New Year’s Eve

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I can’t believe the year is almost over. It flew by. I have not been good about posting consistently, I will try to do better this year as I like looking back at the work I am doing. Right now, I am really enjoying the iPad Pro and using #Procreate for drawing and painting. It certainly doesn’t replace the paper or canvas but it offers me a sketch opportunity at a moments notice.

This year I think I am going to focus as much as I can on the joy of drawing and painting and less about a particular goal. I think that the joy will be enough.

Whales

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It’s funny that location seems to inspire my subject matter. When I am at the beach I seem to lean to the sea creatures. Whales are so wonderful, they have great shapes, great color, great everything.

My recent visit to the Portland Museum of Art has also inspired the whale paintings. Currently they are showing Of Whales in Paint: Rockwell Kent’s Moby-Dick inspired works–and it is well worth a visit.

Both of these pieces were a lot of fun to work on. The Sperm Whale in acrylic (which is always a struggle for me) is 16″ x 10″ on canvas. I used a toothbrush for a lot of this painting to achieve the effects and that worked well for creating marks with unexpected results! And, the Humpback whale done in the Procreate app, which is beyond fun.

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Lots of joy with these pieces for me.

Enjoying Mixed Materials

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In some ways I feel like I need to settle down and choose a singular medium. This must come from some rigid thought process held over from college. I don’t know. I am having a lot of fun mixing up materials. However, even when mixing things up, I should probably have some discipline!

I am starting to realize that it is okay to just keep “practicing” and let the mind flow along with the creations. Maybe I need to stop thinking I need to get to something more serious.

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Is there Wisdom in Some Silence?

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Before the presidential election the civility among the people was bad enough, after the election it has not improved. Now the people seem even more polarized. And, of course there is a lot of unknown which can be frightening for everyone. It’s so uncomfortable. Why is it so difficult for folks to be civil? Why can’t we maintain some silence…express your opinion, but silence the mean stuff. You can have a differing opinion of course, but do we really have to be so mean-spirited in the expression of that opinion. Do we have to demean and bully the other side? My thoughts about people that voted for the person that I didn’t vote for may be somewhat judgmental…I think this is a natural reaction. We can’t help but impose some internal judgements on others that might believe something that we don’t. However, I would never in my wildest dreams want to hurt another person’s feelings by letting them know this. It seems better to have a constructive conflict free conversation about the concerns and issues from both sides. Why is this so difficult?

I am going to try and be as civil as I possibly can, for as long as I can. I hope that the people in my world will do the same.

The End of Inktober

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I am so sad to see #inktober end. Such a fun month of drawing and seeing what everyone else is doing with their ink! I wasn’t able to get a drawing in every day, but I did pretty good. And, I feel like I did a lot of exploring…not only with different ink techniques, but also subject matter. I like following the prompts…it resulted in drawings that I would never have done otherwise. The turkey vulture is a prime example…I would never think to draw one of these!

I like the art challenges, they are fun to do.

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Four More Days!

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I can’t believe that #inktober2016 is almost over. While I haven’t been able to keep up everyday, I have done pretty well. This year has been fun to use the actual prompts…makes me think about drawing something I wouldn’t normally do.

Still loving the puffy fish on the iPad pro with the Apple Pencil. A lot fun and great way to learn the features of the Procreate app.

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Digital Art Discovery

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Super fun! I can’t stop using this new to me app Procreate with my iPad pro and the apple pencil. It is soooooo much fun! Great for the little puffer fish characters that are in my head.

I have seen a lot of art that is so wonderful using this app….that will take a lot longer for me to figure out.

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My brother and I went on vacation together, and he drove most of the way, so even though it was a little bumpy here and there, I spend most of my time trying to work things in the app out and drawing. It’s absolutely addictive.

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Ink Experiments

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It’s always fun to try something new. Gauche resist with ink. I am not sure where I read about this technique, but it looked like a good way to get some unexpected results. Clearly, the results are unexpected. I think I will try a few of these for awhile…every piece of paper seems to react differently. The great thing is I can use these for #inktober2016!

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Flamingo on 5″ x 5″ canvas…totally did not work out as planned.

Bat on watercolor paper 4″ x 6″…totally did not work out as planned!

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Tiny Art Fundraiser

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While traveling I have strayed a few days from #inktober. In Frisco, NC the Indian Town Gallery is doing little fundraiser where they ask folks to donate a piece of art on a 5″ x 5″ canvas…they are then sold for $20 each. The gallery provides the canvas which is very nice! I participated in this last year and it was a lot of fun, this year I have done 5 of them! I got just a little carried away! But it was a lot of fun.

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I tried to use ink in all but one of them, so they kind of qualify for #inktober2o16

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I did two Mermaid variations. I think I like using the pencil (below)

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And, one with just all acrylic paint.

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Inktober Continues

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Surprisingly I have kept up pretty well with #inktober2016. I have only missed a couple of days. Yesterday was my wedding anniversary, so I gave myself a break! Not all days have been good days, but the challenge has motivated me to get something drawn in my book pretty much everyday!

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I am trying to follow the daily prompts this year, but on occasion if I can’t do that I still work on a sketch in ink. I am really enjoying my Dad’s drawings, he is being a real sport and I love to see him participate! I look forward to his drawings everyday.

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