Sunday morning at La Cigale

Mind you, these tomatoes could have been anywhere!

Left Hand Journal pages 47, 48

It’s been a very long time since I’ve posted anything on my blog, but here is a drawing of the stuff inside my Knitting Needle Compendium done with my (non-dominant) left hand while watching TV.

BIG DRAW Confucius Day 27 Sept 2014

Concentrating on trying to capture some of the activity in the quadrant at Auckland University for the Confucius Institute celebrations

The Chairman

Been doing a bit of waiting around lately: time to kill and a good thing I had my sketchbook with me.

Drawing in Mission Bay …

Yay … in the process of overcoming my fears about drawing with a group, I have recently joined a Sketch Group and today was the first time out with them for me.   We should have been drawing the fountain at Mission Bay, but we arrived to find that it’s been drained and has a high fence all the way around it, so we all went in different directions to draw, and had the show and tell back at the Stone House.  Maybe some of the ladies in the group will turn up next time.

Cross Hatching Demo

Cross Hatching Demo

Kitchen Drawing

Sneakin’ Around

 

I tried this method of working as part of Sketchbook Skool Semester 1 homework.  Background blue is a wash of Dr P.H. Martin’s India Ink; pumpkin coloured layer is liquid gouache and the sneaker was done “Contour Method” (do the whole outline first, then fill in the middle/details) with a permanent black pen.  It didn’t take as long as I thought it would, but it was much more difficult than if I had sketched with a pencil first, then pen.

Roast Chicken

On Friday I visited friends in Ness Valley (Clevedon) and couldn’t resist this shot.  Had the door all lined up in my sights and just as I was about to ‘click’, a very, very large pig and this chook wandered into the composition and just stood there looking at me.  Fortunately the pig wandered off, but as for the chook … I can almost smell the sage and onion stuffing

There wasn’t mush room for rain…

While I was dog-minding Charlie at my friend’s house during Waitangi Weekend, we chanced upon this wondrous sight while out walking in St John’s Bush.  I didn’t have my phone or camera with me, and as rain looked imminent, I finished our walk and had to collect the camera and walk all the way back to get the photo.  I knew they would be spoiled if it rained.  Isn’t nature spectacular?

Left Hand Journal pg 46

Hillary and I did a few yards today in more than one sense of the word… first 55+ lengths water walking (with vigour) at Jellicoe Pools, then breakfast at the local ‘Library Cafe’ – a beautiful historic building in Onehunga.  Hillary patiently tried to teach me to do a map of my journey, but I am like a child with ADHD especially when I work with my left hand!

Travellin’ in NZ

Excerpts from a recent trip out of town  Now, why wouldn’t you jump out of your car and take this photo?  My friend thought I was mad, with heavy trucks whizzing by on a busy highway.  But how many people blithely drive by and don’t even notice the beauty of the countryside and promise of a great summer?

….. and then some good ‘ole Kiwi ingenuity  … our very own river monster

a little bit retro, only a little bit crazy

Here’s a pile of retro fabric samples that I rescued out of a wallpaper & fabric sample book many years ago.  The inner hoarder in me knew they could have another life some time in the future.  They needed a soak to get more glue off the back of them, then a rugged swishing in the washing machine, and what better than a public airing on a bright sunny day.  I have no idea what will become of them, but I’m sure my stitchy group friends will have lots of ideas.

EDM 93 Egg Carton

First EDM post since June – been busy with the 100 Days Project.   No pencil under-drawing, just a fine black ballpoint

Diane's 100 Days Project in A Flash - every word that I depicted contains the word 'cat' as a tribute to my cat Bella who is no longer here. Every day for 100 days - quite a mission!

There is nothing like yellow to brighten up my day …..

Inspired by the crew at Designworks who are doing “yellow” as the daily theme for the 2013 100 Days Project, and by my love  of colour themed photography I did on our last Europe trip e.g. “Orangestrial” I felt the urge to put a yellow grid together today.  These were photos that I took on a trip to Dunedin & Queenstown in February 2011.  I did not take any of these photos with a yellow theme in mind, but this tells me that subconsciously my mind embraces colour.

EDM 92 Brown Paper Bag

Okay, I admit I gave up on this one, it’s a long winded exercise in complex tonal values and I’m out of practise.  I will make up for it with the egg carton.

