Day 19- Dog Brush

Tonight, while the boys were in the bath I combed Moby with the doggie brush thing. He sheds a lot, and he has black fur, so it makes my carpets look really dingy. The other day I emptied the canister before I started vacuuming and by the time I did only the front room, the entire canister was full of hair and dirt. Yuck! So in honor of my close relationship with Moby's brush I present to you a drawing of Moby's hair brush. (I am so tired, I keep falling asleep while I type, so I hope this ends up being coherent)

Day 16- Room design

Today Steve and I got to go out on a date for our anniversary. We ended up heading over to the Grand Sierra Hotel to play laser tag and then we were going to go to out to eat. Well no one else was there to play laser tag so we opted not to play in the huge arena with just the two of us. That would have been lame. So instead we went to eat at the buffet. The buffet is now called the Elements Buffet, and they had these really cool moss covered balls with flowers on them hanging everywhere and I thought they were super cool and whimsical looking, so I decided to use them as inspiration for a little girl nursery. This is a very rough sketch, I'm really not great at drawing things out of my head, but it was still fun. I want a little girl someday. Well sometimes I think I want a little girl, then I think about how little girls turn into teenage girls, and I think that I am fine if I only have boys. I'm planning on making a seperate post on one of my other blogs about the things I would put in this room and where to get them from, but I don't have all of that info right now. I will link to it though when I do.  The writing at the bottom that you probably can't read is my notes about things in the picture and where I would get them from. The moss/flower balls are hanging above the crib. Above the chest of drawers changing table is a painting by me, that is similar to one I did for my niece (but never quite finished) and a mobile with birds and owls that I have similar of on etsy. The chest of drawers will be blue, with a green flokati rug on the floor in front of it. The flower arrangement will be by me and feature led flower lights. There is also a changing pad, wipes warmer, and cool glo light thingy. The end table will have a rattan wrapped lamp and a few books. There is also a diaper pail for our cloth diapers, some solid curtains (not sure what color yet), I will change the lamp shade from the circles, but that's just what I happened to draw, and the rocker recliner would ideally be some fun color or design that goes with the whimsical natural feel of the room.

What do you think? I think it's very magical and fun, or at least the start of being that way, I think she would be need to be born in the spring.

Day 15- Owl Gloves

My sister Leslie gave me these awesome owl convertible mittens/gloves for Christmas. They are so freaking cute I absolutely love them. They have these little pom pom ears and are brown knit. I realized partway through this drawing that drawing knit gloves is a bad idea. There are a ton of little threads making up those suckers. So I kind of cheated and made the look of the threads without actually drawing every single thread. It is surprisingly difficult for me to fake texture because I am a bit of a realist I guess you would say, and I like to draw things exactly how they look, so not doing the real texture was difficult, but I do like the way they turned out. I really need to get a manicure, my nails are horrible and uneven. I've never had a real manicure or pedicure before can you believe that!? Just sisters and roommates and myself have done these nails.

picture of sketch taken with my camera, what looks like shading at the bottom is actually the shadow of my camera.

 picture taken later at a different angle

Day 12- Anniversary Flowers

Today is our 6th Anniversary of our Wedding! Married 6 years. Sometimes I think, 6 years, that's barely anything, and other times 6 years seems like quite a long time. Either way, I'm very happy to be married to Steve. I love him, and he really is my best friend, and quite attractive to boot, I feel pretty lucky to have him. This morning he brought me breakfast in bed when he got home from work (have I mentioned he works nights so he gets off work at 8ish am). He brought me two plain glazed donuts (my favorite) and some strawberry milk. He also gave me a beautiful bouquet of flowers, and a very sweet card. I was lame and didn't do anything... I know, I know, I suck horribly. But we are finally going to go on a date on the 16th, I'm thinking to celebrate our anniversary, so I will have to have something special for him that night. In honor of the flowers he gave me, I chose to sketch one of the lillies from the arrangement. These lillies in the arrangement were orange and beautiful, sadly the boys end up destroying them on the 15th while I am in the bathroom. The entire contents of the vase (flowers and water) end up on the dining room table and floor. Not to mention all of my paints and some other stuff. Mom is very, very, angry. We also had lillies at our wedding, those ones were white and beautiful. My mom did the flowers for our wedding and they were so pretty.

