Everyday Matters Challenge #18: Draw the View from the Window of...

This drawing is inspired by a photograph I took out the window of our hotel room in Lucca, Italy when we traveled there in 2005. It continually seems like just yesterday.
Using a set of woodless graphite pencils which are smooth as silk, I transported myself back to that exquisite traveler's moment when one wakes up in yet another new place and gazes out at the crisp scene so full of promise, wondering what's down that path and around that far bend.

Everyday Matters Challenge #83: Draw a Nearby Body of Water-A Pond

This is a beautiful, intown neighborhood duck pond near a project I am currently working on in an area of town called Buckhead. I did the pencil sketch drawing half 'plein air' while waiting to meet with some clients/friends who want a couple of porches built on their house. I drove around for the best vantage point and with pad over steering wheel, I drew what I could in one hour.
I am starting to see the limitations of my beloved Tombow markers and may have to branch out and learn to use true watercolors...maybe. I am also grateful that the work in the renovation business-for me anyway-keeps coming in.

Everyday Matters Challenge #193: Draw a Close-up Part of Something (the inside of a TV)

Several months ago, my wife and I were sitting in the kitchen getting ready for dinner. It was raining pretty hard. A bolt of lightning hit something right outside our house. The bowl of peanuts I was so calmly eating flew into the air as I involuntarily catapulted out of my chair.
After we got over the shock (and relief that our house wasn't on fire), we assessed the actual damage. Among the casualties was this small TV.

I took the back of it off hoping to see something obvious to fix, but there was nothing. After it sat around for awhile, I got intrigued by all the spots of color and form, so...I pulled one last picture from this dead TV before it was taken to the recycling center.

Everyday Matters Challenge #69: Draw a Beverage

This is a drawing based on a photo that I took as we were waiting at this famous place in Venice, in a well worn leather upholstered booth, for this bartender to mix and the waiter to serve our anticipated famous beverage. It is one of those places whose history and legend far out-class its current state of overpriced drinks and tourist overrun-(all of whom are apparently seeking the same brush with the ghosts of bygone greatness as we are).
The whole bar area is paneled in a beautiful, deep orange-toned wood, including the art-deco clock. The single room is not very large and the low white-washed beamed ceiling adds to the period ambiance. Hemingway and others passed the time here in expatriate glory back in its heyday.
If you have had the good fortune of visiting the incredibly beautiful city in which this place resides, you might have stumbled across it like we did. The name of this bar is in the drawing itself.

Everyday Matters Challenge #187: Draw a Fan

This is a drawing of a fan we have in our attic loft, the proportions of which are so "off" that if someone had the ability to turn it on...they would mostly likely be maimed for life.

Everyday Matters Challenge #85: The Inside of a Store in Your Area

This is a favorite haunt. I managed to find one of the few remaining chairs. As the figures started to go down on the page, I felt like I recognized the guy on the left.
Sure enough, if you go back into my blog to EDM #133: Draw a Peach...I swear it's the same kid standing in line on the left.

EDM Challenge #9: Organized Chaos

This is my tool bag that I use to renovate houses, some of the contents of which change weekly. Its main function is to be a 'catch-all' for the tools, etc. that invariably 'float' around the shop and the job-site(s). I don't generally carry this around...and most of the time, it stays in my truck.

I decided to include the scan of the drawing before I colored it because, well, I liked it in its black and white state, too (and once it gets color, there is no going back!). In the finished, colored version, I used Tombow markers, Pitt pen (S, #175), graphite pencil-for the preliminary sketch, and some watercolor pencils (because I like the red better, for instance.)

EDM #167: Draw Something That Needs Fixing

...the building and zoning permit office, yes! And I know I'm not alone in this one: ask these two people depicted. I'm sure they have been here a lot longer than I have. Perfect subjects for a quick sketch in that-like me-they ain't movin'! Why do I know they aren't going to move? Because if their name is called and they aren't around, the plan reviewer will immediately skip to the next person. When they come back and realize that they missed their turn, they have to sign the call list again.
The potential for this happening is multiplied by the 5 different departments they are required to clear: plan intake, zoning, site development, arborist, and structural. But it doesn't end there, the permit typist and the cashier lines await. God forbid if you have to change something...or it's lunchtime.

EDM #165: The Front of My House

This is the front of my house from the one-lane street I live on. As you might be able to tell, it sits slightly down from the street. My wife and I designed and built it back in 2000, a life experience and result for which I am grateful on a daily basis.

