The Trees are Humming

26 April, 2020; Vail, AZ


The Palo Verde Trees are blooming


And that means they are full of bees collecting pollen; gazillions of buzzing bees; I can hear them before I even get to the trees.  Although I've heard that Arizona bees have been Africanized, I've been pruning some of my Palo Verdes and haven't been bothered.  Of course, I don't really mind bees, so I'm very calm having them buzzing around me - so, maybe they just haven't been threatened.  The trees are beautiful in bloom and I like the sound of the very busy bees.








More in process landscaping

22 April, 2020; Vail AZ


More landscaping is happening . . .


Still in demo mode, and doing the hardscaping.  Two mesquite trees are leaving today (one was in bad shape and the other too close to the house - never fear, I have dozens!  A raised planter area will hopefully get done today as well as the rest of the rock work and some land clearing on the east side of the house.


Goodbye old tree.



I'm taking a portrait class from Sktchy.com


Sktchy.com has a bunch of great classes and community for online learning.  I signed up for '30 faces in 30 days'.  There's a tutorial and then I download a reference photo and draw it keeping the tutorial tips in mind.  

Here are a few from this last week.


The tip for this first one was to warm up and learn about your model by doing 5, 10, and 15 minute sketches.  You get a better likeness this way as well as working out values and other decisions you might want to make in the final drawing.  I can see that on the first two on the right, there was quite a bit of distortion (a problem when you're working flat).  I like the top left one the best; I think the 15 minute sketch on the bottom left got too heavy and dark.




The tip here was to block in the major values early on and to put something in the background to ground the figure.





The goal here was to very quickly draw in the face using a modified contour approach - almost a doodle.   This resulted in an overall looser drawing and I mostly like it.  I used a water soluable ink and then applied a water brush for the shadows - not too happy with the result because the shadows got way too dark too fast.





The tip here was to fully develop the focal points (the two faces) while leaving less important places pretty sketchy.  This was hard for me but I'm pretty pleased with it - could have used less detail on her right arm.





This profile gave me the opportunity to focus on the structure of her ear (ears are notoriously difficult to understand) and to practice doing hair as shapes and masses instead of individual hairs.





That's all for now - better go check on the landscaping team - make sure all that rock is going in the right places!


If I can't go out, I'll get stuff done at home!

17April, 2020; Vail AZ


Well, maybe not me alone . . . 


The landscape company came to start the renovation of my landscaping; wow! -  4 men with a bobcat can get a whole lot done in one day!  They'll probably finish up their part on Monday.  It feels so good to get this project underway; I've hated the old landscaping for a year now.  FYI, everyone maintained good social distancing.



Goodbye mis-placed old bench


I tried to get rid of all the river rock, but apparently I still need some


Goodbye agave/yucca that harbored so many pack rats!


2 of the guys making my home a better place!


My new neighbor - a nesting Costa Hummingbird

15 April, 2020; Vail AZ


Apparently, this is a popular nesting spot


When I bought the house last spring, there was a hummingbird nest in the same patio decoration.  I'm glad the previous owners left the nest undisturbed; I enjoyed watching the hummers last year and am having fun watching this year's bird make a nest and settle in with this year's egg(s).



Busy Building





Sitting on her nest

 I've been enjoying the spring


The mornings are warm enough for tea on the patio; Lots of birds coming back, the 2 Spiny Lizards that hung out on my back fence last summer are back; and, I saw a Gila Monster in a neighbors yard a couple of days ago while walking Phoebe.  She's enjoying the sunshine outside as well!



Phoebe, on a recent walk