Just got back from a week in the Carolinas visiting my family. Today is a really big day for me for reasons that I will get into in another post… but last night it was nice just to get back into my routine. A good night sleep well snuggled by kitties (who have forgiven me already and did not sleep on my head last night) followed by a day of getting cleaned up and back into routine.
So back to Figure Drawing last night. Model is Nia and I have drawn her at least once before. Good to see her again as well as all the lovely humans that I got to visit with last night.
As always images are in reverse order of how I drew them.
Nia is on Instagram as @babe_im_onfire
20 minutes – last post of the night and I never feel like I am working efficiently on the last one.35 minutes. Nia said on her Instagram today that she forgot to put a sheet down and got mild rug burn from this pose. 20 minutes. in going through the video I feel like I lost her nose at some point in the process… it was there and then it wasn’t. oops. 15 minutes10 minutes10 minutes each5 minutes each. one of the other artists remarked that they think 5 minutes is the sweet spot. Gestural and expressive without time to overwork. 1 minute poses30 second warm ups.
Timelapse on YouTube
Lots to do to get ready for today. Hopefully be able to update you soon!!!
This post was in my draft folder from last year. I have no idea why I never posted it. So here it is anyhow. wildly out of context and season – but whatever. you can’t fire me.
Here is the original post:
May 16th (the day after my last post) I started another chalk project in my driveway.
Shortly after I began I was joined by a young neighborhood artist named Leslie and her Mom, Ruth. They added nicely to my project and it was wonderful to have company.
I worked on mine a little more:
Then I packed it in for the night and came back and added more the next day.
Another amazing addition by Leslie:
collaborative additions by Leslie and her mom:
Back to prompts…
Virtual Figure Drawing with Mia:
I didn’t have much time but the rain had washed away the previous chalking and some sadness was expressed by a neighbor that it was nice out again and there was nothing out. Time for a quick Duckie.
Virtual Figure Drawing with Cecelia.
Started another chalk project. This one got a little bigger than I had initially intended.
By this time Leslie has moved into working in her own driveway and going bigger… the neighborhood is getting more colorful.
On May 21st I participated in the Record Breaking attempt for the World’s Largest Online Art Class with #DrawWithRob
He wildly surpassed the numbers needed. I don’t know if or when it becomes official but it was fun. I was given a heads up about this event from my niece. I called my daughter. So myself, my niece, my daughter and my Granddaughters all played along with Rob’s instruction.
Then back to work on the driveway some more….
Last class with Rob Liberace.
Another drawing. I really liked this one so it did make it to RedBubble.
Then I got REALLY distracted. I was painting the walls. There has been this one area that I always suspected had an area closed off behind it. While I was painting it occurred to me that if I was ever going to smash through that wall… I should do it then before I repainted everything and made it all nice.
That’s all I am going to tell you about that project for now. It is ongoing and if I get to do everything that I want to it is going to be a SUPER amazing thing. And if not, it will be a weird little storage area. Time will tell which one happens.
I am in (another ) group on Facebook that is doing weekly drawing prompts. This one was Octopus.
Valentine’s Day is a mixed bag. I have some happy thoughts about it but it is definitely an overly commercial date. There are things I would like to have been able to do. I would like to have some moments of feeling special or loved – but there are a lot of us that want for those things. I know that there is lots of love and support in my life even on the days where I am not feeling it or too stubborn to accept it.
So being able to go to figure drawing and laugh and visit with some good people made my day much better. In the shop sometimes we will talk about “Saturday Energy”. When we have gotten to the end of the week and everyone is just a bit punchy but also silly and having fun. Last night’s group had Saturday Energy and I very much appreciated it.
I was therefor talking and visiting during some of the time that I could have been drawing – but no matter what as always it is good practice and I am glad that I was able to go and grateful to have this space and be allowed to participate.
Very chaotic even for 30 second poses!Bonus 30 second pose (I thought we were starting the minute poses)One minute poses
These drawings were done at Flower City Figure Study. Model is Mia.
If you have been here before you know that I very much enjoy drawing Mia. She is also the one who hosts these Monday night get togethers.
