Illustration Friday: Space

Well, here's my Illustration Friday post for the week.  The topic was "Space".  In fact, I just checked and I see that this topic is still active so I guess my submission is not technically late yet.  Yea!  Normally, I'd awake on Friday to find a new topic posted and accumulating submissions already.  I try to check-out the topic early so I won't be influenced by other people's ideas.

Illustration Friday.  The topic is "space".

The week's topic was a bit of a struggle.  I guess I just wasn't inspired.  I thought about "needing one's space",  about having a lot of space (as in a huge home or on a long sofa or in a prairie), about having precious little space (as for storage or in a box or tiny apartment), about parking spaces, and cosmic vistas.  I just couldn't seem to find an angle that seemed original or inspired.  I was gonna quit.  Give up.  But,  I knew that if I failed to post something this week, it wouldn't be long until I gave in to perfectionism or procrastination and dropped out completely.  So I manned-up and drew this.  Although it might look like an evil space alien is threatening our planet, it's not.  It is a scene from a creation story in which the elements of our solar system are juggled around and around in their orbits by an enormous space octopus--not so much of a stretch if you allow that Indians, Chinese, and First Nation peoples share a creation story in which a giant tortoise walks around bearing the Earth upon its back.  The scene depicted is actually quite benign--a divine octopus doing the Harlem Globetrotter spin with our planet.

As usual, I learned a lot by doing this work.  I learned that masking fluid is useful for protecting the foreground while you work on the background.  But, I also learned that masking fluid does not yield easily when used on cheap watercolor paper purchased in a tablet from Fred Meyer.  I also learned that ink does not dry well when it is layered onto masking fluid and will smudge everywhere if you are not careful about (somehow) drying it up.  I learned (relearned, d'oh!) that taking the masking fluid off with an eraser will erase your pencil sketch from underneath.  And then you won't have any idea what the lumps and bumps on your drawing are supposed to be and you will end up drawing some weird, unintentional bits and pieces onto your space octopus. 

So, that's it--another Illustration Friday DONE!  

Garden: Winter Walk-Off, 2014

I'm jumping onboard the "Winter Walk-Off" meme hosted by Les at A Tidewater Gardener.  The idea is to walk or bike around your neighborhood photographing whatever is interesting to you, but taking no photos of your own garden.  A full set of Winter Walk-Off "rules" and links to others' posts can be found here.

This year, I decided to go with a "Bohemian Neighbors" theme.  First up is this home located a few blocks south of us.  It defies description, actually.  The homeowners must have been working for decades to create such a varied accretion of detail.  Magpies!  To me, it evokes part hobbit-house and part beach-shack. (I posted about it last year on FaceBook.)

Sidewalk view

Sidewalk adjacent.

Close-up of the mosaic on the rockery stones.

Another close-up of the amazing variety of items included in the mosaic.

I used to walk by this house quite frequently and I observed that the household includes at least 3 standard poodles.  I would have expected nothing less!

Next up, a mini lending library--so cute!

Lending library.

A few more blocks south and a couple of blocks east brings us to this property which has intrigued me ever since I first saw it:  

Home, fence, and arbor are painted turquoise and persimmon.  A glazed pottery menagerie decorates the rafter tails.

 A beautifully detailed and crafted lattice fence and arbor enclose the front of the property.  Handmade pottery animal tiles finish each of the rafter tails on the arbor.  Within the enclosed yard, you can see many seemingly unfinished (or maybe broken?) clay sculptures and busts.  It's fascinating and beautiful and you just KNOW that fabulously creative and interesting people live here. 

Close-up of the pottery animals.

Unfortunately, the property seems to be falling into disrepair. Since I've known it, it's always been overgrown and jungly--which was part of its allure (I thought)--but now the beautifully crafted fence and arbor are starting to fall apart and the plants really seem to be suffering.  I'm worried about that.  

Circling back towards home brings us past another charming miniature lending library:

Another lending library.  

  

Continuing north, you pass another home with bohemian spirit.  In the photo, it might be hard to see the mardi-gras beads adorning the small tree, but they're there--augmented by a constantly-changing assortment of other stuff as well.

Mardi-gras beads!

Seasonally decorated tiki dude. He used to live under the bead-tree with a whole assortment of flying pigs.

Heading north again, you'll spy this house.   It's not as over-the-top as the others, but you can tell that bohemian folks live there--and not just by the turquoise and coral paint job.  It's decorated with an assortment of prayer flags, buddha faces and a big Indian mask.  I would have taken more photos, but they have big, barky dogs so I moved on. I included this photo to document my belief that the bohemian set gravitates to a turquoise/teal/coral/vermillion paint palette.  It's pretty--I like it.

Another house with bohemian vibe sports turquoise and coral paint.

Now THIS house…

...this house is located at the end of my block.  It is painted purple (true crayola crayon, grape Kool-aid purple), crimson, and orange.  Before it was remodeled, it was painted purple, orange and kelly green.  We (all the other gossipy neighbors and I) were all atwitter with anticipation when it was remodeled.  Would they repaint?  What color would they choose?  And this is it.  Basically, they replaced the green with red.  In an odd way, I think it is a near miss.  If the red were scarlet (orange-based) instead of crimson (blue-based) I think it would have been OK.  Loud, but OK.  And then, if they'd accented it all with a fabulous, flame-colored garden pot and some dramatic plantings, I think most people would understand that they are artistic--not colorblind. As it is, popular vote leans towards colorblind.

