A few doodles

I continue to draw daily. I find it a great way to start the day, warm up the brain, warm up my hands. Just doodling loosens me up.

Here is today's doodle:


And a card I made for a friend who is having surgery today:

My face doesn't look like yours.

"My face doesn't look like yours."

Sophie's Goddess, age 5

"Of course not. I'm much older, see the wrinkles in my skin?
I also have blue eyes, yours are green. And see, your hair is brown."

"Sarah, yours is very pretty."

Sarah's Goddess, age 8

"Do you like your face?"

"Yes, I think she's beautiful. But yours looks better."

"Oh no Sarah and Sophie, both of yours are better. You drew from the heart, mine was drawn from the brain. Drawings from the heart are always better."

Rebecca's Goddess, Age Still Deciding

Be True to Yourself

While trolling the internet this morning I came across Suzi Blue. She's adorable. I watched a bunch of her videos on YouTube and they all have such a positive message.

The video above was particularly relevant to my recent anxiety about the art I create. And it reflects the words I share with other artists about their work -- be true to yourself and make the art you want to make, without considering what other people think.

But recently I've been working on a lot of class samples -- technique exercises -- with imagery I think potential students might like to see. And not making the art that I want to make. For the next few weeks I will spend my studio time working on a piece that has been in my sketchbook for a long time and for the past few months has been swirling inside my head.

For those of you reading and looking at this blog, thanks for your comments and input, I'll continue to post sketches, Ricë has some excellent journal spanks worth checking out.

Now I'm off to the studio.

Time Mandala

Today I decided to doodle.

The clock in my studio tick, tick, ticks. All day long. Even with the music on I can hear that sound in the background. It must be creating subliminal stress since I have been very worried about time and how long things take! I need to pull that clock off the wall and put in a nice quiet digital clock with an alarm I can so I don't miss picking up the girls.

Starfish and Failure

What is important is doing the work every day. Eventually you will succeed, you will definitely have failures. But the trying is what's important. So the starfish didn't quite turn out how I hoped, but I learned some important things about conveying texture, something important to my fiber work. I need to learn about painting with watercolors.

Sophie's Yellow Paintbrush

This is my Monday Morning Drawing. I am going to try and draw and paint something every day. Simple stuff around the house to hone my chops, which are rusty. Can you tell I like color? Bright, clear color. This was sketched in pencil, then inked with a Zig Micron Pen and then painted with my Prang watercolors and an Aquaflow brush. It makes painting easy.

One thing that stuck me while I was drawing this paintbrush is how perfectly aligned the word CHINA was. I did not set it up that way. Yet CHINA screamed at me the whole time I was drawing and I wonder: Are there any paintbrushes made in America? I'm going to find out. I'll let you know.

Orange Tennis Shoes

Here is a drawing I finished today. Ink and Watercolor paints.
(I used Lumiere Watercolor paints for the shoelaces and grommets. That is the shine you see.)

Journal Spank Challenge

Ricë over at Notes from the Voodoo Cafe had a journal spank today -- close your eyes and grab something and draw. Since I've had drawing on my mind, I though "Hey I'll bite." I reached out and grabbed the nearest thing to my desk. A bottle of Tums. Nope, I thought -- all those little circles. Not good to draw.

I know, I said to myself, I'll go into my studio, close my eyes and grab something. I won't trade again, I'll take what I get. And I did, and here it is:



All round and curvy and perspective that changes, and clear bobbins to boot. I thought coloring it would improve it. Well, it was a fun exercise anyway. I think I'll try again later.

Public Sketching! One poor victim.

Here's a shout out to Mary Akers: "Thanks for the awesome inspiration and encouragement." She taught an incredible charcol drawing session last week at Fiber Art Fusion's meeting last week.

Today, while watching my daughter take her Tae Kwon Do class, I took out a pen and sketched the guy sitting in front of me. He was listening to music on IPOD. It was pretty loud, but not loud enough for me to figure out what he was listening to. He was tapping and bobbing his head along with the beat. It was hilarious. After a few minutes he started to squirm and then looked over his shoulder at me a few times. Hmmm. Maybe his sixth sense was piqued. What a hoot.

Anyway, it was fun and I felt a small sense of success. Now I guess I need to go to Binders and get me a Moleskine Cahier Sketchbook to carry about.

And I need to look at the calendar more often! I dated this sketch 1/21/09.

Drawing with Mary

Fiber Art Fusion met on Tuesday night. Our workshop was led by Mary Akers who is an incredible artist and a wonderful teacher. It was magical to sit in a room with 18 artists and draw. We each had our own perspective, we each had our own success (thanks to Mary) and a few discovered they love to draw. Mary will lead another workshop for us before the end of the year. I can't wait.

Here is my form drawing.


I had an odd perspective for the pitcher. Today my friend Margaret Betz sent me an email with pictures of artwork by the very talented sidewalk artist Julian Beever. Some of his sidewalk masterpieces look as though they are 3-D objects. He has mastered perspective.