Back to Sketches and One Big Mistake

 Making choices in how one will use their time can be a bit perplexing and daunting.

For instance:  the sketches inspired by 

Danny Gregory's A Sketch A Day,

love the concept, have tried to do 1/3 of them then find I get distracted by............

1.   Painting my new line of Lolli-Pop Colors and Lolli-Pop Kids.

2.  Playing with the Funny Bunnies and attempting to capture photos of their antics.

3. Having a "love affair" with i Phoneography...which is slowly being shared on my photography blog.

4.  Falling behind in e-line courses...apologies to the instructors...and trying to rid myself of guilt.

I won't bore you with the rest of the list.  Yours is probably longer than mine!  

Let's get back to sketching.  I actually did four but two I simply can't share they are pretty awful.

Purely experimental and bombed.

Here are two "okay" attempts.  I don't recall the theme we had for sketching so I will call these "wild cards."

I started with an OLD ledger, you can see how the watercolor wrinkles the paper.  Rather adds to the charm.  The left page I scribbled on, then attempted to be more serious on the right side.

Through the magic of scanning:

Transparent watercolor and Micron pen.  

I think the following piece should count for at least THREE SKETCHES as it was much more time intensive.  Do you agree?

Heavy black illustration board. Gouache

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Back story to this piece:  I store my gouache in a Pan Maker Water Color palette with its handy little cubby squares for paint, sponge for moisture and tight lid.  I have had two such boxes fully filled with gorgeous colors.   When not in use I store it in the refrigerator.

BIG MISTAKE: forgot about it for way too many months.

Pulled it out, lift the lid and DRIED sponge and stared at the  beautiful colors  covered with spreading MOLD!! 

It was not a pretty sight. Nor my best moment.

 I had to remove all of that wonderful gouache and watch the dollars float away in spent paint.  Lesson learned.

I also keep my acrylics in the refrigerator. And my oils in the freezer.

If you are wondering if there is any food in there, the answer is, very little. But it surely is colorful.

Lest you wonder. I do have everything tightly sealed.  Oil can go in freezer but acrylic can not, frig best.  I also spritz with water and touch of bleach the water based paints.  

My next post I am going to share a few of my favorite illustration/sketching books.  See you then.

Heart Thought:  sometimes it takes a big boo-boo embedded  in our minds to not repeat past mistakes.

Pinterest for Children?

It was a paper, scissors and glue kind of afternoon.

Left to their own imaginations, the Funny Bunnies, chatted, giggled, "clipped and glued" their way through stacks of catalogs.

When I looked intently at what they were so busy with, I realized:

Pinterest for Children

Slowly and methodically they had chosen magazine pictures that appealed to them, cut them out and glued in an "order" that only they could interpret.

I was pretty impressed!

All those catalogs that crowd the mailbox make for super  art projects.

Processed in Collage (Mac) and Seventies 35mm film .

Today I will do a cross over posting to photography blog....since it is paper arts and photography!!!

What Shall I Do Today

When I divide my "extra-fabulous-self time" which can seem like nano-seconds, it is often a choice of

What Shall I Do Today?

Invite the Funny Bunnies over to paint?

Mess around with my i Pad sketch apps?

Work on photography and learning Lightroom?

Catch up on my online classes?
Complete the well dried canvases on the easel, the dusty ones.
Organize all my "art stuff." No that isn't fabulous self-time.
Write and post a blog.

Good Grief, so many choices could send a girl back to that hidden stash of Peanut M&M's.

Enjoy a peek at how I used my treasured moments these past few days, well really a week.

(PS Photography Play on separate blog, sorry)

with Danny Gregory

Architecture
Noodlers Black Ink, Pen, Watercolor,

Things I Collect 
Micron Pen, Watercolor

   Chair

i Pad sketch  Adobe Ideas App

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I started an online course presented by the very creative Mindy Lacefeld entitled  Neat Stuff. (see side bar please)  Sadly it concluded on Friday. It was great fun and I totally kept up....score a brownie point!   I am excited to show you what I have been working on.
Here are a few examples.  There will be lots more to come.

This is truly Q-T Pie Playground Time

filled with bubble gum, hopscotch, Q-T Pie characters, rainbow clouds, words, crayons, paint, flying frogs, teddy bear clowns, princess crowns and Crazy Patch Painting.

Come back to play in my colorful playground.
See you soon.

Heart Thought: I know I will forget if I don't share NOW. I have been putting watercolor ink and India ink in my watercolor brushes....you know the brushes with a barrel you fill with water for watercolor....Works super good so far.  Let us know what you think if you give it a try.

Sketch a Day

A few weeks ago I started to play around with sketch  prompts from Danny Gregory's blog. I knew that it was the perfect time to use various media and mediums with which to sketch.  

About a year ago I was all into sketching with my i Pad. But like many good things it faded from my attention and time.

But it is back full force!! SOOOOO MUCH FUN!!!!!

And no ink stained fingers.

book

implement from the kitchen

furniture

It is a luxury to have a tablet. Mine goes everywhere with me. Doing sketches on different apps takes a bit of practice. There is a learning curve.  So I just scoot around trying different things. 
Having fun is my intention at this point.

Today's apps are:
53 Paper
SketchBookX
Adobe Ideas

Until next week, keep those pencils sharp.