I would like to be posting my drawings from Figure Drawing last night here today. I can’t because I didn’t go. I haven’t been feeling well. Mostly physically but some mentally. Could very well be tied into the not feeling well physically but it is hard to tell.
I feel disconnected from me. Like I don’t recognize me in the mirror anymore. I mean, I know I am getting older and there are changes that come from that. It is something slightly other than that. I can’t quite put my finger on it.
A good friend of mine has been talking about having come here from one of the other parallel Universes. He has a reason why that change was necessary. He still has a very strong sense of who he is but he said that in the cross over there has been some slight discrepancies between what he remembers and what the people here remember.
It’s not that.
It’s not the world that feels off. It’s me. I feel more like someone swapped me out for someone else who is almost but not quite me more than I feel the world has changed. Perhaps like I used to be tethered in some way to something that I am not anymore.
It’s confusing. It’s fuzzy. But is also holds promise. If I am not what (or who) I was – what am I to become?
Standing at the edge of something.
I did draw yesterday. Some of the stuff I am working on is secret. Some of it is for tattoos. And some of it is just because. Here is the just because stuff from the last few days.
Valentine’s Day is right around the corner….My redraw from Monsters.Go of this drawing by Jackson
and I got my first ever book credit for a headshot (insert confused smiling emoji here). I took a photo of Ed Ashton for his book cover and they gave me credit on the hardcover liner. That is super cool and I am really happy for Ed that his book is doing so well.
He and Jen dropped off a copy that Ed signed for me so this gets to be that random story that I get to tell later about how I knew them back when (laughing emoji should go here I think).
Here’s a good place for a plug! You should go buy a copy of Ed’s book. Be one of the people who can say that they read it before the movie came out. Edward Ashton – Mickey 7
Another redraw project. The original was sent to me by a friend that would like a more traditional tattoo version of the artwork but I wanted to play with it anyhow.
I’m not sure what the original intent was with the fish hook but I liked the imagery so I included it as well.
Thank you for being here for my rambling. Thank you for being supportive when I don’t quite know what is going on.
Be patient with one another and yourselves. This Universe is still really weird.
I was asked recently why I go to Figure Drawing. I don’t know if I have a really good answer. I think that initially I started going because it seemed like one of those art school things that people who went to art school complained about but you could see where it was beneficial. I was never able to go to art school but wanted to try to expose myself to as much of it as I could without being able to go.
When I started going to Steve Carpenter’s regularly I found much more that a regular practice. I found a community. I looked forward to going every week. There were people that I missed if they didn’t come regularly and I know Steve would actually call and check on people if they hadn’t been by in a while. I loved the energy in Steve’s studio and a whole lot of that can be directly attributed to Steve. He is still who I want to be when I grow up. He was always so inspired and excited about what he was making in the studio and incredibly supportive to everyone in his classes regardless of their skill level. He also had bad days. Which was inspiring. I would always try to sit close enough to Steve to watch him work and because of that I could also hear him when he made self commentary on what he was doing. It showed me that there is always room to grow and that no matter how amazing someone is there are times when they are disappointed with what they are making.
I miss going to Steve’s but some of the same people now show up at Flower City Figure Drawing. I hope that it becomes the same type of community and I hope some time Steve stops by to draw with us.
Bryn modeled for us last night and did a spectacular job. I look forward to working with her more in the future. Some of her short poses were breathtaking and if I had a bunch of time on my hands any one of them would have made a gorgeous painting. (They would have required reference photos, none of them would be feasible to hold for long so they are not very accurately depicted here).
Some people have asked about the times so I will try to include them going forward. The link to the video is below the photos.
The singular most popular thing on my blog is the money stamps. It doesn’t lead to any traffic to the rest of my art/life but there are still tons of other humans out there trying to figure out what the heck these things are.
This morning I realized that I had a bunch of 20s in a drawer that I had been gathering for when I could get around to photographing them. I would like to use that money for things so today is the day they got photographed!
I have a folder of unpublished ones somewhere else so I will try and find that and add it to the 20s.
