Sketching

I've decided that I'm going to do a sketch a day for November. I know some use this month to write a novel, grow facial hair, or express gratitude each day. I have only fleetingly longed to scribe a novel, have no interest in encouraging my facial hair growth (even for a good cause), and really like the idea of practicing gratitude, but I thought I'd use it to push myself into the habit of sketching daily. No grand schemes for creating a masterpiece, just whatever strikes my fancy at the time.

Since I'm getting a late start posting (but have actually sketched on each of the three days so far comprising this month), I'll post all three today.

November 1: Holding On

Just a girl I felt like drawing, flowy dress and hair, just holding on.

November 2: Red Carpet

I drew her face and she seemed like a starlet, so I added the glamorous dress and little clutch. I love her "finger waved" hair.

November 3: Balloons!

I had an image on my fashion illustration inspiration board and finally decided to put it to use. So cute!

Bee Butts

So the hummingbirds have left for the winter, but there are still critters taking advantage of the sugar water. These bees have been gorging themselves on the last of the nectar.

Butts in the ay-yair, like they just don't ca-yair.

And there's some stupid bug languidly swimming INSIDE the feeder. It somehow managed to get all the way inside the drink holes and swim up into the main reservoir. Death by sugar, very slowly. Poor bastard.

Art Journal Play - Seeing Faces

In case you hadn't figured it out already, I love to draw faces. That's been true since high school. I would lose myself sketching stylized faces. I went a very long time without putting pencil (or paint) to paper but never lost the pull to draw faces.

Having immersed myself back in art over the last year and a half has reminded me of that pull. I've taken various on-line art courses that have me drawing more and more faces, specifically I Heart Drawing by Jane Davenport. Love her, LOVE this course.

I have a couple of art journals going, and in most, I have half-finished backgrounds mostly the result of slapping my leftover paint on a page as not to waste it. This is one such page. I was flipping through the book, saw this page and thought it would be fun to paint a face over the top. I wish I'd gotten a shot before I worked on the face, but you can see quite a bit of it through the face.

I'm mesmerized by her. Sure, her eyes are a bit wonky and she's rather lopsided, but I think she's darling, if I do say so myself!

Finished – Untitled (for now) Woman

I finished it - finally! I wrote a WIP post way back in April (!) and am happy to say she's finally finished.

Some of the WIP:

(where I left off on the last post-following is later in the day after fixing her nose)

I anguished over where to go from just about the point I left her in late April. I knew I wanted paper flowers either in her hair or representing her hair, but kept putting off making the decision. I was afraid of "ruining" what I'd started.

So I made paper flowers.

Lots of paper flowers.

And after determining that I did NOT want her whole head covered in them, came up with a pleasing arrangement, took a photo so I'd know what I'd liked...

Then set about painting her hair. I also decided to add some stenciled, if illegible, words to the background. I just wanted to break things up a bit, add some more texture and interest, pull in more of the mixed media feel I was going for.

The inspiration photo I used showed some sort of barrette in her hair, so I fashioned one for my girl out of wire and a paper flower. I also added a wire "earring" to help tie things together.

The flower "eye" is made from light modeling paste and a flower stencil. I'm very pleased with how she came out even though I got very stuck for a long time. I needed to let go of feeling like I was going to "ruin" it or make a mistake. As Donna Downey says, "Forward motion." Just keep moving forward and the right things will emerge.

Free Vector Quatrefoil Patterns

{This is just a thumbnail composite of all the colors available for download below.}

Hey guys! I needed to make a quatrefoil pattern for work and thought I'd share it here. Each color is a full 8.5" x 11" sheet, half with the small pattern, half large. All of these files are PDFs but are Illustrator-compatible, so they're true vector art.

Hope you like them. I'd love to hear how you plan on using them. Leave a comment on how you have or might use these and/or links to your projects.

Enjoy!

{TAN}
{BLACK}
{DK RED}
{MAGENTA}
{ORANGE}
{BUTTER}
{LIME}
{DK GREEN}
{TEAL}
{LT BLUE}
{DK BLUE}
{PURPLE}
{KELLY GREEN}
{GREY}
{CHARTREUSE}

Bonus not shown (because I had one too many for the layout)
{SEA BLUE} color is in between teal and lt blue

Now Starring {in my dreams}...

For whatever reason, I've had some unusual people showing up in my dreams lately. As is typical with dreams, I can't recall many specific details, just random images, but I do recall some of the cast of characters. Some are the usual people found in my real life, but lately, they've been a little more... famous.

Example #1: The other night Hermione made an appearance. Not Emma Watson. Hermione. (Although it *was* Emma as Hermione.) The only circumstance I remember about her role in my dream was talking about some classes she was taking, specifically a speech/radio class, and I remember telling her, "Oh! I'd love to do voice-over work. I think that would be so much fun." "You should definitely take this class, too" she replied.

Exciting, right?

Example #2: Just last night, I had an even more famous star, royalty even. Yes, Prince William and his lovely bride were in my dream. Really. I don't know why or recall how we happened to be acquainted in my dream, but I do recall that I offered to make them some "crusty bread" since they were hungry.

Really.

Oh, and Kate had on a lovely, just-below-the-knee flowy skirt, brightly (but not heavily) patterned with a floral design. Not icky and grandma-ish, but fresh and summery - wide, red band at the top. Worn with a plain white shirt. And if memory serves, she arrived on a bicycle. (Yeah, I know.) Now that I think about it, she kind of a 50s thing going on with the skirt and bike. She looked adorable.

There you have it. A glimpse into my strange and celebrity-filled dreams.

Thus endeth my random post. You may now go about your regularly scheduled Saturday events.