Maxine on the run

The Akwarius (ca. 01-04)

2011-12-28T17:44:00.000-08:00

This is some of my older work, originally done in my 2004 sketchbook. I decided to post it here because I like it and I still find it pertinent and meaningful.

The Akwarius

Sketchbook layout

Quick Caricatures (10-03-11)

2011-10-03T15:08:00.000-07:00

I love doing sketches from television, because of the static nature of the poses. There's plenty of time to focus on facial expressions...

Wedding Dress Fashions (09-11-11)

2011-09-11T22:08:00.000-07:00

I have a nice collection of wedding dresses, but the most outrageous one is a 1980s Jessica McClintock dress that fits no definite style category: a close-to-the-body tight-fitting knee-length sheath with a high neck, mixed lavish embroidery, and at the back, a cascade of fabric flares reminiscent of a Belle Époque bustle!

There is in fact no bow at the back...

The other dress in my sketchbook is the one that my daughter Valérie has chosen as her wedding dress: a classy, elegant, 1950s (I think) pleated polyester knit dress with an embroidered lace bust and collar.

A Fine Rat (09-02-11)

2011-09-02T20:21:00.000-07:00

This drawing of a rat is from memory... (Thankfully, not from direct observation!)

Caricatures (09-02-11)

2011-08-29T22:01:00.000-07:00

Some made-for-TV faces, as seen...on TV.

Favorite TV Show of the Moment (06-29-11)

2011-06-29T22:30:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Netflix, I discovered a fun TV show called Pawn Stars. Based on a simple premise, - people sell things to get quick money -, the show give a fascinating insight into the workings of a pawn shop in Las Vegas. Expect the unexpected, and enjoy watching the store employees bicker constantly.

I did these character studies while watching reruns; they look like caricatures because the TV medium is static, allowing me to go over lines and keep the drawing "cleaner" than a sketch.

Well, that fantastical creature just appeared on the page...

The unfinished drawings show how this is done...

The World is a Strange Place (06-20-11)

2011-06-20T14:45:00.000-07:00

Call me naïve, but I just found out that "Buffy Malone," the name I came up with years ago, the most outlandish made-up name I could think of as an example of an unlikely mix of Pop Culture and Italian ethnic, - a name I have extensively used in various humorous stories I've written, - is actually the name of a real woman on Facebook (...and she kinda looks the way I'd imagined my own Buffy Malone...)!

Hairstyles (06-17-11)

2011-06-17T17:45:00.000-07:00

...Quick sketches to alleviate my haircut anxieties.

Hairstyles (05-03-11)

2011-05-03T21:42:00.000-07:00

As much as I like to draw fashion outfits, I also really like to draw hairstyles. The idea is to get a specific look or mood in just a few strokes...

Felix, Caught Unaware (04-29-11)

2011-04-29T23:13:00.000-07:00

Felix is my daughter Valérie's hyperactive cat, so here he is...in a rare moment of inactivity.

Static Portraits (04-03-11)

2011-04-03T21:03:00.000-07:00

The following sketches, done while watching my church's conference on television, are borderline caricatures. The reason they look like caricatures is that television is a static setting that allows little or no motion on the part of the person filmed; so when people talk, they tend to exaggerate their facial expressions...

I didn't have time to finish this one...

Dance Poses (04-02-11)

2011-04-03T02:15:00.000-07:00

Here I basically just focused on the motions of people as they were dancing at Rotture, not an easy task when people move pretty fast when they dance to a beat and it's dark all around.

Felix the Kitten (03-22-11)

2011-03-30T12:01:00.000-07:00

Here is a quick sketch of Felix, my daughter's kitten, caught in a very rare calm moment.

Hairstyles (02-27-11)

2011-02-27T16:25:00.000-08:00

Again, some quick doodles, this time women and men hairstyles, Hip Portland style.

Fashion Sketches (02-27-11)

2011-02-27T16:21:00.000-08:00

I truly enjoy doing these and let my imagination run wild...

My Beloved Gargoyle (02-22-11)

2011-02-22T21:35:00.000-08:00

This week, during the Sketching class I teach at the Walters Cultural Arts Center, we worked on sketching some objects we brought from home.

Wild Thang

I brought my adorable gargoyle, found at Village Merchants several years ago. it makes me think of a Maurice Sendak character.

Profile in Brush Marker (02-20-11)

2011-02-20T16:41:00.000-08:00

A quick profile done with one of the Faber-Castell Pitt brush pens I carry everywhere with me. I saw Don Colley's mind-blowing sketchbooks at the Portland Urban Sketchers Symposium last summer and watched the videos where he shows how he uses these pens. I don't feel very proficient using them, but like the colors...

