Making the world go round

My sweetie says it does make the world go round, but I'm not so sure.  I think it takes a lot of ingredients to keep this big blue marble spinning.  But, love is definitely what makes it fun! Linking to Paint Party Friday! Check out what everyone's been up to this week... And don't forget to sign up for Kat Sloma's Liberate Your Art Postcard Swap! Have a great weekend!

Staying young...

Hope everyone has had a fabulous weekend. Linking to Sunday Sketches for a great start to the week!

Lovin' the letters

Inspired by Joanne Sharpe's LetterLove class!  Lots of fun lettering and color.  My favorite things!

Linking to sweet Sophia's Sunday Sketches.  Please take a peek at what my brilliant artist friends have been up to this week!

The Graceful Envelope

Each year, the Washington Calligraphers Guild sponsors the Graceful Envelope Contest, which draws participation from some of the most amazing lettering artists from around the world.  This contest, in its 18th year, was originally created and sponsored by the Smithsonian Institution's National Postal Museum. In 2001, the Washington Calligraphers Guild took over as sponsor and, starting in 2003, the National Association of Letter Carriers has co-sponsored. 

Its open to all ages (separate judging category for children) and there is no cost to enter.  I'm not sure how many people enter, but I've been amazed at the talent and creativity of those whose entries have won in past years (each year's winning envelopes can be linked to from the Graceful Envelope Contest page).  According to the website:

Designs that incorporate postage stamp(s) into the theme are encouraged. Judges look for skill in lettering, effective use of color and design, and creative interpretation of the theme.

This year, I decided to join.  Not in the hopes of having a winning entry, but just I love the idea of this contest and I wanted to be part of it and to show my support of it.  This year's theme focused on creating a graceful envelope around something that begins with a D.  Pretty wide open there, huh?  So broad that it took me a while to come up with a theme that was meaningful, but I ultimately settled on the the idea of donors. Here is what I submitted:

I had a lot of fun with this and can't wait to see the winning entries!

Please check out what my friends at Paint Party Friday have been up to this week!

Spring has sprung!

I'm just loving everything about this time of year, from the beautiful weather, to the amazing greenery to the colorful flowers and trees in full bloom.  Every time I walk out the door-- or just look out my window-- I'm in heaven!

Linking up to Sophia's Sunday Sketches!

Defining My Style

I've been struggling lately, feeling a bit like a dilettante (well, a lot like a dilettante), playing with "artsy stuff" but to what end?  I've always loved anything with a creative side and have picked up a number of "hobbies" throughout the years.  I get all caught up in them, purchasing every art tool, medium, book and class to feed my obsession, but I have not ever really settled on just one thing, never really defined myself as an artist or created a signature style.  I look at some of the artists who I gravitate toward and they all have a very distinctive style, even when they move outside their go-to medium, their style carries over and shines through. 

In contrast, I feel like my style morphs with each new interest I have, each new class I take. I can't seem to decide whether I want to do lettering, watercolor painting, pencil sketching, portraits, landscapes, urban sketching, etc., etc., etc...  Every time I see someone who does these things really well, it inspires me to want to try it.  But when I focus on one or the other for too long, I start feeling uninspired, like I want to try new things. 

Maybe there's nothing wrong with that.  I'm not trying to foist my amateurish skills on an unsuspecting commercial audience-- although I've been tickled pink that I've had a few requests for that lately-- so maybe just following whatever interests me, without defining a style, is okay.  Or maybe, someday, when I least expect it, I will be able to look at what I'm doing and see some sort of consistency, something that makes it mine.

In the meantime, I'm just going to continue learning as much as I can from those masters who inspire me.  Right now, I'm doing that through Joanne Sharpe's Artful Alphabets class.  Lots of great ideas from Joanne and a wonderful, sharing community of fellow students have me stuck on lettering right now.  Here's my attempt to apply the lettering to something beyond just writing the alphabet (I've got my ABCs down pat now!).

And if you're looking for real inspiration, please check out what my friends at Paint Party Friday are up to this week, too!

Words to Live By

Earlier this year I participated in the 2012 Sketchbook Project.  Once you register, the Art House Coop (project sponsors) sends you a small Moleskin journal, tagged with information specific to you.  Ultimately, your journal is housed as part of the permanent collection at the Brooklyn Art Library.  Before that, all the journals are part of a multi-city tour, where they can be viewed as part of a traveling show.  I thought that was a pretty cool way to connect with sketchbook junkies around the world!

The rules are fairly simple.  You can create whatever you want within the cover of the journal you receive.  You can add pages, subtract pages, alter the pages, use different paper, etc.  At the end, the journal must be held within the original, tagged cover and must have the same dimensions (height and length) as the original. Because I wanted to use watercolors and some bold inks, I choose to create on heavier, watercolor paper instead of the thin paper that was in the original journal.  I THOUGHT that it would be an easy task to just create my pages and then staple them back into the cover.

