The Artistic Biker

Month: April 2009

  • Hidden Object Games

    Have you ever played one of those Hidden Object games, like Mystery Case Files?  There are tons of them out there and they are wildly successful. I find myself marveling at the game designer’s abilities to draw a cluttered room or landscape.  Everything in those has to be drawn with enough detail to be recognizable for what it is and still be obscured enough to be realistic, or at least visually interesting.  As impressed as I am with that talent, I have little or no desire to try and develop it.  I find that I get bored trying to draw all of the minutiae that lies in a landscape, cityscape or interior.  I quickly find myself reverting back to symbolic scribbles to represent buildings or baskets or whatever, just to try and fit in more detail.  I prefer to work on closely cropped images and try to find the angles that are most interesting to me.  Last night’s EDM challenge, draw your neighborhood store, presented a different problem.  It was still a cityscape type drawing, but there were some interesting ways to crop the view.  I initially wanted just to do the corner post of the building with the trash can and the Dr. Pepper sign.  But I also wanted to get their name in the picture.

    Neighborhood groceries like Dunn’s Food Center are rapidly becoming a thing of the past.  They are independently owned and operated and just can’t compete with the large chain store prices.  Our town used to have three branches of this store, as well as at least four other neighborhood stores.  Between the Wal*Marts and the Homelands, they just couldn’t survive.  As a capitalist, I think that’s the way it should be.  If you can’t hold on to your market, you fall by the wayside.  Dunn’s has a niche in that they don’t sell beer and are not open on Sundays.  Many of the local Churches flock to support them.  That’s not only true to Mr. Dunn’s vision, but well planned marketing.

    However, as a community member, I miss walking to Mike’s Minimart for a loaf of bread and some eggs.  You could get a fistfull of his freshly made beef jerky and a cream soda for the walk back.  When gas prices began soaring, I thought maybe we would see a resurgance of these places.  I’m always hopefull that we will.  Until then, I like to visit Dunn’s at least every other week.  Even if it’s just for a loaf of bread and some eggs.

    EDM
    EDM 84: Draw your neighborhood store

  • I Need To Get Out More

    Every other weekend we try to go ” t’th city*” to visit the in-laws.  I’m almost guaranteed to end up at the Barnes & Noble coffee shop on Saturday night.  I get a lot of backsides this way.  I keep hoping to get around to some of the other sites, but it always ends up with us struggling  to meet some deadline.  The days are getting longer and it is warming up so maybe in the near future we can all go someplace to sketch and play.  Tuesday, I think the Oklahoma Artists Guild is meeting for figure drawing.  Watch me get stuck drawing backsides there too.

    The EDM challenge was to draw bread.  We went out to this neat little chain restaurant, Mimi’s Cafe.  We like the food, the service and the muffins.  Of course with all of us on diets, it was more like one muffin split among six people.  They bring out a basket of different breads while you are waiting for the meal.  While I was chowing down on something scrumptuous with cocoa and raisins, I sketched this little roll.

    EDM
    EDM 83: Draw some bread

    * T’th city is “To The City” where the city is anywhere directly or even indirectly connected with Oklahoma City.  This could be Norman, Moore, Mustang, Yukon, Midwest City, Del City, Edmond…  While they all operate autonomously, they’re all the same to me.  Often you will hear it as “upt’th” city.

  • Shannon Springs

    The Shannon Springs in Chickasha, OK, was a prominant watering hole for the cattle drives of the 19th century.  Highway 81 through Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas follows the Chisolm Trail.  The vast majority of towns along this highway owe their existence to the cattle drives.  Only the ones that were able to find other industries are still viable and even those are dwindling as those industries move to larger cities and foreign countries for cheaper labor.  Shannon Springs Park is the body of water I chose for EDM 82.  They found a mammoth when they excavated this park.  Evidently this watering hole has been around a very long time.  There was a bath house once that was later turned into a public swimming pool.  The Bath House building now offices the administration for The Festival of Light.   There was a zoo here when I was very young.  The animals were in very small cages though and I’m glad that it is gone.  I remember being sad looking at the lion, bear and vultures in their 10′ x 10′ cages with little huts in the middle.  Seems like the vultures couldn’t quit staring at the bear.  That area now has a toddler playground.  I think they enjoy it more than the bear did.

    EDM
    EDM 82: Draw a body of water

  • Toes Go In First!

    Tango Golf India Foxtrot!  TGIF!  Thank Goodness It’s Friday!  Some weeks just seem to drag on.  Others just fly by.  This one did both.  I suppose that I am still learning how to balance my priorities.  My work seemed to get away from me and now I am playing catch up.  I didn’t do ANY of the challenges I set for myself artistically except for the EDM.  That, at least, I have managed to be consistant with. Last night’s challenge, draw your artspace, got away from me.  I tried to eliminate the clutter as I was drawing.  Should have just drawn the piles of paper, books, and various other flotsam and jetsam.  Always learning and moving forward I guess.

    I have always told the kids that sometimes you can’t do the things you want to do because you are busy doing the things you have to do. That is not always the case, though.  Sometimes, you don’t get the things you have to do done because you were messing around with the things you want to do.  Ah, sweet procrastination.  One of my recent finds is The Fluent Self by Havi Brooks.  My first take on her was that she was a sweet, well meaning, hippie flake.  I still think that, but I also think she makes a lot of sense.  As I read through her posts I found myself readily identifying with much of what she has to say.  Wander over there and give her a looksy.   She posted a few must see websites last night and I was up way too late checking them out.  One of my new favorites is Mindful Time Management.  There, Janet Bailey reflects on the sources of procrastination (self doubt…), recognizing it for what it is (negativity), and ways to deal with it (positivity).  Check her out as well.

    Positivity is a word I like.  ;)

    EDM
    EDM 81: Draw your artspace

  • Twitterpated

    Yesterday, I decided to get twitterpated.  Usually, that involves staring into the eyes of my lovely wife, but this time it refers to twitter.com.  There, people can post little blurbs throughout their day.  Most just post what they are doing, but many post random, often hilariously personal, thoughts about the world around them.  I’m just now feeling it out, but if you twitter, there’s a link to follow on the right, or just add @Blade21292.

    Last night, two of the three girls went with me to sketch the EDM challenge, draw a streetlight.  I had been thinking about this one all day and was determined to get the streetlights from downtown.  As we were walking out the door it occured to me that it would be more in the spirit of the “everyday matters” to have drawn the one in our back alley.  As I stood there sketching in the placements of the lamposts, making the occasional reference to Mr. Tumnus, Girl2 was running up and down the sidewalk being chased by the lovely Mrs. Blade.  It started sprinkling on us and since I already had the placement down, we hurried back to the house out of the rain.  I completed the shading in our living room and noticed the curb didn’t diminish properly.  I like the composition though, and I think I’ll try to get this one again.

    EDM
    EDM 80: Draw a streetlight