Posted by ffyrebird on January 02, 2012 at 11:24 PM in Art Journal/ Sketchbook, Inky Fingers | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
It seems like it has been forever since the last time I made a drawing or posted on here, I feel so rusty!!! I have been itching to draw again and learned so much from my attempt to draw everyday, that I decided why not go for it and try for another go at drawing daily for a year. Time for me right now is very limited as I spend most of every day with R2 at rehab working on his recovery from the wreck. I decided to keep my drawings very simple for now- just a quick pen sketch from photos. I grabbed a bunch of royalty free photos from the Library of Congress Flickr stream etc. and put them on my IPad so I wouldn't have to waste time trying to figure out what to draw. I want to work on drawing people and straight to ink drawings really seam to be (for me) quick, honest and a great learning tool- so for a while that's what I'll be playing with. Here is the first, a very dapper man in Noodler's Beaver on Stonehenge paper. the ink sat on the surface a bit and I found I could smear it with my finger for a touch of tone....
Posted by ffyrebird on January 01, 2012 at 08:29 PM in Art Journal/ Sketchbook, Inky Fingers | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Posted by ffyrebird on April 25, 2011 at 11:59 PM in Art Journal/ Sketchbook, Inky Fingers | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBack (0)
For today, the family told me I should draw a cross. OK. I chose one of R3's necklaces (I just realized that I mislabeled the pic as R4's not R3's-- I think this is just a tad too girly for R4, LOL!!). R2 and R3 usually celebrate their birthday together since they are only two days apart. Today was their combo birthday party and Easter lunch for the extended family to celebrate together.
Posted by ffyrebird on April 24, 2011 at 11:59 PM in Art Journal/ Sketchbook, Inky Fingers | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Posted by ffyrebird on April 23, 2011 at 09:57 PM in Art Journal/ Sketchbook, Inky Fingers | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Every now and then a drawing goes wonky--- So for today, a wonky monkey!! This is a little monkey plush with built in speakers in his headphones for plugging in an MP3 player. It hangs on R4's bedpost for him to grab and listen to music at night. It was really weird drawing this hanging by it's headphone strap from the lamp on my desk!!
Posted by ffyrebird on April 22, 2011 at 11:40 PM in Art Journal/ Sketchbook, Inky Fingers | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Posted by ffyrebird on April 21, 2011 at 11:59 PM in Art Journal/ Sketchbook, Inky Fingers | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
I decided to try something different for today and sketch one of the kiddos. Originally I was going to draw R3 but she didn't like that idea and ran off upstairs. R4 is such a good sport and a big ham for the camera, so it wasn't a surprise that he volunteered to model for me. He watched a movie and let me draw away. He liked the finished sketch but gave me some suggestions on touching up his hair.
Only five more days left of 75 Days of Ink Drawings!!!
Posted by ffyrebird on April 20, 2011 at 09:20 PM in Art Journal/ Sketchbook, Inky Fingers | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
Posted by ffyrebird on April 19, 2011 at 08:58 PM in Art Journal/ Sketchbook, Inky Fingers | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Posted by ffyrebird on April 18, 2011 at 11:59 AM in Art Journal/ Sketchbook, Inky Fingers | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Playing around with a different background wash and subject for todays direct ink drawing, only eight more days left!!! The photo for this was from Laure Ferlita's class, Imaginary Garden Visit. I planned to use it as a warmup for my class page, but time ran out and dinner with the family came first.....
Posted by ffyrebird on April 17, 2011 at 11:13 PM in Art Journal/ Sketchbook, Inky Fingers | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Once upon a time.we went to a Royal's game. After the game we bought R4 a tiny Beanie-type blue bear with Sweeney written across his back after the first baseman at that time. R4 took Sweeney everywhere and he was soon joined by many other tiny bear friends. It is amazing how many places sell little bears as souevenirs! Whever he went, R4 took pockets or backpacks full of bears and played with them like other kids played with dolls. Once, as we were sitting at one of his big brothers ball games he emptied the pockets of his cargo pants and I counted over twenty of his little bear buddies he'd squished in there!! R4 doesn't carry them around like he used to, but he still plays with them in a giant wooden 'bear' house and carts them downstairs to stage football and baseball games with them. He stuffs them into Barbie or GI Joe cars and bikes, builds Lego stages and gizmos for them and has all sorts of adventures with his buddies. All that from one tiny little Sweeney bear souvenir!