Not so much.  It turns out (and I discovered this just a day before it needed to be postmarked!) that a stapler that will reach to the center of the journal spread is apparently impossible to come by.  After much thought (well, as much thought as can be thunk in a panicky 24 hour period), I decided to sew the pages in.

Now, anyone who knows me will be having a good chuckle right now. (Suffice it to say that one time, while attempting to hem a pair of pants, I managed to cut a hole straight through the thigh... yes, that's right, the thigh!)  As far as the sketchbook goes, though, I ended up getting the pages attached to the cover (perhaps a little overzealously) and mailed it off. 

All of this got me realizing, however, that maybe I need to start now in preparation for Sketchbook Project 2013.   More importantly, I would really like to have the flexibility to create my own journals with hand-picked papers and varying numbers of pages for other projects as well. 

It's taken me several months, but I'm now on my way.  I found a great book by Alisa Golden called Expressive Handmade Books and have started with the simplest project, a basic accordion-style book:

After following some simple folding instructions to create the folds, I crafted covers out of covered cardboard and voila! my first handmade book. 

I recognize that this is pretty rudimentary, but I'm looking forward to finding more styles to play with. Given that I'm a visual learner, I will no doubt also scour YouTube for some great instructional demos.  If anyone has any suggestions, I'd love to hear them!

Absentee Doodling

I can't believe it has been a month since I last posted.  It has been a crazy and  introspective year for me in many ways and while I haven't had much time for "serious" art, I have continued doodling away as a means of distraction, stress release, inspiration, sleep avoidance, work avoidance, chocolate avoidance, etc... :-)

I think part of my issue is that I feel like I shouldn't be posting anything unless it's real art, but my sweetie has been encouraging me to post more often so that I can go back and see trends, progress and sources of inspiration over time.  He is completely right-- smart man!  I find so, so many things that interest me that I want to try and then I lose track of where they came from or how to find them again. 

This year I have been trying to take some online classes.  I keep telling myself that it will be easier to fit them in my schedule when you can take them at your own pace, but I have not been able to carve out the time to really jump in as much as I'd like.  I think I need to take a no travel vacation-- just a couple of weeks off to do nothing but revel in artiness! Doesn't that sound just like heaven??

Late last year, I took Lori Vleigen's LetterLab class and it was wonderful.  I just love Lori's sweet, distinctive style. 

I enjoyed that class so much that I was encouraged to take Joanne Sharpe's LetterLove class.  Also fantastic.  Another artist with a very distinctive style.  I so admire that as I believe I'm still trying to find my own.  This past week, I enrolled in Part II of Joanne's class, called Artful Alphabets. It starts on Monday and I can't wait!

Can you tell that I'm a bit obsessed with lettering?!?

Well, in attempt to broaden my repetoire a bit, I have stumbled upon another class that appears to be a dream!  Martha Lever-- yet another source of great inspiration-- recommended an art "playground" called 21 Secrets.  There are 21 distinct classes-- one taught by Martha, by the way!!-- all wrapped up into one program.  I've enrolled and have only had time to dip my toe in the water, but oooohhh... it looks to be very refreshing.  I'm so looking forward to spending lots of time pouring through the classes and videos this weekend!

With all these classes, I should have plenty to keep me even busier in the upcoming months!  Woo hoo!

In the meantime, I've been trying to keep creativity out in front... when I don't have time to engage in any of that serious art, at least I'm doodling about it.

I've been missing my sweet, creative friends over at Paint Party Friday so I'm linking up there, despite it being late in the day!  A whole collection of great artists there... check it out.  You won't be disappointed! 

serendipity

i have been meaning to do a little work on updating my blog to something a bit more personal for a few weeks now but tonight was the first chance i had to look at what that would take.  obviously, i am a novice at this, but i must admit that blogger makes it relatively easy for a newbie like me to at least be dangerous.  hopefully, i haven't made it harder to read than before.  i'm going for a sparser, dare i say, more sophisticated look! :-)

this month, lindsay ostrom has created a challenge for which she provides a different word each week and participants can create anything related to that theme.  the word for this week is serendipity.  isn't that such a great word?  not only does it mean 'happy accident' (and let's face it, if there's going to be an accident, it's always nice when it's happy, no?) but it even rolls off your tongue is such a fun, happy way.  not to mention that the word is practically synonymous with ice cream in NYC.  It doesn't get any better than that!

Also on the list of "lots of fun" this week, Paint Party Friday is celebrating a birthday as it rounds the corner into its second year!  What a fun group of eclectic artists this is... Many thanks to Eva and Kristin who not only host the party but have nurtured and grown it into a dedicated throng of artists with widely distinct styles!  Each week, I'm excited and amazed to see what everyone has been up to.   If you haven't already been involved, jump on board for YEAR 2!!

serendipity, meaning happy accident, just screams fun and color to me... so i had some fun with colors!

