Clair de Lune

I waited to post this because I really hoped I'd have something else to post with it... but it didn't happen. I'm moving out of my flat in 11 days, selling it a few days later, and I'm up to my ears amongst card boxes and piles of stuff. (is it among or amongst? I never know) 

So in the pic is an older drawing, now colored (view from my current place), and leaves I found in the neighborhood, some kind of wild grapevines.

Going back to filling boxes, now... See you next month, I hope, when I have the internet again... I still have it until the 9th, so I'll try to keep in touch with the EDM blogs!

Books, and books.

New books! I don't have time for anything else - the search for a place to live in took all my free time lately. Everything where I live is so expensive, and most of the rentals are seasonal. But I've found something, at last.  I'm almost done with all that moving stuff.

On the left is a book by Anna Gavalda, awesome french author. This one was ok, but I really recommend her best seller "Hunting and gathering", it's so wonderful, when you finish it it feels like saying goodbye to good friends... They made a movie from that book with Audrey Tautou and Guillaume Canet, and it was great.
On the right is a book by Erica Bauermeister. I didn't get into it easily, but found myself slowly taken in the stories, and in the end, I liked it very much.

Serious stuff, for a change! On the left, a book by Jean Hatzfeld about the genocide in Rwanda. He interviewed the killers, in this one, in the prison they were in. It's not a pleasant read, but it's useful, if you're interested in understanding what makes normal people transform into soulless killers...
The two other books I've been reading for my sophrology training and thesis.

That's all, for today! I'll try to go and see everyone's blogs, but I'm not really going to have much time until mid november. I can't tell you how glad I am to be moving from my noisy flat!

Fish, squares, collage, blabla

These are a few things I made this summer, while I was discovering and experimenting with acrylics.  I forgot to post them and since I have nothing new to show you, here they are.

Some of these fish vaguely look like real mediterranean fish, the first one is all wrong, nothing I did could save him.

Testing colors and working with tape.

Collage - it's a lot more technical than I thought. The paper doesn't stay flat. Need to work on this. Had fun with it, anyway!

I wanted to thank all of you who commented on my last post, on the boat painting I made for my father. I was really nervous about it and you helped a lot!
I don't know if he liked it. He seemed to appreciate it, said it was nice, but then, he also said my hair was nice that one time I had a problem with my color and it turned orange. I learned later that he really thought it was particularly ugly and unfitting. My father is polite that way.

I sold my flat = great. I still haven't found a place to rent and I'm out of my place in  33 days = a bit nervous right now, and I don't have much time or desire for drawing...

Books, a building and a boat

So I made this painting for my father whose birthday is today. I'm going to give it to him on tuesday. I really don't know what to think of it. 

Will he like it, do I like it, is it complete crap? I usually don't have this kind of problems with my drawings. So any feedback will be welcome, critics included!

Easier, for me : books! On the left is a book I'm currently reading, by prolific french author Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt. He imagines what could have happened if Hitler had not been refused the entry of art school in 1908.

It's a fascinating read, I'm devouring it very fast! On the right is a book by Maeve Binchy who is not at all well known in France, so I tried this at random when I found it in English in the library. It's awesome. I read it too fast, though I didn't want it to end! I'll look for her other books, next time!

And this is what I see from my balcony. I'll be moving in one month and 20 days, not one day too soon. I hate the place I live in now with a passion. It's noisy, my neighbours love to cook and burn garlic since 9 am, I can't sleep, can't rest, can't not hear them all day and night long. I'm glad to go to work so I don't have to hear them for a few hours a day.

It doesn't seem that horrible, in drawing. Well, it is. Luckily, it won't be very long now until I move out.

It's my dad's birthday today, and also ten years after for New York, so I'm thinking about all those people who die each year because of terrorism, stupid, blind hate, not only in New York, but all over the world.

Abstracts, books and faces

I had friends at home all week last week and couldn't post. Here's some stuff I did the week before that.

I spent a lot of time adding layers on this one. I may be the only one, but I like it! 

In my head it's called Veins (probably inspired by Julia Cameron's Vein of Gold!)
Books, of course! On the left, awesome story from awesome Sarde author Milena Agus. She's unique, with a very original mind, and I love her books.

On the right is a best seller by James Redfield. A friend advised me to read it, but I didn't like it much. I thought it was a bit "easy". Some things were interesting, but not really new to me.

Faces, because I try to practise regularly. Each time I forget for too long, like more than a few days, I regress.
A lot. I like this practise because portraits are completely unforgiving : you've got to be accurate, so it's a great exercise.

And finally these are small squares I experimented on for hours (days!) before I was a little satisfied (less dissatisfied...). Well, I learned a lot even if the result isn't very interesting. The process was great!

Hope everyone is all right, especially those of us who live in the US East coast.
See you soon for new adventures!

A seahorse, 2 books, a flashlight, a singer and a wolf

  Another acrylic. I saw the little seahorse on a photo and wanted to draw it right away. The rest is color play, mostly! I really like this media, it's a lot more forgiving than watercolors - even messes turn right, sometimes, and anyway you can always paint over them if you want.

And books, at last. I've not stopped reading at all, but I'm a lot behind with drawing the books I read. Actually I don't draw everything I read. It would take too much time.
On the left is an awesome manga by Khoji Kumeta that's very funny with a lot of original and surprising ideas. I just love how this author thinks, it's delightful.

And on the right is another great story by Jim Harrison, in English it's called "The English Major". It was funnier than his other books, I thought.

I wanted to do another challenge, so here is my flashlight. It's not a very good drawing, and I had a problem with the shadow as the bottom of the page drank all the paint and wouldn't let me paint the shadow correctly.

And now, for something completely different...
I did this a while ago, wanted to finish it and never went back to it. The girl and wolf are inspired from photos found on the net, and I colored with Paint.net. I'm not very happy with the coloring. I could change it easily, but it takes a lot of time and patience (I have the time, not the patience).

I still have a few days of completely lonely and free time, so I'll be using it to the last minute, hopefully creating as much as I can!
I don't want my vacation to end, but I'll be so happy when the loud cohorts of tourists will finally head back home, it'll help swallow the pill!

Playing with acrylics, bathroom stuff, my weird face, Aix en Provence

Continuing my experiments and playing with acrylics. It's really fun, and freeing.

I like how this one turned!
This other one, with the horses, I'm not so sure about it. Maybe I'll go back to it later, I don't know.

I missed doing real drawings in the spirit of Every Day Matters, so I sorted out all my drawings on Flickr and made an EDM album, and then I went back to the challenge list to tackle some more challenges!

So I spent some quality time in my bathroom!

And then I drew my face, just because.

I had my ears redone twice but the right one still doesn't want to play nice. I kept my hair long for a long time because of it.

Last week I was near Aix en Provence with my daughter, to spend some times with my best friend and her family. We had a great time. I can't resist showing you one photo, Aix is such a beautiful and pleasant city!

Manon and my best friend, in Aix.

Oh, this was a big post! Hope everyone is enjoying this summer as I am!