Usually when I post these I post links to the older ones that I have posted here but I can’t figure out how that works anymore so you will have to google if you would like to see more.
To preemptively answer the questions again. No, I still have not figured out who does this or why. At this point I have pretty much given up thinking that I will figure it out. I just enjoy finding them and continue to wonder why so few people actually notice them.
Are you sick of these yet? I am going to keep photographing them and posting them when people send photos to me.
Other questions I have gotten on these.
I have been asked if the stamps make them more valuable. Definitely not. They are still only worth face value and the bank periodically will tell me that it is illegal to mark currency even though they continue to give me bills with stamps and have never refused a deposit that contained them.
Do I know who is doing this or what they mean. no. I mention that every time I post these (sometimes more than once) but no, I still have no idea who is doing this or why.
yes, I have been told that money exchangers in other countries with stamp the bills after they have verified that they are genuine so they don’t have to check them again but it still seems highly improbable to me that this many of the bills that wind up in my pocket have been through a foreign country. That may be the reason for some of them, but it doesn’t explain all of them.
Also these stamps do not indicate that the bills are registered with Where’s George. Those bills are very clearly marked and I have checked their database randomly to see if the bills that I find stamped are registered there and none of them every have been.
Other than that, all I can say is please keep using cash. Businesses get hit harder than you realize for credit card processing. It is a frustrating necessary business expense but we appreciate when we don’t have to do it.
thank you for visiting
and if you have bills you would like to send me – snap a photograph and send them to me at justteejay@gmail.com Please do not photo the entire bill as if I have to put them into photoshop it shuts down if it detects a bill.
——-
Update Feb 8th 2022
Found another one and had another one emailled to me.
H2 in circle on one dollar billW on $20 sent to me by Jim via email
I used to publish here much more regularly. I have gotten out of the habit. Would like to get back into it, but can’t make any promises. I have never really adjusted to the new publishing platform and it is far more cumbersome than it used to be (for me) to put stuff together.
Anyhow, last night I went to figure drawing. It’s been a couple weeks since I went. I wasn’t feeling well the one night and then last week we had a snow storm and it was cancelled.
I felt rusty. I am still glad I went. I am glad that Mia has given us a new option for Monday night figure drawing and I would like to support it as much as I can.
30 second posesOne minute posesMore one minute poses5 minute poses10 minute Not sure if this was 10 or 15 munjutesAlso unsure on the time on this oneBack to 10 minuteLast pose of the night. 10? 15?
I need to write down the schedule because they always follow the same time on the poses and I would be able to go back and figure out how long each one was. Some of these I upload to YouTube but they tend to delete the ones with men in them so I am not going to this week. If I do another one that I am happier with the drawings I will go back to it.
The past year has been hard on almost everyone in some way or another.
I actually think that I fared pretty well through the actual lockdown (well, the first one…. personally I’m not convinced that it isn’t going to happen again but that is off topic). Turns out that I am pretty good at isolating and keeping myself amused for extended periods of time.
In November we started with the “we are going to close everything down again when ______________happens”. Then those things happened. Then the rules got changed. Then there were new parameters. Then it was a different story. Then one of the shops had to close. Then we were allowed to reopen. There has been SO much back and forth with no real answers.
Supplies have gotten more and more difficult to obtain and more expensive when we can find them. How much inventory do you stock when you don’t know if you will be open next week? How do you schedule appointments or plan for anything when everything is up in the air.
Is a tattoo really that important right now?
Random clients started calling and being abusive that they couldn’t schedule an appointment in person or yell at us because they couldn’t get into the studio (because we were following the state guidelines for being open now). I started to cringe every time the phone rang. Actually being relieved when it was a robocall. (I do understand that these people were not necessarily angry with me personally…. just needed to be able to vent as they are going through their own stuff…. but day after day it did get old and started to be more and more difficult to brush off).
It started to weigh on me. A whole bunch of other things then piled on top of the stress that I was no longer coping with well.
Emotionally I fell apart. It happened at the same time that the world was preoccupied with some National Events. I didn’t feel like I could reach out to the people that would normally be my support network as they were otherwise occupied.
Then the lease came up for renewal on my space in Piano Works. The space I hopefully and expectantly moved into in the early part of 2020. A place to hang my art that I had to get out of Whitman Works when they closed. A space where I could not only show my work and participate in group events – but create in a community space with other artists. It was to be a bright beginning.
Alas, these plans (like so many others) were derailed by the arrival of covid. I could not in good conscious re-sign a lease on a place for another year that I had been in less than 5 times in the preceding year. I had to get everything out of the space and find a place to store it.
I freaked out more.
I didn’t want to look at this pile of art that I had put my heart and soul into. I didn’t want to watch my cats nibble on the corners of the art until they were no longer presentable. I wanted to do something but I didn’t know what.
I decided to start getting rid of it.
I briefly thought about burning all of it.
But I wasn’t quite that far gone as to think I would be happy about that later.
I started packing the work up. Putting notes on the back of them and leaving them out in public places. I didn’t tell anyone I was doing this at first. When I did tell someone they were very concerned. I told someone else. They were also concerned. There was a certain cathartic element to what I was doing, but I did have to admit that it was the artistic equivalent of cutting in some ways. I was being self destructive, but it was making me feel better. And unlike cutting I was so very very much hoping that someone else would get to be happy from what I was doing. I did promise that I would stop for the time being to examine my motives.
I had not heard from anyone that had found any of the art and I started to envision it having been thrown away or destroyed.
Then I got a note from Carrie.
She had found the Beatnik Kitty drawing.
She took the time to write me a really wonderful note. She appreciated the art.
Her note was so sweet and wonderful and exactly what I needed. I cried. I may be crying again writing about it now.
Thank you Carrie.
While I have stopped for the time being dropping the work off in the world until I better understand my motives…. You made things okay for me in a very dark time in a way that you will probably never really appreciate.
Thank you.
I am so glad that there are people like you in the world and I am so happy that one of my pieces found a home with you.
I continue to hope that there are other people out there that found the work and appreciated it but didn’t write notes. It’s okay because Carrie did.
Tomorrow is another day. Eventually covid will pass and the world will move on. Eventually the Sadness will be a memory again. But for today I have a reason to be grateful and a bit of my faith in humans has been restored.
I’ve been away from here. There is no way I can summarize. I would like to say that I will be back here regularly again… but honestly only time will tell.
I’ve been participating in Figure Drawing via Zoom.
Sunday January 10th, 2021 – Model’s name is Mia
Monday January 11th, 2021 – Model’s name is Mia
I consider this a step in the right direction and right now that has to be enough.
The chalk drawing that I did (at the end of the last entry) was very popular on the interwebs and a few people asked me to put it on a shirt. I re-drew it to have a cleaner version to put online and added it to RedBubble.
Surprisingly (yes, there is some cynicism there) people actually bought some. I was impressed. That doesn’t happen very often. For all of the people that say “you should make prints” or “you should put that on a shirt”, very few of them actually purchase said items after they are made. Maybe it was just that nice of a design. Maybe it was just that people felt sorry for me because I have no income now (or for the foreseeable future) but whatever it was I really appreciated it and it made me smile inside.
Took another go at Figure Drawing on the computer. This lovely lady is one of my favorite models from Steve’s and I am glad that I am able to keep in touch with her. I hope that when the world reopens that I will be able to paint/draw her from life again.
Another drawing prompt. “Snapchat Snapper”
Drawing prompt was something like “Dragonfly Warrior”. I think that perhaps this warrior is off duty.
Drawing Prompt “SeaShells”
Started another chalk drawing. It was brutal cold and really windy. This was as far as I could get before the cold got to me.
Another drawing prompt “Rabid Baby Ducks”. I am fully aware that these are more of a zombie sort of thing than a rabid sort of thing but I was not in the mood to render drool. Especially not foaming sort of drool.
another attempt at life drawing online
Drawing Prompt “Spring Cleaning”
Able to finish up the chalk bear.
Short online Figure Drawing session:
The first RedBubble Light Bulb arrived at the purchaser’s home (that I knew of anyhow).
Made another watercolor to use up the other half of the sheet of watercolor paper..
Then the reason that I had been practicing watercolor again. A painting that I have been wanting to make of my Aunt and Uncle’s dog (that I wanted to do for Christmas… at least Quarantine is helping me get caught up).
Helped a friend set up their zoom so that she can host her own figure drawing sessions. Did some quick drawings while we were trying out camera angles and lighting.
Another inspired by the prompt list. I had liked Spring Cleaning enough that I made a second drawing off of the same prompt.
Attended my first session of Dynamic Figure Drawing live online. Some hinks with working online, but this was an amazing model and I was super glad for the opportunity to draw her. Her Instagram is @legcrampsforcash
The timelapse video:
I had asked my sibling for suggestions on chalk drawing animals. They suggested a Badger “for HufflePuff”. The weather has NOT been good for chalking so I decided to draw the badger instead. Please do not report me. I think Disney owns that series now and it would not do me well to get anymore cease and desist orders. While the suggestion was made, I am not way representing this as a Hufflepuff badger…. only a well styled badger which happens to like the house colors. Think that is okay?
I had tried to sign up for an online Robert Liberace workshop. They got back to me (after I sent them money) and said that the workshop was full. My PayPal money got held in some sort of weird limbo. Then after the first class had happened they said that they got it figured out and I could still monitor the class. They would send me a video of the first class and I could draw along to that. Was able to draw the two short poses with him from the reference that he sent.
Then he spent the rest of the session working from another reference that I mistakenly thought he said that he hadn’t sent us. So I didn’t look for it. Instead I watched him work on the drawing. Then, wanting to do some figurative work I went and found a book that I had at the house with some vintage nudes and drew a fairy based on one of the photos.
then at some point after that I realized that he HAD sent us the reference that he worked from. Not wanting to be behind when we had our next class I drew that as well (in graphite).
It turned out that I did not need the drawing for the next class, but it was still good practice. I was able to follow directions and draw along with him during the next class.
That was as far as I made it during class. I was super grateful for having taken a workshop from David Kassan prior to this as I had learned some techniques with the charcoal pencils and this made working with the charcoal more tolerable. For the record, I still dislike working with charcoal. I mean, it looks great but I don’t like the feel at all. It is some sort of tactile thing. The pencils are better as I am at least not directly touching the charcoal, but I can guarantee it will never become my “go to” medium.
ick.
While the weather was still pretty bad and calling for rain at least every other day…. we did have one warm afternoon and I had to get out there and chalk something before the rain hit again.
You may also ask yourself what the difference it between the chalk and the charcoal and the answer is not much. I don’t like the chalk either. If things were normal now I would be wearing gloves when chalking and not touch the stuff… but I feel guilty wasting gloves when the world needs them for actual medical stuff and not so much for my weird hang ups.
The Unicorn made it about 2 hours before it started to rain.
Another online Figure Drawing session. Maybe the Yards? not sure.
Another drawing prompt. “Bunny in Disguise”
The weather remains gross. Too cold to do much outside and I haven’t been feeling well physically. Decided to try and make a really small chalk drawing so there would be something out there for the kids to find.
Drawing prompt “Fluffy Cloud Kittens”
Now I know I have lost track of the figure drawing sessions. This one was the Yards. The previous one must have been when the model did her own zoom one on Monday. Not like it matters. I don’t even know if anyone reads these besides me and Gretchen.
Hi Gretchen! Love you ❤
Drawing prompt: “Bass playing bass”. Like we needed more confirmation that English is an awful language to try and keep track of. One of those is pronounce bass and one is pronounced base.
Time for the Liberace class again. So went back into the full figure before class to make sure that I was as finished with it as I wanted to be.
and then what we worked on in class:
While working at home, I am under constant cat supervision.
I actually really like this drawing. Its not an exact likeness…. but there is something about it that I really like. Since we haven’t needed to have the drawings more finished for the subsequent classes I don’t know if I will go back into it or not. I have no idea what I would do with it either way, but it is nice to be pleased with a piece every now and again.
