What a strange weather day this past Sunday was! I woke up to heavily falling snow and even lost power for a time. By midday, the snow stopped, fog was rolling in over the lake, and the wind picked up—blowing into my house at a 90 degree angle. By late afternoon, most of the snow was gone and the sun had returned, but the wind was still wild and the waves had whitecaps.
I made this sketch using Derwent Watercolour colored pencils, which I haven’t picked up in a few years. I really got lost in it for a time, and enjoyed myself immensely.
This is in the mail on the way to New York City for the Twitter Art Exhibit to be held in March. Proceeds benefit Foster Pride’s HandMade program, which teaches girls in foster care how to crochet and then market their product line.
I based this painting from a snapshot I took after one of our recent minor snowstorms. The sunset was brilliant, with pinks and purples and the lake was mostly unfrozen. This piece is more whimsical than my normal work, and I had fun with it. I used graphite pencil, Neocolor I oil pastels and watercolor.
It felt nice to finally have a snowy day. In a way I am relieved because I think I was uneasy about the abnormally warm weather. It is not that I don’t like the warmth, I just enjoy all the seasons in their own way and I didn’t like feeling like we skipped over one of them. Looking over my sketch afterwards, I realized that I should have drawn it in black ink on pure white paper because it would have captured the light and contrast in the atmosphere.
This year, it does not feel like a normal winter. It is mid January and we are just starting to get some of the expected winter weather, but we haven’t yet had a proper blizzard. I miss it in a way. Even without the massive piles of snow on the ground, I still find winter beautiful. There is a crispness in the air and a whiteness of the light that I really enjoy. Here is a recent drawing from my sketchbook–thanks for taking a look.
As is my custom, I’m reviewing the past year and looking forward to my goals in 2016. I also want to wish anyone reading this a very happy and fulfilling New Year. Thank you for viewing my work.
I put my house plans on hold and decided instead to return to school, which was a really big and risky decision. So far I have completed all of the prerequisites I need for nursing school except for Human Growth and Development (I’m working on that now).
I took an intense four week CNA course and successfully passed my state exam to receive my CNA certification.
I made three illustrations of spinach for Sow True Seed Company. Read their blog post featuring me here.
I participated in Inktober, a pen and ink drawing challenge in the month of October.
I made some handmade Christmas presents—something I have wanted to do in past years but never got around to actually completing.
Challenges
Art making was put on the back burner for most of the year because I was working on school so intensely, which did not leave a lot of energy to focus on much of anything else.
I had a pretty bad injury to my face last January and have had ongoing dental and facial pain for most of the year. Chronic pain can certainly be very wearing.
Goals for 2016
I am participating in the Twitter Art Exhibit, which will take place in March.
For the rest of 2016 I am going to try to focus solely on my own projects and sketchbooks. I’d like to have new work to post to my blog once a week, if possible.
My general intention for 2016 is to start projects instead of just thinking about them. Nothing this year I did was perfect, but I am glad I was able to finish some things that I had the courage to start in the first place.
Here is a compilation of my recent sketchbooks for your enjoyment. I’ve been really trying to keep a regular sketchbook habit as it is the single best thing I know of for stress relief and relaxation. Plus, I’ve been lucky to have a lot of fresh flowers in the house. Right now I’m really busy with Christmas prep and having a great time with it.
These days I am not much of a traveling person, but I know some travelers and made this sketch from someone’s photo after a recent trip to Ireland. I used my Faber Castell PITT pens in assorted colors with the standard size S tips and the brush tips. My goal was to impart a feeling of texture which I think I achieved. In the past, I have traveled with companions who were much too fast paced for me, which took the enjoyment out of it. When I am able to travel again I am going to go strictly for painting, sketching and fine dining, not shopping or bus tours.
This is a drawing I did in my sketchbook last July but I promptly forgot about it and never posted it. It was drawn from a snapshot taken at Dunn Pond circa 2010. This past year I haven’t taken my camera out a lot or gotten outside to draw much, so I am delving into my photo archives. This particular scene would be better presented in color as it is a scene of fall foliage in front of brilliant blue water.
Recently, I found an artist online who I used to follow for years but she somehow didn’t get transferred over to my newsreader when Google Reader was discontinued. I didn’t remember her name – all I knew was that she was of Filipino descent and she had an unusual title for her blog. After a lot of googling I found her again at Ces and Her Dishes and her real name is Cecelia Adorio. She creates elaborate and imaginative pen and ink drawings based on a wide range of subjects, mostly botany and wildlife. You can also find Cecelia on Behance and Instagram. I encourage you to also read her blog posts, and not just look at the pictures, as she is informative and she often gives me a chuckle.
It’s that time of year again for Inktober, which is a pen and ink drawing challenge every October. I will post some pen and ink drawings of my own. I wish I had the kind of time on my hands to post daily, but once or twice a week will have to do. When strapped for time, pen and ink is actually my favorite way to work because it’s so simple and easy to pick up and put down.
After I posted my last wip which I was working on for the #twitterartexhibit, I sat down to paint the watercolor wash and had a horrible disappointment. Some kind of gel came out of the tape I used (frog tape) which gummed up my washes and ended up ruining the entire thing. I had to get rid of it entirely, which has happened to me before, but I was under a deadline and I felt under terrible pressure to redo it. Needless to say, I am going back to my trusty blue tape from now on!
I decided to do something completely different altogether in colored pencil. I had stopped working in colored pencil for some time because I was getting a tendinitis in my elbow area, but I worked on this slowly and with a gentle grip and didn’t run into that problem this time. I went back to a common theme: sunset (or in this case, dusk) on a lake.
Colored pencil never seems to scan or photograph well for me and I tried my best to adjust the colors in the image to match the original. The sky has a little more pink in it, but otherwise it is fairly close. I tried to keep a sketchy feel and I am happy with my efforts.
And now my little drawing is in the mail and on its way to Moss.
