Every Day in May—EDM #20 Draw something "Dad" in honor of father's day

This is my father, Jim Lawson. He turned 84 three days ago. On his birthday, all the people at the gym stopped exercising and sang happy birthday to him. One woman asked him what he used for wrinkle cream and he said the same thing he uses to brush his teeth—hmmmm.

I sketched this in March when I was visiting my parents in California. We were sitting outside in the sun after going to the gym. He looks pretty good!

This was a painting I did in a Charles Reid workshop I took last year. Charles likes using black and white photos as an exercise in his classes. I just happened to have this photo of my father in my art bag. It was taken when he was a senior in high school and on the football team at "Paly High" in Palo Alto, California. Following in the footsteps of his famous father, Stanford University's first All-American football player—Jim Lawson.

What a dude! Happy Birthday and Happy Father's Day.

Every Day in May—EDM #19

EDM#19—Draw something you made. I have a friend who always pulls out her latest sock knitting project when we are either sailing or just hanging around before going out for dinner. Such a great idea being so portable. Also smallish and doesn't take up too much room when traveling. So I gave it a try and here it is—one sock! I have never finished the other one. Someday...maybe...

I have a feeling I am not the only one who has suffered from the "One Sock Syndrome".

Every Day in May—EDM #18

EDM #18—Draw the view from a window in your house. My cats, Jazzy and Bobo have come home after two years in Arizona with my sister and her family. They will stay here with a cat sitter while I am in Indonesia for the next six weeks. This is the view from my living room window which I now share with two fat cats.

I have been so busy with this crazy "Every Day in May" challenge and packing to travel to Bali that I have put my portrait obsession on the back burner. Here is the first one I have done in a while for Julia Kay's Portrait Party.

Photo rreference here.

Every Day in May—EDM #16 and #17

EDM #17 Draw a musical instrument. Eric Clapton is one of my all time favorites. He is brilliant!

EDM #16 Draw your favorite tool. I had a hard time figuring out what might be my favorite tool. Clearly nothing in the kitchen or the yard. So here it is, my "cheapo" plastic watercolor palette. Can't live without it.

Every Day in May—EDM #14 and #15

EDM #15 Draw a tree. This beautiful tree is in the park near my home and is once again in full bloom. I actually did an oil painting of the same tree couple of years ago—and sold it! Here it is in watercolor for the 2010 Every Day in May challenge.

EDM #14 Draw what you see when you get up in the morning. We have a large skylight above the bed. It can be quite busy and noisy here in the morning with the seagulls flying about following fishing boats or looking for a good dumpster to raid.

Every Day in May—EDM #13

EDM #13—Draw your phone. Seemed pretty boring to me so I added my hand. That's it. I'm moving onto #14

Every Day in May—EDM #12

Here's last night's dinner for day # 12 of the Every Day in May/EDM challenges. Since Jerry is in Bali and I am still in the states, my dinners at home alone run more to the vegetarian, quick and easy and for the most part not cooked, like carrots and hummus. Yesterday, I couldn't resist some takeout from the Whole Foods macrobiotic side of the salad bar. Is was soooooooooooo good. Lots picking while drawing. Tonight I'm back to carrots and hummus.

Every Day in May—EDM #11 and another portrait

EDM #11—Draw your sunglasses. This is a quick sketch I did to make up for the crazy oil painting I did below for the day #11 challenge.

There was leftover oil paint on the palette and I never want to waste any paint. Painted from a photo of a cow that munches grass in a filed near our villa in Bali.

Sunglasses were my addition—does it seem a little crazy that I painted a cow wearing sunglasses? I think I may need a break!

Portrait of Inmasseranito for Julia Kay's Portrait Party on Flickr.

Every Day in May—EDM #9 and #10

EDM #9—Draw organized chaos. Not much time yesterday, so just a quick sketch at the dog park for the May 9th challenge. Dogs and their owners everywhere—definitely organized chaos.

EDM #10—Draw your hand. I loved Nina Johansson's wonderful post "Think outside the box". Colored cubes she made to find new color combinations for her palette. She added a PDF of her cube template for us to download. I knew someday I would make one. So here it is for this EDM challenge—a 3" square cube of drawings of my left hand.

Kind of looks like a damn box of kleenex...

More portraits for Julia Kay's Portrait Party

Still obsessed with doing portraits for Julia Kay's Portrait Party. Ink and watercolor portrait of Wally Torta (aka CrackskullBob).

