La plage (on ne m'y verra pas)

I love the beach. In winter, it's really beautiful. In summer, well, I like it because my daughter and friends like it and it means good times and summer, and yes, when you can see through the people before the sea it's actually beautiful too.
Of course there are some beaches where we never, ever go, because they are horribly dirty and crowdy. But they're funny too look at from afar, and how not to love all those lovely colors?

The journaling says : (I translate with the rhymes, of course) :

The beach near the harbour
In pictures I adore
But there getting roasted if you want to see me
You'll have to give me a lot of money. ^^

(la plage du port - en photo je l'adore - mais il faudrait me payer cher - pour m'y faire rôtir les chairs!)

Quatre lampes

Wandering and admiring other blogs, I realized with surprise that I have a special love for lamp drawings. I'm not going to try to understand this as it's obviously a peaceful, non threatening new oddity. So here are some lamps. I had a lot of satisfaction drawing them...



Maybe I'm a little too easily satisfied, but I like how they turned out... Even the one in the middle, I know it's all wrong, the forged S on the left is too big and thick, but it doesn't bother me, and I don't exactly understand why.
Do you see it all wrong or okay in a twisted way?

I love my computer

At first I wanted to do the edm challenge about drawing your favorite show... so I did this, then checked the challenges list and realized I had it all wrong... The challenge is to draw your tv and the show running on it...
No problem at all. I love my computer, so here it is, immortalized, in its almost complete glory (one day I'll learn to think and measure before doing things. Maybe.)

My journaling says that if I had realized how long it would take me to draw all the little buttons on the keyboard, I would not have begun this at all.
The scrubs picture was a lot more difficult than I thought it would be too, even worse when I tried to color it.
This is the thing before adding the color.


When my daughter's back from her vacation, I'll try the challenge 51 again, this time with the real tv and the only show I can stand on it : Sponge Bob Square Pants - Bob l'Eponge Carrée.

An award!!!

I feel happy and honored and on a little cloud (expression of great happiness in french!) because Rachel nominated me for this award :

The rules for accepting this award are:

1. Choose 5 blogs you consider deserving of this award for creativity, design, interesting material and a contribution to the blogging world.

2. List the name of each person awarded and a link to their blog.

3. Show the award and the name and blog link of the person who presented you with the award.

4. Show the link to the Arte Y Pico blog. http://arteypico.blogspot.com/

5. Show the rules.

So I'm glad that this gives me the occasion to send this award forward to the following persons :

Margaret Ann - I'm totally in love with her art and sense of color

Margaret Hunt - so many incredible and wondeful works to admire

Stephanie - love her lines and variety

Kathleen - love her beautiful, neat style

Rowena - not an edm member, I love her creations and the reflexion behind them

Et voilà!

Off to send messages to everyone and then maybe I'll finish the drawing I begun earlier... time is scarce these days.

Polka Dots?

This is my take for Inspire Me Thursday's theme for this week : Polka Dots. English not being my native language I'm not sure if the dots I put on the page are polka dots or just dots... To me polka is just a dance, actually :)


I first drew the trashcans for Every Day Matters challenge of the week, and coincidence, they are full of dots.
I love dots, polka or whatever!

Des yeux, une buse, une poubelle et Draguignan

Today after a long and hot morning in my car, I finally had time to finish this drawing and color it. I found out that birds's faces are as difficult to draw as people. You can't tell because it's small and I'm not showing you the original photo (I've got my pride, you know) but this bird had a really pissed of (of or off?) expression and I didn't render it like I wanted.

I found the bird on the Internet. It's a common buzzard, a little more fair in color than the one I often see in my hikes here. he's the reason I bought the binoculars.
I also found the eye on the internet. I wish I had good eyes like these birds! Instead I decided it was time to make an appointment with the eye doctor (too lazy this evening to look this word in the dictionary - in french it's called "ophtalmologue"). I'm fed up with my glasses falling from my nose all the time.
This is the bird and eye before coloring. I loved drawing them.

Well, as you can see, that's a trashcan. My kid has the same in green and I think I'm going to draw it too.

