Sidewalk Chalk and Sketchbook

Bunk on The Wire

We've been watching The Wire on DVD all summer. Currently in the middle of Season 3. I think our favorite character is Omar, but we enjoy so many.

Mueller Lake Park

Got to take Eamonn to ride his tricycle and play at Mueller Lake Park this morning. While he climbed on one of the playscapes and tried to befriend another little boy, I drew one of the mothers there. Then I quickly sketched Eamonn while he stood beside the swings yelling to me "Push me Mom!"

Mueller Lake Park is part of the Mueller Redevelopment, a former airport (Robert Mueller Airport) about a mile from our house that is in the process being turned into a mixed use residential and commercial community. The park is wonderful except for the fact that the trees are all pretty small so it is sunny and gets hot quickly. We haven't played there much this summer.

Jose on Front Porch

Another drawing I started a couple of weeks ago while Eamonn and I were drawing in chalk on our front sidewalk. I finished it later and added a bit of color yesterday. Jose is our black cat.

After Dinner

This has been a busy week preparing for students to return next week, so I didn't have much time to sketch. Here's a quick found still life of the dinner table before it was cleared.

Waiting to be Recycled

These empty containers were clean and waiting patiently on the counter to be taken out to the single-stream recycling bin. No more sorting. Glass, paper, cardboard, even different plastics all get thrown together now if you live in Austin. It all goes together and some type of machinery probably sorts it later? All part of Austin's effort to become a zero waste city.

Eamonn's Flower

Eamonn drew this flower this morning. He says the dark shape coming out of the middle, that looks to me like a stamen, is the flower's hat. A future botanist?

He wrote the F and A himself and then asked me what came next.

Drawing with Chalk in the Driveway

Ever try to draw a 3 1/2 year old child from life? Impossible. They do not stand still, at least this one doesn't. I thought that while he was drawing in chalk on our front sidewalk and driveway, I might be able to sketch him. Well, I got a few partial sketches done!

When he saw me sketching in my notebook, he ran in and brought his notebook out and drew pictures of me and of our car.

Rosedale House

Rosedale is a central west neighborhood in Austin. I often take my son to play at Ramsey Park, which is just a few blocks from this house on Rosedale Ave. and 41st St.

I sat on the lawn across the street to sketch and paint this. The man living across the street, as well as a woman down the street seemed pleased that I was sketching there. This house had a nice little garden with Poinciana and Plumbago growing in front.

I love the new sketchbook I am using. The paper is thicker than in my other sketchbook and handles watercolor much better. It is a Maruman FO S970 with a Renoir portrait on the cover.

Yoga Gesture Paintings

I've been reading some of Charles Reid's book on rendering the figure in watercolor, The Natural Way to Paint. Today I had a short time to try out his exercise in painting figures in action without sketching first in pencil. The skin tone is made by mixing (either on the palette or on the paper) raw sienna, cadmium red, and either cerulean blue or cobalt blue.

I took out a couple of yoga and pilates books to find figures in action, and quickly did some gesture paintings while Eamonn had "quiet time" (not actually all that quiet, ahem).

Barton Springs Sketch

This morning I took Eamonn to Zilker Park to play and ride the little train. We had our snack on a picnic table overlooking Barton Springs, a large natural spring swimming pool. It was a little hard to sketch because a bunch of kids were running back and forth, alternately feeding and chasing away the pigeons. I sketched this in a moleskine. Those picnic tables are covered and actually make a great place to sketch in hot weather.

Happy Birthday

I sent this cupcake painting to my mother as a birthday card. Her birthday was yesterday.

Red Chair in the Kitchen

Today was a busy day. Cleaning, grocery shopping, had some friends and their two kids over for dinner, which was a lot of fun. Their son is a good buddy of Eamonn's from preschool and the two were rowdy and had an altogether fabulous time.

So I am cheating today and posting a watercolor I did back in 2004. I guess it is appropriate because we did a lot of socializing tonight in the dining area of the kitchen, which is the area in this painting.

Eamonn With Train

My son Eamonn loves trains. This is a block train his grandparents have in Cleveland.

I don't know why I sketched this in my sketchbook rather than on watercolor paper. I will probably need to redo it so the paper isn't so wrinkly.