All Blue for Winter

Continuing the monthly project --things in your house/dwelling.

Would you like some stories too?

:)

The sea shells hanging on the left were purchased at a building's tenant used-and-unwanted-stuffs sale. I have a friend in town who has a 6th sense for knowing about these kinds of sales. In the summer she made many notices about them. Finally made it out to one of the sales with some luck and picked up these cute wind chime shells. You might also start to notice, I like outdoor things indoors.

Next - bicycle. It's my luxury year of cycling. I have cut out road cycling and mountain biking and opted for the luxury line to take out with me along the sunny summer beaches of Vancouver with a sketchbook and art supplies.

Mittens! They're made of cardboard and acrylic paint. Hung on a real life twig that was knocked over during a wind storm last fall. Hung with push pins and string. I had been seeing a lot of mittens, soaked and abandoned, on trees and bushes and benches. The sentiment of someone finding them and picking up a gross looking dirty thing in hopes of someone else finding it again seemed sort of sweet.. Originally I had thought I would paint the twig. But no, I liked it more like that.

And the office chair. It's big and comfy and I'm sitting in it as I write. Well, that's it.. Indoors for me! The lighting comes from both the left and right hand sides through big windows.

I blurred the edges to let the mittens stand out. And played a little with levels, lifting shadows and effecting overall the blue/yellow tint. Brightened the center too. Thought it could use just a subtle touch of that.

? Chocolates .

Posting this for the January monthly project, for things in your personal home spaces. I received a Christmas gift from my sister and her daughter: chocolate monopoly. Aside from two other specific uses, I thought they could triple up by also being a sketching subject. And now a fourth by being part of the blog post. How's that for efficiency. Mm-mmm guud.

I joined the Vancouver Urban Sketchers last January and it has been an absolute blast. And I have been working at an arts supplies store as of last summer, which is where I picked up these Graphitint pencils to experiment with (they are water-soluble, hence the paint brush + waterproof pens).

A confluence of 2014 experience for me there on the table.

Happy New Year to you all. I hope to see some of your monthly project posts these coming weeks!