After the Allergy Shots

I did this journal page just for you Ken! I'm trying to draw more buildings and it takes a pigeon to make me do so.

After my allergy shots (downtown) I went back to my car in a new ramp (new to me) with a different view. I saw this pigeon hanging out on the TCF sign. After awhile he flew up to the copper-clad roof. He wandered about for many minutes, going under the slanted overhang and coming in and out. I sat wondering what he was thinking.

What do pigeons do with all the time they have? Especially downtown pigeons? Yes, with the introduction of rehabilitated raptors in the Cities, there are some dangers, but downtown life once you get the window and car things down must seem like a stress-free vacation compared to suburban or rural life.

Then I got my journal out and started to sketch. It was warm (41 degrees) so the car was off (I know you'll appreciate that). It was amazingly dim in that ramp and that made choosing colors very difficult.

(The tab on the right side of the page is one of the pages I cut out when I start a new journal; it makes space for collaged items. People always ask me about this. There is nothing on the recto page yet, so I didn't include it in the scan; I need to go and find another pigeon!)

Since there are pigeons everywhere I think I have found the key to making myself draw more buildings!

The Metrodome Has Gone to the Dogs

The Metrodome had another indoor dog run yesterday. I never saw so many happy dogs. They don't get many opportunities to run around with other dogs since it has been below zero so much this winter.

I did a bunch of action sketches of dogs, but I really wanted to sketch a bulldog named Mabel. Mabel did not want to be sketched, but I managed get two sketches of Mabel, front and back.

Click on the photo to make it bigger.

Lake Harriet Kite Festival

It was 10 degrees when I sketched the Lake Harriet Kite festival. The ink in my pen froze and my fingers were numb, so I bent the rules and finished the coloring at home. Click on the picture to make it bigger.

Roz sucks it up and draws a car!

O.K. So I'm out with Ken and Roberta at Wet Paint. (They said they needed paper advice, but I don't really believe that; I think they were being sociable.) After the visit at Wet Paint we went down the road to Shish where Paul (a helpful artist/staff person at Wet Paint told us there was the best coffee in the area—I mention this in case you are coffee drinkers; I'm not—but I like Gyros so that's another attraction).

There we are at Shish, at a small window table, checking over our purchases and then eating, and finally, getting out our sketchbooks and so I decide, since I am sitting there with the King and Queen of scene sketchers, to broaden my view from the crack in the sidewalk. I boldly select a damaged car across the street (front end crumpled so badly bits have fallen off the hood so you can see inside, I guess that's because we don't use metal any more?). And just when I get going the driver comes out with a couple friends, they all pile in, not hearing my pleas from across the street and inside a building, of NO, No, no. (This action on my part causes the woman wedged in next to me to scooch further and further away from me.)

Then I learn something great from Ken. When this happens, wait until another car, similar to the first, comes along and work with it. This is helpful information because I am such a literalist, always drawing only those things in front of me (I rarely draw from my imagination). This is exactly like being at the zoo (which I do all the time; so this is a transfer of practice, a using of skills in a new area; it's growth!).

Since no other car was coming along I passed the time by working on the building and the fun shadows on the snow. And so it goes. I will draw more cars in the future. It wasn't that painful. Thank-you Ken and Roberta!

Grand Avenue in St. Paul

Roberta and I got paper and pen advice from our art guru Roz Stendahl at Wet Paint. Afterward's we walked down Grand Avenue a block to eat lunch at Shish. While we were digesting, we did some sketching. Roz did a great sketch of a car that moved befor she finished it. I am using my new 2009 journal (brown paper). Roberta also sketch on brown paper.

Roberta's sketch of people in Shish (click to enlarge the picture):



My sketch of a bike in snow:

The Two Weeks Before Christmas

Sunday, Dec. 14th was the grayest day I think I've ever seen here. Like a thick blanket. It started to snow mid-afternoon. It was a long wait for the LRT at the Mall of America, so I started sketching the man down the platform. He didn't move much, so was a good subject. Click on picture to make larger.



Sunday, Dec. 21 (Solstice) turned out to be a sad day. Our Saturn of 13 1/2 years died on Hwy 169. Celia was driving it home from her friend Eric's house when the engine went over into the red and started knocking. She managed to get it over to the side of the expressway--- but just barely. It was about 10 below 0 out there. Fortunately, Eric came to the rescue and brought her home. Tow trucks would've taken another 2 to 3 hrs to get there. This was drawn while I was waiting in my neighbor's borrowed car for the tow truck to arrive. It's only a car, but I still feel like I've lost a part of the family!

Sketching With Andy Singer at the MoA and the Junkyard

Cartoonist Andy Singer has some free tickets to Underwater Adventures® Aquarium, in the Mall of America and he invited me to sketch with him . I took the LRT to the last stop in Bloomington and met him at the entrance. Here's one of the sketches I did of the transparent tunnel through the aquarium (click the picture to enlarge it):



Andy did some fun sketches of the creatures:





Last year Andy and I did some sketching at a junkyard called U Pull R Parts in Rosemount. It was a hot day but I did a few fun sketches... here's one:



Here's three great sketches by Andy: