Tag Archives: wall art

That Monkey Needs a Hat

teddy bear sketch

"No Worries" by Kerry McFall, colored pencil

My husband surprised me with a birthday trip to the movies this weekend – not swashbuckling Jonny Depp, not deep and dark Harry Potter, but willy nilly old Pooh!  I knew as soon as the little girl from the audience finished her under-the-movie-screen-impromptu-ballet as the credits rolled, what my next sketch had to be.  Alligator the Bear (no one remembers the exact logic of his name…) and Monkey the Monkey (plenty of logic there, if you’re two years old) are some of Ben’s Best Friends in the World.  They don’t live with him now because they don’t enjoy Beer Pong as much as they might if they could actually drink beer.  They live on top of the corner cabinet now, on the shelf above the Hank Aaron baseball shrine.  No worries.  Not a one.

Teddy bears and sock monkeys are good subjects.  They do tend to have a little trouble sitting up straight for long periods, but they never complain that you didn’t capture their smiles properly.  The resident critic thought that Monkey looked like he was wearing a Saturday Night Live bald head after the first pass, so I worked a little more on that aspect.  As I did, it dawned on me that most sock monkeys have little hats with a red pompom on top… I wonder why I didn’t make one when I made this monkey?

photo of bear and monkey

Subjects Pose for Portrait

Library Lament



Sketches are below – can’t seem to get the formatting right for more than one sketch!

I spent several hours in the library Thursday, waiting for our newly-shampooed carpet to dry.  I was very excited to try a “dry run” of what I hope to be doing on a daily basis while abroad, sketching in museums and galleries and libraries and cafes.  I began with the fountain outside the reading room… but there was no water.  And the security warnings and exit alarms on the door were too big to ignore, so the sketch turned out quite different than what I had envisioned. 

Then I noticed the stacks of upholstered wingback chairs at the east end.  They’ve been cordoned off with caution tape for months.  I asked an employee what was up – they are “needing cleaning” he said.  A euphemism for covered with lice?  “No decision has been made,” he said, clearly uncomfortable with the dialog.  But before I could get started drawing the chairs, a young man sprawled out at the edge of the fountain, so I tried to capture him.  Dang – he got a call on his cell and off he went.So I searched out a cooking magazine, and retreated to the familiarity of voluptuous, rounded fruit, from a photo.  The glaze doesn’t dry up when the city funding does, there are no warnings to block the view, no danger of bed bugs or lice crawling off the pages (I hope).  I miss the days when there were people in the reading room, reading, and water sparkling in the fountain.  How was it that we could afford that, not so long ago?  I know I will encounter much worse as I travel with my sketchbook.  Corvallis, though, pretends we are different.  Pretends “it”  doesn’t happen here.   Wake up, Corvallis.
 

Alarm Will Sound, colored pencil & ink, by Kerry McFall

 

Kids Outside the Library, ink, by Kerry McFall

"Glazed Peaches", colored pencil, by Kerry McFall

New Toys!

Wild Cucumber

Wild Cucumber by Kerry McFall

Treated myself to a new “brush pen” and a “multi-media” tablet that doesn’t crinkle when I use watercolors on it – love ’em!  I photographed the cucumber vine last weekend up at Bald Hill park.  The tendrils on these make sweet pea tendrils look pathetic by comparison – these could hold a logging truck in midair!

Pick One…

Day Lily sketch with border

Day Lily by Kerry McFall

Fourth of July weekend means I had time for a quick trip to the library on Friday.  As I walked out the door into the sunshine with my arms piled high, something about the scent of warm books transported me back to being eight years old… Suddenly I  was stepping down out of the bookmobile and into a simple summer day.  Nothing lay before me but the prospect of an armload of art books to read, and maybe a banana popsicle if I was lucky.  Sweet memory. 

The long weekend and nice weather also brought experimenting with ink outlines and working in the garden… Our back “garden” when we moved in to this cottage consisted of two thirsty clumps of day lilies, some feral iris under the hedge, and a whole bunch of what we used to call “Indian Tobacco” when we were kids.  The lilies were a deeper red than most I’ve seen, so I let them stay back against the fence and they are thriving now.  (The iris had to go, it was just too infested with thistles and the tobacco.)  The “flame” pattern in the throat of the lily lends itself nicely to making a ribbon pattern to go along the edge.  I like adding the borders to sketches, they will be fun to transform into greeting cards.

A Great Harvest… if you like onion seeds

colored pencil sketch of onion blossoms

Onions Blossoms by Kerry McFall

Taking it to the next level – the sketch and the related graphic border.  My main crop this year is last year’s onions, which are in full bloom in celebration of the beginning of July and fnally – two straight days of sunshine!  My raised bed looks like a salute to Russian dome architecture.  The curve of the onion bulb underground is duplicated in the curve of the bulb that contains the blossoms, and each individual blossom duplicates a tiny version of that same sensuous curve… which seemed to say to my brain: this calls for tessellations!  This border is more of an echo, and  isn’t quite a tesselation, but it is getting closer to what I invision for my sketch journals: words as well as graphics on the paper.

Yellow Plague

colored pencil sketch of scotch broom

Yellow Plague

One of the many invasives that dots our hillside trails and paths, the Scotch Broom is in full bloom now, and marching on the offensive.  True to its name, of course, a dead branch of the plant makes a terrific broom/rake for fallen leaves, better than any noisy old leaf blower.  Our “advanced” culture ignores that potential, however, so it is relegated to the status of invasive species, and hardly anyone appreciates the intricacy of its blossoms and pods.  Tsk.

Finally – Ripe!

strawberries on a tiny plate

... the ones the slugs missed

In spite of the slugs, in spite of the lack of sunshine, the strawberries are ripening!   They could be sweeter, they could be bigger, but I’m not complaining – they’re juicy and bright red enough to drive away the gloom of a cloudy June.  Those little shiny bits around the seeds are tricky to capture on paper, though…

California Poppies & Elf Hats

Sketch of poppies in hand thrown vase

Waiting for the Elf Hat to Drop

I planted California poppy seeds last year on the tiny hill we made above our backyard pond.  This year there are so many poppies that it looks like the goldfish have all taken wing and are hovering above the pond!  Not only do they brighten the grey days we’re having out here in Oregon, those little bud covers that pop off as the blossoms open are the perfect size for Elf Hats… there have been no Elf sightings recently, but the neighbor did see a big raccoon in our garden early yesterday morning.

Cascade Autumn

4 sketches of Mount Jefferson

4 Versions of Mt. Jefferson

My friend Wendy gave me a print of a photo that her friend Johannes Schaefer took of Mt. Jefferson in the autumn of 2009 (I think – maybe 2008?)… been meaning to sketch it ever since!  So here it is, Wendy, the original colored pencil sketch and three Photoshop renditions.

Divergence

sketch of redwood tree and leaning pole

View from Our Front Window

The sun shone all afternoon, giving me both time and inspiration to finally sketch the redwood in the park across the street.   I’ve sat and stared many hours at the huge, beautiful trees, trying to decide how to make a good composition out of this strange little park.  It is the oldest city park in town, dating from the late 1800’s.  The trees keep it green and shady year round.  It is surrounded by motley little houses built beginning in the first few decades of the 1900’s, and by the pickups and beaters driven by college students too cheap to pay the university parking fees.  “No Dogs Allowed” the sign says, but a much more appropriate sign would be “No Males Between 14 and 24 Allowed.”  The dogs that play in the park are too busy chasing Frisbees or rolling in the grass with their children to do any damage.  The young males, however, are Hazards to themselves and society.  They spit, they pee, they shout obscenities, they break whatever they can reach.   There are exceptions, of course, but not many!

But I digress.  The tree itself leans slightly south, the utility pole is teetering north.  The combination is unsettling as I step out the door each morning… vertigo anyone? I also wonder about the dead top of the tree, which judging by the overall shape has been blown out or zapped off more than once.  The city arborist assures me it can and will grow a new top.  I hope so!

This sketch was created in colored pencil, then manipulated in Photoshop.