I dunno... cat on bed?

To be honest, I wasn't really planning on posting this since it's just me still playing with the watercolours. Ah well. If I change my mind tomorrow it can easily be gotten rid of, right?

So. Max? Probably not the most picturesque model since he tends more to the long and muscular type of cat rather than the cute fluffball. At least he was sitting still (or lying still, as it were) for a change.

All I was aiming for here was to see what the paint looked like with sepia Micron detailing. And now I know.

Pods in pen and ink

There were things I should have been doing this afternoon. Instead, I raided my father's pea patch.

This week's Illustration Friday prompt is Idle. Eating someone else's peas counts as idle, right? I don't think it counts as stealing, since I'm house-sitting for him and they'd just get old otherwise...

I suppose that if the act of eating peas doesn't count as idle, we could say that the pods themselves are idle since they're no longer incubating peas.

Um, yeah. This doodle was done very quickly and with not a lot of attention to detail since it's way too hot out there at the moment to concentrate for any length of time. I don't know why I didn't think to find a bit of shade before I started, but it's a little too late to worry about that now.

Hollowed Pepper in watercolour

Hello and welcome to Dee Tries to Paint. Again.

What can I say? Still game to give it a go. It'll never improve otherwise.

This week's Illustration Friday prompt is hollow, and this is, of course, a radish.

Juuust seeing who was paying attention. Sorry for the darkish photo, by the way, but the office scanner was insisting that it was seeing this doodle (can it still be a doodle if it's painted? I hope so. I like doodles) as yellow, which it's not. So, since I have minimal editing software on this computer, back to iffy photography rather than a nice clean scan.

The odd thing about this particular effort is that I really don't like green peppers and I've never hollowed out one in my life. Ah well. Extra points for the challenge of an unpleasant subject?

Trembling Aspen in pen and ink

Look! It's a scan rather than my usual iffy photograph. That's because I'm at work, where scanners live. As opposed to my place, where there isn't even a computer.

Anyway.

This week's Illustration Friday prompt is Shaky, and Nerd Naturalist Extraordinaire here immediately thought of Trembling Aspen. The name of the tree comes from the flattened petioles (stalks) of the leaves, which cause the leaves to shake or tremble with any tiny little breeze.

I doodled this piece of aspen before I had to open the building this morning. Yes, I got to work early on a Saturday just so I could draw a tree.

Gotta wonder sometimes about priorities and this whole doodling thing...

Worn in pen and ink

This week's Illustration Friday prompt is Worn, and this... is my ankle brace. One of several, unfortunately. I change them out depending on what I'm doing and how much support I need at the time.

It's worn because my ankle is worn. Out, that is. An old injury means there's not much holding the joint together anymore. Or at least not as much as there should be.

Ah, ankle braces. How do I loathe thee? I won't bother counting the ways. We don't need to be here that long.

How strange is it that I've taken to doodling braces, anyway? Here's hoping that this is the first and last time. I definitely don't want this to become Compression Bandage Central.

That'd be weird even for me.

And speaking of weird...

I thought I'd see if the little modelling clay men could make an ankle brace seem like fun. Turns out that even they can't make a jungle gym out of a necessary evil.

Ah well.

Thanks for trying, guys.

Brief bookish mutter

I probably don't have to mention this since I know that Danny Gregory already had quite a following, but I recently finished his book An Illustrated Life and I have to say I'd recommend it to anyone who's thinking of starting (or already has) an art journal. Definitely illuminating to see the various ways that people journal. Some are so precise, and others are very free. If anything, you get a real message of just do it. Stop worrying, stop fussing, and just DO it. Maybe if I hit myself over the head repeatedly with the book I'll remember that.

Also, I was wondering if anyone out there has done or is doing Wreck This Journal? I just started mine a few days ago, and I have to say that it's altogether too much fun. Even if it does go against every single instinct of mine to buy a book specifically to destroy it... but then that's entirely the point, right?

Abstract something. Now with more cats...

This was me trying out some colour washes. Then I thought I may as well make some blotches on top of the washes. Then I thought I'd ought to trace the blotches. Then I thought I should probably cut the whole thing out. Then I thought I'd pin it to the fridge with some cat-shaped magnets.

Why?

I DON'T KNOW.








Have I mentioned my inner five-year-old lately?