a photo of the new princess

She won’t allow them to put her in her crib.

She looks like her Dad.

Just thought you might be interested in seeing my new muse and future model, I hope she will pose.

my car time traveled without me

It’s not a DeLorean but a mere Ford and it didn’t have to get up to 80MPH. It did this standing still.

I didn’t realize how much sand is in my car. I wonder if the car went to the beach.

Anyway, I’m glad I wasn’t along for that ride because 2014 wasn’t that great.

Did your car ever time travel without you?

weird things I found in my oyster

Sometimes I tell people that weird things happen to me on a pretty regular basis and that I see weird things that other people don’t see. They act like I’m making it up. Here’s proof.

I ordered 6 steamed James River oysters. They were so delicious like a real delicacy but overpriced. I doused them with hot sauce and inhaled them and wanted more but next time I’ll buy regular oysters.

Anyway, when I was looking for another morsel but there were no more morsels, I found these two baby crabs in my shells. Did you ever find a baby crab in your oysters? Just me? did you ever figure oysters would eat baby crabs? I never knew!

I’m not one who believes in omens. I’m not at all superstitious and I’m PA Dutch so I know about superstition in PA. If I did believe in omens I’d think this was a good sign. Two free crabs?! Hell yeah! I’m not eating these babies. I wonder if they are really crabs. I don’t see claws. hmmm.

Weird

corona vaccine side effects

This tattoo is a joke on the people that think they’re giving you a microchip. They don’t need to microchip you. Your phone tells them everything they want to know about you.

I had my second shot of the Pfizer vaccine yesterday at Walgreens and I’m just fine today. I had my name on the VA Dept. of Health site and they didn’t get back to schedule an appointment that week but Walgreens took appts. so I went there. Then the next few days the Dept. of health got back to me but I’m glad I went to Walgreens because they want you to wait 28 days between the shots instead of the 20 days recommended by the CDC.

The first shot was nothing. The guy stuck me without squeezing my arm like they do on TV. The second shot hurt because a different pharmacy tech did squeeze my arm. I thought, oh yeah that microchip did kind of hurt. hahaha

I saw they recommended you get some vitamin C and D which is easy enough to do. Go outside in the sun for the vitamin D. Drink orange juice for the vitamin C. I do those things anyway.

Also, they say hot sauce is a good deterrent to the flu. I don’t know if that’s true but yesterday after my shot I had a crab cake for lunch and smothered it in hot sauce. It was delicious.

I took a Tylenol before the shot and one after the shot. Then I took another before I went to sleep last night and slept great.

The pharmacy lady told me about the possible side effects but I don’t feel any. I’m not normally a person that gets the flu shot but I wanted this one and it’s free.

If you are hesitant about the vaccine I’d say, get some fresh air and sunshine the week before your shot, drink orange juice, eat hot sauce, take Tylenol, and wait 28 days between your shots. Also, get Pfizer.

In two weeks I’ll be able to travel if I want to without worrying about it.

Vermeer / real VS forgery

Sisterhood of the Muse

Girl With a Pearl Earring

Johannes Vermeer (Dutch, Delft 1632–1675 Delft)
Study of a Young Woman, ca. 1665–67
Oil on canvas; 17 1/2 x 15 3/4 in. (44.5 x 40 cm)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Wrightsman, in memory of Theodore Rousseau Jr., 1979 (1979.396.1)
http://www.metmuseum.org/Collections/search-the-collections/437879

Do these two paintings look like they were done by the same artist?

Did you ever hear the story about the artist during WW2 who did paintings trying to forge Vermeer because Vermeer had recently been “rediscovered” and was suddenly popular? The forger had a respected art dealer who was in on the con game and convinced his wealthy art patrons he found early Vermeer paintings in an attic. The rich people wanted to own a Vermeer so badly they believed what they were told without question. The forger made a nice living during the war…

View original post 354 more words

2 pastel studies of butterfly ginger

So many subjects I want to draw, so little time.

When I can’t decide on which subject I want to paint next I go out and do more sketches. It could take the rest of my life and I’ll never run out of interesting things I want to draw and paint around here. I’ll never get too much drawing practice. The more I sketch the better the chance my painting will work out.

I’d like to paint these flowers some time.

I’ll probably do a few more sketches of these flowers before I try to paint them. I’ll need at least 5 and I have 3 sketches. They’re big flowers so I will use a big piece of paper. This is a project I might be able to work on at home if I mix my greens in plein air because it’s a monochromatic color scheme, all green and white.

But, then again, I might put this project off until next year like I did with my magnolia painting. I started sketching magnolias one year and sketched more the next year then finally painted it.

It’s ok. I’m playing the long game. I have the patience and will probably live through the pandemic.

second dancer

Man this new block editor is driving me nuts. Blocks show up on top of my text and I don’t know how to make them go away. If anything shows up on the post, I don’t care.

