The challenge: Create some form of visual art, no matter how small, each day for a full year.
Tonight, the streak almost broke. I fell asleep in my bed, which was not my intention, and woke up at 11:21. It’s 11:25, and I have 35 minutes to get something drawn and posted. I’m choosing at pearl onion, suggested by 642 Tiny Things to Draw. This should be simple, and I’m hoping I can get this uploaded and posted before midnight.
11:35: Here we go. Wow, I’m getting quicker at this drawing thing…
The challenge: Create some form of visual art, no matter how small, each day for a full year.
It’s Friday, so I will make this one as short as possible. 642 Tiny Things to Draw suggested “a spot on a leopard.” I googled and found a nice spot and went to work. The hardest part was getting the texture of the fur right. I don’t quite believe I achieved that, but I think if I had drawn the whole leopard, it would have looked quite cool. I also think watercolors might be a better way to do this. Wet on wet would definitely show more of the fur texture.
The challenge: Create some form of visual art, no matter how small, each day for a full year.
I’m trying to draw from life a little more than from my usual cell phone pic, but finding things around the house that I want to draw can be a challenge. I found a beautiful pewter candle snuffer that I received for my wedding, and I decided to draw that. I’m still encountering the issue with my drawings looking fine from the angle that I am drawing them but looking skewed when I see them straight on. I’ve got an angled drawing board I can use, but I’ve been to lazy to get it out. Maybe tomorrow.
Here is my candle snuffer:
This is what it looks like in real life:
I’m getting the urge to start doing more of my own paintings and drawings, but I keep thinking that I’m not good enough. My goal for this year was just to develop the skills and the habit of doing art every day, and I’ve been trying to hold back from branching out on my own with my own ideas so I could learn. I might change this up a bit. I also need more time in my day, and I think this is coming. Anyway, just random thoughts before the weekend, when I can relax and not worry about work.
Tomorrow is Friday! Have a great Friday eve everyone!
The challenge: Create some form of visual art, no matter how small, each day for a full year.
Tonight was the last night for AWANA for Ellie at church this school year. They always end with an AWANA fair, where the kids get all sugared up and hyper so the parents can struggle to get them to bed.
I got to bed around 1:00am after cleaning up the house and folding more soothes last night, so I have zero left in the tank. I grabbed on of the mini-bubble jars Ellie won, and decided to draw it.
I’m not sure what happened to this one. It looks twisted when I look at it head on, but when I look at it at the angle I’m drawing, with it flat on the table, it looks great…
Wait… I now remember the articles I’ve read about artists using drafting boards to draw for this very reason… I now understand. Fortunately I have a table-top drawing easel I can use until I get my own art space. Wow, it’s so cool to see stuff I’ve read about in article actually play out in real life.
Wow, I’m such a nerd.
Okay, I’m off to bed. Happy hump day and have a great evening folks! Two days until the weekend!
The challenge: Create some form of visual art, no matter how small, each day for a full year.
It’s 10:38 and I just sat down for the first time since noon. Yeah, that is the kind of day it’s been. My daughter suggested we go to the beach when I picked her up from preschool today. We went home to change and then headed to the beach, and I’m so glad we did. The waves were huge! (Clarification: they were Southwest Florida, Gulf-of-Mexico-side huge. So they weren’t really that big of you live on the Atlantic side of Florida.) We were actually able to body surf, and the waves carried me all the way to the sand a few times. (So glad I wore a rash guard.)
Long story short, we got home late and none of the housework was done. I got laundry started late, and had to wash a few extra towels. (I also had to clean out the car, rinse out the beach toys, vacuum the car because of the sand, etc.) I have only just now finished dishes and straightening the house.
I decided to do a quick drawing of something in the kitchen. I chose a Hershey’s Kiss, which I keep on hand to press into the center of peanut butter cookies when I make them. (Because why make plain old peanut butter cookies when you can put a Hershey’s Kiss in the middle?) illustrating the crinkly nature of this thing is going to be a challenge, but I think I can do it before the clock strikes 12.
Wait, laundry is done. I need to go fold towels. Be right back.
Okay, now it’s time to draw.
Here it is. It’s not bad for about 10 minutes of work. I’m so excited because I really feel like my skills are improving!
Ugh. When I see this up close, it doesn’t look that impressive. It looks much better from about a foot away.Here is the actual.
I really struggled with my eyesight on this one. The Hershey’s Kiss is about 2 feet away, and a few times, I couldn’t quite tell what was going on, especially eat the top. I really need to keep my glasses more accessible.
Three more days to Friday! Have a great weekend everyone!
The challenge: Create some form of visual art, no matter how small, each day for a full year.
Tonight’s little art project can be categorized by one word: impatience.
Sigh,
I’ve been trying to do a chocolate eclair exercise from Watercolor Success in Four Steps by Marina Bakasova, and I keep running into a few issues:
For the life of me, I can’t figure out how anyone can do anything on “half-wet” because my paint keeps drying too fast. (It’s gotta be the paper because I live in southwest Florida and humidity is a way of life down her. ***looks up*** Or… it could be that Air-conditioning vent right over me. Hmm…. (Yes, it is already in the 90’s here and yes, our AC will be running non-stop until November.)
