A new book on sketching

I just got this book from Northlight ~ "The Art of Travel with a Sketchbook" by Mari Le Glantin Keis. I love it! Mari's sketches are wonderful! Some of her workshop participants also have work in it. I was so inspired I just had to sketch the cover!

I'm almost done with another Moleskine, only 8 more spreads to go!!! When I get this close to finishing one, that's all I want to do is sketch. Unfortunately, I have some other artwork that I have to do so I'll have to squeeze in sketching along the way. Luckily, work was a little slow on Wednesday so I got several sketches done...

Have a great weekend!

Roses and more

I have been busy sketching and painting, just haven't posted every day. Here are some more roses and a sketch while I waited for one of my kids at the dentist's office. I decided to play around with my paints on the second roses, just to see the watercolor merge ~ it always fascinates me!

It's supposed to be 68 degrees today!!! Well, I just had to take the day off! I'm going to go out and do some sketching/painting and then come home and work on some collage pages for swaps.

Enjoy your day and take time to do some sketching. :D

Garden of the Gods painting/sketch

Thought maybe you were getting tired of roses. This is one of my favorite places ~ Garden of the Gods. This is about 4 miles from my house, unfortunately I can't see it out my window. My daughter and I went to sketch on location on Monday. I've been wanting to do this since last summer, sometimes it's just hard to make time to get out... This took me about 45 minutes, I did it in pencil, then painted it and then did pen and ink. I really like this sketch/painting and I'm definitely going to more of this! I should make it a goal to get out and do on location sketching once a week... I'll let you know.

Another rose and Darwin and Abe

Are you sick of roses yet? (big grin) I have a lot more to post, I just haven't scanned them yet. This is yet another recent rose and a sketch of Darwin and Lincoln from the cover of a magazine. I'm not very good at drawing people and need to practice a lot more.

I have been doing a lot of drawing, daily for this past week, and I'm really enjoying it!

I just finished Danny Gregory's "An Illustrated Life" and I just have one question ~ when is his next book coming out?!!! :) If you've never read one of Danny's books you really need to check them out, they're very inspirational!

Have a great weekend!

Roses, roses, roses

I'm on a tangent, a tangent of roses. :) I'm really getting into drawing these roses before they wilt. The one on the left I tried to do like Anita Davies does hers, but mine doesn't look anywhere near as good as hers.... Plus this is my sketching Moleskine and it does not take heavy washes very well, as you can see. So I decided to leave the roses on the right as just pen and ink. I have been doing more roses in my watercolor moley so I'll show you those too. I really wish they made the watercolor moleskines in the same format as these, I don't care for the super wide format but I'll have to get used to it... Hope you have a great day!

Late Valentine Wishes

Better late than never... I hope you all had an awesome Valentine's Day! The Zentangle heart was inspired by Margaret over at http://waterblossoms.blogspot.com/

Her blog is so inspirational! Be sure and check it out!

Hubby brought me home some roses for Valentine's Day and I have been drawing and painting them before they wilt, usually I wait until they're dried. I have some other projects I need to be working on but I'm off on a rose tangent... :D

Cookie recipe and more...

A couple more sketches that I've done recently. The cookies were really good, long gone now though. The Zentangled hears were inspired by Margaret ~ see her link in the right bar on my blog. I'm hoping to do better as far as posting more often...

And more new sketches...

I am really liking my Hibiscus plant this winter! It blooms almost every week in my front window, bringing some brightness to dull winter days. And also providing something beautiful to draw on a regular basis!

If you're having the winter doldrums like I am I hope this cheers you up!

Love it forward

I am working on a project - making dolls for the Australian Bush Fire victims. An artist friend of mine in Victoria started this and it just made me feel like something I could do. These will be mainly for the kids that have lost everything in the fires. If you'd like to come over and see what it's all about go to:

http://loveitforward.ning.com/

If you're not into sewing there are different ways to share the love. Be sure and check out the site.

New sketches

I have been sketching a lot, but I just haven't been posting them. I'm hoping to do better this week. This is one of my daughter's worn out converse tennies. My perspective is a bit off.

Today I'm planning on going on and doing some sketching and painting of local scenery!

A watercolor rose

I have a collection of dried roses, I love to paint them. I just did this one today ~ it is now for sale in my Etsy shop:

http://purplepaint.etsy.com/

I'm hoping to get several more done. I've painted for over 20 years, first in oil, then watercolor. For the last 2 years I haven't done much painting as I got into textile art and collage ~ but I'm missing painting so I'm trying to squeeze it in too.