Art Every Day- Day 7 - Pencil Sketches

Today I was inspired to do some sketching. Actually I started off wanting to do a painting, but thought I should work on a sketch first - which then led to doing a bunch of sketches, and no painting. Haha. But that's ok. Its good to practice before doing a final piece anyway. That is actually something I don't do often enough. 

Figure drawing, and painting for that matter, is one of the hardest things to do. I have definitely improved over the years, but I still have a long way to go. For many many months now I've had a series of paintings and images in my head that I want to create. I've tried to do a few of them recently, but I'm struggling with getting the idea in my head - onto canvas. I think, I realized today, that I am not ready for them yet. They are not ready to be manifested - until I have had more practice working on figures. As you will see from the sketches I worked on today, my thoughts are geared towards nudes and eroticism. I am very drawn to the subject matter of late and have gathered a large file of images to work from. 

These sketches were all done with a regular old #2 pencil in a basic sketch book. I wasn't planning on doing these as final pieces, so I just picked up the nearest pencil and sketchbook when inspiration struck, rather than get out my various drawing pencils and good drawing paper, and started drawing. I thought I was just going to do one quick sketch too, before moving on to a painting - but 8 hours later I'm still sitting here with a pencil instead of a paintbrush. Actually I'm sitting here typing on a keyboard now. ;-)

These sketches turned out ok overall - but I'm still having problems with faces - getting the angles and features right. They are all copied from reference photos I have gathered from various places. The last sketch is actually a picture of me - a selfie I took a while ago (minus the hand with the cellphone). While it kinda looks like me - it doesn't really. My nose and mouth are off, actually the whole face seems off to me. I kinda look evil or stuck up, lol- which is not the look in the picture. I dunno. Looks are hard to get right. I haven't drawn myself in a long time so I thought I'd throw a self portrait in the mix. It was the last drawing I did today. I think I need to practice some more. 

In the other sketches, I had a hard time with the guys faces for some reason. They are all similar looks - in profile, with mouth open, his hand on her face and neck  - but I just wasn't getting the look right as compared to the actual picture. I think that's why I did 3 different versions of similar looks - to see if I get one of them right. The first sketch (long haired guy), was actually the 3rd one I did. Its the best one in my opinion, so I guess I got a bit better as the day went on. I picked difficult angles for the women too, but I think they turned out decent for the most part. 

So a good day of drawings for Day 7 of Art Every Day!

Art Every Day - Day 6 GREEN

So I decided to move away from the yellow family today for Day 6, instead of pursuing gold like I mentioned I might yesterday. I will play with neutrals at a later date.

I have come to terms with yellow. It has actually served me well in the last 24 hours. I decided to go for a run last night after work, and being it was already dark outside, I wanted to wear a bright color shirt, so I would be seen in the dark. As I rifled thru my drawer of running shirts, I happened upon a yellow one I've never worn. I actually passed over it, but then decided to come back to it. Since yellow had been calling me this week, and my experiment with the color study a few days ago was unsuccessful in changing my mind about liking it, I decided to give it another shot - and wear the yellow race shirt. It is actually a rather ugly yellow too, which is a shame because it was from my favorite race - the Dumbo Double Dare. I was so disappointed when I went to packet pick up and the shirt was yellow. Sigh.


Annnyway - I decided last night it would be good to wear for a night run thru the neighborhood - definitely visible. As I put it on, and headed out into the dark I had a conversation with it - haha I know, but we all talk to ourselves on occasion right?!  It was a much needed conversation. I asked yellow to prove itself to me, and keep me protected and safe on my run. Which it ultimately did. I actually had a really good run despite it having been a few weeks since I'd ventured out. Then this morning as I was getting dressed I realized, and forgive me for tmi, that this pretty light yellow bra with pink accents I have (remember - pink and yellow are awesome together!), and that I've never worn (um hello - its yellow! - but its still really pretty and I couldn't pass it up when I found it many many months ago), went really well with the outfit I was wearing today. So I decided to keep going with the semi good yellow vibe that was leftover from last night - and wear yellow again today. I actually had a really good feeling day today. So yellow and I have come to decent terms.

For today. ;-)

So that meant I needed to move on in my colors and paint with green today.

I used the acrylic color Emerald green plus black and white and painted on a 9x12 canvas.
This picture looks kinda weird for some reason. It does to me anyway. Hmm.

