• Collage of sketchbook pages showing various drawings of clouds, mostly in bright and light blues, some that are gray and violet. They are simple studies of small cloud shapes. Text on the collage states: Calming Cloud Drawings in Colored Pencil & Marker
    Drawing,  Sketchbooks

    Calming Cloud Drawings in Colored Pencil & Marker

    More small studies, similar to my lace ones that I recently posted. This time the focus was clouds and thinking of them more as three dimensional forms rather than flat. These studies were fun and quick, and a nice way to start December. I’ve tried to approach these as: OK what’s the simplest, easiest and fun version of the subject I’m studying – even if it’s a doodle on scrap notebook paper – and how can I refine and push that version to something else? Hopefully this approach challenges me while still allowing me to maintain a non-judgemental view of my skill as an artist overall.

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  • Photo of a sketchbook, showing a watercolor painting of a woman in a dark pink dress. She is holding a potion up to a window showing the full moon outside. Rays of moonlight emanate from the potion. Next to the sketchbook are two paintbrushes and a watercolor tin. On top of the opposite page of the painting is a plastic palette filled with various colors of watercolor paints. Text overlaying the image states: Creating fantasy inspiration boards
    Inspiration,  Traditional Painting

    Creating Fantasy Inspiration Boards

    This post comes from working through a short Skillshare class by Gabrielle Bricky called “Create Inspiration Boards & Streamline Your Artistic Process” The whole course was only 10 minutes, but I found it very inspiring! I liked Gabrielle’s approach on organizing Pinterest boards — so much so that I finally kicked myself in gear and organized my entire Pinterest account, ha. Which was amazing to finally clean up. I made most of my many boards private, but then opened up the four that I made for this class on my public Pinterest Profile.

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  • A collage of three watercolor paintings, all three featuring a redheaded mage in a green dress, holding magical energy.
    Sketchbooks,  Traditional Painting

    Dancing Sorceress Redux

    Redraws of art are so satisfying 😭 This one is from my multimedia sketchbook, which I finished this past spring. I still feel very rusty and unsure with watercolor paint, but I so enjoy the medium. The original painting was from 2017. The second was from January 21, 2023 but done fairly quickly with no references or planning. The last was finished three days later on January 23, 2023, but with some thumbnail sketches, gathering of some references, looking at jewelry designs, etc.

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  • A wooden desktop showing a watercolor paint pan, brushes, a sketchbook page with an abstrack leaf pattern, and an fineliner ink pen.
    Intuitive Art,  Sketchbooks,  Traditional Painting

    Refilling the Well

    Taking the time yesterday to just relax and have a nice date night was much needed. I’ve been pushing myself to post here every day, and while I want to post as often as possible, there is a balance in creating and then resting to refill the well of inspiration. And coming back into the practice, I sunk into a nice intuitive painting: free from any plans or expectations. Leaf shapes are still my current artistic comfort-food of choice.

  • A watercolor painting of a black woman in a chemise, standing on a red carpet and in front of a patterned green wallper. There are water color palette next to the painting
    Figure Drawing,  Life Musings,  Sketchbooks,  Traditional Painting

    Finished Painting: Chemise Study

    I was thinking I’d title this painting “A Soft Chemise” or something, but it was meant to be a study of cloth folds, so maybe just keeping “study” in the title works. I don’t want to have to title every sketch and drawing in my sketchbook. That would be rough, giving things titles is just ugh. Yesterday’s experiments were useful, though I ended up using a lot less of the iridescent paint – just on the gold slippers.