Jim O'Neil's photos

My friend, here on flickr, shinsan was gently complaining about some visitors to his computer. Subsequently I gave him some advice. :-) colored pencil on black card stock 5 b 5 inches.

My lilacs are still in bloom and the bees and butterflys are quite happy about that.

Last evening, from my upstairs window, with the sun shining down from the west, it looked like there was a thin mist covering my driveway but.... as you can see in the closeup to the left, it was a layer of cottonwood seeds. Anyway, kinda cool!

Faber-Castell Pitt pens on 5 by 5 inch card stock

This morning's doodles while listening on the telephone. woodless colored pencil on colored stock

They are still in bloom! Koi Japanese watercolors on 5 by 7 inch Ampersand aquaboard (clayboard).

I haven't shopped at this store lately (they only sell meat in bulk lots and it's a bit more than I need these days), but when my kids were growing up, one moose and a couple of caribou from this shop would take care of all our family meat needs for a full year! Mixed media, colored pencil and watercolor on 9 by 12 inch 140 pound cold pressed paper.

Woodless colored pencil on Bee's 9 by 18 inch 'bogus rough sketch' paper

Faber-Castell 'big brush' pens on Bee's 9 by 18 inch 'bogus rough sketch' paper

I spent most of this, a very rainy, morning, cleaning and organizing my studio area. Now, standing back, I see very little progress. Soft pastel on cheap construction paper, 9 by 12 inches

this morning's sketch Faber-Castell pen and soft pastel on 12 by 12 inch colored stock

Another sketch from Wednesday's life drawing session. water soluble oil pastel on 11 by 15 inch sketch paper

Saturday morning's sketch. Mixed media, Faber-Castell's 'Pitt artist pens big brush' and soft pastel on 12 by 12 inch colored stock.

From where I was sitting doing these, my POV foreshortened the torso, so I drew just the opposite and as the model tended to be a bit hairy, subsequently, in these one minute sketches, I gave him goat legs and horns. Not sure if he appreciated it or not :-) artist's crayon on 11 by 14 inch sketch paper.

So! Kumikosan! These sketches are what I did while listening on the phone to you this morning! The predicted weather is rainy hot and humid in Matsuyama tomorrow. In days gone by the farmers would wear straw raincoats. Faber-Castell's 'Pitt artist pens big brush' on 5 by 8 inch colored stock

There were only 3 artists at the life drawing session at the Grange last night. Everyone else was off picnicking or Bar-B-Qing or just enjoying the 24 hours of daylight. water soluble pastel on 11 by 15 inch sketch paper

This was a fun session, few artists and lots of room to move around for different viewpoints. willow charcoal on 11 by 15 inch sketch paper

A hundred or so years ago, back when I was a boy and a bit, around 12 or 13 years old, two buddies and I pooled all our money together (maybe 15-20 dollars) and bought ourselves a sail boat! It was a twenty foot sailing dory, probably had been beached for over 15 years, the seams were all sprung but the mast was sound and it had a beautiful navy blue sail made out of parachute silk. We spent a week or so caulking the seams with roofing tar, painted the hull, launched on a small local lake and had a delightful summer sailing to our heart's content. In spite of our tar caulking it leaked like a sieve and always took all three of us to sail it, one to sail and two to bail the water out of the bilge. What a grand time! I've loved sailing ever since. Watercolor on 300 pound cold press, 11 by 15 inches.