PS: As I was drawing this guy, R4 informed me that HER name was Spirit.
Posted by ffyrebird on April 16, 2011 at 11:59 PM in Art Journal/ Sketchbook, Inky Fingers | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Posted by ffyrebird on April 15, 2011 at 11:59 PM in Art Journal/ Sketchbook, Inky Fingers | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Posted by ffyrebird on April 14, 2011 at 10:51 PM in Art Journal/ Sketchbook, Inky Fingers | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Today's drawing is one of my toys, a Native American Flute made out of bamboo by Faheem Wynn. This one is flame scorched a bit with a dark bird and he named it Phoenix! I love it, especially how it bows a bit and angles at the last growth ring. Somehow, even though it isn't a perfect machine made tube, it still sounds sweet.
I'm not sure why the ink feathered so badly in this drawing, it was my standard Noodlers (although in Beaver this time). Maybe the brown is a tad thinner, or the nib of this Esterbrook is extra flexy and laid down a wetter line, or I fuzzed up the paper a bit when I painted the background before I began--- or a combination of all three factors. Who knows... Anyway, in the spirit of the 75 Days of Ink, I just lived with it. For me the main part of this challenge has been accepting a drawing as it is and not fussing with it, something I'm still struggling with. Just twelve more days of Direct Ink Drawings!!
Posted by ffyrebird on April 13, 2011 at 11:30 PM in Art Journal/ Sketchbook, Inky Fingers | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Posted by ffyrebird on April 12, 2011 at 11:59 PM in Art Journal/ Sketchbook, Inky Fingers | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
Posted by ffyrebird on April 11, 2011 at 11:36 PM in Art Journal/ Sketchbook, Inky Fingers | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
I love the looks of old dip pens, especially ones with an unusual twist like this one with a curvy oak holder. Unfortunately, I don't care to use dip pens. I always forget the proper way to pull the nib and end up spattering my page with ink!! Who knows though, maybe eventually I will learn to love using them. I didn't like the Tombow pens when I first tried them and here I am making yet another drawing using one!!
Posted by ffyrebird on April 10, 2011 at 11:59 PM in Art Journal/ Sketchbook, Inky Fingers | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Posted by ffyrebird on April 09, 2011 at 11:19 PM in Art Journal/ Sketchbook, Inky Fingers | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Posted by ffyrebird on April 08, 2011 at 11:24 PM in Art Journal/ Sketchbook, Inky Fingers | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
Posted by ffyrebird on April 07, 2011 at 05:16 PM in Art Journal/ Sketchbook, Inky Fingers | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
Posted by ffyrebird on April 06, 2011 at 11:57 PM in Art Journal/ Sketchbook, Inky Fingers | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Posted by ffyrebird on April 05, 2011 at 11:22 PM in Art Journal/ Sketchbook, Inky Fingers | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
R3 loves the movie musical, Phantom of the Opera so when it came to town during her birthday we HAD to go see the stage show. She had a blast getting all dressed up and we had wonderful seats right at the edge of the balcony. She had a huge grin on her face all night long! It was so much fun that the next time the show comes around we will be going together again for sure.
Posted by ffyrebird on April 04, 2011 at 11:59 PM in Art Journal/ Sketchbook, Inky Fingers | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
Some drawings are so bad, they are funny. R4 brought me this fluffy stuffed penguin with a huge head and mega eyes to draw. I knew it would be next to impossible to do all that fluff justice in ink, but I didn't guess that it would end up looking like a chicken wearing an Elvis wig!!!! Oh well, here it is in all it's pathetic splendor! Actually, I kinda get a laugh out of how silly it looks!