 

Alcatraz

I was surprised, when visiting San Francisco, at how Alcatraz seemed so close.  In fact, my mom was amazed that the prisoners couldn't all just swim away-- she was certain she would have been able to! :-)

Don't forget to pop on over to Sunday Sketches for some brilliant inspiration.

Venice

I recently was going through some old vacation photos and reminiscing about some of my favorite cities.  Venice was definitely high on my list.  In a world where a commonality has been created across cities, both old and  young, with the installation of McDonald's on every street corner, Venice has an ancient feel that is less marred by modern day conveniences.  I hope to get back there soon.

I have been attempting to quickly capture the essence of places/things in 15 minute sketches.  I'm hoping that it will help me to pick up details more quickly, but I'm afraid that right now, they continue to look a bit askew and cartoonish.  Hopefully, they will get better over time.

Don't forget to check out what's happening over at Paint Party Friday!

crying wolf

taking a break from all the faces of the past week to do a quick illustration for my nephew...

Delighted to be linking to the anniversary post over at Sunday Sketches.  Be sure to check out what everyone else has been up to...

portraits

I've always wanted to be able to draw portraits that actually look like people rather than just oddly pulled together sock puppets.  This is my first attempt and I must admit, I find it very challenging but I'm going to keep plugging and see if it's possible to improve at all. 

I did this in pen and I think I may try with pencil next time.  Perhaps it will be more forgiving.  :-)

Slide on over to Sophia's Sunday Sketches... You will surely find much inspiration there! 

travel sketches

We had an amazing time traveling over the winter holiday. 

This sketch was of a very old church on St. Simon's Island, Christ Church.  The church is surrounded by beautiful landscaping and a church graveyard.  We were there on a very rainy day and were lucky enough to run into the groundskeeper who knew the church history inside and out.  He opened the church for us and gave us a very detailed tour, with the entire history of the church.  It was fascinating. 

Linking up to Sunday Sketches!  Be sure to check out everyone's masterpieces there!

Fruits

I have not been very good about scanning my doodles and drawings and getting them posted lately.  In the hustle and bustle of getting ready for the holidays, dealing with some family health issues, readying a property for rental and finishing out the school year with my daughter and the work year for my sweetie and I~ I have completely let my bloggy world go.  Fortunately, I have continued to doodle and draw into the evenings as a way to keep my sanity in the midst of the craziness. 

I love fruit-- almost all kinds of fruit.  I love the sweet, natural, juiciness of it. I love how it can be used as a snack on the go or as part of a meal.  I love that different kinds of fruit are evocative of the different seasons.  What kind of July 4th would it be without watermelon?  What would a springtime field trip be without the first cherries of the season?  Peaches, one of my favorites, although sadly they often signify the end of my beloved summer.   Crisp apples-- in all their wonderful varieties-- are delicious in so many ways and, while I eat them year round, they always seem particular apt during that first crisp, coolness of fall.  The cloying sweet mushiness of bananas makes them impossible for me to eat on their own, but 1/2 of one cut up is the perfect addition to a bowl of cereal.  Strawberries, ahh strawberies--  whether covered in chocolate, as part of a shortcake or dipped in champagne-- they are a truly decadent delight.

But there's something to be said for the pear.  It's not a pretty fruit.  Kind of lopsided and lumpy.  If you want to really put a dagger through the heart of  woman, tell her she's pear-shaped!  They tend to be most popular in the cold months (not my favorite time of year).  All in all, not all that appealing sounding.  This week, we bought our first pears of the season.  They were rock hard and I worried that they would end up sitting in the fruit bowl, ripening without our taking notice until, finally brown and mushy, we'd end up tossing them. 

Yesterday, I took one out and brought it to my drawing area.   I started sketching it and noticed it wasn't just green or just yellow.  It was both, in different places and depending on how it caught the light.  Along the bottom, there was a beautiful tinge of pinkish red.  The brown stem and a few small brown imperfections gave it some character.  Despite it lopsided wonkiness, it stood on its own.  When placed on its side, its bumpiness and imperfect planes helped it to stay in place.  After some very quick and rudimentary sketching, I pulled out my watercolors to try to capture some of its color.  When all was said and done, I'm not sure that I captured that pear very well at all. 

What I do know is that after drawing and painting for about ten minutes,  I took a bite.  The pear's sweet graininess was more delicious than I'd remembered.  With each bite, it seemed to get juicier.  It was a filling snack and provided me with the energy I needed to get through the rest of the afternoon.  I'm not sure I'll draw the rest of those pears before eating them, but I am appreciative of how much I noticed about them when I really took the time to look at and taste them!

Linking up with Sophia's Sunday Sketches.  If you have a few moments, take some time and look at what the other linkers have created this week. It will be worth your while!

Hope everyone has a great week!