Peony Kinshi

I actually remember drawing this last Spring. Grandma was watching my daughter and I remember it feeling so luxurious to have the time to sit and draw. When I draw, and then later look at those drawings, it almost has the same power as scent as a memory trigger for me.

Dent De Lion

Chloe's Backpack

Here's a sketch I did of Chloe's little backpack. I find that now that I'm a parent, I'm making little notes and sketches everywhere of the funny things she does and says. Most of the time it's just a quick note written in my cheap planner. Occasionally, it ends up being one of these full blown illustrations.

I find it amazing looking back at this stuff at how much of it I would have already forgotten had I not written it down somewhere.

Normally I Don't Criticize My Sketches But...

I don't like to criticize my sketches. They are just sketches in a sketchbook. Sometimes I try something and it works - other times it doesn't. Generally there is always something I learn - which is the point of a sketchbook really. I can always find something I like in any drawing I make. On the other hand I can always find something I would do differently. I refuse to go down the road of "this is awful, that is awful, I suck, blah, blah, blah". You don't want to hear that. I don't want to hear that.

With all of that being said, I am also a mother. And as a mother I must let the record show that my daughter is way cuter than this. This is creepy. My daughter is not creepy. Even when she throws a blanket over her head and says, "Boooo. I am a ghost. Run away." she is still cute and not creepy.

So there sketch. I criticize you in defense of my daughter.

Castle Tea Room Before Watercolor

Here is the Castle Tea Room just in ink. And yes this was done over a year ago. Over the next few weeks I hope to post some older sketches that just never made it to the blog.

Castle Tea Room

I've been wanting to do a series of sketches of my city's downtown area. A new year and a new larger formatted journal have made me decide no time like the present. This sketch has eaten up bits and pieces of my daughter's nap time for the past week. My favorite part of the drawing-the tree in the upper left corner added as an afterthought. Go figure.

Vanilla Extract Painting

I couldn't post this earlier because it was actually a Christmas gift for my brother and his wife. Over their last visit he looked through my sketchbook and asked if I could do a larger version of my vanilla sketch. I blew it off as him being nice until he asked about it again a month or so later. And so here is a watercolor painting (my first actually). I get nervous when I'm not doing a pen drawing first - but I think it's good to do work out of your comfort zone every once in a while.