And there they are--some of the "bohemian" stand-outs in our neighborhood.  No judgement (maybe a little…on that last one).  People can do what they want  with their own property.  I think it enlivens the neighborhood.

So what do you see when you hit the streets in your neighborhood?

Garden: Eventually, Spring WILL come...

Last night I was looking at pictures of my garden taken during the past year.  Did you know that we had snow on March 22nd of last year?  And very few signs of new growth until mid-to-late April (when the next batch of photos was taken)?  Even though I am growing weary of the cold and the rain and the perpetual overcast, I know that the full flush of spring is at least a couple of months away.  I wish I'd had this perspective last year when I was running around to every area nursery frantically looking for a couple of plants I NEEDED for my newly remodeled garden beds.  What craziness that was!  I was willing to drive all over and to pay top dollar for tiny little baby plants.  By the end of the season, those much-sought-after plants were available everywhere--and they were bigger and cheaper, too.  At least two of them aren't even living in my garden anymore after I decided to go in a different design direction.

So, although I AM pleased to note some early signs of spring--I am trying not to become unduly excited about it quite yet.

Early blooms on the neighbor's cherry.

But, there are some signs that spring is stirring.  First up are the blooms on my neighbor's ancient cherry tree.  It is one of the first trees in the neighborhood to break into bloom every year and it is full of bloom, actually.  I wonder how many years this tree has left--it has been completely defoliated every year for the last 4-5 years by some sort of pest or disease.  It leafs out again every time, but I think it must be close to exhausting whatever energy reserves it has available.  I have mixed feelings about this tree because I don't like the heavy rain of diseased leaves that it showers on my garden every year.  But I do appreciate the early spring blooms and the backdrop that it furnishes for my garden--you can see this tree in the background of nearly every picture that I take of my front yard.  I will miss it when it finally succumbs to old age or disease.  I am certainly enjoying it now.

Next up--the first seedlings are breaking ground!  This seedling, with its impossibly long and narrow leaves, is Sweet Cicely (Myrrhis odorata) that I direct sowed last year.  One day, it will look like this:

Mature Sweet Cicely plant.  Photo from Wikimedia Commons (Source)

It's a good thing that my mom warned me that the primary leaves don't hint at the appearance of the finely divided leaves of the mature plant.  

I encouraged the self-seeding (last year) of several other plants--astrantias, Digitalis parviflora, Centranthus ruber (the white variety) and Ammi majus.  I don't know for sure what any of the seedlings look like, so I'll be keeping a close eye on whatever sprouts and weeding cautiously.

And finally, we have the crocus.  These are naturalized in several of the garden beds.  

Crocus.  And adjacent squirrel digging.  The squirrels
have been REALLY active during the last day or so. 

And there you have it--definite signs of approaching spring!

Illustration Friday: Twisted

The topic this week, for Illustration Friday, was "twisted".  I chose to draw a soft pretzel.

Illustration Friday: Prehistoric

This week's topic for Illustration Friday was "Prehistoric".  I went with my gut and drew the first thing that came to mind--"What happens in prehistory STAYS…in prehistory".  It was a drawing that took a long time to complete and even though I was not happy with it, I stuck with my new focus on finishing projects instead of abandoning them at the first moment of dissatisfaction. 

However, because I was unsatisfied with "What happens in prehistory…", I went on to draw a second picture in a very different style.  The second is first (below)…

Baby Dino

This piece is part of an ongoing experiment in making textured backgrounds to accompany simple, childlike illustrations.  For this piece, I used multiple watercolor washes, salt, alcohol, and various resists. I have yet to discover an appropriate tool for doing the line work--the paper gets roughened by all the watercolor activity and pens or brushes tend to catch and wreck the line.  Then again, it's been quite a while since I last picked up some of these tools, so maybe fluency will return with practice.  And I'm also thinking that maybe I should just draw a little bigger so I have more room for movement and can work with bigger, bolder tools.  The scale issue has stymied me before, so I should definitely experiment with going bigger…or smaller…to get it right.

But...there is still that first effort to discuss--"What happens in prehistory…."  

What Happens In Prehistory STAYS…in Prehistory

This was my initial idea--a thoroughly debauched dino partying like it's Vegas!  I like the idea, but not the execution.  There is a lot of linework, so I thought I should keep it light but that decision didn't work out so well for me.  I wonder, now, if I could have simplified the line and made it thicker and more expressive. I also had problems with the color. If I were to do this over, I'd choose different colors AND different products to work with.

All in all, I think I see another iteration of this drawing in my future!  It kind of kills me to put these less-than-perfect drawings out there for others to see, but it is part of my new commitment to letting go of a need for perfection that has, until now, prevented me from finishing many works at all.

:-)

Illustration Friday: Exotic

The topic for this week's Illustration Friday was "Exotic".  I decided to draw a pineapple.  Although I got to know the look of a pineapple pretty well by the time I drew this, I did not produce the picture that I'd envisioned.  However, as it is my intent to use Illustration Friday as an encouragement to complete artwork, I finished it up and I'm calling it done.  Now I can finally eat that darned pineapple!