This is my second dancer. I’ll transfer this and the first one to a larger paper later. I might draw the dancers from the other side or I might draw a flower that’s blooming and I liked it last year. The finished dancer painting won’t happen for a while. I haven’t made a definite plan yet, like which medium to use. And there’s another drawing I started a couple years ago at Fort Monroe that I’d really like to finish if I can get through that tunnel traffic. If I run into a traffic jam I give up. I’ll go somewhere else. The dancers would be best completed in the winter so my easel isn’t blocking the path. I can hold this size sketchbook in my one hand and draw with the other but a large piece of paper would need my drawing board and easel.

That’s only one decision out of hundreds. I’m also thinking of the background. My models are on a pedestal so they’re no where near the ground. If I draw them on the garden path will it look like they’re floating? I guess it will if I don’t connect the figures to their shadows. It seems to me like their breasts defy gravity pointing to the sky like that. I didn’t make the sculptures. I just draw them as I see them. hahaha They could be nymphs. I guess nymphs could float off the ground. I might go with the antigravity idea.

figure drawing, a start

Crap, I got switched to the block editor.

 
ok, I'll try to use it.

Twice I was heading over to Fort Monroe to work on a drawing that I started a couple years ago when the strange atmosphere of the place freaked me out and I gave up on the drawing. It's an old fort and was under Union control in the Civil War. The battery I was drawing is freakin spooky. Yesterday and today I wanted to go there but it's on the north side of the Hampton Roads Tunnel and there was a big traffic jam both times. It wasn't rush hour. I didn't want to sit in the jam so I went to Norfolk Botanical Garden and walked a little since it's close to where I abandoned the highway traffic mess. I'll try for Fort Monroe after Labor Day some time in Sept. Hopefully the traffic jam will be gone by then. I don't know why there's so often a jam up there on 64W but it's enough to keep me on Southside.

I remembered Norfolk Botanical has a great sculpture of these two beautiful girls dancing so I started a sketch. My luck in the garden wasn't much better than the highway. As you can see, I didn't get very far with the sketch. I saw a mosquito on my arm. At first I was in the shade then 10 minutes later the sun was beating down on me. I almost went back to the car for my bug spray then I thought, oh well, I'll try to get over there earlier tomorrow and remember to use the bug spray. These are the problems of your plein air artist. It doesn't always go as you hoped with the weather and the bugs.

Well, if you're interested in this drawing technique here's the start. First I decided to draw the head 1.5" because that's about the smallest I can draw it, so I marked 1.5" sections down the paper. This way of measuring the figure using the head as a unit of measure keeps the figure in proportion as you're working on it. The ideal figure has 7 heads. The foot holding the weight is below the chin. The nipples are at the second head, except not this figure because I'm looking up at her so they're above the second head. The pubic mound is at the 3.5 mark on the figure as indicated on my sketch by the v. I put it approximately where it needs to be in line at the back of the head. To get that placing I held my pencil straight up and down and lined it up with the head. I hope you can visualize what I'm saying. To measure the proportions of the figure you have to hold your pencil out at an arms length. Rest your arm on the sketchbook. Rest the sketchbook against your body. If you take an easel out to draw, rest your arm on the easel. Close one eye and put your thumb on the pencil at the bottom of the chin. Then lower the pencil and check the proportions. Live models vary from the ideal. Don't feel self conscious about standing there holding a pencil out at arms length and closing one eye. It's the best way to start a figure drawing. I often was in open studio figure drawing groups and most artists don't use this technique to draw the figure. But if you want to be accurate it helps. Then start blobbing in the general shape with charcoal. Get all the figure roughed in before starting to refine it with line work. 

I didn't get the first steps finished today because of the mosquitoes. So far I'm not itchy. 

Baby, these are some beautiful girls dancing. And the poetry on the base is uplifting. This is what it says.

There are
so many gods
so many creeds
so many paths
that wind and wind
when
just the act of being kind
is all this sad world needs.

Arther Morris 1862 - 1920

I think I’ll quit blogging

This is my computer screen with the flashing lines that are driving me crazy. Sometimes they go away then they come back. I don’t want to take it to Best Buy to get it fixed.

I was going to quit when I got to 1000 followers but it doesn’t make any difference, really.

I’m posting this so my blog friends don’t think I got corona and died.  I’m ok and probably won’t catch it because I’m a hermit even without the social distancing thing.

Thanks for the encouragement and support.

I’ve spent too many hours on the computer.

 

meme stolen from #funny

I’m not one to join a protest mob. I’d have avoided a crowd even before the pandemic but I support the protesters. The govt. ordering businesses to close because of a virus is tyranny. And ordering healthy law abiding people to self quarantine is tyranny. Do you trust the govt.? Can you tolerate your rights to be taken? I’m not afraid of “the rona.”

Just my two cents. Feel free to disagree or opine, as always.