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.

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

 

Drawing for fun

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opaque watercolor and colored pencil

opaque watercolor and colored pencil

This was my for fun sketch today. A warm up for a longer drawing. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this…it’s in my “no fear” sketch book. I really like the white paint marker, but it needs some ventilation! It can’t be healthy. I need to find a white marker that isn’t so toxic smelling.

All these shells came from the outer banks of North Carolina.

Drawing for nothing

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Opaque watercolor, colored pencil and white paint marker

Opaque watercolor, colored pencil and white paint marker

Discovery of the week: it’s good to just draw for yourself! That is how the onion came about. I needed to try out my new white paint marker, so I had to have a subject. My friend Paul brought us these beautiful onions, along with many other wonderful heirloom vegetables from his garden. So, I grabbed one, did a color background and started drawing. I just finished some shells with a background and used graphite…which I like fine, but it didn’t seem as bold as I wanted. For this I decided to limit myself to a dark green and dark blue prismacolor pencil and then white paint marker. I am really pleased with the way the materials work.  I put this in my “No Fear” sketchbook, so of course it turned out great. I didn’t really care what happened….somehow I need to trick myself into this for everything!

Next #sketchbookskool assignment is to draw from figurines or taxidermy. I don’t have access to the taxidermy, so I found these great little pandas to work from. I found them at the hardware store of all places!

pandas1

Materials

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Warm up assignment

Warm up assignment

I was a little behind on my #sketchbookskool homework, so I think that I rushed through a little to catch up. I don’t think that I should do that, I need to remember, its an online course! It’s not going anywhere! So, because I rushed I didn’t feel super great about the projects. I also didn’t really like the technique that we used. The assignment was to draw in pencil, ink in the outline and then color in with watercolor. It’s just not my thing…but, I can see that it can be a good approach for certain things.

This week the subject matter is more interesting to me, drawing animals! Looking forward to this, but I need to find some figurines to draw from for the assignment. The first step in this weeks class was to draw your art supplies. I see other artists do this a fair amount, it’s something I never really considered as a subject. However, once I sat down and really focused in on it I did find it fun. On to the animals!

Ink outlines and watercolor washes

Ink outlines and watercolor washes

Sketching the Big dog

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Big in front of Lella's chicken coop in SW Harbor

Big in front of Lella’s chicken coop in SW Harbor

I am trying to work outside my comfort zone. One of those places is sketching or drawing animals. It really started with thinking about what makes me happy, and of course, my dog Big came to mind pretty quickly. I needed some subject matter for #sketchbookskool, and thought, well, he is always right here with me and I have tons of photos of him. Nothing to lose by trying. I am super happy to discover that I enjoy drawing Big! I will keep doing sketches of him and maybe turn some into little paintings. Its kind of amazing the joy that it brings me to capture him on the page… very different than a lot of subjects. Somehow I feel more connected to the process and the completed sketch. I will keep trying.

The sketch below was done really quickly. I have a photo of this one to use for reference. I am thinking that it would make a nice watercolor try (this our next assignment for klass). I think it has potential, even though I am not really happy with the sketch. I like the composition, the shadow and he was really loving the wind!

Big at the beach

Big at the beach

Sketchbook Skool

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Beginnings: Page One

Beginnings: Page One

The Sketchbook Skool Beginnings class started yesterday. This is the first Klass I have taken in a long time! The first assignment was to draw and feel. The guidelines were to pick an object to draw that evokes some feeling (bad or good), use a color wash in the background, add an opaque color in the shape of the object(s) and then do a line drawing in ink over the color. And, add WORDS! So, for me, it’s really the words that are the challenge!

It was hard to decide what to choose, so I thought about that for awhile. I love the sea urchins and I find them challenging to render, so that is what I went with. Sea Urchins remind me of walks on the beach and also they bring to mind a couple of very special friends that share my love of beach collecting. I have gathered a lot sea urchins over time and I have tons of them to choose from. Most of them are from the Maine coast, but some have been given to me and some are from other places. These are from Maine. This assignment prompted me to learn more about the sea urchins…because I needed WORDS! That part I really liked.

As the time goes by I will get better at the word journaling part of all this. I like the idea of capturing your feelings or part of your day in an illustrated and written journal. I am looking forward to this Klass.

Below is my warm-up sketch for the journal page. Doubling as my #inktober drawing!

warm up ink sketch

warm up ink sketch

Exploration

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Graphite sketch in progress

Graphite sketch in progress

I have never been keen on working on landscapes. But, this sketch changed my mind a bit. I like the perspective…from way down low. I really like the charm of this perspective–but it might just be the mushroom! The Facebook Art Journal group I belong to suggests a little fairy creature under the mushroom is begging to be added. This scares me! I am going to try it, but I don’t do figures and faces so that adds some struggle for me! And, what to do, how to do it! I am looking at resource material and considering how this might be accomplished. It won’t happen fast though. I do think that this little sketch has shown me that I can enjoy a landscape drawing or painting, I just need to make the composition dramatic in some way in order to enjoy it. I will work on finding interesting and dramatic perspectives for landscapes. And, I will broaden my mind and think about magical creatures too!

We had a particularly beautiful weekend here on the coast of Maine. Really more like August weather. John and I took advantage of the sun and warmth, took Big dog and headed out on the boat to Marshall Island for an overnight camping trip. It was awesome. We had a nice hike on the island in the morning and then scooted over to Wheat Island for some shelling. It was especially nice for Big who is always on leash to be able to run around free! He had a great time.

Marshall Island Memories: encaustic, collage on stone

Marshall Island Memories: encaustic, collage on stone

 

Traveling

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In progress: water soluble crayon & colored pencil

In progress: water soluble crayon & colored pencil

My husband and I are visiting Oahu Hawaii. The destination was not our exact choice, but the conference that he is attending is located here. We have been to the Big Island, Maui, and Kauai. Oahu is so very different than the other islands.  We are not city folk, so we are a little less comfortable. We were lucky to find a really nice spot on the North Shore for the days before the conference, and that was great! I have spent my time taking lots of photos and thinking of future drawing and painting subjects. Today was the first day that I really had enough time to devote to some artwork. It is super hot in the city though, so I have to watch my materials closely for melting!

Shell sketch: North Shore of Oahu

Shell sketch: North Shore of Oahu

Re-discovering Ink

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Ink and water soluble crayon, 5" x 7"

Ink and water soluble crayon, 5″ x 7″

I had forgotten how much I actually liked ink. I think when I was young I may have sketched the drawing in pencil first and then gone over it in ink. Now I seem to have less fear and I can dive right in and put that ink right on the page. The lines now have loosened up for sure. Adding splashes of color with the water soluble crayon adds a spontaneity that I really enjoy. And, If I keep that color thin enough I can sneak in and add just a little over spots where I have drawn and then ink right over that too. I will keep working with this.

I started out with the micron ink pen just thinking of planning a painting, but the second piece I did really turned out well. I think that it’s a good medium for small planning sketches and also finished work. Next experiment is to use the ink drawing for a base for encaustic. We’ll see how that goes.

Planning sketch: ink pen

Planning sketch: ink pen