December Art

December 24, 2022December 22, 2022 | terriaw

Art Challenge from December was #Advent_Challenge2022.

I love making Christmas art and I went more playful with this year’s challenges.

12/1 Christmas Dinner – I illustrated a fox and a bear wearing their Christmas sweaters, sharing hot cocoa under a starry sky with mixed-media – gouache, colored pencils and gold ink.

12/7 Surprise Visit – St. Nick stopped by to make sure you’ve been good this year.

12/13 Grandparents – portrait of Mr. and Mrs. Polar Bear in their Christmas sweaters.

12/19 Elf – a fox and a bear wearing their Christmas sweaters and elf hats, decorating a tree under a wintery sky.

12/25 Snow globe – Peace on Earth from a snowy gingerbread house.

I had a lot of fun with last year’s Advent Challenge so I was excited to participate again this year.

Hope you’re enjoying a festive holiday season! I will be back soon with my year-end recap.

The Prompt was Celestial

February 14, 2022February 14, 2022 | terriaw

The latest art prompt I worked on was celestial. This prompt really resonated with me because I go outside every night the skies are clear to look at the moon and stars. I’ve been on a mission lately to learn more constellations.

I had a lot of fun dreaming up illustrations with a celestial theme, from the sweet stargazing animals above to the steampunk-framed vignettes below.

I had to experiment with some hand-lettering and a “wreath” of planets, stars and celestial icons floating around the sayings.

Of course, I always adore painting the beautiful planet Earth, dreamy planets and moon phases, which are a fun way to play with watercolors and lots of water to see the cool blooms emerge.

I am working on a new prompt for my next series of illustrations, but I plan to continue with the celestial illustrations since the ideas keep flowing.

Christmas Preparations

December 24, 2021December 23, 2021 | terriaw

For our Christmas celebration, I created a lovely set of place cards to help decorate and personalize our tablescape, similar to the set I made for the Thanksgiving holiday.

I created a set of wreath greeting cards a few years ago as an experiment. Illustrating wreaths always seems to be a trendy thing so I wanted to try it.

I love how they turned out so I used them as inspiration to create matching place cards.

I’m on a roll so I’m going to try these for our New Year’s Eve festivities, even though we stay home, make appetizers and watch movies. Check back to see how those turn out.

I think it would be so fun to sell custom name tags like this as a little side gig. Would you order a set for your family gathering?

If you celebrate Christmas, cheers and enjoy your time with family, good food and a little break from work.

December Art Prompts

December 20, 2021December 22, 2021 | terriaw

There were so many wonderful art and illustration prompts circulating in December. I’m excited to share the new illustrations I created in my sketchbook for the #Advent_Challenge2021, many of which were inspired by my own December daily doodle project.

Traipsing through the snow

Christmas Robin

Candlelight

Visiting a Christmas Market

Rooftops

Cabin in the Woods

Christmas Star

I love how these turned out so I’m excited to do something fun with them.

It’s the most wonderful time of year!

December Sketchbook Art

December 7, 2021 | terriaw

I started a new plan this year to create seasonal art by setting up a new sketchbook each month, brainstorming a theme, color palette, surface pattern, greeting card to hand-letter and character sketches and vignettes for little stories. I’m a very in-the-moment kind of person so I’m hoping this will help me establish seasonal art I can promote over the next year, in advance of the season to allow time for publishing and manufacturing.

I painted this pattern in my December sketchbook for a wrapping paper or greeting card design.

I also hand-lettered a greeting card design in two different sizes, a square shape and a rectangular shape.

Next up I’m working on a few woodland animal character sketches for little story vignettes.

One of my favorite things to do is simply draw an animal or scene with a pencil but I also love painting, so I’m excited to see these little illustrations come to live with watercolor!

It’s the most wonderful time of year!

Thanksgiving Preparations

November 22, 2021November 22, 2021 | terriaw

We are only having four of us around the table for our Thanksgiving celebration so I thought it would be fun to try creating a lovely set of place cards to help decorate and personalize our tablescape.

I created a set of wreath greeting cards a few years ago as an experiment. Illustrating wreaths always seems to be a trendy thing so I wanted to try it.

I love how they turned out so I used them as inspiration to create matching place cards.

I’m so happy with these lovely additions to our place settings! I’m so excited that I’m going to try this again for Christmas and maybe even New Year’s Eve – check back to see how those turn out.

I think it would be so fun to sell custom name tags like this as a little side gig. Would you order a set for your family gathering?

If you celebrate Thanksgiving, cheers and enjoy your time with family, good food and a little break from work.

Animal and Nature Art Series

December 30, 2016August 6, 2020 | terriaw

I completed a lot of drawing and illustration projects in 2016. It’s fun to see my best nine on Instagram, based on the number of likes, which includes some tiny art, animal art, watercolor experiments, and black and white drawings from my moleskin sketchbook.

I completed 44 weekly animal art illustrations (not all shown here), which is wonderful to look through. I learned a lot about drawing animals and page composition, and I had fun experimenting with a variety of watercolors.

I loved working on this weekly animal art project in 2016, and my daily doodle in 2015, so I’m not sure what to do in 2017 for a daily drawing challenge. Cheers to a better year in 2017!

Terri

October Animal Art Series: National Parks Wildlife

November 4, 2016October 31, 2016 | terriaw

In order to continue my mission to draw all the time and fill up more sketchbooks in 2016, I’ve been busy working on a new theme of drawings each week. At the end of the week, it’s nice to have lots of new drawings and a full page illustration. And I’m learning how to draw so many new things this year, which is really exciting! Only eight weeks left in this challenge.

I finished a fun series of illustrations in October for my animal art series with the theme national parks wildlife.

It will be fun to use these animal drawings for a series of illustrated maps of the national parks. Or turn them into postcards. Happy drawing!

Terri

Click here to see my Weeks 1-16 illustrations, ranging from bears to owls to whales to saltwater fish

Click here to see Weeks 17-20: Backyard Birds, Flamingos, Peacock and Macaws

Click here to see Weeks 21-25: Bugs: Neon Insects, Monarch Butterflies, Butterflies, Neon Spiders, and Moths

Click here to see Week 26: Nature is new every morning.

Click here to see Weeks 27-30: Wildflowers + Pollinators

Click here to see Weeks 31-34: Freshwater Fish

Click here to see Weeks 35-38: Backyard Wildlife

Click here to see Week 39: National Parks Wildlife

Click here to see Week 40: Elk Portrait

Click here to see Week 41: Grey Wolf

Click here to see Week 42: Bighorn Sheep and Mountain Goat

Click here to see Week 43: Pronghorn Antelope

Click here to see Week 44: Caribou and Moose Crossing

Week 44 Animal Art Series: Caribou and Moose Crossing

November 3, 2016October 31, 2016 | terriaw

My theme for October is national parks wildlife, so week 44 in my animal art series features a caribou and moose.

You may have sightings of these animals in the Rocky Mountain, Denali and Glacier National Parks.

Caribou are part of the deer family so they grow and shed their antlers each year. They are the only species in which both sexes grow antlers.

Moose are known for being huge, standing at 5-7 feet tall and weighing up to 1,500 pounds. Their long legs allow them to travel through deep snow and swim in deep water. Usually solitary animals, they graze on leaves, stems, buds and bark.

Can’t wait to turn these sketchbook pages into fun new digital art! At the end of this month’s theme, it would be fun to use these animal drawings for a series of illustrated maps of the national parks. Or turn them into postcards.