Cleveland Museum of Natural History

The Cleveland Museum of Natural History is open late on Wednesdays (until 10pm), and after 5pm, you can get in for only $6. It's a good time to go and draw, because this time of year, there aren't many people there. I always see someone else working on their artwork as they draw all of the taxidermy animals. I never see anyone drawing the dinosaur skeletons. I now understand why, they're very complicated. Please do not count on my sketch above to be an accurate representation!

Wade Chapel-Lakeview Cemetary

Cleveland Metroparks Zoo

The Cleveland Metroparks Zoo is free for Cuyahoga County residents on Mondays throughout the year, and I'm never off of work on Mondays. So, I had to take advantage of the day-off & great weather, right? It's also nice to go before school lets out, because it's not so busy. I had planned to draw some birds to put in boxes around this, but ran out of time.

I switched from doing watercolor and InkTense pencils (for the most part) to using markers. I do love the Copic Sketch markers (which is the yellow), because their marker lines just disappear, but they bleed through the Moleskine Journal paper. The Tombows are nice (they're the gray and the lighter brown), but they're streaky. Though, they don't bleed through the paper.

I'm about ready to finish the Moleskine Journal that I started in fall 2007 (YES, 200----7!). I'm wondering if anyone uses Copics in the Moleskine Sketch, and if so are they streaky or do they bleed through on that paper? I know that paper hates watermedia, but I would think markers should work for the most part, right?

Anchor Glass Factory

I went back to PA to visit the parents for a couple days, and while I was there, I wanted to go and draw something. I'd asked my Dad, and he had a great idea. He said to go and draw the old glass factory; the one that he'd worked at for a very long time. It's been shut down for years now, and eventually, they will tear it down.

Great Lakes Brewery

You can click on the picture to get more of the story, but I'm always amazed at what you can learn while you're out sketching. It's like, if you stay still in one spot long enough, something or someone interesting always comes by to teach you something if you're curious enough. Today, Blaine and I learned what happens to the wet barley when Great Lakes Brewing is done with it. I always knew that they are a very eco-friendly company, and it's so cool to know that all of this barley is going to a good use. The farmer said that his biggest expense every year is protein for his cows and chickens. Last year, he'd spent $100,000 on feed, and using the wet barley had saved him tons of money over the years. Plus, Great Lakes doesn't have to pay to dispose it. He said that his daughter even bakes bread of out of the wet barley.

It did smell really good. Someone should make candles and soaps out of that smell. I know that I'd said it smelled "yeasty" in my journaling, but it wasn't at all yeasty in a bad way.

The funny thing is that I told Blaine to meet me on West 28th, just north of Lorain. When we get there, we have the back of the brewery to draw or the back of St. Ignatius high school, which I told her that it looked like Harry Potter's school. So, she arrives, and continues to look back and forth, never looking behind her, and says, "What about this looks like Harry Potter?" I said, "Turn around." She laughed, becasue she thought she'd missed the chapter where Harry Potter gets drunk at a wizardy brewery.

I wish it hadn't looked like rain, or I would have stayed out longer. I am very much in the mood to be sketching outside today. But, it's so overcast, and I kept feeling sprinkles.

Cactus Line-up

This is a cactus from the Rockefeller greenhouse. It was up against a wall, and when I sketched just the lines of the blocks behind it, it looks like it's a line-up. "Yes, officer, it was the guy in the middle with the spikey hairdo."

Rockefeller Greenhouse

Outdoors at the Rockefeller Greenhouse. I had started to draw inside, but after about an hour, I was sweating buckets!

This is from a few different places outside, and the sculpture isn't very accurate at all, but it was fun to draw.

The Bradley

Recently, I sprained my big toe, so I haven't been doing much other than laying on the couch with at least one foot up and watching tv. I went out a bit this morning, parked right near where I was going to draw, but then it was a bit too nippy to sit outside drawing on the cold concrete. At least I did a little something.