365 Days of Art – More Quirky Creatures

….days 163, 164 and 165

Carla Sonheim had us make our own sidewalk cracks using a recipe that she devised. I tried making one in London and from that I looked for a critter or animal that I could cut out and fill in with marks and colour. From one sheet of paper I managed to find two ‘abstract’ animals. One is a dog of sorts and the other a sitting elephant.

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I’m really enjoying sketching with graphite pencils and blending stumps. I’ve also been inspired by Sophie Favre’s clay sculptures that I saw in London and I created a mouse using her style.

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Quirky Creature – Days 161 and 162

…..365 Days of Art

Around day 5 of our trip to London, my husband and I ventured to the British Museum. We quickly realized that going to any museum in the middle of the week meant that we would be surrounded by hoards of school children on field trips.

After leaving the museum we found a wonderful gallery directly across the street that featured wonderful ceramics. We were immediately drawn in by a series of ‘quirky’ creatures with human characteristics. The artist is Sylvie Favre from Paris.IMG-8896
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For the next two nights I attempted to sketch a couple of these wonderful creations. I used a graphite pencil and a blending stump.

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365 Days of Art – While in London

…I did actually find some time to do some drawing when I was in London

Days 159 and 160

I’ve been trying to practice drawing more quirky characters. I did manage two pages of these lovely ladies while staying in our Airbnb in London. I found the best time to draw was when everyone had gone to bed.IMG-8910
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365 Days of Art – The Beginning

….days 153 and 154

I’ve enrolled in Lynn Whipple’s repeat class called Big Bold Blooms. It’s a very loose way of painting flowers on large canvases. I purchased three 24 x 30 inch canvases and the first thing we had to do was prime them with a light grey on one, an orange on another and finally a white gesso on the third.

Once the paint dried we had to look at a floral arrangement and with chalk pastels and vine charcoal we loosely drew parts of the arrangement and then flipped the canvas and did it again. The canvas was flipped three times and the last time lines were drawn in different directions across the canvas to almost give it a grid appearance. Each time one colour of chalk was used it was wiped with our hands to smudge it before the next colour  was added or the piece was flipped.

My canvases are now ready for step two of the the process.

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Quirky Characters

….days 149 to 152 of 365 Days of Art

I’ve discovered a new course that involves drawing fun faces using graphite. It’s run by Lucy Cooke over at Jean Oliver Creative Community.

It’s called Quirky Characters and the only materials that you need are a sketchbook, a mechanical pencil and a blending stump. Here are the first four lessons of actual faces that I produced.

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Big Bold Blooms

….day 148 of 365 Days of Art

I’ve signed up for another class through Carla Sonheim where Lynn Whipple teaches how to draw and paint Big, Bold Blooms.

Our first class was to quickly draw 15 blooms while listening to music and time each drawing. The first group were given 15 seconds to draw, the second group 30 and the last 1 minute. After all the flowers were drawn we had to cut them out and arrange them in and on a quickly drawn vase. The medium used was soft pastels.

One of my favourite parts of this assignment was going out and purchasing a variety of flowers.IMG_4048

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365 Days of Art – Heavy, Light, Fast

….day 145

I can’t believe that I haven’t made more art this summer. Last Friday Carla’s assignment involved taking a fat marker and drawing an object of our choice using a heavy line, a light or thin line and a quick line. We were to make a 9 or 10 quick drawings and then choose three that we favoured. I decided to draw tea cups. It was easy to do while I was at the cottage.

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Now I have to enlarge the three pieces that I chose and do whatever I want with them.

Chicken – 365 Days of Art

….day 144

The assignment from Carla Sonheim this week was to find a photograph of a chicken  and draw the outline with a black Sharpie and then with a finer marker make some detail marks and lastly take a pencil and add some shading. It was optional to add colour with some light coloured markers.

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I think I will try this again but use lighter markers or no colour at all.