Outfit Drawing

One of the assignments from SketchBook Skool is to draw your outfits.  But, as I think Koosje is so cool, I've already been outfit drawing...

Here are my favorite outfits that I drew for the Playing class.

   

And I'll have to upload the outfits I had previously drawn later.  (That sketchbook is at school.)

Hmm, and maybe I should try coloring them?...

the Cat

Yesterday.  Not great.  But a starting point.  I really should do more.

And I might water it up.  (I used watercolor pencil.)

Group Birthday at Port Aransas

This weekend was pretty chilly and very windy, so I didn't make it outside to paint or draw.  But I did some knitting, some creative cooking, and I got some other folks to draw and color...

Here's Danielle's painting that she made from the water-soluble pastels I gave her...

And, can we maybe stretch the yarn a little by saying that I was being artsy-fartsy when I had Google create this little video of our weekend?...

https://goo.gl/photos/xsThr3u84UguFfy69

Oh, and I knit a little while I was there, which is also creative / artsy-fartsy...

Playing and Discovering

So, long story short... there's a means to an end, so I was playing around, getting ready to try to fulfill one of the SketchBook Skool exercises....

  

Just cleaning off the brush as I painted a picture of my palette, showed me that maybe I can do some abstract coloring, artsy-fartsy journal type stuff.  I'm going to make a point to open myself up to it.  

And here's the sketch of my palette.  

Tee hee....  here's one I did last week, I think...

It's a small MOON, which was an assignment from Illustration Friday a week or two ago.  

I think this one was awesome, considering I didn't even have a model!  Of course, I wasn't cheeky enough to post it on the website!  (Maybe that pun was intended...)

And, finally, this one was for the SketchBook Skool Assignment:  Playing.  First I laid down the basic shapes with the watercolor.  Then I took the pen and drew in the details.  Not very well, I know, but it still works, I think.  It's not perfect, but it has very sketch-like qualities.  

New Background

Yesterday was a long day, so I played with some watercolor pastels and made a new background [pastel] "wash."

I actually did head out for lunch and to go to the park with the intention of getting some sketching done, but I played with the boys instead, which was so fun because it was Sebastian's first time down a big-kid slide!  :-)

I wonder if I will need to set this with fixative before I do something over it, even if it's not wet?  It still does feel a little dusty / gritty to the touch, so I'm thinking that when it dries it is pastelly again...

By the way, I'm going out of town this weekend, and very much looking forward to getting some sketching done!  (I've even bought some artsy-fartsy supplies for a friend, and I am hoping to talking her into doing some artsy-fartsy time with me!)

HMMM... now that I'm looking at the new background, I think it looks pretty pastelly (and not very used-to-be-wettish), and maybe I should wet it up more?  I thought that the waterbrushes were better if they held less water so that I could control it more.  However, maybe I should try playing with the waterbrushes that hold and let loose more water?  I'll take one with me this weekend...

I've been working but not posting...

Here's an idea that I borrowed from pinterest.  I've done a couple of them, but have failed to bring them home from school.

Here is the one I drew and colored at home with watercolor pencils.  While I usually like the overlapped dark spots with markers and crayons, it's not part of what I imagined for something like this.  So, I decided to add water.  But I have to do it a color at a time and let it dry before I water in the adjacent colors.  

And here it is after I added water.  I definitely like how the red spots turned out, and blue is ok too.  But the purple isn't quite as consistent and the red and blue, nor the green.  I might do another and see how it turns out if I do several layers of adding water and pencil - will it make it a more consistent color?  

An Exercise in Muscle Memory

So I took a drawing class once (Eve Larson at Laguna Gloria), and one of the exercises that we did was to draw our own hand.  However, before we drew it on paper, we drew it on a clean plastic sheet, over our hand.  More specifically, it was a transparent plastic sheet, rigid; my fingers curled up beneath the sheet and I traced them.  Then, we were to draw our hand directly onto paper.  And I have to admit that I did a great job!  Tracing first allowed me to see the lines in my hand for what they were, and I was easily able to draw the same perspective onto paper.

So, trying to emulate that exercise, I bought myself some tracing paper and am intent on being able to draw a specific photo that I took of my niece.  If I get good enough, maybe I can gift her a nice painting one day.  Or maybe her parents.  (Then, of course, I'd have to find another picture of her sister to do the same, but that's a topic for a completely different blog!)

Here's my traced sketch of my beautiful, little niece.

Lazy Weekend

I didn't do much of anything...  I think my allergies are getting to me, and my body is wanting to fight it off but is just too tired.  I slept yesterday and didn't do much else -- I totally had artsy-fartsy time, but slept through it!  I feel like such a slacker, but I really think I needed the sleep, perhaps still need the sleep.