I didn't *really* finish this one either, I had more I wanted to do but the boys walked in at this point, and came straight towards the flowers I was drawing and bumped the vase and moved them, and since so much of this one was dependent on the angle and lighting it couldn't really be replicated elsewhere in the house, and I am satisfied with this even though there is lots of white on the page still.

I snapped this photo of them after I was done sketching from a similar angle as when I was drawing.

Day 11- Doodle

Today I doodled. Sadly I didn't do as much on this doodle as I wanted to, but you can see where Desi tried to help me (bottom left corner). I had to stop because I didn't want help and ended up not having time later in the evening to finish it.

Day 10- Mobius

This is our dog Mobius. In real life he isn't quite so skinny looking, and his face is a little darker too. I love this dog, he is the perfect dog for us, and we were incredibly lucky to find him. He had only been at the pound for about an hour before we found him. Steve wanted to go to the pound earlier in the day and I just didn't want to, it didn't seem right to me to go look for a dog because I wasn't sure yet if I was ready for one, and like I said, it just didn't feel right, and we were kind of in a hurry to go have lunch with Steve's old lady friend Rachel. Luckily, we didn't go earlier in the day, we barely made it to Rachel on time anyways, and we wouldn't have found this dog. I have no idea why anyone would get rid of this dog. He was picked up by the county and no one ever claimed him. He is the sweetest guy, he is about 2-3 years old, loves playing catch, likes going on walks, is great on a leash (doesn't pull), doesn't bolt from the house when we open the front door, isn't aggressive with his food (Desi can be down at the dog dish messing with his food while he is eating and he doesn't care), doesn't beg for food or jump up on the counter or table looking for food,  is kennel/crate trained, house trained, doesn't jump on people, doesn't jump on the furniture (unless we tell him it is okay, he is now allowed to get on Simon's bed, but that is it), rarely barks, gets along with other dogs (except for the ones in Steve's family, which he gets along with ok, but the other dogs are kind of aggressive towards him trying to exert their dominance and it just scares Moby), is a little timid and shy but so loving, has the sweetest saddest eyes, loves the boys, loves Steve, and loves me (although he always brings the ball to Steve even though I'm the one that throws it! and it makes me really mad too). Seriously the perfect dog, someone spent a lot of time training him, and I can't imagine why they would leave him behind even if they foreclosed on a house and had to move suddenly, you'd think they would have given him to someone they knew! I also love that his left ear is always cocked, it's flopped over a little.

Day 9- Mobius Strip

Have you ever heard of a Mobius strip? Today I drew a Mobius strip in honor of our new dog we got at the pound today. Steve named him Mobius in honor of some robot protector thing in a video game, I just think it's a cool name. Regardless, we had some friends over and both people in the couple separately explained to Steve and I what a Mobius strip is, and we even got a demo, I have to admit, they are pretty cool. What you do is take a strip paper, turn it one time and tape it together. You now have a Mobius Strip, a three dimensional object that only has one side! Really, it only has one side. Don't believe me? Go ahead, find some paper and tear off a little strip, I'll wait while you find some paper and tape.... Now take a marker (sorry I should have told you get to a marker or pen while you were looking for the tape, they are probably in the same drawer), take your marker and start drawing a line down your strip, trace along it and just keep going, before you know it you will have done a line across the whole thing, and ended where you started without lifting up your pen! Craziness I know! So anyways, in honor of our new dog Mobius, and my math nerd self and friends, here is my very simple drawing of a mobius strip. 

It's sideways, blogger made it go sideways and I don't know how to fix it...

