Change of Pace

Have been writing instead of drawing lately. I'm up to almost 20,000 words on this project. I haven't written in probably 7 years, used to write quite a bit.

Eleanor vs. Ike

I finished reading Eleanor vs. Ike this weekend. Now, this is in no way a good likeness of her, and I'd like to try a formal, full, painting portrait of her at some point, because she is by far one of my favorite historical/political figures. She did so much. Plus, she said the most profound, eloquent things, with such economy.


Well, the book was fine. I'd never read one of those alternative history books before. This one had some really corny moments, like Eleanor meeting a childhood Hillary Clinton. Not one of my favorite books that I've read this year, but I finished it.

Gadsby's Tavern

Here's an image of the sign outside of Gadsby's Tavern in Alexandria, VA. We went there on the haunted tour, and even though there was just 3 of us, I wasn't able to sketch as we walked around. So, this is from a photo I took that night.

Gadsby's Tavern

Here's an image of the sign outside of Gadsby's Tavern in Alexandria, VA. We went there on the haunted tour, and even though there was just 3 of us, I wasn't able to sketch as we walked around. So, this is from a photo I took that night.

Newseum

Whereas this would be a good sketch had I done it all in gray, I didn't. But, I don't know why my scanner will only scan in black and white.

This is a scene outside of the Newseum on the day after the election. Everyone was gathered to look at the headlines on the front pages of newspapers from all over the country, even all over the world.

Manassas, VA Rally

Since I early-voted, I visited my sister for the last 4 days in Maryland. One of things that she took me to was the Obama Rally in Manassas, VA. Above is a picture of how many people were behind us (which is a lot--they estimate that the crowd was over 90,000). We waited about an hour to get in, and then about 4 1/2 hours until he got there and spoke. It was his last rally before becoming President Elect. The crowd was great, talked a lot with the people around us.

To put things in perspective about where we were. See that bright light below? That's where he was. He was under that bright light, and by our perspective, about 1/4th of an inch tall. I just have really good digital zoom, is all.

Giant Jawbreaker

I haven't been up to much pastel work in the last few weeks. My hand hasn't totally healed (though, it's much better than it had been over the summer), and I've been very focused on losing weight. I've lost 41lbs so far.

That said, you have to wonder why my latest pastels have all been about candy. I don't know, but candy is very colorful and has great reflections. I haven't gone after much in the way of car portrait commissions, because I usually go to talk to people at car shows in the summer. With my hand doing poorly over the summer, I wasn't anxious to go after that work over the summer. Which means that Christmas will be lean for me in commissions. I know that I have 2 scheduled, and that might be about all. Though, I do have time for more, I assure you!

So, this is how far my latest pastel has gotten over the weekend. It has a sibling painting that is in the trash already, but I think it was good to throw that out to get a complete fresh start. This one looks okay to me. It has that slightly shiny/slightly chalky look of those giant jawbreakers. I just loosely laid the color of the gumballs in, because it was getting late last night. I might not have time to work on it again until probably Wednesday night. But, it's going smoothly so far.

Vote Early

Went last week to the Board of Elections for early voting, because I'll be visiting my sister in Maryland on election day. It went smoothly(or at least I think that it did), and the pollworkers seemed genuinely happy to see voters taking advantage of early voting.

Fortune Cookie Chronicles

Just finished The Fortune Cookie Chronicles by Jennifer 8. Lee this week. It was a good book, if a little disjointed. The story about the fortune cookie bounces around a bit about other interesting stories about the history of Chinese food in America.