Year: 2016

December 30, 2016

2016 In Review

My most liked Instagram photos from 2016. I started using Instagram slightly more this past year. I post images of things that inspire me as an artist, as well as work in progress photos. Feel free to follow me: @carolynapappas.

While 2016 may have been negative in terms of events in the news and celebrity deaths, it was an amazing and eventful year for me personally. Here is a recap of some of the things that I have accomplished:

Art Achievements

My most productive art making months were July and August. During these months, my schedule was the lightest and I felt an urgency to make as much art as I could before school started.
My biggest creative inspiration in 2016 was Tower Hill Botanic Garden. I am still overflowing with ideas and you will definitely see more of Tower Hill in my art in 2017.
I published 35 blog posts over the course of the year, which doesn’t meet my goal of one post a week. I am okay with that though, because I made a lot of artwork that I didn’t post (stay tuned in 2017).
I published 52 posts to Instagram over the course of 2016.
For six weeks in the beginning of the year, I participated in the online Sketchbook Skool course, Expressing. You can read my review of the kourse here.
I participated in the Twitter Art Exhibit, held in NYC in March.
I decorated and mailed a blank postcard to Greenfield Community College for a show of Mail Art.
I completed a commissioned watercolor landscape painting for the album cover of Robert Louis’ debut Christmas album.
I completed my red moleskine sketchbook and started a new moleskine, which is in progress.
I experimented with Photoshop and learned how to make animated GIFs to feature my artwork.
Crafty pursuits included making two hand-sewn mermaid dolls and an advent calendar for my daughter.

Personal Achievements

I finished the prerequisites for the nursing program I am attending, started nursing school in September, and completed the first semester.

Thank you to all who visited me online during this past year, left comments, or sent encouraging emails. I am so grateful for the support of kindred spirits!

I will be back on Sunday with my goals for 2017.

December 15, 2016

Advent

I always wanted to do a proper advent calendar with my daughter and this year I finally got around to making one. I bought a plain papier mâché box with twenty-five drawers and decorated it with collage, acrylic paint and some stickers. I was going for a rustic, nostalgic, and nature themed advent calendar. I used a lot of Phoebe Wahl illustrations from Taproot Magazine. My daughter loves it and goes to it first thing in the morning to get her piece of chocolate.

Today, I finished my first semester of nursing school. I have been working tirelessly since the beginning of September. I only painted one time during the whole semester and I felt guilty about taking the time away from my studies. I am so looking forward to making some art over the next three weeks!

November 9, 2016

White Christmas at the Château

Recently I got the chance to work on some album artwork for my good friend Robert Louis. He just released his brand new collection of instrumental jazzy Christmas songs, A Robert Louis Christmas. I’ve been playing it in the background and wishing for the semester break.

This was a fun and challenging painting to make with all the architecture, snow and monochromatic values. I love winter scenes!

Check out Robert Louis on facebook, listen for free on SoundCloud, or download the album on cdbaby.

October 15, 2016

Selection of Pink Watercolor Flowers

Thanks to my membership at the botanic garden (and multiple visits over the summer), I now have a huge collection of snapshots of beautiful, showy, and unusual (to me) flowers to paint. Today I’m taking a look back at some pink watercolor flowers that I painted this past August in my large moleskine sketchbook. I spent quite a bit of time painting these—on paper that isn’t even intended for watercolor. It’s almost a shame that I didn’t use proper watercolor paper, but I think that the fact that it was in my sketchbook helped me to relax and enjoy myself more than I would have otherwise.

September 15, 2016

Sticks and Stones

These are some of my daughter’s nature objects that found their way into my bedroom, and then my sketchbook. I made the drawings in watercolor pencils, and then instead of using plain water to activate the pencil marks, I used a brush loaded with watercolor paint as well. It was an interesting experiment and fun. I used the same colors for the two pages so they have a cohesive look.

September 1, 2016

Sketching Rural Scenery

These are some pen and ink sketches I made while sitting on the porch of a beautifully renovated old farmhouse. The late afternoon/early evening light made it a very interesting landscape to draw and observe. When I was drawing the wires (not accurately, of course), I remembered this informational blog post from James Gurney, although I didn’t recall the specifics.

August 19, 2016

Experiment with Bold Ink

My favorite waterproof black fineliners are Staedtler Pigment Liners and I have the four pack in the plastic case. I find that I go for the 0.01 size most often and use the 0.03 size on a limited basis. I very rarely use the larger 0.05 and 0.07. For this sketch, I decided to do the opposite and use primarily the larger sizes and the smaller sizes only for the details. I also broke out my Pentel Pocket Brush Pen which is great for laying on black areas very quickly with juicy ink.*

Interestingly, I just came across this blog post from Brenda Swenson, where she discusses taking risks and trying out new things.

*I found that the Pentel Pocket Brush Pen bleeds a bit on the new moleskine paper and saturated both sides of the paper, but it did not soak through to the page underneath.

August 6, 2016

Working Plein Air at the Moss Steps

I took my watercolors to Tower Hill Botanic Garden to try out working plein air. It was a sunny day and I was worried about getting burned, so I went into the wooded areas. I settled down at the Moss Steps and did this pen drawing and then painted it in watercolor. Although there was a chain blocking the steps off from people, I did see a chipmunk running around as well as a wood frog hopping down.

I usually add the watercolor at home, but it was a welcome change to paint in person (and more of a challenge). I brought water with me in a bottle and poured it into a plastic cup, but I had to bend down to use it as I put my water cup on the ground. The pine needles falling down on my head were annoying, but a small price to pay for such a nice time.

Next time I would like to try painting in watercolor without such a detailed pen and ink drawing first because it took a very long time.

A photo of the moss steps. I conveniently removed the chain from my drawing.

Some of the other interesting photos I took while walking through the woods.

July 22, 2016

Valuable Time Alone for Nature Sketching

To be alone with nature is to be one with nature. -Peter Ewart

I was able to get out of the house by myself for a few hours today. I used my time well and made three sketches. It was lovely.

July 18, 2016

Sleeping Pups

This is my most recent project—my first pet portrait commission. I originally was planning on painting it all in watercolor, but then decided to add colored pencil to give it some more texture. I also changed the color of the dog bed from seafoam green, cream and brown to Prussian Blue. I think the blue makes the dog’s fur “pop” a lot more against the background.

I’m glad I tackled this project, but it wasn’t what I would consider a relaxing painting to make. Still, I did find it rewarding when the owner was so pleased. Now, I am going to get back to a few projects of my own.