Happy New Year!

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! 🙂

Finding The Gift

2017 has NOT been a healthy year in review,

Started with bronchitis and ended with the flu…

Had a big toe fusion and was rear-ended too,

Worked way too much which made me feel blue.

       Still I managed to blog almost every day,

       Created my weird birds every Wednesday.

       100 mixed-media faces and 50 fish, YAY!

       Art experiments in the spirit of play.

2018 starts with a few goals, sincere –

Take care of my body, like a friend who is dear.

Notice the small gifts of JOY that appear,

Live my life with clear intention this year!

This poem was recently inspired by this article in Uppercase Magazine, written by Melanie Falick on living with intention.

 

And this book I purchased from Amazon, Finding The Gift, by Angela Howell with daily meditations for mindfulness.

I look forward to the small gems that I learn from this book to share with you on my art journey in 2018, after all, finding the gifts is part of the fun!

Wishing you all a happy, creative and healthy 2018!

Cheers! 🙂

My New Year Cheer!

My wish for YOU is that 2017 –

SHAPES UP to be a CREATIVE

and COLORFUL New Year!!

HAPPY New Year everyone!!

Cheers!!  🙂

P.S. I’ve decided to take a little blogging break… I will see you on Wednesday, January 4th!!

Keeping A Daily Sketchbook

One of my art goals for the new year is to keep a daily sketchbook.  I think to keep it interesting, I want to experiment with different art mediums and try different kinds of sketchbooks.

Today, I used my Strathmore 9×12 Visual Journal with Vellum smooth pages:

I decided to try sketching with a dip pen and Black Indian ink:

I sketched some spices that I had in my cupboard.  First, I held the dip pen loosely at it’s end and then I used the dropper from the ink bottle:

As you can see, they are a bit wonky in shape.  Yet, I kind of like them like this!

After the ink dried, I used my Neocolor II water soluble crayons and a new Pelikan opaque watercolor set to play with color.

I also made notes on my page.  I think I like the ink dropper sketches the best which surprises me.

I will be posting my sketches on my blog about once a week so you can see my progress.  I am hoping this practice will help improve my drawing skills in time.

I challenge you to start a sketchbook this year!  You could keep a weekly sketch if that is easier to keep up.  It really is loads of fun!  And as you can see from my sketches, they don’t have to be perfect.

Be sure to write the date on your page –

Happy sketching!  🙂