December 29th Pixar

Not feeling confident with the Princess book. It over whelms me for now. So I went to the Character Collection, which has many Pixar movies in it. I started with Wall-E. The down side of some of the Pixar characters is that they seem a little flat to me.  I also admit I do not follow directions very well. I started with the basic shape in step one and then skipped to step 3 and 4. The first picture below is what it was suppose to look like. But I just was not happy with that so I looked up the second picture from the internet and combined the two.

 This is my final project. Not exactly what the book shows but I like it. I do not feel I have the right color so I doubt I will be coloring it. 

Next I decide to try another face. So I picked Liguini and Remy from Ratatouille. 

I have been doing 3 pages a day in my sketch book so I did not want to stop that trend now. However, Wall-E, as well as Linguini and Remy where pretty challenging. So I thougt I would try a character not so challenging. 

To my surprise Mike turned out to be the most chalenging of the day. He is so round it was hard to get that persist round body and eye. 

A Trip to Disneyland December 28th

After completing Alice I then started this Cheshire Cat.

It was the next day that my daughter and I went to Disneyland. I took my art supplies with me and continued working on the Cheshire Cat.  We also went to the Animation Academy at Disney California and instead of using their paper I used my sketch pad. The first class was Phineas and Ferb. And the second class was Agent P. I added a little to Agent P at home later. His hat was to flat to me. And I decided to color Agent P.

After the Academy Show, as per suggestion of my uncle I decided to buy a Learn to Draw. I could not decided which one to buy I know I need to work on faces, so the Princess one seemed like the perfect one to get. However it looked so difficult and I thought the Celebrated Character Collection would be easier. I kept going back and forth and had a hard time deciding. Finally I decided on the Celebrated Character Collection. However my daughter decided to buy the Princess one. But then she turned and told me I could hold on to it and use it as well, so that way I could have both. She is such a sweet girl!

On the way home I decided although the colored pencils my mom gave me are good, I felt I needed a softer core so I went to Michaels and I bought a set of 24 Artist's Loft pencils and a set of Faber-Castell 9000 Artist Graphite Drawing set. It came with a pencil case a full line of graphite pencils in different shades and hardness and sharpener.

My first picture I tried from the learn to draw books was from my daughter's book I tired the first picture of Snowwhite.

Christmas 2012

On my wish list I had asked for a pencil case that would hold my color pencils. While on the vacation that I had drawn the owls, I found it very difficult to keep my pencils from falling out of the box or rolling off the Airplane tray.  So I found online a great pencil case as well as a set of 75 colored pencils. My mother was kind enough to give me both of these items. Then the day after the Christmas I went and bought myself two sketchbooks.  And I began to draw.

Internet being my friend, I found some pictures to try to draw.  The first was one of the towers of small world decorated for the holidays.

Sticking with the holiday theme I then tried a Minnie Mouse in holiday apparel.

And finally I tried Mickey Mouse full body

 On December 27^th I tried to draw both Mickey and Minnie. These are my least favorite and nearly made me quit!

This one however is the one that really boosted my confidence. As I was drawing it I was very pleased with each step. Being afraid I would mess something up I kept taking pictures.

 The hands were a little hard for me to get just right. But the rest was just flowing for me very well.

 And then I decided to start coloring it in. Mainly because I was avoiding doing the face! I was really scared of the face. In the picture below you can see I used the Disney Blog as inspiration.

 I tried practicing on the bottom of a back page and when I felt I could do the face I finally decided to finish it off.  She looks a little worried. Which was how I was feeling!

Fall 2012

 While looking for some turkey clip art I came across this turkey and I just thought he would look cute on a sticky note.  I had so much fun the next day I drew him again on a larger note.

Then I found this note book a friend had given me a while back and decided to draw him once again in the book.

On November 23 while up in the mountains with no computers or tv, only my iphone I drew these pictures.  You will notice one of my bears again. 

Then On Decmeber 9^th I drew this little guy for fun.

Summer 2012 Artist Cards

On a short vacation, I knew I would be waiting at airports and sitting on planes. So I purchased a few more of the art trading cards and inspired by some stickers my daughter had I started drawing and coloring owls.  I had fun designing the different owls and using different colors. 

On the back of each owl I wrote note. 

Top Left : I colored this one for my daughter as I waited on the 1st plane headed to seattle. 6/20/12

Top Middle:I colored this on the plane to Victoria. I was going for a patriotic feel. 6/20/12

Top Right: Inspired by the English Cottage we stayed at in Victoria. 6/21/12

Bottom Left: Inspired by the Art & Cultral Book of BC and the colorful wild flowers. I drew him while I sat in the car and while at the beach. 6/21/12

Bottom Middle: Just having fun with color. Didn't mean to make the center section a rainbow.  I just kept choosing colors that went together. It was not until I started coloring did I realize what I did. 6/22/12

Bottome Right: 30 colors! I bought a new ser of pencils for $1.00 at the $1 store in Canada and decided to try all 30 colors. Colored while waiting at airport in Canada.

The following week was Girl Scout Day Camp. The theme was Castaway. Wanting to do something more beach like I tried drawing some turtles.

 Then one day I tried my hand at a sunset reflecting off the water.

Spring of 2012 A different canvas

For my class, I have wanted a science coat for quite a while. Many of the teachers wear a lab coat during science class time. It is a great way to let the students know what we will be doing.  Well after some thought I decided to try my hand at making my own. Each of our coats has something to do with our personalities. And everyone knows I am a huge Disney fan.  So it only seemed appropriate that mine had a Disney influence.  It was my first time trying to draw on fabric.  I drew the pictures first on paper, then I traced them on the coat.

 The back side of the coat is what we do when we observe.  I tell my students every time we do science these directions.
Listen with your ears
Look with your eyes
Waft with your nose
Touch with your hands (two fingers)
BUT NEVER EVER TASTE.



Below are some close ups of two of the pockets that I designed myself.

July 2011 Left Handed

 During the summer of 2011 I had surgery on my right hand. One day being board out of my mind, I decided to try to draw with my left hand.

I was pleased considering I only had the one hand. So pleased I decided to even color it with my left hand.