Drawings 7 and 8

Two more sketches done. Both are simple pencil drawings on the drawing paper.

  

I used a B and 2B to create them. Obviously the girl is similar to my other coloring book drawings. The landscape is similar to a couple of paintings from a couple years ago.

I need to find some new subject matter to sketch. The themes of these drawings seem to run the same.

I do get bored easily and like to find and learn new things. So I will be going through old photos and taking new ones to provide new ideas for my sketches.

This is good because it pushes me to step outside my comfort zone. That is always a good thing for anyone wanting to learn more about their craft, no matter what field you are in.

Terri

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Drawings 5 and 6

Well, again I couldn’t get on the internet yesterday so I missed posting.

So I am posting both drawings 5 and 6 today.

For yesterday, it is a pencil sketch like the others. I love trees so I did the tree as the main focal point. Most of the drawings begin with the 2H pencil to create a very light sketch. Then the 2B and B pencils are used to darken the lines and add the shadows. The 2H barely shows up at that point.

For today’s art piece I did a pen drawing of a holiday card idea.  I need to decide on a design for my cards this year and this is just one idea.

Below you can see the ones I drew last year. These were inspired by my coloring page designs. I didn’t use any of them, but I like to create them anyway.

I may put some cards in the Etsy store. I don’t know yet.

All of these were done with the Prismacolor Illustration pens on drawing paper, then scanned into my computer to be cleaned up in Photoshop. I started with the 2H and used it throughout to draw in the circles then the inner designs. The light lines are easily erased once the pen lines have been done.

 Using Photoshop to remove unwanted lines and smudges is a great tool. I can resize the drawings as well, to fit them to card size before printing.

I like to draw them as close to card size as possible so they will fit well without too much white paper left over on the edges.

 

Home designed cards are fairly easy to do. You can do a drawing or painting, or take a photo. Put it into your computer by either scanning or by taking a photo of the art piece and putting the photo onto the computer. Then you need to crop the piece to fit your card size. 

Use card stock to print on. You can just print onto the card stock, or print multiple copies of  your art piece, cut them and glue them to the card stock that has been cut and folded into cards.

Envelopes are available at the office supply store in a variety of sizes, so you can pick your card size and print it yourself.

There are also software programs that will allow you to create cards just by providing a photo and choosing the card style. Then print per the instructions.

I know not many people do cards these days for the holidays. But I like to do them because they are something personal. And they are great to send to the family members and friends for whom you don’t send gifts.

Terri

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Drawing 4

Ah, day four of the challenge. I didn’t start this drawing til late this afternoon. I started the morning watching Bob Ross paint on PBS. Then we went to some yard sales and a flea market. Then to a craft show at the library. It was a fun Saturday morning.

While watching a tiny house program this afternoon I did this pencil drawing.

It is again on the 80 lb, acid free, drawing paper. I used the 2H pencil to do a little sketch, then the 2B pencil to finish it up.  That was it. I think it took about 30 minutes to complete while I watched the TV.

I am finding this exercise very inspiring. I am considering doing some oil painting in the next few weeks. Living in an RV makes some projects difficult. I just have to put away my jewelry and sewing supplies to make room to work on the paintings.

I hope you are finding a little inspiration too.

Terri

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Drawing 3

Here we are on day 3 of my art challenge.

This drawing is another 5x7” on the drawing paper.

This time I did a piece inspired by some of my coloring book drawings. I started with a 2H pencil and did a light sketch of the face and some of the hair tendrils.

Once I got a good sketch I took the 03 Prismacolor pen and started following my pencil marks. I had some hair pieces I didn’t like so I redid the lines of those. Then I worked back and forth with pen and pencil to get the final ink rendering.

Then I decided to add all the swirling lines around the back and sides of the head.

After the whole ink drawing was finished I used an eraser to gently remove any pencil lines that were showing. I scanned the drawing into the computer at this point.

Then I used watercolors to give it life. I tried not to get too detailed with the paint. I just wanted to highlight each part and make the face stand out.

I am having fun with this challenge and each day I find myself getting less stressed about what I create. Today I told myself that if I messed up the drawing I would just create another one. That worked to help me relax and not worry about what I was creating.

After all, this is just a small piece of paper and a pencil. Not an expensive loss if I get the drawing wrong. But it’s easy to get caught up in trying to do a perfect job the first time you sit down to draw, or begin any project. It’s a human thing. So we have to learn to let go and allow the mistakes to happen. That’s really how we learn.

