January 2012
32 posts
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I keep forgetting to tell you!
A couple of friends and I are presenting at CCDA’s Des Moines Intensive on Saturday, February 18. After instructors blow everyone’s minds with the the “8 Key Components” of Christian Community Development and “Strategic Partnerships for Community Transformation,” my friends and I hope to inspire participants – while keeping feet planted firmly on the ground –...
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Ooooooh, it came last night.
“Life’s FAR TOO SHORT for mulling over the details that confine us.” -h.m.
My goodness, I am inspired by Helen Martin, creator of Lionheart Magazine. I haven’t even read the publication itself yet (I have just read her introduction and bits and pieces on her website and blog). I found Issue 1 in my mailbox last night – wrapped, hand addressed, and stamped with a lion – and it...
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Slow to post my daily drawings! Because they have me thinking…
Sketch prompt #53: Neighbor. The prompt inspired me to dig through photos I took of my neighborhood for my Sketchbook Project last year. This is the view from one end of my street, looking toward my house (it’s hidden there on the left behind the small-quick-sketchily rendered school bus).
While I sketched, I thought...
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I got to spend more time with my ladies over the weekend.
And today, I listed more prints:
Now all 12 images from my calendar are available in my shop. More good news: I decided to extend my buy one calendar from my shop – get a free print offer through the end of this month. Hooray for that.
I plan to post a recipe soon… it drags, but why? Coming soon, I promise!
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Sketch prompt #52: Hoard. I cheated a bit… because I hoarded all of my available drawing time to sketch a hoard of sculptures from my Germany photos for another project. The lovely ladies:
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Saturday morning...
…pancakes! Every Saturday. Almost every Saturday. Pretty often made by Andy while I sleep in. Mmmmm, mmm. :)
(Free print offer ends this weekend)
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Hmm. This is another time when I wish I wasn’t posting all of my drawings. These are quick ones drawn during distracted moments. :(
Sketch prompt #48: Celebrate. Drawn from a photo at my daughter’s birthday party (she’s a Halloween baby). These kids have been friends since preschool… here we have a detective, Word Girl (PBS), Darth Vader, a mermaid, and Dorothy from the...
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Sketch prompt #46: Skate.
Sketch prompt #47: Impossible.
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So, how was that "break?"
Remember that post about all I hoped to accomplish during my time of over the holidays? Yeah. Here’s how that turned out:
Take baths at night… at least a few times a week. {I did not take a single bath.}
Give myself an at-home pedicure complete with after-pedicure relaxation in my fancy red lavender stuffed slippers (gift from an old friend who gave them to me when I turned...
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Sketch prompt #44: Board. My brain landed on the board used to “walk the plank.” I was thinking a lot of Peter Pan here, so that’s my view of Wendy from afar. Kind of diggin’ that pirate ship.
Sketch prompt #45: Coy. Ha. I have my Google search to thank for this one. It’s Law & Order’s Jack McCoy! (Well, sort of.)
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What's this I hear? A free print?!
Yes, my friend. Purchase my Limited Edition 2012 Sketchbook Calendar this week and receive a free print of your favorite drawing from the calendar in either 5x7 or 8x10 (a $10-20 value). Prints come on a rich, textured fine art paper that I just love – signed and sealed in a protective sleeve. Offer expires at midnight CST on Sunday, January 22.
How does it work?
Go to my shop.
Toss my...
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Sketch prompt #42: Parade. I drew two Clydesdale horses because my grandpa used to drive two Clydesdales in parades in small Wisconsin towns (where my family comes from). They were huge and majestic. All of us cousins got to ride in the wagon they pulled. My parents moved from Wisconsin to Iowa (by way of WYOMING where I was born… did you know that about me?!), and I didn’t know my...
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It's Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.
“An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.” – MLK
∞
To try to honor the day, every year I:
Take the day off. I started a few years ago. For some reason, I had not done this before.
Watch King’s “I Have a Dream” speech – in it’s entirety. Last...
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Sometimes, my life seems so trivial. That last post about the Muslims and Christians in Egypt gets me. And so does the attention from the Tumblrs on the story, because I think it does something to us. Strips away the fluff and shows us meaning. And life and sacrifice. And beauty and truth. And faith.
Get ready. Sharp corner here…
Sketch prompt #38: Stuck. A portion of the cover of my...
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Muslims act as human shield for Christian...
Did you hear about this?
After a New Year’s Day terrorist bombing on a Christian church in Egypt, thousands of Muslims gathered around Christian churches throughout Egypt to hold candlelight vigils and act as human shields while the Christians inside these churches celebrated their Christmas Eve service last week.