Oil painting (my first oil painting in a long, long time) for Julia Kay's Portrait Party of Omar Jaramillo. An Urban Sketcher from Catania Italy.

Every Day in May—EDM #7 and #8

Experimenting with some different media along my usual ink and watercolor by adding watercolor mask and Neocolor ll. This Every Day in May/EDM challenge is quite a challenge...

Another one of my bizarre purchases from my old shopping days. It's for sale...

Everyday in May and some new portraits

EDM # 6 a favorite well-loved object— I thought long and hard about what was my well-loved object and all I could come up with was Sophie. I guess, for me at this stage in my life, things aren't as important a family, friends and animals. Funny, because I used to have a lot of things. Now I am trying to get rid of many of those things. So Sophie it is! Here she is sniffing the flowers I put on the floor to paint.

A few of my latest portraits for Julia Kay's Portrait Party. It continues to be a great challenge. I really enjoy seeing everyone else's interpretations of the rest of the members. It's a kick! Check it out.

I usually use ink and watercolor, but these two are pencil and watercolor. I actually have gotten the oil paints out...well the box is out...

Everyday in May—EDM #4 and #5

EDM # 4—Draw your mug. Drinking the Kusmi Detox tea that I bought in Paris.

EDM #5—Draw your bed. My bed is always crowded when I'm in Maine and in Bali. That's what happens to animal lovers.

Every Day in May—EDM #2 and #3

EDM #2—Draw a lamp. I don't really care much for the lamps in our house, but shhhh, don't tell Jerry.

EDM #3—Draw a purse, wallet or bag. My very cool and durable Sea Bag was a gift from a friend and I have been loading it up and dragging it around for years. This company, located on Custom House Wharf on Portland Maine's waterfront, makes custom tote bags out of recycled sails. Check them out at Sea Bags...you might just have to get one.

Every Day in May—EDM #1 Draw a shoe

Liz Steel (aka Borromini Bear), and friends, proposed the idea to do the EDM challenges 1-31 for "Everyday in May". Sounded like a great idea to balance my portrait obsession. I am having major computer problems so scanning and posting is challenging. My 6+ year old 12" Macbook Pro, where the letter A has worn off the keyboard, has finally died. This new one does not have any of my applications on it yet, so I am winging it without photoshop.

I love these!!!

While at the gym, I saw Candace Bushnell being interviewed wearing these fabulous Chanel clogs. Out of this world expensive and with a four inch heel would make me over 6 feet tall. Then there is that toppling over thing. Alas, I will never own them, but I highly covet them so I drew them for my May 1st challenge. I will just have to settle for a knock-off and maybe a bit lower heel...

Pink Tulips and Portraits

Last fall, I helped plant a garden for the Pink Tulip Project which is a fundraising project that benefits the Women's Cancer Fund at the Maine Cancer Foundation. Gardens are established to raise funds, create awareness and support for those who have been affected by breast cancer and beautify the community.

On my run the other day, I noticed that they are all in full bloom around the city. Everyday, Sophie and I walk by this one blooming in front of a hotel up the street. I caught it the other evening as the sun was setting.

Still obsessed with doing portraits for Julia Kay's Portrait Party on Flickr. Above is my friend Donna. Together, we survived the Dalvero Academy boot-camp last summer and we are going back again.

The very talented Katarzyna aka Katek 29. You can see her beautiful work here.

Spring is here

I live in the heart of the city, but the country is just over the bridge. On my way to getting my computer fixed, I passed by nurseries and farms all enjoying a beautiful spring day here in Maine.

Spring is very early this year and everything is blooming like crazy. It is glorious. Beautiful flowering trees including Magnolias are bursting out all over the city.

Forsythia is always the first sign of spring and it is such a vibrant splash of yellow after a long gray winter.

More portraits and some flowers

I am still enjoying (okay, I'm a bit obsessed) for doing portraits for Julia Kay's Portrait Party on Flickr. It is such great way to practice, practice, practice. These studies are quite challenging. I try to capture likeness through lines, marks and color. I then have to post them along with portraits from other talented artists. Then of course, the person I am sketching gets to see the portrait also. Yikes—scary!

I usually add color to most everything I do, but decided to submit these two just as ink sketches.

A quick sketch of a bouquet of tulips that were used as a photo-shoot prop. Once again, by the time I got around to sketching them they were on their way into the trash.

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.