This One is Going On My Wall!

 

Hello everyone!

 

Yes I have been doing some art almost everyday!  Hurray!  Most of it has been in my sketchbook but I did complete another lesson from Soul Food at community thrive. 

 

This lesson came from Mitsi.  She had me painting in a style so foreign to me that I was uncomfortable for most of the painting.  But you know, it was a good kind of uncomfortable actually, and with all the art I have been doing this year, the most important lesson I have learned is to not give in to that inner critic, to the monkey on the back, to the duke of deception whispering in your ear that your work is stupid and you should quit (I'm stealing these monikers for that voice in the head from other smart artists  - Quinn McDonald, Danny Gregory and Cat Bennett).  KEEP WORKING IT!  Chances are you will like it in the end.  If not, as Roz Stendahl says, you will have learned something and you had fun!

 

Another thing I learned while doing this painting is that I don't know when to stop adding to the background.  I really, really wanted to leave some white space, and I had these two great spray paint colors by Molotow - Dare Orange and Grasshopper Green - but I covered most all of it up - the white space and the spray paint.  I was quite devastated for awhile about the whole thing. 

 

After a few days when I had a couple of hours early one morning, I figured it was time to finish the piece.  The figures are outlined with charcoal and colored in with oil pastels.  Most of the white features are from sketches cut from ordinary computer paper, except for the dog's eyes - white acrylic paint - and the dog's teeth - liquid paper (for correcting spelling mistakes) from my desk drawer. 

 

I literally had no idea what I was doing, and no end goal in mind.  Mitsi encouraged us to put symbols and marks that had meaning to us, to use what we had on hand, to think about people in our lives and to pour our thoughts out onto the canvas. 

 

I had no symbols and marks to pull from because I'd never really thought about that much before, and I sure was working hard at figuring out how to use the art supplies, never mind thinking about people and my feelings.  Finally, getting frustrated and crotchety and lost, I let go at trying to figure out HOW to do this painting and just LET the painting happen. 

 

I started thinking about important people in my life - about my family - and halleluia the painting started to click!  My creatures became happy looking (believe me - at one point they were extremely dismal) and it felt good to be working.  I even threw in a couple of symbols (two stick figures representing my two children and a couple of elongated numeral fours symbolizing the four human members of my family).

 

The faces are weird.  The colors are funky.  I fell in love with this picture.  Then I realized why.  This is a portrait of MY FAMILY! 

 

And that is why this picture is going on my wall!

 

 

 

 

 

As for my sketchbook, I haven't taken any pictures of my work yet, but I'll get some done and when I do, I'll share it with you.

 

Thanks for dropping by!

 

xox

Sketches from Vancouver

 Hello and happy Mother's Day to all you mothers out there!

 

I started writing this post last week but didn't get it finished for you.  Better late than never so here it is! 

 

I'm back from a quick trip (May 01st to 05th) to Vancouver with my Dad and sister Kris to visit my wonderful sister Rena and brother-in-law Kent.  It was a whirlwind trip with two days of travel and three days of sightseeing, laughter and not a whole lot of sleep.  In amongst touring Grouse Mountain, Capilano Suspension Bridge, the Vancouver Aquarium and Granville Island, and between the talking, the jokes, the eating (awesome fish and chips at Pajo's in Stevenson), the music and the photos....I snuck in a few sketches. 

 

It's harder than I thought to take time to sketch when I travel.  I want to see EVERYTHING and try EVERYTHING and taste EVERYTHING.  Well, not quite everything but you get the picture.  There is so much to see and do that I find it hard to stop and take time to draw.  Plus, when you travel with others you must be considerate and not make them wait too long for you while you put on the last bit of details on a building (At this point I must say a big "thank you" to my patient family!).

 

Then of course, I had to get over that weird feeling of being some kind of artist imposter.  You know, the kind that people point and laugh at saying, "who does she think she is, pretending to be some kind of artist! Ha ha ha!"  Apparently according to Danny Gregory this is just a mad, mean monkey on my back and I have to shake him off and boot him over to the side.  Well, in Hawaii I started hauling the monkey down, and in Vancouver I think I gave him a good shake to the side.  I must say I totally enjoyed sketching on my trip, though I was a bit s-l-o-o-o-w-w.  Finishing up at home in the evening actually is a common practice.

