Inspiration — 52 Card Project #13

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Inspiration — 52 Card Project #13

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…

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Drawing practice

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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

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Character Sketches Part 2

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Character Sketches Part 2

Following up on the character sketches I was working on last week for a Skillshare class, I now have my character drawn in four poses: neutral (although she looks a little arrogant), surprised, sad and disgusted. The 3/4 pose is going to be more difficult—and then to finish the exercise I’m going to paint one of them in a final piece.

Like I said about this little class project, I am focused right now on

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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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