EARTH and her Creatures (Mostly)

Have you ever had those weeks where you misplace something, find it, misplace it, find it, misplace it, find it....etc etc? That was my week. It interfered with my CED2010 progress. I did get my daily creations done but because of misplacing my book - not all on the exact days. Mostly I thought about the EARTH theme this week until other ideas took over. 

Monday:

Tuesday:

Wednesday:

Thursday:

Friday: I went to the ballet with my friend Carole and the opening scene had the ballerinas silhouetted against a gorgeous blue background. This sketch doesn't really capture it but it was inspiring!

Saturday: Another backdrop from the ballet. There were no rats but I loved the tunnel and its surroundings!

Sunday:

That was my (disjointed) week. I also created 2 page spreads for the Sketchbook Project and have been working on creating a paper and presentation for a conference this weekend.

This time next week I will be out of town, so while I will continue to create, I am unlikely to check in as usual on Monday. It will be probably be on Saturday the 6th as I get caught up. Hope you have a great week! (Or two.)  I will try to visit if I can. 

Sunday Sketching 24Oct2010 SBP The Mice and String Theory

Still combining my Sunday Sketching with my efforts on the Sketchbook Project. So far, I continue to have ideas for my theme of "I'm sorry I forgot you" but it IS a challenge with 30 pages remaining. Thanks again to my friend Ann who brainstormed with me during our dinner conversation last week. I hesitate to use my totally depressing "forgotten"  ideas - they are far from inspiring. Finding "lighter" ideas is far more difficult!  

On that lighter note, here are my two sketches this week. (As always double-clicking on these pencil sketches makes them clearer)

Have you ever tried this strategy to remember someone or something?

Looking forward to seeing your Sunday Sketches this week with Blue Chair Diary!

Our Harvest

This week's challenge at Inspiration Avenue is HARVEST. I thought these creations inspired by this year's harvest from our gardens would be so appropriate!

Ruth's Pumpkin Plant:

My Dad's Butternut Squash:

My grape vines:

I hope your garden gave you many tasty treats this season!

Pink and RED

This week in my CED2010 creations there were two undercurrents. The EARTH theme was not generating any  ideas for me but Illustration Avenue's Weekly Challenge was Pink so I started working with my Pink Pens and that kept me going/creating for the first part of the week. On Friday the movie RED (Retired Extremely Dangerous) came out and as I was reading the review, with photos, I decided to try to sketch the actors. They finished off my week. I'm trying to get better at sketching but these really don't look like Bruce Willis, Helen Mirren or Morgan Freeman much. Oh well.... practice, practice, practice...

Monday:

Tuesday:

Wednesday:

Thursday:

Friday:

Saturday:

Sunday:

As always, scanned pencil sketches are more visible when you double-click on the image. BTW RED was quite enjoyable! Great cast and a fun way to spend a Saturday evening. It's been awhile since I've been to the movie theatre.

Hope you have a great creative week!

Sunday Sketching 17Oct2010 SBP The Squirrel and St. Anthony

My Sunday Sketches continue to be focused on The Sketchbook Project. Still a lot of pages to go and not that many weeks! Yikes!!

I was having dinner with my friend Ann this week, telling her of this project, my efforts to date and my challenging "I'm sorry I forgot you" theme. She had just been lamenting the fact that her efforts at planting tulips were already being sabotaged by squirrels. She took both conversations, put them together and came up with this thought! Thank you, Ann, for helping me fill another spread with this great idea!! 

Both of these are painted as I am sketching every second spread and gessoing the ones in between so the ink doesn't show through the pages. Thinking about forgotten and missing items, I came up with this partially collaged idea about Saint Anthony - Patron Saint of Lost and Missing Things. 

Seven pages down, thirty-two or thirty-three to go! What a challenge! (Is anyone cutting out pages??) It is great to have my friend Lisa as my Sketchbook buddy, and Sunday Sketching as a place to post updates and all the great participants here to help and encourage me to keep going! 

Thank you so much!!!

Pink

The theme this week at Inspiration Avenue is PINK. Great theme, Shel! Definitely inspiring for me! So far I did all my little creations this week with that theme in mind. Now, to chose which to submit!

Monday's zen doodle?

Or Tuesday's sketch?

Or Wednesday's "girl with the funny hat"?

Or Thursday's butterfly?

I'm leaning towards Monday or Thursday. What about you? Wonder which Shel will pick to use as my entry?  

