A drawing: from beginning to end

I really like to see the proccess of how a drawing gets to its end point. Even if I'm the one drawing it. I find the proccess is more fun to see after it's over...not so much while it's going on since there is a lot of frustration when I can't get something right. I am just not skilled enough to know how to fix a problem even if I can see what the problem is...and I can't always see the problem, I just know it's not right. So, here's the latest drawing I did, as I went along. I hope you enjoy the proccess too.

First, I got the basic shapes and shading areas put down on paper.

Then I started doing very loose shading.

After the loose shading, I started on my dad first with more detailed shading lines.

Here, I've smoothed out the initial shade lines and put in more detail. I then started on my mom's shading and detail. At this point, everything had gone smoothly. I was instantly happy with how my dad turned out. I could definitely recognize him. But I messed up on the inital sketch in of my mom and something wasn't right and I knew it, I just couldn't tell what. I continued on with it though, hoping I could figure it out and fix it as I worked.

In this pic, I could see one of my problems, her right eye was drooping and it doesn't do that in real life...also, one eye was bigger than the other. I did multiple eye surgeries on her...trying to fix it... Still no hair or clothes worked on yet.


Close up of my dad's face. Yep, that's him all right!

They have hair and clothes, finally. But my mom was in the middle of one of her eye surgeries. Originally they were wearing flowers but I took them out when I filled in the clothes. Hair is tough for me but I felt I did ok...once again, messed up my mom's hair more than my dad's.

I thought I was finished here. But still had a couple eye surgeries left to do and some minor shading issues.

My parents with their present. See, no droopy eye problems in real life. ;o)

I started it in May as a mother's/father's day gift but didn't finish until about an hour before my flight to go see them in September, still not completely happy with how my mom turned out but happy enough that I could give it to them without it bothering me too much. So it took me a few months. Some of that time spent taking a break from it because I was so frustrated.

fog, fog everywhere

Fog has settled in here...it's been visiting a lot lately. It usually burns off with the sun but there have been a few days where it's stuck around all day. And sometimes after it burns off, it returns in the evening. I love the way fog changes things...makes fimiliar settings seem new and unexplored. I am glad it's not usually foggy here though. On Monday, the fog was thick and especially beautiful. I walked the dogs and saw some cool things but then ran into the comfort of my warm house. I forgot about the fog until I remembered it was trash night. When I walked up the driveway with the trash can, I was amazed by the tones of the light through the fog. I ran in and grabbed my camera. These are all unedited (except the first one, I changed that to b&w)...but the colors in the others are just as I saw them. The world is full of wonders.

Green smoothies and my weekend

This weekend seemed busier than it was, I'm sure. Adam had his birthday party on Saturday. So I spent Friday evening vacuuming and doing general clean up. Mostly, I didn't do much since I was distracted by watching America's Funniest Home Videos.

Adam came home from the PO box with a package for me from a friend in France. A Christmas card (we don't check the PO box very often) and a bag of organic, French spices. There was a recipe on the box to use them in but since I don't read French, I don't know what it is yet. She said she'd translate it for me. So a nice surprise to start the weekend. :o)


The world was still wet on Saturday morning. I love the look of wet wood.


To start off my weekend right, I had a green smoothie for breakfast. It's a great way to get your greens in. Plus it was so good! This one was lots of kale (my first kale smoothie in my new blender...worked much better than my last blender), peaches, grapes, strawberries, mango, pineapple and orange juice. It made two large glasses full. I drank every last drop.

I first started drinking these when I was doing the raw diet. I can't reccomend these enough. They pack vitamins, minerals, fiber and yummy goodness.

After I finished cleaning, I went for a bike ride. Get this, it's in the middle of January and I was wearing shorts and a short sleeved jersey! It was around 68 degrees!! I am loving the warm winter. But I had to pass the garden on my way out the driveway and found all these water bubbles. I really liked the looks of them.


Action shot.


Back in the subdivision at the end of the ride, the sun was shining down a side road. I had to turn around to get a shot of it...I couldn't go by without one.

To prepare for guests, the dogs had to be loacked out. They weren't too happy about it. I wasn't thrilled with it either since the ground was still wet, but the deck was fairly dry and it was plenty warm out so they were fine. But they still tried to convince me they would be happier inside.