So I found a topic on Illustration Friday and just went for a quick sketch.  While I may not be putting in loads of time everyday, I am putting in some time everyday, and some is better than none, and that is what the habit is supposed to do: continue practicing everyday, no matter how small, no matter how quick.  And eventually, I'll get better, and I'll want to spend even more time drawing!  Or something like that...

So here's tonight's...

Oh, and here's another from last week.  A quick sketch of one of my students - bawling him out for being a pain but in a "funner" way...  

Sketchy Playing

Still kinda bummed.  Need to get out of the house to do some sketching, me thinks...  in the meantime, here's some crappy sketches from at home.

Yes, the kitty on the bottom has 2 sets of eyes.  I wasn't happy with the placement of the first, higher set.  Now it has a kinda dazed-and-confused / Led Zepplin sorta effect...  

It was fun playing with the super soft brush pen!  My favorite sketch is the dog.  

Better today...

Not "fixed," but better.  Regardless, I promised myself art.  Here it is...

Stuff I added on to first:

   

And stuff that is new, created tonight:

Just a quick sketch from a picture in a magazine.

Blue-Eyed Grass.  Added it to my "bouquet."  I like it, but I think I should have left the bits in the middle until after all the dark bits dried, and then I could go in and make it really bright yellow to match the original.  Maybe I'll mess with it later when it's completely dry and try to fix it...  Then I would need to add a border of some more purples around the yellow in the middle... 

Last night I was sad

Water-Soluble pastels.  

And I'm sad again tonight.  So instead of drawing, I journaled, which I'm totally counting as my artsy-fartsy activity for tonight.  Though, I'm not including my entry here.  Tomorrow, I will draw something.  

Play Practice

So, no idea what I wanted to do today.  I watched some old klasses on SBS/Storytelling, and I was assigned to draw people at a coffee shop, then someone at home.  Since I didn't go to a coffee shop today, I started drawing someone at home - little Sebastian.  But, boy!  That boy can move already, and I have a hard time keeping up.  I'll have to do some more practicing, but here's what I've got so far...

While I was watching the klasses on SBS/Storytelling, Veronica Lawlor said something that resonated with me.  I had to write it down...

I started working on an-ivy-type of tree of life, modeling it after one that I had seen on the internet.  It started looking ok, but I stopped working on it, wanting to work on it later when I have more time, different paper...  then I went and used a marker a few pages later, and it bled through.  So you can see the bleeding here, as I didn't take a picture of it pre-bleeding...

And, finally, I thought I'd do a little practice at playing.  The brown ("sepia") that I started out in bled through the pages; the black brush pen was nicer to me.  

Not because it's January 1st, but kinda sorta because it's January 1st...

Everyone's asking about New Year resolutions, etc.  Most are talking about losing weight and doing better with diet and exercise.  And I say, "why just because it's the new year?!"

So, while I'm not doing this just because it's the New Year and I need a resolution...  I had time because it's the new year, there are new classes, and everyone is starting to work on their resolutions, and it's always easier to work towards a goal when you're doing it with friends, blah, blah, blah...

Here's my quickie art for today.

This was an assignment from Daisy Yellow, trying to blend the color by letting each color overlap when you paint them on.  I don't think it really worked for me the way it's supposed to.  I think I need more water.  Or maybe I should wet the paper before I lay down the colors.  I need to keep working on this.  

Eventually, I can use this in a multimedia journal or something.  Or for a background for something else.  I'll keep it and figure out how to repurpose it anyway.  And on to more practicing of blending colors.  But - water - water is the key.  I need to remember more water.  

I had painted the flower a while ago, the one from Fiji.  But I went ahead and filled in the background.  A single color, cerulean blue.  I think the background definitely works with the flower.  Makes me want to go ahead and paint some more.  

So maybe that should be my new assignment?  Maybe I should go ahead and paint this flower a few more times?  Use it as a study?  In that case, I should probably go ahead and print a couple of pictures of it, a few different tones added to it or something... Hmmm...

Also, I thought I might give one (if I do indeed paint more) to Mom and Mima - they love flowers.  Speaking of, I could use some more pictures from Galveston to paint from.  I had taken lots of flower pictures for Mom and Mima.  

Since this is a blog, I might as well blog...  

Artsy-Fartsy Projects In-the-Works:

• Aunt Bea's Christmas present - can't say what it is until I finish and she receives it.
• My shrug - can't wait til I finish it!
• Sketchbook Skool PLAYING Klass - starts January 15
• And my "new year's resolution" - a little art every day action, and I want to work in more mediums.  I know I'm still learning to use watercolor, so I kinda want to focus on it, but I have so much other stuff!

Ooh, just thought of a great New Year's resolution...  Let's use more art stuffs!  Use it up, no more saving for the perfect project, perfect moment, JUST USE IT!!!  (I should draw something to post and remind me to do this.)

And happy New Year!