Sketching Kitchen Leaves

Bay Leaves
Pencil sketch with Koi Watercolors

It's a cold February day and I don't feel like venturing out. So drawing bay leaves.

Loving daily sketching and feel like I've found a daily practice that makes

 me feel skillful and like I'm developing my drawing skills and also my power

 of observation.  

 This brings together so many of my interests and passions: 

1. The Plein Air art of the Impressionist and Post-Impressionists
2. Landscapes/drawing from nature
3. The sacred quality of Nature and the value of of closely observing Nature
4. The Denver Botanic Gardens and Botanical Illustration
5. Visual Journals

 All this also informs the classes I teach through Colorado Free University.

 I have my Impressions of the Gardens class which I have had the opportunity

 to teach for a couple of years and one I am going to start soon: Botanical Art Journal.

 Like Plein Air art with simple supplies and a sketchbook.  I've also just become

 aware of the  Urban Sketching movement. Feel blessed!  Now, if I could only

 figure out how any of these endeavors could pay the rent.

Stencil Crazy

"Mother Earth Tile"
MaryBeth Shaw "Tile" stencil from the Stencil Club, Balzer Design Stencil.
Watercolor with Gelly Roll pen accents.

"Orange"
Just A Trace stencil "Garbo" stencil.  Watercolor, Derwent Watercolor Pencil,  Sharpie pen.

Detail, 3 Peppers with Stencil

3 Peppers with "Stencil"
I used the cardboard waste from punch out letters as a stencil in this one.
I've used this window-like "stencil" again and again.

Orchid with Stencil
This is a blind contour drawing with stenciled elements  and additional lines added.
Koi watercolors.

I've always loved the rich patterns often found in paintings by Matisse and now I have a not so secret
secret about how to create that effect in my work with fewer tears.  Stencils!!  

This is how it happened.  Element 1: Libby Unwin from Just a Trace was a guest speaker at the first
meeting of my Visual Journaling Group, Colorado (see meetup and facebook)at the Super Good ArtStuff 
art supply store in Denver, Colorado, in the Tennyson Cultural District.  She brought stencils
for us and we used spray ink to create journal pages.  Fun!

Element 2:  I started an online class with one of my favorite artists Jane LaFazio: "Sketching and
Watercolor, Journal Style".  I love Jane's journals and so great to learn some of her techniques.  I'm

working on emulating her way of keeping her whites and sparkle, working quickly and not overworking.

Element 3: I joined Marybeth Shaw's Stencil Club and joined her related facebook page. This means that
I get a packet of three or four stencils each month (large, medium, small, smaller) and have access to

a related video with techniques for using the stencils.  The facebook group is great too--very inspiring to

see how creative others use materials.

So Jane's course assignments ended up with stenciled backgrounds and I'm crazy about the effect.

How I did it:

1. Draw your still life in pencil
2. Ink with a permanent marker
3. Erase pencil lines
4. Draw a square or rectangle around the drawing
5. Lay down stencil and use pencil to draw in a patterned background
6. Watercolor the whole thing

Looking forward to making some paintings in acrylic and getting my Matisse on!

Art Supply Testing Journal

I never decided between circle or square test spots but like the bright and messy result.

Page one (mostly warms) of my Derwent Inktense Water Soluble Pencils

Tombos are water soluble markers that come in blendable bright colors.

Thanks to Joanne Sharpe of Whimspirations fame http://joannezsharpe.blogspot.com/ for

teaching me to keep an art supply testing journal.  Such a great resource and reference for

choosing materials and colors for a project.  Plus the pages are so pretty I just had to share.

Every time I get new supplies I make a color range page for them.  Why wasn't I taught this 

practice in art school?  Helps me to develop a deeper relationship with materials and colors.

Think my next art supply testing journal is going to have heavier wet media friendly pages.

Probably a small Strathmore Visual Journal.  This one was just a composition book with

pairs of pages glue sticked together to make more sturdy pages.

