Drawing with Leighlund Series -

"12, 13"
digital collage by Mick Mather

"... I'm writing a book,
I've got the page numbers done ..."
- Stephen Wright

Thursday Challenge: Red -

"Red I"
digitally manipulated drawing & collage by Mick Mather
- original drawing by Leighlund Ruth Vincett -

"... just do what you do best ..."
- Red Auerbach

NEW from Drawing With Lieghlund Series -

"Hamburger and Fries"
digitally manipulated drawing by Mick Mather
- original drawing by Leighlund Ruth Vincett -

"... anybody who doesn't think that the best hamburger place in the world is in his own home town is a sissy ..."
- Calvin Trillin

Illustration Friday: Undone -

"Undone"
digitally manipulated drawing by Mick Mather
- original drawing by Leighlund Ruth Vincett -

"... the whole point of getting things done
is knowing what to leave undone ..."
- Oswald Chambers

NEW from Drawing With Leighlund Series -

"Party Crackers"
digitally manipulated drawing by Mick Mather
- original drawing by Leighlund Ruth Vincett -

"... weave goodness into your life ..."
- Triscuit Crackers Slogan

VACATION: Day Nine -

"Maple Leaf I"
digitally manipulated drawing by Mick Mather
- original drawing by Leighlund Ruth Vincett -

My vacation, for all practical purposes, is now over. Soon, I'll be back at my usual routine, visiting all of you again at your blogs and struggling to catch up on the week's worth of work that didn't go away, but became a deeper pile on my not-so-empty desk at the office. Before I do, I have an entire series of digital manipulations created from one of my granddaughter's recent drawings. I call it "The Maple Leaf Series" and it documents a slow, digital decay of this stylistic drawing. More to come!

Drawing With Leighlund Series -

"Leighlund's Christmas Goose"
manipulated digital drawing by Mick Mather
- original drawing by Leighlund Ruth Vincett -

Earlier this week, Tuesday to be exact, I posted a beautiful piece of land art created by my middle granddaughter, Paige. Well, you know how it is, you can't post one without representing the other so, here's another piece from the Drawing With Leighlund Series. To catch you up, and for newcomers, this series begins with one of Leighlund's delightful, scribbly drawings and then comes to Poppa for a run through the super secret array at the Secret Visual laboratory. This one reminds me of a fat, Christmas goose taking flight.

Drawing With Leighlund Series -

"Toe Shoes"
digitally manipulated drawing by Mick Mather
- original drawing by Leighlund Ruth Vincett -

I've done quite a few of these, an even 10 to be precise, and wonder why it's taken until now to call it a series. If I get ambitious, I may go back through and re-tag everything so that a search will bring all of them up. That aside, I don't suppose it will be much longer until she begins to take ballet lessons and it was quite a surprise to find this pair of toe shoes while working on the original scribble ... and, plié - plié - plié!

Drawing With Leighlund Series -

"Code Breakers Brain Scan"
digitally manipulated drawing by Mick Mather
- original drawing by Leighlund Ruth Vincett -

I thought I might do another collaboration with my granddaughter, Leighlund, and was curious to discover that this particular scribble is rather closely aligned to the spider web photographs that I see as 3-dimensional drawings. I haven't done a lot with the latter but they're in my head, percolating, sure to come out again in one form or another not too far in the future. That said, it probably behooves me to work on another that will close the circle of my thinking here. Always, it seems, I make more and more work for myself! :)

Drawing With Leighlund Series -

"Girl With a Bow in her Hair"
digitally manipulated drawing by Mick Mather
- original drawing by Leighlund Ruth Vincett -

All the way back in March, when I was hard at work on a number of my granddaughters drawings, I posted one called "Scribble Face". That same drawing happens to be the seed for today's post. I'll leave it to all of you to look at that other image and hence to find the little nugget that you see here. So sorry to post and rush off again, but I'll be at a conference all day today with an appearance before the Public Art Commission in the early evening ... more about that later.

