Outside my drawing table window are straight and weeping birches. We lost one of the birch trucks and, tragically, a beautiful OLD Japanese maple during an ice storm a few years ago. The third trunk is still in my mind's eye.
Some months ago, I uploaded a drawing of the front of our house. This time, I drew the back of the house---in the same style. Last time, I used a Pigma Micron 005 pen, this time, I used a Uniball Signo Gel pen---which made the drawing a bit looser. This is a large house in the Pacific NW Modern style (a late 70's incarnation) with characteristic big windows, skylights, and jutting angles.
It's cool how the internet can bring people together from far away places to make things. "Graham's Up the Tree" is based on a true story from the life of author mbpardy ... He's in Australia - I'm in Seattle area. When he posts these images at his page I see comments from people who grew up with real life versions of these characters I drew -- People that actually looked out the window and saw this little guy high up at the top of a tree... where no one else could go.
I have been seeing the moon a lot and it is always shining really bright and full. I thought I would make this as a prompt for what's outside my window. (◍•ᴗ•◍)❤ Medium is white charcoal on black paper.
This was drawn in Spiralty (a free Windows program) and colored in Photoshop. Great fun and very relaxing. I am definitely going to be making more mandalas during the rest of the pandemic.
The rhododendron in my yard is blooming and my daughter and I love to stare out the window to watch our cats, Squanchy and Beemo, hunt and play in the yard.
Australian author mbpardy & I have a children's book coming out soon called "Graham's Up the Tree." This illustration from the book makes a good countdown to release.
Often I am given to making marks on paper that reflect the objects I see coming towards me as I gaze out the front car window. I do this exercise as a passenger of course. The goal is not the end product, but the process of connecting what I see with motor control. The product is an indication of movement and energy. Give it a try!
There’s a lot of waiting in life.
Waiting in lobbies.
Waiting on answers.
Waiting for braces to tighten, kids to grow, hearts to heal, or prayers to be answered.
I sat at the orthodontist, watching dollars tighten on tiny wires, and made this sketch. A tree. A house. A street. Color helped the moment breathe.
I remember once hearing a chess master say, “There is no waiting in chess.”
It confused me—wasn’t there always a turn to wait for?
But he explained: “There’s no waiting. Only planning. Plotting. Analyzing. You’re always thinking.”
I once repeated that to a FIDE master. He got mad.
Maybe because waiting and patience aren’t the same thing.
We can be still and deeply active inside.
We can pause without being passive.
And then there’s Lindsey’s voice in the back of my head:
“That sounds like a first-world problem.”
“Speak life.”
“Be thankful. Rejoice always.”
And she’s right.
So here’s to filling waiting time with something creative.
Something kind.
Something that turns a delay into a doorway.
For these Grahams Up the Tree drawings I used a Pilot Custom 823 with FA nib. This pen is legendary. It has a very soft nib and a giant vacuum filled tank of ink so you can write and draw for days.
"At 6 o'clock the window squeaks and mum calls time" from Graham's Up the Tree. It must have been strange for mbpardy to see his his story interpreted through my illustrations... but page by page these characters came to life, with both of our contributions somehow adding up to something bigger.
Kierkegaard said we undersand life by looking back, but we must live life forward. On a trip to the Chicago Art Institute with a group of students, I penned the students behind me and then I penned the rapidly moving images I saw through the front window of the bus . I still do not understand life except that perhaps it is full of energy and art and love.
This design is from a series used for postcards, A4 prints, bags, tshirts etc https://davidmeehanart.blogspot.com/p/y.html David Meehan Art = Good art at reasonable price
One of my favorite things about being a parent is listening to the stories my daughter makes up and really trying to encourage her imagination. She has named a bunch of the cacti which line our windowsills, while our cacti are very accustomed to their suburban lives they also like a bit of adventure, this is a group of them taking a family vacation to the desert.
30 minute sketch in tinted charcoal on toned black paper. This spider lives outside my window and I have the perfect view of her catching wasps all day.
A beautiful snowy night is depicted here. A girl is watching the beautiful scenario from her window. Actually this is a house referenced from the Song - "Perfect" ft Ed-Sheeran.
THE LITTLE GIRL AND THE BALLOON by Ben Loory.
"That night the mother had a terrible dream. In the dream, Annie was a balloon. She floated up out of her bed and through the open window and away across the sky toward the moon."
https://www.instagram.com/p/CgzLv_COUat/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
Today’s urban sketching effort. I tried to capture light coming through windows at St Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh. Posca markers, brush pens and water soluble pencil on brown A4