I have got to start remembering not to try to fix my mistakes until the paint dries. Seriously, why is this so hard for me to remember? On yeah, because of the whole impatience thing I mentioned above.
I actually had to re-draw the whole eclair and start over on this one.
On a good note, I have discovered that drinking water out of my new Yeti cup that has a lid keeps me from dipping the brush in my drink and from drinking the paint water. That’s one step closer to non-toxicity, folks!
Here is my eclair (next to hers, so you can see the difference between awesome and my not-so-awesome):
Mine is on the right.
I’m definitely starting to get the urge to start doing my own things instead of working from book. I have 1) confidence issues with this, however, and 2) exhaustion issues. Once I am fully done with my job on June 1st, I will start branching out. Right now, I’m just trying to survive the days.
Happy Monday everyone! 4 days to go until the weekend!
The challenge: Create some form of visual art, no matter how small, each day for a full year.
It’s Sunday, my husband is gone for a few days, my kid is sleeping, and I’m planning on taking a nice long bath with Epsom salts to sooth the aching muscles, and hopefully my knee. Therefore, tonight’s art is all about drawing because there isn’t any cleanup with drawing. I chose an “emoji” from 642 Tiny Things to Draw as my exercise.
Emojis are simple, right?
After I chose my most used emoji and enlarged it, I discovered that no, emoji’s aren’t exactly simple. These things have a lot of detail and shading. I tried to get it as close as possible.
So, yes, I will proudly admit that TikTok has declared my favorite emoji as uncool as my skinny jeans. My care level is “meh.” Kate Middleton seems to feel the same way about skinny jeans as I do, so take that TikTok.
Enjoy the last hours of Sunday, everyone! Tomorrow, I hope to go back to my more complex watercolors.
The challenge: Create some form of visual art, no matter how small, each day for a full year.
It’s Saturday night, and I’m painting a croissant from the book, Watercolor Success in Four Steps, by Marina Bakasova. I’ve drawn the croissant and I’m ready to paint. Two things I’ve noticed:
Apparently, I have no idea how to spell croissant without actually looking at the word. This makes typing this blog post a bit tedious.
Drawing a croissant is about as tedious as spelling it—mainly because the shape makes no sense. It’s just this twisted, crescent-looking blob thing. Apparently I need things to make sense and have a pattern.
It only requires 3 colors, which, surprisingly, I actually have on hand: Raw Sienna, Burnt Sienna, and Burnt Umber. I’m going to get started and see how this goes.
Drink of choice: water. I’ve got to water down my blood so it won’t notice all the saturated fat and cholesterol in the steak I consumed earlier…
Here it is:
Mine is on the right.
Tonight ended up being about:
Fixing mistakes. A lot of mistakes.
Figuring out how to keep painting “on wet” when the first part of the croissant is dry before I finish the last part. I think this has to do with my very old, student-grade, wood-pulp paper I’m trying to finish up. (I found out that old water color paper can actually lose is sizing, so use up that paper.)
The right brush is key. Sometimes the Princeton Aqua is the best. Sometimes, I need a Neptune to paint over previous layers without letting the old ones. Learning how the different brushes work has been joyous… (I say that with a fair amount of sarcasm.)
Anyway, my buttery pastry is complete, and I might get to bed before 11. Have a great evening, folks!
The challenge: Create some form of visual art, no matter how small, each day for a full year.
It’s Friday night, and I wish I could tell you I tried to pick a simple project from 642 Tiny Things to Draw because I was having an awesome night out with friends and family. But no. It’s 9:15pm and I just really want to go to bed. (Having children does that to you.)
Tonight, I picked “‘ok’ in Morse code” as my tiny project because it’s simple, right?
He he he. I’m kind of someone who likes to overcomplicate things. I decided to do “OK” in Morse code with a little perspective exercise added in—and I even tried to add some lighting and shadows!
Here it is:
Not too bad. Notice that I can’t draw circles or straight lights without a ruler. But it was fun, and I enjoyed being creative.
The challenge: Create some form of visual art, no matter how small, each day for a full year.
Tonight, I’m painting a cheesecake from Watercolor Success in Four Steps by Marina Bakasova. It’s not as yummy as eating a cheesecake, but now that I’m allergic to half the things in cheesecake, I can only paint and drool. My only issue: this cheesecake has one blueberry. If it were a real cheesecake, I would feel a little cheated on the blueberry level… (Unless it came from The Cheesecake Factory, in which case it would be smothered with their whipped cream and I wouldn’t care about the blueberry.)
I guess I’m a little more hyper than normal tonight. I got the halfling to bed early, and I’ve been drinking only one cup of coffee in the mornings and I’ve tried to increase my water intake. I think that is slowly giving me more energy… I think.
Anyway, on to this cheesecake…
Drink of choice: Decaf coffee with milk and some half and half.
Here it is:
Mine is on the right.
Tomorrow is Friday! I can’t wait! This week has been annoying. Have a great evening, Folks!
