The Process of Drawing a Picture

August 27, 2020 by Anya Toomre in Blog, Creativity Coaching

I’ve been making a lot of sourdough bread recently and learning a little bit each time which goes towards making the next loaf a little bit better too. One of my loaves came out of the oven last week and was so pretty that I had to draw it.

A recent loaf of sesame topped sourdough bread that I made.

I’ve been wanting to do some more pen and ink drawing work and the details in this loaf of bread were calling to me. I roughly sketched the placement of the bread on my sketchbook page and then started inking with a favorite fine tipped pen, a Platinum Carbon fountain pen.

It’s always interesting seeing paintings and drawings in process because there’s always a stage of not really being sure that the thing is going in the direction one was hoping for. Then steps are taken to work out the issues and usually it turns out well in the end. It’s a bit like life, isn’t it?

Sourdough Bread Process

This is the end of the first session’s drawing of about an hour or so.

Sourdough Bread Process

Most of the loaf is now drawn and the paper it’s sitting on has been included.

Sourdough Bread Process

The bread is complete. I wanted to include the paper and only make darks and lights using my one pen. It started looking like a mistake.

Sourdough Bread Process

This is the finished drawing. I decided to use a watercolor pencil to color the paper the bread is sitting on. It looks good in the end.

The last sketch to finish off my sketchbook

A Sketchbook Flip-Through

August 12, 2020 by Anya Toomre in Blog, Videos

I finished a sketchbook! It only took 6 years! (lol!)

A Sketchbook Flip-Through of Notes and Practice from Two Workshops, 2014-2020

I took a couple of art workshops in 2014 and 2015 and put my notes and drawings into a sketchbook. One workshop was online with urban sketcher Liz Steel and her Foundations class which I highly recommend. The other was a sketching nature workshop with Charlene Freeman held locally.

When I take workshops, I like to copy notes from the class into my sketchbooks and I try to draw every image (except photographs) that may be in the handouts as well as try to do all the suggested exercises from class. Most of the drawings are ink and watercolor. Some are graphite only. I finished the Foundations class in 2015 but the nature workshop had images that I left to finish later. Much later. I have drawings in here dated from 2016, 2017 and then 2020. So this sketchbook was mostly but not all done for years. I’m glad that I finally have finished it!

Here’s a link to see a flip-through of the sketchbook:

A Sketchbook Flip-Through of Notes and Practice from Two Workshops, 2014-2020

The music in the video is Saturday Coffee by William Claeson.

Art as a Distraction

July 21, 2020 by Anya Toomre in Blog

I spent too much time yesterday looking at the news which aside from the way it’s described to be to attract more attention and because of real events, was just generally and wholly dreadful and depressing.

What to do? I pulled out a pen and ink drawing I am working on. It’s an MRI of my left foot that was recently done. When I saw in the doctor’s office, I immediately thought what a great thing to try to draw! Yes, I like bits of medical illustration. I like learning the way the foot is put together. I’m curious too what the big black circle is on the picture too.

I’m not done with it, but I am enjoying getting caught up in the process. I also like the challenge of how to get darks and lights down using only a black pen. Lots of stippling.

I did my drawing. I was able to distract myself and get caught up in lines and marks to get myself out of the funk I had been in. No more news for a while.

New Sketchbook Subject Sampler Workshop Series Starts in August

July 18, 2020 by Anya Toomre in Blog, workshops

Over the next year, I am offering a place to dive in deeper into topical studies with your sketchbooks. These workshops will encourage you to observe and draw while learning to be creative on a regular basis. Your drawings can be slow and meticulous or fast and prolific. It’s all meant to give you practice with keeping a creative practice as well as having a community to share with and learn from.

We will meet for the first three weeks of the month on Thursdays, 4:00-6:00 pm Pacific Time online via Zoom.

Starting August 6th, we will Play with Our Food. Anything related to food is fair game, but I will start off with drawing fruits and vegetables before moving to drawing meals, recipes, and scenes from markets or cafes.

Sign up for one month, all the months, or just the ones that appeal most to you!

I will be working primarily with graphite, ink (fountain pen and fine liners) and watercolor but I will add in different media as suits. You can start with the basics – a pencil and a sketchbook and add supplies as your interests evolve.

For more information and to register, visit www.anyatoomre.com/workshops

100 Days of Being Creative

May 20, 2020 by Anya Toomre in Videos

For the past 100 days, since February 9th, I have been part of The Creative's Workshop on Akimbo where all participates were challenged to show up daily with something they've worked on, created or thought about. There were days when I didn’t really want to do anything but I showed up so I wouldn’t break my streak.

The Creative’s Workshop has been a great course. Like many things, the more you put in, the more you’ll get out. Creating a creative practice is good, but doing this along side a community of hundreds of like minded people was really the highlight of the workshop for me. Showing up with what I did and then reading about what other people were doing was where it made a difference. People commented on my posts and asked questions to get me to dig deeper. I read about their thought process and what inspired them and what was holding them back. It has been an amazing experience and I highly recommend this workshop.

All that said, here's a record of my hundred days of my creative practice.

I finished 42 drawings and 2 sketchbooks, and made 30 videos during these 100 days. Wow!

Enjoy!

The music is Saturday Coffee by William Claeson

Let me know what workshops you have taken that you were really impressed by and that made a difference for you. I’m always on the look out to learn more.

A Sketch Collage of Snippets

April 26, 2020 by Anya Toomre in workshops

I took a two-hour workshop over the weekend with Sketchbook Skool that gave a lot of ideas of ways to fill up pages in a sketchbook. One of the suggestions fits in with something I already love to do - collage drawings. I do this with my travel journals. This spread was much quicker and more loose and wonky than I usually draw but it was fun.

The suggestion was to take a spread, a couple of pages, in your sketchbook and fill it with drawings of things that you live with and that are around you. It can be done all in one sitting or done over a few days. The drawings could be larger or smaller or exact size to fit in puzzle-wise on the spread. You can keep it as just ink or add color later.

I started with various things that were on my desk or were within arm’s reach. A lot of them turned out to be things that I had been keeping there so I would draw them. I have a dragon from Japan, soap from Portugal, a gift, a picture of my grandmother’s cat, pictures of my departed dog, as well as various odds and end like a Kleenex box, lip balm, a jar of brushed, a small container of ink..

What’s nice about this kind of project is that it can be as simple or complicated as you want to make it. It can also be done in different rooms of the house or it can be a visual diary of a day. Do it with one kind of tool one day, and a different one another day.

Try it and share with me what you drew.

A sketch collage of snippets from my desk

Are you interested in the possibilities of what you can do in a sketchbook? Do you have some ideas but aren’t sure where to start? I am offering a new 6-week workshop: Exploring Keeping a Sketchbook which starts this Friday, May 1st. We will be meeting live via Zoom, 10:00 am - 12:30 pm Pacific time. I will give you at least 5-10 different things to try every week in class and between sessions. Come join the fun and start filling your sketchbook and developing a creative habit.

Sketchbooks on Display at Kirkland Library for January 2020

December 31, 2019 by Anya Toomre

I set up a display of my sketchbooks today at the Kirkland Library in Kirkland, WA. They’ll be there for the month of January. I have examples from my travels and urban sketching, food illustration, botanical drawings, copying from the masters, drawing animals and people and homework from classes. Just a small sample of the whole! If you stop by, let me know what you think. Happy New Year!