wise craft

june 2013 desktop wallpaper

Is it too late for a June desktop wallpaper?

Can't be.

Download yours here.

I've gotten my creative juices flowing again and am really excited about some new ideas.

Just in time for the kids to be home from school for the summer.

I certainly don't mind having them around during the day... well, except for lunch time, when Ian rocks his chair and knocks it on the floor- the same floor that is also known as my studio ceiling- ... but really!, it's fine, I swear. They know I tend to hole myself up in the studio, and yet we all manage of get each other out of our comfort zones, just by spending time together. There will be hikes, bike rides, afternoons at the library, John Hughes movie marathon for my high school freshman, threats from me (for all ages), all rounded out with Cocktail Fridays for the adults. I'll share our first one in tomorrow's post. Because I think for sanity's sake we're going to need to discuss cocktails at least once a week on the blog this summer.

Happy Wednesday!

 

8 months into daily sketching

I am still sketching daily over at The Sketchbook Blog. I'm actually sticking with it people! This is not that painful!

The whole idea of taking the time to sketch daily has been full of starts and fits for me, but despite that it has slowly turned into a new, daily discipline. Reminder to you all- I DIDN'T KNOW I COULD SKETCH BEFORE I STARTED THIS! I find myself heading over to the family room table I sketch at instinctively every day, usually in the morning, to get my sketch done when I feel fresh and the light is good.

If I have no idea what to sketch, I usually can find something in the mail, like a page of necklaces from the latest JCrew catalog...

 

or maybe a pretty liquor bottle...

Eight months into daily sketching has made me realize that I have created a bit of muscle memory in my hands and brain, just the same way sketching out lines and swirls over and over again in preparation to try free motion quilting them creates muscle memory.

Without a doubt, I am getting more confident in my sketching ability, and I am also becoming more aware of what I can and just simply can't sketch in a short amount of time. Like, nice shading around anything takes time for me. Like, there are some things I simply can't sketch at this point. Like, I realize sketching everyday things is fun. Like, the more I sketch, the more I realize I have a style that is mine alone.

It takes less time for me to complete a daily sketch. When I started this year-long process back in August 2012, some of those early sketches took hours (and I reluctantly admit that, they were not that great). And they weren't "hours" great! These days, I don't struggle as much to fill each day's blank page, it doesn't scare me the way it did. Also, I am willing to post a sketch that I don't really love, understanding that the sketch process for that day yielded that particular image and it's all a part of learning to to tackle this with confidence.

Many of you expressed interest in the idea of doing something like this on your own when I first blogged about it and I can't recommend it enough. I tend to be a person obsessed with pushing my creative boundaries anyway, but it has been eye opening for me to expand this whole side of my creative life. My advice is to jump in and try any new daily challenge that expands and stretches you, everything will look differently because of it.

april 2013 desktop wallpaper

I have a new desktop wallpaper calendar for April, you might notice it was highly inspired by the garland I made over the weekend. Download your wallpaper here.

Hope everyone has a productive Tuesday (it's my most productive day of the week these days for some reason).

expressions in mixed-media portrait painting, an ecourse giveaway

Update: Giveaway is closed and winner has been chosen, thanks to all who entered!

 

You may remember my week of sketching faces on our family's sketchbook blog. They are challenging to say the least (the faces, not the family), and I need many more weeks of challenging myself this way, to say the least. I would love to learn techniques and methods to effectively sketch expressive faces. Maybe you do too? If this is you, I have a treat for you today. Regina of Creative Kismet is a prolific artist, using mixed media and incredible color to create beautiful portraits. She has a new ecourse called "Expressions in Mixed Media Portrait Painting", the act of expressing feeling, spirit, and character through artistic play and exploration starting in April. For 4 weeks, she will guide you through different mixed media materials, and methods of creating portrait faces, and will be covering a wide range of techniques in drawing, painting and use of color and texture.

make shrink plastic doodle jewelry

So, I'm still stuck on doodles. I can't help it, I'm just not tired of them yet! Over the weekend, I played around with an Ipad sketch I posted to our family's sketchbook blog last week.

I like the colors in this one a lot and when I came across a few sheets of shrink plastic in my studio, I knew immediately... Charms!

friday favorites: dd and leslie tillett

Photo by Irving Penn

 

D.D. and Leslie Tillett...I have had a crush on their painterly fabrics since discovering them in a shelter magazine many years ago (pre-internet). I ripped those pages out and have held onto them all this time, it was all I knew of the Tilletts prior to our current internet days. I love the colors of their fabrics, their fresh, preppy feel. It was their floral prints that got me.

intentional blogging

 

A few weeks ago you guys humored me about the slow blog movement. I loved the conversation that it stirred between us all. Funny thing about writing a post like that. Simply by declaring how the online world seems to come at me too fast these days, how I didn't know what my blog was doing in the midst of all of that, blah blah blah, it actually helped me successfully evaluate what I wanted from blogging again. Because of all that evaluating, it now seems I have PLENTY to blog about. Weird, right?

carving stamps

When I turned in the first draft of the manuscript for my book a few weeks ago, the first thing I did was treat myself to a few new craft books. I had avoided purchasing new books that would distract me, and I was in the mood for someone to tell me how to make something. I happily flipped and got inspired for a couple of days, and one of my favorites is Geninne Zlatkis's book Making An Impression. I have been inspired by Geninne online for years, and it was just as inspiring to read about her process of hand carving stamps. And, as luck (and a stocked craft room) would have it, I happened to have some easy carve blocks and the needed carving tool on hand. (I love it when I can immediately jump in!).

sketching faces

This week, I gave myself a personal challenge to sketch faces for the sketchbook blog. I guess its important to point out that I am really all that interested in sketching faces. Which means you're probably asking why do it? Lives can certainly be lived fully and happily without sketching anatomically correct faces.

The drawing classes I took in college centered mainly around fashion illustration. The face was always secondary to how the clothes were represented. An anatomically correct face never extended beyond a hint of red lipstick. Whew! I remember thinking back then. Crisis averted.

But now here I am doing this daily sketching for the project (almost size full months of daily sketching!), and it occurred to me that I've never really tried to draw the human face. I talk with my kids often about not saying "I can't do ____". So, I decided to take it on as a challenge instead of looking at it as a hinderance I need to work around. Bad sketches and all...

Each night this week I have been sketching these imaginary women. No reference, other than the old formula of drawing the face shape, and adding the lines for where the features would go. From there, I spend some time on the eyes- I like good eyes. The nose always needs work. The mouth is also not the way I want it. But I do like a lot of what I'm doing, little things here and there that I am actually satisfied with. I can feel my hand and arm starting to loosen up more and more.

Who knows, maybe I'll do another week of faces at some point.

There is plenty I see in this sketch that I could work on, but I kind a like the fact that I enjoyed the process of making it. Which at this stage of my creative life, it's so much more about the process for me.

(It's not me, but I did use my hair for reference).

 

Related articles

the sketchbook project

tools i'm using for the sketchbook project

evolution of a sketch

evolution of a sketch

For the past week (maybe longer), I have struggled with sketching. Not doing it, I do it every day, more with not feeling inspired, and then hating what I draw.

To change things up, I have challenged myself to only using black pens on white paper this week, not worrying about adding any color. Keeping it simple, eliminating choices. I got some fun new watercolors recently and, although I'm excited to use them, right now they overwhelm me. So, no color. And no stress over what to draw

And just doodle (which isn't as easy as it sounds some days).