New Year Inspiration

Happy New Year Friends!!

Have YOU put on a your creative thinking cap(s) for 2019?

 

I purchased this art book a few years ago…

It is just the daily inspiration I need in the new year!

I made a book-marker for it… You can see I have a square as part of my design (see yesterday’s post).

What inspiration will YOU use in your creativity in the new year?  I hope you share it with me!

Cheers to new creative discoveries! 🙂

A Mixed Bouquet

Perhaps you are looking for a gift for yourself or someone who loves flowers…

I recently purchased this book of creative floral inspiration, Botanica from Uppercase Magazine:

It includes a mixed bouquet of art mediums and artists who are fascinated with all things floral.  The colorful art and articles are truly inspirational! 🙂

When I give a book as a gift, I like to include a handmade bookmarker with it.

They are easy to make, like this one below:

I decorated white cardstock with a simple pattern, glued a paintchip sample from Home Depot, stamped a face from a rubber stamp onto white tissue paper and glued the tissue paper to the paint sample with a glue stick.  I finished it by punching a hole in the top, adding some colorful yarn and a wooden bead.

Bookmarkers make great gifts – with or without a book – and can be personalized with a special handwritten note on the back.

With a bookmarker, you don’t need to purchase a greeting card… It is a treasure like a good book!

Do you have a favorite book that you like to give as a gift?  Please share!

Cheers! 🙂

Creative Doodling…

As many of you know, I find doodling to be a meditative practice.

I like to draw patterns in the evening, often while my hubby is watching basketball or whatever sport is on TV.  My hubby gets VERY involved with the games and often “encourages” the team and refs to play better.  😉

So I doodle away…  Like this one I recently started:

And have been adding to it, a little each evening:

I was looking for inspiration for patterns and decided to look at this book I had purchased awhile back:

It has lots of creative ideas with blank pages to experiment!  Super fun!

If I get stuck, I look at this book for inspiration.  I usually can’t “copy” the patterns but use them as a place to start my own doodle pattern:

This doodle is approximately  5 inches wide by 5.25 inches in length.  I am using a Pigma Micron pen in various sizes – primarily .01

I try to balance shapes, patterns and value in my designs.  This is part of the fun!  I’m still working on this doodle and will post it when I’m done! 🙂

What inspires YOU to create patterns or doodle creatively?

I hope you share it with me!

Cheers! 🙂

Mistake Or Possibility?

I recently purchased  this children’s book, “The Book of Mistakes,” by Corinna Luyken on Amazon:

I must admit, the book TITLE grabbed my attention!  And I wasn’t disappointed! 🙂  This is an excellent book for everyone at any age in my opinion.

We all make mistakes – I know I do, especially in art!  Yet, I have learned that how I perceive a mistake in art making can make a difference…

Do I give up and throw away the art project or see it as an opportunity to learn something new?

Do I figure out how to make a mistake part of my design?

Or do I take a step away and later return to see possibilities instead of failure?

I hope you will google this author – Corinna Luyken.com and look up her Q and A for writing this book.  Her drawings are wonderful too in her Portfolio!

What do you do when you make a mistake in art?  I’d love to hear from you!

Cheers! 🙂

P.S. In tomorrow’s post I will show you how I changed a mistake into a possibility!

A Rosy Review

Continuing with my “R’s” in my Alphabet Journal yesterday, I decided to experiment drawing ROSES using the instruction from this RECENT book I purchased on Amazon:

I really like how the author, Peggy Dean simplifies flowers and leaves into basic shapes such as how to draw this rose:

I believe this book will give me some excellent ideas for future doodles like these roses I drew with an ink pen and colored with Prismacolor pencils:

Happy Drawing!

Cheers! 🙂

Sit, Walk, Write

Today, I was without electricity for several hours so I didn’t have internet access.  I think sometimes this can be a good thing because it forces me to slow down and READ!  I’d like to read more but there always seems so much I need to be DOING!

In Natalie Goldberg’s book, “The True Secret of Writing,” she talks about slowing down and “uprooting the urgency, the feeling that everything is an emergency.”  She suggests you sit still for five minutes a day and pay attention to your breath.  She also has you slowly walking by not going anywhere but focusing on placing one foot in front of the other and being present in the moment.

I have always dreamed that “some day” I’d be a writer (and an artist).  I think this is the reason this book caught my attention.  I also like the art and colors on the book cover…

I do believe that blogging has helped me write more but I’d like to learn to create a daily writing practice much like creating art each day.  I’m hoping this book will give me the tools to make it happen.  I will let you know how it goes…

I created this doodle in my journal with a black pen and watercolor pencils on Sunday after I started reading the book:

I think that silence or quieting my mind, can help me to truly listen.  To pay attention in art, writing and life.

What about you, what helps you to slow down and focus?

Happy Creating!  🙂