Day 14...

...the 5th week of Jane Lafazio's watercolor journal class and the theme is shoes.  Our first assignment is to use a watersoluble pen to sketch one and the waterbrush to shade with...I immediately thought of my mother's Harley Davidson boots that I asked to have when she died.  No, I don't have a Harley...instead I have a Yamaha Vino 125 scooter that suits me just fine.  But these boots embody her adventurous spirit, even though they are too small for my feet.  Mom!!!!!  You were only 61 when you died...way too young... you were only 19 years older than me!  This sketch is in memory of you!  I love and miss you...

Day 13 - Continuing to keep it simple on the weekdays!

Yet still another valuable experience with values and using different types of pens.  I decided to use my markers for some color to the blackline drawings I've been doing.

Day 12 - It's a drawing...

Day 11 - Home with a headache...

...and couldn't get motivated beyond sketching this...but hey it's a daily drawing...

Day 10 - Lafazio's Watercolor Journal Assignments this week...Flowers!

Our Peace Lilly had a broken flower stem on it so I plucked it for my subject. I love the funkiness of this unorthodox looking flower!

Day 9 - Before and After...

Painted my tulip drawing today.

          Before                                    After

Day 8 - The Start of the "Favorite Earrings" series...

Not ready to paint the tulip drawing from yesterday.  Long days this week have taken their toll and I'm pretty tired.  Decided to draw one of my favorite earings using my various gray shaded and black shaded tombow pens.  This is just a section of the page in my sketchbook...I'll periodically add to this page.  It was a real lesson in really looking at an object...I really had to take a close look at the cut facets of the stone in order to portray the essence of the earring.  Not too thrilled with the shade of the lower shadow, but I'm just learning the colors of these gray and black pens.

Day 7...

...our theme in Jane Lafazio's class this week is flowers.  So my drawing today is the outlined image for a tulip.  Tomorrow I will paint it.  And I hope to do a few flower images this weekend.

Day 6 - The Journaling Says it All...

5/365 - Another Semi-Blind Contour...

...I was done at work and thought I'd do a quick sketch before leaving...did it in 2-3 minutes...but my mind just wasn't into it.  It's okay.  I thought I would do another sketch when I got home but Joe whisked me off to go vacuum cleaner shopping and then out to dinner, so this is it for today.  But my motto is to keep this challenge simple.  I just want to do at least one drawing a day.  Even this picture is an excercise in "seeing" and that's what I want to get out of it.  More complex work can occur on the weekends, and this Summer when I have the time off.

Day 4 - Semi-Blind Contour

Day 3 - Two Drawings: "Cow Backbone Take 3" and an "Orchid"

I wanted to compare the backbone (different angle) using the tombow on my coldpress paper vs. the hot press I did on day 1. 

Lafazio Week 3 Assignment - Draw directly onto the page with pen in a continuous contour line drawing.  Decided to try my hand at at an orchid.

Day 2 - Cow Backbone Take 2

Here's an exaggerated color version of the cow backbone I did yesterday. Wasn't sure while I was painiting it but I kind of like it now.

Day 1 - Keeping it simple...

My Lafazio Watercolor Journal class assignment this week is to do straight to pen drawings using continuous line contour, then to paint the drawing.  I decided to do a warm-up activity tonight with a cow backbone I have using my black watersoluble Tombow pen and a Niji Waterbrush.  I think I will keep revisiting this bone.  I do like the shapes and lines in bones/skulls.  My nephew in Alaska gave us a Walrus skull (his girlfreind is a native so it's a legal skull) and I look forward to tackling it some day!

A 365 Day project?

I want to push myself more.  I feel like I've come a long way just by watercolor journaling  once or twice a week (99% of the time on the weekends).  Can I push myself to daily creativity?  My commitment phobia is ringing in and I shy away.  The reality is I need to keep it simple.  One drawing a day.  If the drawing ends up getting painted, great!  If it gets colored with markers, wonderful!  But it can be a simple as a blind contour.  I love blind contour with with pen.  When I look at some of my drawings from the past year, I realize these were not overwhelming to do, and they helped me to see my subject.

I can keep my drawing as simple as I want, and I can go as complex as I want.  I can show daily progressions on one drawing.  Like the one below I did over 3 days.  How fun it would've been to capture it's 3 stages!

I can do this.  One drawing a day for a year.  Tomorrow I will begin since it's 8:45 p.m. and I'm ready to go to bed.  I will commit!  I can commit!  No excuses about coming home tired after a day of teaching.  Let this be your meditative unwinding activity.

Lafazio Week 2: The theme is green with a focus on leaves...

Green is my favorite color. I really had fun with this. Worked with the hotpress instead of the coldpress in my journal. There is a definite difference! While I love working with coldpress, I do like the crispness of the images on the hotpress.

 

Continuation of a new watercolor journal class with Jane Lafazio...

While this class is geared more towards beginners, I decided to take it because I like the discipline of the weekly assignments.  Ideally, I will end up not needing a class to motivate me.  But at the same time, I also like the feedback and critiques I get...they help me to self-reflect and grow!  This week's theme was fruit...