broken string

Illustration of me staring in dismay as the arrow shoots foward minus the majority of the thread attached to it. Red pen.

A wild and crazy week.

An attempt at a wide-eyed, over-busy look, self-potrait without looking in the mirror except to double check ears at the end. I tend to use myself often to check something when drawing people that I thought it was worth a try.
Not quite good.

Many apologies once again.
I'd hoped to at least post something for Thanksgiving. Maybe next week.

This week has been full. There was treasure hunt planning to do (some art involved, but it was taken to its location upon its completion yesterday), the writing of lines for nine-characters so that my students could audition for parts before they wrote their play, cpr and first aid training at scouts, housecleaning - home and elsewhere, errands, a car running out of gas, finishing my brother's present, which I'd hoped to share here, but is currently wrapped up, the auditions, the figuring out how to work with ancient thread and a bow and arrow to rig a balloon up between two trees, and baking.

Thanksgiving day was a wonderful break.

Tuareg (Tamajeq) Man

I had a lot of trouble with the camel's head on this one. It pays to have a reference photo rather than relying on memory.

One of my friends when I was little was of the Tamajeq. Hence they have a special place in my heart.

The turban is indigo, and stains the skin for quite some time after dyeing. I think that's why the Tamajeq are sometimes known as the blue men of the desert.

Three Days to See - concept art for a potential cover

In an earlier post, I spoke of getting to play Helen Keller in a movie production. This is my attempt to come up with a worthwhile cover for the dvd, which currently has only a print label.

I chose eyes, in part to reflect what she sees, and in part because she speaks of "looking long" into the faces of her loved ones, and the eye is an important part of that.

I wanted "see" in color as I chose to have the seeing days represented in color.

As I write this post, I reminded again to give thanks for sight; to not take it for granted, but to look and see, especially the eyes of friends.

Weighty things -- and a light heart?

I'm sorry for not posting last week. Adjusting to several new responsibilities has not proved easy.

Here is a picture I painted over the week-end. Quotes are from a poem by E. Barrett. It was a needed reminder, as Russian history has proven weighty.

"running to Him with arms open wide"



"a heart light, not because it hasn't considered weighty things, but because it has not seen the need to carry them on its own"

A bit of fall

A friend asked me for a painting that involved Autumn. This is part of the results. It was rather fun to paint as I got to mix reds and yellows.

A different sort of art - tangram cakes

Challenge: Turn one oatmeal flour cake into a tanagram design for an eight year old boy.

Difficulty: Oat cakes are very good, but tend to be quite crumbly

Actually, the hardest part was figuring out an acceptable design. Giraffes and cats are cute, but not to be compared to the hammer cake I was also decorating. Fortunately my oldest younger brother had figured out the pieces and cut them out, so that I could play around with it. I knew I had only one chance to place the cake pieces on the cookie tray. I was glad when the ship shape met approval.

Then came a very careful lifting out and putting them in place. Then the icing. That made life a little difficult. Icing cut wheat flour cakes can be difficult enough without a glaze first. Oat flour cakes make them seem almost easy by comparison. This was a little disappointing, as I enjoy playing around with icing.

Still - it was a tangram cake!