One of these naive pictures was missed with the last group scanning so I merged it when I realised my numbers were wrong. We took Asher our very naughty but much loved cat, to the vet and left him there, we have been so very sad ever since. 

There are several things I would like to change about this little journal project. I need to decide on a better form for the heading or title. I would like to be more accurate about the points of the compass and where they are in relationship to where I have been. Thinking about image strategy so that my journeys do not become too repetitive.

I attended a workshop at Dilworth last weekend, the teacher was Kathy Boyle and the organiser was Susan Hurrell-Fieldes and it was about the painterly print. The weather was atrocious, like someone emptied the bath, so we were pleased to be inside and out of it, or so we thought. Day one we worked building up multiple images on canvas with a view to making a small book on day two. Day two was etching aluminium using various resists, collaging and preparing material to bind for the book. I was slow and have only just finished my cover. It is canvas and has been bound on the edges with a strong paper. The spine is made out of a different piece of canvas and sewn together, I intend long stitching the pages in which I will have the collection of prints I produced over the two days. I really struggled to be loose with the construction and I intend working towards a more relaxed structure next.

EDM # 108 Draw a light bulb or two. Maybe it's because winter is nearly here,  I struggled to get excited about drawing a light bulb, maybe it was because I took the lightbulb out of my drawing light and had to do it in the  dim, maybe not. It is done and ticked off. Half heartedly - go to the end of the line and start again!

Keri Smith's list of 100 things - no. 97 was to draw a manhole cover. I saw this cover outside Martin's work and took a picture and referred to it all the time when drawing. Each ring was so dependant on the next and so obvious when I sloped off, in the end I just left the non-concentric rings and hope your eye slides over them to realise the whole.

This happened when I should have been doing other things. A small journal,11x16x3 cm with pages of my favourite paper and needing to be used for something. My idea was to fill it with a picture journey of where I go everyday, from memory and only putting things in I know or remember seeing, no research. It is not accurate or to scale, as roads do not meet that should and things are sometimes upside-down. There are six already and it's fun to do, just for me.

Two items turned up and surprised me. I retrieved several suitcases from up in the loft and emptied them, 

finding my daughter's swimming togs and a label off my grandmother's old leather suitcase. 

I decided to draw both before posting 

them off to my daughter.

This hasn't worked out how I had hoped. Difficulty with similar textures and colours makes the sand possibly be water and if the page is turned another way up it could be other things. The paper was one of the rusted pages that I made at Easter, it grabbed the charcoal quiet strongly.

What do I know about boats, not much!  I tried a few sketches  from photos. There are some gorgeous lines when looking along a boat, curves become apparent, sometimes going more ways than one. I do not want to lose the lines with detail. Still looking out for shapes.

Another beginning? Lately my thoughts have been about making a book to do with boats, there may be several versions and above are the first plans, considering construction. There are family ties to  life boats in Scotland, my ancestors had a connection way back in time. I should look it up. My father was a merchant seaman.  Perhaps a look through the old photos is in order.

EDM # 107  Draw how you get your news. I wanted to draw a satellite dish with a TV, transistor, car radio and some mouths for word of mouth, but I ran out of steam and interest as it wasn't going very well, weak willed today. A lack lustre attempt I said to myself!

                                                                      

EDM # 106 
Draw something

sour or tart. 
I chose an unripe
mandarin that 
was knocked

from the tree 
by the car. 

Using my new
Duke pen with
Lexington Gray
Ink I tried to 
come up with 
a sequence of
sketches which 
would help me 

understand what
it was. The fruit
was slightly 
misshapen.

Sometimes it is hard to get started, so I decided to do something on the front pages of my journals. It did help some, I am happy that I was not starting something important because I fear it might have failed. It helped that I had pigments to use up and I may not have finished decorating, I think there could be more doodling. But for now perhaps I can start afresh. The rain is a welcome relief from summer drought, cooler too.

Diane visited yesterday, we chatted, drank tea, ate and looked at Sketches from a Nameless Land, by Shaun Tan. We thought it a good idea to have a go at drawing something simple from several angles and these are my attempts. Then Diane looked at the cover of her book and we thought we should try and learn how to do that, not enough analysis done even though I took an iPhoto. 

