Drawing August and Dyeing on the Side...

There are very few pleasures greater than peacefully drawing out of doors in good weather, and the Twitter event, #drawingaugust, is an added attraction.   Most recently I just sat and drew what happened to be there, no need to spend energy deciding, just whatever's there is a good subject. 

This was a pot of what I think may be wildflowers, never planted them, anyway, which suddenly put in an appearance, maybe a holdover from early planting of wildflower mats last year.

The drawing is about four or five inches on a side, mulberry paper, fine tip Pilot pen.  A while back I was in another art activity with an online group, Everyday Matters, and at the end of about a month, I bound the month's output into an artist's book, with a selfie on the back cover, ink and wash, and an ink drawing on the front cover, of my hand.  The book was called The Artist's Hand. 

I'm thinking of a similar destination for this month's drawings, unless they end up as small gifts, which could also happen.

I'm teaching a drawing workshop on this kind of subject to the local Herb Society of America chapter, in September, and want to interest them, once they get the hang of drawing their herbs, to consider a naturalist journal or something of that nature, if they don't already do that.  They are probably beginners at drawing, so it's mainly about the experience of learning your subject by observation as much as about producing an accurate image.

Speaking of wildflowers, those wild possibly phlox that I pictured a while back, whose seeds I planned to gather (they are from last year's seeds) well, the seeds may not be available.  

I notice that wild birds are noshing happily on them, and I figure this is great food for birds, better than commercial seed, probably, so okay, what's a few seeds between friends.  The hummer has now become a regular visitor, not for seeds, but for the neighboring lantana, and has even taken to perching in my cherry tree and nibbling on something there.  I've seen her feeding in the evergreen tree, too, no idea what's good in there.  Birds are great companions in the outdoor studio, as good as cats indoors.

But back to other artforms, aside from drawing, I have several tshirts, old, and I'm so tired of their solid colors.  So I bleached a couple recently, and here's another.  I just painted diagonal stripes in bleach on the shirt, without protecting the inside, so the bleach penetrated the back, too, and the design appeared there. Then rinsed to stop the bleach action, and dried and here's the shirt.  I like to cut off the hems of shirts I've dyed, and let them roll up a bit.

I really like the irregular way this came out, like an OKeefe sort of sky with varying clouds. Wearing it even as I type, in fact. Yes I know, could hardly be more different from the slow ink drawing above, but it's good to have art moods!