….playing with different brushes, water, colour and ink
Sometimes you just have to lay down some colour and angle your brushes in ways that are new to you. Tonight’s paintings in my sketchbook were very satisfying and fun to do.
…January 23rd was International Handwriting Day
I know I’m now a couple of days late to make this announcement but at the time I thought it was interesting. Handwriting really has become a lost art. In honour of the day I created a simple piece of art and second abstract piece.
….finished way too late last night to post my finished piece
Yesterday I was inspired by Lisa Congdon after watching one of her art videos. I really enjoy making line drawings of flowers and Lisa takes it a few steps further by adding lots of mark details and another thing that I love, collage. Adding all the marks is very time consuming but also very meditative and I think that’s why I lost track of time when I made this piece.
The second photo is the piece that I just finished today. After not being very happy with my last ‘family portrait’ for Carla Sonheim’s class I decided I would try another. I’ve discovered that if I take my time and let things dry before moving on I get a much better result. Also this time I really enjoyed the assignment where as with the first attempt I wasn’t having much fun.
….I could do these all day long
I started with a random doodle with charcoal and then started to add blocks of watercolour. When the watercolour dried I added marks with black and white pen. Is it wrong to like your own work?
….day four of my personal drawing challenge
….for those who are keeping track of my doodling adventures
Late last night on the third day of January I cracked open my book or prompts and the next in line was ‘a mermaid’. I searched for an image that I thought I might be able to draw. I found one that was clearly a mermaid but didn’t have too many details to bog me down. Here is my attempt to draw a mermaid.
….a poinsettia ….line drawing and with ink and coloured pencil
….on day one I’ve started to draw from my new book In Bloom by Rachel Reinert
I’ve tried this before where I wanted to make art every day of the year. I made a lot but I didn’t quite hit 365 drawings in 2018. This year I won’t beat myself up if I miss a day or two but I’m going to give it another go. My husband gave me a book for Christmas that I asked for and today I cracked it open and drew the first two flowers featured in the book.
I’ve discovered over the years that I’m very much drawn to flowers in my photography and my art. I always believe there’s more to learn so I’m really looking forward to drawing and learning more about flowers.
….trying out my new pencil crayons that my son-in-law gave me for Christmas
To start the New Year out right I signed up for a three hour art class that went live over Zoom. There were over 500 people in the class and I recognized a few faces that I’ve come to know from Carla Sonheim’s on-line classes.
The class was intended to bring out our creative juices in writing and drawing. It was hosted by Carla Sonheim and Chris Wells and featured painter, Bobby Lucy and Guitarist, Jeremy Bass. It was a very relaxing and enjoyable session. I especially enjoyed the writing activities.
Before the class began I put together some art tools for the class and I came a cross an old ink line drawing that I had done years ago. I decided to test out my new coloured pencils that my son-in-law gave me for Christmas. The colours were rich and lovely to work with and gave the old line painting new life. My first official bit of art for 2021.
…there are lots of free tutorials on the internet
Sometimes you need to start small to get back into the groove. With Covid-19 and self isolating there is only so much cleaning a person can do. I managed to clear away enough clutter from my art table and I tuned to Sketchbook Skool’s free classes called the Drawing Party.
Today I did the first two classes. It gave me just enough inspiration to get my creative juices flowing. The first lesson focused on laying down shapes of colour and then adding detail with black ink. I pretty much followed Danny’s lead but I can see doing this on my own. For the colour I used my chalk markers and Artist Loft markers. 
The second class was all about slowing down and drawing lots of detail. My subject was a dried up hydrangea.
