That's a Sexy Cat

I tinkered years ago with gel pens on black paper -- mostly the metallic, cheap kind.   Today, when my husband's kitty Nin-Nin did what he does every day and curled up on my art/writing desk while I journaled, I had an inspiration.  I wanted to know if I could draw him on black paper (he is pitch black with little white patches on his chest and belly... the purpose of these is to tempt you to touch them so that he can RAWR your hand).

So I got out the MUCH better gel pens that I own now -- Sakura Gelly Roll Pens -- and had a go at it. I'm fairly pleased with the result, though the "Souffle" pens don't work that well on this paper (the light blue background parts).  Or any paper, really... but I want to try them on photographs because I think the effect might be cool.  

Love Letters

 

The other book I bought yesterday was a lettering book (I don't have the title handy at the moment and the dogs are hungry so I'm rushing!), and I decided to see what I could do with it.  I'm not entirely happy with this but it's a doodle/experiment, and the awesome thing about making art every day is that bad art isn't the end of the world!

I hope to do more ink and wash with calligraphy quotes and borders and such... stuff I've wanted to master for years.

Hey if you're on Instagram, follow me over there!  You'll see ALL the crazy stuff I get up to.

Art Every Day, Take 12 or Something

I've fallen off the Art Every Day wagon again.  I try, I really do.  But I want to do 30 Paintings in 30 Days in September (I am asking for it, I have a huge craft show to get ready for in October...), so I want to start here and now.

I got a book called Creating Mandalas:  How to Draw & Design Zendala Art by Deborah A. Pace, and this is the result of me playing with it today.  I am loving the Sakura Gelly Roll Pens on black paper!

Just do it

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"The advice I like to give young artists, or really anybody who'll listen to me, is not to wait around for inspiration. Inspiration is for amateurs; the rest of us just show up and get to work." -- Chuck Close

It's time to sit down and get to work. Every day, even if it's just a doodle. Which is basically what this is. Also an experiment to see how Bristol paper takes watercolor, because I want to do pen and ink and watercolor, and watercolor paper will eat my markers. 

The answer is, not terrible, but I'm not thrilled with it.  But I painted, and that's what matters. Go me!

TtThis is my friend Chuck's cat The Cheat, whom I am pet sitting. 

Art Art every day for the rest of 2016!

Watercoloring Birds

My artist friend Joe is staying with us, and artist energy around you is always a good thing. So when he sat down at the kitchen table to draw last night, I got my pencils and paints and the excellent John Muir Laws Drawing Birds book I got for Christmas and painted in my watercolor sketchbook from a photo I took a couple of years ago. 

And just like that, Art is calling me again. Yay!

Playing With Photos

I thought I'd play with one of my photos for today's Wacom/Photoshop/Digital painting experiment.  Here is the result.

This is my horse Abbey and her pasture mate, Jewel.  Every so often I get a chance to take a picture of them running (NOT Abbey's favorite activity!).  I played with the background a bit to make it abstract..  nothing terribly fancy, but I learned a bit in the process.

Going Digital

I have kicked around the idea of doing 30 paintings in 30 days again.  I think I'm in.  I got a Wacom tablet for Christmas and I bought access to Photoshop for my photography, so I thought this month I'd try some digital painting (although I may do other things too).  I'm still learning to use the Wacom, and also learning to use Photoshop for anything other than adjusting things in photos.  It's a steep learning curve but I think this is a good first attempt after not much other than some doodles to get used to the disconnect between looking at the result of your painting on a screen while your hand is elsewhere.

 

 I'm not entirely happy with it... but I did it pretty much without reference, so that's bonus (I don't generally work well without references).  And the wonderful thing about daily painting is, you can chalk any individual piece to practice, because you'll be back tomorrow.

And so I will.