I'm all drawn out

Drawing class is over, and I'm so sad! Here follows the collection of lessons.....pillows, paper bags, arty paper bags.....

After class, I continue to sketch and watch TV at the same time. The first night of class, Stanley asked what we wanted to draw. I said architecture and landscape. So here I am trying to draw people. Ya never know. Maybe I haven't seen the right landscape yet.

I've got two pages left in my drawing pad, and I'm taking requests!

Step 26 a

 

The saga of restoring "normal" continues. Here's one of the four holes to tile from the foundation piers. Does not look too bad after Carl cut the edges clean and I used a power hammer to chip out the broken stuff. Then I put the new tile down....three times. Some of them kept popping loose the next two days. Finally I quit tapping them to see which ones weren't really stuck down and just grouted the whole thing. I was already going to the chiropractor to restore my hip to balance by then, and there's more to life than stuck tile, I was thinking. Life finishing the landscaping after the foundation repair.

Indeed I was right, there was more to life than tile, there was plumbing! I really did not want this to be a do-it-yourself job, but it was. This man is determined, no? He dug the hole, I took the muck down the street in a wheelbarrow to the next new home to built, aka, currently a vacant lot. Four contractor barrel loads as I remember. Luckily, it was a joint failure from a previous repair near the edge of the slab. All it required was Carl to crawl under the house a bit and smell stinky dishwater from the last few years. There is no way you could pay me to do that. Then we blew 20 bags of sand under the foundation using the leaf blower (my idea). (Just a little aside: did you know that at Lowe's they will sell you a 1,000 lb bag of sand? Picture that in your Smart Car.) After 15 bags of dirt I replanted the flower bed. The next day, I unplanted the bed again when the sink started draining slow. After two power snakings, things are flowing fine again. I replanted once more, hopefully for the last time.

I am SO glad to be done with this roof, window, slab, plumbing spring! But hey, I found a silver lining. The insurance deductible on our roof/windows is deductible from our taxes because Ike made us a federal disaster area. Not that we have much income to shelter any more, but hey, it was a few dollars less in taxes.

So, now, on to better things. We are getting ready, as soon as Carl bicycles 150 miles to Austin, to turn our minds to the summer RV trip. It starts in Sante Fe with a Habitat for Humanity build and goes to points West and back.

Puppy Cookie

I didn't have a clue how to start. "How do you do fur, Stanley?" Stanley Kowalski, who teaches my Learn to Draw Class, showed me how to do fur. Then he said that my puppy head was not big enough. "Check the dimensions first, then start with his nose." The puppy is almost done, but not quite there yet. The puppy's right side (your left) seems a bit harsh. I'll have to rub and smudge some more.

I am going to miss this class, so much! Stanley has the touch, the kindness, the helpfulness, the student focused-ness. Show and tell happens several times during class, when we all take our drawings down and he admires them while we admire each other's. He's feeding our souls as well as our art.

On the other hand, he has much to do to make up for my water color class, which has so far one thing going for it....cheap. I am making up in weekly supply purchases for the cheapness of the class. Last week it started thundering at the beginning of class. All the class and the teacher immediately packed up and went home. Since I can still drive in the rain and in the dark too, maybe I should develop more tolerance for others. If I ever have a water color to be proud of, I'll post it.

Meanwhile.....I think I will draw at least one more of the eight possibilities Stanley gave us before our next, and last, drawing class.