More Watercolor Sketches/Experiments & Sketchbook Revival 2025 #37

 Doing something every day boosts your confidence, as well as your skill set, and practice makes you better, whatever you want to do. I have gained much from the sketchbook revival classes, but I've gained even more by showing up and doing the practice every day, and I'm so thankful to have had the time and discipline to do it, even if it's in sketchbooks. I can't wait to start painting on canvas, boards, and good watercolor paper in a larger format again, and maybe now I have the confidence to finish some of the works in progress that have been waiting for a long time now. Hopefully, my eyes and my health will hold out to let me do that. I don't have time for housework! Thank goodness that hubby doesn't mind! Ha!

This one was inspired by an online photo of an abandoned house. I have a bad habit of not allowing enough room for things, and this was no exception. I drew it on a 7"x10" page on mixed media paper in my sketchbook in pencil. I should have made it smaller, because I ran out of room and had to leave the end of the house, with a balcony, off, but that's ok. It was still good practice with drawing and using watercolor. About half way through the watercoloring I decided to go over the lines with my micron ink pen. I like the character of it! I love old things and their stories!

The last Sketchbook Revival class I've done, so far, is "Paint Expressive Florals" with Juliet Meeks. It's painting loose and free intuitive flowers in watercolor just for fun, and practice. A fun exercise! I have one blank page left in my current class sketchbook, and it will be full. BUT I have a new one to christen and many more classes to sample!

Just for fun and relaxation! Each girl is sketched with one continuous line with a micron pen in my mixed media sketchbook. I don't know why I had never tried the micron pens before. I love them! 

This page started off with me slightly wetting the page, even though this mixed media paper doesn't really like being wet, and it will buckle and roll if very wet, but I lightly sprayed this page, then cleaned off my watercolor palette. I used a brush to clean each color and applied them to the damp page, letting them run and merge together. Then I dipped a brush in red and made some marks on top of that and let the page dry while I washed off my palette. When it was dry, there was a suggestion of the three red flowers, so I painted an imaginary bouquet (my favorite kind), making it up as I went. It could probably use some more work, but I've decided to leave well enough alone...

When I got up this morning, I was determined, and had planned on, finishing up at least two of the five paintings I'm working on (because I have to have more than one project at a time in progress), but my mind was scattered due to some business stuff, so I wound up sketching my painting set up, plus a bottle of calamine lotion, sitting in front of my chair. I ate breakfast, then dealt with the business stuff, took a walk around our yard, came back inside and sketched the girl from a music video on TV, before writing and posting the post before this one. So this is the second blog post today, and I'm caught up until I finish another sketch! 

I've lost track of how many photos I have posted on here this year, but I know it's a LOT, and I'm afraid that I won't be able to afford to have a blog book printed for my records. :(

I do have a lot of photos to choose from for the calendars that I gift to family/friends for Christmas though. I just have to edit them and put the calendar together, if I can afford that this year. They are not cheap! We'll see.

Anyway, we're having beautiful fall like weather right now, although I'm sure there will be some more hot days to come. I hope it's beautiful where you are too. Have a wonderful week and take care of you! 

Watercolor Elephant Sketch and Sketchbook Revival 2025 Class #35 and #36

 Hello! I'm behind on my posting, AGAIN. My days get by so fast, even though we've stopped sleeping so late. Not sure if time has speeded up, or I've slowed down a lot. Maybe a bit of both? 

Anyway, I'm still trying to sketch something every day and paint some most days, and I did these a few days ago.

I decided to see if I could paint an elephant when a photo of one appeared on the cover of the Cooperative farming magazine that we received a couple of months back. It turned out much better than I expected, and I surprised myself! I was inspired by  that photo and sketched it off in pencil, then used watercolor and mostly a water pen brush in my mixed media Canson sketchbook. Such fun bringing him to life! I love his character!

This one was inspired by a character on a TV movie. I think they might have been vampires? Not a likeness, but I paused the TV and sketched her face and cloak hood with a pencil in my Canson mixed media book, then, for some reason, I decided to give the hood some red watercolor. Maybe I will go back at some point and go over the pencil with ink, but I kind of like the watercolor /pencil mix. I am trying to do more faces in different poses than just straight on. Not the best, but I learned from her, and the experiments continue!

Same sketch as above, but with a warm black/white filter. Not sure which I like the best?

