• A collage of drawings: one of sewing notions in color pencil, one of three pumpkins in color pencil, one of seashells in graphite, and one of croissants and coffee in graphite.
    Drawing,  Sketchbooks

    Last week’s sketches: Sewing notions, seashells, croissants, and pumpkins

    Took a week break from blogging and then I’m back, hooray! It’s been a busy few days so I have a few things lined up to share. Color pencils and graphite pencil still life studies for tonight. The 14 day observational drawing challenge didn’t stick, unfortunately, but I have been drawing other things. Mostly keeping it very simple and relaxing for sketchbook number 9.

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  • A sketchbook spread, with pencil drawings of pumpkins. A red-violet colored pencil sits in the middle of the book.
    Drawing,  Sketchbooks

    Pumpkin sketches

    The weekends always go by way too fast. Still, I managed some quick sketches. Didn’t quite finish the page I was working on, but I’d rather post a WIP photo here then wait until it’s done. Seasonal studies, yay! ^_^. My mom gave me a pumpkin on a recent visit – it’s larger than the small ones we grew in the garden this year, and barely fit in my still life box/lighting box, but it still made a great object to study. Especially the twisting planes of the stem.

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  • A college of two sketchbook pages, one showing studies of leaves and forest scenes, and the other graphite pencil sketches of an apple and bell pepper.
    Drawing

    Sketching apples, peppers, & leaves

    I managed to finish day 2 of 14 days of graphite drawing yesterday, yay! Of course I haven’t done today’s drawing…yet ^_^*. I got to use my cardboard box still life diorama thing for the first time, too. It has a hole cut out of the top that I can place a light against, to have really harsh shadows, rather than the general ambient light of a typical well-lit room. And I’ve also got a bonus page with studies of leaves to share – so that next time I’m hiking, I feel better prepared to draw forest landscapes.

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  • An open sketchbook spread showing multiple abstract patterns, one side in black ink and the other in colored pencils.
    Drawing,  Meditation

    Practice or Procrastination?

    I think an artist could get stuck doing practice drills and basic drawing exercises forever, and never really make whatever they have inside of them, waiting to eventually be expressed. The thought is kind of haunting, and it makes me worried when I practice art: am I just wasting my time, “practicing”, when I should be trying to make the art I want to actually have in my portfolio, or make prints of to sell at artist alleys?

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  • Image of an open sketchbook showing lace designs on either side of the page, drawn in pastel fine liners and markers. Cursive text on top of the image reads: Lace & Cloth Studies. To the right of the sketchbook on the table in a ribbon of lace, a few pens, and a pink mechanical pencil.
    Drawing,  Sketchbooks

    Lace & Cloth Studies

    Hooray for another longer holiday weekend. 😊 Feeling a bit better from the flu. I’ve pretty much just been testing out Procreate brushes, rather than working on any new artwork. It’s certainly a low-key, peaceful art practice. But I’m thinking tonight I might be able to do some more smaller studies, similar to these lace ones I created in late November. And there are a couple cloth studies and lace doodles from this past Wednesday done in Procreate.

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  • Blog post thumbnail showing a collage of five drawings of my original character Ariennha. They are quick sketches showing an elven woman with curly red hair.
    Drawing,  Inspiration,  Life Musings,  Sketchbooks

    Sketchbook Share: Ariennha

    Last post, I mentioned a series of OC sketchbook pages I filled, starting with Reiellasara and now moving on to Ariennha. Ariennha is a character very close to my heart, even if I haven’t drawn her much – I’ve spent many an hour daydreaming stories and world building in my mind over the years. She’s definitely got Mary Sue energy, but I honestly do not care, I love the character. But why haven’t I made very much art of those daydreams? The trick to getting those ideas down as drawings is to just Nike-style “Do It”.

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  • Featured image collage of several drawings of a blonde woman with a silver circlet on her head. There is text on the middle right of the image that says Childhood Drawing Redux. In the top corner of one drawing is the name of the character: Reiellasara.
    Drawing,  Sketchbooks

    Childhood Drawing Redux

    Oooooo, the dark theme with aqua text is back; you know I’m feeling nostalgic, ha! I just can’t stick with a light background. Maybe one of these days I’ll make a site theme that has a dark/light toggle, so if it’s really annoying to others it can be toggled off. Anyway, I recently organized a 3-ring binder with my oldest artwork from middle school and high school, and decided to tackle redrawing as much of the contents as possible, starting with the oldest.

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