Weekly Mind Sketch

My daughter turned 13 last week - YIKES!  Where does the time go, and what is all this talk about teenagers being so difficult?  I guess I will find out soon enough (if at all)!  This is a picture I drew of her that was from a photo taken at a beach in Monterey about a year ago.  I liked the easy going feeling of the hair flowing in the wind, and her happy, relaxed expression.  I hope I captured that in the drawing. There is definitely a change in how my daughter behaves versus a year ago.  Besides having a TON of homework this year, she is more strong-willed, and more independent, and takes longer to choose what she is going to wear each day!   But this is all very innocent, and not difficult to handle (the homework seems to be the most difficult part).  Last week, I gave in and gave her a cell phone.  I hope this was a good decision.  There will definitely be limits on how much time she spends on the cell phone with friends,...

Self portraits. So I think every artist has done one.  Since it was my birthday yesterday I decided I would draw a self-portrait in honor of that.  I took a picture of myself in a window reflection from our backyard and decided to draw this reflection.  To me, this symbolizes a personal reflection of my own life this past year.  I liked how my hand was on top of my head making me look a little more perplexed (as if I'm thinking about my own life and what I have done). The picture was done in pencil, and then I took it into Photoshop and added more of a sense of reflection by using one of the filters which enhanced the reflection even more.  I thought it was a nice effect! To reflect on my life last year makes me think I should have done a lot more than I did in terms of helping others, being more patient, and being less stressed about things that I had no control over.  I will want to work on lots of things this next year. Prayer is a big part of ...

Here is a fall tree I drew this week (same tree as the winter tree I drew last year). It's cool to compare how different the tree looks in fall with all the beautiful oranges, yellows and greens.  There is a different mood that I felt with the tree changing colors. A kind of soft, quiet and peaceful feeling comes out of this picture with its leaves scattered on the ground.  I also found it fun there was still some green leaves left contrasting against the orange, yellow and browns.  Also the trunk had a white/grey color that had more of a cold feeling contrasted against the warm tones. A reminder that winter is just around the corner! Fall is a reminder of cycles and changes.  As you look around this fall I hope you see colorful and "quiet" images that catch your attention, slow you down, and make your day more peaceful and calm...

It has been a while since my last post, and I decided to draw a picture in honor of all the veterans this Veterans Day weekend 11-11-11. I didn't know of any better way to show my appreciation to all those that sacrifice so much for our country than to draw a picture that touched my heart somehow. I found this image from a Google search here: (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2007573/Afghanistan-Iraq-wars-What-West-got-10-bloody-years.html).  I wish I could give credit to the photographer, but there was no name associated with the photo.  I appreciate whoever took this image as it really touched me with it's compassion and emotion that it evokes. It illustrates the compassion of two unknown soldiers helping their fellow comrade out. Also, the burning fire in the background makes me envision all the terror and fear that soldiers must face in any war.  It's almost like the fire doesn't have any affect on the three men walking right in front of it.  But...

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 :)