Spring Garden

spring garden
Originally uploaded by spinneretta

It's spring (no matter what the calendar says) and the temperatures are in their up-down cycle. Today was 82 degrees and I spent a lot of time outside- taking the opportunity to draw while I did :)
Now the clocks have gone forward, it is light much later, meaning we get more outdoor time :)

Pastels (chalk) and pigma micron.

Notebook Pages to Start Spring

I have some wonderful friends who, for some unknown reason, sent me some presents... the prismatic chimes sent rainbows over the room, so I added those to my notebook pages :)
The soap and nail-brush was rather useful today and the garden ornaments went outside today as well :)

The Love this Journal group had set a challenge to do a spread for St. Patrick's Day. This is my contribution.

What happens when the weather hits the 80's in March? Well *I* go outside, prep my vegetable garden, plant peas and spinach and broccoli raab and get sunburned.
OK the last is not intentional, but still a yearly event. I always underestimate the power of the sun in March!
Actually I have been burned in January, which is kind of embarrassing!! No- I am not a red-head. In fact I burn faster than my red-headed husband!!
Anyway, I recorded my time outside, then accidentally sprayed my book with the hose! It created an interesting effect with the pastel around the edges... I just read about using the pastels and water to spread it around. I'll have to try it :) I decided to use the pastels to draw after looking through my art books and seeing that some of the Masters used chalk to do their sketches- I figured chalk pastel might give similar effects. I don't recommend hosing them down though... :)

SNOW!!

You can see some of my snow pictures scrolling in the flickr box above, but for the rest, and some of the story about the snow, visit my nature notebook blog:)

EDM #213: Draw a Microwave

EDM #213: Draw a Microwave
Originally uploaded by spinneretta

Click for a larger picture.

I had originally planned on drawing this one while cooking my baked potatoes last night- but I forgot because I wanted to finish a book :p Instead, I did it today :) while it just sat there.
we went for years without one, and only replaced it recently after our toaster oven started scaring us by not turning off. We voted on this one because it toasts too- therefore I can now use this to defrost things, and cook cup-eggs and baked potatoes (and reheat) which seems to be all I do with it!

Chalk pastels on Canson mi-teintes in a homemade notebook.

The Snow...

OK there will probably be a couple of snow posts- we got a good 8 inches of snow here (at least) and the power was out for 38.5 hours and record setting low temperatures! (That was a cold night).
No power, meant I got to draw quite a bit, but I also took a lot of photos :)
They promise me that the spring comes back by the end of the week :D

Another ATC- I was experimenting with a technique in this one- and I am not happy with it :/
Always something outside the window when it snows...
But when it gets dark, there is not a lot of light! The mirror image really captured my attention...

a trip in the car made me memorise the colours of sun and shade on the snow- which I later painted in pastel :)