Pigtailed Cuties and Storage Blues

 These portraits of my nieces had been buried in storage for years.  Lauren remembered them, and asked if she could have hers for her apartment.  I had no idea where they were, but stumbled on them in one of the storage lockers the other day.  The girls are both still just as cute, but Lauren is thriving in the business world and Sarah is half way to becoming Doctor Sarah.  No more pigtails.  "Turn around and they're two, turn around and they're four...".  You know the rest.

I was glad I found the portraits, but overall a day slugging through storage lockers sure makes you look at your stuff differently.  We accumulate all these 'must have' possessions, pay to house them, sometimes for years, and then, what?  Between 3 storage lockers and the garage at our ski place I waded through an ocean of stuff and ended up bringing only what fit in the back of my car down to the new house.  The rest of it I could really probably not see again for the rest of my life without being adversely affected.  I suppose that's how it goes.  People house it so they don't have to deal with it.  We eventually die, and then some poor relative (I've been this relative) has to feel bad about throwing all our treasures away.  Or eBaying them.  Or they end up on some version of Garage Picker Storage Wars.  Note to self: use all the stuff you have to the best of your ability before buying more.

EDiM Hold Still... I'm Drawing You

It's May!  Time for the Every Day in May Challenge.  The challenge is to do a sketch each day, taking subject cues from a pre-chosen portion of the 'Everyday Matters' list.  You'll find this year's  list later in this post.

The sketch here is from the second item on the new list.  "Draw something that represents a New Year's resolution of yours".  You might think the resolution was to sketch more, but not.  My resolution this year was to get out of my little bubble, become more involved in the community around me.  This sketch is from a life drawing session I went to yesterday here in the hood.  I found out about it on a Vancouver Meet-Up group.  There were six of us tucked into this very cool art studio (thank you Sarah) a few blocks from my house.  It's a shared space, with all kinds of cool artwork/workspaces set up in most corners and the sound of musicians rehearsing in the background.We had no model, so we took turns doing 5 minute sketches of each other.  Had to be quick.  Most of the colour on this one was added later at home.


Here's the whole EDiM list for this month:


1. Draw or paint a landscape
2. Draw something that represents a new year’s resolution of yours
3. Free choice. Draw anything you like.
4. Draw a present you have received. Why is it special?
5. Draw something sweet
6. Draw a holiday card
7. Draw a spoon and journal a little about it
8. Draw an egg carton, with or without eggs in it.
9. Draw a brown paper bag
10. Draw an apple
11. Draw something with wings
12. Draw a button or buttons
13. Draw something breezy - something that blows in the wind - a flag, leaves, your choice.
14. Draw your lunch and journal about it.
15. Draw a traffic sign (stop, yield, crossing, directional, arrows, etc.)
16. Draw a store in your neighbourhood.
17. Draw some bread and write about it if you like.
18. Draw a nearby body of water - ocean, lake, pond, river
19. Draw your artspace - drawing board, desk, studio, table - draw where you create.
20. Draw a streetlight
21. Draw something that makes you happy, and write about it, too.
22. Draw an ear, or two or three or more
23. Draw a souvenir of a place you’ve been. Write a bit about your memories of the place.
24. Draw something cold or cool. Chill, people.
25. Draw some flowers (or colourful showy foliage if you’re in the S. hemisphere and don’t find flowers in bloom.)
26. Draw the ingredients and/or process of a favourite recipe - and journal about it.
27. Draw some clouds and write about them
28. Draw a mailbox and write about the most important piece of real world mail you’ve ever received(not email - snail mail.)
29. Draw somewhere new. Go somewhere new to you and draw what you find. Write about it, too.
30. Draw something representing your favourite sport.
31. Draw what you’re afraid of. Write about it, if you dare.

  If you're a sketcher, or think you'd like to be, give it a go!  It's honestly the best thing I ever did as far as tuning up the drawing skills goes.  The last time I did it, I ended up doing the whole month's worth of drawings with a box of  kids crayons.  I love flipping through that sketchbook; it tells a story.  And, I'm proud of myself for sticking with it the whole way through. I feels good just to finish something.  The sketches from the first year I did it are all on this blog.  Here's day one, just in case you're curious. :-)