Back To The Drawing Board

This is just one letter in a whole page of script attributed to someone known as "Scribe A".  I was intrigued by the bird head at the end of the letter. And then there's that weird eye-looking thing at the top. I've never seen anything like it. As you can see, it took me more than one try to get the whole thing to look cohesive.  Attempt #1. It kind of looks like a G, but not really like the one in the book. I figured out that the tail was too long and the "eye" was too big. You can clearly see where I erased. And no, I didn't use a ruler or french curves or anything that probably would've made it look more fluid. Just me, my eyes, and my pencil (and my eraser).  I think the inking is and always will be my favorite part. It's so relaxing. And also so rewarding once things get going. Last time I used Crayola markers. Which worked fine, but color-wise was a little limiting. Laser lemon just can't get close to the lovely golden hue ...

It's been a while and I'm in need of some drawing practice. I chose this small segment of a piece from the Book of Kells. It's deceptively simple. I realize there are actual methods to producing this type of artwork, painstaking methods that involve lots of measuring and straight edges to make sure things are even. But I'm like Nike, and I just do it.  I literally look at the piece and just draw. I try to copy the angles and the lengths of the lines that I see. My trusty pencil and eraser come in right handy for this. Take for instance, that letter s. It's too far away from his fish friend and from the ih (for Jesus - ihs. If you've seen Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade , you know that "in latin, Jehovah begins with an I.") So I moved it over and thought I was good to go.  I bought some india ink pens to try out some this summer (mostly since I left all my ink and nibs at home). It's only after outlining everything that my mistakes become...

     I make a lot of paper dolls. I always have, starting when my oldest was still a toddler. It a good way to pass the time, get a little drawing practice in, and get her creative juices flowing. Well, I have done a number of them lately, mostly ancient Egyptian-themed or medieval or 18th century French. They don't have multiple outfits or anything. They are just dolls made out of paper that my girls color and then play with, sleep with, take them outside, and pretty much keep until they rip or wear out. Yesterday I had drawn the ballerina from "The Steadfast Tin Soldier" of Fantasia 2000 fame. Today my daughters asked me to make them a paper doll of "the Goddess of Spring." So I turned on the Silly Symphonies, played the cartoon of the same title and...found out that this was NOT what they were talking about. They were talking about the sprite (she has no name) from the "Firebird Suite" segment of Fantasia 2000. This was a tough one. She has no real...

     Somebody fell asleep in the car on the way to dance class and only woke up long enough to tell me she wanted to sit facing forward on my lap. Since I had an hour to kill with a sleeping person on my lap in the waiting room, I decided to draw what I saw around me. Good practice, you know?      I drew the kids' table in the center of the room that is covered with brown paper. The kids are allowed to draw all over the brown paper and so it's pretty well decorated. Then I started drawing in the background because I was still waiting on my oldest daughter to finish dancing. I wish I hadn't, since it seems a little off, but oh well. After all, I was working with my notebook slightly away from my body and around my daughter's.

I have received multiple requests over the last 6 months or so for my guacamole recipe. I decided to just put it up here for those of you who haven't yet had the chance to revel in its glory. It's so good that even if you don't like guacamole, or don't like avocados, you will like this. Keep in mind this isn't an exact science - I never measure and so I'm just guessing on the amounts. Everything should be done to your personal taste. I've also included substitutions so that even without a ton of fresh ingredients (minus the avocados, of course) you can still make a delicious batch. For the purposes of this recipe, I'm going to assume you want a modest, but still plentiful,  batch so the amounts work best with about 3 avocados. YOU WILL NEED: Avocado Lemon juice (or lime) from 1/2 lemon Fresh garlic, 2 cloves Minced onion (fresh or jarred),  3 green onions, 1 shallot,  or 2 leeks...you get the idea, about 1 TBSP of the bottled kind in the sp...

The past few months have been a flurry of sewing. Sewing, sewing again, and sewing some more. I made 2 dresses, one just because, and the other for my oldest daughter's First Communion. Hence the reason for no posts. Here's how it happened:      It all started one fateful day in February (it feels like so long ago I'm not actually sure when it really was). We rented "The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad" from the library. Both my daughters were immediately smitten with the character of Katrina Van Tassel from the moment she hit the screen. The dress that launched a thousand copies And of course, both girls immediately asked me for a dress just like hers. Which gave my oldest the epiphany that it would look great as a dress for her First Communion. So I immediately turned to Sense and Sensibility, a pattern company that specializes in historical patterns. I knew of other women who had taken Sense and Sensibility's 1780s Portrait Dress Pattern and u...

I've gotten repeated requests for healthy recipes, so I'm going to start listing them here as I have time (and photos). Most of these are not purely of my own invention; I usually have gotten the starter recipe from someone else's blog and tailored it to fit my own lifestyle/tastes. I will give the link to the original site, if there is one, along with my version. I know how hard it is to sift through all the info and recipes online; and how much harder it is to find recipes that actually taste good. I've had quite a few disasters in my kitchen and have wanted to cry and give up on multiple occasions. That said, here's the first recipe: GREEN SOUP I like to make a nice big batch and freeze what I don't eat right away. Then, whenever I want lunch (or a simple dinner) I pull some out and I'm good to go. I use heavy cream or half and half instead of milk to cut out the amount of sugar in the recipe; however, in allergy season, I don't mind using raw mil...