around on a piece of paper, but you can hit the "undo" button. I do worry about the work looking too "digital" but I must keep learning.

Back to more portraits.

Visiting my parents in California

I grew up just south of San Francisco, near Stanford University. I am 5th generation Californian on my mom's side of the family. My Parents still live in the house that I grew up in. Built in the late 1950's it is in a neighborhood nestled in the hills overlooking the San Francisco Bay.

This is my father Jim Lawson, 84 years old. Walks two miles a day and goes to the gym to workout with Todd, his personal trainer, three times a week. He is in amazing shape. Every evening he looks forward to watching Jeopardy with a glass of Two Buck Chuck. Always eats an artichoke with his dinner and has for 15 years.

My mom, Jacqueline Lawson is 85, raised three kids through the 60's and 70's. She says it just about did her in. Says her life changed in 1967, which coincidentally was the year I turned 13...HA!

Now her favorite child is a rescue dog named Freddie Brown. A Cockapoo who is the cutest thing on four legs, except for Sophie. Besides walking the dog, she works out at the gym everyday—WOW!

My little brother James. Sometimes it is hard for me not to think of us still as kids. I look across the room and wonder "who is that guy", and think, "wasn't it not so long ago that he was just an annoying little 10 year old kid?"

Here we are, still going strong. It must be all those artichokes! That's me in between my parents, the oldest of three kids.

California visit continues

My mom and dad and I spent a lot of time sitting on the patio in the warm California sun talking, reading and just being together. It was a nice way to reconnect. My father always wears a hat and a bit of a grimace. I had to keep telling him to turn that frown upside down.

My father eats an artichoke a day with dinner and has for at least 15 years. He steams them in a little water with lots of garlic and fresh lime juice from their lime trees. He believes they are one of the reasons for his good health and longevity. He says it's all those antioxidants.

After his morning walk and a gym workout my father usually takes a nap (or two). Man he deserves it!

This is my friend Tris. She punched me in the stomach on the playground the first day of Kindergarten all those years ago. She was very bossy, even then, and we have been friends ever since. We have quite a history.

While I was telling her an incredulous story, I was sketching her, so that's why she has that serious concerned look on her face. However, she did keep telling me to make her hair spikier and take away the wrinkles. Like I said—BOSSY!

Portraits #4, #5 and #6 for Julia Kay's Portrait Party

Portrait of MiaBia DC for Julia Kay's Portrait Party on Flickr which can be seen here.

Portrait of Jerry Waese an Urban Sketcher and member of Julia Kay's Portrait Party.

Portrait of Lucia Barrantes Egana from the Portrait party.

Portrait #3 for Julia Kay's Portrait Party

Virginia Hein is a California artist, Urban Sketcher and a member of Julia's portrait party found here on Flickr. She has wonderful hair and a sweet orange cat.

Portraits for Julia Kay's Portrait Party

I joined Julia Kay's Portrait Party on Flickr last week. The process is to submit/post photos of yourself on Flickr and in turn you do portraits of all the other artists in the pool. How FUN is that!!!

Over the weekend, we were enjoying the gift of warmth and sun for the first day of spring, so I was sketching outdoors. Today it is gray and cold, as it usually is this time of year, so I'm back in my studio (It's not really a studio, it's a desk or the kitchen counter or the dining room table or even the bed). Top is my first submission, which is of the host of this fun party, Julia Kay.

My second submission below is Mariah O'Neill.

The first day of spring

Sunny and 70° for the first day of spring, so it was great to get outside. Always lots of dogs frolicking at the beach.

Fetching,

chasing,

leaping,

playing stick,

and rolling in seaweed.

Cold north wind blowing today, so winter has returned.

March in Maine always seems to be...

...gray, cold, windy and rainy

at the beach

in the fields

at the tidal marshes

and in the city

but warm and cozy by the fire.

Exercise and other weekend activities

The temperature shot up to 55° this weekend, so I couldn't face the gym. Sophie and I walked 8 miles on the beach with a good friend on Saturday and on Sunday we ran five miles. It was great to get outside.

Sophie likes to stop a lot. There are things a dog just has to do. Then there are the times she doesn't want to go any further. We have learned to compromise. When she stops I will do lunges and when she won't go any further I pick her up and do walking lunges. You do what you got to do. We must be quite a sight!

Cold again and it was early so I was back at the gym. As I was lifting weights, a man came up to me and asked what I was training for? I looked at him and said "life, I guess". Yes, that's it, for my life. Sometimes I just don't want to do it (and sometimes I don't), but usually I do something everyday, because it is for life.

