I’m finally settled

I’m finally settled in our new home in the San Francisco Bay Area and working to pick up again the personal challenge of drawing one (at least!) tree a day. Trees are still a part of my soul and something totally wakes up in me when I walk amongst them. Today!

Trying out the iPad app for Blogger...

I am trying out the iPad app for Blogger. First pic is from my photo library. Second one taken with iPad in questionable lighting. Hmmm.

This a view of Jana's and Kong's back yard last February.

still sketching...

I'm still sketching, but not as often as I'd like. I am away from home for awhile and my daily agenda is more complicated, but I'm not going to let that stop me any more.

I have been sketching on and off, but not as often as I'd like. I've been in a whirlwind of experiences and challenges, and I'd like to get started sketching everyday as before...

still sketching.....

I'm still sketching, but not everyday. I just let myself get swallowed up by other things. (Not good.) I'll scan and post more soon.

Tree #198–200

 Foliage? 11-8-12



Working the fallen leaves from our

50-foot+ Silver Maples. 11-9-12

Trees. 11-11-12

Trees #196–197

Many trees around us are bare due

to high winds. 11-5-12

That tree again in Lakeside Park. 11-6-12

Tree #193–195

Quickie Trees. A view of our backyard. 11-2-12

A tree at Lakeside Park. 11-4-12

A tree. 11-5-12

Tree #189–192

 Tree. No story. Just a tree. 10-26-12 

 I pulled and chopped and pulled weeds in preparation for

foundation work on our house. 10-28-12

 A Little Tree. 10-30-12

A stylized tree? 10-31-12

Trees #187–188

Just playing around again. 10-24-12

Still just playing around. Trying to catch up with my posting.

Tried to post more sketches tonight, but Blogger

keeps locking up(?), so I'm going to quit for tonight. 10-25-12

Tree #184–186

 Trying to catch up with my posting. Branches in my yard

as seen from below while seated in my patio glider. 10-18-12

Trees in my yard as seen from my patio . 10-20-12

 

I made it up, I guess. Too much time has elapsed. 10-23-12

Tree 181–183

 Sitting on our patio and looking up at the

branches of one of our Silver Maples. 10-8-12

(By the way, I don't know at all if my numbering

system is accurate. Who knows if this is really Tree #181.)

 The dense foliage of branches of one of our

Silver Maples from the vantage point of my upstairs window. 10-9-12

Pure fantasy again. 10-16-12

Tree #178–180

Fantasy only because I get started after dark. 10-5-12

 View in the evening of the trees outside my upstairs widow.

I never seem to get started with my sketch in daylight these days. 10-2-12

Yet another fantasy. 10-6-12

Trees #175–177

10-1-12

 Our backyard again, small tree-like bushes

at the base of our Silver Maples. 10-2-12

10-4-12

Tree # 172–174

One of the Silver Maples in our backyard

with the limbs growning out of the sides of the trees.

We let them grow as they hide the harsh back fence. 9-28-12

Tree # 165–171

Guess I was feeling a bit lazy. 9-14-12

 

Finally got to take myself another walk to Lakeside Park

 and sketched a one-sided tree I hadn't really looked at since

last winter. Looks very different since then. 9-18-12

I am waiting too late in the evening to sketch, and by then it's already dark.

It is not very satisfying to sketch things I've made up.

Does that mean I'm a plein aire sketcher at heart? 9-22-12

Just a tree. 9-23-12 

Still experimenting with a 4B woodless pencil loaned

to me by a friend. 9-24-12

Still experimenting with that 4B woodless pencil loaned

to me by a friend. 9-25-12

Every day, I drive down a street and try to remember

how the trees form a canopy over the street. Of course

I don't stop to take a photo because I need to get to work,

or I'm eager to get home, or I don't have a camera,

or, or, or.... This is the best I can remember,

but of course, it isn't right. Tomorrow, I must stop. 9-26-12

Trees #158–164

 Playing around with watercolor and colored pencil. 9-1-12

 More playing around with pen and ink and watercolor wash. 9-4-12

Pen & ink. I shouldn't wait so long to write down the

particulars. It's been a hectic and wild two weeks...9-6-12

Colored pencils... the branches outside of

my upstairs windows again. 9-7-12

Just a simple pencil. 9-10-12

Ink brush-type pen. 9-12-12

The view from my upstairs window after removing, last weekend,

a stand that has been blocking part of the view for a few years. 9-13-12

Tree 154–157

 The Holly Trees beyond our patio

fireplace. 8-26-12

 Walked at dusk and noticed the tree tops against the sky.

So did this by memory when I got home. 8-27-12

Those trailing out-of-control ivy winding

along the trunks of our huge Silver Maples. 8-28-12

Took a long walk around the lake in Lakeside Park last night,

and using one of the reference photos I took, this is a group of

trees there. The leaves are beginning to dry and

turn colors a slight bit. 8-31-12

Tree #148–153

 Yet another view of one of our Silver Maples

with branches sprouting around the lower

part of the trunk and a nameless

foliage at its base. 8-15-12

 Our tired-looking, drought-weary
Japanese Maple with lush, uninvited,
unauthorized, miscellaneous foliage. 8-17-12

 Sorting files of useless papers for
what seemed like all day. 8-18-12

Sorting my stash of weaving yarns for

too many hours. 8-20-12

Enough sorting! Took off to do some biking and

did this from memory of the bridge across

Turkey Creek as it opens into Wall Park Lake.8-22-12

Went biking again and did this from memory

at the tired-end of the day,

by memory, of Euclid St. 8-23-12

Last page of the sketch book, just

some playing with layering primary colors

and adding water using watercolor

pencils. Colorful fun! 8-24-12