SKETCHING PLAYLAB PARTY

 Today marks the one year anniversary of Suhita and Paul's Sketching PlayLab.  They had a party.  We sketched things you'd find at a party - balloons, party hat, cake, flowers, a tea pot and an alien pet.  

I wasn't really happy with my sketches, but when I cut them up and pasted them to the page I like them a lot better.

OLD DOODLES

 I've started making marks in an old sketchbook I've had.  It's full of a handmade paper that is thin and unsized.  Water tends to spread out, but the pigments in watercolors don't go with it sometimes.  It's a difficult paper to work with which makes it fun, exciting and frustrating.  But I love the cover:

I thought I'd post the sketches I had done previously.  I did most of them at work when I was without other things to do.  A few of them are dated 2013.

ETCHR PROMPT

I bought some sketchbooks from Etchr and am following them on Instagram.  They've started a thing to encourage more artmaking- they publish a prompt word every Monday.  Followers can then make some art and publish it on IG using their hashtag #makemoreartmondays.

This week's prompt was 'lunchbox'.

I made a little sketch of the lunch bag I made.

COLORING EACH TREE BY HAND

Here's what the finished print looks like.  I added my signature stamp to the back.  

I got out my colored pencils, mostly Prismacolor and sharpened them up.  I'm putting a green all over the tree first - "Grass Green",  then highlighting with some blue-greens "Aqua Green" and "Parrot Green" and a yellow-green "Chartreuse".  The 'lights' on the tree are "Canary Yellow".

Dang...the "Grass Green" keeps breaking off... I don't know if it will last through all the trees.

Here's the finished card.  

29 FACES - DAY 27

There weren't any photos of people on the front page fo the paper today.  But I found this guy on page A3 down at the bottom.

He was sketched using my new Sailor fountain pen with the caligraphy nib and colored in with colored pencils.  I almost didn't want to finish him, I found him to look very arrogant.  It might just be my mood.  Actually, I don't think he is done, he could use a little more work....some other day.

This was drawn from a photo credited to Zack Wise/ The New York Times found on page A3 of the 2-27-2014 Seattle Times

29 FACES - DAY 28

Here's a young man that was pictured in a crowd of people.  This is a pen and ink sketch with colored pencils.

This was drawn fron a photo credited to Alan Berner which was on the front page of the Seattle Times February 28, 2014 

It's been a great month  of drawings and revelations.  Thank you, Ayala for thinking this up and hosting it

I discovered that taking a few minutes out of my work day each morning to sketch was a great stress reliever - a few moments of calm and meditation. 

I'm going to keep it up....but,

I need a new sketchbook!

One of the comments left this month said they thought it would be cool to see these portraits all side by side (thank you Kristen) - and that got me to thinking.

So, while I'm getting that sketchbook at Daniel Smith I might just buy a bunch of small canvases and paint the portraits on those.  

29 FACES - DAY 26

This is a somewhat controlled contour sketch using my new Sailor fountain pen with the caligraphy nib, which I colored in with colored pencils.

Sad story, I almost didn't want to sketch him.  But, I had very little choices.

This was drawn from a photo in "The Nation" section on page A2 of the 2-26-2014 Seattle Times.

29 FACES - DAY 25

Here's a semi-blind contour drawing using my new Sailor fountain pen with the caligraphy nib.  This time I knew better than to use water anywhere near the ink.  I went with colored pencils.

I didn't notice until I was coloring it that there was actually a halo around him in the photo.  I decided I better include it.  

This was drawn from a photo included in an article on the front page of the 2-25-2014 Seattle Times written by Carol M. Ostrom.  It says this photo is from a screen shot from this guy's bio page on his website.

29 FACES - DAY 24

I used my new Sailor fountain pen with the caligraphy nib.  It came with an ink cartridge, which I used.  I found out the hard way that the ink isn't waterproof.

On this sketch, I started out using my watercolors and the ink just ran into the color, changing it to a black version of itself.  I thought maybe the ink just wasn't dry, so I gave it some time.  But, it still was running and ruining the sketch.  I used colored pencils an the rest of it, but unfortunately those 'smile lines' are much too dark and I can't do anything about it.  Lesson learned.  

This was drawn from a photo credited to Mark Harrison/Seattle Times that was on the front page of the February 24, 2014 Seattle Times.

29 FACES - DAY 23

This is a sketch done with my new Sailor fountain pen with the calligraphy nib.  I haven't totally gotten the hang of it yet, but it looks like it might be very useful.  I colored him in with colored pencils.

It was drawn from an uncredited photo accompanying an article by Andrew Higgens of the New York Times that was on the front page of the February 23, 2014 Sunday Seattle Times.

29 FACES - DAY 21

There were no good faces on the front page so I turned to the next.  I must admit page 2 did have faces that I could have used, but when I saw this guy on page 3 I couldn't help myself.  He was the one I wanted to draw.  

Here he is, a semi-blind contour drawing with my Lamy fountain pen containing Noodler's black ink.  Then I filled him in with colored pencils.

This was drawn from an uncredited photo that accompanied an article on page A3 of the February 21, 2014 Seattle Times.  The article was written  by Frances Robles/New York Times.

29 FACES - DAY 20

There weren't any faces on today's front page, so turning to page 2...there are several wackos to choose from!  It was a bad day for children apparently.

Here is today's, a real sicko...this is a semi-blind contour drawing with my fountain pen, then colored with colored pencils.

This was drawn from an uncredited photo in "The Nation" section of the Seattle Times of 2-20-2014 on page A2.

FINISHING TOUCHES

This weekend I put the finishing touches on this year's Christmas cards.

I hand-colored each with colored pencils.

I tried several different blues for the sky and settled on a light blue because when it mixed with the grey plate tone it seemed like a sky that was threatening to snow.

Coloring each with colored pencils.

Then it was on to putting my stamp on the back, and signing, dating and numbering them all.

Positioning the stamp

The back of the card.

Then using commercial stamps I bought, using a few different blue inks, I stamped the insides with the sentiment "Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow".

Signing the inside, too.

Here it is, all ready to be mailed out, as soon as Darrell writes our Christmas Letter.

An edition of 45 

Hoping you have a great Holiday Season

 and a Happy New Year!

29 FACES - NUMBER 24

This is one of the prints I did a while back.  I used colored pencils on it.

SNITZELS - MORE FUN WITH COLOR

I've made progress on my Snitzel work this week.

I did some more colored-pencil work this past weekend on two of the other drawings.

I also finished up the Boots drawing in fabric.  It's funny, I spend all this time with the little color drawings as above, and I don't have the fabrics to make it in.  I need a trip to the fabric store.

Going with the fabrics closest to the color drawings (although, most all of my fabrics have 'patterns') I used Freezer Paper, cut out the shapes, and ironed the seam allowance around to the backside of the freezer paper, where it would stick it.  The original plan was to hand sew the pieces together.  Its been a long time since I did any applique, so I was a little rusty.  

Today, I took the remaining pieces to the sewing machine and zigzagged them together.  

Having fun.

FUN WITH COLOR

I scanned my line drawings in Photoshop and pasted a bunch of little ones on a sheet of paper.  I can print out as many blanks as I need....

Here's the first one of the Boot that I colored.  I'm only limited by colored pencils and fabric availability.

This is great fun!  Something I can do in spare moments.