Old Coot Azzy

After much growling, cursing, and pulling my hair out I finally got my old PDA to sync up with my computer. I'm still not sure what I did to finally succeed so I hope I don't have to do this again. But I know that's too much to hope for because this isn't the first time the pda and the computer stopped syncing. And every time it's a pain in the arse trying to make things right again. Anyway, now I can download some stuff I want to read when I'm not in front of the computer. We're going to watch some anime later and then a movie we got from Netflix called Game Plan. It stars Dwayne "the Rock" Johnson. I like him. We would've watched "Crash" too, but the disc arrived cracked so I returned it right away. Today's pizza night too. Whoot! More from my sketchbook: I drew this rose at the end of January, referencing the book "Drawing for Dummies," by B. Hoddinott. I hope everyone has an enjoyable weekend!

More drawing and shading practice. I did this one using "Drawing Dogs and Puppies" by Nolon Stacey for reference.

Being a little over 15 years old is NO excuse for my stove to die NOW when I'm in the middle of holiday baking. We're off to an appliance store in a few minutes. I guess I can call the new stove a Christmas gift to myself. *sigh* In better news, I did a bit of drawing practice this week. This is my first attempt at drawing a horse. Reference:" Pencil Drawing" by Gene Franks. I worked on this on and off for 4 days.

Warning: Housecleaning is dangerous, people! I'll be out of commission for a couple of days because I pulled a muscle in my back when I leaned over too far while hanging drapes in the bedroom. Ugh. I was in a bit of agony when I woke up this morning so I popped an Ibuprofen. When I finish up here I'll slather some Ben Gay on the area or slap on one of those hot/cold patches if I find one in the medicine cabinet. This better clear up soon because I have a lot of stuff to get done before Christmas. I've been staying away from the internet as much as possible lately. Avoiding that addiction allows me to get so many other things done. I didn't get much drawing practice in this week, but I did manage to work on another bird picture. I like this one better than the first one I did a few weeks ago. I used, "Pencil Drawings," by Gene Franks for the reference.

Around this time every year I seem to turn into a cleaning fanatic. I think it's because Christmas is right around the corner and I have the family over for a big bash on Christmas Eve. This weekend I started things off by washing the kitchen walls. Maybe this spring I'll paint the entire house. Anyhoo, I'm a bit achy today. Why does the body start to rebel so quickly when we get older? For over a year I've been practicing on drawing people, anime style. But suddenly I'm craving more so I've been working with some actual "how to draw" books. The picture below is one I did a couple of weeks ago. It's one of the lessons in "Pencil Drawing" by Gene Franks. The book is part of Walter Foster's Artist's Library Series. It took me about 3 hours to draw and shade this picture. I'm fairly happy with the results.

A few months ago I watched a bit of this anime series (and I can't recall the name of it) where the main character ran around taking pictures of clouds. Maybe he had a cloud fetish, who knows. But anyway, for some strange reason I started thinking about this the other day while sitting on my deck. Suddenly, I found myself staring up at the clouds cruising along the sky and, of course, pictures started to form. "Wow," I said to myself. Yes, I talk to myself occasionally. Don't we all? Go on, admit it! Okay, I'm getting back on topic now. After I let loose with that "wow," I started thinking that snapping pictures of the cloud images I saw might provide me with inspiration for drawing in the future...um, when I learn how to draw better, that is. Now, taking pictures of the things I see in the passing clouds is my new hobby! So...what does this cloud look like to you?

More drawing practice using, "How to draw wizards, warriors, orcs, and elves" as a reference.

More drawing practice using a "how to draw" book for reference.

Picked up this book from Borders over the weekend. I thought the 3.99 price was very reasonable. Now I have almost one small shelf filled with "how to draw" books. I'm such a sucker for books. lol Anyhoo, using characters from the new book as a reference I managed to draw the following... One day, I hope to be able to draw something without using a reference, but I think it's too early for that yet. I still spend a lot of time drawing circles, cubes, cylinders, etc.

Last night, we watched several hours of "Live Earth." Bon Jovi gave another fantastic performance. The band is tight. They make live performances look easy. And they really know how to work the crowd. Bravo to them for an excellent job. I was bouncing around in my chair and wilding flapping my arms around to their music. Hey, at least I got a little exercise! *laughs* It looks like it's going to be another day spend indoors since the temperature is suppose to hit 95. Ugh! Too hot for me. I guess we could catch up on watching the anime we put on hold yesterday. This week I'd like to get back to practicing my drawing. I've been at a loss for what to work on but before I fell asleep last night I started thinking about trying to draw pictures of all the characters I created for my old storyboards. So, yeah, that's what I might do. I'm been feeling quite bored when I come online lately. I guess it's because I don't have anyone to talk with or write wit...

Last night we watched, Bridge to Terabithia, and I felt pretty bummed out by the time it ended. I guess I was expecting more fantasy and a much happier story, not one that had me using up a box of Kleenex. *sigh* Maybe I should start reading some reviews of movies before I rent them so I'll have at least some idea of what to expect. I really lucked out because I got to see the space station and shuttle gliding across the sky again last night. Usually I miss out on things like this due to uncooperative weather so this time I'm sending out a thanks to mother nature for ultra clear skies. Since there's always a balance to things, we're supposed to have thunderstorms tonight and tomorrow night. I practiced drawing for about an hour yesterday. Not nearly enough considering I haven't touched my sketchpad in weeks, blaming it on eyestrain. I would have had my new glasses by now but they called to reschedule my appointment. Now I have to wait until July. Ugh. Maybe I'll...