Two sleepyheads
June 18th, 2006
I drew this portrait of my husband and Mandu last night when I saw them posed like this by the light of a single floor lamp bulb. Even though I knew I was waaay out of my comfort zone in attempting it, I’m glad I did. I used a 3B mechanical pencil in a Moleskine - the size of the drawn area is 7″ x 5″ - pretty small.
Mostly, I like it not for technical reasons but because it captures the tenderness, caring and concern that are so typical of my husband. And today is Father’s Day, so what better time to celebrate him and his loving nature.
Karen,
I’ve been following your journey with Mandu and wanted to let you know you’re in my thoughts. I put my 18-year-old CatPaws to sleep on Valentine’s Day, and spent hours sketching his
thin little body and sweet face so as to remember him forever. It IS hard to watch these last days!! My big consolation is that we found a vet that put him to sleep at our home…an experience that was
incredibly peaceful compared to the vet’s office. I wish you that same peace.
Blessings,
Brenda.
Karen, while I truely love your rendering I’m puzzling over your ‘feeling outside your comfort zone’ I would have thought that this was snuggled right in where you & your talent live. At any rate in or out of the zone I’m thankful that I get to see your work. Thanks, as always.
Thank you Brenda and Susan
Susan, I think it’s because my eyesight is so bad that I have a very hard time drawing in the dark without plenty of illumination on my paper. But I wanted to capture that chiaroscuro effect and I didn’t want to use a lot of defined lines - I wanted to use more hatching and areas of different value. That would have been easier for me if I could better see what I was doing on the paper. It’s really been only in the past few months that I’ve made a bigger effort to see subjects in terms of planes and patches of values - instead of my usual habit of making a line drawing and then hatching parts in. I think that by training myself to think and draw more with value than line that it will be helpful to my painting. Katherine Tyrell has been a good influence in this kind of drawing.
YES!! ALL OF THAT SO BEAUTIFULLY CAPTURED AND GLORIOUSLY RENDERED!! HAPPY FATHER’S DAY TO ALL!
All this lovely Mandu series has become also a well deserved hommage to your husband. And for all your artistic and human qualities.
This is so lovely and tender! Happy Father’s Day to your sweet hubbie!
It’s wonderful and shows absolutely no signs of it being out of your comfort zone. Lovely tribute to your husband too!
Really beautiful, subtle tones and composition. Thanks for another one, Karen! Hope you guys have a great day!
perfect sketch for the day today. I really enjoyed it. Thank you.
Karen, that tender blending of light and shadow, with the love shining through, is a lovely gift for your husband, this Sunday. Happy Father’s Day!
Annie
wow your illustrations are just brilliant! love ‘em all
Karen this is a trreasure for sure. A beautiful father’s day gift.
How wonderful for you to have such a loving caring husband and how comforting for Mandu to have this human contact at this time. This is not out of your comfort zone. actually you are right where you are suppose to be.
hugs, toni
Im loving all the Mandu moments Karen - just wonderful!!!
This is so touching, you captured this one moment perfectly…
These treasured moments!!! beautifully rendered!
Karen I’m sorry I’ve missed what’s going on for you with Mandu. I’ve just read through the last two pages here to get caught up a bit. It is amazing that Mandu has been with you for 22 years. It sounds like she has had one glorious time with you. You’ve each given each other a lot.
Animals are able to take life the way it comes. We, with our different style of consciousness, seem to often be struggling with whether we can accept and be happy with what we have or maybe we should go over there for that greener grass.
Mandu will always be with you.
Catinka
You’ve captured the light beautifully, and they both look so restful and cozy. Gorgeous picture.
So very moving, all of these Glenn and Mandu sketches, but this may be my favorite so far. You seem to have captured both their gentle spirits perfectly.