P.S.- The reason our friends told us separately is because the men were at our house watching the kids and playing video games while the women were supposed to be at a church activity. I went to pick up Ellie and Leslie and a dog kennel, and we ended up just staying at Leslie's (and Ricky's) house chatting for a few hours. Whoops! (While we were at Leslie's though was when she told us about a mobius stip, when we got back to my house is when Terre told us about them and made one and did the drawing a line thing, so cool!) Then Ellie and I went back to my house where she was able to get her husband Terrence, and kids and go home. It was a fantastic evening for the ladies and men, and I am excited that we are finally making a few friends in our new congregation at church. 

Day 8- Blind Contour Bookshelf

Today I was feeling quite lazy, so I decided to something fun and easy- a blind contour drawing! For a blind contour drawing you make one continual line, you can't take your pen (or pencil) off the paper, and you also can't look at the paper! (At least those are the rules I remember from high school.) To prevent myself from peeking I actually had to hold a blank piece of paper up to block my view of my sketchbook. It's so hard not to look! Here is my blind contour drawing of my coral bookshelf and the stuff on top of it. Steve and I bought this bookshelf from a yard sale the summer after we first got married. We always meant to repaint it, and we never did, but I kind of like it just the way it is, horrible coralish colored paint and all! The top shelf is Steve's books, the other two are mine. (Notice his nerd books!) I like this blog so far because even though it is just a drawing a day, I feel like it gives quite a bit of insight into our daily lives and our personalities.

I think I did pretty awesome on the globe and owl if I can say so myself! And also notice how I did a few of the "books" on the bottom "shelf" crooked as well! 

Day 6- Rubber Duckie

Tonight's picture was once again done after the kids went to bed. I walked out of their room to the library/loft area and saw this rubber duckie sitting on the floor. Somehow during bathtime last night he made his way out of the bathroom and out into the loft. Instead of putting him away, I stuck him on the desk and settled myself into my orange chair to draw him. I think he's awfully cute. We kind of have a thing for pirates in this house, maybe I will tell you all about our family flag some day. We use it to conquer things. You may not have known it but Chicago, the Grand Canyon, Olympic National Park, Seattle, the Hoover Dam, the Redwoods, and lots of areas belong to my husband and I. They are part of the Conquered States of Steve and Kari, don't worry though, we still let other people visit and run the places even though we conquered them. (I guess I just told you about out flag, haha.) We made it when we were dating, and had it safety pinned together, when my mom saw it's sad state she helped us out and sewed into a nice version using good nylon fabric, and she even sewed the edge so we can put it on a dowel rod if we want to. We take it on all of our adventures (when we remember it, we're pretty forgetful people). It is top half blue fabric, bottom half green fabric (or maybe that's reversed) and on top of that centered is a pirate flag. I'll maybe post a picture of that too someday... we'll see... I bet if you go onto our other blog though you can see pictures of it, that would probably be much faster than waiting around for me if and when I actually post a picture of it. So yeah, just go to our family blog and look for it, you'll see it. So back to my original thought, we have a thing for pirates as is evidenced by our pirate themed playroom, pirate flag, and pirate rubber duckie, but isn't he cute!?

(picture of the duck, at a different angle than he was sitting when I drew him.)

*Pencil used: Staedtler Mars Lumograph 2H. I told you it's my favorite! It's just good for sketching because it erases easily and doesn't go on too dark or leave marks, but can easily be layered to make a wide range of values. all of this was done by the same pencil just depending on how hard or soft i pushed and if I went over it a few times to darken. 