I started painting with the green and it was going on really transparent. I figured it might need 2 coats of paint, but I reached for the white to see if making it a bit creamier would help.

Now this is the part of the story where I suggest to everyone to make sure you twist the lids of your paint jars on tightly after you use them last. Sadly, sigh -  I did not do that the other night. Therefore when I reached for my jar of white paint, and picked it up by lid.....ummm.....yeah. Thankfully it was in my studio, and I have the carpeted floor protected for just such a possibility. But it was still not fun cleaning that up. Plus I lost a bunch of paint. Grrrr.

So lesson for today - tighten the lids of your paint jars! Or at least don't pick them up by the lid. Because they may stick for a second, but ONLY for a second. Then its goodbye paint, and hello new splotchy rug!

Once my cleaning timeout was complete, I added the white to the green and finished coating the rest of the canvas. It did take 2 coats to cut down on the streakiness and transparency.

And so........green. Yeah. I dunno what to think of green. I like green. I prefer a bluer green, but I have no issues with green. The white made it softer, lighter. The black made it darker.  As white and black tend to do.

It really isn't speaking to me with any profound discoveries. Not that I expected it to - but I thought I would have something to say about it after painting. But, I got nothing. I use green all the time in mural work. It's everywhere in nature, so it's probably the color I use the most - grass, trees, plants. There are dozens and dozens of variations to green. And I have a whole big tub filled with just greens. I wouldn't say its really a bold color - not in the way red orange and yellow are. I guess I would call it a soothing color. I mean there are some intense versions - especially on the yellow side. And some deep dark versions, like the depths of a forest, as well. But overall green is just....green.

Sounds kinda boring when I put it like that.

I think its just one of those colors we don't really pay much attention to - because its just everywhere outside. Its like a nice friendly color in the background of our lives. Only when the sun hits it in a certain way and it glows, or some other color is made striking again it - I feel, do we really pay attention to it.  I kinda think maybe green likes it that way - content to just be, in its own beauty.

I will say there is nothing like going for a walk in the woods during spring or summer though. Green is in it's full glory that time of the year. It is a color that reaches down in your soul, and just makes things seem right in the world for a little while. Next time you're stressed out - head outside to the greenest place you can find and I guarantee your spirits will be lifted.

Art Every Day - Day 5 - mural

Well its after 10 pm, Day 5 is almost over and I once again have not been able to get back in the studio. But I didn't want to skip my post for today - So my mural work is once again my daily creativity.


Today I worked on another quote, this time in a hallway. It was the lyrics to the song "Simple Gifts"
I found a version online that had different types of fonts for each of the lines in the song so I copied that onto the wall. There are 11 lines and I chose to do use 5 different colors of paint markers from a golden ochre color to a dark brown. They matched the adjacent carpeting colors and looked really good together. It took me a lot longer to do then I thought it would today. The lighter colors needed several coats, and some of the fonts were on the complicated side, making them more time consuming. But overall it turned out well.

Art Every Day -Day 4 - mural

For Day 4 of my month of art - I worked all day today. And since my job is painting murals - that is going to be my creativity for today. I feel like I've had a long week already (and its only Wednesday sheesh!) and I'm just not feeling the creative urge to go in the studio tonight and paint something else.

So the mural I worked on today is my art for the day.

















The client I am currently working for loves quotes and asked me to put these two in their craft room.
The first is a 36" circle with soft teal, blue and white tones to sorta represent an earth. I loved painting the earth part, blending the colors together. It is much prettier in person than it looks in this picture. For murals I mostly use regular satin latex wall paint, Sherwin Williams being my preferred brand. I am painting on walls after all!

 The quote (by Kurt Vonnegut) was added on top using a navy blue Liquitex acrylic paint marker. I am not a big fan of writing for murals, especially using paint and a small brush. It takes forever and sometimes requires 3 or 4 coats of paint, which is a pain in the butt, especially if the lettering is small. These markers though have been a godsend. They still have their issues - the tips tend to fray and can leave rough edges, and it sometimes still requires 2 or 3 coats, depending on colors and the background, but it is FAR easier and quicker using a marker than a brush. And its actual paint in a marker form, which is awesome!

I did this quote also with the paint markers. I used a navy blue and teal green for a two toned look.

And this is the view of both of them in the room. The walls are a soft minty green and the trim is white. (looks kinda peachy here but it is white)

So a full day of creative painting and lettering for me today. I think I needed the break from the small solid color paintings after yellow yesterday anyway.  I know - I've only done 3 - how can I need a break already?!! I'm tellin ya man - its the yellow! Yellow is not my thing. It totally drained me! Haha.

