EDiM continues, slowly

It's not good when something you took on for fun and practice becomes more like a chore or job. I'm going to catch up with these this weekend and then perhaps it won't feel like pressure any more, it will feel like fun again! I really want to do #16 NOW, but I'm taking these in order, so here are:

#10: Something you can turn on/off

As a librarian, it is one of my tasks to get everyone in the library to turn these OFF. Ha ha ha. This one is mine, with a screensaver of my cat Dante in the background. I'm trying out a new technical drawing pen, called "LePen," and I'm liking it--it feels a little softer, smoother, and more flexible than my usual Micron. And it's cheaper! Always nice.

#11: A hat, cap, or other headgear

I wanted to draw the hat/cap/headgear ON someone, but the weather has been too warm for most people to wear hats, so I was just about to resign myself to drawing one of my hats on my coat rack when we had a rainy day and Hailey showed up to book club Wednesday night in her Dr. Who-inspired Tardis hat. I snapped a quick photo before book club started, and drew this when there was time. It was an odd pose, so I didn't get much of her face/expression, but so typical of a teenager--staring at her cell phone. In the library. See above.

Reproducing plaid is not one of my cultivated skills, so I phoned it in a bit--she had a plaid shirt wrapped around her waist, so the pattern was folded over a lot and therefore pretty random. And the hair shading? The top half of her hair is brown and the tips are blonde, it's not just a bad paint job!

A sweet girl, and a good sport to let me photograph and paint her.

EDiM #8, out of order

I was too concerned with getting the reading log cover illustration completed to pay attention to the EDiM assignments, so here is #8--something with a handle, out of order, done quickly to fulfill the prompt. Hey, every single one can't be well thought out and lovingly crafted!

This was interesting, though, because when I glanced at the handles on this dresser, they looked symmetrical and identical on either side, but when I started to draw one, it was not, exactly. All the same elements were there, but there were a couple in different order, top to bottom, and one side had an extra flourish the other didn't have. (At first I thought I had just missed something, but no!)

This is from an old mahogany bureau that my mom painted turquoise back in the '80s. It sounds like sacrilege, but it's actually beautiful that way. Ruins the antique value, of course, but is perfect for the bedroom, where it has ended up as my clothes dresser, although I think it was perhaps originally a dining room sideboard meant to hold silverware and linens.

It's so dim in the bedroom that there wasn't much bouncing light to make this shine as metal. I probably should have preserved a few white highlights just to give it pizzazz, but as I said…quick and dirty.

And now I have to paint #10, "something you can turn on/off" for today and I will be caught up.