Mini Sketchbook Challenge

Last month, I gave myself a mini challenge in my sketchbook after filling a page completely with flower doodles: fill 5 more spreads, each page different from the last. I mixed in some different techniques and finished just past my self-imposed deadline. I'm really happy with the results. Have a look - first, the challenge:

And the page that started it all:

The first spread: first page full of doodled scallops (made with my trusty black Pilot V5 Hi-Techpoint), the second page filled with my collection of washi tape.

The second spread: a simple collage using a mix of papers, followed by a doodled page filled using patterns found in the collaged papers (in roughly the same arrangement).

The third spread: a doodled page (using Sharpies) inspired by a building I saw while driving around with Pat, the second page a signature girl sketch.

The fourth spread: another fun doodle (inspired by some of my older sketchbooks) and then my favourite page. First, I doodled the black outlines, then I cut out and glued tissue paper to fill the bubbles and then I filled in the background with subtle lines (using pencil crayon).

The fifth spread: a sticker-filled page and a sketch completed solely in oil pastels.

And you know what? This mini challenge totally sparked my creativity! I've been doodling and drawing and cross-stitching like crazy these last few weeks. I love it! Now I just need to clean out and organize my craft room so that I can get to my paint and other supplies!

The Sketchbook Project 2015

I have much updating to do, but I don't feel like taking about any of that. Instead, I want to mention the Sketchbook Project. I skipped 2014, but kind of missed it, so I made sure not to skip again this year. Especially since the tour is coming to Toronto again. And one of the themes (which I signed up for) is "parts of a whole." I can't wait to get started... I've already been brainstorming, as you can see!

Have you signed up for this year's tour? If your sketchbook is going to be in Toronto, let me know, I'll check it out!

The Sketchbook Challenge

I picked up this book by Sue Bleiweiss on Amazon quite some time ago - well over a year. I browsed through it immediately, but then set it aside for our move to Etobicoke and other creative endeavours / workshops. Finally, a month or so ago, I picked it up again and was totally inspired! I can't believe it took me so long to work my way through it! The book is a series of sketchbook prompts featuring a couple of amazing artists and techniques for each one. I highly recommend it! I know for sure that I'll be paging through it again and again when I need a special dose of inspiration (and I have a few new artists to research as well!).

I challenged myself by responding to each prompt with a simple black ink doodle:

Around the same time, I was painting my "A Week in the Life" art book page and used up the leftover paint in my green sketchbook. I attempted to make an impression by pressing the pages together but the paint was already too tacky and simply tore up the thick paper. I actually love how this turned out and think it fits perfectly for the "weathered beauty" prompt:

Don't you just love when things don't go as planned but end up even better than you could have possibly hoped?

NaNoWriMo 2013

Yep. I signed up.

And no. I'm not counting these words towards my total word count.

It's true. I've signed up for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) once again this year and I'm only counting the words I write for my stories. I didn't sign up last year because it was my first month of my new job. But now that I'm working 9-5, I felt like I was up to the challenge.

And challenge it will be! Writing over 1600 words a day is tough, especially when I'm only writing in the evenings. Plus, I'll be heading up North this weekend and I have a feeling I won't be writing a word while there. But I took Monday off, so hopefully I can catch up then and stay on track.

I chose to work on a few different stories - mainly my Republic of Krez epic story-novel and the Mixed story I've been posting on Wattpad - so that I wouldn't lose interest as quickly. Makes it much more fun for me too.

Anyway... I have 1667 words to write. Back later!

Wordless Wednesday

She Art 3

I signed up for Christy Tomlinson's She Art 3 workshop, which started today (can you say perfect timing? I took today off to recover a bit from the long weekend spent up North!). I love drawing and collaging my ladies or goddesses, so I thought this would be a perfect class to spread my wings a bit and experiment with different techniques. I love Christy's mixed-media style and knew it would complement mine quite well.

So far, I am LOVING it and I've only been through a few of the videos! I dove right in and made an inspiring Pinterest board full of beautiful ladies for future reference. Do you use Pinterest? Let's just say I lost an hour on there... I hopped from culture to culture, and spent a bit of time in the 1920's, one of my favourite eras in fashion. When I finally came up for air (and a bite of lunch), my board was ready to inspire.

From there, I got sketching! Here are two of the ladies I came up with, along with the original photos that inspired them.

I started with this lovely lady wearing a fabulous jeweled headpiece:

The last sketch I did this afternoon was inspired by this sweet Aztec girl:

I drew faces in some of my sketches but felt that these two were stronger with only the barest suggestion of features. Christy tends to add cheeks to her girls without faces, but I prefer to emphasize the shape of the brow or nose. I used colour where I wanted to record a certain palette that I liked.

I'm really happy with these preliminary sketches and can't wait to see where this course brings me!

My Creative Space: The Sketchbook Project 2013

For the past two years, I've been participating in The Sketchbook Project hosted by Art House Co-op in New York. Submitted sketchbook go on tour around the country and then reside in the Brooklyn Art Library for anyone's perusal. This year was no different - I ordered my book as soon as I could, in early 2012.

It took me a while to decide what I wanted to do: a chapbook. I wanted to make a book that included both original poems and doodles/drawings/collages. As I worked on my poems - one for each page - an idea formed where I would make an accompanying collage, for the opposite page of the spread, using a single colour and simple shapes. The title - Spectrum - came rather easily as I wanted to cover all the colours of the rainbow (as you will see, I ended up not using purple as I didn't feel it fit with any of the poems).

It took quite some time to organize and compile, but I'm really happy with the results. You can see more photos (including lots of close-ups) in this Flickr folder. 

Head on over here for more creative spaces.