Just for fun, and a break, I used a micron pen and drew this one with one continuous line, making up the flowers as I went. I didn't worry about edges, composition, or anything. Just let things go where they wanted to. Fun stuff! Watercolor and ink in mixed media sketchbook.

This little sketch was inspired by an old family photo of my great-aunt. I didn't try for a likeness, and her face looks younger than she was, but I was just practicing the whole figure. Her brother was actually in the photo with her, but I didn't have the nerve that day to try drawing him. I left room on the page for him though! Pencil in mixed media sketchbook

Sketchbook Revival class, "Florals in Watercolor and Ink" with Neesha Merani was interesting and fun to try. It wasn't near as easy as she made it look, and I squeezed the bouquet into too small a space to fit my class sketchbook, which is mixed media hot pressed paper. I like the techniques though and will try again on larger watercolor paper! Practice makes better! I think?

Sketchbook Revival class, "Serendipity Stories" with Laly Mille was also very interesting and fun. We used mixed media to let a story reveal itself, and once again I squeezed a lot into a small space in my class book. I plan to do a larger one though! So much fun gathering up and using the different media to tell a story!

That's it for this post, but not all my art trials! I do have another post draft ready, but I will finish and post it later. I also have some sketches that I haven't scanned yet.

I had to get a new computer with Windows 11, and I have been getting it all set up and everything transferred from my old one to my new one, and also trying to learn the new stuff with the new Windows 11 that I use. Takes a lot of time and focus to switch over, and then hubby needs a new one, which I will have to set up for him. Fun stuff. NOT. But thankful we can get new ones and I can set them up, so far.

So much going on that I get overwhelmed trying to keep up with everything. Seems like everyone I know is in the same boat with me. So thankful I have art, and other crafts, to keep me sane!

Thank you for your visit and your support! Stay safe and well, and keep making stuff! 

Portrait Play n Experiments x 4

 Some of the portrait experiments I've been playing with the last couple of weeks in my 7" x 10" sketchbooks! So much fun! I loved watching the characters evolve!

I love this one. She is from my imagination, and I sketched her in pencil, then added watercolor over several days, as she told me what she wanted. The red hair is an homage to my paternal grandmother, Laura Lue, and an older cousin, whom I adored as a child. I miss them both very much. The shadow pattern is one I used from a Vogue black and white magazine photo of Lady Gaga that I found striking. As usual, she taught me a lot.

This one, also from my imagination, was sketched with a pencil, and I added Indigo and burnt sienna watercolors for the base layers, but I liked so much this way that I left it as is. Another character!

I used the black/white Vogue magazine photo of Lady Gaga as inspiration for this one in India ink, although I didn't strive for a likeness. I like the shadow pattern, and I added a bit of watercolor on the lips and eyes. The background in the photo was actually gray and her skin was gray tones, but I like the black/white, so I've left it, at least for now.

This one is in acrylics, and finishes up a sketchbook. It is a second attempt at a painting inspired by the Expressive Portraits class I took, but I didn't re-watch the video. Instead, I did it from memory and imagination. I loved the process and wanted to try a second one. I did follow the teacher's suggestion of using my fingers to apply the paint, and I only used two colors, Indigo and green-gold, plus white. My fingers were too big for the really small places, so I used a brush to fine tune those places. She is growing on me every day, and again, I learned much from her.

We went to the clinic for our six month check-up this morning, so hopefully the blood work comes back ok, and we have that over with for six months. We didn't go on to the next town over today, so we got back home by ten-thirty, ate breakfast, and hubby weed-ate the yard. I, on the other hand, since I slept very little last night, took a three-hour nap. 

So far today, I haven't sketched at all or painted on the elephant I started a couple of days ago, but I have written two blog posts, so that's something creative, and there's still time before bed! So we'll see... That is if the series we're just starting binge watching isn't that good. I can't think of the name, but it stars Patrick Dempsey, and it's a murder mystery. It looks promising, so I'm going to stop and pay attention to it before I lose the plot.

Take care, and keep creating!

Sketchbook Revival 2025 + Extra Sketches in a New Sketchbook

 I'm still taking the Sketchbook Revival classes, but I'm also working in a couple of sketchbooks on my own stuff. I'm working on the last page of one sketchbook and beginning a new one. Both are 7" x 10" mixed media paper.