And this is Draguignan where I had to go this morning to update my car's papers. I have an appointment this week with the police road patrol to prove I did that... They controlled me as I was coming back from the wedding sunday at 4 am. I was glad they didn't control my alcohol intake too. They were nice, I didn't even get a fine for not updating my papers. It took me two hours to go to Draguignan instead of the usual one hour, because of the many tourists on the roads.

But I never get tired of seeing this. I can understand the turists attraction!

Deux paires de lunettes, des jumelles et un mariage

I saw many glasses on blogs and liked them, so I thought I would try to draw mine. I drew my cheap and really cool pair of sunglasses and my old and broken pair of glasses I use when I'm on the laptop.
The missing branch is not a mistake, it's really not there anymore. I have to keep my back and head very straight to keep the glasses on my nose, it's good for the posture...

While I was at it I decided to draw my binoculars. Had to look in the dictionary for that one. In french we call them "jumelles", that means "twins".

And then I decided to use some of the photos I took yesterday and draw them. It took me forever! I had a hard time and made a lot of messes with my friend's face... Still not happy with it but I give up for now! I had fun with the rest. I think I'll color the page, but I wanted a black and white copy because I'll try to make the faces better.

The car is an old Citroën Ami 8 and it looked so great!
My friend looked great too, before I tried to draw her...
Oh, and the hat, it's called a faluche. My friend and her husband met in a party organized by a student fun association called "les faluchards". They have these funny hats like the students had in middle age times, and they mostly party and have fun. It's not very well known in France, most people don't even know about it. (I didn't until I met Anne).

Deux bouquins et une recette

I discovered that I love to draw books... so two more, I'm currently reading. The purple one is a poetry anthology of Aimé Césaire, who died recently. He's been my favorite poet for a long time. His words are not pretty, they're powerful, full of images and rythm, they talk directly to the guts. I have to give the book back to the library but I'm going to buy it now it's been reedited.


And this is the recipe of the anchoïade for Mark! The sketch is just for fun, it's a bit hard to read and it's written backwards... I'll write it down correctly below. The bug on the page does not belong to the recipe, it was on my window the other day and kind enough to stay still while I tried to sketch it.


So, ANCHOIADE :

You press 4 garlic cloves in the bowl of the mixer.

You can add a few capers if you like (I don't, but it's good too)

You add about 220 to 250g of anchovies that you pick up from a can of anchovies in olive oil (you don't add the oil of the can)
You can do the same with anchovies kept in salt but it's more work, you have to prepare them first.

You add 2 spoons (big soup spoons) of olive oil, and a little coffee spoon of vinegar or lemon juice (if you put capers, you don't need this acid addition)

You mix, then you add the rest of the olive oil, about 6 or 7 more spoons, and you mix again.

It normally becomes a paste, not liquid, not too thick either. You have to taste regularly to get it right. it's easy, you don't have to follow the recipe exactly (I never count my spoons, I just pour everything in the bowl and taste!)

The garlic acts as a sweetener, but it gets stronger after a few hours. it's better if you prepare the anchoïade in advance and keep it in the fridge for at least three of four hours. You serve with dry bread and any vegetable you want, like tomatoes, calliflower, pepper, carots... It can be served lukewarm with vegetables and then it's called la bagna cauda (le bain chaud/the warm bath). That's provençal.

After that, don't forget the coffe beans for the breath! Mark, if you and Valerie eat it together, you won't need the coffee beans, you'll neutralize each other!

Champagne, anchois, et du linge sur un fil

(For challenges n° 69, a beverage, and 80, something that makes you happy.)

A beverage, and something that makes me happy... that would be champagne! At work my team has a tradition of drinking champagne very often since one a us was from Champagne and used to bring bottles almost every week. We group to buy loads of it directly from a little producteur in Champagne so it's not that expensive.
For me champagne means friends and good times. All kind of things happen in life, not always that good, but whatever happens it's good to know we can always have that!
As usual I didn't think and my page was to short for the bottle... solved that little problem easily!
I don't like the color of my bottle, it's too light, like a beer bottle! Not noble at all...