Every day matters # 105 challenge - Draw some scissors.

The top image was started with a paper stencil of a pair of old Chinese scissors and arranged into an all over pattern and painted with watercolours. The image below was spread with a fine pumice gel medium, covered with plastic wrap and then pressed with all the examples of scissors I could find at home. When it was dry I removed the film, further drying was needed. I inked up my roller with Akua printing ink and masked the areas I didn't want printed with torn paper, and rolled them. This took ages to dry. Charcoal tinted pencils were added to the mix and finally a few watercolour washes. 

EDM # 104 draw a salt and pepper shaker.

Keri Smith number 95, throw a piece of string down and draw it.

Keri Smith number 93, illustrate the concept of simplicity. Unfortunately the page behind this one shows through, just think of it as blank. Why, when, where, how, who, what. Here are my musings... for me straight lines are easier to draw than curved, although a curved line may be easier to follow for the eye. I hope I am not equating easy with simple. I remember an anecdotal story about Leonardo, ah.. no it was Michaelangelo who drew a perfect circle to prove his skill. He got the job. Movement draws the eye to it. Can more be deciphered from a line with an arc than a straight one. Black blocks colours but has various shades, I think it tends to be more simple. A scribble may be easy to do but harder to decipher? Perhaps simplicity requires more from the person looking at it as well as the person doing it? Is it simple then? Nothing is simple and when can there ever be nothing - never I suggest. 

EDM # 103 Draw some exercise equipment you use, I use my whole body but choose not to call it exercise, it's just getting around doing things.

Keri Smith challenge number 92, list 10 of your habits. 

Pilot G-Tec-C4 set of pens used for writing my own concept of the word sitting without using the actual word. Another of Keri Smith's challenges number 91.

Keri Smith challenge number 94. Draw something with your eyes closed

Cafe sketching in Ellerslie with Diane.

The best way for me to use new supplies is to start using them straight away while they are free of dust and undamaged from storage. The postcards were in this category. Influenced by Adolf Bernd and playing with watercolours, the short projects left me wanting to improve and start again as soon as I had finished. Above are the first three. Summer play.

Yesterday's drawing in my left hand journal.  We caught up with each other, showed our latest purchases, covered the basics and all decided to draw with our left hand. The chat was  absorbing, the coffee aromatic, the food too delicious, and the bright blue sky cheered me up as it stayed there all day.  It was a good day and I was surprised that  three hours disappeared in pleasant company and surroundings.

Keri Smith challenge number 90.Devise a journal entry using layers.

Number 89 on Keri Smith's list of things to do. Make a postcard with some kind of activity on it. This is what happens when I have a pencil in my hand over morning tea. Diane is already head down sketching. So I started to doodle and it just grew. I have been thinking that I have been getting lighter and lighter with my drawing, could be a summer feeling,  so I thought perhaps I should go the other way for a while. I remember reading on Vivien Blackburn's blog about her experience with some Derwent charcol tinted pencils. I found some out there in the shops, and used them to finish the doodle.

EDM #102 Draw an electrical plug. This is my ipad power lead and if it is as wonky as I drew it I would be buying a new one! Sitting in front of me on my desk I still managed to get lost in the technical bits and pieces.

EDM #101 Draw a bar of soap. I did not start with a good spirit when it came to drawing this challenge. It is one of my favourite things and as such is so much more that a 2D image. The perfume is most important, but so is the feel, the surfaction properties, the shape, the size, the colour, how soft or hard, is it economical to use. How I draw the waxy sheen is beyond me. So if I was to mark this out of 10 - I would give it 1 for effort and 1 for putting my name to it.

Every Day Matters #100 Draw or paint a landscape. I am not sure where this came from. I have just looked through all the artists with links who are named  for the 2013 American Water Colour Society's Exhibition. So maybe I have taken something up without knowing it. I started with watercolour and a big brush, then followed with shapes made from textured plastic printing them with the press, then coloured pencils, more water colour, and some hand carved stamps. Ending up with much more of an urban feel than I imagined at the beginning.