 

Fall Pages: Preserving Memories & Childlike Qualities

Fall Page, Preserving Memories and Childlike Qualities, Left

Fall Page, Preserving Memories and Childlike Qualities, Right

Stamps, butterfly decoupage paper, Plaid liquid embossing, Inktense W/C Pencils

I first used spray ink to make patterned paper.  I then stamped the redline.com stamp

"Nature Jar" onto it.  I used Plaid liquid embossing (silver) to make threads on the jar lid after I glued the cut-out jar down.  The background was made with scribbles of fall colored Inktense Watercolor Pencils spread around with water and paint brush. Stamped with leaf, crow, spiral line stamps (origin unknown).  

I also found fall-themed quotes from 

Edwin Teale

"Change is a measure of time and, in the autumn, time seems speeded up. 

What was is not and never again will be; what is is change".

and

Andrew Wyeth

"I prefer winter and fall, when you feel the bone structure of the landscape

the loneliness of it, the dead feeling of winter.  Something waits beneath it,

the whole story doesn't show".

I added journaling about my memory of my grandmother canning tomatoes in the summer and using those tomatoes the whole winter to make wonderful stews and sauces.  Also thinking

about the whole idea of preserving something from seasons past.

I am in the fall of my life, a time of collecting memories and gathering my treasures, accepting loss.  Also preserving the childlike qualities of hope, playfulness, enthusiasm, energy, imagination, creativity, spontaneity.  

Doors of Opportunity

Back page and Cover of Doors Booklet

Pages 1 & 2

Pages 3 & 4

Pages 5 & 6

Collage, Sharpie Pen, Tombo Markers 

I'm participating in Jess Greene's "Jump start Your Creativity" online course. http://www.jumpstartcreativitytour.com/ 

I definitely find, at this point in life, 

that I am more likely to spend time creating if I am enrolled in some sort of online art class.  A great point of departure.  Her first week prompt with "doors".  She sent out a pdf with directions for folding an X-book and a sheet with drawings of doors.  

I've always loved the metaphor of the "door".  Here's where I went with this point of departure.  First, I made an x-fold book (look on YouTube) ledger sized, the tiny book was too small for me.  Then I drew 8 doors.  That's when I realized that these 8 doors where doors that represented OPPORTUNITY to me. 

You know that old saying about opportunity knocking?  So looking through these open doors I thought about my areas of opportunity that need attention.  I used the Drawing with Associations method here to gather association to these collage/drawings.  Guess the next step could be an activity that breaks down the steps needed to realize these opportunities.

Drawing with Associations

Art Muse Mind Map

Black Gesso, Tombo Markers, Gelly Roll pens, sharpie pens.

One of my signature art therapy assignments is

1. make a drawing, painting or collage
2. make a mind-map related to your art piece
3. make a journal entry related to your art piece and mind map

I think that this process now has a short hand version.  I made a drawing of my "Art Muse" and printed out a copy which I glued to the cover a composition book that I had painted with black gesso.  I embellished the drawing...surprised that she ended up with a mask.  Then, instead of making a separate mind-map I made the image itself into a mind-map.  Maybe I'll call it a Art with Associations.  

My composition book is a place for me to plot and plan ways to expand my streams of income through making art, coaching, doing art therapy (virtually, and face to face) and teaching.

What I discovered: I need to develop myself as a product.  That's what the mask means, I think.  I need to assure the part of myself that is a raving introvert that another part of me will do all the extroverted stuff that makes her so tired.  Like an actor creates a role.  It really is me, my ideas and heart, but a product/persona as well.  At least that's what I'm thinking today.

Bulb Blossums

Bulb Blossoms

Sharpie pen and Tombo Markers

I know that fall is here but I'm nostalgic about Spring and new blooms.  I bought an old

book for a dollar at the Denver Botanic Gardens " Readers Digest Complete Book of The Garden" from 1966.  I'm not a gardener but loved the simple botanical drawings.  Great practice to use these drawings as a reference to draw from.  Just added a little color
with Tombo Markers.  I love working from living flowers but also love to work from
photos, drawings and painting.

Don't be afraid to draw from any source that inspires you.