How to live in the world with a little more grace

I think i want to work these into a final drawing…

Without looking up the definition, I would say that grace is a noun that names a quality of being—and like other abstract ideas such as love or kindness or confusion, that quality is of being, a verb.

So the way I see it, to give grace is to first see the possibility of what is good, beautiful and true in others or ourselves (or any living being), and then to reflect it, magnify it, bring it into the world. Another word for that is creativity.

And usually involves humor.

You might be wondering at this point what in the heck I’m talking about! Well, this week Seth Godin shared the work of a person who just blew me away, honestly, so much so that I had to capture him in my sketchbook. His name is Ben Zanders, renowned Conductor of the Boston Philharmonic, and I’d like to share with you what was shared with me—

First, Zander’s TED Talk is not to be missed! Seriously, watch it right now! You won’t be sorry:

Then, if you want to follow up with this five minute video Seth shared of a talk Zanders gave at a business meeting, you’ll recognize my sketches…

And maybe you’ll understand what I mean by grace. Although the word Zanders uses is possibility—and he also co-wrote a book about it, The Art of Possibility. I’m reading all it now, but it would make a great audio book, too.

ICAD Challenge 2022 - complete!

ICAD Cards 1-60 (The challenge is actually 61 index art cards (June and July) but I chose to make 60—it makes for a better grid).

And that’s a wrap! I am really so grateful to Tammy Garcia at Daisy Yellow for hosting this annual challenge. It’s been a great experience and I’m glad it’s over!

Art Challenges aren’t always easy—thus the word challenge—and it is true, sometimes making a card every day felt like a slog. But sometimes it’s worth the effort to push through to finish a goal. And as it turns out, I met two goals. And yes, I feel it was worth it.

For the first 30 days as I explained here, my goal was to release perfectionist tendencies and practice working faster and looser—so I worked on myself as an artist. And it was a good challenge. I did work faster and more loosely, interpreting each day’s prompt without overthinking.

After 30 days of that, though, I shifted focus from process to the art.

I decided I wanted to learn to use shape and color more effectively, especially when drawing abstractified figures, so each day according to the daily prompt, my goal was to draw a character with shapes and color and less reliance on line.

Days 31-61 (minus one)

As with any challenge, some days worked out better than others, but either way I learned so much. First, I found that it wasn’t easy to draw people in the one style I wanted to create in most—which is very abstract and shape-focused and brings both foreground and background into one cohesive composition. I hit that style only a handful of times really—and these are my favorites:

And yet…I also learned that maybe I could play with approaches and achieve slightly different but I think interesting effects. I ended up pleased with other characters in different styles—some with stories to tell like these:

And some quite whimsical and fantastical:

I guess my “style” is asserting itself, whatever my head may have in mind! And that’s okay.

In any case, I understand shape and color and my own preferences for both just a little bit more and by drawing 30 different characters emphasiziing color and shape, I met my goal.

After completing a challenge like this, I am always excited to STOP and do what I want again. My head is already full of new projects—which will be sure to be filled with lots of shape and color. Every creative experience gets folded into the next.

Thank you for letting me share this challenge with you. It’s nice to put all the cards together and reflect a bit after focusing just one day after the next for two months.

I guess that’s how an art practice flows.

Posada De Las Flores — Urban Sketch

I did it! I actually took one hour of my vacation in Loreto, sat myself down and in my art journal drew the lobby of this lovely hotel where we stayed that night. Then, still on vacation, I took another block of time a few days later, sat myself down and finished it with watercolor and linework. As I said last week, I have such a hard time carving out time for art while traveling so this is a huge accomplishment.

And the drawing isn’t half bad either. Ha ha.

All kidding aside, as soon as I stepped into the lobby of the Posada de Las Flores — Inn of Flowers — I knew I had to draw it! All those angles! That circular staircase to floors two and three! The water fountain! the colors! It was a great drawing challenge. I certainly didn’t get it all right — at all — but I’m pleased. My urban sketching is making progress, I think.

Sea creature - 52 Cards Project #14

We got lucky and rented a house four doors down from the beach (in Ventura) during a heat wave this week. There is nothing better than being on a California beach during a heat wave! Perfect temperature. I got to spend many hours walking on the shore, looking for “treasures”, and just sitting in the sand.

So of course the theme card for my 52-Week Cards Project this week had to feature the ocean. And my heart. Because I am—for sure—a sea creature.

Cat Shots

This is a fun exercise I did for Este MacLeod’s video on Sketchbook Revivial 2022. You can’t see them now, but every cat started out as a number, 1-9. Este was one of thirty teachers for this free annual online event hosted by Karen Abend—and this demo was one of my favorites. It’s an exercise in pure creativity where possibilities start to roll onto the page. My mind is still thinking about what else I can do.

I can’t say enough about Sketchbook Revival. It’s kind of like an intensive two-week sampler course where every day for two weeks registrants receive two new instructional videos featuring two different artists by email. The two weeks ended Monday but they are available (you can still sign up) until April 18th (and did I mention its free?)

Videos focus on different ways to fill a sketchbook and introduce a variety of people to follow more online, and all kinds of mediums and techniques.

It can be overwhelming for sure—Each video is about an hour long and trying to keep up with two every day is too time consuming. This year, though, I found a way to keep on top of it. First, the event happened to fall at a time where I wasn’t too busy, and second, I didn’t watch every video. BUT. I previewed every video, in order—and then decided on the ones to watch and try. We are all different, so what suits one person might not suit another—I doubt anyone would find all thirty useful.

