Adventure Strikes Sketchbook Mornings

One of the most important things you need when drawing is light and preferably natural light.

My best source these days is the large windows around our local McDonalds. The apps and coupons make the food affordable as well.

After I eat I pull out my sketchbook, pen and pencils to get some drawing done.

I started tis with drawings in both colored pencil and ink and then took it back to my studio to finish i in gouache and acrylic.

The greens, yellow and browns are gouache and the blue was a pre mixed acrylic.

Today went down another path as I pulled my wheelchair up to the table and a good Samaritan came over to move a chair out of my way so that I could sit up to the table.

As she did that  she explained that there were other tables especially for wheelchairs and I should have used one of those.

I thanked her and explained that I had chosen this one because of the sunlight, that it was important I sit there because I was an artist and had planned to be doing some drawing there.

At that point she asked what sort of things I painted and when she heard what kind of work I do, she said that she used to do watercolors. We discussed the ins and outs of working with those. After that she was surprised to hear that both of the masks my husband and I were wearing were made from paintings that I had done. You can find these masks and much more at Zazzle.com/julia_art* or zazzle.com/dalahorse*.

Well, by this time my husband had come back to the table and the wait staff brought the food but on went our new friend about grandkids, knitting and bunion surgery which wasn't too bad because we'd long ago finished our meals. Some where in the course of the conversation a diner at a nearby table chimed in to say that she loved my dress so I stopped to tell her where to buy them and went back to the conversation with the first gal as my poor husband sat by politely, joined in were he could and went back to just rolling his eyes from time to time.

 

I told our friend that I design dala horses that get put on a lot of things and our friend said she'd been given a keychain with a dala horse on it as a gift from a friend returning from a trip to Sweden. Just then the second gal chimed in to say that she collected keychains and had thousands of them which spiked quite the conversation between the two of them.

 When we left those two were happily chatting about their collections (and their feet) and we smiled to think we'd done our bit to stamp out loneliness at Christmas.  (both hers and our own)

Yes, I did also come out of this with a new drawing and so much more. I had kind of a Christmas sort of feeling and I'd like to Wish You a Merry Christmas to you too.