Be Square!

Perhaps you remember my post last week where I told you about my Square A Day project.  If not, you can read more about it here:  A Square A Day…

I recently finished the square doodle that inspired the idea for my project:

I’ve titled it, Be Square!

I created a box for my 2019 square project with monthly dividers.  I am writing notes on the back of each card with the date, description and inspiration for the square.  I may use my completed squares for inspiration when I get stuck in a creative rut in the future.

Below are six squares I have completed for January:

I find myself paying more attention to my environment and ideas I could use for future squares…

I think for once in my life, I’m OK to be square! 

Cheers!  🙂

A Square A Day…

Do YOU have any creative goals for 2019?

 I believe creative goals can be a good thing even if we get distracted during the process of completing our ideas.  I see goals as a starting point, like making a recipe…

Sometimes when I start a recipe for dinner, I discover that I don’t have all the ingredients to complete it.  So it means I need to substitute what I do have to make it work.

Completing creative goals can be like making a recipe, sometimes we need to change “ingredients” to make it work for us.

I started, A Square Project in 2018 but I didn’t get it completed as planned.  Perhaps I got bored.  Perhaps I got distracted with other art classes.  It doesn’t really matter as I enjoyed the process while I did it.

I recently started an assignment from Carla Sonheim’s “365 Right Braininess” online class; to paint watercolor in a square format and fill each square with doodles, drawings and paper collage.  I have found that I like creating in a square a day…

How many birds can YOU find in the art piece above?

And it reminded me of this book, “No Excuses Art Journaling,” by Gina Rossi Armfield:

I recently purchased the 1.75 inch punch!

After seeing the journaling ideas from this book and others online, I decided to create my own creative challenge for next year!

I wrote about it in my art journal yesterday:

I hope you will join me in creating a square a day in 2019 with the creative  “ingredients” that make YOU happy!

Happy New Year!!

Cheers! 🙂

X, Y, Z And…

I made it through the alphabet for my art journal!  WHOOT!

And I completed 31 days of watercolor in July for World Watercolor Month!!

I thought you might enjoy seeing my finished alphabet pages…

An X-ray Tetra Fish for “X”:

“Y” is for Yellow:

“Z” for Zentangled zoodles… Which are zucchini noodles!

I still want to add paper collage and a few extra details to complete these pages… so stay tuned! 🙂

And I completed 5 additional watercolor pages to finish my 31 days – I will post them later this week…

I am happy to be done so I can focus on some other art projects.  Yet, I had so much fun!

I enjoyed my extra time at the lake last week... I think my highlights were swimming in the lake – three times a day, reading a super good book, painting outside daily, making paper butterflies with a friend, daily naps and cool evenings.

Wishing you a happy day doing what you love!

Cheers! 🙂

M, N, O, P

My continuation of my Alphabet Journal…

Mushrooms from my imagination for the letter, “M”:

I did reference wild mushrooms online before I drew and painted these colorful ones.  It was very fun to paint these mushrooms in watercolor.  Adding salt while the paint was wet gave the perfect texture to them.  I am sure I will be painting more in my future!

Letter “N” is for handwritten notes:

This one took me a little more time to complete.  It was fun to add old postage stamps for the collage part.  Letter writing seems to be becoming a lost form of communication.

”O” is for the color, orange so why not an orange sunset:

I was playing with color, shapes and balance for the collage part.

Purple petunias from a planter were a perfect subject for the letter, “P”:

I cut strips of handpainted paper for the collage part.  I thought the colors accented the purples I used for the petunias.

I hope you are enjoying my alphabet series… I’m having so much fun!

Cheers! 🙂

Kites, Lilies And…

I am finding that working on more than one letter of the alphabet at a time is helping me stay on track for the daily watercolor and collage series challenge I have given myself for the month of July.

Working ahead also takes the pressure off…

After all, this is supposed to be FUN, right?!

I like how these kites turned out for the letter, “K”…

          I can remember kite flying when I was a child, how about you?

This is one of the parts that I am enjoying about this challenge for myself, experimenting with different ideas to achieve the end results…

Like using my gelli-printed collage papers for the clouds! 🙂

Can you guess what letter, “L” stands for?

You got it!  Lilies!

And a Ladybug!

Did you see the Green Metalic Bee on the Lily?

I discovered this bee really exists!  I probably would not have discovered it IF I hadn’t been photographing it!

Isn’t NATURE grand?! It opens the mind to all sorts of new things…

Happy Exploring!

Cheers! 🙂

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! 🙂