Weekly Mind Sketch

Summer is here in the Bay Area - hot temperatures and all!  The SF Bay Area has had a very unusual weather pattern this past year probably due to the la Niña system.  We've had lots of rain and unusually cold temperatures for the Bay Area.  We had rain and snow in the local foothills and there was LOTS of snow in the Lake Tahoe area, as well as Yosemite.  I heard just this week that one of the Yosemite campgrounds has flooded because of all the snow melt.  We'll see how this summer's weather turns out - I hope warm but not too hot! I have been so busy that I've taken 2 months off from drawing, but hopefully now I'm back into the swing of things.  I drew 2 pictures this week of my twin nieces who are about to turn 4.  As you can tell, they are not identical, and have such different personalities it's amazing they're twins!  I was trying to capture their personalities in the pictures, and think I succeeded!  The one on the left...

This week I had an interesting experience with a hummingbird in our backyard.  I was standing near an  orange tree in our backyard with a handful of oranges and buzzing bees, when a hummingbird flew right up about 2 feet from my face!  It stopped in mid-air, and hovered as it turned one side of his face towards me, then quickly flipped around showing me the other side of its face. Then about 10 seconds later it flew off into the distance. The way it flew quickly up to me and flipped rapidly from side to side felt like it was making an aggressive move towards me to protect its precious nectar from the orange tree blossoms.  I felt for it! I'm sure flowers and trees with nectar are becoming more and more difficult to find in our overpopulated neighborhoods. Interesting fact about hummingbirds that I discovered from Wikipedia:  with the exception of insects, hummingbirds while in flight have the highest metabolism of all animals, a necessity in order to supp...

Just wanted to say please VOTE on my poll to the right to get a good feel for how environmentally-conscious we've all been this year - so please VOTE and let's all try to keep our world as clean as can be - THANKS! Here is a Monterey Bay Harbor Seal I took a picture of last year trying to sun itself on a small rock!  I'll be posting another drawing later this week :)

This week I decided to draw my brother-in-law's puppy. This was the day they picked him up all wrapped in a blue blanket - SO cute!  He's a poodle / maltese mix and has has a nice temperament. I really have been wanting a dog for a long time but it just hasn't been the right time in my life for that.  I will look for a hypo-allergenic breed when the time is right. I've discovered a website called petfinder.com which has a huge listing of pets (not just dogs) for sale, and have heard good things about them.  For now I'll just have to be content with "drawing" puppies :( I decided to add a poll to my blog this week to get a consensus of how "green" readers have been.  Let me know how green you've been and we'll see how everyone's been doing in a few weeks. Our community has begun a huge new recycling campaign this year where we can leave out recycling AND composting each week.  So far I think it's been a huge decrease in ...

I decided this week to draw a picture of my 2 nieces and nephew who visited Paris this past December 2010.  Since I've never been to Paris, I decided to do some brief research on the Eiffel Tower.  Here are some interesting things I discovered:  The Eiffel Tower took around 2 years and 2 months to build, and was officially finished on March 31, 1889.  It was built to be the entrance arch for the Exposition Universelle , a World's Fair marking the centennial celebration of the French Revolution .  Approximately 6.8 million people visit the Eiffel Tower every year. It is estimated that over a quarter of a billion people have viewed the Eiffel Tower in its long history.  It was originally criticized by the public as being an "eyesore made out of riveted iron plates". I feel that I have seen the Eiffel Tower in person even though I've never visited it - just from seeing many images throughout my life! I loved how this image captured a beautiful night...

My niece who recently lost 2 front teeth within 2 days wanted me to draw this picture of her and I excitedly took on her request!  I think this picture captures pure bliss and innocence.  To me, it's a moment of childhood joy that many of us can remember so well - dancing around in circles without a care in the world. We can all feel like this now and again, maybe even just by closing our eyes and imagining ourselves dancing or flying.  It's a feeling of forgetting what is going on around us and just loving the feeling of being free to do whatever we want to do. Take this opportunity to, if nothing else, smile at others you meet this week - it makes life better :)

My brother took this picture when he was in Paris this past December, and it seemed to capture the hustle and bustle that goes on in the Louvre.  What was interesting to me about this picture was that it is a snapshot of one girl stopping for just a moment to look at you in frontal view contrasted with the stream of moving people in the background running by trying to see everything they could in the museum. The Winged Victory of Samothrace is a 2nd century BC marble sculpture of the Greek goddess Nike ( Victory ).  I think it is very dramatic and feels like it is blowing in the wind with it's flowing drapery and wings raised in the air.  I hope I captured its beauty and movement with all its curves and shapes. This image captures perfectly how society today is moving at the speed of light.  It really takes someone telling you to stop and smile for the camera to slow you down.  How crazy.  I think we don't tend to notice our world around us anymo...