It’s the new year and I have now officially been packing up Christmas stuff and reorganizing for next year. My basement has been a mess with tubs, supplies, boxes, and other products and I worked to relegate, purge, and pack up all the stuff around my house. I decided to sketch my process to just have some fun with it. My first sketch is just of a poinsettia flower that my friend gave me. One evening I started looking at its fine veins and leaves and thought, “Why not sketch it?” So I did! I drew it with pen and then added layer after layer of crimson watercolor. You can see the original color in the lightest small leaves. Some time I will have to pack that up to, into the trash, but for now, it is still alive.
This next sketch is a hodge-podge of Christmas boxes and decorations that I packed up. I would pack items, sketch them, then put their box lids on and haul away. It took longer, but I had fun with the process…
I sketched my son taking the ornaments off the Christmas tree. Our tree is fake and comes out of a large box in three pieces. You basically slide the three pieces together and there’s the tree! He is draped in a fringe-y fleece blanket and his slippers, but I got a sketch of him working. He even dropped a delicate ornament, which shattered into pieces on the floor and my hubby got a broom and trash can to pick it up. There is usually drama when you sketch…. I was so not paying attention that I skipped a page in my sketchbook, leaving one blank by accident, and drew this sketch upside down. So that is quite an addition to my sketchbook!
The blank page I skipped last night now has a sketch on it. My daughter commented this morning how empty the space looks where the tree was, so today I sketched the lone brown leather chair that now occupies its place. It does look boring, I have to admit. Even with the lamp and shelves, it doesn’t look as festive as a tree with ornaments and lights. But we will get used to it again, and can get really excited in another year when the tree comes out of the basement again!
