AEDM Days 19 – 22 Thanksgiving 2.0

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The past few days were a little abnormal for me and I was too exhausted to post daily, but I have been working on this map the past few evenings when I got home. It took me several days to assemble all the sketches of family members.

I wanted to do a map submission for “They Draw and Travel” for the Thanksgiving holiday. My original idea morphed into the current situation we have wih the Pandemic. Many families around the country are celebrating Thanksgiving a whole new way. In some areas, La Niña has made it unseasonably warm and may be one of the bright spots of 2020. La Niña actually helps those living in the northern tier of the US to set up tents outside and to do Thanksgiving en plein air, sort of like the First Thanksgiving. Southern US may be business as usual because the temps usually enable dinner outside….unless it rains.

Those with families in other parts of the county have opted not to travel and will do Thanksgiving via Zoom or Facetime or some other sort of video conferencing.

However you celebrate this year, 2020 is definitely not normal.

This map reflects my family and how we are spread out across the Eastern Seaboard. The ones closer to each other may celebrate together. I know some family members are doing the tent thing. Florida weather has broken to the cooler temps which enables us to open windows.

Your family “map” may be similar to mine. Or yours may be bi-coastal or central, southwest or more West Coast. Wherever you are, 2020 is definitely going to be Thanksgiving 2.0.

Happy Thanksgiving to my family!

AEDM Day 16 – Watch dog FAIL

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Last night, I opened a window a bit to let in fresh air. John, Chloe and Mack were in a coma. Chloe’s snores are pretty loud…Mack is still have sinus trouble poor thing….

Around midnight….

That sketch pretty much sums it up. The howls were very disconcerting. There is something primal about how we reacted. I love wildlife of all types and I am all for living harmoniously. That was the first time I heard coyotes in the dark and it took me off guard. The neighbors told us coyotes lived in the area. And bobcats. Oh. and a Florida panther is in the area, too. Even as I write this I am listening. Yesterday people put their trash out so they were probably doing a trash raid and the raccoons will get blamed for it.

Alligators? Hell yeah, seen those plenty of times. It’s Florida, you assume every body of water had one. We see them all time. Even on the Florida turnpike.

Turning in for the night with ears open.

AEDM Days 14/15

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I zonked out early yesterday and I forgot to post. I was working on some sketches yesterday that I don’t want to share yet, but I thought of a new themed sketchbook that I will probably start after I finish my Christmas cards.

Another task that I tackled yesterday, in my bullet journal, was my Thanksgiving shopping list. I have tried regular planners for years, but I have had the most success with bullet journaling. The nice thing about a non formatted planner like bullet journaling is that I can track things like Thanksgiving shopping lists from previous years. It takes the guess work out of holiday planning and has been a valuable tool for me. It also reminds me of what worked and what didn’t.

You can find out more about Bullet Journaling here:

https://bulletjournal.com

Today I finished up my week long daily doodles and I also tried out a new sketchbook to see what media it will handle.

The daily doodles are in a Strathmore 400 series softcover Drawing sketchbook. I love this whole line of journal type sketchbooks. The paper is awesome and you can get different weights for various media, they open flat and I like the 7.75 x 9.75 size. It’s perfect for my dailies.

Strathmore Series 400 Drawing Journal

This was done in a new sketchbook that I haven’t tried yet, but I have two of them. This is the first page and I tried watercolor and ink. It’s a square format and I love square sketchbooks but I am not sure how I feel about this one yet. More to come on this sketchbook….

AEDM Day 13- First Thanksgiving 2.0

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I upgraded my First Thanksgiving design to add “menus” and then submitted it for posting to They Draw and Cook. I haven’t posted there in a long time and I originally intended to do a map but it segued into a Feast. I am still wanting to do the map.

Researching foods for the first Thanksgiving feast got me to thinking how grateful I am in this shell shocking year. We moved to Florida a year ago. We were getting settled after our first holiday season in Florida when whispers of a virus started coming from China. We Americans used to scratch our heads about the visitors from other countries who were wearing masks. Now we are thinking that wasn’t such a bad idea.

Life with masks are an inconvenience but if it means a little more freedom, I’m in. Things aren’t as we planned, but we’re making the best of it.

Here is one of this morning’s sketches. I loved her hat. The reference photo is from the SKTCHY app. When I posted the sketch, I told Linda I loved the hat. She said she liked it too but wound up buying a different one. I liked that I could be part of her shopping trip.

AEDM DAY 11

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Happy Veteran’s Day to those who served for our country.

I am still working on that food project but it’s in a messy stage right now so it isn’t quite feeling photogenic.

However, I am posting a rare glimpse into my morning portrait sketchbook. I don’t post these every day because they aren’t meant to be works of art. They are my way to focus. It’s a nice way to start the day and the quirky sketches actually give me ideas for characters. I use the SKTCHY App for my references photos most of the time.

The reference photo for this sketch had a man looking out over what looked like Manhattan and he had a chocolate/coffee looking drink in a cocktail glass in his hand, with a SWEDISH FISH as a garnish.

I had to look at it twice. Cool. Would love to know what drink it was so I did the sketch. I like practicing profiles anyway.

I also posted the sketch on SKTCHY. It’s always interesting when the little blue flowers in the paper show up in the right places.

If you would like to see more Art Every Day Participants, please go to the http://www.creativeeveryday.com website.