Even my nephews came out. I didn't get any pictures of them on the phone camera (I used it to take all the pics on this post, except the top one) so I don't have access to them right now. I watched Samuel a while and also played Mario Kart with Isaac. That's his favorite part of coming to our house. He LOVES Mario Kart and we are the only people he knows who has it.

After they left, the dogs got to come back in and hang out while the rest of Adam and his friends and I played games. We had pizza and cake.

We played a game called Iron Dragon. It was fun but long. I think we played for 4 hours. Adam was on the verge of winning. He deilvered a commodity to me so I payed him just enough to make him win so we could quit. See him without his glasses?

Bear was creating trouble. He kept laying under the table and people would accidentally graze him and he'd let out a growl. He finally settled in behind me, out of the way.

The dogs said it was a long, tiring day.

Dreary day

It's been a dreary day all day. And it's going to look like this all weekend. But it is supposed to be in the upper 60's tomorrow. On Monday, the rain is supposed to go away and the temps will drop again. Isn't that backward?

Doggie doings

Last night it was stormy but I looked at the weather map and thought we had enough time to get a short walk in. I looked at the map again and it looked clear so we kept going. We got to the point where we make a turn and start heading back home...about 35 minutes from home at that point. It started sprinkling. I had the dogs running. It started coming down harder, and harder, until it was pouring. The dogs were troopers and kept moving until a lightning bolt lit up the world, closely followed by a loud crash. That's when a melt down started. They no longer wanted to move, they didn't know what to do. I hated to do it but had to call Adam to come get us. He was still sleeping (since he works 3rd shift). He came and got us though. The car pulled up and I opened the back door. Everyone piled into the back seat, including me. All 5 of us stuffed into the back seat is not a comfortable ride. Aside from Bear standing on my achilles tendon, it wasn't as bad as it could have been. They all got a good toweling down when we got home. They all love getting toweled down.

On a different note, Bear has a vet appointment today. He's been super nippy the last couple of weeks. He bit Adam when he tried to make him go outside. He was sleeping under my legs and I reached down to pet him. You have to be careful not to pet him suddenly because he nips when you surprise him. So you have to annouce what you're doing and touch lightly before petting. I reached down and petted him. He raised his head and looked at me and a couple strokes later, he was chaomping down on my hand (he's good at not breaking skin). I'm still bruised. Adam's grandma was over and she was petting him when he nipped her. Thankfully, he barely got her. He isn't as comfortable biting people he doesn't know. He's more grouchy in general. His nickname is Mister Mister. Adam started calling him Mister Monster. It fits him. Adam is concerned that all these fatty tumors he's getting aren't just fatty tumors after all and they're causing him pain or discomfort, causing him to act that way. It's true, he doesn't take pain well and gets very grouchy when he's sick or in pain. So maybe it's true. We needed a refill for Jasmine and Jack's arthritis medicine anyway so Adam will be picking up a bottle while he's there.

I know I posted this pic on Facebook but it's just so cute that I had to post it here too.


Proof that the sun came out this weekend.


Jack is spoiled. He loves fluffy dog beds and I have held out for so long, not allowing one in the living room since there's not a lot of space for something so large. But every time we would open the office door, he'd run right to the bed. So I gave in and brought it into the living room so he could enjoy it more often. He is always on it. Almost never even gets on the love seat anymore. It's funny how much he loves it. Every now and then, we'll find Tucker or Jasmine on it but it's mostly him who enjoys it.


This is Bear. Looks so cute and sweet...and he usually is, but there's a firecracker behind that cute facade. He hates to be outside when we're home. This is what he does to be let in. He cries softly and stands there until you can't stand it anymore. He knows what he's doing.


Here's Tucker with the dog barn that Adam, his friend and I built this past summer. I wasn't happy about the paint job but I'm ok with it now. I woud never choose to paint anything that way but that's ok. It's one less thing I have to do.

misty woods

It's been warm and rainy here lately and I've woken up more than once to fog surrounding us. This morning (last Saturday) I had time to actually walk through the woods behind our house in the fog. It's amazing how weather can change the mood of a place. I really enjoyed my walk.