A 365 day art project… one drawing a day
Grabbed an idea from a safari search, and added doodles. Don’t even ask. I don’t know. But it’s my art for today. He has a rather Audrey Hepburnesque neck. Actually… now that I look at him… It may be HER! I like him better now.
So I thought this was my strength, kinda, as far as painting goes, but so far this is the submission I have enjoyed the least. My daughter asked me to try my hand at this poster, and make my own version. I like the way the painting looks here, but in person I kind of want to burn it. And I definitely like more mountain/less sky like the original.
What I learned:
(edited: Season six got better as I got further in)
NOT “slightly a favorite”, you read it correctly. My cat’s name is Slightly, and he loves this chair. It doesn’t seem particularly inviting for a cat, to me, but maybe it’s because he wants to sit with me in my ‘studio’ the hours I spend in there, just being my cat… or more likely it’s because I don’t allow the 95 pound puppy in that room. The one that really believes Slightly loves being in his mouth. I’m babysitting today, so just a quick sketch, Slightly’s chair. Sans Slights himself. Who is perfectly safe, and not inside a mouth at all.
Comparing my prima watercolors to the winsor & newton, I decided to try a few youtube “easy flower” tutorials, and a few of my own doodles. I love both sets of watercolors, but the prima are brighter and bolder, and easier to pick up color. Flowers will take more practice. 🙂
So I thought today I’d start coming up with ideas for a watercolor coloring book, a real need in the crafters/amateur artists market as far as I can tell. I can only find one, put out by prima, that’s on real watercolor paper. It has a few nice designs, but is mostly short quotes, a few words with a little graphic and lots of space. I am thinking of some designs that might be more fun to paint.
Still, I started simple, with… yeah, a sketch with just words, (by the way LOOK AT THAT! I finally designed a font of my own instead of copying someone’s!) and then thought I’d go ahead and color it in, too, with the paints that arrived yesterday…Prima Watercolor Confections.(the Tropical set) I LOVE them. They are SO bold and beautiful. I’ve never used really high end watercolor paints, so don’t have much to compare with right now, but these are very fun for an average person to play with. (Prima, I love them so much, I should be your spokesperson!!! Just ask!)
I hope to figure out a way to design and publish a watercolor coloring book over the course of the year, so stay tuned with that. If you have suggestions or experience with a project like this PLEASE leave advice. My daughter suggested I need a drawing tablet for this project, so last night I unsuccessfully tried to load the wacom tablet my nephew had left here for me to play with a few years ago. It seems so much simpler to DRAW, on PAPER. Technology frightens me. So many options. But I’m figuring out the blog thing so I can figure out the tablet thing, too.
Did I mention how much fun these paints are?????
More brush pen practice.
I actually thought I’d do a quick nothing doodle today because I was going out… but I ended up trying a new brush pen and spent more time than I’d imagined. I like it more than the kuretake marker I’ve tried the past couple of days. It’s a thin plastic tube full of ink, with a brush tip… like if a soft bodied fountain pen and a paint brush had a baby. It’s probably for Japanese writing, actually. (the blue pen in the photo) Found out the hard way the ink stays wet a LONG time and still smears even after it is dry if you erase around it. So… I worked the smears into the design and liked the end result MORE than without the smears! Tried three other new pens as well, micron and comic… Fun doodles! More time than I meant to invest, and certainly doesn’t look like it. But day 13 is finished.
New prima paints! Online artists seem biased against these paints because they are inexpensive (KIND OF… not to me) and are less translucent, and don’t have pigment info included, but I’m more of a crafter, and I really had fun with them. I tend to like acrylic painting better than watercolor, so maybe more opaque watercolors appeal to me. Today I worked on a practice piece… a mini version of something my daughter asked for. Easier than anticipated. But I left off a few necessary details, and did make some mistakes. A good learning project.
If you follow my other blog, all the crazy world, you know I got some mail today!! I’ve been feeling grumpy with this little fever and cough, not at all like creating, but decided to just look at the paint colors. I got them wet, put the brush to the paper a bit, and then thought maybe just a quick simple beginners youtube tutorial. Four hours and 1/2 a snickers bar later… plus one hot chocolate with a touch of vodka FOR MY COUGH, because we are out of peppermint schnapps… yeah. That’s the way this ‘artist’ rolls. Here’s what I learned:
I’m embarrassed to show you the tutorial (but here it is)I used to make my painting, because his is much better than mine, but mine’s not awful. I’m learning! And if you are just starting out, this is a nice one to follow. Dry a bit between layers.
I still have that nagging little cold, and I don’t feel like being creative, but I did SOMETHING. And I even learned something. (I learned that I don’t love writing with the kuretake brush marker, although I liked drawing the angel with it two days ago. I do love the idea of it, so I’ll keep trying it and other brands of brush markers. I also learned don’t think so much about the letter while writing. Just write) Usually I’d try both of these again until I liked them, but I’m too tired today. And maybe less if better anyway.
Artists and crafters… what do you do about pen smears? Ideas for avoiding them? Brands that dry quickest? Definitely plaguing me. Weigh in with opinions, PLEASE. And thank you all for helping me get started with my 2017 project! New watercolor paints coming in a few days, just got slowed down by the blizzard, so I’m really looking forward to that!
I’m hoping to add a drawing/drafting table to my studio soon. I don’t NEED one, but I do WANT one. Let me know if you see a fabulous deal somewhere!!
ThreeSixFiveArt 