A Return to Drawing and Blogging

1/1/2017

Happy New Year!

I can't believe how long it has been since I've been in here!  I have been in such a funk over the last few years.   I have hardly done anything creative during my time away from this blog.

Though I have given up on making resolutions, I am planning to engage in more creative activities this year.

Here's to a creative and prosperous New Year for myself and anyone who happens upon this blog.

A.Marie

Blue Monday: Bonny in Blue

I was skimming through the style section of Essence online when I noticed they had a lot of blue items featured. Royal blue seems to be the preferred shade of blue this year . This led me to go on a hunt for other things that look fabulous in blue. I found several items I love. I have decided to share some of my royal blue finds with you today for Blue Monday.

First up is Kerry Washington in a classic royal blue dress. She looks stunning.


Next up is the classic trench in royal blue. I would love to have one of these in my wardrobe. This ensemble was put together by Shanae Sylva for the business life.

This is followed by another trench from the Jessica Simpson collection.How about a pair of blue suede boots?
No. Well I dare you to take these for a stroll. If I could walk in those...

Keeping it tied to art I love the way Lauren used this painting as inspiration for this ensemble featuring a royal blue skirt that she pulled together. Okay I don't really know if the painting was the inspiration, but I think it would be cool if it was.

And finally my own inspired piece. I drew this sketch back in January, 2010. After seeing all the royal blue fashions over the weekend I decided to revisit it and color her outfit royal blue or as close to royal blue as I could get with the pencil I had.

I love all the blues I came across this weekend and I will share more later. Happy Blue Monday.





Best Wishes,


A.Marie

Watercolor Artist Creativity Exercise

Over the last few days I have been working on a creativity exercise from the September issue of Watercolor Artist Magazine. You use red, yellow, and blue transparent paint and basically let the paint be the guide after you place the colors on the paper. It was also billed as a different way to save your whites. When I started I was aiming for more of a blue background, but I am pleased with what I got.

I'm off to work now. Have a great day and happy painting.

Best Wishes,

A.Marie

Collage Art

This is my first attempt at creating collage art. I decided to go with the landscape composition and a monochromatic palette of blues as it seemed the easiest to me. I used mainly napkins that I painted and some scraps of blue I cut from catalogs to create the landscape. The painting I used acrylic and watercolor. I had fun creating this and I'm pleased with my first attempt. I'm ordering Collage Journeys and haunting Jane Davies blog of the same name for instruction and inspiration. If anyone else knows of any great collage instructors, books, and/or sites they recommend I would love to hear about them.

Today is the last day of my vacation. I'm both sad and excited. I return to work tomorrow, and I look forward to meeting my new class. But, I will miss having so much free time for art. For those celebrating, have a wonderful labor day. Happy drawing everyone. Happy Blue Monday to all the participants in Smiling Sallie's Blue Monday.

Best Wishes,

A.Marie

Pen and ink sketch #18

I've had this vase in my house for a long time, but I never really paid any attention to it. I'm not even sure where I got it from. I don't know if the previous owner of the house left it, or if we inherited it from Reggie's mom. It wasn't until I started cleaning out my basement and moving some of my art materials upstairs did I give it any attention. I decided to bring it upstairs as something I could use for a drawing project. I have fallen for this vase. It is a very heavy metal and I love the lines and details on it. I decided to use it for my pen and ink sketch of the day.

The shape gave me a lot of problems so I decided to color it in after I worked out most of the problems, and of course I had problems with the color brown. I am going to use this vase as a study project. The shape, details, and colors should give me a lot of art work over the next week or two.

Any suggestions on painting brown metals would be greatly appreciated. As always happy drawing.

Best Wishes,

A.Marie

EDM #209 Draw a Shadow

I have been holding Draw a Shadow in my mind as a sketch to do for a while. I have been looking at shadows trying to spy a really good on to draw. I was on facebook last night or rather early this morning browsing the photos my nephew has posted on his page, when I came across this photo of a baby crocodile. The thing I liked most about the photo was the shadow of a group of people standing on the bank looking at the crocodile. My nephew is the one on the end taking the photo. The shadow makes a nice frame at the bottom of the page and I like this. So I left him a note saying I was using the picture for a drawing exercise. I hope he is happy to inspire his aunt to create.