I don’t know how to explain it but this one makes me feel like a “real” artist. I know that doesn’t make sense… but there it is. Maybe I should frame it.
Don’t take it too seriously. I also feel like an artist when I put on a super way too big shirt. I think that is because when I was in kindergarten we used to put someone’s dad’s button up white work shirts on backwards to paint. If I could find shirts that were big enough to do that I would still wear one like that at home when I was painting. Some remnant of the small self’s self confidence sneaks back in when I have on a really big shirt and I feel like I can do anything.
I like it.
The shirt and the drawing.
So feeling inspired by working in black and grey (and white) but still despising charcoal…. I decided to make some work on grey paper with more friendly media. The reference photo was taken by my sister Sarah. Trillium are my favorite flowers. I have some of these red ones in my back yard…. but it was easier to use Sarah’s photo.
I had started to get into (yet another) funk and didn’t want to make anything. I saw some photos posted on Facebook by a photographer named Rebecca Brooks. I wanted to paint one of the tree sparrow photos (her work is amazing. I tried to include a link but it doesn’t appear that she has a web presence off of facebook. If you are on facebook, I suggest you look her up.)
So I wrote to her to ask if I could use one of her photos as the basis for a painting and while waiting to hear from her I started a drawing.
After getting the go ahead. I made a painting the next day.
And then finished the drawing that night.
Monday night and Figure Drawing with Mia:
And then as a extra special bonus…. Mia modeled for Dynamic Figure Drawing on Tuesday and I got to draw her again 🙂
In working on my chalk drawings outside I receive a lot of positive feedback from neighbors and people going by. But one of the things that I have heard is people saying that they would never be able to draw that well. It makes me sad. I think that they are trying to compliment me, but I don’t want what I do to ever intimidate someone else into thinking that their work isn’t good enough or that they shouldn’t pursue it. I was trying to figure out how to demonstrate that when it occurred to me that I could take kids drawings and re-draw them big. Starting with some kids that I know and then opening it up for submissions from the neighbors so that some of the kids around here could come by and see their drawings big.
So here is my first collaborative effort based on a drawing that my Granddaughter Neala made.
While I was making the mermaid I explained what I was doing and why to a little person that came by. I offered to let them draw something for me to work from. The small person was very shy but their mom said that it would most likely be a robot.
It got me thinking that I haven’t drawn a robot in a long time.
Ended out my second month in Quarantine with another session online with Robert Liberace.
I did NOT like the paper that I chose for this one at all. I was disappointed as the reference photo was stunning. I felt like I was fighting the media too much to really get into the drawing. I did work on it beyond class time, but ultimately stopped at this point.
Made in through my second month in Quarantine.
I am doing mostly okay. I miss hugs. I now know a lot more about touch deprivation than I would like. If it weren’t for the kitties I would have totally lost it. But fortunately warm purring kitties can make everything okay. Carbs help too. Lots of tasty comfort food happening. Even got into banana splits which haven’t been a thing in my life for at least 20 years. Not sure why I decided I had a hankering for them but they have replaced cheese fries for the time being. Also I did put in an order for a gluten free carrot cake because why not?
Clients keep asking us when we are going to be able to open up again. At this writing I have no idea. Rumor has us at phase 4, but even if that is true no one has a time line for when that might be.
Like all of us, we just have to wait and see what tomorrow holds.
I hope that you and your loved ones are well.
Much love to you and maybe an uncomfortably long hug when we get to see each other in the real world.
I am a female tattoo artist and shop owner. I believe in love and creation above fear and destruction. I am a passionate person and respect and admire that in others regardless of where their passion lies.
But at the end of the day, all I want to do is add a little beauty to the world and try to be a blessing in the lives of those around me.
No matter who you are or how you have arrived you are welcome here.
There is no rhyme or reason to the things that I post here - but they are here to share. I believe that all things happen for a reason and while things may not always go the way that I want them to... they do go the way that they are supposed to go.
I hope that rather you are here once or often that you find what you are looking for and that in all things you will find the love that you deserve.
Just TeeJay's Blog 