Sketches: Denmark

Hi.

Remember me?

I know I've fallen off the face of this blog, but I have really good reasons, I swear! Since I got back home from my adventures in Europe, I've been working two jobs all summer. Then, my best friend came home from across the country and is visiting all month. In addition to that, everyone I know suddenly decided to get married and/or produce a baby. This has left me with exactly zero free personal time. My weekends are booked with things that end in "shower" (baby or bridal, take your pick) in addition to the weddings. The hubby and I have also been trying to fix up the house before I start my evening classes again on September 4th. (That alone is kind of making me freak out.) The cherry on the top? I sprained my ankle last week.

Now that I have my excuses and stories out of the way, I'm just going to finish posting the sketches I promised to post a month ago. Sorry.


This will (mostly) conclude the sketches from my travel sketchbook. All of the following were created while touring Hamlet's Castle, Elsinore, in Denmark: This was a sketch of a recreation of the Queen's wedding gown. She was only 14 or so when she got married.

Don't worry, my sister took a photo of the above painting without flash. Though, I'm afraid I can't say the same for some of the other tourists.

I have a few more sketches to post, but this blog has been waiting long enough. I'll get through the rest of my stories and sketches in forthcoming posts.

So...how've you been? (o;

Sketches: The Netherlands and Norway

Sorry about the irregular blogging. Aside from having to juggle two different summer jobs the second I returned, I also seem to have come down with a nasty cold. Ugh. In any case, that's not going to stop me from sharing a few more sketches with you from my travels.This sketch is all I had time for in Amsterdam at the Van Gough Museum. It's a detail from his Emperor Moth painting.

This is a view off the balcony of our cruise ship as we were about to dock in Norway. Below is a photograph:An ancient carving from the Viking museum (my sketch and then the photo):

That's it for this morning. Tomorrow I'll post images from Denmark. In the meantime, have a happy Thursday! (o:

Sketches from England

I figured I'd spend this week sharing a bit of the sketch book I kept while traveling. I'll post a little each day. Today's doodles are from the England portion of my vacation.

We spent a little time at London's National Gallery, and I managed to do a few quick sketches. Keep in mind, they're nothing much. We didn't spend a lot of time in the museum, so I had to work fast! A few of them are no more than gesture drawings. That said, here we go: This was a detail from the Degas painting "La Coiffure". (Click on the highlighted links to see the actual paintings I stood in front of.) Me trying to capture even a mere detail of a Caravaggio in 2 minutes is sort of a laugh-riot. This gesture drawing is kind of sad. Especially when you look at the original. Poor Saint John the Baptist. Oh well. I did what I could in the time allotted.

A quick gesture from a Honthorst painting of Saint Sebastian.

My husband - waiting for the bus. (o:
Tomorrow I'll post some of my sketches from The Netherlands and possibly Norway.

I'm baaaack!

I'm home from my 10 day vacation with my husband, parents, sister, and brother-in-law. We went to England, The Netherlands, Norway, Denmark, and Sweden. I am very jet lagged and now trying desperately to get back on track with exercise, sleep, and resuming a normal diet. Traveling and eating out every day is fun, but it can really take a toll on you.

I'm sure you guys will be happy to hear that I actually got a bit of sketching done on my vacation. Most of it is really quick gesture drawings. We were on a lot of coordinated tours, and were mostly rushed from site to site. On one hand, I am so lucky to even have the opportunity to see some of these places and works of art. On the other hand, it absolutely broke my heart to have a mere 45 minutes in the (very crowded) Van Gough museum or have to go running past a wall full of Rembrandts in order to meet the bus. Oh well. The point is that it was a good trip. I'll start posting images from my sketch book this week as soon as I can. I'll be working two jobs this summer, but I'm hoping I'll be able to find some time to blog regularly.

I am a little bit frazzled with all I have to get done this week, so I was happy to come home to find a message from my friend Karen telling me that my Iggy Inferno plush character had been featured in Etsy's Storque Spotlight. It's nice to see that even when I'm not able to maintain my site for a small period of time, people are still finding my work. (o:

Anyway, I feel like I need to do a lot of catching up. If any of you have news or updates for me from the last 10 days, please post! I'll be anxious to read them.

21 Day Challenge: Day 20

Oh Captain Ahab...don't get mad.

This Challenge is winding down! I only have one day left. I'm not sure if a mere 21 days has ingrained a habit in me or not. I guess we'll have to wait and see. I have an uneasy feeling that I could just as easily go back to not drawing every evening. The real challenge, I suppose, will be after this project is officially done. Then I'll have to keep up the daily sketching on my own with no days to count down and no goal. It does feel good to create something every night, though. Even if it's just something silly.

