Friday: green

green, originally uploaded by Sophie_vf.

My response for Daisy Yellow's Friday prompt, Green.

I have wicked deadlines right now, snapping at my heels like wolves, so this was very much a quickie. I started by wetting a sketchbook page with water, then dropped some Herbin Vert Olive ink onto the wet paper directly from my pen. After it dried, I sketched the house with white gel pen, filled in a bit with the fountain pen itself and and sketching crayons.

I'm surprised at how insubstantial it looks, as though it might fade away completely, or come and go like a phantom house.

Repeat Friday

I'm a bit late on Tammy's Friday no-frills prompt, repeat - I left my camera at my workplace and didn't get a chance to pick it up till today. But to be honest, I could really have taken these pictures of repeating patterns any other day in the last few weeks, or the next few weeks, for that matter, because my life is in what seems to be a continuously repeating loop.

Mostly revolving around writing a series of papers, carefully filed and brought to and from school in this folder, a constant companion:


and sorting through filing cabinets full of scientific papers and collected data:



and it all comes down to this, for the next few weeks. Despite the rather bleak and institutional look of the pictures, they're truthful,and the process, while stressful, is also strangely satisfying, and more importantly,  finite.

roseleaf holga

roseleaf holga, originally uploaded by Sophie_vf.

Coffeeshop Lomo + Teeny tiny world again.

What I really wanted was a sharp, clear picture of the rose leaves with creamy dried grass in the background. What I got was a mostly out of focus, overexposed picture due to my dogs running back and forth behind me on the path and distracting me. So I chucked it into a few Coffeshop actions for the save.

Faux Holga

holga3, originally uploaded by Sophie_vf.

This was just a little experiment because someone on the Coffeshop Actions group asked how to get a fake holga effect, and I thought that this would make a start. This was just square crop, run Coffeshop Lomo, run Coffeshop Tiny World. I'm sure more could be done, like a heavier vignette and film strip layer, but I didn't want to work that hard at it.

I wish I had a teeny tiny Red Riding Hood to put in the picture :)

Fence Friday

for Tammy's No Frills prompt: perspective.

Five fews of my back yard fence from morning light, through drizzle, to evening.

thankful for: a salad bowlful

thankful for: a salad bowlful, originally uploaded by Sophie_vf.

even with the thread - and reality - of frost, there was just enough shelter and protection in the garden that tomatoes continued to ripen slowly, and though they are nowhere as prolific as they were last year, it is still a great pleasure to be able to have vine-ripened tomatoes in October.

it's true that the leaves were ragged, spotty, and frost damaged, but they held up just long enough to give us these, and for the pleasure of a home-grown tomato, we are grateful.

hookey

hookey, originally uploaded by Sophie_vf.

I had such an unproductive day yesterday - writing, deleting, cutting and pasting the same passages over and over again - that this morning I decided to take a mental break to read, draw, and ride my bike.

I've hardly ridden my bike this year - partly crappy weather, partly dog priorities. It was wonderful to get out on this fall day, take a break at Aperture Park by the university, look at the trees, rocks, and leaves, and do a little drawing.

September falls to October: Daisy Yellow's Creative experiments

September's Creative Experiments  from Tammy at the ever-inventive Daisy Yellow were extra fun for me this month, partly because they were relatively easy for me to fit into my extremely busy back-to-school month, partly because there were prompts with emphasis on hearing and sound.

I have to admit that the first prompt, carry a notebook with you for a month, felt almost like cheating because I've carried a notebook around with me forever, it seems, as a catch-all for any list, plan, sketch, appointment that might pop up. My current notebook is the ubiquitous moleskine, but previous to that I've carried all manner of cheap, glued or spiral bound books. I actually regret that slightly - I have notebooks that are now falling apart, such as my travel log from my backpacking trip to Australia and New Zealand, and I wish they had been more durable and better preserved. So I now feel somewhat justified in my current preference - and pickiness - about my notebooks. There are other books I like better than the moleskine - most notably, the small pocket sized Habana - but just try and find one around here. I will rejoice the day they are as easy to pick up as its competitor.

Anyway,  I thought I'd challenge myself by posting some of the scribbles I'd normally never scan, much less post, because of their state of messy incompleteness. Also, the responses to the next two prompts, write a thoughtful description of five sounds you encounter and create an iTunes playlist of 15 songs that make you feel just right.  I jotted them down as they came to me in clumps over the month, so there is really no theme that I can discern. But they all feel, if not exactly good, then just that right balance of sweetness and melancholy. 





scribbly line practice drawn in the food court on lunch break, a welcome change from staring at a computer screen:




and something just a bit tidier, drawn over a number of sessions while waiting to pick the kids up at judo practice. I wish I could blame the wonky perspective on the fact that I parked in a slightly different slot each time, but I really doubt that's my primary issue. I plan on coloring it eventually, hoping to distract from the drunken tilt of the roof, etc:



The prompt sketch the perfect backpack or purse had me stymied at first. I have backpacks for school, for dog walks, for hiking, for travel, and they're each perfect in their own way. And I really don't get into purses the way a lot of women do - mine tend to be made of cordura. But then I started thinking about  the Bag of Holding, some version of which can be found in nearly every adventure or RPG, and which even showed up in the form of Hermione's beaded bag in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Carrying a nearly infinite volume of items necessary to a quest, including but not limited to bags of gold, weasels, shovels, bombs, and manhole covers, the Bag of Holding has been an unending source of hilarity to me and my children.  So as I complete my current quest, that is to say, writing my master's thesis, what would I really like to haul along with me? Modeled somewhat on my current Timbuk2 mini metro, the following:



And I admit that the last prompt, read four books this month, also felt a little like cheating, because I tend to, anyway. Prompted by REALLY GOOD TV on the local PBS station, namely Lark Rise to Candleford and Inspector Lewis, I plowed through:

Lark Rise, Flora Thompson
Candleford Green, Flora Thompson
The Jewel that was Ours, Colin Dexter

and also, doing "research" for our upcoming book club season,
People of the Book, Geraldine Brooks
The Innocence of Father Brown, GK Chesterton

now, onto the October Experiments, and I'm thrilled to say Tammy included one of my suggestions on the list - thanks Tammy! To play along, and add suggestions of your own, head on over to Daisy Yellow!