A Daily Creative Practice

As many of you know, I enjoy taking online art classes – especially from CarlaSonheim.com

I started taking her first year-long class in 2013 with the Year of the Giraffe.  This year will be my 6th year.  I don’t always get to every assignment yet I enjoy the community and creative connections I make through her classes on Facebook.

I also enjoy the assignments as it helps me to think-outside-the-box and explore art in new ways.  Like this lesson:

I used thread dipped in watercolor and a brayer to create the abstract above.  Below is another one I did with India ink:

This year’s class is similar to last year’s – 365 days of creating daily.  The class started on Friday, January 5 so you can still sign-up and join in if you’d like. 🙂

Below is what I titled, Low Tide, where I used another piece of paper over the thread instead of a brayer to create my abstract:

You have the option this year to get the assignments daily or weekly.  I currently signed up for daily but may change to weekly later on.

Yesterday, our assignment was to draw a piece of fruit blindfolded – the fruit, not me! Hehe 😉 I did an apple:

I hope you join in the fun!!  Go to http://www.carlasonheim.com for more information.

Cheers to creating daily! 🙂

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! 🙂

100 Days Of Drawing Faces

I posted my 100th face on Instagram yesterday!  WHOOT!  😊 I accomplished my goal of drawing 100 faces in a little over 100 days… Phew!!

Maybe some of you recall my first face I posted on April 4th – it was a quick sketch in one continuous line:

100 days is A LOT especially when I am working full-time… (What was I thinking?!) and yet having limited time helped me to accomplish my goal because I didn’t have time to fuss over it.

I didn’t post everything I did like this one:

I would have liked to have more time to do more like this one, where I mixed collage and acrylics:

But I enjoyed trying a variety of art mediums:

Sprinkled with a little humor:

I think this one is one of my favorites – Picasso style:

And this one I did in watercolor with drips for hair:

I found I could draw more realistic looking faces and even my own – or at least my better half!  Lol! 🙂

I think the greatest lesson I learned is that it isn’t perfection that matters but PRACTICE!!  Daily practice does make a difference….

Especially in finding ones “style” in art!  I found I really liked creating “characters” rather than REAL people:

And yet, drawing a variety really is the best teacher!  Here is my 100th face:

I’m sure it won’t be my last…

Yet, let’s FACE it, I need a little break from drawing faces!

Cheers! 🙂

A Letter Day

Yesterday, I finished doodling my letters in my World Watercolor Month sketchbook that I posted recently:

This inspired me to use the letters, “WBW” for today’s Weird Bird Wednesday:

I knew if I moved my paper around, I could find a weird bird in the letters… Can you find one?

This one flew off the page at me – so I added a few more details with watercolors:

Next, I decided to doodle my letters with an ink pen to finish it:

Happy Weird Bird Wednesday!!

Cheers! 🙂

Once Upon A Time…

I’m sure there is a story here… Somewhere!

Well, at least a “colorful” character or two…

Or six!  🙂

Technique:

I cut two pieces of 9×12 inch hot-pressed watercolor paper into 4 pieces.  Next, I painted  positive and negative shapes in watercolor in a variety of colors, randomly adding a few splatters at the end.

When I had a few minutes, I drew faces from magazines, old photos and/or my imagination. Some of my faces are simple and others have more detail.  I used a 2B pencil, Tombow markers, PrismaColor pencils and a Micron .01 black pen.

It was great fun to create these people!  I hope you give it a try!

Happy Creating!  Cheers! 🙂

More FUNny Faces

I have been creating more FUNny faces from Lynn Whipple’s online class, “Making Faces.”

I find these silly, colorful faces very FUN to make!

Almost as wonderful as savoring dark chocolate with almonds:

Or soaking in the sun on a beautiful summer day:

Or eating a delicious meal at a favorite restaurant:

Or snuggling with my kitty:

Or laughing so hard that tears come to my eyes:

What makes you smile?!  🙂

I hope you share it with me!

Cheers!  🙂

P.S.  Thursday, I will show you how I cut up these faces and combine them together to create NEW faces.  I hope you will join me! 😊

The Professor And Maryann

The professor could be a drip sometimes…

So Maryann would come to his rescue!

OK, not really but the title sounded FUN!  Remember Gilligan’s Island?  If you lived in the United States the 1960’s and ’70’s… (I’m probably dating myself here a little…)  😮 Lol!

I created these paintings with watercolor paint drips and added shading and details with color pencils.

My hubby has the theme song memorized for Gilligan’s Island…Lol!  Do you think he watched this show wayyyy too much?

Cheers and HAPPY memories!  🙂

Picasso Inspired Face

I was inspired by Picasso to create this face:

I studied several photos of Picasso before I drew a sketch in pencil.  I colored my sections with oil pastels, using two different colors on top of each other.  Next, I scratched into the oil pastels with the end of a mechanical pencil to create the patterns.

I finished it by cutting out the face with scissors.  Oil pastels are a bit messy but I had fun experimenting!

It reminds me of one of my doodles…

Cheers! 🙂

Dear Mom…

A friend’s mom was having a birthday and asked for postcards with cats to wish her a happy day.  It was easier for me to use postcards that were cut and ready for art.

I decided to combine collage using gelli-printed paper and Neocolors water-soluble crayons (since they happened to be next to me.)  Here are the ones I did for her mom:

They were so much fun to make that I decided to create several for my mother-in-law too!  She loves flowers! 🌷

I know I enjoy receiving cards in the mail so I think she will too.  I will make several in advance so I can mail one a week.

Who do you know that would love to receive a postcard in the mail with your art?

Cheers!  🙂

A Square Idea

I came up with this idea to draw nature’s patterns on small squares of paper.  I thought it might give me inspiration when I’m creating my art doodles.

The first ones I did on a 2 inch square piece of cardstock.  On the front is the pattern, shape or form of my subject in ink pen with color:

And on the back side is the date, identity of my subject and where I got my inspiration.

I discovered the 2 inch size paper to be too small so I changed to a 2.5 inch square.  Here are some squares I did recently:

Most of my inspiration for these subjects came from the internet.  These art squares are really fun to do and give me ideas for other art subjects to explore such as the eyes of animals.

I encourage you to give this square idea a try!

Cheers!  🙂