I'll try to post my last drawing tonight. I'm leaving for a long awaited (and much anticipated) 10 day vacation bright and early tomorrow morning. I need it. Try not to miss me too much! (o;

21 Day Challenge: Day 19

I picked up my husband's copy of Fahrenheit 451 this weekend. It was never assigned to me as required reading in either high school or college, but it interested me. I've already made it though a large portion of the book. I suppose I could've waited until my flight this week, and read it on the plane...but it's too late for that! The book is not that long, and I'm a voracious reader. I'm sure I'll be finished the whole thing by tonight.

One of the images they mention more than once is the badge the firemen have sewn onto their uniforms. It's an image of a fiery salamander. I figured I'd sketch it last night. I wanted to keep developing sketches until I can get it into a sort of cool graphic symbol, but after I drew the little guy above it was time for bed. Maybe that's a project for another time.

Lately, I've been in the mood to read books set in a dystopian future. The classics are always the best. 1984 and A Brave New World were both high school or college assignments, so I've read those. I also read A Handmaid's Tale (any woman's nightmare!!!) in college as well as A Clockwork Orange and several others. At the time, I was taking a class called "New Visions of the Apocalypse". It was very cool. Anyway, if you have other reading suggestions along these lines, I'm open!

21 Day Challenge: Day 18

This is pretty much how I was feeling last night. Three day weekend or not, I've been up way too early every day. Forget sleeping in...I have too much stuff to do!

Yesterday was spent running around doing errands. Once we got home, I spent the rest of the night doing laundry and trying to decide what to bring on our trip next week. I have a really bad habit of over-packing and I'm trying to avoid that this time (if at all possible).

Honestly, this vacation can't come soon enough!

Oh, here's a little extra doodle I drew last night too. I think this star is a bit dismayed that he's falling:

21 Day Challenge: Days 16 and 17

No, I haven't given up on this challenge. I've been keeping up with it! But, this weekend has been so insanely busy that I just didn't have time yesterday to scan in and post the sketch from day 16 for you guys. It's a little late, but here it is:
I hope that seahorse is traveling someplace to get that suitcase redrawn! And here's last night's sketch:

We were out last night celebrating the 4th with some good friends. By the time we got home, I was absolutely exhausted. I drew that chicken and the weird little cat/dog creature and promptly fell asleep on my sketchbook. (Don't worry, I don't think the chicken is in danger).

Hope you all had a Happy 4th of July!

21 Day Challenge: Day 15

Yep. A duck in a hat is just about all I could muster up last night.

The hubs and I are booked solid this weekend with various social events, and I have no idea when I'm supposed to shop, do laundry, and pack for our upcoming vacation. I think a "To Do" list may be in order. I lived off of one giant list during the period preceeding our wedding. It was my lifeline and nothing felt more satisfying than crossing something off of the list. After our wedding, I promptly abandoned that notebook. It just may be time to start a new one. That is, if I can even remember everything that I need to do!

21 Day Challenge: Day 14

Pack rat!

I confess, I am a pack rat. I hang onto everything. Half the stuff I've hung onto has been collected with the excuse, "I could turn this into a really cool art project!" Then it's totally forgotten. Sometimes it's a really good idea to plow through your junk piles and do some serious sorting out. And by "sorting" I mean throwing away, donating, and/or recycling.

I spent the majority of last night cleaning and organizing my house and realized this might be a continual summer-long project. I barely hit the tip of the iceberg by cleaning up the bedroom. After only one evening, I have more than one garbage bag of clothes that will be donated to the Salvation Army. I dug through all my drawers and closet, tried things on, and found myself saying, "Ew! Why have I been holding onto these things again???" If you can pinpoint the year the fad happened, you're probably holding on to it for sentimental reasons and it's time to ditch the item. I also answered the question I've been asking myself all month: "How can I have a closet full of clothes yet nothing to wear?" Well...only about half of my wardrobe is wearable. 1/4 of it fits funny or doesn't fit at all. The other 1/4 is too hideous to wear in public. And the shoes...ooooh. Don't even get me started. (I have a little shoe obsession...ahem.)

The above sketch was inspired by last night's closet misadventures--even a pack rat can reach her limit sometimes. Time to box it up and ship it out! Next stop: my studio! (Though, it's about 150 degrees up there plus humidity, so who knows when I'll get a chance to tackle that mess.)

21 Day Challenge: Day 13

It's the magical candy deer!

Yeah...I don't know what's wrong with me either. Lol. It sort of has a llama face but again, I sometimes need reference photos in front of me when I draw animals. I haven't been using them for this project and this drawing is a case in point.

In other news, I had my SCBWI meeting last night. As usual, it was good. We got to meet our newest member and everything. Hopefully I can get the blog links to our other members (besides me, Gina, and Vita, of course) so I can post them for you.

Other than that, I'm just gearing up for my upcoming vacation and counting down the days! Really, it can't come fast enough. Sigh.