Posted by ffyrebird on April 03, 2011 at 11:59 PM in Art Journal/ Sketchbook, Inky Fingers | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Posted by ffyrebird on April 02, 2011 at 11:49 PM in Art Journal/ Sketchbook, Inky Fingers | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Posted by ffyrebird on April 01, 2011 at 11:18 PM in Art Journal/ Sketchbook, Inky Fingers | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
My family is the best!! When I get stumped for a drawing model they all pitch in with ideas. R2 brought this toy down for me to draw tonight. They are all super patient with me and put up with my delaying dinner or the DVD for the night because-- 'I'll be finished drawing in a minute' or ' Just let me post this real quick'. How lucky can you be?
Posted by ffyrebird on March 31, 2011 at 11:57 PM in Art Journal/ Sketchbook, Inky Fingers | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Posted by ffyrebird on March 30, 2011 at 12:59 PM in Art Journal/ Sketchbook, Inky Fingers, Only Natural | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
I think Mini Coopers are the cutest little cars ever! I would love to have one, but there is no way a family of six would ever fit in one so I'm stuck with a minivan as my ride. DH has promised when the kiddos start leaving the nest we can trade our current camping rig of an F250 Supercab and Trailmanor for a big motorcoach and a Mini Cooper as a tow vehicle, cool!!! In the meantime, I'm trying to convince R1 or R2 that a Mini Cooper woud be a neat first car (so Mom can 'borrow' it).
In case you're counting, this is day 48 in my insane 75 Day Direct Ink Drawing Challenge (all are blogged under the category Inky Fingers). The idea is from here--Brenda Swenson's 75 Day sketch Challenge. I'm not really sure if all my drawings count since I got really bored, really fast with plain ink line drawings on white paper and decided to use background watercolor washes. I also went with a lot of watersoluble pen and ink washes in the drawings themselves. This way I get double the practice- drawing in ink only then playing with dissolving the ink into tones. Ah, phooey, who am I kidding!! The drawings were BORING in line only, putting in some tone by doing ink washes was the only way to keep going with this challenge. On a positive note, this is a great experience and a wonderful skill to learn for fast sketching.
Posted by ffyrebird on March 29, 2011 at 11:20 PM in Art Journal/ Sketchbook, Inky Fingers | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
There must be some unwritten rule that states that the weather must always be nasty for a graveside service. It was really windy and chill out, but thankfully most of the snow missed us and what had fallen was melted by today. It was a good thing that I always have earmuffs and Arctic 180s in my coat pockets and the glove box of every vehicle we own. I could probably outfit a small army with earmuffs, but at least I always have them around when I need them, LOL!!
I'm going to go veg out with a movie, so this is a realllllly quick ink sketch playing with the brush end of a Tombow pen.
Posted by ffyrebird on March 28, 2011 at 11:49 PM in Art Journal/ Sketchbook, Inky Fingers | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)
Posted by ffyrebird on March 27, 2011 at 11:59 PM in Art Journal/ Sketchbook, Inky Fingers | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)
Posted by ffyrebird on March 27, 2011 at 01:09 AM in Art Journal/ Sketchbook, Inky Fingers | Permalink | Comments (9) | TrackBack (0)
Posted by ffyrebird on March 25, 2011 at 11:59 PM in Art Journal/ Sketchbook, Inky Fingers, Only Natural | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)
Posted by ffyrebird on March 24, 2011 at 10:52 PM in Art Journal/ Sketchbook, Inky Fingers | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)
Posted by ffyrebird on March 23, 2011 at 10:19 PM in Art Journal/ Sketchbook, Inky Fingers, Only Natural | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Both R3 and I have really long hair, but it couldn't be more different. Mine is straight to wavy and feels pretty soft. Hers is soooo thick and curly and coarse. She wants straight hair. I would love curly hair. I wish my red hair wasn't getting darker, she hates her red highlights. I can't stand using a brush, she just rips through her hair with hers, OWWW!!!
Posted by ffyrebird on March 22, 2011 at 11:00 PM in Art Journal/ Sketchbook, Inky Fingers | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Finally, Spring is here!! It's hard to believe we had snow on the ground last week, it's so nice out today. Nothing reminds me of Spring more than tulips so that had to be today's drawing. I corrected the name of the pen I've used for the last three , it is a Pelikan 120 not a Pilot 120 as I had written previously.
