Sunday, November 23, 2008 A "Quick Portrait of Arizona Governor" 7:50am Model is a photo nabbed from Tucson Citizen She's our governor, but she might be travelling to D.C. to be the secretary of Homeland Security. If this happens, we'll miss her, for she's been very good. But I do agree she has the chops to straighten out that 'security' mess. (I timed this piece. It took seven minutes for the line drawing (no pencil pre-sketches, just straight at it with the pen), and ten minutes for the coloring. I didn't time the lettering.) I dunno why I gave her a small double chin. She doesn't have a double chin! Sunday, November 23, 2008 B "She Had Only Begun" 3:31pm "She Had Only Begun to Believe in the Power of Her Own Magic!" Inspired by Wim Helden's "The Armani Dress" When I saw his painting, the woman in it exuded such mystery and power, with a hint of 'mischief' to come, that I had to try a drawing. I learned of Wim Heldens through a link I found to London's National Portrait Gallery's "BP Portrait Award 2008". As they describe it, "BP Portrait Award is the most prestigious portrait competition in the world, highlighting the very best in contemporary portrait painting." Heldens certainly belongs in that category. I can learn much from studying his and the other artists works. Detail... Monday, November 24, 2008 A "Quick Sketch of 'Twilight' Actor" 6:46am For some unknown reason, he looks somewhat oriental in my version... Source photo at IMBD.com Girls go wild when they see him. Oh, yeah, he's handsome, all right, and you can tell, he's enjoying it immensely. The movie is quite popular, made the most money in the theaters this weekend. When we went to the bakery, we heard on Friday, people started lining up for the midnight showing like four or five hours early. The frenzy! In contrast, Julia and I went to the 11:15am show, and had no wait at all. The movie, about a romance between an eternal teenaged vampire and an ordinary teenaged girl, is a sensuous delight. One reviewer I heard (Lamar on the Bob&Sheri show) said, "Man, there's just no consistency, you never know what to expect from a vampire!" And these are unique. The sun does not hurt their beautiful pale skin, it doesn't cause any discomfort at all. They DO have a reaction, however. Their skin turns oddly glowly, diamond sparkly like. And are they ever strong and fast. I'd like to leap high and fly like that... Seriously though, the movie is just plain fun. Monday, November 24, 2008 B "Six Words to Describe my Life" 6:02pm A little over a year ago, I learned of a project in which people described their lives in three words. The morning radio show people had listeners call in with them. I chose WONDER WITHIN, WITHOUT, and had a little drawing in my journal. Today they brought a new version of this to the radio program, expanded to SIX words. I could not call in, but I did a websearch and found the origin of the book made from these six word memoirs, SMITH Magazine, who asked readers to contribute them. It is from these that the book _Not Quite What I was Planning: Six Word Memoirs from Writers Famous and Obscure_ was created. Perhaps they will have a second volume in which my short memoir will appear! "Magic everywhere, learning daily, so grateful." As I pondered this, I wondered what it would look like in Egyptian hieroglyphs. I remembered a phrase in Brier's book on magic: "Magic is everywhere", in Egyptian hieroglyphs, (via Bob Brier's _Ancient Egyptian Magic_) However, I wanted to know more, I wanted to know what each word meant and how to pronounce them. Breaking this down to learn the words and their pronounciation, I checked Budge. However, as I was deciding how to write this in ancient Egyptian, I learned I needed to rephrase things to fit my meanings. I want to suggest that I'm AWARE of magic everywhere. I couldn't find 'aware' in Budge's dictionary, only 'awake' and 'to know, to understand'. Yes, this fits my intent. To know and to understand is better than just merely being aware of its presence, but also how I might attain a more active role in bringing it about. I had a bit more trouble with finding words for the last phrase, 'so grateful'. Looking in Budge's two volume dictionary in the English words index, I don't find 'grateful', 'gratitude', nor even 'appreciation'. There is, however, "to offer thanksgiving"(with a emphasis towards thanking the gods) and "to give thanks". Remembering one element of those phrases as being pronounced dua, not tua, as I've seen in Wilkinson's book adds to the complexity. Hmmm. Perhaps 's-dua' is is the closest to what I mean.

"To know, to understand" "magic" "everywhere" Amam heka bu neb "To learn" "daily, perpetually" Sba m-amenit "To give thanks" "daily" S-dua m-amenit

That might be a bit more than 'six words'! (I've placed that all into one image, as well.) Tuesday, November 25, 2008 "Julia Reading Tiny Book" 8:06pm And always, a pot of tea is nearby! Wednesday, November 26, 2008 A "In Memory of Cindy Woods" 6:49am Learning Daily, Drawing Daily Cindy Woods 1956 - 2008 I first 'met' Cindy Woods through the Self Portrait Marathon 'Wally Torta' hosted back in 2006. She became aware of me, too, through that project, and she took the time to send me a nice e-mail regarding my portraits. (I saved the exchange we had.) She told me, "There is a wonderful ease to your line, it makes it look like you enjoy drawing so much!" and added that she enjoyed the "wonderful colors and expressions". After such lovely praise, I had to see who was giving me it, so. I went to her website. I looked at her artwork and enjoyed the "nice fluidity of line in them." Since then, I've kept up, checking her site every now and then. I'd read where she had some trouble with cancer, but I'd hoped that was all past. This morning, I read on 'Urban Sketchers' a post dedicated 'in memory of Cin Woods', and went to see. I'd last checked her site before things got really bad. Her wise and open character comes through in those drawings. Tears fill my eyes and spill over onto my cheeks. Death is sad, but she was brave until the very end, DRAWING until the very end. Her close friends might gather her drawings together and make a book whose sale would benefit the Oral Cancer Foundation, which would be a lovely thing to do.

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