The Slowest Sketcher in the Midwest

That's me. My second watercolor Moleskine is finally complete. It was started in September 2010 and is a bit of a hodge podge that includes pages for sketchcrawls, Illustration Friday, List It Tuesday, and a few quotes and random pages of notes.

We started a small sketching group at work, and we try to meet at lunchtime once a week to sketch together and share other art interests.

I rarely (make that ever!) complete a sketch during one lunch hour. I will often spread it out over several sittings--sketching in pencil first, then inking the sketch, then adding color, and finally adding text. Quite often, the last three steps are not even done on site.

Sometimes, many, many months elapse between the steps.

Sometimes longer. This sketch took about a year to go from a pencil sketch to an inked one. I did go back to the statue to ink it on site. It was interesting to note the subtle differences in how I "saw" the statue the second time.

On this day I tried really hard to choose a subject that I thought I could complete in one sitting. It didn't happen. I still had to finish it at home.

There are even a few sketches in the book that I've deemed "abandoned." I'm pretty sure they will forever remain unfinished. That's OK. It will remind me to be grateful for the many moments I was able to capture and hold forever between the pages of my sketchbook.

List It Tuesday - Things That Make Me Nostalgic

I'm so happy that Aimee at artsyville has brought back the fun and fabulous List It Tuesday. I had a blast posting my lists the first time around, and I'm delighted to be able to join in again. So what if it's already Thursday? Here's my list of things that make me nostalgic. Thanks Aimee for prompting this little trip down memory lane!

You Don't Have To Be A Perfect Artist To Work In Art

These are the words of Reverend Howard Finster--self-proclaimed "Man of Visions" and "Stranger from Another World." I want you to think about that last sentence. OK, don't just think about it. Go and write it down in your journal or put it on a sticky note and hang it in your studio. Why? Because those are words to live by, to create by, and to be inspired by.

At the age of 60, Howard had a vision from God that told him to paint sacred art. His response was, "Lord, I can't paint. I don't have no education in that." But he heeded the call and he did it anyway. From that day forward, until the day he died, Howard created over 46,000 pieces of art plus the art environment in Georgia known as Paradise Gardens. 46,000 pieces of art!!! I can't stop thinking about that. I haven't stopped thinking about Howard, his art, or his words since visiting this exhibit almost a month ago.

I've been a huge fan of outsider art for many years, but I never had the chance to view Finster's work in person until this exhibit. I took my watercolor Moleskine with me, and filled a number of pages with images from some of his paintings along with bits of text and quotes. Howard numbered each piece of art he made, so I included the number in my sketchbook as well.

One of the reasons I'm so drawn to Howard's work is because almost every piece is covered in text. I don't think Howard stopped to worry about whether his art was good enough, or important enough, or whether the words were spelled correctly. He was, after all, just doing what God told him to do.

If you like folk art, outsider art, religious art, art with text, or just need a big dose of inspiration, I strongly encourage you to visit this or any other exhibit of Howard Finster's art whenever or wherever you have the opportunity. Sometimes it's not just the art, but the story behind the art that can move us, touch us, or have a profound effect on us. Thank you Howard for reminding me that I don't have to be a perfect artist to work in art. From now on I'm going to think of you as my "garding" angel.

Still Plugging Along on Pilgrim

I didn't achieve my goal of finishing Pilgrim, the book I've been altering, in 2011 as planned. That's OK because it's a big book. It's a really big book.

Did I mention that it's a big-ass book? So far I've altered 135 pages that are 12 x 13 inches each. When I think about it that way, it's no wonder I'm still plugging away at it. If I had completed 135 of anything else in 2011, it would feel like an enormous accomplishment.

Pilgrim has been a wonderful place for me to play and experiment. Some pages are just about pattern and color because I like pattern and color.

Some pages are just about mark making and seeing what can evolve.

Some pages were inspired by The Sketchbook Challenge. Others by song lyrics, favorite artists, books, movies, or experiences. This page was inspired by a book about vintage board games to which I added a quote that seemed appropriate.

I couldn't resist one more hand image. I think this is the third one in the book.

I re-discovered my plastic alphabet stencils and added favorite quotes wherever they would fit.

I've had a lot of opportunity to practice my lettering on these pages.

This page was done on Easter last year. I can't believe an entire year has passed since then. I guess Pilgrim is proof for me that even a big-ass undertaking can be accomplished line by line, stroke by stroke, mark by mark, and word by word.

Pilgrim is really close to finished now. Filling the last few pages and adding a bit more here and there is both exhilarating and bittersweet. A celebration will be in order when this big book is finally declared DONE.

How Did You Celebrate National Pi Day?

Did you know that March 14, 2012 was National Pi Day? I won't even pretend to understand what pi means, but any day that is celebrated by eating pie is OK by me! I didn't actually celebrate Pi Day by eating this slice of pumpkin pie. Instead, I sketched it from a photo in a cookbook as part of the Strathmore Watercolor Sketching workshop by Cathy Johnson. I guess sketching pie is the next best thing to eating it, right? At least it's less fattening.

