Return of the prodigal blogger

I have been much away from my blog, and I feel suitably guilty. In my defense I can say that it’s been an extraordinarily busy time — and that I feel suitably guilty.

Anyway for starters we got a dog who we named Gallifrey, and as dog owners know a new dog is a lot of work. In between dog work, though, I have managed a first drawing of her (above), a quick, grab whatever is lying around sort of drawing of a dog momentarily still. And I’ve also done a large, first photo-based drawing of her (below).

Having the drawing sitting on the floor in the room is, for effect, almost like having another dog.

When I have not been monitoring the dog, or drawing it, I’ve been working on my arachnophobia.

We have a new spider too — a black and yellow garden spider (Argiope aurantia) living among the vegetables. I drew her from a photo. I’m definitely NOT drawing her from life, indeed I plan never to get close to her at all even though she is very pretty (in a spidery sort of way). Measuring an inch and a half in length from stem to stern, she’s much bigger than any spider that I could almost feel comfortable being near.

As things stand, I’m content knowing she’s in the garden munching bugs and that I’m in the studio adding finishing touches to my over-sized drawing. She measures 22 inches stem to stern in art ….

And lastly I spent a week in Baltimore drawing outdoors while my daughter attended a summer camp there. I made a bunch of drawings and studies. Among my favorites are studies I made of two trees.

This one, and this one …

And before all these things I was doing what I always do, I was drawing koi. Always the koi,