Sometimes it is a struggle….

It’s been more than a month since I’ve posted on my blog, not because I haven’t been sketching, drawing and painting, but because daily life has it’s way of taking over.

Since late October, my husband and I have  traveled to visit with our children and their families, finally found some property in New Mexico (more to come on this), and all the while I’ve done my best to keep up with the EDM Challenges (not always managing well) but drawing, sketching or painting on most days.

I’m pretty sure now that the changes that come with fall (including the time) really do tend to get me off track. In between the grey skies and storms I’ve spent a lot of time walking & being with the colorful leaves, crunching them beneath my feet (like a child) and sometimes painting them. At my worst, I hole up with a book and read the day away. Now here’s where my struggle comes in; the drawing, painting, reading and walking around the neighborhood doesn’t get the laundry and / or household chores completed and then I feel guilty (for a few minutes), and follow that thinking with a good ‘oh well, spring is coming’. So, the thought doesn’t last long.

I’ve also been busy (stuck) doing faces, only this time they are showing up as fast as the leaves are falling, so I just do my best to catch them in my sketches. I never know where they’ll end up at, maybe in a large format acrylic. Who knows? They must be popping into my head for a reason.

Along with all the other activities (like Christmas Cards, etc.)  I’ve taken time to play and experiment with all kinds of mediums that I don’t work in often as I break in my new journals from Stillman & Birn. I wonder just how long the childlike fascination will keep me in it’s grasp, and then giggle to myself because I know it’s part of the journey of life and the best way to get out of a rut is to let yourself play right through it thinking all the time, WOW! I should get some more watercolor pencils, and colored pencils….this is really fun!

And, of course –just in case I don’t get back until after the first of the year here’s a picture of ‘old St. Nick’ to wish you all a Merry Christmas & Happy New Year.

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Illustration Friday : A Tree

I love trees, and as I meandered through my saved images I came up on several but choose to share this one of a tree I sketched in Yosemite Village a couple of years ago.

A tree in Yosemite Village, I named it ‘curly cue’.

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ART Journaling Step by Step

Every once in a while I get around to finishing a page or two that I had previously started. So today I decided I take one page through the steps of completion, especially since I haven’t posted in a while.

A month or so ago I was on a crazed mission doing many, many faces & now I can share my process through completion with you. I hope you’ll find it easy enough to try just for fun. In this case I’m thinking they can easily be used to print some postcards/note cards for myself or as gifts! All you’ll need are simple supplies: Waterproof pen, watercolor or colored pencils, and or markers.

Step one:

Complete a contour drawing of a face (or flower)  in waterproof ink using an old photo (magazine or newspaper). For sure mine never come out looking even close to the reference material no matter what, so don’t even go there.

 

Step 2:

Add Watercolor washes (or colored pencils, markers – whatever you wish)!

 

Step 3:

Using hand lettering or a stencil with pencil, add your message and design. Here I decided to add the word ‘Think” with dots, and I’ve now painted the background with brushed on ink.

 

 

Step 4:

Now finish up with whatever you’d like to use pencils, pens, colors. Whatever suits your fancy.

 

 

 

Here I’ve used Faber-Castell Pitt Pens (one of my fav’s). And, I’m thinking this can be used for special notes to my friends who have survived breast cancer, or a gift of note cards to them so they can share with others.

Have a wonderful day, and keep sketching my friends!

 

 

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Falling into ART Journaling, what’s next?

Yes I am a journal junkie, and sometimes I wonder just where I’m going in my art. I’ve been actively involved in Travel Journaling (it seems like forever), making art, doing the Travel Journaling thing, and teaching workshops. All along the way I’ve been buying all kinds of reference books that lead me more into the Art Journaling – Mixed Media style. I devour these books yet I can’t seem to just let go, and fall into the mixed media habit, and what I mean by this is the use of all kinds of materials, tearing up, and pasting down. Yet my inner child is telling me this is what I need to do,  just let go, and let the kid out. As I continue to contemplate just letting go, here’s a couple of pages where I have only swished on some ink to get the bright colors and ‘journaled a few thoughts’. I’m sure sometime soon I’ll get to the point where I can do the backgrounds without thinking I have to draw it in first. See, it’s like I’m beginning to fall into it.

Illustration Friday’s Post for “TALL”

I think most of my friends know that I’m also doing art challenges with Illustration Friday’s FB Group. It’s a great way to keep your mind working. Each week a word is posted and I do my thing and ‘illustrate’ it. This piece is for the word challenge ‘TALL’. Hope you enjoy!

Very tall, long, long legs!

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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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ART Journaling or Travel Journaling ‘what’s the difference’?

Over the past week I’ve been busy working on my background ‘faces’ project and began thinking about how the differences in process are directly connected to ‘my personal journey’. As I observed  the changes in my habits (ha) first I realized that ANY change can be just the boost you need to rekindle the fire in your journaling. In this case fire is good, and I believe these changes have helped me become more creative. Although now, instead of 1 journal with everything in it, I have again slipped back into separate journals. It seems to be something I do periodically, really don’t have a clue as to why.

A background page ‘face’ painted & ready to go!

I Am Thankful for Life! EDM#42

A journal page complete!

One journal now is more or less just for writing, and it’s not really up to date.  It’s just there in case I decide to write more extensively, and at the moment I have 3 different ART  journals going with mixes of the Everyday Matters Challenges, Illustration Friday works, and many, many faces all in various degrees of completion to use  for backgrounds.  I’m thinking, ah, this craziness must be because we haven’t taken a road trip in a while, I’ll know soon because we’re getting ready for one.  So, I now recognize that for me the difference truly is in the process I use and preparing backgrounds to journal INTO for me is ART JOURNALING, and doing illustrative journaling ‘on the go’, as it happens or where I am at the time seems to enable me to document my life and thoughts more along the TRAVEL JOURNALING path. Well at least I think I have it isolated in my mine anyway.

I hope you enjoy, and maybe try making some for yourself.  It’s the little sparks that start the fire.  I’m looking forward to this upcoming road trip because I think it will validate my current thoughts, and of course my TRAVEL JOURNAL will become fodder for an upcoming entry.

Keep playing, it’s good for your soul.

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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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