In My Sketchbook

Self portrait from my imagination!

Merry Christmas!

MAY THE SEASON BE JOYFUL AND BRIGHT, FULL OF MUSIC, HAPPINESS AND LOVE.

FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS.

XOX

LEAH

Some of the Things I Love About Christmas

1. The music -- from the cheesy songs to the beautiful and everything in between.  My favorite song as a kid was "Silver Bells".  I can't tell you now what my favorite song is - there are so many great  ones.
2. The smell of a real Christmas tree.
3. The mix of nuts in their shells that we only see in the stores at this time of year - walnuts, hazel nuts, almonds and the dark shelled one with a meaty nut (I forget its name).  Cracking them is   almost better than eating them.  I'm always trying to get two perfect halves of the walnut shell.
4. Christmas movies!  I have been watching them since November 1st.  Thank goodness for a PVR!
5. Walking around town at night looking at all the light decorations and how they chase away the darkness of winter.
6. My mother-in-law's dainties.
7. The light string on my tree.  This small light string has 14 different settings.  I love the blinky   one. 
8. My reindeer decoration that we've had for years.  His nose is still glowing strong!

 

In My Sketchbook

Some of my Christmas decorations....

Christmas Photo Sketched Out

I love getting Christmas photos. I even have an album dedicated just for them.  It's fun to see the changes in people from year to year.  That being said, I am totally not good at sending out either Christmas cards or Christmas photos.  Sorry family and friends! Maybe one year I will get it in gear. In the meantime, I was inspired by a Christmas photo I received from my good friend Suzanne a couple of years back.  I love the photo.  For some reason it made me smile whenever I looked at it, so I left it on my fridge for months and months and months until I decided to use it as a model for my next art project.

I used a uniball pen to draw the family on watercolor paper even though I decided not to add any color.  There's a bit of a 3-D effect going on as Mom, Dad and the girls are done on three separate pieces, cut out with an x-acto knife and layered together with a matte medium. The background is a photo I took near my home, copied onto cream colored cardstock.

This is by no means a photograph copy of the photograph.  My lines are wonky in places, waggly in others and I took artistic license with a few of the shapes.  What I hope it shows is the love and happiness threading through the circle of this family.

Next time, maybe I will try color!

Color Your Heart Beautiful

I promised to share with you what I made from the muslin I painted.  

Ta-da!  Hanging hearts. 

This was a fun project from start to end.  You can see the fabric painting posts here and here. 

From my heart to yours!

xox

Stream Drawing

Have you ever tried stream of conscious writing?  That's when you sit down and write, write, write anything that comes to your mind.  You don't stop to think a thought through. You don't stop to edit any of your words. You don't stop to correct grammer. You just keep writing.  Set your timer for ten minutes, thiry minutes or one hour.  The choice is yours.  When you are done, you look back to see what came out.

This is what I call stream of conscious drawing.  It's not a pure stream drawing since I was watching t.v. while doing it.  I had no timer going.  This came out over the course of an hour and a half.  The next morning I added the blue for some color pop.  My favorite bits are all the little people.  For some reason I love drawing little people!  Could it be because some of my favorite childhood books were titles like The Borrowers and Stuart Little?

This is such fun to do anywhere, anytime.  I've done this in airports, restaurants, bus trips, car trips, at my art table, visiting family, while talking on the phone, sitting at meetings doodling all over the agenda paper!  They are not always full pictures like the one above.  If I really like the pictures I've drawn on small pieces of paper, I save them to paste in my sketchbook.  Sometimes when I look back at the stream drawings, it inspires me for something new.

Give stream drawing a try.  You never know what might pop out!