I hope you are having a great week. And I hope you are trying new things each week.

Terri

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Drawing 2

Well, this is day two of my challenge.

I did another landscape sketch, then decided it needed to be inked in. It was on the 80 pound, acid free drawing paper.

I used the Prismacolor Premier Illustration Markers, 03 and 05 points. The first photo shows the result.

But I still felt it was blah. It didn’t really pop. Because it’s a small drawing it was hard to really tell what things were if you held it at arm’s length. So putting it in a frame on a wall would be even worse. From any distance over one foot you would not be able to tell what it was a drawing of.

So I used my watercolors to add lights and darks and give it some feeling.

Here you can see my final result. Not the best of paintings, but at least you can tell much better what you are looking at from a distance.

This is a good challenge because it will push me to be a better artist. I have been lax in drawing or painting every day.

I have so many paints and art papers and canvases that I could probably create a new piece every day for a year, at least.  I am terrible at yard sales where there are art supplies. I buy them even when I don’t need them.

Whether you are a fine artist, crafter, quilter, or jewelry maker, a challenge is always good for you. It pushes you to do better. It pushes you to step outside your comfort zone and try new things.

The idea of this challenge is not to always create saleable work. It is partly to find who I am as an artist. My hope is to learn more of what I can do and what I really want to do.

Terri

And check out the new items in my Etsy Store:

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drawing 1

Day 1 of my art challenge:

I was looking back through one of my sketch books and found an old sketch that was only about two inches across. I decided to do a newer version, only a little bigger.

This is a 5x7” pencil sketch on 80 pound, acid free, drawing paper.

I used a 2H pencil to start the sketch, then added darker accents with a B and a 2B.

Drawing pencils come in a variety of lead hardness and softness. The H is hard and the 2H is the same as your yellow school pencil. They go up to 6H and 8H. The higher the number the harder the lead and the lighter the line they will draw.

The B is the softer lead and goes up to at least 8B. The lead is soft and makes darker lines. The higher the number, the softer the lead, the darker the line it makes.

These two pictures are from one of my college art classes. The assignment was to use advertisements from magazines to create a collage. Then do a pencil drawing from the collage.

I used a variety of pencils to create the 8”x10” drawing.  This is from 1982.

  

It’s a lot of fun to experiment with the different leads and see what type of shadows and lines you can create.  

I hope you take any opportunity to try new things when you can. You never know where those things might lead.

Terri

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New Old Drawings and Stuff

After major internet connection issues I am finally am able to post again.

  

While I was unable to use the internet I worked on a bunch of jewelry.  I sold a few pieces a couple of weeks ago to a local gift shop and the owner plans to buy more in the future. So I created more wire wrap pieces and some polymer clay Steampunk hearts.

I’ve also been evaluating what I am going to be posting here in this blog going forward. I feel like I have hit a creative block as far as craft projects go. I’m having trouble coming up with cool and fun ideas. 

I was watching an Artbeat Nation episode on the local PBS channel this past weekend and was inspired by a young woman who creates a collage every day from magazine images. She makes a new one each day and posts it to her blog. I like the idea of pushing yourself like that to create something new each day. I spend so much time on some of the jewelry that I don’t draw or paint as much as I would like to.

So I have decided to create a new art piece each day. It may be as simple as a pencil, ink or pastel drawing. Or it may be a small painting in watercolor or acrylic. I think they will all be approximately 5”x7” on really good art papers.

My plan is to create art works that I will sell in my Etsy store. They will be priced as low as $5 and probably no more than $20.

 

As you can see I have included some art works in this blog. These are older drawings but I still wanted to have some kind of images today.  They are from some of my sketch books.  They are from the 1990’s through 2001. I actually have sketch books from the 1980’s and photos of some of my work from the 1970’s.

The first image in this post is actually a scratch art piece I made for one of my college art classes. The piece is 8.5x11 inches, and is in one of my binders. Besides my sketchbooks, I have several binders full of sketches and drawings from over the years.

Many artworks and photos of older works have been scanned into the computer and have been put together chronologically. 

I will include descriptions of my inspiration for each piece and what the medium was. I just won't be doing such long involved posts. I’m hoping to be able to post every day. We shall see.

I hope you continue to read my blog and I do encourage feedback. Comments are welcome.

Terri

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