Like an out of shape runner, I’ve taken up drawing again…but I’m out of practice! I have no stamina. I could barely get through the two hour class! Srsly, it was great to be rubbing charcoal across the page and even though I’m rusty and the results are primitive, it felt good. I can’t believe that it’s been over a year since I last made a drawing.

I mangled the left eye in the portrait of David but thanks to our 82 year old instructor, Jack Katz, I can now draw ears with confidence (and David has fantastic ears, I can assure you). Doesn’t it look grand?

I use the analogy of running because I believe drawing to be a practice like music or dance or sports or anything that requires perseverance. We aren’t born virtuosos and I think too often we forget that. There’s also the self-expression and the feeling of transcendence I get just smearing charcoal, carving dark lines and erasing to create highlights. This philosophy was bestowed upon me by the great drawing guru Phil Sylvester of the Drawing Studio and if you ever have a chance, do yourself a favor and take a class from Phil. You won’t regret it. Even if you think you can’t draw. You can. Anyone can.

It’s been a few weeks but I return with the regular Wednesday Doodle feature and it’s another one of Max’s doodles from years ago. Oh the twisted imagination of the male adolescent.

Before I forget, I have a few links I wanted to share with you. The Ministry of Cats turned me on to the Bread Art Project and maybe the Gray Hair gallery too. I can’t remember. It’s been a few weeks and I can barely remember anything from five minutes ago! Both cool sites and worth checking out.

Also another shot of the graduate Alice taken by Sean Morrison, photography instructor at Union High School. Check out the entire set at flickr if you have time. Pretty cool shots of high school students about to commence. I found them quite touching.

It’s kind of funny that Alice, voted “Best Smile” by her classmates, barely grinned in the photo.

Ok these are a little more sophisticated than your average doodle, I grant you that. They started life as drawings Max made more than 10 years ago. When I started learning web design in 1998, I scanned them, turned them into .gifs and made Max a mini-web site to showcase these characters.

The website is long since gone – I’ve recently switched to bluehost – but the doodles of young man’s imagination live on.

Here’s the scenario: bored and stranded at the airport, the kids steal my gold pen and proceed to doodle. I believe this was most likely a joint effort. I think Alice has the makings of a future designer or interior decorator.

On a totally unrelated note, here’s what I was working on a year ago and I still am.

Don’t you just love little girl doodle drawings?

embossed leaves socks, originally uploaded by alicethelma.

Instead of calling these “May” socks I have decided to call them pair #5 for 2008. Yes folks, I have fallen in love with sock knitting all over again. At Knit Night I saw another knitter making these socks and it was love at first sight. I simply had to make them myself. And the yarn is superb! Best sock yarn I’ve ever used. It’s a soft and springy 100% merino called “Jitterbug” from Colinette in a pale shade of my favorite color of course. I splurged and what a difference a good yarn makes. Like a good novel, I don’t want these socks to end. I’m trying to savor them but I fear they will be finished in less than a week. The photo shows a day’s progress.

The pattern is called “Embossed Leaves Socks” from the book Favorite Socks: 25 Timeless Designs from Interweave.

In other knitting news I’m dragging on the final stages of the must have cardigan. Are there other people out there who hate piecing together a sweater as much as I do? GROAN. I did manage to get the buttons on, and they do look lovely (if I do say so myself) but I haven’t gotten any farther than that. I do have a self-imposed deadline for finishing this sweater. I would like to gift it to someone real soon.

And finally, here’s my latest drawing. The lower part of the face, the mouth and hand, are based on an old photo of MLK that was floating around the studio. Next Saturday is the last class. *sigh* I’m gonna miss it. But, depending on how things work out, I may enroll in a class later in the summer.