Watercolor Sketching

The second workshop in the Strathmore series of free, online workshops is Watercolor Sketching with Cathy Johnson. I've been a fan of Cathy's books and sketching style for a while now, so the opportunity to watch her work is both informative and fascinating. Like most talented people, Cathy makes watercolor sketching look very easy. I don't find it easy at all, but I love the results so much that I want to keep working at it until I do.

After playing around with some of the exercises and techniques that Cathy demonstrated in her video, I wanted to jump right in and do a sketch like the one she did of a basil plant. We always have bananas in the house--so a sketch of bananas was in order. I liked the way she added text to her sketch, so I added my recipe for banana smoothies to the page. (Try it--you'll like it!) I've been wanting to attempt a sketch using only watercolor, without pen or ink, but didn't have the nerve until now. My favorite part was splattering the paint around and experimenting with various washes.

After the second video, Cathy sketched a building from a photograph. I couldn't find a picture that I liked, so I raided the frig for some big, fat, juicy strawberries instead. (Those can go in the smoothie too.) I think sketching food is rather fun, and what could be better than sketching and snacking at the same time?

A Few More Doodles

Workshop Two of the Strathmore Online Artist Workshops began this week. The second workshop is Watercolor Sketching with Cathy Johnson.  Before I dive into the new workshop, I thought I would share another series of doodles from the first workshop. I really enjoyed the Doodles Unleashed workshop taught by Traci Bautista and I hope the second workshop is equally as fun and informative.

I hope your weekend is off to a colorful start!

Doodles Unleashed - Lesson 4

The fourth and final lesson of the online Strathmore workshop, Doodles Unleashed by Traci Bautista, was Stylized Faces Part 2. This lesson involved painting a "glam girl" on the background created in lesson three. I opted to paint a new background for this lesson since I didn't really want to paint over the backgrounds I had already made.

I'm not a huge fan of the "glam girl" style and wasn't sure if I'd even be able to complete this final lesson at all. I tend to shy away from painting or drawing people altogether due to an extreme lack of practice in this area. I was pleasantly surprised with the way my girl turned out, so maybe this an area I'll explore further some time in the future.

I'd like to point out a simple item which I discovered makes a rather nice art tool. The large stamped image above was made using a common household product that you would probably never think to include with your art supplies. Know what it is? Give up? It's a plastic fly swatter!!! Don't worry though--the handle broke off before it ever had a chance to swat a single fly. But doesn't it make a great stamp and stencil? It just goes to show that art tools can be found anywhere.

I really enjoyed working along with this online workshop. Thank you Traci for inspiring me to add a few more tools and techniques to my doodling tool kit. I still have a few more doodles from this workshop to share with you and I may try to complete a few more before the next workshop begins in March. The next workshop is Watercolor Sketching with Cathy Johnson. You can still sign up if that sounds like something that appeals to you.

Happy doodling!

So Many Things to Love

I've been a little MIA lately and I don't really know why. Maybe I've been distracted by a messy house, an upcoming craft show, or too many rainy days in a row. Or maybe I've been distracted by making this list of things you gotta love.

Yeah, let's just go with that.

Books - They're Not Just for Reading

Libraries are a great place to spend a rainy afternoon--especially if you're looking for a new subject to sketch. While wandering through the stacks, I discovered that the library contains a good share of old and obscure books. Luckily, those make for very some interesting sketching. Kindlers Literatur Lexicon is an encyclopedia of world literature that I'm sure would be very helpful--if you can read German.

The angle is a bit off, but here's how the books looked on the shelf.




I also came across this beauty titled Gleanings for the Curious from the Harvest Fields of Literature by Charles Carroll Bombaugh published in 1875. I count myself among the curious, so this seemed like a book for me. Apparently Bombaugh was enthralled with language so he compiled a book filled with "miscellanea of the omnium-gatherum sort." 

What sort of miscellanea might you find in this book? Well, things like odd and uncommon epigrams, facetious drolleries, whimsical mottoes, and merry tales and fables. There are chapter headings such as alphabetical whims, palindromes, macaronic verse, emblematic poetry, paronomesia, and puritan peculiarities.

I don't know what most of these words mean, but they are certainly curious and so much fun to say!


 

A little online research tells me that this book might not be as obscure as I initially thought. However, C.C. Bombaugh remains a bit of a mystery since I could find very little information about the man who has aroused my curiosity about whims, drolleries and peculiarities.  Is there anyone out there familiar with this book or its author?

Quiet Places to Sketch

The last few weeks have been pretty hectic, so it's nice to get away once in a while and find a nice, quiet place to sketch. I'm still working towards my goal of learning urban sketching, so outdoor scenes are especially good practice. This little area is a popular lunch spot at work.