In between exercising in the gym and walking and running outdoors this weekend, I made these watercolor sketchbooks. Two were made from recycled books that I got a the "Dumptique" and three I made the hard cases. Thanks to Jana Bouc of JanasJournal and Shirley Levine of Paper and Threads for their informative posts and this $15 DVD that Kate had recommended to Jana: Bookbinding: A Traditional Technique, the handmade journal mystery has been solved. All were made with various watercolor papers and decorative papers that I already had, so I just needed a few bookbinding tools. It's actually quite fun and very satisfying. Also, a little addictive as you can see.

It blew and blew

The other night, during a storm, the winds were blowing about 6o miles per hour. The windows were rattling, the building was swaying (I think), the BBQ slide across the deck thankfully still tethered to the gas line and I even saw a witch on a bicycle (I think). The next morning I noticed several flower pots scattered around the neighborhood, both whole and broken. I knew they were from my deck and gathered up the debris. They were faux pottery so I knew no one had gotten hurt, but it must have been quite a sight seeing them fly off the deck.

Cooped up

We had a wild storm that lasted for several days. Rain, sleet and wind—blowing 50+ miles per hour one night. Just Sophie and I listening to the rain pelt against the rattling windows and objects flying off the deck. Being on the fifth floor it felt as though the building was swaying.

Self portrait 1—after the gym.

I usually managed to get to the gym despite my not wanting to face the nasty weather.

Self portrait 2—All dressed up.

The major part of the storm is over so I am finally getting out. A quick self portrait before going to Sarah's to learn how to make handmade journals.

Sophie managed to sleep through it all.

Parisians

This morning, I was admiring the talented Rick Tulka's wonderful images on Flickr. I saw that Giorgio Bordin had done a sketch of him from his posted photograph in front of the White House. Giorgio had added a sketch to his comment. Several other talented artists had done the same and with such a great face, I couldn't resist joining in. It was the first thing I did this morning while catching up on the news, so it was quick and sloppy. He noticed that he was dripping...

What a wonderful way to start a cold, gray, rainy morning in Maine.

Since the paints were wet, I decided to finish this sketch I started weeks ago on my trip to Paris. These wonderfully dressed older Parisian women waited outside the cafe where we were siting late one afternoon. I was able to get the basic outline of their poses only to abandon them for a Kir Royale. Would't you?

a bunch o' challenges

I loved Nina Johansson's "week drawings", so I decided to give it a try. I started at the end of last week using EDM challenges to fill the page.

Check out how old that mustard is—YIKES!

Olympic sketching continues...

I am continue to watch and sketch the Olympics and I am so in awe of these amazing athletes. I sometimes find myself just staring at the television as I watch the events. So many times the sketching stops and I have to finish the next day. All these sketches are combinations of the athletes doing the sports. I added features to try to make them look more like the individuals.

Shawn White—Halfpipe and Snowboard Cross.

Lindsay Vonn in Downhill win.

Apollo Ohno in short track relay.

I have started to do these on cheap watercolor paper that I have cut up in small (about 5X7) sizes. I am throwing so many away that using a journal just doesn't make sense.

What will I do when the Olympics are over...

More Olympic moments

Once again watching the Olympics, drawing with a pencil and a BIG eraser then correcting and coloring the next day. This is from Tuesday nights Women's Snowboard Cross. I guess this sketch is suppose to be Lindsey Jacobellis, but it is a combination of all the boarders.

Lots of interviews with the beautiful Lindsay Vonn. Pencil in small Moleskine watercolor journal. I was going to add watercolor but liked the pencil lines. Maybe later I will add color. What do you think?

Another pencil sketch of Lindsay Vonn adding color with colored pencils in Handbook journal.

EDM #261—an olympic event

I was watching television last night trying to sketch the Men's Downhill for this challenge. These are small (done in a small Moleskine watercolor sketchbook). I used pencil to draw because I kept having to erase—THEY GO SO FAST!!! I added the USA uniform, color and corrected body positioning today.

Valentines Day

The Aftermath—I finally succumbed to the call of the dark chocolate. I ate three and when my back was turned so did Sophie. She managed to get up on the coffee table, unwrap and eat several out of the candy dish before I caught her. She is a good dog that does bad things!

24 years of "The Valentine Phantom"—The earliest known occurrence of this phenomena was 1976 in Portland, Maine. Every year since, Portland awakens to red hearts taped to all the windows throughout the city on Valentine's Day morning. This Sunday when Sophie and I took our morning walk, all the local shops were once again plastered with red hearts.