Waiting for the Sun to Shine

Rainy days are good artsy-fartsy days, I guess...

I turned one of my backwashes to an art journal page.

I signed up for an online art workshop, and it's the teacher's definition of art journaling.  

It's about the process, not the final product.  And that's something I should remember!  That said, I still want to sketch in my journal and for my sketches to look decent, so I need to continue to practice drawing.  That said, it's good to do little exercises that remind me to have fun and not take things to seriously.

Here's my first little art-museum thing.  One of the workshops I signed up for is Tiny Museum, so here's my first, before I begin the workshop.  

  

I am looking forward to taking the workshops.  Also excited about taking the playing with paper workshop - I get to paint AND sew on paper!!!

And one last artsy-fartsy item for today.  My Enchanting English Garden page.

I think I finished this one is three or four sittings.  

Getting Reaquainted

Wow! My last post was in July!...  then I went to the beach, visited the in-laws, and went back to work... and here we are, 3 months later...

I wish I could say that I've kept up with artsy-fartsy stuffs during all that time, meeting my resolution of a sketch a day, but I absolutely can't.  I have been doing some artsy-fartsy stuff.  In fact, I even crafted a little sketchbook that I keep at school for when we have time, but I haven't been able to keep up with that the past couple of weeks either.  (I still want to post some pics of it, though.)

So, now it's time to get reaquainted... yesterday, I took a walk down Memory Lane and pulled out this picture of a flower from Fiji and gave it a quick sketch.

The shadows are the wrong color, but I think they kinda matched the coloring of the flower, as well as the dreary weather we have here this weekend, so I don't mind it.  I think I will definitely paint this flower a few more times, it is what attracted us to Fiji for the wedding, after all.  

I've also been playing around with washes and prepping backgrounds to draw on.

I was watching Koosje Koene and Cathy Johnson on YouTube when I was playing:

Koosje Koene's Draw Tip Tuesday

Strathmore Paper's Watercolor Sketching Series feature Cathy Johnson

Now I just have to sketch over the washes... hmm...

And here's a sketch I started a while ago, but the cat got up before I could finish sketching his face.  I really should try to finish one day...

Here are a couple of sketches, probably inspired by Koosje's Draw Tip Tuesday again.  

She loves her selfies!

And Koosje's blog.

Oh, and one more play-session, this time with fountain pens and nibs.  

I got the idea from Daisy Yellow's blog, and I definitely need to play with my pens and nibs more often.  I've also been wanting to do her ABCs on an index card activity, but haven't gotten around to it yet.  Expect to see it soon.

So, see?  While I haven't been as artsy and fartsy as I like, I have been doing stuff.  Oh -- another thing I've been doing is creating an electronic idea board / scrapbook if you will...  I've been clipping pictures from the internet of stuff to try, activities to do, and pictures to draw.  I've been keeping them in Evernote so that I'll always have them with me, and hopefully I'll find something that suits my fancy when I feel artsy-fartsy but have no clue what to do.

Speaking of artsy-fartsy, maybe I should change the name of my blog after all?!...

Losing Track

I think I'm caught up, but I'm actually losing track.  So, I'm going to need to post dates with stuff because I don't want to go back and count...

I'm going to say that I'm caught up through yesterday, and post the couple of sketches I've done in the past couple of days.  And I'll still need to do something artsy-fartsy for today.

Bash is go-go-going in his walker these days!  He can manouver it over and around anything!

This was a Lone Bell pepper from my back porch garden.  I can't wait to get more plants going and harvest more stuff to eat!

I actually did both drawings in a light watercolor pencil, but the autocorrect in my picture software darkened up the lines.  I lightened stuff up as much as I could, but I'm fine with it being dark lines...  if I end up applying colors, those lines will definitely fade.  

Pigment & Palette 1

I got my first delivery from Pigment & Palette.  Here's quick sketches of the goods, including the card that explained what I got, which I also will include in my journal.  I like.  And maybe one day I'll be able to afford ALL the subscription boxes I like!

I am so far behind in SketchBook Skool!...

Oh, and I found another resource, recommended by the frugal crafter on youtube:  Paint My Photo.  People post photos they take for artists to paint, and you don't have to worry about copyright issues...  pretty cool!  I'm going to add it to the sidebar.

This post actually catches me up for today.  So I'm going to sleep now, and working on catching up -- hopefully -- with SketchBook Skool tomorrow!

Playing with more watercolors

So I got some new brushes and new paints.  And here's what happened...

What did I learn from playing with the brushes and paints?...  

1.  The brushes have some stuff on them when they're new.  It makes the paint kinda sedimentary, you really have to play to mix the water, at least until all the stuff gets diluted.  At first I thought this was from the paint, but I couldn't really believe it because I think the Kois are quite popular.  But, no, it's the stuff on the new brushes.  I'm gonna research what that is.  Or not -- bottom line, wash the brushes out before you paint with them.

2.  The paint brushes have a completely different feel than the water brushes I've been using.  Bottom line, I need to paint with all of them some more!

3.  I need to play with watercolors and brushes more.  I can't make them do anything I want them to do yet.

4.  After I played, I had to look up how to handle the brushes.  I sorta knew, but pretty much confirmed, that they should not stand upright while their drying.  Lay them flat or at a slight tilt brush-side-downwarn so that the water and paint does not make their way up into the ferrule.  

Lastly, here is an update of my flower page.  Only 3 flowers left?...  I love it.  I only wish I had done a wash before I started coloring in, which I very much intend to do on the next page!  Which is another lesson learned, and will be shared with the McManuses and the Rosases when I bring their gifts (art supplies) up to DC in a couple of weeks.  Can't wait!  (But I also need to be collecting some knitting stuffs for the Rougases...)

Another lesson learned...  I've been reading a book -- Daily Painting: Paint Small and Often to Become a More Creative, Productive, and Successful Artist.  Anyway, the author totally talks about how she sometimes stocks up on several paintings in one session to get a little ahead and make up for time off, etc...  So, I wasn't going to do that.  But she's the professional, and I'm learning from her, so I'm totally going to do that...  Which brings us to TODAY.  I am caught up through yesterday, and I need to do some artsy-fartsy stuff today.  :-)

Sebastian's Instruction Manual

Here are some more sketches that I did while I was away from my computer...  I had to make an instruction manual for the grandfolks to sit with Bash overnight and into the next day, so I thought why not follow Koosje's instructions for a simple (-ish) instruction manual?...

There were a couple of pages with just notes, no pictures, but I didn't include them here.  

I used colored pencils to color any images, and I used a blank cahier moleskin journal.  I left the backsides of the pages blank, initially in case I needed to add information; however, now I'm glad I did it just because the writing shows through the paper.


I had to include this sketch...  This is a sketch that I was trying to do from a magazine advertisement, but my pen ran out of ink. Didn't finish it, but you might be able to guess what I was drawing?!

And we are up to the 4th of July...

Time to catch up!

So, I went on a road trip, and unfortunately, the android blogger app doesn't work quite as well as things work on the internet, so I decided to wait until I got back home, and then I got further behind...  and let's just forget about the details, but try to catch up...

 

 

All three of these are from my SketchBook Skool class, from Mattias Adolfsson's lessons.  Which, he was very motivating, but I must say that I really think the man is crazy!  His drawings are so intricate and meticulous!  I just don't have the patience to do stuff like he does.  But I would love to keep a doodle sheet or two around and work on it (for a year, or a decade) to fill up a page like he does...