I drew the anchoïade I made to eat as appetizer. It's made with anchovies, garlic, a very tiny drop of vinegar, and olive oil. You eat it with dry bread and vegetable cut in sticks, like carrots, calliflower, anything you like. I also drew the coffee beans to eat after the anchoïade, for example if you want to still be able to kiss someone.

This is at my parents place. My daughter was playing with a little boy and all was peaceful. I love seeing laundry hang like that. I love to hang it, to fold it, everything about it. The only house chore I like, really! My drawing, I don't like it much, except the tree. It was better without the color. It looks better scanned than in reality, I think.

Deux mains, du papier, de la colle et une boîte de couleurs

This is my take on this week's prompt at Inspire me Thursday ( http://www.inspiremethursday.com/ ) . It inspired me on monday and I finished it this morning with my cissors and glue. I thought it was a very interesting subject. I had a lot of ideas about it that I won't tell you about because it's late and I've forgotten most of them. Anyway the general idea is on the drawing...




And now upside down... I wrote everything in English because 1) I love the language 2) my French friends read English/I can translate for them/anyway they don't blog (yet. I'm not giving up).


I drew my hands while drawing, I suppose it qualifies for EDM challenge n°10, Draw your hands?

Award and thank you(s)

I'm totally excited and happy! Kathleen from My Creative Spot http://hammeredplayer.blogspot.com/ gave me an award!

Thanks a lot Kathleen!

I put this blog up and joined edm to find motivation for drawing and generally living more creatively... talk about motivation... This is really cool!


The rules of acceptance are:

1. Put the logo on your blog.
2. Add a link to the person who awarded you.
3. Nominate 7 other blogs.
4. Add links to those blogs on yours.
5. Leave a message for your nominees on their blogs.

Now chosing seven blogs is a hard task. There are many blogs I love and getting down to seven is very difficult... Some people whose work I love and admire ( like Margaret at Water Blossoms and Maggie at Maggie Art, and Anita Davies, and Stephanie - see, I'm cheating already!) have already awards at the time I'm writing this (I've been investigating!)... Here are my nominees :

- Because she's the one who made me take a pen and paper after seeing one of her gorgeous drawings : Andrea Joseph
http://andreajoseph24.blogspot.com/

- Rachel at http://jacobiterose.blogspot.com/search/label/drawing%20and%20painting

- Mark at http://paperravenbks.blogspot.com/

- Anetka at http://anecik-sz.blogspot.com/

- Laureline at http://laurelines.typepad.com/

- Starr at http://wistex1129.blogspot.com/

- Mia at http://miasketchbook.blogspot.com/

Participation is optional.

Now just to send messages to seven people and I can close the computer!

Petshop, teapots, Mimi, et un apéro

I'm really enjoying summer this year. It's cooler than usual and I'm in a particularly good mood. Must be this drawing thing, I think! It's funny but I'm really seeing everything in a new way and it's great. Like traveling without leaving home. Not expensive at all, that's good too.

I played a little with my daughter's toys and shoes... That was fun! The shoes are fake crocs but the little pets are the real thing! Maybe I'll draw all her collection, all dressed up with their accessories. Très chics!

This one I think I won't color, because I wouldn't know where to begin... I drew my dad's wife, Mimi, someone I love too. She moves even more than my daughter, wether she's cooking or teaching litterature to the neighbor's kid.
In the middle is a bird statue on one of the windows above the couch. I didn't do honor to it, it's normally a beautiful object...
Then I drew the reliefs of the aperitif I had with friends today. I didn't find a right word to translate... We drink and eat before the actual meal...

These are my last two teapots and a tea bowl from Pylones called Titi. My white teapot is really a lot more plump than the one I drew. Not happy with this drawing at all...

And for Kathleen, if you come and read this : Kazumi is the oldest daughter in the manga "Ranma 1/2". She's wise, calm, and feminine, always polite and nice, and cooking, and smiling in front of everything, (even when the house is on fire or everyone is fighting and falling through the roof and windows). I'm not exactly like that but I want to be her when I grow up!