I used Tombow markers, graphite pencils, and some watercolor pencils. I tried to use my trusty Pitt pens, but they wouldn't work because of the nature of the paper (architectural tissue paper) and the color pencil build-up. I think the disconcerting lack of dimension in the foliage is due to this. In hindsight, I would have done all the ink work and shadowing first, but I was experimenting with laying down colors first (after a pencil sketch). Two interesting things I learned tho' were 1) the Tombow 'blender' pen also blends the watercolor pencil marks, and 2) by using drawing tissue paper I was able to color some things (like the roof) on the backside of the paper. By doing this, the lines on the front side remained unclouded.

So...anyway, I am thinking that I might back off on the more concentrated pieces and try to just 'draw' a few of the EDM challenges without alot of complexity...and possibly more frequently. There are plenty of people whose work I admire doing exactly that...with great personal success.

EDM Challenge #141: Something with Bristles

It has been awhile since last I posted...continuing with the color exploration.
In Georgia, pine trees are ubiquitous; so, to draw pine bristles with a couple of pine cones amidst them is to capture the everyday of this part of the world.

EDM Challenge #153: Something in a Plastic Bag

Mark this day...something new is afoot: color...my first blog drawing in color. (...entering Oz.)

EDM #151: Free Choice

This is a still-life of a corner place in our living room.
I was experimenting with a water-soluble graphite pencil. It is obviously difficult to control the clarity of things with this particular art supply; but, I can definitely see the potential for some interesting effects.

EDM #110: Something with flames

I remember very vividly when this exhibition hall burned-in 1976. Back before I really knew anything about Buckminster Fuller, I was genuinely impressed by this geodesic structure when I walked through it during Expo '67 in Montreal. So later, when I saw the footage of this archetypal form on fire, I was mesmerized. (What a visual!)
Just the other day, I happened to be looking through an old publication from the seventies when I came across this news photo from that time. Through the act of freehand drawing it from that historical photograph, I was mesmerized again...such is the power of art.
(Apologies to fellow EDM'rs: this is not really an 'everyday' fire!)

EDM #148: Soothing

There is something very soothing about anticipating and then walking out to the end of a very long wooden pier, into the heart of a vast marsh with absolutely no one around...the sound of sea-birds and waves crashing onto a wild, sandy beach way off to the east. This is one such pier I traversed while visiting the beautiful coastal islands of South Carolina-during the cold Christmas holiday.

This drawing is very similar to another one I did several months ago. An unintentional series seems to be developing.

EDM #155 : Something with Steps

I really liked the look of this foyer and gently curving staircase in a home on the island of Nantucket in Massachusetts. (Inspired by a photo...not me: visiting, observing, and drawing in Nantucket itself...personally...which is a shame because...I like Nantucket.)

EDM Challenge #36: Draw Out In Public

I had to speak into this thing tonight; but, the meeting went on forever. I had my notes ready. To pass the time, I began this drawing. By the time it was my turn, the drawing had obscured part of what I had intended to say! Since there was a very small audience (most of whom I know!), it was more privately comical than publicly tragic. (I can't wait 'til Jan. when I will be free of this commitment!)
I really enjoyed working the pencil's eraser for blending. I was happy with this one...and it opens another medium for exploration.

EDM Challenge #133: Peach

I wasn't even looking for it; but, this 'peach' stand fell in my lap when I was looking at a wonderful portfolio of photographs on Flickr by Stephanie Fysh (Lu) from Toronto. Being right up my alley and the perfect subject for this EDM challenge, I couldn't resist the attempt to draw it.

EDM #35: Draw a bicycle

I was waiting for someone at the subway station. This quick sketch is what I was looking at across the parking lot. (Not much drawing happening lately. Truth be told...I did this drawing months ago.)
I am anxious to get back into the drawing mode; but-as a renovation contractor-it's the projects that have to be completed for Christmas that get my energy for now.
I picked up DG's book again. It really does wonders for the inspiration and rekindling of creative desires. If you are in a similar slump...open it to any page.

EDM #129: People Doing Something

I pencil-sketched this at a local take-out joint, the proverbial "greasy spoon", while I sat at the counter waiting for my order. Before I left, I took a snapshot with my camera phone for reference. When I got home, I finished my lunch...and this drawing.
If you notice, this is the first drawing on my blog that has people in it...such as they are.

EDM #137: Something You Turn Off and On

This is a view of the major state highway on which I commute most days to the intown neighborhoods where I work. This is the last approach before the road bends right to Exit 7 where I will turn off to go to my home.
Then, on the weekday morning when I return to Exit 7, I turn on the right entrance ramp onto this same artery, becoming a blood cell once again as I flow with all my fellow corpuscles into the heart of the city. This circulatory image is further enhanced when I make this trip in the very early morning or the late evening and all the vehicles are lit up: 'white' headlights going in...'red' taillights going out.
This particular drive home was downright lonely...way past the bloody mess of rush hour.