Happy New Year!

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thank you postcard: intense and colored pencil

thank you postcard: intense and colored pencil

I don’t know that I have ever made any kind of list of new year’s resolutions. But, I am kind of inspired to make set some goals. Here is what I have so far (not in any particular order).

1. Create a body of work that will hang well together. Six pieces total.

2. Draw every day (even if it’s just 5 minutes)

3. Find friends to draw with

4. Draw from life as much as possible

5. Challenge yourself to draw subjects you find difficult

6. Read more about other artists

7. Walk 2 miles at least twice a week

8. Write about your art in a critical way, do your own critiques–maybe on a monthly basis.

9. Give a piece of art away to a friend–maybe 4 times a year (or more)

Lunchtime Meditation

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Hibiscus: blue micron ink pen

Hibiscus: blue micron ink pen

Lately I haven’t had much time at work for lunch, it’s just been so busy. Normally I take about 10 minutes to do a little meditation, but for the last couple of weeks (maybe more) I am taking 10 or 15 minutes to sketch instead. It seems to work just as well at energizing me for the afternoon! Now I need to carve out 10 minutes for actual meditation and 10 or 15 minutes of sketching! That would be super awesome for a lunch break!

Maybe a New Year’s Resolution in the making.

Daisy: micron ink pen

Daisy: micron ink pen

State of Mind

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micron ink pen: pelican

micron ink pen: pelican

I can’t concentrate! This is something that makes me so frustrated. My holiday family situation is a little on the tense side. I really didn’t expect that to interfere with my art vibe. I have a few things I want to do and I am finding that I just can’t concentrate on them well enough. So, I decided to just do a little ink drawing and some color grounds. My micron pen is running out of ink…time to get another one. I love pelican’s, but man, they aren’t easy to draw. The goal is to get up early tomorrow and maybe get a little bit of good drawing time in.

Finishing up

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Casein & colored pencil: 5" x 7"

Casein & colored pencil: 5″ x 7″

Some work does get abandoned….but not always forgotten. I have been looking at this in an unfinished state since August! I carry it around, and keep thinking I will get back to it. I did a pencil sketch that I actually like better…but, I wasn’t ready to relegate this to a permanently unfinished piece. So, without too much extra time involved I completed it today. I love the richness of the background against the white. This white iris was blooming in front of my very red japanese maple. Nice memory.

Christmas Eve

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Inktense and colored pencil. 4x6

Inktense and colored pencil. 4×6

Everyone in my house is taking a nap (except me). It’s one of those kind of days I suppose. It should be snowing, but it’s not quite cold enough, so we have a little mist hanging around at the mountain. I was able to find just enough time to finish this little drawing that I started last weekend. Hoping to get a lot of time in for more projects between now and Sunday night. Tomorrow will probably be filled with lots of cooking for others.

If I can carve out some time tomorrow from cooking I will try to organize my little art corner and do some planning for the new year. Can’t wait until sketchbook skool!

Merry Christmas to all!

Holiday Rush

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Quick sketch: micron ink pen

Quick sketch: micron ink pen

It’s closing in on Christmas and I am trying to enjoy the season and not get anxious about all that there is to do. The drawing time is getting slim, but once the 25th is actually here I will be able to spend several days devoting myself to sketching and painting (this is my hope). In the meantime, I am looking around at all the beautiful scenes and storing up images for future projects.

These little salt and pepper shakers are so awesome. I love them! Each table in this restaurant had cute little shakers, all different. I like these the best.

saltandpepper

 

Stuck on shells

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Inktense and colored pencil

Inktense and colored pencil

Seems like shells are the subject matter of the moment. The great thing about them is that I have so many to choose from! Before my #sketchbookskool class  I was drawing a lot more from photos. I have discovered I really like drawing from life. Many of the shells I have are tiny, so I can just put them in my purse and pull them out to draw at any time.

For my next few drawings I am going to work on putting color down first and then working over in ink pen. Love, love, love working in ink. And, I am surprised at how much I like working without any guidelines.

Quick sketch: ink pen

Quick sketch: ink pen

Working the background

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water-soluble crayon and colored pencil

water-soluble crayon and colored pencil

Doing these little detail drawings is a lot of fun. I am working on incorporating some movement and activity in the background. This background was inspired by the pattern on the topside of a scallop shell that I picked up a long with this broken shell. The broken shell reminded me of Georgia O’Keefe shell paintings, so I thought I would try to do one with that as inspiration.

I like the texture and movement in the background, I am going to work on these combinations for a few more pieces. I need to work on doing a better job of creating a motion feeling…but it’s starting.

This was drawn in my moleskin sketchbook.

New Materials

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Shell Study: Derwent Inktense

Shell Study: Derwent Inktense

Inktense are intense! Fun to try some new materials today. My first try was just the intense, the second sketch I decided to use the #inktense pencils to do the underpainting and then use prismacolor for the drawing. This seems to be a good combination. Next try will be inktense and then ink pen. I love how saturated the color is. This is similar to the water-soluble crayons…but different. Once you put the color down and it dries, it is permanent. Looking forward to exploring how to work with this medium. These two sketches were in my moleskin, paper is soft, so I am going to try a different paper next. Just in case you are interested here is the link for the Derwent Inktense.

Looking forward to drawing tomorrow!

Slipper Shell in progress

Slipper Shell in progress

 

Experimentation

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Casein, inktense pencils, prismacolor pencils

Casein, inktense pencils, prismacolor pencils

Today was a slow day. The day after Thanksgiving. For some reason this year I am just not feeling the holidays. It’s just feeling like any other day to me. Anywho, I will work on that. Today I was really excited to try out my new Derwent Inktense pencils. However, I think that my approach was all wrong. I started with some swatches and then worked on top of those, and then because I had some wet casein paint available, decided to work over a casein ground. I love the casein…but unless you let it dry for quite awhile, it remains “soft” and workable. So, this had that challenge to it.

Tomorrow’s goal: just use the inktense alone…maybe with some ink pen over drawing. And, I am going to start a larger piece with an opaque watercolor ground that I can spend some time with.

Hope you all had a really nice Thanksgiving day. Nice to have a couple of extra days off.