Draw what's in front of you...

Dear Sarah - Daily Drawing Challenge -046

Hi Nikki,
February 15, 2025

Today I took inspiration from Daniel Gregory's idea of drawing what you see in front of you--in his case his medicine chest. When I sit in my living room to work, across from me is my one and only bookcase, which functions as part bookcase and part display unit. It's about 7 feet tall and has a lot of stuff on it: family photos, birds, pots, napkins and placemats, an antique silver ladle, action figures, glass balls, wooden letters and other things I couldn't fit in. I wanted to move quickly and stay loose, but I was confounded by all the details. And somehow, I ended up with an extra shelf of books! The perspective was also confounding, since it changed from top to bottom. I'll try something like this again, but with more time and a pencil.

The bread turned out well--crispy crust, soft, dense crumb. I'll have it with the soup (minestrone) tonight.

Dear Sarah -
Feb 15, 2025

Oh how I wish I could pop over for some soup and fresh bread!!

As it is, another weekend, another hotel room desk… I’m hungry (I had brought some leftovers from home, a tasty vegetarian curry pot pie from a local deli in Canmore) but somehow not quite enough to fill me up. It is SO COLD out there — -19 degrees C and temps falling — (we are trapped in the arctic vortex) that I have no appetite for strolling to the end of the block in search of food. There’s nothing to eat here at this hotel and not enough plug-in points for all the guest vehicles. I was able to snag a precious spot when I returned from my last appointment, but I’m not going to risk not having a place to plug in the car again if I were to drive somewhere in search of sustenance. Given we are supposed to drop into the negative mid-20s tonight, that’s a sure recipe for a dead car in the morning and a real hassle to get back to the mountains and home for a few days.

Taking inspiration from you taking inspiration from Danny Gregory (did I mention I like him a lot?), I took a short break to draw the slightly wonky lamp in the corner and a simplified version of the edge of my current desk.

I recognize your little wire bird up there on the top shelf - we met in an earlier drawing post!

OK. Decision time. Hunker down and be hungry all night or venture out and risk losing my nose to frostbite?