Travel Sketches

Well I had great intentions to do lots of watercolor and sketching on my trip to the Antarctic. However, I was way too busy hanging out with penguins and seals, and barely had time to do any sketching. Oh well. I plan to keep working at it now that I am home, and hopefully I will have some penguin sketches soon.

A park across the street from our hotel in Buenos Aires  

M/S Expedition - our home as we explored the antarctic 

Sketchbook Skool

I've been doing some lessons from Sketchbook Skool, as I want to get better at sketching and painting. Especially on my travels I hope to do more sketching.

To practice, I've been working from some of my travel photographs.

One of my favorite beaches, Manuel Antonio (Costa Rica)

A lovely doorway in Santorini (Greece)

 

I have a lovely little watercolor notebook that I plan to bring along on my upcoming adventure and I aim to fill it with simple drawings and paintings from Antarctica. 

Swan

Rhinoceros

 

 

"Rhinoceros, often abbreviated as rhino, is a group of five extant species of odd-toed ungulates in the family Rhinocerotidae" - Wikipedia.

(I enjoy the phrase "odd-toed ungulates", I need to figure out a way to incorporate this in daily conversation)

On my last trip to Africa I completely fell in love with the rhinos. We got to see several rhinos in several national parks, and we even got to approach a group of rhino on foot, and sit with them for a while. They are huge, amazing animals on the brink of extinction and it was wonderful to be able to sit quietly with them.

I want to practice my sketching and get more confident, especially being able to sketch animals and landscapes from my travels, so today I sketched this rhino. And I am rather enjoying this odd-toed ungulate.

little green sprigs

 

she believed she could

 This week I was inspired by Patti Ballard's mini lesson in life book to play with a different style of collage than I've been doing lately.

forging ahead

playing with india ink

 Played with india ink today. Some fustrations. Some lessons learned. Mostly just happy with this little collage.

Surprising Yourself

I was feeling uninspired and didn't know what to work on, I forced myself to just sit down and doodle something. I had some random photographs from my trip to Uganda laying around on my desk, so I just started drawing an elephant. Much to my surprise, instead of the cutesy and doodley animals that normally come out, I had a (somewhat) realistic looking elephant on my page. And I quite liked him. And now I'm feeling inspired again. It's a lovely feeling when you can surprise yourself. 

three little ladies

In November I completed three little paintings for a show at a local gallery. 

My favorite one sold at the opening reception earlier this month, so I'm happy with that. 

It was a scary (but good) feeling to put some pieces in to a gallery, so I hope to do that more in 2015. 

merry merry wishes

I spent a few minutes just playing with watercolors. It had been quite some time, so it was fun to play with simple lines and circles. Then I scanned them and did a bit of playing on the computer. Lots of fun, I am looking forward to more of this! 

 And here are a few gifts, wrapped using my favorite supplies: gold sharpie, brown paper, gold ribbon, and watercolor tags. Love, love, love them. Handmade wrapping paper is one of my favorite parts of Christmas!

 And that's it for my Christmas to-do list. The shopping, wrapping, and baking are done...now the fun stuff can begin! Happy Holidays to all of you!

Little Candy Dishes

I fell in love with the Marbled Clay Ring Dishes on A Beautiful Mess. I figured they would be the perfect simple little handmade item to give to my coworkers for christmas.

And I filled them with some chocolate goodness. 

Wrapped them up, and added a handmade tag. 

I'm back!

Well I apologize for the unplanned blogging hiatus. I went to Africa. I made some big changes in my life. I had to rethink if I wanted to continue blogging, and where exactly I am heading on this journey. I still don't have all the answers, but I have renewed focus. 

 

I've got some fun & exciting stuff planned for 2015. 

I've signed up for MATS Bootcamp starting January 5th and I'm looking forward to the assignments. 

I'm heading to Antarctica. 

I'm going to work on my technical skills with a pattern class at Pattern Observer.  

 

 

What are you excited for in the new year? 

I'll be back next Wednesday to show you the little Christmas packages I'm working on. 

happy happy day

Today I am celebrating with my mom, who is retiring. This is the card I made for her. Happy happy day for her!

bringing me joy

This week I've been devouring Juliette Crane's newest online class, Abstracts & Backgrounds. I am loving it. It is exactly what I need right now, as I struggle with getting my creativity back. It is simple and messy and loose.

thoughts on 26

I have been creatively lost lately. I have had no desire to create things. I turned 26 last weekend, and I haven't made a list for 26. 

I've been spending a lot of my energies on organizing my life. Decluttering. Cleaning. Trying to simplify. It is a hard process and something that I am not naturally very good at. Perhaps there is a feeling that if I can streamline my life there will be more energies for living a creative life. Perhaps I feel that if I declutter enough, there will be more space in my life for the things that make my heart sing. 

I have decided to not make a list of 26. My goals and priorities seem to change so much throughout the year, that by April I feel like I have to rush and cross all these things off a list that doesn't inspire me anymore. 

Here is my 25 list and what I managed to accomplish. 

1.                 improve my 5k time

2.                 Take a drawing class

3.                 explore a new city

4.                 go surfing

5.                 make real hot cocoa

6.                 drink sangria

7.                 make salad dressing from scratch

8.                 Take a staycation

9.                 Get a design *out there*

10.               do something spontaneous – I’m counting my octopus tattoo, which was not planned, or drawn in advance.

11.               do yoga daily for one month

12.               read seven deadly sins  - I read about half of it, and that’s enough for me. I’m getting rid of it.

13.               make a fire

14.               declutter studio – Well I did a bit of decluttering, but more is needed…soon

15.               slip n'slide

16.               paint a big canvas

17.               make ice cream

18.               clean out my closet

19.               screenprint something

20.               chinup – Well technically, I still can’t do a chinup. But I did swing upside down from the flying trapeze.

21.               draw a self portrait

22.               finish my quilt

23.               ride a bike

24.               live with less

25.               grow something – I did grow something. Mould, but I don’t think that counts. 

I did get inspired enough to make this little birdy stamp this week. And I'm quite smitten with him. And my heart sang. 

For now, I'm happy with that. 

my new favorite shirt

I made this design a while ago, but I just turned it into my new favorite t shirt from society 6.

Don't ya love it? Get one of your own here 

feather queen

Feathers - A painting

Well I've finally finished my second large canvas that I started during Bloom True in October. You can see my other big painting here. This canvas hangs in my hallway, and its the first time I've really painted a piece of art to hang in my home. As you can see from the evolution below, the first feathers were there quite a while ago, either hanging from the top or the bottom. 

spray paint

Inspired by the Daring Adventures in Paint class I’ve been taking, I picked up a few cans of spray paint today. Outside in the sunshine, I played on some of my on-the-go canvasas. All of these are still a long way from being finished, but I’m pretty in love with spray paint.