Sometimes humanity is too beautiful…
Photos found here.
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I’m reading “The Secret Garden.” Some good friends gave my daughter the book, and she read it immediately. Then she insisted I read it, too… right now. Right now, Mom. Seriously, Mom. Have you read it yet?
Well, I started and I’m at the part now when Mary meets Dickon and she takes him to her stolen garden. I don’t know if I ever read the book when I was young,...
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Sketch prompt #34: Crave. I just let my drawing friends in on a little secret, and now I’ll tell you. I guess that means it won’t be much of a secret anymore. This is it: I love eating olives in the morning. Specifically these olives. (And no, I’m not pregnant.) I made up the label on my sketch… using my olive branch logo. Hmm. I had never made the connection between my...
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I may not be blonde, but that’s Andy and me in there.
Source: Fox’s view
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My, my… nose to the html grindstone these days! (That was an incredibly nerdy thing to say, but I’ll leave it in case it makes you smile.) I found a better way to display my portfolio, so check out my updated website. I have more work to incorporate, but I decided I made it far enough that I can come up for air!
Some of you who know me in person ask how I did on my gargantuan to-do...
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My friends tease me because I’m not on Facebook. Now I have a business page… but still no personal account. And I like it that way. I would love to connect with my old friends who I lost touch with, but I’m also happy to stay offline and just talk with the people around me. Who knows, maybe I’ll give in. But for now, I’m sticking to my game.
This song came on...
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Sketch prompt #30: Pattern. I liked the idea of doing something with a sewing pattern and moved toward sewing mannequins and eventually… I got this.
Sketch prompt #31: Wind. This has become a familiar sight while driving through Iowa farmlands. Where you guys live, too? (And do you ever see the parts to these on semi trucks driving down the interstate? The scale is incredible.) Oh, wind...
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One kind of girl pays $$ to have her hair cut. Another kind of girl hastily chops own hair off in the bathroom while her husband saws pipes apart under the kitchen sink at 9 p.m. … and then asks her husband to chop more hair off the next night to finish the job for a total subtraction of about eight inches.
I am that second kind of girl.
[Apparently I am also the kind of girl who will...
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Out with the old...
I decided it was time for an update! What do you think? The banner comes from a drawing in my sketchbook from my time in Berlin that I used twice (sshhhh!) in my 2012 Sketchbook Calendar (there are 17 left!):
Check out the new goodies in my sidebar. (FYI, I needed a Twitter account for something but I never used it. I think I will have to start for a new project I signed up for soon. More on...
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You may now like me on Facebook. It’s true. Pass it on.
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Sooo, my husband is a genius. I guess that’s all I’m going to say about that for now. I just love him. Love him. Love him.
Two more drawings. And no fear, I promise I have more non-sketchbook posts coming soon!
Sketch prompt #28: Thin.
Sketch prompt #29: Fresh.
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Sketch prompt #26: Geisha. Totally loved this prompt. I would never have drawn something like this without it and all of the shapes were fun to draw. I learned more about geishas, too. So interesting.
Sketch prompt #27: Tangled. Disney’s “Tangled” on the brain in this house (my kids love it). Since I need practice drawing people, I did a quick sketch of Mandy Moore at the...
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My daughter made a paper dollhouse
Yesterday was the first day back to school here, and my daughter came home with a paper dollhouse she made with her friend before the break. Meet the lovely ladies:
And welcome to their spectacular home! Take a peek inside:
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Sketch prompt #24: Holiday. My 8-year-old daughter taking in the over-stimulating view over the railing at Cincinnati’s Crate & Barrel. I don’t shop much, so this trip with her Grandma, aunts, and me over the holiday may have been one of her first visits to a big somewhat “fancy” store. The view of the huge banners from this view was striking – especially because they...
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Back on track...
I fell woefully behind in my daily sketching over the holidays. But I won’t let that get me down.
Sketch prompt #22: Broken. I thought this was particularly appropriate after putting together my last post. Recognize the necklace?
Sketch prompt #23: Burn. When I posted this in our drawing forum last night, I wrote, “I took the ‘opposite’ approach and drew my baby...
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2011
I have been enjoying the year-in-review posts by other bloggers this week. Here’s mine. :)
In January :: I created this illustration of my daughter and I (“Resolutions”). This piece was a part of my Sketchbook Project that I shipped off to Brooklyn later that month. Gosh, that seems like ages ago. Letting go of such a precious (to me) sketchbook was an experience I needed to...
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I like the holidays to linger.
I just pretend it isn’t over.
At least we have a nice slow transition back to “real life” this year.
And I am so entirely happy I scheduled this final week off while everyone else in my home heads back.
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Happy New Year!