Posted by ffyrebird on March 21, 2011 at 10:42 PM in Inky Fingers, Only Natural | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Posted by ffyrebird on March 20, 2011 at 10:18 PM in Art Journal/ Sketchbook, Inky Fingers | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
If Ithought I was exhausted yesterday, eeshhh!! We are all recovering from being sick but the oldest two had said they would go to the youth lock-in and DH was to be a chaperone, so they all left last night to have an all-nighter with their friends. I stayed home with the two youngest and we had a movie marathon and junk food fest. When the rest of the gang got home at 7 am, we hit the sack and didn't wake up till 5pm. Talk about messing up your schedule!!
Posted by ffyrebird on March 19, 2011 at 11:09 PM in Art Journal/ Sketchbook, Inky Fingers | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Posted by ffyrebird on March 18, 2011 at 11:59 PM in Art Journal/ Sketchbook, Inky Fingers | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Posted by ffyrebird on March 17, 2011 at 11:03 PM in Art Journal/ Sketchbook, Inky Fingers | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Today is just a sketchy sketch, half the family is sick and I'm running around feeding them and doing the 'Mom' thing... This was my spoon as a baby. Compared to the spoons with plastic handles covered in bright cartoon characters that my kiddos had, it seems pretty plain. It really looks like someone bent a regular silver spoon into a loop for a baby to hold. I like the simplicity of it.
Posted by ffyrebird on March 16, 2011 at 10:44 PM in Art Journal/ Sketchbook, Inky Fingers | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Posted by ffyrebird on March 15, 2011 at 11:31 PM in Art Journal/ Sketchbook, Inky Fingers | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
Posted by ffyrebird on March 14, 2011 at 11:59 PM in Art Journal/ Sketchbook, Inky Fingers, Only Natural | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Posted by ffyrebird on March 13, 2011 at 10:58 PM in Art Journal/ Sketchbook, Inky Fingers | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
I cleaned and polished the stinky Swan pen from yesterday to see if I could get rid of the burnt rubber smell. It smells better now and is OK to use, cool since it is a nifty vintage fountain pen. I drug this little dolphin-shaped, ceramic ocarina off the shelf for today's drawing. R3 screeched when I tried playing it, LOL!!
Posted by ffyrebird on March 12, 2011 at 08:40 PM in Art Journal/ Sketchbook, Inky Fingers | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Wow, thirty days of direct ink drawing with only forty-five days left. Seventy-five days is looking like a loooong time!! Today was a quickie with a vintage Swan self filler and Noodler's Ink. This is a REALLY sketchy sketch because the pen literally stunk. When resacing an old hard rubber pen sometimes there is this nasty burnt rubber smell that occurs while filing the old sac bits off the neck. This pen smells like that but I've never refurbished it or replaced the sac as I bought it in working order with a nice pliable sac. I'll have to figure out some way to get rid of the smell, maybe polish down the whole pen. If I don't this pen won't see anymore use, it's just way too smelly! It would be a shame to shelve it since it has a nice nib and this really cool metal sleeve that it fits into to clip into a pocket- obviously a pre-integrated clip era model.
We were waiting for DH to finish up on the phone to watching a DVD so I did this little guy to kill time...
Posted by ffyrebird on March 11, 2011 at 08:29 PM in Art Journal/ Sketchbook, Inky Fingers | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Scribbles, with his little quiver and pencil, is the last of my merry band of Pocket Dragon plushies. The guys were from the cartoon series, Pocket Dragon Adventures, that was based on the figurines by Real and Muff Musgrave. The plushies were just so cute that I had to add them to the stuffed animal zoo in my computer room.
Posted by ffyrebird on March 10, 2011 at 09:22 PM in Art Journal/ Sketchbook, Inky Fingers | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Posted by ffyrebird on March 09, 2011 at 09:21 PM in Art Journal/ Sketchbook, Inky Fingers | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

