More Sketchbook Fun

I'm continuing to explore my painting process with the Catalyst Wedge and Blade. This time I let the bunny emerge instead of trying to paint a specific animal like I did with the fox painting from this post. I also used a bamboo skewer to apply black ink for his outline and face to help keep the painting raw.

 

As you can see I don't let anything goto waste. I made sure to use up my paint on my palette on the other page. Who knows what will end up on that page. We shall see.

 

Thanks for stopping by.

 

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Playing in My Sketchbook

 

I had a great time playing with my Catalyst Wedge and Blade in my sketchbook. I created this fox only using paint and the wedges. I used a felt marker for the eyes and nose. I think I need to go shopping for more Catalyst tools.

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for stopping by.

 

 

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Back to Painting Every Day

We've returned and recovered from vacation (I'll post about that later) and I'm back in my studio. I finished this sketchbook page today. 

I call it "Weeeeeeeeeeeee!"

Thanks for stopping by!

On My Art Table

I've been floating from project to project. Working on whatever I'm drawn too.

Here are some of my latest projects.

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are other things I'm working on too. I'm slowly getting back in the groove. The craziness of April is finally over and my new adventures need lots of attention.

Have a wonderful weekend!

 

Continuing My Year of Drawing

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend.

We celebrated Easter.

I am continuing my daily drawing practice but, it's kind of morphed into something else. I had a stack of small pieces of paper to be used for my 10 minute sketches. But now I have several sketchbooks going at once. It's quite disorganized actually. I should come up with a proper system but I haven't quite figured that out yet. Here are some of the sketches I've done the past few days. Some are quick sketches and some I spent time coloring and playing with. Some may even end up on my blog. The Fox in my new header is one of the sketches I did this week.

I sketched this dog from a picture in a magazine. I thought he was cute.

This is from a drawing book I have. I like giving a more realistic animal a go so I know it's key features.

Another fox. I think this will be a painting very soon.

A girly.

I think this guy will be on my blog soon.

 

I'm trying very hard to stay busy and keep the creative momentum up. I will have other work to show you later this week.

Have a wonderful day.

 

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A Year of Drawing Day 4 & 5

I decided to go "woodland cute" this weekend with my drawing. I think Alisa Burke's Whimsy & Wonder E-course inspired this set of drawings. It's a sketchbook approach to creating whimsical drawings. My sketching skills are something I really want to improve on so, this class was perfect. I will say if you want to learn to draw a specific thing, that is not how Alisa teaches. She gives you ideas and shows what she does but she does not show you step by step how to draw specific things. The drawings she made for this course are not intimidating though. If you draw a little and like to draw from imagination, this course is wonderful.

 

 

 

 

One thing I have definitely learned is that I am a paper snob. I have to use Strathmore Mixed Media paper if I want to do watercolors. Alisa uses cheaper paper and doesn't mind the buckling. She even irons the paper after it dries. The buckling drives me crazy. I have to use the good stuff. Strathmore has a few mixed media journals and their paper holds up very well.

Oh, and just an FYI. I have a big announcement coming this week! Stay tuned!

 

 

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February Blues

I have been sick with the cold that wont quit since Super Bowl weekend. Yep, the entire month of February so far. It started as a head cold and transformed into other things over the past few weeks. Obviously being sick for so long sucks all the creative energy out of you. And being a Mom of a 5 year old and 3 year old, any energy I did have pretty much went to them.

I didn't abandon all creative efforts though. I mostly dabbled in my sketchbooks. This helped feed my creativity without adding much pressure or guilt. I figured since the cold kept morphing into other things my body needed rest so, I grabbed that when I could. Sometimes you just have to listen to what your body is telling you. Here are some samples from my sketchbooks. Just fun pieces that may or may not end up in a painting someday.

 

I have been working on something "big". If I continue to improve and this cold finally subsides I will have it done in the next week or so. I can't wait to show it to you!

 

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A New Journey into Art Journalling

See all these. This is my collection of sketchbooks that I keep near my bed.

And these are the journals and sketchbooks in my studio.

 

I may have a hoarding problem. Anyhoo, I am shifting my focus from taking e-courses to further my art education to using my collection of journals/sketchbooks instead.

I've never been great at keeping an art journal or a sketchbook. I love seeing other artists sketchbooks and journals and they look so amazing. Mine don't. I realized comparing my work to others was putting huge pressure on myself to be perfect. For me, my sketchbooks are going to be about practice, experimenting and play.

This is my favorite brand to paint in. It's only available at Michael's. I grab one when I can with a 50% off coupon. The paper is 140lb mixed media. You can find the 90lb version at any art store.

 

I'm going to really take the time now to practice drawing.

Explore materials.

 

Play around and experiment.

 

And maybe finish a page or two.

 

 

They won't all be masterpieces. They will all educate me in some way. I'll learn what I like and don't like. I'll learn what "not" to do. I'll understand my materials better. I will develop my style.

I'm very excited about this. I am giving myself permission to explore and screw up and not freak out about something not working. I get to turn the page and just try again. How freeing is that!

 

 

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Creating Whimsical Animals

How To Create Whimsical Animals by Juliette Crane just finished up its live run. It's her latest e-course and it's available for self study. Juliette takes you from sketchbook to canvas and helps you create your own whimsical animals. Here is how a favorite painting I did for the course came to be.

This elephant I created in my sketchbook.

 

Then I traced him onto deli paper. Deli paper is thicker than tissue paper but still thin enough to see the pattern underneath.

 

 

Next came the painting. I used all kinds of materials to paint my elephant. Mostly water soluble materials like Inktense Pencils, Pan Pastels and Gesso.

 

Then I decided he needed a friend.

 

 

Aren't they just the cutest!

I highly recommend this course, especially if you want to paint animals. You also don't need to have any painting or drawing experience since Juliette shows you how to take simple shapes and make cute animals from them.

I'm also very excited for Juliette's new mini course Backgrounds & Layers coming Nov. 16th. Juliette did a bonus video in Whimsical Animals of her art journalling. This new course is an expansion of that. The art journalling Juliette does is so inspiring to me. Here's a little video she did previewing the new class and below is a page I did inspired by Juliette's methods. I set my timer and used whatever materials I had in front of me. It was totally fun!

 

 

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