Close-up...

... was the theme for this month's Sketchbook Challange. This is my take on it:

 Here, I blew up a small map square and added some doodles.

Weekend gateway

I spend the weekend with some of my fellow runners in the Laurentians, at the Fiddler Lake Resort. All went well, the weather was nice, the chalets were gorgeous, we had plenty of food, booze, games and the like. I was not prepared however to spend four hours on the road. The distance door to door is about 100km. Truth be told, I have not been to the Laurentians in the last seven years and in the meantime, condos have been build on every inch of land available. The highway is practically a parking lot between here and there. It is a good  thing I did not sign up for ski classes; no way I would waste my precious weekend stuck in traffic. Even in Cuba we drove faster!

I found some time to sketch a fruit bowl:

I did not have any colors, only pencil. This is the most "anatomically correct" bowl I ever drew!

Finger painting

Tired of using brushes...

I forgot to prime the paper and the paint dried too fast. It was fun, except for the part where all my faces end up looking the same...

Rules...

... are ment to be broken. At least, that is what the popular wisdon says. Well, I broke one of my rules yesterday. I bought four books. Yes, right, buying books is against my rules. Even worse, I bought them at regular price.

I suppose "the rule" begs an explanation. In general, I borrow books from the library or I buy them second hand. I cannot bear to part with them and I know that, sooner or later, I will have to get rid of them. If I buy them used, I feel less bad when I give them away. Yesterday it was a classical case of impulse buy. Here are the new additions to my library:
Finding Flow - Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi         Funny enough, yesterday afternoon I stumbled on a talk on TED about flow, so when I saw the book, I grabbed it without second thoughts.
On becoming and artist - Ellen J. Langer          I suppose I bought this one because I want to go back to some form of art making and I lost the motivation. I did not achieve the goals I set for myself and I wonder if I should not do something more "productive".                 
Man's search for himself and Love & Will - Rollo May          These ones were on the reading list for a while, but I forgot about them. 

The funny thing is that I was looking for a different book - Stumbling on happiness. I only stumbled on other books; happiness is a whole other story...

 

Sunday brunch

 

Brunch at the bistro captured on paper for the posterity :)

Doodles gone wild - final

This is the final doodle I did for Traci's workshop.