And Cars Too

Trucks Again?

I was looking at old truck drawings yesterday and the experience made me want to draw another. This first one isn't any less wonky than the old ones!,

Merry Christmas, Everyone!

 

Sketching in the Garden

I did this sketch back in June and found it today.  Much of the summer was too hot for me and I didn't do much drawing or painting at all.  Reading was my summertime pastime this year.

Miss Fiona

 

You can find the inspiration photo by @mozarts_ride here.  Carey reposted his photo for St. Patrick's Day and I learned something new about the feast day reading it.  

Miss Isabel

 

You can find the details for Miss Isabel, along with the inspiration photo by @mozarts_ride here.  In his Instagram post, Carey goes for a trip down memory lane remembering one of my favorite bands - ZZ Top.

Playing With Inktense Blocks

Years ago my sister bought me a set of 72 Inktense Blocks for Christmas.  (What a lucky girl I am!)  I've been using them lately as a massive set of pan paints to paint truck drawings.  I've been using my Paul Rubens Hot Press Watercolor sketchbook which is lovely to draw and paint in.  It's another more recent gift from Dianne.  She's queen of (the) Amazon.

Yum!

 This is another daily practice from Make Art Where You Are on CreativeBug.  

Having finished my Stillman & Birn landscape sketchbook, I'm now using my  A4 Royal Talens art creation sketchbook.  I divide the page in 2 and put my class notes on the same page.  (In the landscape sketchbook I was putting notes on the page opposite the exercise.)

Here's what the whole page looks like:

Day 9: Blind Contour

Blind Contour is a prompt in the Make Art Where You Are Series on Creativebug.  The teacher, Courtenay Cerruti, says that blind contour drawing is the only kind of drawing she does any more.  I find it fun too and the results never fail to make me smile.

This is one of my baby shoes, in case you can't tell. LOL

Make Art Where You Are

 

Taking classes is how I stay inspired these days.  My local public library gives us free access to CreativeBug, which has enough classes to keep me busy for awhile!  CreativeBug has not only instructional classes on all things creative, but also 70 Daily Practice Series.  Each of these offers 30 short videos and prompts designed to get you creating each day for a month.

Right now, I'm taking a series called Make Art Where You Are, with Courtenay Cerruti.  I'm really enjoying it, and this sketchpage of markers and pencil crayons is from Day 6 Using the White of the Page.  I'm interested in trying a bit of a mixed media drawing approach, and it was fun using markers and pencil crayons together.  I'm pleased with the results too.

I'm almost at the end of my Stillman & Birn Alpha Series landscape sketchbook which I started in 2019 for Whims in Watercolor 2:  "Loose and Fearless" with Joanne Sharpe.  I'm feeling the urge to finish and consolidate sketchbooks again.....

Sustainable Cocktails

 

Who knew there was such a thing?

Playing with Blind Contour Drawing

 

I'm missing my friend Janice who used to remind me when I didn't blog.  She has been under the weather lately.

My journals have been proliferating again and I was thinking today about possibly indexing them.  Then I realized that my blog has always functioned as a kind of index for me; if so, I better not neglect it!

This is in my Talens art creation studio journal. 

Sketching from Reference Material

 

This is another lesson from Kate Sutton's Domestica course.  Drawing with markers is fun and they dry instantly!

Engaging or Relaxing?

 

Sleep Therapy continues to inform my art, as I look for things to do at midnight that are relaxing rather than engaging.  I've played with coloring books (relaxing), drawing (engaging), and slopping watercolor paint around (the jury is still out on this one).

After a boring but relaxing session with a colouring page, I thought about creating my own colouring book filled with trucks.  So, I drew these trucks to paint later. 

All of these trucks were inspired by the wonderful photographs by @mozarts_ride on Instagram.

Ending With Shapes

 

Yes, I did make it to 100 last night.  After playing around with different pencils and pens for a couple of days I returned to my favorite method for drawing people - shapes rather than lines.  A waterbrush and watercolour are the best tools for this.

A quick search on my blog tells me that this is how I did the entire challenge in 2019.  I'd forgotten how much easier this is for me; obviously I don't draw people much.

A little line work added now that they are dry might be fun too, and might make the end result better.  Or not. LOL

Without A Plan

 

I didn't plan to participate in #oneweek100people this year, but it turned out to be a great thing to do at midnight when trying to stay awake.  (I'm restricting my sleep in an attempt to improve my insomnia.)

Each year, urban sketchers Marc Taro Holmes and Liz Steel run this drawing challenge with the simple goal to draw 100 people in 1 week.  It really helps to have a plan and/or approach going into this challenge, and when I picked it up I had neither.  I only had a need to stay awake, a new Talbots catalogue and a bright (?) idea in a foggy brain.  The first day of the challenge was almost over!

These were done with a Pilot Parallel Pen and walnut ink.  I took a course last weekend which used this pen for calligraphy and gave me encouragement to dust mine off and just play!

By Wednesday I developed a bit of a plan and an approach to finish.  A bit of research informed me that this 1 week challenge is actually only 5 days, so 37 in 2 days wasn't quite going to get me there!  Stay tuned for the exciting conclusion.....

Bumbling Around Duluth

 

I think I got lost in the train museum.

It's a Girl!

 

This was done in my new A4 Royal Talens journal.  The paper buckled from the watercolor on the other side, but I don't really mind that.  If I use a little less water (maybe a pan set and a water brush) it will be fine.  There is no bleed through at all.

The paper is lovely and smooth, but the colour is a little on the creamy side rather than bright white.  (This affects the colour of the watercolour.)  The journals are well priced, which encourages lots of experimentation.   I like it a lot, so I have ordered a smaller one.

Virtual Sketch Leicester Visits York

 

VirtualSketchLeicester is a Facebook Group

Sketching With a Folded Pen

 

At the February Westcoast Calligraphy Society meeting, we were playing with our folded pens.  The instructor kept saying "it's a drawing tool", so naturally I gave it a try.

"What's a folded pen?" you might be asking.  Well, I took a picture for you on my next attempt.

You draw with the tip and add more ink by changing the angle of the pen on the paper.  This increases the amount of the open part of the pen that is contacting the paper.  (Think of holding a taco with the open part down - the filling falls out, right?)

And then, to test the waterproof qualities of the sumi ink I was using, I added watercolour:

The verdict on the pen is 5/10.  I like it better for lettering.  

Because you have to dip the pen in ink rather than having the convenience of a cartridge, the ink matters too.  I'll only score the sumi ink 2/10.  It takes too long to dry which can result in smudging.  (You can see where I dragged my hand through the ink on the first drawing.)  It isn't truly waterproof either, so it isn't really suited for watercolour.  I don't think that I let it dry overnight, but who wants to do that when you're drawing?

Photo reference:  mozarts_ride