art

Holiday Drawing

| terriaw

I have been continuing to keep up with my drawing practice using everyday objects. I am finding it’s a great way to train my eyes to really look at something, and to train my hand to interpret the shapes, shading and details.

Dang, the handle on that vintage coffee grinder was hard! I originally had the handle going to the left, but after drawing the box, the handle no longer fit on the page. Good thing I could swivel it to the right so I didn’t have to scrap this one!

I’ve been saving this sketchbook for my pencil drawing practice of everyday objects. It’s kind of a boring sketchbook, but I do love the paper and the size of the pages at 6 inches wide by 9.5 inches tall. As I’ve mentioned before, I can always make a pretty cover for this sketchbook too.

I got that cool little set of drawing tools (I do love that vintage box) from my cousin Linda for Christmas, so I tried them out on a few holiday sketches.

Surprisingly, pinecones aren’t as hard to draw as they look. In fact, I love drawing them!

I was happy to finish these drawings so I could put away the last of our Christmas decorations.

There are lots of things I still haven’t attempted to draw, such as people and animals, that I’m hoping to attempt one of these days.

Art Cards – Winter Swap

| terriaw

I wanted to share with you the final sets of art cards for the Winter solstice swap Michelle and I agreed to do. Winter is a time of year when the days are shortest and the nights are longest. The first day of Winter came just a few days before Christmas, so I took advantage of the opportunity to make a “gift card” for my partner as well as to illustrate a winter solstice star.

Here’s the adorable set I received from Michelle which makes me smile! Now I have the urge to try making mulled wine.

This officially concludes our year of art cards! I have to confess that I already miss this tiny form of art and expression as well as the weekly routine. Our Flickr group, with contributions from Michelle and Sandra, is full of a variety of art, capturing wonderful illustrated life experiences from the past year.

2012 Art Journal

| terriaw

In 2011, outside of my graphic design classes, I worked on an Art Card project each week, continued my drawing practice and did a few summer art projects.

I like the idea of a personal art project each week, so I’m going to do an Art Journal in 2012. I will admit I’m not using the prettiness sketchbook, but I really needed paper that could hold up with not just pen and ink, but watercolor and acrylic experiments. So I’m using a mixed-media notebook. I can always make a pretty cover for it, right?!

January Calendar

I am going to participate in the 366 challenge where you illustrate a calendar spread for each month, inspired by The Kathryn Wheel. I love this Flickr group chock full of calendar inspirations.

For the background, I painted a mix of watercolor blues streaked across the page to represent the cold, windy days we usually have in January. I watered down ink and dripped and sprayed it randomly over the page. Then I added white card stock tiles for the days. I took care in hand writing the days and months, since I want to work on improving my hand writing and typography this year. The last step was to add doodle swirls and flourishes. Oh yea, I also stamped a few random snowflakes around the page. It took longer than I anticipated, but I’m happy with the end result.

January Doodle

I also really want to keep up with the monthly prompts provided at The Sketchbook Project. The January challenge is to do a doodle, so I did a free motion doodle and journaled things I typically like to put in a journal. I colored this page with rainbow watercolors, since my husband teases me that I see the world as rainbows and lollipops. (not really, but I try really hard to focus on the positive!)

2012 Words

I drew out thumbnails on my next page and  illustrated my three words for the year in the top row. I hope to fill in the remaining thumbnails as ideas strike.

I plan on using the art supplies I already have, including my favorite Watercolor Crayons (still kinda wishing I had a set of Caran d’Ache Neocolor Artist Crayons), brushes, Gesso to give texture to the thin paper, Gel Medium to adhere ephemera to my pages, Micron Pens and Prismacolor Pens, and a variety of Colored Pencils.

I saw this quote somewhere on the Internet recently which I thought was perfect for this Art Journal project:

My ideas usually come not at my desk writing but in the midst of living.— Anais Nin

Should be another fun creative adventure!

Art Cards – Week 52 – Final Set!

| terriaw

I finally made my last set of art cards for the year! Yes, this was week 52 of making a set of art cards.

Making these cards was all about New Year’s. We usually don’t do anything wild and crazy on New Year’s Eve, but I still like to make our little party festive with decorations and fun new appetizers and champagne.

I have always wanted to improve my handwriting, so I thought it would be a fun challenge to play with typography on my very last card to shout out Happy New Year!

Our Flickr group has been a great place to see the art Michelle and Sandra have been creating over the past year. I have also created a page on the top of my blog, which is fun to scroll through.

I can’t tell you what a great feeling it is to have this amazing collection of art cards, two each week and sometimes a couple extras because I was struck by inspiration. So cool to look back on!

Art Cards-Christmas Tags

| terriaw

I made a set of art cards to represent our Christmas weekend. I’ve been wanting to make a set of cards that look like gift tags, so I traced a template, and then experimented with some pattern doodles and journaling on the fun activities we embarked on and the goodies I received from loved ones.

It was fun working freehand with just a set of Micron pens and Sharpie markers.

It’s fun to look through our Flickr group to see all the great illustrations, techniques and experiments we’ve done over the past year. I made a set of  art cards I made for the final Winter swap Michelle and I are doing, but she hasn’t received them yet so I will show them to you soon. One set left to make for the year…

Art Cards – Week 50 – Make and Give

| terriaw

My time last week was filled with working a big commissioned sewing project and making gifts, so I thought it would be fun to illustrate my sewing machine and a stack of presents.

I spent a majority of my days at the sewing machine. (BTW, my sewing machine isn’t really orange. It’s just a fun color to illustrate with.)

It felt great to get so much accomplished, especially the week before Christmas.

Thanks to Michelle for the awesome glitter pens! They worked perfectly to make my gift illustrations shine and shimmer.

I’m not quite caught up on shopping for and wrapping all the gifts we are giving, so I have a little more work to do this week.

Stop by our Flickr group to see the art Michelle and Sandra have been creating over the past year. Only a couple sets of cards left to make!

Art Cards – Week 49 – Tis the Season

| terriaw

Tis the season to be jolly!

To put up the Christmas tree.

To make new ornaments and exchange them with friends.

To put up holiday lights, illuminating the night.

To hang the stockings and fill them with treats.

To bake Christmas cookies.

To go to holiday parties and spread good cheer.

Tis the season to chill out and enjoy life!

Stop by our Flickr group to see the last few sets of art cards we are creating.

Scattered Leaves

| terriaw

I love leaves.

I love leaves so much that I am constantly picking them up in our yard or on the trail, saving them for inspiration. I often find leaves tucked in books and sketchbooks.

I’m so happy with how this drawing of scattered leaves turned out. I picked a random leaf from my pile and drew it on my page using graphite pencils.

I added the names of the trees these leaves fell from in my cursive writing, which seems to be a dying art these days.

I love working on compositions like this. I just wish it hadn’t taken me so long to finish.

I need to work on staying focused on one project at a time, in spite of all the ideas swirling around in my head and all the inspiration out there in the world.

Art Cards – Week 48 – Home Sweet Home

| terriaw

I got to spent a lot more time at home last week week, laying low, which was awesome.

I kept quite busy, finishing a few handmade Christmas gifts, finishing my quilting bee quilt top, and finishing a couple more little handmade projects, all while I was supposed to be working on commissioned work. (oops, shh!)

I also got to spend time with my mom last week, helping her with some shopping and enjoying girl time. I thought it would be cool to honor her with an art card.

We will still adding pictures of our art cards to our Flickr group for just four more weeks. Then I have to figure out what weekly or monthly project I want to work on next year, which could be tricky since I’ll have a full load of classes again. I’m sure I will dream up something challenging and creative.