Happy Drawing,

A.Marie

EDM #5 Draw Your Bed in Pen and Ink

It has been 16 days since I officially started the pen and ink challenge. Today I am posting two drawings from that challenge. The first drawing is some pink orchids. I like the composition of this page. I originally was going to draw the pot as well as the flowers. I'm glad I ran out of space. I would also like to try painting some orchids. The second sketch is a sketch of my bed. There is a lot wrong in this sketch but I like the subject enough to do this drawing again so I can get the proportions right. I love the lines and the details of the headboard, yet I was avoiding it as a subject matter until Julie of In Pursuit of a Hidden Artist posted a sketch of her bed yesterday. Thanks for the inspiration Julie. Happy Drawing this Wednesday. I can't believe it's Wednesday already.

Best Wishes,

A.Marie

Self Portraits

I didn't finish what I originally had in mind for my post today. I am trying my hand at collage art, and I have been browsing Collage Journeys for inspiration and instructions. I started a collage, but I am not finished with it. While I was in Collage Journeys I did some of the drawing exercises Jane posted. One was a blind self-potrait. One of the things I said I was going to do was a self portrait everytime I started a new sketchbook. Over the summer I had completed two books but I had not done a self portrait in either.

I ended up doing three one in one book and 2 in the other. None of them were totally blind drawings. I couldn't help looking at the page though drawing with a white crayon and taking off my glasses are a kind of blind of there own.

As an extension of the exercise I gathered the other self portraits I have done and decided to upload them into my online album and post them onto my blog. I wanted to post them as a slideshow but couldn't get the feature to work, so I'm putting them here in a post. I'll work on the slideshow feature later.

The portrait in blue captures that intense look I am told comes over my face at times. The look to kill is how it has been described by some. I guess when I'm working and concentrating is one of those times. In the red and gray I made a conscious effort to relax my features. All the sketches were done while looking in a mirror except the pencil sketch. It is from a picture I took of myself with the camera on my phone. Here they are from latest to earliest sketches.







First ever attempt at a self portrait.

Funny. Even though I've decided I really don't like doing portrait work, I'm actually looking forward to doing some more. Happy drawing.

Best Wishes,

A.Marie

EDM 323 Draw Something Sad

The idea for this challenge started from a background I created weeks ago while practicing loosening up my brush strokes. The ideas of the tall grass and empty stalks reminded me of a garden dying back and represented the end of the season which always brings a bit of sadness to me. I added some wilting flowers and titled it When Flowers Weep.

As always happy drawing.

Best Wishes,

A.Marie

EDM Challenges 290, 105, 94,19, and 129

Below are some drawings I did from the EDM challenges. I have been doing my drawings in ink to satisfy the Pen and Ink challenge.



EDM #290 Draw a Teapot Pen and Ink #6

EDM #105 Draw Some Scissors EDM#94 Draw a Spoon and Journal About It
Pen and Ink #5

The shadows help lift the spoon off the page in the right places, but I am having a lot of difficulty getting the concave look in the spoon.

EDM#19 Draw Something You've Made Pen and Ink#7

This drawing is a Mardi Gras mask I made in an art class I took this summer called The Art of Reuse. I took it for professional development credit for school. In the class we made several art projects from recycled materials. The face of the mask is made of wallpaper clued to cardboard. The handle is a light weight hollow tube that I have no idea what it's original use was. The grid in the eyeholds are sequin backings. Across the top is a lace trim and then there is the black feather and some sequin and crystal embellishments. The class was so much fun, and I also got to make some educational games for my students.


EDM#129 Draw Some People Doing Something Pen and Ink #8

Afternoon Siesta - How I love the idea of the afternoon siesta. These two gentlemen probably like the idea also, as both were fast asleep during their meal yesterday afternoon.

I've been busy drawing. What about you?

Best Wishes,

A.Marie

More Faces

Here are some of other faces I have drawn for the 100 faces exercise I am doing. Some of these are people I know and some are from pictures I found on the internet. I did manage to capture the likeness of some of the people I know after much reworking. After a bit I switched to pen and ink and had to accept what was there. It would be marvelous to be able to do wonderful portraits, but I have found portraits are not my thing skill wise or as a genre. I would rather draw, paint, and look at pictures of people in action. I also like pictures where the people in the picture could be anybody. I will continue to practice portraits though; Who knows it might get better.

Best Wishes,

A.Marie

Haven's Lighthouse

One of the things I do on Friday night is watch Haven, on the Syfy channel. In the show Haven is a picturesque fishing village. That is one of the reasons I like the show so much. I love the backdrop for the show and I watch it not only for what is going on in the show but also for things I can draw. Yesterday I drew the lighthouse. In the video clip I used for reference I was struck by the way it stood out against all the clouds in the sky.

