Playing with Paint Splotches Video

I have been thinking that with making my drawing videos, it would be nice to also make some drawing videos to encourage people who don’t feel they can draw. I want people to join in and try some art and to play and explore even if they haven’t done any drawing in years. Life is so very stressful these days, that having some creative outlets where one can be distracted and productive helps calm anxiety and stress.

Here’s my first attempt at that kind of video. It’s playing with paint splotches. It’s a lot like the game of seeing what you can see in cloud shapes. Here you do it with watercolor splotches and a pen.

This kind of thing works for any level of artist or non-artist. There’s no real skill required in making a splotch of paint, and then the drawing can be of imaginary animals or fruits and vegetables, or everyday items, or patterns or zentangles, or doodles.

I got the idea from another artist, Maja Sereda. She does amazing work with ink and watercolor. Check her out.

What kind of arts and crafts do you do when you’re stressed?

Feel free to share as you wish.

Flip-Through Video of My Portugal Travel Journal and Some Time-Lapsed Drawing

I continue to work on my art daily and have also continued making videos of my drawing process making progress on various projects.

The video I made here is a combination of a flip-through of my Portugal Travel Journal to show where it is currently at.

In the video I also work on one drawing from a hillside in Porto that was opposite the Alfândega where the International Urban Sketchers Symposium was held in 2018.

Conveniently across the street from this collection of houses with all their windows and doors (and laundry!), there was a short wall that was great for sitting. During the Symposium, there were dozens of people sitting along this wall looking at the view in my photograph. It was so much fun walking down and stopping to look at artists’ sketchbook after sketchbook with so many different styles and approaches.

All of my videos are available for viewing on my YouTube channel. Click here or go to YouTube and search on my name.

Do you have lots of pictures from trips sitting in your phone and not being looked at? Have you ever wanted to make a travel journal with some of your photos? I love travel journals and I love teaching my workshop, Create a Travel Journal in Ink and Watercolor. The next one will be done live online via Zoom starting Tuesday, April 14th, 10:00 am - 12:30 pm Pacific Time. Check out my workshops page for more information and to register.

Good News! Upcoming Workshops and Open Studios will be Happening Online!

Good news! Art workshops still can go on with slight adaptations.

I will be offering my upcoming workshops (Introduction to Bullet Journaling, Illustrating Recipes and Creating a Travel Journal in Ink and Watercolor) online via Zoom for the immediate future until we can meet in person again at Cloud 9 Art School. We will meet close to the originally scheduled times in Pacific Time as listed in each workshop.

Meeting online means the possibility for you taking the class if you weren’t able to be in the physical area before! If you are interested in taking one of my 6-week workshops online but can’t at the scheduled time, let me know what time and day works for you. I’m happy to run a class if we can get at least two or three people to join at the same time.

I will also be running my Open Studio Monday nights online via Zoom. Just send me your email before 6:15 pm Pacific Time so I can send you a link for the 6:30-7:30 pm meeting room.

For the next two weeks until March 30th, my Open Studio be free to attend. After that it’ll be $10 until we can meet in person again.

If you like the Open Studio online we can continue, just on a different time and day than Monday nights.

Life is certainly different with changes made because of the need for physical distancing. It’s important to still do creative things to keep active in positive ways. I love the idea of coming together and seeing what you are all working on. Let’s adapt, make new friends, and keep being creative!

Pencil drawing of a Moluccan Cockatoo and Video

Continuing with my series of drawing videos for my practice and your entertainment, this is from day 40/100 of showing up and shipping something as encouraged by The Creative's Workshop that I've been taking.

I did a pencil drawing here of a Moluccan cockatoo from my self-created animals from "Life of Pi" list (photo courtesy of wikipedia, book by Yann Martel). In the video you may notice that my pencil lines are lighter and sketchier at the beginning as I get started than later after the shape of the bird has emerged. That's totally normal as you get more comfortable with what you're drawing.

Also, this sketchbook is small and square. For this animal series, I've often needed to add additional paper to get all of the animal in. I knew I was going to need some for this bird so I started off with an extra piece already prepared. 😁

The music in the video is the Happy Farmer. The video link to YouTube is: Moluccan Cockatoo in Pencil

Are you working on any animal drawings now? What kind?

More Inking on My Glass, Mirrors and Reflections Piece

I have been taking a Seth Godin course called The Creative’s Workshop and in it participants are encouraged to show up and ship something everyday for 100 days. Not being too sure of what I would do with that, I decided I would at least work on a drawing or sketch daily. If I did more with making something, great. If not, I worked on a drawing.

Some members in class mentioned wanting to see a short video of my drawing or painting process so I decided to learn how to make videos. They started very simple and now I have the basics down. I have a YouTube channel where I’ve put all my drawing and sketchbook videos made so far.

Today for my Day 32/100 effort, I worked some more on my glass, mirrors and reflections piece from a photo I took at Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) in Boston. Here is the video link for today’s progress.

I have now all the inking done around the central container. The area I was working in the lower right of the paper didn’t have any pencil guide lines to refer to so I was inking and winging it! The shapes are fairly abstract so accuracy isn’t necessarily so important here.

The video takes about 22 minutes of drawing and puts it into a little under 3 minutes. The music in the background is Haydn No. 3 Op 76 I Allegro.

Do you like these kinds of videos that show some progress on projects? What can you work on for 20-25 minutes to move along?

Inking progress on my Glass, Mirrors and Reflections piece.

A Video of an Ink and Watercolor Sketch of New Art Supplies

I am on day 22/100 of daily creating and sharing efforts as prompted by The Creative’s Workshop. For the past few days I’ve headed in a new direction and have been making daily videos of my drawing progress. Every day I try to add something small to my next video so I can keep learning and improving.

What I challenged myself with this video was combining several clips together as well as some photos. I also added some music playing in the background from copyright free sources. I figure that classical music will often be a good choice to go with drawing.

The video has the sketch being drawn, watercoloring it, labeling and then because it needed something more, some splatters. Various parts worked in this video and various need some refinements in my next video attempts.

https://youtu.be/JortjfdyFK4

My YouTube channel where I’m putting my videos is at: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuW2C18HZ02vDzBbWV5Xt7Q/

Have you ever made a video of you making or doing something? How did it go? What were the challenging parts for you?

A Video of Work on my Glass, Mirrors and Reflections from the MFA Drawing

I am still participating in The Creative’s Workshop. Today was Day 17/100 to show up and do something. A couple of my friends from the course asked if I could make a video of me drawing since they were not artists and don’t know the process.

I filmed a portion of my glass, mirrors and reflections drawing from the MFA three times. Two of them had technically difficulties. My camera seems too heavy for the arm of the stand and the screw to tighten the arm is very stiff. Two of my videos had slow motion movement of the camera moving its focus from the drawing to just the photo I’m working from. Not so informative!!

I hope you find it interesting as a small glimpse into the process of drawing a complicated picture using a photo as a reference.

Glass, Mirrors and Reflections from the MFA