Fashion Favorites (02-13-11)

2011-02-13T21:25:00.000-08:00

Among the fashion sketches below, these are my favorite.

Self-Portrait with pen and paper

My favorite among all the outfits

Fashions (02-13-11)

2011-02-13T21:20:00.000-08:00

Last night, I drew the following ladies while involved in a stressful discussion.

Contour Drawing (02-01-11)

2011-02-01T21:27:00.000-08:00

Today was the first day of the Sketching class I teach at the Walter Cultural Arts Center in Hillsboro. Since there was a new show opening in gallery, with a singer and many people in the lobby, I threw my students to the lions by telling them to go sketch what they see.

As for myself, I decided to do something I don't do often: a contour drawing.

Silhouettes (01-19-11)

2011-01-19T21:37:00.000-08:00

I did some quick silhouettes mainly focusing on outlines. I think they turned out pretty cool.

Choral Singers (12-14-10)

2010-12-14T23:15:00.000-08:00

While attending the Conchords Chorale concert at the Old Church, I worked on these goofy-looking doodles (any resemblance to real..., etc. is unintentional; these were just for fun)...

Fabric Face (06-17-10)

2010-06-17T19:17:00.000-07:00

I worked one day as a volunteer at the Summit of Awesome (organized by Hello Craft and held at Kennedy School).

I used fabric scraps, felt and embroidery threads to make this face and plan to put it inside a shadow box I recently bought at an auction. My sketchbook is in the background.

Comics Logos (05-10)

2010-05-20T22:45:00.000-07:00

I drew these for the final project I compiled for the Comics class I teach once a week (ages 8-12) at the Walters Cultural Arts Center in Hillsboro. I wanted these to be fun, yet to clearly look like a logo.

Doodle Study in Black and White (04-10)

2010-04-06T22:42:00.000-07:00

I started with the drawing in the center, then built around it...

Doodle Study in Black and White (03-11-10)

2010-03-10T21:14:00.000-08:00

An interesting exercise to get into my Creative Zone...

A Springtime Yeti-e (02-18-10)

2010-02-19T15:49:00.000-08:00

This one's a tease...

The Big Blue Dinosaur (02-10-10)

2010-02-10T15:14:00.000-08:00

When my daughter Valérie (21) was about three years old, she once ran from the front of the house to the kitchen and breathtakingly told me about a Big blue Dinosaur that was eating little children (!). I took notes as she urgently described what the creature was doing outside of the house, and the Big blue Dinosaur soon became the stuff of our family legends...

Anyway, here is the Big blue Dinosaur, as I drew him for fun in my sketchbook.

"He was a Big Blue One"

Portrait: Moso (01-16-10)

2010-01-16T17:10:00.000-08:00

A quick sketch of Moso, that doesn't totally look like her...

Moso?

Doodle Study in Black and White (11-09)

2009-11-15T23:50:00.000-08:00

I love using my black pens. The following doodles were done with a fine point Sharpie. I wanted to fill the page with patterns as they happened spontaneously.

I want things my way... (10-11-09)

2009-10-11T19:11:00.000-07:00

...I want my plans to be implemented; I want to reach my dreams.

Valérie's Wisdom Teeth (09-03-09)

2009-09-03T21:02:00.000-07:00

Valérie's wisdom teeth were pulled. She wasn't feeling very good, so I drew this to cheer her up.

Yet another Yeti (08-09)

2009-08-22T10:14:00.003-07:00

This one's a bully.

Another Yeti (08-09)

2009-08-22T10:14:00.001-07:00

This one's sweet...

Yeti (03-03-09)

2009-03-04T00:18:00.001-08:00

Here is a Yeti.

Sketch of Feet

2009-01-26T21:17:00.009-08:00

A quick sketch done at the doctor's office.

Proposal for a flag design (ca. 10-08)

2008-12-11T09:02:00.000-08:00

In October 2008, Portland's Oregonian newspaper organized a contest to design a new flag for the State of Oregon, to suggest as a replacement for the present one.
Many people entered, with entries ranging from the quasi-heraldic-based to crayon-colored projects. I was delighted to find my entry published alongside many others in a full-color double-spread in the Sunday paper a few weeks later. But, as typical in our household, the paper ended up in the recycling bin before I remembered to save the page...

Definitely not original as far as the subject is concerned, but my flag design represents the two great currents of thought that seem to dominate around Civil War time: Oregonians are either Beavers or Ducks fans... I wanted to show the state as a unified place, and the choice of green as a background symbolizes the overall focus on the environment.

