Makiko Itoh : Not a nameless cat.

I'm going to try to get back to the drawing-or-something-a-day habit. I signed up on Thing-a-day, which hopefully will kick my butt back into gear. (If you want to do something creative for the month of February, there's still time to join up there.)

I know that all the writing that I do is creative, but I still feel the urge to do creative things that are not digital. I spend far more time with my computers than I do any human being, or anything else, and there's something profoundly dissatisfying about that.

I also want to loosen up and do quick sketches, rather than obsessive multi-hour drawings that I was doing last year.

I am fairly happy with this one, especially the red. Took about eight hours total!

I am still drawing...but I haven't been able to keep up the daily picture goal. There are a couple of reasons for this; first, I've just not had the time, or given it the time, on days when I've been swamped with work and other matter.

Bananas (no. 9): colored pencil

Past their prime though still tasty. The spots seemed to increase as I was drawing.

Red Knitting (no. 8): colored pencil

I am knitting a bright red mohair scarf. Hopefully I'll finish it before winter, such as it is, ends.

I have come to the conclusion that I can't use the scanner for scanning these drawings. It's fine for photographs but seems to choke on artwork. So, I'm going to have to photograph the picture the next day (since I am usually drawing in the evening, after the day's work is done.)

Square paper clip: graphite

I am much more comfortable in black and white than in color. I need to make a color chart of the pencils I have. The only drawback of graphite is that it gets all over the hands.

Woman in Red: colored pencil (Faber-Castell ColorGrip 2001)

This lady really stood out in the crowds of people doing their Saturday shopping in Zürich yesterday. In a town where most people wear blacks, greys and browns in the winter, she was wearing a bright red coat with a bright red hat. She wasn't that young or pretty, but she definitely drew stares - and smiles.

There are more things around here in the sketch but I left them out and just left in the grey color around her.

Graphite (4B)

colored pencil (Faber-Castell ColorGrip 2001)