As for me, I think maybe a third of the presentations sparked some kind of resonance and excitement. I will spend the next few weeks until the event closes down reviewing those videos, completing projects from those artists, and looking into what more they have to offer online too.

I think the greatest benefit, though, was how inspired I just generally became over the course of the event. One idea sparked another idea. I want to try several new things. My project list grew exponentially!

Yet with so many approaches offered, I also didn’t feel compelled to do it all, nor did I feel confused about what called to me. In fact, I think I now feel more confident than ever in the kind of art I like to make—and the kind of art that isn’t for me. I’ve been really following my preferences this last year and I feel like this experience just clarified just how far I’ve come in knowing who I am as an artist.

So I’d say Karen and her guest crew did an amazing job—and I am grateful.

Inspiration — 52 Card Project #13

#13, 52 Card Project - Inspiration

I barely got my card of the week finished on time this week for my 52-Card Project. And by “on time” I mean that for this personal project I have committed to myself (and only myself) that I will create a card every week, and I will post it on Mondays—after the week (ending on Sunday) has just passed.

So this deadline is self-imposed. And let me just say that I am really proud that I value my commitments to myself as much as I would, say, to a boss. This is relatively new in my life. There was a time when I came last, but now, I understand that life is short and there’s nothing more important than being true to your Self.

Ironically, the reason I almost missed my deadline is that…I was so caught up in inspiration today! I was working on another project and I could not. tear. myself. away.

Something happened last week in my creative practice. I’ve been wrapped up in the annual two-week bonanza of Sketchbook Revival (all 30 videos are still available through April 18th if you want to check them out), and I’ve also been exploring on my own with great enthusiasm. I’ll talk more about exactly what happened (stay tuned), but for now I’ll just say that I suddenly have tons of ideas and projects in mind. Inspiration just seemed to descend like pixie dust.

And THEN, well, something just really clicked into place Saturday night, April 2nd. Dennis was away for the evening and I fell into a project and made something that really felt like me. And that’s the feeling, right? That’s what we’re after.

So I got really excited and more inspired…and I’ll also share that work at a later time—but for THIS piece, my Inspiration card for my 52-Card project…the next morning, Sunday (April 3rd), I happened to read astrologist Chani Nicholas’ guide for the week (she’s in my RSS Feed for fun—I hold astrology lightly in my heart with the world ‘possible’), and these words stopped me in my tracks:

If you’re not sure of the shape of your next passion project, keep your intuition switched all the way on  to download cosmic intel on April 2nd. As Mercury is invited for an audience with the Sun, the ideas that light sparks in your heart are revealed.

Cosmic intel indeed.

And then her next next words inspired this card of the week:

Tarot card of the week 🃏 … The Crone of Wands is not afraid to claim its power, or step into the flames of sovereign creativity.

Did you notice the grey hair? And the wand?

Drawing practice

One thing I like to do when I feel like drawing is to practice drawing people while watching “talking head” art videos on YouTube. I can’t remember who this Youtuber is now, but I liked her clothes so I started in with my polychromos colored pencils in my art journal. While her mouth looks a bit odd here, at the time I thought it actually caught the sense of it. Mouths are hard to draw—especially when showing teeth.

I think her blouse is about the same color—but then I went rogue with the colors of her hair and the background.

I used to watch more art videos YouTube, but I’m finding that there are fewer and fewer videos with useful—or interesting—content. At least for me. While there was a time as a beginner that I needed to learn basic skills, now I want insight into creative process and ideas to jumpstart my own practice—and human connection through the screen. All of that is much harder to find.

Occasionally I will find that special human/artist with great content. So I keep looking when I have a bit of spare time, panning through lots of sediment to find the gold.

And while I’m panning, I practice drawing. That way there’s no wasted time.

Except for those stupid ads.

*As for this Youtuber, I really don’t even remember her name, so I can say this anonymously and honestly: she was putting herself up there as an up and coming creative entrepreneur, and I give her lots of credit. With more effort, I bet she will succeed. However, she was a bit inexperienced (and very young) and her advice wasn’t new to me. But drawing her was fun.

**Here are a few YouTubers I continue to follow:

James Burke - Joyful ad prolific art journaler and whimsical illustrator. I don’t share his passion for Disney or documenting life, but I love his layers of line and color and hand drawn image—and I especially enjoy his videos when he shares what’s in his heart. I took his Whimsical Illustration online class and I loved it!

Struthless — “weekly videos about creativity”—and more and more about mental/emotional wellness. Campbell is a lovely person and I enjoy his work on YouTube—and his first illustrated book, Your LIfe is a Houseboat, is really good. Both the writing and the drawing.

Jenniebellie — Jenniebellie was one of my first YouTube teachers almost 10 years ago—and she’s recently back to her channel. I don’t know how much art she has to teach me now, but she’s just a joy to watch (and listen to—oh, that English accent!)

Creationsceecee - a creative watercolor artist with beautiful videos that are easy on the eye and the ear.

Sketchbook Skool — Danny Gregory is delightful and his work is always useful. I learn so much about art from him. His book, Creative License, was one of the first books that taught me drawing. I love his podcast and his Friday e-newsletters too.

JelArts — a sketchbook artist with lots of skill to share. And I like her voice and manner. She’s real.

Jess Karp — another sketchbook artist with so much skill to share, and whose voice and manner. She and JelArts should be friends. Maybe they are?

If you have any favorite art YouTubers, I’d love to know about them!