From imagination: Women faces

2008-11-02T00:50:00.000-07:00

I've always liked the two drawings below. Something about the attitude. These young women, despite their very feminine retro look, will not take any crap from anyone.

From imagination: Woman face

2008-11-02T00:37:00.000-07:00

Another image from the brush pen series.
Although the precise strokes may look effortless, it took a lot of thinking to get the lines just where I wanted them, since these drawings were done straight with no pencil drafts.

Oh, the haunted houses...

2008-10-31T08:17:00.000-07:00

Here is a fun little découpage project, a house from my imagination.
In pyschoanalytic terms, houses are believed to be symbolic of the self. They represent the psychological extension of our identity, our innermost self.

...And here is the original

2008-10-29T20:49:00.000-07:00

I took this photo in 1979 or 1980 in Belgium.I saw the house every time we drove into Namur and every time we passed it, I pestered my mother's common-law-husband (I don't want to get into that story here) to slow down, so I could look at it. Finally, one day, he agreed to stop, and I took the photo.
This house is the inspiration for the drawing in my sketchbook. I love the sinister, abandoned look, the wild, unkempt yard, the thorny bushes, the overgrown trees. My kinda place.
I didn't see the house again until last year when I went back to Belgium, for a visit. My brother kindly drove around the neighborhood until we located it and then patiently waited as I spent 15 minutes gazing at it through the cast iron fence.
I'd love to say it's still exactly the same, that nothing's changed, but it has been turned into a school. And although it still retains some of its Victorian elegance, it has been fixed up, the property has been cleared and gravel pathways replace the overgrown jungle. It now looks like a school building (ahem, Belgium-style). Stern, but not gloomy anymore.
Things could be worse: old houses get torn down all the time.

Wanted: Old House

2008-10-26T23:06:00.000-07:00

This is an old but favorite drawing of mine from 2001: it's the type of house I've been desperately seeking for years, but here are no old brick houses like that in Portland. As my daughter V. would say, the elusive house of my dreams must be "gloomy, but slightly impressive."

From Imagination: Woman Face

2008-10-26T23:04:00.001-07:00

My favorite from the imagination pieces. There is something capricious about her expression that I really like.

From Imagination: Woman Face

2008-10-26T22:26:00.000-07:00

This one reminds me of a 1920s' flapper.

I still have that Japanese brush pen hidden away somewhere safe and logical (that is, so safe and logical, even I can't find it). After working great for a long time, it suddenly started making dry strokes, so I put it away. And from my recent experience with the computer and the scanner, I can vouch that avoiding the activity that caused a problem, won't fix the problem.

From imagination: Woman Face

2008-10-26T22:08:00.000-07:00

It's funny how the simplest tasks become an ordeal. For example, the minute something goes awry with the computer, I know it's going to take a bunch of time to troubleshoot and resolve. What I need is 1) time and 2) a computer and scanner that won't give me grief.

Anyway, here is another one of those imagination pieces done with a brush pen.

Suggestion for Oregon Flag (10-23-08)

2008-10-23T23:00:00.000-07:00

The Oregonian had a contest to design anew flag for the State of Oregon. Although mine is far from being original, I decided to share it with others here. The beaver represents Oregon State University, and the duck, well, that would be University of Oregon.

The way I see her: Moso

2008-10-14T08:21:00.000-07:00

Another piece from the imagination series; this is a brush pen drawing I did while thinking of "Moso," my (funny) daughter.

From imagination: woman face

2008-10-13T21:12:00.000-07:00

This brush ink pen illustration is part of a series of imagination-based work. I would post the other ones, by it looks like my scanner gave up the ghost today...

From old sketchbooks: Food

2008-10-06T20:19:00.000-07:00

I tend to remember food I ate, even from years ago... and sometimes, a meal is memorable enough to record!
About the first page, note that there are no diet or healthy foods on this list of favorites. (ca. 07-01)
As for the second page, it was a gallery show for a wood craftsman (nice furniture), but the food, oh, the food was extraordinary. (ca. 05-03)

A Day at the Beach, ca. 07-01

2008-10-06T19:42:00.000-07:00

A page from my sketchbook, a reminder of an unusually sunny day at the beach in Waldport, Oregon. The weather was invariably overcast every time we went to the beach house leased by my husband's employer, so this visit was a pleasant surprise. I had a small pocket-sized box of watercolor with me and painted the beach. In retrospect, I am glad I took the time to do this, since, due to a change of circumstances, we stopped going to the beach house, and the memory now seems all the more precious.