I decided to celebrate with the release of a new print – the January drawing from my Limited Edition 2012 Sketchbook Calendar:
Tea Time No.1 © Heidi Fuchtman 2011
This digitally-colored piece comes from a pencil sketch I pulled straight out of my sketchbook. I drew onsite at a favorite local coffee shop one day when a friend surprised me by watching my boys for a few hours (big-big smile),...
December 2011
21 posts
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We returned last night from over a week of holiday travel. It was all filled with love and family, but all six of us were happy to be home. While my husband and I sat in the living room waiting for all four kids to fall asleep, we heard one of them singing “Silent Night” from their bed.
I have been thinking back on 2011 and forward to 2012 like most of us are doing these days....
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Found this drawn on my driver side window when I followed my kids out to the van the other morning. My five-year-old-son told me this means “Merry Christmas.”
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On my first week off, I did accomplish a little bit of one item from my long-long list. While I did not hang out with “all” of my friends, I did spend time with some of my darn good ones, and this quote from Dr. Seuss says it all. Thanks, Grinch. Thanks, friends.
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Sketch prompt #21: Later.
I knew right away that I wanted to represented doing housework later, but there is so much to choose from around my house these days. I finally decided to draw our kitchen sink (that actually had CLEAN pots and pans in the drying rack, but still)… then my husband started cleaning the kitchen and my first thought was seriously, “Uh, can’t you do that...
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I'm still here.
Last night, I realized I missed four whole days of drawing. We had a birthday, and Youth Art Team adventures, and driving, and…
So tonight I curled up under my big comfy blanket and sketched away.
Sketch prompt #16: Winter (bringing ourselves indoors and burning energy through Nerf wars… my 8-year-old daughter and 5-year-old son set up their base under the dining room table).
...
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Someone here is four.
The moment we’ve all been waiting for… old enough to eat ONE WHOLE VITAMIN!
Happy Birthday little man!
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A break. Or...
I just finished my last day of work until after the holidays. As usual, my list of what I hope to do during my time off exceeds the possible. To break up the list, I inserted the last four days worth of 365 Day Drawing Challenge sketches (remember these are quick 15-minute sketches so be nice). Here goes:
Take baths at night… at least a few times a week.
Give myself an at-home pedicure...
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It's here.
At last! How many years have I wanted to create my very own calendar? I finally did it. And I love it.
My limited edition 2012 Sketchbook Calendar features 12 original pencil drawings straight from the pages of my sketchbook.
Buy it now in the shop. (And don’t worry if you don’t see it. Please check back… I’ll list another as they sell.)
I decided to limit the...
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Now available in my Etsy shop:
Crochet dishcloths in sets of 5! A practical gift. Find them here.
Even more exciting… my calendar is ALMOST here. I can’t wait to show you. :)
And my sketches from the weekend (365 Day Drawing Challenge)…
Sketch Prompt #9: “Phone” (Awhile back, my daughter asked us why we say “hang up the phone.” Haha. She has only really known cell phones.)
...
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It's almost ready.
I plan to release my 2012 Sketchbook Calendar next week. It features 12 full-color prints of my digitally-colored pencil drawings straight out of the pages of my sketchbook. I was so pleased with my test prints yesterday that I couldn’t stop showing them to my husband over and over again.
I’ll only print 25 of these, so keep your eyes open next week if you’re interested. Watch...
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"It's lovely..."
365 Day Drawing Challenge || Sketch Prompt #7: “Sea”
I’ve had this song in my head all day… great prompt. :)
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2nd & 3rd grade holiday program last night (my gummy bear working on a book she’s writing while waiting to head out and perform in “A Beary Merry Holiday”)
the kind of doodle I love to find around the house
365 Day Drawing Challenge Sketch Prompt #6: “Talk” (yesterday’s, oops. i cannot get faces down… reworked the faces on these ladies until...
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365 Day Drawing Challenge || Sketch Prompt #5: “Snow”
Drawn from photo of paper snowflakes here.
(Sorry for the ugly phone pics of these drawings. Better to get the drawing done than get a great scan to post, right?)
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This is all I can think about right now… working on it every minute I can carve out of my days!
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I love this drawing Nancy Gronholm submitted for “Vanity” on Illustration Friday. On her blog she wrote, “Do you ever get the feeling there’s a little bit of vanity involved in our blogging, facebooking, twittering etc etc etc ..? ;)”
Sometimes blogs let us put our best foot forward and ignore… our worst foot? Hmm. Anyway, every now and then, I try to share...
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365 Day Drawing Challenge
Sketch Prompt #3: Lush
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Sketch prompt #2: Brilliant. My coffeemaker.