Character sketch and sweet peas

Dear Sarah - Day 103 of our daily drawing exchange

April 13, 2025
Dear Sarah -

Well, this is a weird one.

You know how I like to play around with AI tools to create weairdly believable character photos for our virtual family album for the various characters in the novel? I did that today as I’ve been digging deeper into Cassandra’s past and getting to know her family. I came up with virtual versions of her other brother and her father. In the fake photo of the old dude, he looks sort of creepy, but probably harmless - like someone who may once have been awful and now is just out of shape and balding. I had just finished a pretty productive writing session and was turning my thoughts to drawing and decided to sketch some versions of Casssandra’s not very nice father.

The quick sketches are not very good, but I hope you can tell I DO NOT like this guy.

Doing this exercise did make me think that I should do a whole lot more figure drawing.

That, however, is a task for another day…

Note to self: Don’t sketch while eating… food splatter is a serious hazard!

April 13, 2025
Hi Nikki,

I took K&K to the beach today, and despite the water temperature, they both got completely soaked and incredibly sandy. Surfing on logs was attempted. We came back to my house, where they showered and put on a couple of my sweatshirts while I washed their clothes.

I decided to draw the sweetpeas with watercolour brushes and the kids immediately came and sat right next to me --encouraging me all the way. "You're a really good artist, Nana." "Those are beautiful." Everyone should have that kind of support. A few elbow jostles produced some odd petals, but "It doesn't have to be perfect, Nana." "You did your best."

And now it's time to drive them home.

XO S