Holding onto Inspiration

Life has it’s ways of twisting & turning you around. This year will bring plenty for me because we will eventually be moving so my goals are set to wind in and out of the multitude of changes I am facing much like a curly ribbon. Let me say I am actually thrilled about this move, but it will surely impact my blog posts, as well as my artwork. Today I decided to share what my plans are for the year and hope my blogging friends can enjoy the journey with me.

I’ve chosen a word for the year FORWARD; this was suggested in a blog by Jane La Fazio, I’m not sure exactly why I did this (hehe) but it sounded good at the time. I’m thinking along the lines of taking this time to feed my ‘continuous learning’ habit on a more personal level and setting aside my love of teaching workshops to others because I won’t be able to set a strict schedule for anything. I’ll be continuing my focus on ‘a study of faces’, and starting a ‘moving to New Mexico Journal’ to share with everyone along the way.

If you noticed I’ve changed my photo in the header; this is our new property. It is a beautiful place and I’m so looking forward to building a new home WITH A STUDIO! Over the next several months the only thing I can promise is this is really going to be a trip. I’ll be sharing some tiny tutorials along with a lot of crazy sketches & journaling with no rhyme or reason to them, but they will reflect the curly ribbon of my life as it moves FORWARD. 

So for today you’ve got the low down on what I’m up against, and here’s a few more faces I created a couple of days ago. Have a wonderful day, and hold on to the inspiration. I’m gonna need it!

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Illustration Friday Challenges

Once again it’s been a couple of weeks since I managed to catch up long enough to actually complete & be ready to post a submission to IF. This week..finally! Plus I had a lot of fun doing it. A few minutes in my studio to sketch the bottom two rows (about 1/3 of the length) of my prize purchase of a bookshelf (going out of business at Borders) for my studio. I am truly in love with this bookshelf and of course all the reference books, magazines & such that it holds. I hope you enjoy my submission, as much as I enjoyed doing it and writing about it.

In my studio you will find…….

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Squeezing in the time to sketch…

Oh wow, I’ve been busy for a change and as I struggle with the balance of working on a commissioned piece I’ve thought about all the freedom I have (normally) to just sketch & play when I want to ….. most of each day. I really haven’t kept up with my normal Everyday Matter’s group & missed 2 weeks of Illustration Friday challenges (oh no), but I have indeed been sketching everyday no matter what. So I just decided to at least share the dancing of my pen, and acknowledge that it is truly hard to work everything in but it is really important for me to take a little time NO MATTER what else to sketch just for myself. I hope that you take time too!

Keep sketching my friends!

The fireplace mantle in my family room…watching TV?

Using up the blue ink?

‘rambling on’

Old Oak in the Park…listening to the birds!

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Travel Journaling: Reno or ‘bust!

Just completed a short trip into Reno, NV! I of course reverted to my standard ‘dairy style’ of journaling the tid-bits of the day on the fly. I love documenting the daily minutia, and thus started out with a 2 page spread with a hand drawn map to fill in as we drove along.

Page 1 of map

Page 2 of map spread

During our stay at the Grand Sierra Casino & Resort, I did several sketches in the early morning hours near the Starbucks 🙂 of course, while I sipped on my morning latte and listened to the great background music! I had fun sketching folks, but often they catch on and try to cover their faces….so, I gave up on the folks and just did sketches of the immediate area. I painted them in watercolor after we returned home.

Casino Sketch

AM walk for latte 🙂

I was thrilled to stop in Boomtown on the way back. I actually recouped my previous losses. Then, on the way back home a bit of sketching in the van while Norm drove. We really had a great trip, nice & relaxing and by the way if you ever make a trip there make sure you do the National Automobile Museum. It’s awesome!

Have a great day, and keep sketching my friends!

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Drawing on life, and sketching like a crazy person….

In my last post I chatted about making quick sketches from magazines and shared a couple of my ‘journal pages’. Since Tuesday I’ve completed 22 faces (of course they are in various stages of completion) but complete as far as the line work is considered, and in my madness I moved on to just making them up as I went along. Anyway today I spent time scanning a bunch in BEFORE I painted or wrote on them (gee what a concept) and decided I’d share. Hope you enjoy! Keep sketching my friends, Donna

   

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Sketching Every Day!

Amazing, it’s been several days again but I’ve completed many pieces of work too! I feel positively ‘productive’. Playing around with different media and different paper has made the time feel like a new adventure (even though I’ve worked with them before) kinda like a mix and match experiment. Got some new Strathmore Visual Journals, and been working with a mix of pen(s), watercolor, colored pencils (old & newer), Pitt Pens & Tombow’s. I’m finding some I like on the mixed media paper &  some I don’t — which brings me to YES the colored pencils work better on the Bristol Smooth! On the day of ‘Pause’ from the EDM challenges I completed 3-4 pieces, plus I got a little more into my playtime creative soul. Moving forward to another week, with blessings by the billions!  PS…I’m also including this weeks Illustration Friday piece “Lonely”.

EDM#24 ‘a piece of fruit’ plus:)

EDM #25 (1) Empty Glass

EDM#25 (2) Plastic ‘glass’ with grape juice 🙂

Pear Tree with a Pleasant Profile

Illustration Friday ‘Lonely’

 

 

 

 

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Rainy Days of Winter

'Going Coastal'

This piece (old) kinda represents how the cloudy rainy days are affecting me, since the past several weeks have brought little in the ‘sun’ department, so I’ve been working in the studio on a fun new project on postcards. I make postcards out of my studio watercolor rejects. Constant playing to keep my self sane. Its just that there are times I find it difficult to get into anything serious when the days are just plain droopy. Today is no exception. So, I am following my own advice – just play, and play, and play. The more you play, the more you learn. Observation is a great way to keep your SEEing skill sharp. Today I walked to Starbucks, got my latte, did a bit of sketching in my journal and walked back in the rain. And now I continue my learning in the blogosphere. I assume that I’ll get better at it, and learn more about formatting & stuff as I go along.  Hopefully it won’t take me so long to post the next time.  Billions of blessings to all. Donna

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