 

So on this trip I bounced between a small 5 1/2" x 3 1/2" moleskin journal and my 6" x 9" Robert Bateman that I've used for most of my sketches.   The Bateman is not for watercolor but it manages quite well if I don't use too, too much water.  I didn't try watercolor in the moleskin though I think it could handle okay. 

 

Anyway, I have two pictures to show you from my trip, both from the Robert Bateman journal. 

 

 

This is the Vancouver skyline, Leah style, sitting on a huge chair near the site of the Olympic Torch (that's the best description I can give because I don't know any street names or dock names).  While the others went for a walk along the dock walk, I stayed behind with my Dad and gleefully pulled out my paint box (Windsor & Newton field kit which I'm really getting to know and like), my brushes, my pen, my iPod, my headphones and prepared to draw.  Then I choked -- there was so much to look at!  How could I choose?  So what did I do?  I decided to draw a whole big city skyline with tons and tons of details.  Did I tell you I had 15 - 20 minutes?  Yikes!

 

What I ended up doing is drawing, pretty accurately as I could, the shapes of the buildings.  Then I quickly added a sort of version of the windows on each building.  That was it. That was all I had time for.  Later at home I added my impression of what I had seen - a whole row of yellow trees along the sea wall.  I don't know what is exactly there but that is all my memory picked up on.  The color I added later also.  The sky is much more blue in real life but I like the cloudy effect it shows here.

 

 

 

This is a picture I made while waiting for my turn on the table at my sister's massage therapy office in Langley.  I had 1 1/4 hours to draw so I decided to try a Tommy Kane style picture, putting in as much detail as I possibly could. The actually drawing took more just over an hour and I managed to lay in only a couple of watercolor splashes before my time was up.  It's real easy to slide into a zone when drawing this way, but getting the perspective correct?  Nope.  Didn't happen.  I took a photo of the corner so when I was home I would be able to finish all the color.  I found out later during my online class how much time Tommy Kane puts towards a picture, and learnt more about his shadowing and coloring and crosshatching - none of which I put into the picture above. But I didn't know!  I can't wait to try again.  His pictures are phenomenal! And he doesn't always have correct perspective either!

Oh yeah - the assage I had was awesome!

Cheers!

xox

It's Been a Slow Week But...

Happy end of the weekend everyone!

Yeah, it's Sunday night and I haven't been art-active quite as much as I would have liked to.  But I'm still happy to have a couple of things to show you.

My lesson in Sketching Skool last week was taught by Prashant Miranda.  He's a totally cool artist who works between India and Canada.  You can check out his blog through the link on his name.  With him I was required to look to the skies!  Watercolor is all about push and pull - washes wet on dry and wet on wet.  I pulled off a couple of scenes from my window doing a wash each way.  Can't wait to get outside and do more sketches around town. If only the weather would cooperate.....!

Now...what do you think of the next picture?

 

I think it rocks!  Not because it's has great composition or excellent brush stokes or anything artsy like that.  It rocks because it is a completely DIGITAL picture.  How wild is that?

My sister and her hubbie gave me an Intuos Pen at Christmas.  So cool!  I downloaded one of the free programs which lets me use watercolor, pens, stamps, ink, acrylics and more - all digital.  The banner of my blog is made with the pen -- it was my first try at a person!  Prash had us doing skies so I got busy and tried one digitally.  Loads of fun and extremely addictive.  I have lots of ideas for this little tool...... hmmmmm.

As for my Soul Food classes, I haven't finished anything there yet.  I've watched several lessons and I'm waiting for supplies for a couple of them.  I've started on this very organic, creative lesson which I plan to do as I watch the video rather than watch the whole lesson then work on it.  Makes it a lot more "in-the-moment-picture-with-the supplies-I-have-on-hand" kind of style which is definitely a challenge for me.  Have to see where it takes me!

Have a great week!

xox

On Being Creative

This is a must-watch for anyone who is remotely interested in being creative and afraid to try.  Or for those creatives who are trying to create but really struggling with the process.  It's also a great boost for someone who has been creating for a long time.

I first saw it when it was posted by one of the Soul Food instructors.  The words resonated with me in a way I can't describe.

Then, blow me away, it was posted by one of the Sketching Skool instructors!  Seriously!

These are good words so check it out.  It will only take 2 minutes of your day.

 



xox

And Some Sketching Lessons...

Here is some of the work I've done this past week in the other on-line course I'm taking - Sketching Skool.  There are hundreds and hundreds of students in this course.  The work runs the gamut from total beginner to total awesome professional work. It's amazing to see all styles, not to mention inspirational and some good-to-steal techniques!

The idea for this course is to get into the practice of drawing everyday in my journal, illustrating life and interests at the moment.  So far I HAVE DRAWN EVERYDAY since the course started.  I'm only showing you some of the stuff though - my more favorite pictures.

So far I've completed klass with Danny Gregory and Koosje Koene.  Oh, to be able to draw like these two! 

 

 

 Danny's advice? Draw from our life.  Draw something that has meaning to us.  Comfy socks are important to us, right?

 

 

 

 

Koosje showed us basic techniques with colored pencils which is totally intriguing but takes lots of time to add layers.  I think it's a medium I will come back to in the future....

 

 

 

This young thing was not posing for me seeing as she lives on the other side of the world.  I found out it is not cheating if I use photos to sketch from during this course!

 

This picture resulted from a question posed by my third instructor Prashant Miranda.  Can I draw a picture that shows the essence of my day?  I watched his video at 10 pm after a busy day so I thought sketching my comfy, welcoming bed was a pertinent subject! 

Two things to help you decipher the picture:   a)  I am sitting at the end of my bed looking at the pillows with the bed covers turned back and b) if you want to read the words, please read all the way across then go back to the beginning again for the next line.  I should have written first in one corner then the other but didn't so it is kinda weird to read.  It's a learning curve thing.

Prashant's klass runs this week until Friday so maybe I will have more to post after that.  Depends on how it goes.

xox

Two More Lessons Complete!

Hi!  It's taken me some time BUT I have finished two more Soul Food lessons. 

 

I'm posting photos of my work, and I'm also going to post a link to the instructor's website/blog for the lessons from now on.  Each lesson I take is from a different artist (more or less - there are a few who offer more than one lesson).  That's why you see such a wide variety of styles and ideas. These projects are the brain children of many different and talented people.  This way, if you like the project idea, you can go and check out more of the artist's work. 

 

Disclaimer:  My finished pieces are no way representational of the work of the instructing artist.  Their work is awesomely good and I am so privileged to be learning techniques, tips and styles from them, not to mention the shot of confidence I get each time I complete another piece!!!! 

 

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Lesson 7  - Zorana

 www.zoranaland.blogspot.com

 

Zorana introduced us to the magic of irisescent bronze fine fluid acrylic paint (I used Golden brand - I don't know if any other company makes this paint or not). 

 

Notice the bronze and green colors the pictures?  When you add lots of water to this bronze paint, the paint separates and swirls and dries into these two beautiful colors.  This is so cool.  I'm totally going to make more of these. 

We created three different pictures then used them in three different projects - a small, handmade book, a card and a journal page.

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Lesson 21 with Susana Tavares

I love this little woman!  The fabric is all hand painted my moi so it is a one-of-a-kind can't-find-it-anywhere doll! 

It intrigued me to do a project which involved painting on fabric.  My very talented sister works with painting on fabric so I wanted to give it a try.  This however, is completely different from what she does.  One day I'll show you some of her stuff.

Notice the greyish, blackish shades to her hair?  I tried to add some wisdom to her by doing this.  My thought was "gray & black = mature person = wisdom"!??. 

I'm not sure the wisdom part worked out or the different shades, but I love how she turned out! It was a great class with Susana.

 

 

I'm not actually doing my lessons in order any more.  So far there are 33 lessons posted.  I've completed 14 of them.  Since I'm so far behind (hard to keep up with two lessons a week) I decided to bounce around and work on what catches my interest and more importantly, which lessons I have supplies on hand for at the moment.  In the meantime, I can order some of the supplies I don't have to get ready for other lessons.  Basically - I'm all over the place so bear with me!

 

 

xox



If We Only Have Eyes to See It

"There is so much in the world for us all if we only have the eyes to see it, and the heart to love it, and the hand to gather it to ourselves--so much in men and women, so much in art and literature, so much everywhere in which to delight, and for which to be thankful."

--L.M. Montgomery

 

 

 

In my backyard, April 19, 2014

 

xox