I almost skipped this class, but I'm so glad I didn't. I love to write, so this one was right down my alley, once I checked it out. It is inspired by Rachel Rose in her class "Mindful Inspirations, a Thumbnail Sketch", and it involves holding your thumb up to objects in the room around you until something, or a portion of something, gets your attention. My thumb landed on my handmade cane that my dad made for me many years ago, so I sketched that, then wrote a few lines about it, like it was doing the talking. Then I picked out three to five key words from the lines to evoke an image in my imagination, sketched it and wrote a few lines about that, using the key words.

In my case, the cane evoked memories of my dad and his mom (because she always used one for more than just walking, that looked much like mine), and the key words evoked memories of my other grandparents and the old homeplace where I grew up and still live near. The house is very much real, and not imaginary, but that's the image that the talking walking stick evoked me to write about. The walking stick reminds me of my dad and my granny every time I use it, and I love walks out to the old homeplace, which connects me to my other granny and papa, which leads to much to write about! So many memories!

I haven't written anything in a long time, but this class has made me want to again!

This class was also one I hesitated on, but it was worth doing. It involved taking one object and drawing a page full of it from different angles, moods, and sizes, using different mediums. Also, they are supposed to be timed sketches. I don't normally like drawing the same thing more than once, or twice, but this was an interesting exercise that I did with a key on a ring. I did skip the charcoal sketch and the really large sketch, because I didn't want to draw over what I had already done, which the teacher did. From the class "Object Observation: Quick Drawing Exercises" with Susan Yeates.

A page in my new sketchbook just for fun. I used a water brush pen filled with India ink to paint a large "S" with a couple of ink drops over a page that I had sprayed water on. As the ink spread on the damp paper I added some salt sprinkles and let dry, then brushed off. When it was all dry, I added the bars in threes with the large end of my Zig marker. 

Another one just for fun. I drew three circles, using a round tape core for a template, Then I added the straight lines with a ruler, all with a black Zig marker. I sprayed the page with water and dropped Indigo, yellow, and red watercolors onto the page and let them mingle, adding color until I was happy with it. I painted it vertically, but after turning it, I liked it better horizontally. I like it!

This isn't from a class, but I used techniques that I learned in a few of the classes. I used a couple of pictures of seagulls that I took on our 2019 road trip out west to sketch and paint, in ink and watercolor, these three wandering around the parking lot of the Missouri motel we stayed in on our way home. There were actually many more or these, but I liked these three poses, especially the middle one, who was looking right at me. Fun to do. They taught me some stuff!

So that's it for now! It's so hot outside, and I've been dealing with vertigo this week, but I managed to get in some art therapy every day! So good for me! I think I'd be crazy otherwise?

Sketchbook Revival 2025: Birds

 I've been trying my hand at birds again! I followed along with the teacher, Julia Bausenhardt, in the video "How to Draw a Bird in Five Easy Steps". It's in watercolor, and I'm not familiar with this bird, but it's a Bluetit, according to the teacher. 

I kind of did it backwards, but I painted along with her and took notes first, then went back and added the diagram the next day. I tend to get watercolor thicker and brighter than most people. Possibly because my eyes are giving me trouble. Anyway, it was fun to learn and do!

The next one is a seagull from an original photo that I took on our road trip out west in 2019. We were on our way back home and spent the night in Missouri. There was a flock of seagulls in the parking lot of the motel we stayed in, and I captured some of them on film.

I enjoyed working out the drawing and painting it in ink and watercolor!

This one was really a challenge! I saw a photo of a pink bird amongst pink flowers online, and it was so pretty that I decided to try painting it. Not exactly like the photo, because I can't copy anything exactly, even if I wanted to, but it was certainly inspired by the photo. I'm not sure what kind of bird it is. Maybe a parakeet or a parrotlet? The background was as much of a challenge as the bird was, and I got the pinks too purple from the start, and as hard as I tried, I couldn't get rid of it, so I just finally went with it. The pinks were actually more of an orange-pink, which is what attracted me to it in the first place.

It's not perfect, but I'm glad I tackled it. It taught me a lot! Ink and watercolor-The classes in Sketchbook Revival have helped me gain so much, not just in knowledge, but in confidence too. I'm so glad I signed up and have stayed with the classes!

Below is my actual workspace, and, believe it, or not, I do actually work there sometimes. It is our dining room table, which I started organizing my art supplies on, but in the midst of sorting I got the itch to work on a journal or something, so I laid my drawing board on top of the sorted piles to work on. Since then, it has also become very cluttered with works in progress and assorted collage materials, leaving very little work space. On top of that, it is tilted, so that what I'm working on tends to try to slide off. It's a struggle to keep what I'm working on on there. No wonder I do all of my drawing/painting while sitting in my recliner with my necessary stuff on a stool beside me! Seems like I can't find the time for cleaning/organizing anymore. Every time I blink another week is gone!

I am still trying to sketch/paint some every day, and by the time we do our exercises, the day is gone, even when we get up earlier. But I have to do something about this mess!

Anyway, that's it for this post! Thanks for visiting! Take care of you!

Extra Practice Sketches

 Just some random sketches in my large sketchbook on drawing paper! Some are additional sketches for a class and some are just from my imagination for practice. All were learning experiences! Still trying to keep up the sketch a day practice!

Have a great weekend!

Sketchbook Revival 2025-Travel Sketching, Two Quirky Owls, a Royal Tern, and a Bouquet

 Well, I'm way behind with posting here, but I've been busy watching videos and attempting doing the techniques for a lot of varied art. It's too hot here to do anything else much. So this post is a little long, but here goes!

The top painting is in watercolor, and I followed along with the teacher and her photo reference of an island in Fiji, inspired by Leoni Norton in her class "Travel Sketching in Pen and watercolor.

This painting was also inspired by the Travel Sketching class, but I used an original photograph from our road trip out west in 2019. I think this was in Missouri on our way back home to Tennessee and was made as we passed by. It was fall, and the windmill surrounded by water and vines caught my eye. Also watercolor and ink.

A few sketches for Tamara Laporte's class "Embracing YOU, Quirks and All" in mixed media.

My original painting from the "Embracing YOU" class in mixed media. She was such fun to create!

Another fun painting from the "Embracing YOU" class in mixed media! Also fun to create!

Loving these characters!

This bird is from the teacher's reference, and I tried to paint along with her, but mine has much darker feathers than hers. It's a shore bird called a Royal Tern, and it's from the watercolor class "From Bill to Tail Feathers: How to Sketch a Bird" with Shari Blaukopf. I want to paint a sea gull from my own photo next!

I just finished this one today! I followed Sarah Simon along in painting this bouquet from her reference drawing, which I scanned at one fourth the original size so it would fit my sketchbook. It made for a tedious and challenging attempt, but I stuck with it until I thought it time to stop. I haven't tried to paint many watercolor flowers, so, even though it's not as good as hers, I'm proud of it. I loved the colors together on hers and used as close as I had. The class is "Snowdrops and Helebores".

These classes and the challenges have been invaluable to me as a daily practice for learning and forming habits, but I have also gained enough in confidence to actually finish each class and painting instead of quitting when I got bored, or when it became difficult. I just hope I can keep doing that after the classes. I still have many classes to take if I want to, and I have learned so much. 

I have so many half finished paintings and journals for the reason that I got bored, or it got difficult, and I stopped on them, that maybe with this new habit I can go back and finish them.

Right now I have a bird painting and a portrait in progress, both in watercolor, that I'm determined to finish. They are at the stage that I don't know where to go, but I'll figure it out somehow. They may be a mess, but they will be done, and I will have gained from doing them. I also have a couple of portraits drawn off that I haven't begun painting yet. These are not class exercises, although I used some of the techniques I've learned from various teachers. 

That's it for this post! I'm going to take a shower, then maybe work so more on the two watercolor paintings, and the dust bunnies just keep multiplying, making me feel guilty, but I keep trying to ignore them, as I do the new notebook that I need to finish setting up. 😏

Take care! See y'all next post! Thanks for visiting!

Sketchbook Revival 2025-A Garden, a Street, and Some One-Liners

 It's been a few days since I posted, but I've been busy! Still learning and trying new lessons and loving it!

First I grew a mixed media mark making garden in a concertina book with Helen Stamper in her class "How Wild is Your Garden?" A concertina book is made like an accordion, and it can stand alone on its edge when it's opened, or it folds up to look like a book. I only made a small sample to remind me how to do it and glued it into my sketchbook on the backside. You can also make art on both sides if you want to. I used charcoal, oil pastel, posca pens, crayons, colored pencils, sticks, my Zig marker, anything and everything layered over to look like a tangled overgrown garden. I want to do a large one in black and white, and also one in color. Once I got started, I had a blast!

This is another very fun class with Karen Stamper called "Collage The Street", also in my small sketch book. I so want to make a large tall one like she did in her demo. The nosy woman in the window and the dog on the porch are two of my original sketches, which I printed off as thumbnails. Collage and sketching are so fun together. Great workout for my imagination, as most of these classes are!

