At Screen Door: Dr. Who Angels, a Styrofoam Boxer, and Other Curiosities

This mannequin is a child, and it is wearing a harness and leash.  The tag shows a mark-down. Later someone put a hold on it. Odd.

A lovely wooden boat, a little rough, but marked down to $1500.  I would put it near a garden and fill it with  pillows for lolling about.

On the left is boxing guy who is about the size of a lawn jockey only he is made of styrofoam and has weird paint streaks on his face and naked torso.  The three concrete lawn Dr. Who -like angels on their plinths are not impressed.

Top Speed Constant Motion/Slow Implied Lumbering

C's dog Coco moves constantly, even when catching her breath between bouts of action.

So of course I was unable to resist drawing her as she scrabbled around on the floor on C's studio at crit group this morning.

By contrast are two in-process papier-mache dogs that M was working on.  These guys are full of implied motion, poised like classical statues, on the very edge of moving in lumbering papier-mache-dog style, this last ready to swing his heavy head.

Slow Motion

Sheep that look like ambulatory bales of hay-

These two walked slowly, bumping each other every few seconds.

Sheep slowly swiveling.

More of Those Moving Cows

I taught my class in direct carving relief print blocks tonight and came home so excited about the daring and excellent work the class is doing that I carved two more cows from last week's cold cows sketches!

Details

Jesse is too sleepy to move around tonight and so am I. The perfect time to draw his details.

A Splash of Robins

On this extremely dark and sleety day nothing saves me from wintery mix despair like the splash of early robins dive-bombing and swooping in our front yard.

A Forced March, a New Bag, at Screen Door

This is a catch up post from the past few days of visiting middle schoolers. On Friday T and I went to Screen Door in search of an antique chess game. While T was on this grail quest I sketched in a booth that had many assemblages made of old things: hands! Peely metal animals! Fun!

Yesterday was bitterly cold and everyone wanted to sleep in, then huddle around the fire working on projects: T was cleaning and refurbishing the chess set he had found; M and I were trying to figure out a knitting problem; M was decorating some school folders; T and I were designing and making a new book bag for him; P and T were playing chess. Later in the still-cold afternoon I talked T and M into getting warmgear on   and going down the frozen river trail to the farm. We ended up enjoying ourselves, really, and visiting some cows.

On the right and below is T's new book bag.

Poker Faces (Mostly)

Tonight before and after dinner, Maya, Tallas, P and I playing poker for pennies in front of a beautiful fire on this cold winter night. 

 T taught us a new kind of poker called Texas Draw Em, which we have not quite mastered.

P looking uncharacteristically Clark Kentish as he fails to conceal his delight at having a pair of threes.

Not in the poker game, this cast concrete sheep was at Tobacco Barn this afternoon while T and I prowled the meat-locker- chilly aisles in search of treasures.

Maya and Tallis

I had the fun tonight of both Maya and Tallis for an overnight! Here is Maya playing her flute while Tallis helps me design a game board. He arrived from New Hampshire to spend a few days with us-- his first flight alone.  

Red Sky in the Morning

Start at top left, then top right, then bottom left and finally bottom right. But in spite of the sailors taking warning, there was not much of a storm today.  I even saw ducks during my fast cold walk around Beaver Lake this afternoon. (Drawings numbered 6513 thru 6516.)

Pears Like a Violin, a Cello, a Mandolin

And also a chunk of goat's milk brie.

Souls in Purgatory (and More Sunset Cows)

Double challenge at the gym today: draw moving figures while I myself am moving. Not the best but fast! I was on leg machines and thus had free hands but my whole body was moving.

Later I went to walk at sunset and checked on the cows. They were much more calm than the gym people and I managed to get a good grooming cow to turn into this directly carved print:

Santos for Imbolc

A group of us went sketching at Tobacco Barn this afternoon. It was as cold as a meat locker in there. One friend in desperation grabbed an old blanket and bought it on the spot so she could warm up. I found the santos and pretended that I was in the Frederick Mares museum in Barcelona.  

Among the holy people were also a rag doll and a mermaid, both considerably less expensive than the saints.  Imbolc was actually a few days ago, but the Virgin Mary especially looked like one that in Medieval times could have been trundled around the perimeter of a newly plowed field in a little wooden cart.

Cows in the Really Cold

Cows act pretty much the same in 30 degree windy weather as they do in 80 degree still weather. It was sunset amd a smallish herd was clustered around one of the large sheds in a big field. They were sharing space with some free range chickens.

Two cows came over and stood about three feet from me. Others were loungingand  I got to observe cud chewing up close.

 Many of my drawings were starts only and all were done with icy fingers and very quickly.

I finished up by drawing two sheep. Then I did a quick knife sketch of the cow lounging on her elbow.

Animals in the Rain, One Cow Grooming Herself

First up is Jesse sitting on our back porch looking forlornly out at the rain.

Next are a bunch of cows sitting in puddles in a little pasture down on the farm. I was anout two feet away from them and no one seemed to care as I stood there sketching them.  Why were they all sitting down??

After the cows I moved on to the big wooly sheep, and all of them were sitting in the wet grass. The rain had slowed down to a drizzle, and no one seemed in any way perturbed.

So today I carved these little rubber blocks from yesterday's sketches.  These three were in lovely leisurely positions. Here is my favorite, the grooming cow:

Really the Final Page of Rules for Girls

This is the last spread of the book. Underneath is a shot of the same page with the final text.

And here is the back page with colophon.

Now to make nine more copies--

Water Carrier

F and I made an interesting order today. A friend asked us to make a backpack for her neighbor to carry two half gallon glass Mason jars of water. Her neighbor gets her water from a spring near her house every day and currently carries a bottle under each arm on her hike to and from the dpring.  We designed it to safely cradle the two large full glass bottles and attached shoulder straps to make it easier for her to haul so much weight.  Today's drawings show the features of the water bottle backpack.

Buds a Little Confused?

Buds in the bird sanctuary and around Beaver Lake look like March buds this weird winter.

Installment Three of Rules for Girls

Here are spreads for the next four pages of the book: