Pencil Crayon Weaver Writing

 This monoline weaver writing could be done with fine felt tip markers too!

I keep learning the same things in church, by the way.  Maybe I should say "hearing"; I may not be too good at "learning" them.  Thankfully, our God is a forgiving God!

Puzzle Stamps

I've always loved Magenta images, and their puzzle stamps are among my favorites.  

 It was this photo from growveg.com that inspired me to get out the puzzle stamps.  

This photo is inspiring me still to do some other things - but Christmas cards first!

Matisse - Vase of Amaryllis, 1941

 

I'm almost finished my Traveler's Notebook journal.  There might be room for one more Matisse!

Les Coucous Tapis Bleu et Rose, 1911

 

I moved from my largest to my smallest sketchbook with this Matisse.  (This is in my Traveler's Notebook.) 

Les Tulippes

 

I'm still enjoying painting with Matisse, although here I changed the composition slightly from the original.  I also replaced oil pastels with watercolor crayons; I don't like the transfer of the oil pastels to the adjacent page when the book is closed.  This one is in my A4 Royal Talens sketchbook. 

Painting with Matisse

 

I'm doing these Matisse copies in every sketchbook I have going.  (The Goldfish is in my A4 Royal Talens.)

I'm especially enjoying replicating Matisse's use of patterns, in my own way of course; I could never accurately reproduce Matisse.

Painting With Joy (and Matisse)

 

At Sketchbook Revival this year I was introduced to a wonderful artist Joy Ting Charde (@joycharde).  I am taking a Creativebug Daily Practice she offers and have attended one of her "Paint With Joy" Zoom sessions.

On Zoom, we drew and painted works by Matisse.  Joy is very loose and fun and I love that she uses multiple mediums - watercolor, oil pastel, watercolor pencils and pencil crayons.

Our homework assignment is to paint more Matisse works...more to come. 😀 

Palette Cleanse

 

I cleaned out my watercolor palette by making circle shapes in my sketchbook.  I turned it into a bouquet of flowers by adding a little pencil crayon.

Happy Mother's Day!

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.....

Spring Floral Flourishes

 

Last night the Westcoast Calligraphy Society put on a marvelous Zoom program taught by Heather Held in Toronto.

Our project piece was an Easter egg but I was also thrilled with my practice sheet (below).  Too bad you can't see the shiny Stickles!

I had such fun, and I'm with Heather when she told us how she found this much easier than lettering.  After a false start with a falcon nib I found a Hunt 56 in my box, which further research today tells me is closer to the Hunt 22 that she was using.  Sometimes I come out of these evenings glad that I tried, but feeling ham-fisted and wondering if calligraphy is for me at all.  It is a rare treat to do so well the first time.  (By no means are these perfect, but for a first time attempt, they aren't too bad.)

I was reminded of a similar session presented by Wendy Cowley in 2014 (pointed pen mandalas) and how pleased I was with my results from that evening as well.  

Sketching Dr. Henry

 I did a lot of sketches of Dr. Henry, our BC Chief Public Health Officer, during the final weeks of 2021, as her press conferences increased again due to the Omicron variant of COVID-19.  

Let's hope 2022 ends this pandemic or at least turns into an endemic, as Dr. Henry believes.  This means that enough people will get immune protection from either vaccination or infection such that there will be less infection and hospitalization and death, even as the virus continues to circulate.

Happy New Year, everyone!

 

#drawjensoldcars

 

Thanks to @jenloves2draw on Instagram for this challenge.

Drawing Prague

 

I've never been to Prague, but @kimyest on Instagram made it possible with this photo.

I got out the pencil crayons to work in a sketchbook that doesn't love wet media.

Trap

 

Inspiration Photo:  Francis MacDonald, Unsplash

Quarantinezine

Yes, quarantinezines are a thing, and of course, an Instagram hashtag.  A quarantinezine is a zine (homemade magazine) people are making during quarantine.  My zine is about the Silver Linings I am finding in the Covid cloud.

I made mine for my "card partner", Lois.  The Westcoast Calligraphy Society June program challenged us to make a card from a sheet of calligraphy practice, and assigned us a card partner to send our card to.  You can see my orange warm-up strokes in the two pictures above, and I practiced writing Lois' name before I folded the zine.  After it was folded, I added the silver linings in criss-cross capitals and script.  I included some drawings and couldn't resist the silver foil.

A zine is an 8 page book made from any size of paper, but often made from letter sized paper - simple copy/computer paper. 






























Here is some more information on zines along with some simple instructions on how to fold a zine.  Of course there are YouTube videos available.

Calligraphy Practice becomes Bookmarks

Pointed Pen, Watercolor Ink

I was trying out some calligraphy options for my journal the other day.  I wrote on strips of mixed media paper left over from making journals.

Pointed Pen, Watercolor Ink, Pencil Crayon, Gel Pen

Watercolor ink worked well for the lettering and for the added color in the counter-spaces the best option is gel pen or a very sharp pencil crayon.

Easy

Easy

Consider how the wildflowers grow.

20/20 Visionaries Oracle Card

Pencil Crayon on Gelli Print

Honey, I Shrank the Car!

a bad drawing of a good photo by @itfeelslikefilm on unsplash.com