Drawing again

After making 27 loaves of bread, I finally decided we had enough bread in the freezer and after making 6 or 8 new pot holders, some new aprons, and things material that I can't recall right now, I found my way back to my drawing box. At first, being ever the optimist, I thought I'd practice a lot and fill up a drawing journal. Fool. I did three and was soon looking for something else. The attention span of a May fly.... ( Quick! Life is short! What can I learn next?!)

So, I found, at the bottom of my watercolor box, (I have boxes for everything) some 8 inch by 8 inch splattered paper made months ago for an on-line "Make a Journal" class with Dina Wakeley. Nice paper. Never quite made it to the journal stage. Well, the papers were just too pretty for my petty ramblings. It's craving Iambic Pentameter about the beauty and color of a life well lived... Instead, I picked up a few and saw a face in this one. It was barely a glimmer, but I saw a nice profile. This is the result of my classes with Mystele, who teaches "gut art". A fun, fun, fun way to create. Make a background, look for a story. Draw or paint it out as you see and feel it. Since I see faces in every car grill, tree shadow, pebble walk and popcorn ceiling pattern, this is a natural way to start. I was happy with my number 9 pencil. So much fun to smear! I love to use my fingers to smear. It feels like I am molding the face and not just drawing it.

See, I told you these papers are pretty.

 I also "saw" this face in the pattern of the colors. This time I used a fat graphite #9 pencil, but I really was looking for something darker. Since I am working on 140 lb. watercolor paper, it's difficult to lay in a really solid black line. But, it smudges nicely.

So, at the end of the day today, I did something new. I took out a stick of charcoal and quickly drew this face.
Now, this looks like Iambic Pentameter to me.