I am also taking Brenda Swanson's 75 day sketch challenge. The challenge is to draw a sketch using pen and ink each day for 75 days. You can click the highlighted text for more information. I started on the 16th. I missed one day so this sketch qualifies as #4 for the challenge. I'm getting a lot more comfortable with pen and ink, and even though I like the drawing there are things I would have erased and corrected if I had used a pencil.

The shadow/tint around the picture is from the scan, and I like it. It gives me an idea for backgrounds effects for quick sketches. Happy Sunday.



Best Wishes,

A.Marie

Sketches from the Kitchen Table and a Review

I did this drawing back in February. I didn't post it right away because it had a lot of smudges and some line marks I wanted to clean up. I was in Staples and came across the Staedtler battery operated eraser and bought one.

I finally got around to cleaning up the page today. I cleaned up the side of the house in the first picture. It was as cloudy as the ones in the back. I cleaned up the top half of the second picture and left the table like effect. I cleaned up some sketch marks that was left when I had to erase my first attempt at the paper towels, and in the fourth picture I lifted some highlights in the dogs fur.

The eraser did a great job at lifting out smudges and left the page nice and clean. It didn't clean up the line marks as much as I would have liked. The eraser also wears down quickly (It comes with 11 erasers) so you have to be careful. On one picture I was cleaning up the eraser was worn down and the clip that holds the eraser was scratching the paper away. It's a good tool to have in your art supplies, but I have to remember light lines until I'm satisfied with the sketch.

Best Wishes,

A.Marie

EDM Challenges 322 and 321

I just completed EDM challenges 322 and 321. I am working backwards through the challenges because I have not done any in awhile, and I have drawn the ones at the beginning at one point or another in my drawing.

Best Wishes,

A.Marie

Line Drawings 2

Back in 2009 I posted about sketches and abstract art I do from line drawings. You can see the post here Line Drawings . Today I am posting some sketches of girls I did from line drawings. I keep saying I am going to scan the original line drawing before I turn it into a sketch, and every time I forget. It would be interesting to see what someone else might see from that same line drawing. This is also fun to do with kids. I have done it with second graders. They had a lot of fun with it, and saw some interesting things as well. Have a good day.

Best Wishes,

A.Marie

100 Faces Project

I have been reading Carla Sonheim's Drawing Lab. I am doing the 100 faces project along with other activities from the book. The 100 faces started out slow. Then I realized I was taking too much time on each face and trying to make them all like portraits. One day I decided to take a lighter approach and did 25 in two days. Instead of trying to capture an entire face I picked out one or two features I found interesting on a face and focused on them. It helped that I was drawing from the tv, no time to obsess on small details.

Some of the faces I am posting today are line drawings and some are faces I saw in paint blots that were laid on the paper first. The paint blot method is a favorite of mine. I started doing this one day when I was trying to mix shades of brown paint. I was left with a board full of paint blots, so I started looking for faces inside the blots. I am always amazed at the different faces I see that I would never think of drawing without the blots. Try it sometime. Happy drawing.

Best Wishes,

A.Marie

Painting the Sky

I have been spending a lot of time looking at the sky and trying to paint it. I like cloudy colorful skies. Since early spring the sky has had plenty of clouds to use as inspiration, but it hasn't been easy capturing what I see. I have made some progress. I usually end up overworking them but I like the four above. I shall keep practicing.

Best Wishes,

A.Marie

color studies

I did this color matching exercise after seeing it on the art projects for kids website.
The dirt is a much better match in reality than it appears in the scan. The scan of the picture is a lot more yellow than the actual photo. It is a good exercise for practicing color matching,

Young Rider and Water

Here are two more sketches I did. I can't believe the young rider was done almost a year ago. Time is flying.

I drew the water coming out of the faucet while visiting my sister over the summer.

I'm Back!

I finally got a new computer. I have been sketching regularly, but was unable to post because i didn't have a computer. I am posting a few of my drawings that turned out fairly well. I have been using ink a lot lately, and going the no-erasing route, so there is room for improvements.

Above is a drawing I did aboard Jet Blue on my way to Raleigh, NC. Others follow.
This is an everyday matters task: Draw something that starts with the letter of your first name.
A bowl of lemons.
These are some seashells I have in my collection.
This is a composition I put together from a project that, I think, was on the Derwent sight.

I'm excited to be able to share my work again.