Busy, Busy, Busy!!

I have been so, so busy.  So much going on in my life right now, with transitions and dynamics changing.  There are so many blogs I want to visit and catch up with, but it may have to wait a bit.  Our internet has been going super slow, which has also made it difficult to keep in touch with everyone.

But in the meantime, I did have a bit of time to do a drawing while I was watching a movie. Some movies, even cheesy ones, can be inspiring!

Sky Pirate

I hope everyone is doing well and I look forward to visiting you soon.
  Have a truly pleasant day!!

Playing With Ink and Other Things!

A couple of pictures that I created with ink.  I had fun letting the ink run down the papers and creating little pools.

This is a new picture I'm working on.  I'm kind of letting it evolve.  Not really sure where I'm going with it yet.  

This is it for now!  What are you working on?

Hope you all had a wonderful Mother's Day weekend!

Straight Lines

I have been commissioned to do a painting project for a local business and I've been working on it now for a bit of time.  Trying to squeeze in time each day.  The business has recently remodeled and they now have a very groovy 70's look going.  Of course, they had an idea in mind of what they wanted, so I drew a few ideas and presented them.  This project calls for a lot of straight lines, having to measure everything so it is proportional and keeping my paint within the boundaries.  This has been tough.  I am a draw outside the lines kind of girl.  Weirdly, I had fully intended becoming an architect when I was young, but I now realize why that wouldn't have worked for me.  All of those excruciatingly straight lines and measurements.  Although, I am quite thrilled to have this project and I am enjoying the process, I am rather anxious at this point to finish it.  I prefer lines that flow and have no rhyme or reason.  I will share pictures once I'm done. Wish me luck!!
On that note and speaking of groovy,  I thought I'd share a few pictures from an artist/architect,  Bruce Goff.

His artwork was on display not too long ago and my friend and I went to see it.  Amazing!!  He took architecture to a new level.  These are just a smidge of his designs, I encourage you to look him up on google images.  He was definitely ahead of his time and maybe even a little, out of this world.  He had many fantastic designs that never became reality.  His  architecture was very organic and unique.

His artwork was just as unique and incredible as his architecture.  I couldn't find many images of it though.  He did a series of paintings to go along with a poem, The Drunken Boat. The paintings took him 25 years to complete.  They're spectacular, if you ever get a chance to go see them, I recommend it. You won't be disappointed.
Well, it's a very gorgeous day out, I'm going to grab my canvas, paints, ruler (bah) and head out to the back deck!  Have a wonderful day!

Zoiks!!

The day is almost over and so is the A-Z Challenge.  This month went by so quickly.
For this, the very last and one of my most loved letters, I am going to share a few of my favorite Z's.

Zeppo, the odd man whose lack of oddness is what makes him not fit in to this bunch.  He was less kooky and a bit more suave.

Zeppelin, led or otherwise.  

Zelda, especially the Ocarina of Time.  Great memories of my kids playing this game, they absolutely loved it.  Nostalgia!  Love the music from it too.

Zooey, not only do I enjoy seeing her in movies, but I also love her voice.

Zumba, a super fun way to get your abs and tush in shape.  The only catch, you actually have to do it for it to work.

And last, but definitely not least, my daughter Zara.

Looking forward to seeing her and spending time with her, it's been too long.

Happy Z day and the end of this alphabetical challenge.

Oh, pilot of the storm who leaves no trace, like thoughts inside a dream 

Heed the path that led me to that place, yellow desert stream 

My Shangri-La beneath the summer moon, I will return again 

Sure as the dust that floats high in June, when movin' through Kashmir. 

~Led Zeppelin

Yesterday....Nerd Alert

Yesterday was the first day of this Spring where the weather was perfectly gorgeous.  The sky was a Hayao Miyazaki kind of sky, rich blue with big white puffy clouds lazily floating by.

From the movie My Neighbor Totoro

The temperature was absolutely perfect, cool but not cold with a lovely breeze.  The trees and grass were exceptionally green.

The perfect day for the guys and I to take a journey through the woods.  Little did I know that I would be in the middle of an adventure.

It quickly became D&D meets, Ogre Battle with a little bit of Call Of Duty thrown in.  It was truly the most entertaining hike I've ever been on.  We were interrupted a few times by Ogres, which my sons had to battle for the right to pass. If we got caught in a sand pit, we'd roll the imaginary dice to see if we could continue on or become lunch for some vicious, wandering beast. We did have a couple of normal moments, skipping rocks down the river. 

My son found the perfect staff, so he became Gandolf and because of my height or should I say lack of, I was Frodo.

 Towards the end of the hike, they decided to break out in song, changing all the lyrics to that horrible Friday song, it is now all about D&D and being a nerd.  Needless to say, it was the nerdiest hike I've ever been on, but I loved every minute of it and I got a few decent pictures along the way.

Have a splendid day!

The Letter X

The letter X in all it's various forms through history.  I put every X word in the dictionary behind the letters and used the color yellow, because the word xanth means yellow.

"A shrewish, tart-tongued woman is often called a Xanthippe, after the wife of Socrates, who filed this bill of particulars in a spectacularly venomous fashion."
~Morris Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins

I couldn't help myself!  

I will leave you with this poem.

Kubla Khan

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan

A stately pleasure-dome decree :

Where Alph, the sacred river, ran

Through caverns measureless to man

Down to a sunless sea

So twice five miles of fertile ground

With walls and towers were girdled round:

And here were gardens bright with sinuous rills,

Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree;

And here were forests ancient as the hills,

Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.

But oh! that deep romantic chasm which slanted

Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover!

A savage place! as holy and enchanted

As e'er beneath a waning moon was haunted

By woman wailing for her demon-lover!

And from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething,

As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing,

A mighty fountain momently was forced:

Amid whose swift half-intermitted burst

Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail,

Or chaffy grain beneath the thresher's flail:

And 'mid these dancing rocks at once and ever

It flung up momently the sacred river.

Five miles meandering with a mazy motion

Through wood and dale the sacred river ran,

Then reached the caverns measureless to man,

And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean:

And 'mid this tumult Kubla heard from far

Ancestral voices prophesying war!

The shadow of the dome of pleasure

Floated midway on the waves;

Where was heard the mingled measure

From the fountain and the caves.

It was a miracle of rare device,

A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice!

A damsel with a dulcimer

In a vision once I saw:

It was an Abyssinian maid,

And on her dulcimer she played,

Singing of Mount Abora.

Could I revive within me

Her symphony and song,

To such a deep delight 'twould win me,

That with music loud and long,

I would build that dome in air,

That sunny dome! those caves of ice!

And all who heard should see them there,

And all should cry, Beware! Beware!

His flashing eyes, his floating hair!

Weave a circle round him thrice,

And close your eyes with holy dread,

For he on honey-dew hath fed,

And drunk the milk of Paradise.

~Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Have an eXciting day!

Woman of the Wood

I'm keeping this post simple.  

This was a trial and error project.  Illustrator inks on wood, sharpie marker for the black lines and varnish to make it smooth and shiny.  When I finished inking and marking it, I went to put the varnish on and it smeared my inks, I had to do some fixing here and there, but I think it turned out okay. I will go about it a bit differently next time.

Have a Wonderful Wednesday!!