Video Game Sketching

It has been ages since I have tried sketching a portrait from life, so I took the opportunity to draw my boyfriend (twice) while he was playing video games last weekend. He was staying pretty still which was an advantage, and I was behind him so he didn't even notice me drawing him for quite awhile. One of the things I love about him is that he encourages me to draw and doesn't mind if I spend time on it. And I don't mind if he plays video games either.

Carolyn Pappas Was Here

Now that I am feeling better I have been doing drawing mostly every day, except right now I am working on Christmas presents because I am so behind schedule. I was originally planning on getting all my Christmas artwork done before July, but things didn't really go as planned. I don't want to post these drawings right now because my family reads this, so for the meantime I will be posting a bunch of random stuff from my sketchbooks. This is a sketch that I made on the cover of my new craft paper sketchbook that I just started recently. I only realized afterwards that tea and fixative don't mix too well.

The Mind-Body

I've spent the past two months agonizing over a perceived health problem. Now that my doctor could not find anything wrong with me, I'm almost completely convinced that it is mind-body in nature, and not a real illness after all. Unlike my previous hand issue, it was really starting to affect my art productivity not because I was unable to draw, but because my mind was so occupied that I lost my motivation and because I was wasting so much time reading Web MD-type articles online. For the past few days I have been really testing myself by not reading any such articles and I've been able to do a few sketches. So far I have been feeling better as well! I love personal victories.

Metaxa

Ever since I was a kid I remember this bottle in the liquor cabinet. This must be at least 75 years old because it has been there ever since I've been around and the bottle says it's already 50 years old! I don't think it would be very good to drink.

Metaxa is a type of Greek alcohol which is a blend of brandy and wine. According to their website, it has quite the history behind it. According to my family members, it is actually quite yucky and they don't really recommend trying it.

Sick Day

Magnolia Blossoms, watercolor on hot press Arches, 5" x 9"

Last week I took some time off from work because I was sick with a cold. I mainly slept, relaxed, and did some reading, but I did do some artwork as well. I recently organized all my reference photos on my computer and I found a photo of some magnolia blossoms that I took while I was staying at Snow Farm this past April. Then I started fiddling around with my art supplies and I found a scrap of hot press Arches watercolor paper that I took home with me and have been saving all this time.

I wasn't really used to the hot press paper and I haven't done anything with watercolor in a long time, but it was fun to just play around with it. I wasn't aiming for accuracy or anything great, just a pretty picture. I'm just happy that I ended up doing something productive when I could have been just feeling miserable being sick.

Lulls

Life is one long process of getting tired. -Samuel Butler

I'm sick at the moment, with a cold or the flu I'm not sure. Most days I haven't been sketching at all, but on the days that I have been sketching, I haven't been making anything presentable enough to post. Today I am sipping hot apple cider and listening to a free world music sampler from Amazon. Soon I hope to work up the energy to pick up my sketchbook and start working again.

Why I Draw Flowers

I always thought my relationship with floral art was a love/hate one. For a long time I was embarrassed of my fascination with flowers because various individuals used to criticize me for it, saying that I was too "girly." At other times, I was given flowers by an abusive partner as a "goodwill" gesture, basically trying to appease me until the next time he blew up.

Even though flowers are a divisive subject for me, I've continued to be drawn to them. I have hundreds of reference photos that I've taken at various botanical gardens, parks and my own backyard. Whenever I am feeling restless and unsure of what to draw, I usually pick flowers because I find that drawing or painting them is like meditation for me. I can easily get lost in the intricacies of the petals of a rose or a daisy, like I drew here. I love the design of flowers and how they are so beautiful and varied, all the while serving a very important and special purpose in nature. I was thinking about it this morning, and the thought came across my mind that flowers really are proof of God's exuberance.