Daily warm-ups—a new to me approach

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Daily warm-ups—a new to me approach

One of the things I’m instituting in my art practice—or at least re-committing to—is a daily warm-up in my sketchbook (practice and play). The problem I’ve come up against before when I try to open with a daily warm-up is that I skip it.

The blank page looms, I don’t know what I want to do that day—so I don’t. I either have other art projects in progress or I have an idea for some final piece, and I launch into those instead.

But practice and play for no other reason than to practice and/or play is an important part of an art practice, i know that, both for building skills and discovering new ideas. Not to mention fun.

So I think I have the answer. I’m going to

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Experiments don't always turn out

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Experiments don't always turn out

This was an experiment in my sketchbook. Copied and cut out one of the wonky characters I’d drawn yesterday and put her on a chair with a rough background. Not exactly successful—but it was fun. Sometimes that’s all I can do—try something and have fun doing it. I’m not sure I learned much, really. Well, okay, the watercolor curtains kind of look like curtains…maybe I can start there with the next experiment…

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More wonky characters

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More wonky characters

So much of developing as an artist is discovering the kind of art we want to make—learning our preferences for mediums and subject matter. For me, I can’t say that I am anywhere close to choosing anything exclusively, and as a mixed media artist, I probably never will. The more I create, though, the more I am learning my preferences.

I love working with watercolor more than acrylic paint, for instance. But I really miss

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Online art classes I’m taking now

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Online art classes I’m taking now

I keep mentioning different online classes, so I thought I’d list my current online learning here in case you might want to look into them:

Carla Sonheim’s Yearlong Class 2022

Each month of the year a different guest artist shares their process and we create in that style, including filling the map shown above with our own art representing each month. We also

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Character sketches

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Character sketches

As I hinted at yesterday, I do feel like I’m all over the place with art-making lately. I’m just doing a lot of experimenting, especially with character drawing. This sketch book page features an exercise from another Skillshare class, Illustrating Emotions with Anne Bollman. First I drew a character with a “neutral” expression—and then I drew the same character showing a different emotion—surprise.

Overall, I’m pleased. I am developing skill in drawing cartoon-like characters. I don’t think I could have done this a year ago, to tell you the truth. I plan to extend the exercise and try drawing her with two other emotions. And then maybe I’ll try 3/4 and side views…

If you’e followed along recently

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Practice with Cut Outs

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Practice with Cut Outs

For a long time I’ve struggled with how to organize my art practice. Over the years, I’ve found some structure. First, I have a well-developed daily art habit and I try to devote at least some time every day to my art practice. And because I’m at my best in the morning, I try to work then.

But I’m always feeling this push and pull. What should I work on and for how long? There’s so much I want to do! Between learning and practice, creative exploration and all the projects I want to finish—there never seems to be enough time.

And then I found

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