Get me out of this thing

Alice had surgery yesterday, but don’t worry, all is well. It was a small thing that had to be removed from her knee but we were happy to hear that it was benign. Last night when we brought her home she was still confused from the anaesthetic, but today she is very alert and wondering why this thing is around her neck.

In the instructions from the vet, they call this an Elizabethan collar. Sounds very fancy. But for her it’s a nuisance that she must wear for 10 days. She keeps bumping into things with it, and looking at me pleadingly to remove it. I try to compensate her, and assuage my own guilt, by giving her treats. Tonight she had some chicken liver with her dinner.

Profiles at the donut shop

I was back at the donut shop today, drinking coffee and drawing people. This time I went to a more crowded shop in another town so that I could see more faces. I also sat in a booth with a good view of people, instead of facing the lineup at the cash register.

This was one of those shops where everyone knew each other, so there was a lot of sitting around and gabbing, and lots of joking between different groups. For the sketches below, I always start the same way. I draw the line of the shoulders first and then fit the head on top of that. That really helps me to get the angles of the head and face. I don’t carry an eraser on these outings. If a line is in the wrong place, I just draw right over it and keep going.

People and dogs

I couldn’t get to the donut shop to draw today. Instead I spent a few hours doing a long overdue studio cleanup, and then set up for a short session of drawing practice, using my own photos as reference.

In an attempt to get better at putting people into urban scenes when I am sketching on location, I selected pedestrians from a series of photos I took last year when I was in the UK. I selected each of them because they were moving, and I tried to capture their motion. I’m hoping that if I do enough of these, when I have real people moving in front of me, I will having some drawing memory of how all the bits fit together. To that, I added some dogs, since I also want to get better at drawing dogs other than Alice.

And to all my American friends, Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you are enjoying a wonderful day with family and friends like we did last month on Canadian Thanksgiving.

A podcast suggestion and, reluctantly, a Black Friday Week sale on online courses

I’m not quite sure how I found it (useless scrolling on social media, no doubt), but over the weekend I discovered a podcast called Ill-advised by Bill Nighy. I’ve long been a fan of his acting, and the podcast is laugh-out-loud funny. At the end of his first episode, Nighy offers a playlist and a book suggestion, recommendations which I enjoyed. In the “About” notes, he says the podcast is “for people who don’t get out much and can’t handle it when they do.” At the end, he acknowledges that people have busy lives and he wants you to feel free to ignore his podcast.

That’s sort of the way I feel about Black Friday promotions. And so, despite my reluctance to jump on the bandwagon, I’m having a Black Friday Week sale too. Here are the facts and, as Bill Nighy says, feel free to ignore them.

During Black Friday Week, this baker’s dozen of popular courses is priced at 30% OFF each for a full 8 days, with even bigger savings if you buy the entire bundle. My Black Friday sale ends at midnight ET on Sunday, November 30, 2025. To save, use the coupon code CARBONBLACK30 at checkout.

First snow

Winter arrived early this year. And stayed. We had an unexpected early snowfall — wet flakes that accumulated on branches still heavy with leaves. The power was out for a night and a day. Most of us were caught without our winter tires on. It was a little chaotic for a few days, as the start of winter always is.

Usually with an early blizzard like this, the snow would be gone in a day or two but it has stayed. And more snow has fallen. I might be the only person to appreciate this early winter. My wheelbarrows were not quite in the right position for painting but I set up a chair in front of my patio door and sketched them. I tried to convey the weight of that early snow on the surrounding evergreens, and the way the wheelbarrows are a bit hidden in the trees.

A few poppies and a poem for today

I always think of my dad on November 11. He would have been 100 this year, and was a WWII veteran, although he was too young to serve overseas during the war. Instead he was sent to northern Ontario to serve as a guard in a Japanese internment camp in Angler, Ontario. It’s an experience he talked about often with us, and I think of him often when I look at the inlaid wooden jewelry box that one of the internees made for him in appreciation of his compassion and empathy in that terrible situation.

In Flanders Fields
By John McCrae

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.