Looking forward to seeing your pink productions on Sunday!

Pastel Pumpkins

Pumpkins were on my mind this week, and while they do suit the October CED2010 theme a bit - grown from the earth, on the earth, full of earth tones - that suitability is a bit of a stretch. Our Canadian Thanksgiving is today - HAPPY THANKSGIVING to my fellow Canadians - so I think that the Pumpkins had more to do with that than anything else! 

Here are my (mostly) pumpkin inspired efforts this week

Monday: Trying another line drawing - all lines start from a single point...

Tuesday: Squash from my Dad's garden...

Wednesday: Earthy Zen Doodle...

Thursday:

Friday:

Saturday: My daughter planted a pumpkin plant in the Spring as she loves pumpkin. But she is on the other side of the country at University so I thought I would try to capture her harvest. So odd that one pumpkin just would not turn orange and it was the first to grow!

Sunday:

I also posted 2 new sketches in my Sketchbook Project and my version of 101 in 1001 plus worked on a few art journal pages. Hope you had a great creative week and best wishes for next week! Now to drop over to Leah's Creative Every Day site to see what you've been up to!

On this Canadian Thanksgiving Day, I'd like to thank all of you for sharing your wonderful art with me and for all the fabulous comments, encouragement and friendship you have given me! I treasure it!  

XOXO

EVA

Sunday Sketching 10Oct2010 Two Efforts for my SBP

For some reason dogs seemed to want to be sketched today. Why? Who knows!?I had thought the first one would be my cat Yuri looking up at me but nope, it had to be a dog! Which was great because it gave me the idea for the second sketch which wouldn't have worked at all with a cat!

So I have two sketches to show you today for my Sketchbook Project with the "I'm sorry I forgot you" theme. As always double clicking improved the quality as the scanner dislikes pencil. (Sigh, when will I get the courage to just work in pen.....)

Maybe all of you knew about this and I just wasn't paying attention, or I'm sorry I forgot (if it wasn't for that "you" this would be an easier theme! ) that you can peruse all the participants and upload your effort to the Art House Coop site. So I did.

Looking forward to seeing your Sunday Sketching with Blue Chair Diary efforts this week!

Oh! And HAPPY THANKSGIVING to my Canadian friends! Now, to get back to my turkey preparations!

101 in 1001 or My Version 111 in 1111

Have you seen the 101 in 1001 meme that has been going around the internet? In August, Nolwenn at Inner-Voices talked about it and for some reason, this time it stuck with me.

My daughter and I spent a lovely day together shortly thereafter, just before she left for University and one of the things we discussed was this idea. We sat on a bench on a picturesque island in the middle of the river and started our "lists". The idea is to create a list of 101 things you want to do in the next 1001 days. Since I can never follow instructions exactly, I decided to do 111 in 1111 days - making it almost exactly 3 years. I just liked the sound of those numbers better. 3 years seems a reasonable time period for these.

There is a handy-dandy calculator to figure out end dates and some sites to help generate ideas. I have a lot of silly things, a few MAJOR challenges and some things I've been meaning to do forever but still haven't done on my list. Do you want to play with me and Join in?

Here are mine:

EVA's 111 in 1111

 21Aug1010 – 05Sept2013

1. Create 111 paintings
2. Write 111 blogs entries
3. Write a book
4. Write 33 poems
5. Read 111 books
6. Read 11 philosophers
7. Read 11 classics
8. Read 11 biographies
9. Finish 11 Art Journals
10. Have 33 meals/lunches w girlfriends
11. Have 33 people over for dinner
12. Make ice cream from scratch
13. Learn how to cut and heat/bend metal
14. Make at least one piece of “Fish Art”
15. Participate in (and complete) the Sketchbook Project
16. Make 22 different soups
17. Walk 11111 steps 111 days in a row
18. Be able to do 111 crunches
19. Be able to do 111 girl push-ups
20. Be able to do 111 real push-ups
21. See most relatives on Dad’s side of family
22. Visit my BI bench 11 times
23. Get a pedicure 11 times
24. Have a reflexology foot massage
25. Have 11 massages
26. Get a facial
27. Memorize a poem
28. Have dates with people I love 11 times
29. Have artist dates (with myself) 11 times
30. Build an inukshuk on BI
31. Have a picnic on BI
32. Sleep under the stars
33. Try 111 cheeses
34. Try 33 types of teas
35. Try 22 new Sparkling Wines
36. Go to Long Beach on Vancouver Island
37. Go whale watching
38. Learn to hike
39. Go on 11-22 hikes
40. Go for 11-22 bike rides of a least 1 hour
41. Learn to scuba dive
42. Get PADI certified
43. Superclean every room in the house
44. Wear a size 10
45. Ideally wear a size 8
46. Learn names of wine grape varietals
47. Try 80% of wine grape varietals
48. Have tea at the Empress
49. Try 33 new-to-me restaurants
50. Watch 33 Academy Award winning movies
51. Watch 11 foreign films (subtitled)
52. Visit NYC again
53. Visit Metropolitan Museum again
54. Go to a Broadway show
55. Go to National Gallery 11 times
56. Listen to 33 operas
57. Go to 3 operas
58. Go to 3 plays
59. Go to 3 symphonies
60. Go to 3 ballets
61. Go to 3 concerts
62. Lose 11 pounds
63. Ideally lose another 5.5 pounds
64. Improve my posture
65. Try 111 new recipes
66. Play 11-22 games of golf
67. Sell a piece of art
68. Sketch 111 faces
69. Write 5 papers
70. Create a 111/1111 for my businesses
71. Try aikido
72. Go to 5 Caribbean Islands
73. Swim with a dolphin
74. Discover 55 new bands/musicians
75. Go to 11 charity events
76. Donate $*****. to charity
77. Edge the entire garden
78. Weed the garden
79. Mulch the garden
80. Clean out closets at least once per year
81. Donate purged clothes to charity at least once per year
82. Climb/hike a mountain
83. Go on photo-walks 33 times
84. Finish CED2010 successfully
85. Try geo-caching
86. Walk a labyrinth
87. Learn to recognize at least 11 constellations
88. Build a snowman
89. Skate on the canal
90. Run or walk a 5K
91. Make 11 new friends
92. Photograph a landscape from the same location, capturing all 4 seasons
93. Learn to use my camera. Figure out the settings!
94. Do NaNoWriMo
95. Find out where there is live jazz in Ottawa and check out several venues
96. Listen to every song in my iTunes library
97. Listen to 33 book CDs
98. Write 11+ letters of Thanks
99. Re-upholster the couch
100. Re-pave the driveway
101. Send flowers
102. Start learning another language
103. Take tennis lessons
104. Make a wish at 10:10 on October 10th,2010, at 11:11 on November 11th, 2011 and on December 12th,2012 at 12:12
105. Learn to say hello, good-bye, thank-you and count to ten in 22 languages
106. Be able to sit crossed legged – yoga style
107. Be able to do the splits
108. Attend 11 Festivals
109. EXPLORE
110. Find and attend a lecture series
111. Write a new 111 in 1111 list

Red are completed!!

I have a little book to keep track of what I've done and I may even create a little art journal about the experience. I am going to try to update my progress quarterly here. Do you find that posting things on your blog makes you more accountable to yourself?

Have you played the 101 in 1001 game? Want to?

From Water to Earth

This week the CED2010 theme changed from "WATER" to "EARTH" and those themes were on my mind as I created my little pages daily. 

Monday:

Tuesday:

 Wednesday:

Thursday:

 Friday: Transitioning from "WATER" to "EARTH"...

Saturday: Feeling silly!

Sunday:

Funny how some weeks one medium or another says "Play with me!" This week it was sketching and watercolours, even in the Sketchbook Project page that I did this week! Wonder what next week will bring?

Hope you have a great creative week!!

Sunday Sketching for the SBP "How very unlike me"

My sketching continues in my new little moleskine for The Sketchbook Project. Participating in Sunday Sketching at Blue Chair Diary is great motivation to get something accomplished for the SBP! As many of you have noted, the pages of these Moleskines are not very thick and ink bleeds or seeps through. I skipped a page between the last sketches to avoid that but what to do with these "in between" pages? I know some people have been gluing in better paper or rebinding the book and I am so impressed with their efforts. I needed something simpler and so decided to paint the "in between" pages with gesso , then sketch and paint them.

Here is my first attempt at that:

My theme I'm sorry I forgot you is already starting to be a challenge (or the ideas I come up with are downright depressing and/or too abstract to draw). How is your sketching going? Are the ideas flowing like water? Or are they seeds that refuse to germinate?

Looking forward to seeing your sketches! Hope you have a great week!