This spot is hidden away in the far corner of an outdoor reading garden. It's another great place to enjoy lunch and sketching.

I sat on my front steps and sketched this one evening while waiting for my husband to come home from work. It's a view of the driveway and neighbor's house and one that I've seen countless times over the nearly 30 years that we've lived in our house. I love the fact that this view is now preserved in my sketchbook forever.

Sometimes you have to find a quiet indoor spot when the weather doesn't allow for outdoor sketching. I think all sketching is good practice no matter the place or subject matter. I hope to enjoy more lunchtime sketching for as long as I can before the weather keeps me indoors for good.

Chicken Soup for the Pilgrim's Soul

Pilgrim has been a little neglected lately since I've been sketching a lot in my watercolor Moleskine.  I looked around the house for an everyday object to sketch in Pilgrim and came up with the reliable old soup can. It worked for Andy Warhol, right?

I debated between chicken noodle and tomato, and the noodle won out. This sketch was done over a background sprayed with pigment inks in pink and red. The can was painted with gouache, watercolor, and twinkling H2Os. This time I decided to skip the black ink and use only paint to sketch the soup can. I tried to make the can recognizable while using as little detail as possible. I was going more for personality than realism. (Honest, I was.)  I kind of like the pinkness of it--so NOT Andy Warhol.

Everyday Objects

I have a few more sketches of everyday objects to share with you. I'm NOT a germaphobe and rarely use this stuff, but when I sketch at lunch I'm limited to "office" items. I just like the gooey green goopiness of it. You can tell from the bottle that other people in the office are far more concerned about germs than I am.

Like many of you, we've been having quite a heat wave during the past few weeks. I can't even tell you how many of these I've consumed lately.

This cactus looks like it was probably pretty easy to sketch, right? WRONG! It was harder and took longer than the first two sketches combined. The problem was that after a while I couldn't figure out what part of the sketch was cactus leaves and what part was the space between cactus leaves. It was like one of those optical illusions that make your eyes go buggy. I kind of gave up somewhere in the middle, and since I was already an hour into the sketch, decided to just call it finished.

Sketching is a funny thing. At first it's downright frightening. Then, once you start having some fun with it, it becomes addicting. You start to look at everything around you and think about sketching it in your mind. I  am thoroughly enjoying this "everyday" diversion.

Hello.....Moley.

I recently became re-acquainted with my watercolor Moleskine and went on a little sketching spree. It all started quite innocently--as most of my art adventures do. I was working on my second adventure journal, and although I think these little journals are a great way to record the events, memories, details, and ephemera from a trip, the one thing they lack is a sense of "place." Since I envision these adventure journals as baby steps to real travel journals, I realized that I need to learn how to sketch.

I'm not talking about sketches like these. I'm talking about the kind of sketches featured on the urban sketchers blog. Holy moley! I want to be an urban sketcher when I grow up! I've been on a few sketch crawls in the past and found them to be incredibly challenging events resulting in mediocre sketches. Instead of feeling inspired and motivated to make progress, I felt like it was just another art form I would probably never be able to master. I've spent my entire life thinking I can't draw worth a darn. (I think that's why I find abstract art so appealing.)

But I also spent a lot of time hating my attempts at hand lettering and never thought I would be good at that either. A lot of practice turned that around and I'm now quite happy to write to my heart's content. I have to believe that I can also improve at sketching--or anything else I set my mind to--if I'm willing to work at at without giving up. My friend Cathy and I are now on a mission to become urban sketchers. We're dedicating a few lunch hours a week to get outside and sketch.

This is one of my first attempts. It's a building that is being demolished. At this point the windows had been removed and they were starting to demo the interior. The day after I sketched this the whole section with the doors was gone. My main objective here was to practice perspective since that's always been a struggle for me. It's not too bad but it feels pretty lifeless to me. After this sketch I tried to concentrate on a looser, more spontaneous and colorful style. Cathy went on vacation and the weather was crappy, so I had to resort to sketching at my desk where I did the salt water taffy and my paint palette.

We got together after work one day and decided to see what we could accomplish in 30 minutes. We set a timer and stopped sketching when it went off. (I added the text later.) That night I did the travel watercolor set and the wine bucket. It was so hard for me to stop at the end of 30 minutes because I have a tendency to want to add "just a little bit more." But I'm happy I forced myself to stop because the sketches are definitely looser than they would be otherwise. I wrote the name of the wine we drank on the sketch. It's good stuff and you can find it at Whole Foods.

Imagine my delight when I discovered that The Sketchbook Challenge theme for August is EVERYDAY OBJECTS and I just so happen to have a group of them right here. What a lucky coincidence, eh?

I'm still trying to figure out the best way to go about sketching and have been experimenting with different tools and techniques. I'm viewing this as a true challenge and learning experience. I know I won't be happy with every sketch, but hopefully it will get me closer to becoming the awesome urban sketcher I'm hoping to be.