Drawing With Leighlund Series -

"A Little Girl and Her Picture Book"
digitally manipulated drawing by Mick Mather
- original drawing by Leighlund Ruth Vincett -

As it so often happens, I've gotten sidetracked from the collaborative project with my granddaughter, Leighlund Ruth Vincett. For the background info, have a peek at a number of posts you'll find here. Suffice it to say, while poking about this morning I found this unfinished piece ... well, it seemed unfinished until I studied it for a time. Now, having added a border and my digital signature, I offer it up. Enjoy.

Drawing With Leighlund Series -

"The Egg Basket"
digitally manipulated drawing by Mick Mather
- original drawing by Leighlund Ruth Vincett -

A few weeks ago the plan was to celebrate my birthday on Easter Sunday with the family. Somewhere along the way and somehow, more than half of us came down with flu or that stomach virus that was going 'round through the late winter months. In any case, this image was supposed to have been posted then but wasn't ... better late than never, right?

Drawing With Leighlund Series -

"Scribble Face"
digitally manipulated drawing by Mick Mather
- original drawing by Leighlund Ruth Vincett -

One of the interesting things about working with digital filtering tools is the happy accident that occurs now and then. In fact, just such a happy accident happened in tonight's post and I'll show it sometime over the weekend or next week - I'm still manipulating it and haven't yet decided where to proceed before I can say it's finished. That aside, this is also part of the project where I begin with a drawing or scribble from my cache of beautiful expressionist scribbles from that equally beautiful child, Leighlund Ruth Vincett. Right now, the two of us are mostly excited about Poppa's upcoming birthday on March 22nd - Leighlund is my party planner and last week I was able to have a peek at the planners book. There's a single page with two check off boxes - each with a nice little check mark in it - one for each must have party category: balloons + cupcakes! Sounds good to me, who needs more? :D

Drawing With Leighlund Series -

"Kitty in the Box"
digitally manipulated drawing by Mick Mather

- original drawing by Leighlund Ruth Vincett -

While organizing some of the drawings and files for use in the book project with my 4-year old granddaughter, Leighlund, I came across this from an earlier series of manipulations. At the time I decided to go with this piece although, even as I write this, I continue to rethink the choice. Another image that remains truer to her initial drawing is more likely what will make it into the completed booklet. Too, the drawing of the kitten is by another artist whose name I can no longer recall - although the image of Roskilde keeps popping into my mind's eye - and while I have proper permission and right to use the image, I'd like to give her credit one of these days. I know I'll stumble across it sometime this year with another project that I have on the back burner now that Leighlund and I have begun our beautiful little collaboration. Anyway, enjoy, more to come. :)

Drawing With Leighlund Series -

"The Baby Picture"
digitally manipulated drawing by Mick Mather

- original drawing by Leighlund Ruth Vincett -

It's been a wonderful weekend - much of it spent photographing, drawing and painting with my granddaughter, Leighlund. Tonight's piece is from a collage with drawing that she originally made for me at Father's Day. Towards the bottom, quite faint, is a circle with two dots for the eyes and a line for the mouth as well as one very long, single hair on top of the head. I took that drawn element, biggered it, tucked it into my usual 400 X 270 pixel working frame and started running it through the filter array here at the secret visual laboratory. Since the paintings that we did today (also including one by my other granddaughter, Keisha) aren't dry, I haven't had an opportunity to scan them for posting ... I will one day soon. Same deal with the photographs taken by my daughter Lisa while the three artistes were hard at work. I did get a lovely little photo of Leighlund that can be seen here. :)

Drawing With Leighlund Series -

"Happy Father's Day Poppa"
collage and drawing by Leighlund Ruth Vincett

Today was a day off for Poppa, sorta, kinda, maybe. Anyway, my 3-year old granddaughter loves to draw, color, paste papers and sculpt with Play Doh - tonight's post is my precious gift from her tiny, creative hands. Oops! Must dash, she has me by the hand and we're going for a walk, over to the swampy pond to catch some froggies! Bye, bye! :)