Tomorrow is more quotes on the job, but I plan on getting back to the next color on my color exploration list when I get home. I probably need to do gold  tomorrow so I can get the yellow tones done and over with!! That's probably why I didn't have it in me to do tonight. Have I mentioned I don't like yellow? ;-)

Stay tuned!

Art Every Day - Day 3 - YELLOW


I don't like yellow.

Yellow was one of the colors calling to me recently to explore more, because the universe recognized that it is my least favorite color. Unlike yesterdays rediscovery of Orange and my love for it - I thought maybe yellow would find a way into my soul today once I played with it.

Buuuttt......no......I still do not like yellow.

Today I used the color yellow medium azo, plus black and white. 9x12 acrylic on canvas

I decided to do it in a sunburst pattern because that's usually the first thing you think of when you think yellow - the sun. Bright and glowing and warm. The painting started off ok in the center. Of all the yellows out there, if I have to choose a favorite, it would be soft pale yellow. It has a sweet warm delicate feel to it. I currently have dishes that are mostly a soft light yellow surrounded by other colors and I love them. When light yellow is accented by other colors I like it very much.

The yellows on the background of this blog page I like - but only in combination with the orange and other colors. Salmon or pink and yellow - yummy!

But bright yellow on its own - no. Not so much. And when you add black to it - blech! It just gets pukey and ugly. Sickly. When I added the black to the edges of this my potential for liking the color went down the toilet. (It kind of looks like a toilet.) I just started cringing. I had a hard time finishing this painting - I wanted to chuck it out the window. Maybe its the color I chose, the black did turn it kinda greenish and yucky. Maybe a warmer yellow would have turned out better? I will have to try that another day. A nice golden color perhaps.

But I fear its just that I really don't like yellow.

Yellow definitely has its place though, and I often have to call on it in my mural paintings. Can't paint the sun or a banana without it. It is a bright, intense, and happy color - perfect for smiley faces, and sunshine, and flowers. But it just does not resonate with me. It is not a good color on me, and despite its happy demeanor, it does not make me feel good.

I'm sorry yellow, and universe, but I am not going to fall in love with you. I tolerate you, and respect you, but that's about the best I can give you. We will never have a meaningful relationship.

Sorry Yellow. I know you mean well - but you are not for me.

Art Every Day - Day 2 - ORANGE

Day 2 of Art every day in November -  I played with the color Orange.

I forgot I liked Orange.

As far as the orange family goes - I tend to be drawn mostly to a more pink version, like salmon. I LOVE the color salmon. The fish, not so much (I do not like seafood!) - but the color, definitely! It looks awesome on me, in fact it looks awesome on everyone! It brings out skin tones fabulously. If you've never worn salmon, next time you're in a clothing store hold the color up to you - I guarantee it will look great on you! And if you are tan - the color really pops!

Regular old Orange though - it was my favorite color when I was a kid. I used to wear an Orange hand knit shawl back then, haha. I think my mom made it.  Hey - it was the 70's - shawls were in! ;-) It was ombre Orange (dark at the bottom with fringe and light at the top) and the yarn was kinda silky and shiny but really soft. I loved that shawl. I think I still have it packed in a box somewhere. When my grandmother died when I was 8 though, purple became my favorite color, because it was her favorite color, and she was an artist too. So I adopted the color to honor her.

And I forgot about orange.

Well, I didn't really forget about it - it's half of my children's school colors, and their school name, and the name of the township I live in, and a main road I live off of . So it's a actually a big part of my life, always has been I suppose, but really, in name only. At least since I was 8.  I haven't been drawn to the color for a long time and I really honestly, tended to avoid it.

Until the color meditation I did a few days ago. When red orange and yellow called to me.

When I set up this blog I originally chose a different background, until I came across this one. At first I wasn't thrilled with the color - but it was the swirls that drew me in. Swirls are my thing - and this background is EXACTLY my thing! I am instantly drawn to this kind of pattern. At first though, I had wished it was a different color. But no such luck. If I wanted the swirls - I had to go with the orange and yellow. But the more I looked at it, I realized once again - ironically the universe is wanting me to have these colors right now, so in a matter of moments it became my favorite background. And I love it now! It just ......fits me. Weird how that is.

And so, as I was painting with Orange today I realized - I love Orange.

