I set an artist’s date with DH today to go draw outside somewhere….we packed the folding chairs, our sketchbooks and various pencils….set out.  The first place we picked had no protection from the wind (SW at 24km) so we drove to another sight, the sides of the road are still quite soft, so we didn’t want to park too deep off the road….winds still a problem – unless we had mitts or gloves on.  We drove to another….good drawing possibilities but no wind protection, even from the car.  We thought about sitting in the car with the windows open to enjoy the fresh air but decided to come home and try tomorrow.  Now, we have our two spots picked out.  Only 6 deg C the wind just made it too much.

We came home, I still wanted to draw, so pulled out a couple old calendars. First I did some warm up sketches….

I LOVE just putting the pencil down and just moving the paper or in this case, didn’t let the pencil leave the paper and moved around.  Its kind of like free motion quilting, just sewing away.  The image on the right side of the page could be echo quilted inside and around the outside.

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The sunglasses were still laying on the table from coming in from outside.  I wear these over top my regular glasses as my glasses can’t fit magnetic sunners.

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So, thinking I was warmed up enough – I tackled this old Barn scene…..this barn reminds me of the one on our farm except the photo on the calendar had it painted red, ours was never painted.  I kept trying to get this perfect & finally just left it as I was going to mess it up if I tried to do anymore.  The photo had a snowbank in front .

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Another old farm site photo – actually I LOVE taking photos myself of old abandoned buildings, so these photos are like from my own album…

The scribble in front is supposed to be old fence posts and barbed wire…

and last one for today, tho I still have the sketchbook out and may doodle some more while the Tim Horton’s Brier (Canadian Men’s Curling) semi-final is on tonight.

. This is supposed to be a caribou….the body is too thick and I have erased 3 times, so am leaving it and will try it again another time.  I have the hardest time drawing animals, give me flowers and old buildings any day, but I wanted to challenge myself.

WOW – just realized its the 13th today not the 12th like I wrote on all these drawings….lost a day!!!

Awhile ago I was challenged to use my non-dominant hand to draw….that being my left.  Since I’ve making an effort to draw everyday, I did non-dominant drawings yesterday – I’ll show you some, but not all….LOL!  Once I got used to thinking in an opposite direction I started doing the swirls without the pencil leaving the paper – totally different from my right hand swirls.  GIVE IT A TRY!!!

In between projects today, I am continuing my “self-practise” drawing and enjoying seeing what appears.  Today – instead of looking around me to draw, I am setting my pencil on the paper and then just moving it around without lifting it off the paper.  Once, I think its done, then that is when I go back in and see where I can add or erase from the design.

Here is Drawing 6 for today:

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Mirror Image of the drawing & Expanded

I like what I see in the middle and may have to work more with that.

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Here is a close up of the centre…

Now, you are asking what I’m going to use these for…..first, I’ll use part of them for the Freezer paper class.

Second, I think some of these will work for quilting designs on a plain fabric – like wholecloth work.

We will see where these designs end up…just collecting them now in a binder for inspirations down the road.