The Horrible Massage, ca. 02-04

2008-10-04T22:49:00.000-07:00

A few years ago, I decided to treat myself to a massage on my birthday. Anticipating that I may be going through one of those depressive moods that seem to strike around the date, I wanted to do something preventive that would soothe me into my next age. So I called one of the local Massage schools. The student assigned to me, they assured me, would be a senior soon to graduate. I gathered up my courage (I hadn't done this before) and made an appointment. This was going to be a special birthday.
By the time I got to the Massage school for my appointment in the late afternoon of my birthday, I felt tense and harried. I was wearing black. The day hadn't gone so well and a massage was just what I needed. I felt secretly pleased with myself for anticipating my needs.
I went in the school building and was directed to the upstairs waiting room where my student was waiting for me. A tall, lumbering man holding a towel stood at the top of the stairs. I looked around and realized that this had to be my student. Here I was expecting a perhaps bookish, but nevertheless efficient young woman, and I got a lumberjack! My heart sank. He led me to a large gym in which other students were busy providing massages to people lying down on their backs or stomachs on foam mats directly on the wooden floor. I was increasingly apprehensive.
The big guy, -a giant, really, took me to a corner of the room. I set my things down on the floor, took my shoes off and eased myself down on the mat. The student gave me a small hand towel to place on my chest over my sweater. I closed my eyes and ordered myself to relax. The massage was nondescript and clumsy. I was surprised that a senior student could be that ineffective. I was resigned to get through the session and be done with it.
But as time went on, I felt myself pulled out of my self-induced semi-meditative state by some grunts and panting sounds that became increasingly loud. I opened on eye, to see what was going on. The student was now working on my legs through my clothes. He looked uncomfortable, his bovine face looked grey and pasty, and large beads of perspiration were forming on his forehead. I was alarmed. The man may have a heart condition, I suddenly thought. What would I do if he fell on top of me, like a great tree falls in a primeval forest? He kept on kneading my legs, working his way upward in an erratic manner. Through my half open eyes, I could see him strain to keep on task. What a stupid way to die, I told myself, crushed to death, and on my birthday of all days possible! I was frozen by fear, with visions of myself squashed, flattened like a bug on the floor, blood pooling under me.
I kept hoping that, perhaps, he would move aside, and give himself s few minutes to recover. Not so. He was now directly over my head, massaging my shoulders, then my neck. I quickly opened an eye again. There he was, haggard, breathing like a bull charging through a field, sweating away, right over my face. I closed my eye shut quickly. I felt a drop of sweat splash on my face, right under my right eye. Paralyzed with horror, all I could think was "Body fluid!" I could feel every hair on my body stand straight. What if it had fallen in my eye! I tried to calm myself down; there was no need to panic; there was no reason to overreact. I carefully wiped the wetness off my fingers. I was busy thinking up an excuse to stop the ordeal, when I felt the towel being picked off my chest. What was he doing this time? I opened both eyes at once, to see him rolling the towel in a ball, wiping his forehead with it, and, once done, placing the wet towel back over my chest.
To this day, I still wonder why on earth, I didn't simply put an end to the séance the instant I saw that things were off, but too often, my reaction to something weird going has been one of surprise, disbelief, then magical thinking: if I close my eyes, it'll disappear or pass eventually. Of course, nothing ever does.
In any case, the drawing was done a few minutes after leaving the school with encouraging words to the inept clod who inadvertently made this birthday one I'll always remember.

Today's sketch: "The Lady with the Camelias"

2008-09-10T20:42:00.000-07:00

With a nod to Alexandre Dumas, here is "La Dame aux Camélias."

It is rather unusual for me to draw from imagination, but the opportunity presented itself today. I used a (leaky) Pilot Vball 0.5 pen.

Photos of Kitchen

2008-09-08T21:08:00.006-07:00

Photos of my kitchen, designed by Yours Truly.

A sketch I did last Thursday

2008-09-07T17:30:00.000-07:00

Drawing from imagination is very different from when I look at something. Lines are generally more defined, features are a bit out of proportion, shadows are less defined. A different style altogether.

My Recipe for Coffee-free Frappuccino

2008-09-04T22:03:00.001-07:00

And here it is, dear audience, my super-extra-addictive-no-coffee-much-chocolate recipe for Frappuccino. No need to rely run to your local (unnamed) coffee shop anymore, because you can make it at home.
And, oh, it IS so difficult to resist making it...over and over. Just like right now.
It sure looks like I'm going to make me one of these delicious chocolate-flavored drinks, since I won't have to share with a bunch of people (J. is asleep, V. is upstairs, M. and K. at work, G. is at a meeting; only C. is downstairs)...hehehe.

"Maxine on the Run" is off and running

2008-08-09T13:34:00.006-07:00

"Maxine on the Run" is where I'll post my drawings and other things that are not specifically done in sketch/journal style.