I think I actually missed orange. Huh.





For this piece (9x12 acrylic on canvas)  I used 2 different oranges - scarlet, and cadmium orange hue - plus black and white again. The scarlet is a deeper reddish orange, and the cadmium is a lighter yellowish orange. Neither were right on their own and I wanted a full range of orange (and didn't want to do 2 separate paintings) so I used both.

Orange is another one of those soft yet strong colors. It's vibrant in it's full intensity. I think it loses its vibrancy though, becomes less powerful (unlike red) when you add black to it. It becomes kind of dull in my opinion. Dirty. I think if I had added the black to the lighter orange it would be very dirty looking - kinda yucky or sickly. Adding the white at the top makes it softer, gentler. Calmer. Yet there is still an intensity there. Orange is a powerful color. Not quite as powerful as red - but still fairly strong.


 I'm really liking the color in the middle of this canvas though - a blend of the 2 oranges I used. I prefer the redder orange over the yellowy orange. It reminds me of a sunset and that is what I was going for when I painted it this way. The dark at the bottom reminds me of night settling in - the sun setting over a marsh perhaps. The added white at the top reminds me of a creamsicle.

 I'm not a huge fan of the taste of oranges, except for when I was pregnant - I craved oranges! Guess I needed some vitamin C. But eating oranges or drinking orange juice I almost never do. I don't know why, its not that I don't like them....I just don't like them enough I suppose. Orange candy or gum I'm ok with on occasion. Creamsicles I like. There's something about making it creamier that I like better I suppose. Sweeter versus sour. Maybe that's why I don't eat oranges or drink the juice - not sweet enough for me. I dunno.

Annnywaaaayy, haha I guess the universe knew I needed a reminder that orange is my friend. A long lost friend. Strange how it knows these things don't you think? The universe always seem to know the lessons we need to learn exactly when we need to learn them. It has a way of reminding us to listen to our soul and desires, even when we didn't know what it was our soul was desiring.

Who knew Orange needed to be heard. Well, I guess the universe did.

I hear ya Orange. Welcome back to my life old friend!

Art Every Day in November - Day 1 - RED

As I start this new art journey and blog- I read somewhere today, that November is - create art every day - month. I thought that lined up pretty well with my creativity cleanse and Soul Art discovery I am embarking on. So I am hereby going to attempt to do art every day in November and post about it here. Cuz where else am I gonna do it. ;-)

I am in the process of going back to the basics in art - learning about colors and shapes and what speaks to me. Yesterday's Cleanse assignment dealt with color but I want to take it a step further. Instead of just writing about what each color means to me - I want to also create a painting of each color. Just the color itself plus black and white. And then journal about it.


So today - day 1 - I'm starting with the all mighty RED.

I know - it's a boring painting. It's rather small - 9x12 canvas. I used acrylic - Napthol Crimson with a little carbon black and titanium white.  I have a whole series of these paintings I'm going to do with every color. (At least 16 of them because I have 16 of these small canvases.) And I basically just listened to the color and painted it how it wanted to be portrayed today. Sounds weird I know. But that's what this exploring thing is all about.

So....Red.  I'm not a huge fan of red. I look pretty good in red most of the time - it goes with my skin tone especially if I'm tan.  I don't mind the color, I'm just not drawn to it. Its an intense powerful color. Its a strong confident color. Maybe that's why I'm not drawn to it. Its bold - and I am not.  But maybe that is also why it called to me yesterday. I need to explore this bold color and incorporate it more into my life.

As I was painting this I thought -  I need to paint it strong and striking in a diagonal - like a slash of red across the canvas. Then I added a touch of black down in the corner. The color became almost......sinister to me with the black. Dark and foreboding. When I added the white to the top, the color became....weak. It lost its power. That was a very interesting thought.

Red is most often associated with Love. Hearts and flowers and Valentines. Red lips. Sexuality. Intense passionate feelings. Another reason I am not drawn to it I suppose, as those feelings have been frustrating to me of late.

It is also the color of anger and heat. Of blood, of strong sinister thoughts and feelings. The "red room of pain", which is also a room of pleasure. It is a contradictory color I have just realized. It is loving, yet angry. It is strong, yet can be made weak. It is a color of pride, yet also war.

It is a warning color. STOP! It is an energetic color that make you want to go! Do! Be! It makes your heart race and provokes your senses. It is passion! It is consuming.

It is Red!