Trois théières et un mug

No itches at all today... I'm free! It wasn't that terrible anyway, the medicine worked rather well.
Thanks a lot to everyone who cheered me up!
I have a hard time concentrating these days, must be the combination of vacation time and heat.
I've been trying to draw my teapots, and except for the Japanese one, which came out well, I think, nothing looks like I wanted it to look... I'm learning, I'm learning, but it can be frustrating at times...

Mixing the colors is so much fun I get side tracked... I wanted to paint the left side around the mug a very light orange, but I got this dark one and found it beautiful and forgot all about my first idea... Until it was done and I remembered why I wanted a light one... Bah, not very important!

This one below is a Moroccan teapot. The five little rectangles on the left are sugar blocks. The strange unidentified brown things in front of the green box are rolled leafs of green tea. That's called gunpowder tea and it's the one you use to make thé à la menthe, tea with mint. You put the tea directly down the teapot, with as many branches of mint as you can fit in it, and at least five to eight sugars blocks in a 1l teapot. That's not good for the diet at all. You pour boiling water and you serve very hot. It's delicious and good for the thirst!

c'était pas le pied

Sunday I spent a large part of my day doing house cleaning in my parents summer house, where I was seriously bitten by some sort of mutant acarids. It was not very fun. Those little monsters are nasty, I was bitten last year and itched for 8 days (and nights).
I had to see some friends in the next little town, and my daughter left my phone there, so after the housecleaning, we drove back instead of going home.
Finally we were home and I was glad because my vacation time had finally begun for good!
To celebrate that, I broke my finger against a chaise lounge on my balcony.


In french, I'd say : c'était pas le pied (litterally : "it was not the foot"), meaning : it wasn't great at all/ it sucked! (contrary is : c'est le pied - it's the foot / it's great / it rocks)
Anyway it's all right now, I have a lot of free time and I'm really enjoying this drawing and blogging thing a lot! If I didn't itch so much it would be absolutely the foot!

ma Pépète en watercouleur et edm 178 (red)

I was very touched by your encouragements in the last post so I've been going on trying things whenever I had some time.
I've tried to draw my daughter as she was watching TV but even then, she moved too much. So I picked up some photos and tried to draw them and I had to get the graphite pen and eraser after many strange results... She looks pretty much like that, in the end. The green and orange paint on her nose in the left image are not one of my usual messes, it was really there.



This is for the EDM challenge n°178, draw something red. I was in a party the other evening and there was this beautiful, red drumset with blue glittering lights all over the stage. The music was great and I kept thinking I wanted to draw the drumset. I didn't have my camera with me so I googled a photo.
I've read on the edm group that you can use waterproof pens.
That's good to know. Too bad I didn't think of it sooner... I was a bit digusted when I saw the black ink drooling on the page.

I also thought all this red and blue and American music came well for the fourth of July!

As for the paint, for the moment it makes me think of horse riding. When you're not a good rider, the horse does more or less what he wants and you try to keep on it and keep it from going too far and too fast. Using watercolors is very much like that for me! (except I'm not scared of them).

Couleurs et Patouillages

I've watched tons of illustrated journals since a couple of months and been wanting to do that, so bad. But I didn't dare and didn't have time and didn't know what to journal about...
I'm fed up with this "no daring" thing, now.
So I put my last reads on the couch and drew them. Then I took my watercolors and made messes and had a lot of fun!
The result surprised me. I think it's pretty strange... I kind of like it, anyway.
When I was a kid, I always took care to use all the colors in my pen or paint box because I didn't want any color to be unused and feel sad.
Obviously I haven't changed that much..

I've made a lot of mistakes but it was fun and interesting. I need to slow down and work on getting the proportions right, observe the shadows better, and the coloring, well, I believe in practice...

This one here is my small collection of enameled stones I find on the beach. It's quite rare and I really like them. I had to cut the drawing because I really made a mess on the rest of the page...

And I still don't have a scanner. Should receive one by the end of the week. Adios, crappy photos!