33. draw your sister.

See #36 (coming Wednesday).

32. draw your brother.

This turned out as something of a cross between my brother David
and my cousin Jay. I find people's heads/faces very intimidating to draw.
One little proportion off and the whole thing looks like someone else!

what it is

I just got the book What It Is, by Lynda Barry. It looks to be loads of fun -- it's written as something of a full color graphic collage novel meditation on the creative process. I'm looking forward to soaking it in.

.

31. draw your father.

As you can see, this is a little bit skewed. But it captures a couple of things

I love about my dad: his smirky, affectionate smile

and the gentle expression in his eyes.

30. draw your mother.

This doesn't actually look anything like my mom, but it was the best of 5 attempts.

I guess I'll just have to be glad I managed to pull off a humanoid female and leave it at that.

We've been house sitting the past few days and are enjoying the quiet bit of vacation

that brings and the air conditioning as well. What are you all up to?

29. draw your lover(s).

Just one. There he is!

28. draw your pet.

This is Daisy when she was a tiny puppy.

She was so cute!! She's a shih tsu/beagle mix.

Really friendly but barks like a maniac.

I wouldn't recommend it.

27. eat it anyway (and draw the empty plate).

26. draw your pudding (that you're not eating).

Elliott and I made chocolate pudding this morning and had

a great time about it! Also, it turned out to be a very popular

item with the children and housemates. Who knew?

25. draw instead of eating pudding once a week (good for your waistline, too).

Uh, I never eat pudding; however, in

honor of Michael Nobbs I might whip some

up in the next couple of days.

Here's the kitchen-in-progress of our new building,

drawn while I was definitely not eating pudding.

It's amazing to me how much James & others have pulled off

in terms of undoing the old kitchen -- it looks like an

entirely new space, complete with vaulted ceilings

(a huge improvement over the dropped tiles & fluorescent

lights); all the old appliances, cabinets and walls gone;

and new framing in place. It's so fun to watch it happen!

24. if you can't give up a programme draw it instead.

This is the cooking show that was on when I
went to draw today. I've never seen it before,
but the French accent is wonderful. Those
Gruyere puffs looked pretty great, too.
This is the first day I've felt good in two weeks.
Hip, hip, hooray!!!

23. give up watching one tv programme and draw instead.

Today we moved our room all around.
That huge square beside the chair is the box
Eric made for our bed a few months ago.
Those are our pillows on top.
The mattress is inside, and he just flips it up
in the morning and down at night. Not as
easy at it sounds, since it's a California King
and extremely heavy. But it leaves us room for
two chairs, a couch, a couple of bookshelves and
the computer desk. So our bedroom doubles as
a little living room, which is a nice getaway
in a community house full of people.
It also frees up a good space for exercising, which
we tend to do together after the kids go to bed.

22. hold a drawing party

... and give everyone a sketchbook and a pen and make drawings of each other's faces without looking at the paper. My drawing party consisted of my daughter & me

and a pile of cardstock 3x5s. This is my version of her

(without looking at the paper).

And this is her version of me.

I rather like the cartoonish whimsy of her penstrokes.
This is my take on Eric, who was sitting nearby,
and her sketch of the chimenea we were all sitting around.
Evenings in the front yard with a fire in the chimenea have
been our family favorite lately.

21. hang around after you've met a friend and draw something else.

Okay, I'm claiming this as my last sick day. I switched from amoxicillin to the good 'ol Z-pack (my new best friend) yesterday, and I'm hoping for the best! I'm feeling better in bits and pieces but still fighting off the gargantuan headache of yore.

20. when meeting a friend, get there 10 minutes early and draw something.

What a lovely idea! But how 'bout I just lie down and think about meeting a friend....

19. draw in your car (after you've parked!) before you get out of it.

Once again, this is just not going to happen today. I did manage to drive kids to swim lessons this morning, but that is all I've done. I'm still down for the count.

18. draw somewhere you just happen to be.

This is the mask I had to wear in the waiting room at urgent care
today because of my flu symptoms. I must have been quite a sight!
However, it seems that my flu has cleared up and been replaced
by a sinus infection. The good news? Amoxicillin to the rescue!

17. go somewhere specifically to draw.

Sigh. This just isn't going to happen today, my friends. Maybe when I have enough energy to move my eyeballs again...

16. take photos of things you want to draw...

while you're out and about but are too nervous/haven't time. Draw from them.

I took this photo several months ago to draw from at a later date. I just love shopping carts, probably because they turn up in strange places like this empty lot. It's as though they have personalities of their own, so they wander out to see the world from time to time.

15. draw it.

I haven't had a chance to try it out yet, since I've spent
the last 2 days in bed, sick. Today's not looking any better.

14. treat yourself to a present if you complete #13.

Now, this may not look like the most exciting present
in the world to you, but to me it looks like
THE NEXT PERFECT SYSTEM!
As you may have picked up already, I'm not a big fan
of the Tucson summer heat. And the worst experience
of the Tucson summer heat happens when one is waiting
outside of one's car for one's children to slowly, sleepily,
collecting-all-of-their-worldly-goods-on-the-way-
and-maybe-playing-with-each-one-of-them-too
get out of the car while one is standing on the hot asphalt
with the heat rising up from all of the surrounding cars in the parking lot.
Therefore, my gift to myself this summer is the game of
"How Fast Can We Jump Out Of The Car With All Our Stuff And Close The Doors?".
The stopwatch, while not necessary for the game itself, may be
necessary for selling it to those involved as something fun to do.
And we can also compete with ourselves for the fastest time,
down to the millisecond.
It's a matter of survival, really.

13. buy or make a (slim) sketchbook and set yourself a date to fill it by.

Ashton made this sketchbook for me a couple weeks ago out of index cards...

so I've been filling it up ever since...

at church, in my room, at the mall with kids...

etc.

12. draw your toothbrush.

11. draw your morning cup of tea.

10. make another before you go to bed.

Now it's a husband on the couch.