A few days in Northern Arizona

Mark and I spent a few days up in Flagstaff visiting Mark's mother and brother, and as a bonus we drove up to the Grand Canyon!  This was an opportunity to finally work in the 5x8 watercolor Moleskine I bought a year and a half ago, before I discovered the joys of Stillman & Birn sketchbooks.  I struggled with this book, not really wanting to commit to using it as my everyday Artist's Journal, because of its odd shape.  Then I had the brilliant idea to reserve it for times where can really shine:  the panoramic format.  I had a blast tackling a part of the Grand Canyon here while my husband and his brother and elderly mother enjoyed the sight.  The mid-day light was not optimal, but the shapes and colors are still fantastic.  I was told that many children were curious about what I was doing.

I also kept up with the Every Day in May assignments, and it was serendipity in many cases as my mother-in-law has lots of stuff, lots of potential sketch subjects that fit in with each day's topic.  I am also working in a new sketchbook, a Stillman & Birn Epsilon.  It is fun to use, though certainly quite different than regular watercolor paper!

EDiM #13:  Draw a Pillow

I chose the most colorful pillow to draw, and just propped it up against the arm of the loveseat in the morning light.

















EDiM #14:  Draw a figurine

Mark's mother is the queen of knick knacks, and must have over 100 figurines of varying sizes and subjects all over the house.  It could be the reason why we only have one in our house (my husband had overload growing up).  I found a fun one to draw.














EDiM #15:  Draw a pencil

I cheated a bit here and sketched the most interesting pens I found in Julie's house for this days assignment.  Her pencils were rather ordinary.












EDiM #16:  Draw something that scares you

I wanted to draw an illustration of an impending collision with an on-coming car, but didn't have any adequate reference material on hand (or life-study material, thank goodness!) for that.

So I did something simpler to draw, yet also scary for me.  As a child growing up in southern California and learning the scary power of waves to keep you underwater when you don't want to be, I still retain into middle age a fear of waves.




EDiM #17:  Draw something from your first aid kit

This for me was a no-brainer.  I had to have skin cancer scraped off my back a week ago and I am currently in the daily regimen of cleaning and re-bandaging the wound.  These are the supplies I took with me to Flagstaff to perform the wound care.