• Drawing of a woman at a control screen. The drawing is on a green, self-healing cutting mat, with prismacolor pencils to the left and right, and a pencil sharper sitting above the drawing.
    Drawing,  Life Musings,  Sketchbooks

    Weekend Wanderings

    Sunday, February 6, 2022 /

    Oh my goodness, posting to my blog again?! It’s that Imbolc energy. ^_^ I’ve been making art over the last year, but haven’t had the energy or focus to blog about it. Definitely suffering from an all-or-nothing mind set, when it comes to what I think I should be doing regarding my blog. It’s annoying to keep relearning the whole “imperfection is okay” lesson. T_T And I keep thinking I’ll scan/photograph my work from 2021 that didn’t make it into here yet, but why not start with a little drawing I finished today?

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  • Digital painting of a large plant againt an alien landscape of sand dunes and stars.
    Digital Painting,  Writing

    Finished painting: Otherworldly Winds

    Wednesday, March 24, 2021 /

    Finished, yay! This painting started as an intuitive painting, so the color palette is a bit strange to say the least. I tried to wrestle it into something cohesive, but it seemed to slide out of my grasp and become a bright, tangled mess. Still, I’m very happy with how this turned out. Happy enough that I might order some 6×8″ prints of it for fun.

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  • An unfinished digital painting of glowing flower petals in front of sandy dunes and a starry night sky of an alien planet. A planet with rings is visible just above the horizon.
    Digital Painting

    Petals (Otherworldly Winds WIP part 3)

    Friday, March 19, 2021 /

    This digital painting is taking way longer than I anticipated! I’m hoping the weekend will give me enough time to finish it up. Of course, it just had to be on one of my “practice size” canvases (2000p by 2500px). At least it’s at 300 dpi and still big enough to print a 6×8″ art print, if I decide to do that. Though a little cropping on the sides and bottom will occur. Whenever I create a new canvas and think “oh this will just be for practice, let’s keep the file size smaller” I should just not do that.

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  • Sketchbook page with drawings of bright green branches of leaves and stylized eyes. Piles of markers and pens are laid on either side of the sketchbook.
    Drawing,  Sketchbooks

    Sketchbook Eye Interlude

    Wednesday, March 17, 2021 /

    Today felt like a busy day but also a very draining day. Here in the Midwest it’s one of those cold, icy, end-of-winter days, when we just had a little taste of spring weather only a week ago, but now there’s snow on the ground again. And the tension of the weather change has been putting me on the edge of a migraine for the past two days (that fortunately hasn’t seemed to hit full force, yay?). Thus, tonight is a “gentle as possible” art practice: opening my sketchbook and drawing simple, easy doodles.

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  • A digital painting of a starry night sky with a Saturn-like planet on the horizon. The landscape is orange and pink sand dunes.
    Digital Painting

    Starry Skies (Otherworldly Winds WIP part 2)

    Tuesday, March 16, 2021 /

    I’m not sure if I’d still call this an intuitive painting, now that it’s becoming more realistic. Can a painting be more realistic and still be intuitive? Are all paintings intuitive to one degree or another? All I know is I’m frustrated I had to cut myself short (again) and leave it unfinished! Grrr! But, still, progress! Shiny glowing stars! I’ll take victories where I can get them.

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  • Digital painting of sand dunes and a flower with petals scattering in the wind away from the viewer.
    Digital Painting,  Intuitive Art

    Otherworldly Winds: Work In Progress

    Monday, March 15, 2021 /

    Here is one way to balance art and the rest of daily life: just find a stopping point after an hour and say “good enough for now, the rest will be waiting tomorrow” and cut yourself some slack. I have not been having a good day and was tempted to check out and just read in bed wrapped in a blanket nest. Instead, I turned to that form of art that is always a warm embrace for me: intuitive painting.

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  • A sketchbook page with figure sketches, including a girl eating a slice of pizza. Piles of pens are laid next to the sketchbook on both sides.
    Drawing,  Sketchbooks

    More Gestural Sketches

    Sunday, March 14, 2021 /

    I suppose I apply a wide definition of what a gesture drawing is – if the spirit of the drawing is meant to be gestural, even if the end result becomes too detailed or tight, I think it still counts. While drawing these pages, I was thinking of the “not this / this” photo that is on Proko’s How to Draw Gesture guide. I agree that the action lines are the quintessential nature of a gesture drawing. I just don’t always accomplish them, hah.

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