Day 5- Daffodil

The night I did Day 1, my husband was at work, but I texted him a picture of the sketch and he thought it was awesome and different than anything I ever had done and requested a picture of a fire breathing Chinese dragon with a mane. Totally doable and easy right? Well I put it off for a few days, because I had a lot going on and wasn't feeling quite motivated to get started on the dragon and tonight I finally decided to start on it. I'm not really good at drawing things out of my imagination and having them turn out good so I did a google search for Chinese dragons, looked at the images, and got started drawing. About 45 minutes later and after much erasing and redoing, I almost had his head halfway done and a body outline sketched out. Since it was already past 1 o'clock I decided the dragon was not going to be ready today, so I kind of did a cop out and sketched out a quick little daffodil (my favorite flower) gave it a leaf, and then stuck a little bug on it. This one is not favorite, and definitely not my favorite daffodil sketch (I actually do have a favorite daffodil sketch in an old sketchbook from about 7 years ago and when I look at it I can still remember the way the daffodil smelled while I was drawing, maybe I will scan it and share it with you sometime), and I'm not happy with how dark the squiggles are around the center part of the flower (too outline-y), but I was tired, and kind of sad my dragon was taking much longer than expected and I did this in like 3 minutes. Keep watching for the dragon though, I think it may take a week or so of working on in addition to other things, but Steve is home for the next 5 days which may mean I have drawing time during the day too and not just at night! So excited! The dragon is going to be freaking awesome though, not just a quick 5 minute thing just so I can say I did my drawing for the day, so awesome, I'm telling you, just wait and see!

What do you think? I already said i'm not happy with it, too outlined and a little too flat. 

(P.S.- Am I using parenthesis too much?)

*Pencils used- Statetdler Mars Lumograph 2H (It's my favorite pencil to use, can you tell?)

Day 4- Island in the Sun

Day 4. Less than a week into this and I almost cheated and took a day off. After showing our new house to a family member for the first time the other day, I was so embarrassed that our house didn't look as nice I would like it to (and there was laundry everywhere, almost all clean, but still everywhere! and dishes in the sink and counter), and that's it not totally decorated and done yet, that I got motivated to work on a few projects in our house. The boys have a playroom downstairs that is intended to be pirate themed. So far all we have down there is really cool pirate flag banner from my parents that has like 12 or so different pirate flags and we have it hanging around the top of the wall all the way around the room. And I sketched some palm trees on the wall before my parents last visit so it would look like I was in the process of doing more with the room. Well I finally started painting the palm trees, and I was doing it with a too-small paintbrush so it was taking me forever and I was tempted to say my painting the palm trees on the wall would count for my drawing for today. But I decided I can't slack this early on or I'll never make it through the year, so I did a quick sketch of some palm trees in honor of the ones I am painting. These drawn ones have a lot more character than the ones on the wall though, I think these ones are a little more spunky and fun and energetic. What do you think? Should I give these posts more exciting and creative names? Writing's not really my talent but is Day 4, Island in the Sun a better name than just Day 4?

*Pencils used, either a Staedtler Mars Lumograph or a regular number 2, they are pretty much the same thing...

Day 3- Owl

Day 3's drawing I did while the boys were in the bathtub. I was sitting in my comfy orange chair watching them and realized it would be a great time to do my drawing for the day instead of waiting until after they go to bed like I normally do, so I looked around the library/loft area and spotted this cute little bobble head owl that my old bosses gave me because they know I like owls. I stuck him on the desk, grabbed my sketchbook, and settled into my chair. I didn't do a lot of shading on this one, mostly outlining. And I just realized as I glanced over at my little owl perched on the bookshelf that I left out spots/circles that go in the center of his feathers on his belly... oops! And I totally ratted myself out, you would have never known. I love this little guy though, he is so cute, turquoise and green and orange, and just so bright and happy and cute. Once again edge cut off by scanner and shading around the edges from the scanning process.

Would you be interested in me posting the picture of the actual item when I am drawing real things?
(Update: I added the picture, but it is obviously from a different angle than when I drew it, but you get the idea)

*Pencils used Staedtler Mars Lumograph 2H and 3B I believe.

Day 2- B, my coaster

Day 2. I was looking around for something to draw because I wasn't feeling very inspired to do something from my imagination and saw this coaster that one of Steve's aunts and uncles gave us for Christmas a year ago.  (The left edge got cut off a little in the scanning process, and the top is a little discolored also from scanning because my sketchbook is slightly bigger than the scanning area and the lid won't close on top of it.) With it's black background I thought it would be a great thing to draw to get me using something besides just a number 2 pencil, and to do lots of dark. 

*Used Staedtler Mars Lumograph pencils, a 2H pencil for sketching, 8B for filling in.