Every day in May!

I decided to take the challenge to draw every day in May this year. Some people on Facebook publish a list of subjects, one per day for 31 days, and then everyone draws his or her version and posts it. I joined the Facebook page, and then hastily took it back (unjoined? disjoined?) when I immediately received thousands of images in my feed, despite unsubscribing to "notifications" (what's up with that?), so I'm just going to go there every once in a while and take a peek while only sharing my own drawings here and on my own FB page. I went to Continental Art Supply and bought a brand-new 9x9-inch sketchbook for the purpose, and...

Here are May 1-3:

I'm actually a fan of dark chocolate these days and only resort to Hershey's in desperation mode, but I liked the idea of drawing the crinkly, light-touched packaging.

This tree grows about five houses down on the other side of the street from me. The whole street used to be lined with Ash trees, but most have died from old age and drought; but this one tree is a Shamel Ash, about twice the height of the others. We think it got planted by mistake, because it definitely shouldn't be a street tree--it has popped up the sidewalk, the curb, and part of the street with its root system! But I hope they never take it out--I like to think of it as the "World Tree."I drew the houses in to try to give a frame of reference for just how big it is, but actually I still didn't get the scale right--it's a LOT bigger. Long live the tree!

Today's assignment was "curtains," and since I only have blinds in my house (except for a shower curtain, and I didn't want to draw that), I couldn't think of what to draw. Then I thought back to childhood and the house I lived in from age 4 to age 13. My dad remodeled it, turning the attached garage into a huge family room, and what used to be the den, with half-paneling in dark wood, became a beautifully light and airy dining room. Mom painted the paneling white, and papered the upper half in a Delft-blue wallpaper called "Portia." Then she curtained the four identical windows in Priscilla ruffled curtains of white muslin, and displayed all her blue and white dishes on the hutch and sideboard. None of this is remotely my style, and yet I look back on that room with positive nostalgia, so I reproduced it here as best I could. Trying to mimic the wallpaper pattern gave me new respect for designers of patterned things like fabrics and wallpapers--what a task! This was a fun one.

Today, instead of doing what I usually do on Sundays, which is laze around reading until about 4 p.m. when I suddenly get the irresistible urge to paint something and try hard to finish before it gets dark, I decided to jump right in. I did this drawing and painting as soon as I got out of bed (and fed the cats--they wait for nothing!), then had my breakfast and coffee, and now I'm feeling energized and ready to accomplish more! A sink full of dishes awaits…and maybe around 4:00 I will paint something else, who knows? I think starting the day with art is a good move.

Stay tuned for more May!