Another fun class with Carla Sonheim called "One Liner Drawings", in which we took our pencil and drew things from her prompts using only one line to draw the whole thing, like a child. Her prompts were cat, elephant, flowers in vases, and toilets (commodes). I just added the swan-ducks. I did three pages in my small sketchbook, then I had had so much fun I sketched a bunch more in my large book!

After sketching several of each prompt, we picked one idea to re-draw and color (I used colored pencils). Then we picked another idea to collage and color, so I used a piece of text for the swan face and a piece of brown paper bag with asemic writing on it for the wing and colored in in with watercolor and a Posca pen. I also used colored pencils to color one of the elephants just as it was, plus some glasses.

I forgot to make a photo of the sketches before I made paint blobs between them to pull images out of. It also used up leftover paint and cleaned off my brush.

I just finished another class today, watercolor, but decided to put it in the next post. About to watch a new class!

We went out of town the last couple of days, so I didn't get much done. Today, I picked out and ordered a new laptop. The one I have is fine, but it doesn't have enough room for the new Windows 11, and after October 14 they won't do free updates for security for Windows 10. At least, that's what I understand from the messages Microsoft has been sending me. I'm glad I can get a new one, but I dread setting it up and learning how to use it. I'm getting too old for this technical stuff and have nobody to help me. Maybe I'll get through it ok. We'll see.

Anyway, it's really hot in Tennessee right now, so I'm really thankful for air conditioning!

Prayers for all the flood victims in Texas, and that they find all those missing people and pets. Such an awful thing to happen, and it can happen anywhere anytime to any of us.

Take care, be kind, and stay creative!

Mark Making Page and the Girls

 These are not from any classes, but use some of the techniques I've learned in the classes, of course, and are in my bigger better sketchbook, Winsor Newton 7"x10" mised media

Just a mark making page inspired by Helen Wells black and white sketchbooks, which I love. I wish I hadn't started it off by scribbling a stabilo pencil over the background and using a water brush over it. When I made the marks over it with various tools with black inks it made the whole thing too dark, but I learned NOT to do that again. I prefer black and white. It was a fun relaxing page to do anyway!

I'm not sure this one with a pony tail is done, but I kind of like her at this stage. I used a stabilo pencil and a water brush to sketch her, then added a water color tint of yellow ochre and some blue mixture leftover on my palette for light and shade. Not liking the white spots in her hair, but leaving her for the time being. 

I sketched this face from imagination and added some watercolor a couple of weeks ago, then added the napkin collage and butterflies the last couple of days. The quote is from Helen Wells, Artist.

Just for fun things aside from classwork! I have a couple more faces sketched and started, but I'm about to start another class. Not sure which yet!

Thanks for visiting! I appreciate your support and encouragement. See you in the next post!

Sketchbook Revival 2025-Portrait Sketches and Blob Characters

 I am learning so much in these classes! Every time I think I'll take a break, another student posts something that inspires me to take another class, but I am beginning to want to do my own art instead of following along with the teachers, as wonderful as they are. I am so grateful for their generosity in sharing their techniques with the rest of us!

This one came out of the class "Expressive Portrait Play" with Melanie Rivers, involved two colors plus white applied with my fingers. Quite challenging, but fun!

This page was inspired by Carla Sonheim's class Box Journaling and Blob Painting. I do want to do a box journal, and I should have used watercolor for the blobs instead of left over acrylics. I found characters in them, but my pen didn't want to go over the slick finish. I'll do some more in watercolor! A fun little exercise!

These two were inspired by Ida Anderson Lang's class "Graphite and Gold". I had paint drying in my class sketchbook, so I sketched the one above in my bigger better sketchbook. I wasn't quite satisfied with her, so I sketched her again in my class sketchbook and made her bigger. Still not satisfied with her, but I like her better, although I wish the darks and gold paint showed up better in the bottom one.

I'm thinking I might not ought to be sharing my notes at the bottom of the pages now. I really didn't think most people would take the time to read them, or they wouldn't be able to make sense out of them, and even if they do they'd still need to see the video demo to put it together. My notes are wonky, and are usually nowhere near this neat. I know what they mean, but most other people wouldn't. I didn't want to crop them off the picture for my own purposes, but maybe I should from now on?

Anyway, that's my classwork for this week, all of them challenging in their own way, which I love!

Stay safe and well and keep creating pretty things! The world needs pretty things!