The Wheels are Turning

Taking notes and doing preliminary sketches. I'm going to work on my first "Illustration Collection" for licensing purposes. The theme is Woodland Animals. This is an excellent way to continue my "Year of Drawing"!

 

Thanks for stopping by!

 

 

 

 

Doodle Fun!

Yesterday I got a lot of time to play in my sketchbook while my kids were playing. I had the book 20 Ways to Draw a Cat on my iPad to inspire me and I drew, drew, drew. 

These were fun little doodles to make. It's all part of my Year of Drawing. 

I am also continuing to add items to my Etsy shop so, please stop by! 

 
 
 
 

Falling in Love with Drawing

My art career began back in 2004. I was a decorative painter and a muralist. I learned to draw and create with my brush. I rarely did anything with a pencil. I was a part of a business group and one of the members wanted me to create a business card for him. I told him this wasn't my thing but I needed the money and he seemed to have faith in me. So I painted a picture of what he wanted. He loved it. Scanned it into his computer and printed out cards. Another member of the group liked the business card and asked me to create a new logo for him. Mind you, I wasn't a graphic designer or an illustrator. I painted murals. But he insisted and I drew a logo for him. Well, his partner (who wasn't a people person) did not like my creation for them and spent 20 minutes telling me how awful I was as an artist and that his 6 year old could do better. (There was a reason this guy didn't represent his company in the group!) I think I cried for several hours after this horrible conversation. It shook my confidence and I left the group a few months later. All artists have stories like this one. Someone comes along and tells them they aren't as great as they think they are. I didn't attempt drawing again until 2 years ago. And, I have to tell you, I love it! It's meditative and fun at the same time. Most important, I do it for me.

I made myself some ground rules when I decided to improve my drawing skills.

Don't label it as "good" or "bad"

Don't compare my work with others

Draw what I like

Draw every day

Explore and have fun

So, I draw fun characters or scribbles. Whatever I feel like. I know every mark is just going to make me better. I post my sketches to Instagram pretty much every day. Here are some I've done in the past week or so.

 

 

 

 

 

This giraffe is all pastel and colored pencil.

This owl I did on my iPad with the Adobe Ideas app

Drawing can be so much fun when you let go of your fears and let go of past negative criticisms. I understand not everyone is going to like my work. I believe my audience will find me. So, I'll keep drawing and creating. It brings me joy and finding your joy is what it's all about!

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you find your joy and give drawing (just for you) a go!

Follow me on Instagram or Twitter to see my daily sketches.

 

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 8

A plethora of work today!

I will likely not be posting tomorrow. We've got a lot of stuff going on! See you Friday or Saturday!

 

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A Year of Drawing and a Work in Progress

Days 6 and 7

I am still playing with cute animals.

 

I also experimented with my Inktense Pencils and painting rocks. This was inspired by a video tutorial from Dion Dior.

 

I also made it into the studio today and started on this painting. I hope to finish it tomorrow.

 

Thanks so much for visiting!

 

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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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A Year of Drawing Day 3

I felt like chilling out and drawing longer than just 10 minutes today. I'm getting a spring cold (I wish spring warm would come with it) and I'm just sitting with the kids while they watch movies. I did a sketchbook page of a Serene Girl using Derwent Coloursoft Pencils. The aren't as nice as Prismacolor Pencils but I'm just playing around.

Have a good weekend.

 

 

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A Year of Drawing Day 2

One of my weakest areas when it comes to drawing is the body. I'm going to work on that for a bit. I pulled out a posable mannequin and a ball point pen and sketched for 10 minutes.

 

 

Here is another Zenanimal.

Before. This is drawn in one continuous line.

After. I "zenned" it up with some more loops and thicker lines.

 

Have a wonderful day!

 

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