EDM 91 Apple

Gosh, I haven’t done an EDM drawing since January this year.  I’ve been trying out a new fountain pen called a Duke 209 which I saw Laure Ferlita use in a You Tube demo.  It has a hooked calligraphy nib and is capable of producing very fine lines as well as very fat lines.  I have drawn with it every day for the past 3 weeks so the process has obviously given me some confidence back and I am really enjoying exploring its capabilities.   Hillary will be pleased that I’m back in the EDM saddle, so to speak.

Left Hand Journal pg 45

Tuesday, 21 May 2013 Hillary and I met up again at the new Trafalgar House Cafe in Onehuhga, for a morning gossip, coffee and a very quick entry in a selected journal.  This morning I took my Left Hand Journal along and captured the image painted full size on the cafe wall, and then proceeded to write as much of the menu as I could on top. I think my left hand script was becoming easier as I got to the bottom of the page.  The staff are very pleasant and good at making coffee.   Their barista, ‘Junior’ took a big interest in our drawings last time we were there (last week), and we casually said we would make him a book too.  During the week, Hillary made a beautiful coptic bound book and I bought a set of Staedtler pencils to go with it and we presented these to Junior today.  He was speechless.  The owner also took a big interest in what we were doing and took a photo of this page to put on the Cafe’s facebook page.

Your Mission Should You Choose To Accept It …

On a recent trip to Melbourne, my friend Alana and I checked out the Fitzroy Market on a hot Saturday morning.  A myriad of vintage delights were on offer including the Ukulele Band who turned up to entertain the crowd.  Alana left with some impressive purchases and my special find was an 80’s Milano watch.

    

Beautiful Fitzroy architecture	The Ukulele Band heats up
What’s not to love?	Alana and I at the Vegie Bar
Fitzroy Street Art	On Yer Bike

Alana recently bought a Canon 1100D camera and is learning about it’s manual functions.  I gave her some guidance, then sent her on a colour mission round the market.  She chose purple as her colour theme and off she went.  The brief was to photograph 9 purple items, but once she started there was no stopping her!  Check out Alana’s blog and purple post here  http://www.copescuriosities.com/   In the mean time, I chose red and here’s what I found in a short space of time…

What a great day we had Alana, thanks so much.

Left Hand Journal pg 44

Today Hillary and I introduced Jan to our sketch meetings.  We spent about 3 hours gossiping, sketching, drinking coffee, eating and there was a show & tell.

This was my left-handed attempt at capturing the scene as if I was a fly on the ceiling.

Left Hand Journal pg 43

Yet another entry in my left hand journal.  Another satisfying session in a cafe with a friend, a journal and good coffee  :)

EDM 90 Something With Wings

I started this in watercolour, it didn’t work, I spat the dummy and brushed a large red cross through it and folded the page in half in disappointment.  Hillary (ever positive) encouraged me to salvage it, maybe try gouache, so I did.  I bought some tubes of gouache many years ago when I learnt calligraphy and I only had 5 colours to work with on this ‘resurrection’ – prussian blue, lemon yellow, deep lake red, white and dried up black.  Can’t get the fold out of the page, but you can’t see where the big red swash was, so not a bad recovery I thought.

Left Hand Journal pgs 41 & 42

After a look around the Naval Museum at Devonport, Hillary and I found ourselves at the Stone Oven Cafe & Bakery for a scrummy lunch and some cussing while we tried to work in our Left Hand Journals – always a challenge.  Hillary says we are “future-proofing” ourselves i.e. if anything were to happen to our right hand, we should be ready to use our left hand.  Got a way to go I think.

EDM 89 Buttons

It’s been a long time since my last post but it feels good to be back into it.

Yeah Baby

 

Gosh it’s been hectic lately – packing and moving house in Winter is not much fun.  Hillary and I took time out today to get back on the sketching track.  Neither of us are confident sketching people and in particular faces, so we set ourselves a challenge list of 10 different types of faces to find in magazines and try to sketch.  We both found it difficult, but the good food, gossip and antics of Asher cat kept us going.

Shadows in Tin Tacks Park

After Hillary and I finished our morning’s gossip & sketching, we ventured out into the sunshine in the small park next to Brick By Brick Cafe in Onehunga.  We challenged each other to take six “postable” photos.  I thought they were to be of six different things.  Hillary thought they were to be six of the same thing.  It doesn’t matter, both posts are interesting and a good start back into our photography practise.  p.s. Did you see the heart shape formed by my arms holding the camera?  I couldn’t do that if I tried!