Creative Prompt Week 10

This week's creative prompt was Moth, Butterfly or Insect. I chose to draw a Luna Moth just because that was what came to mind and I think they are quite pretty. This drawing was done with soft pastels on watercolour paper.

Creative Prompt Week 9

This last week's prompt was Spaceship.  I did this one as a doodle on scrap paper during church last week just for the fun of it. I didn't really intend for it to be my official drawing for the week, but i kind of like it and it was a practice drawing. So here it is: my official doodle.

Creative Prompt Week 8

Week 8's prompt was Robots.
The first thing that came to mind was the newest (and rather charming) robot from star wars, bb-8. He is done with graphite and watercolour pencil on cardstock. I'm staying caught up so far!

Creative Prompt Week 7

I'm caught up! This week's prompt was: Creatures.
Sea creatures are what came to mind when I read that, so here are a few friendly little sea creatures swimming in some words. They were drawn with graphite pencil on a found dictionary page.
Now hopefully I can stay caught up and not succumb to avoidance techniques again.

Creative Prompt Week 6

I will begin this post with sincerest apologies to my subjects of this week's challenge.  The prompt for this week was:Group of People.
Yes, I was working from a photo to do this. People are not the easiest for me to draw, particularly quickly. As I have not alloted myself a large amount of time to work on these creative excercises, I decided to try for a rough and loose representation. They are people and there may be a vague resemblence to whom I was referencing but like I said,  my apologies. It was a practicing exercise and I promised to share the results.
I used soft pastels on printmaking paper.

Creative Prompt Week 5

My apologies, this post is really late. I did get caught up, but now I seem to have fallen behind again. I'm working to catch up and be back on schedule. Apparently the procrastination is hitting hard with the topics for the next challenge. Probably because it is a challenge and not my favourite subject.
Anyway, the creative prompt for week 5 as Unicorn.
Definitely not my normal subject matter. Horses have never been my thing,  I skipped the preteen horse craze, and fantasy animals aren't up there either. So here is my attempt at a Unicorn.

Creative Prompt Week 4

Week 4 was last week, so yes I am playing catch up. But I got last week's done today so I still have a few days to do this week's.
The prompt for week 4 was 'Cat'. It took me a bit to figure out how I wanted to draw 'cat', but I finally just stole a page out of someone elses book (a dictionary) and started that way. I chose to work with charcoal because I thought the soft medium would be perfect to render the softness of the fur.

Week 3 Creative Prompt

This week's prompt was Face. Not my favourite subject, so I spent all week mulling over what I wanted to draw for this challenge. Finally, this morning I knew how I wanted to do it. So here you have a chalkboard inspired white Conte on black paper drawing of my interpretation.

Creative Prompt Week 2

Week #2's prompt was Crow or bird. I chose to tackle drawing a crow. I thought using charcoal as my drawing tool was appropriate to draw a black crow. For my support I chose a piece of pale veneer to work on. I really like how the subtle wood grain shows through and works with the drawing.

Creative Prompt Week 1

The creative prompt for week 1 was Umbrella.
My drawing reflected the weather conditions of the week, when the big wind storm blew through Vancouver.
It was done with soft pastels on black paper.

Personal Art Challenge

Hi from your derelict blogger,
It's September now, our beautiful, hot summer has succumbed to a damp and wet fall. Before the weather turned school supplies started hitting store shelves. Now, I never liked going back to school, but I love school supplies. The selection of pens in an array of colours, the clean pads of notepaper, and all the cool rulers, paperclips and other doodads that may or may not be useful. In alot of ways September is the beginning of a new year (a new school year, yes, but even for those of us not in school). This year as I was perusing the school supplies and sighing over the fact that I didn't have a reason to buy any, I got thinking. I decided that I should splurge on a few supplies for my art, and if I was going to do that I really should use them, and that might require a plan.
That brings us to the personal challenge part. Back in February, Opus Art Supplies facilitated a Daily Art Challenge. I didn't manage to go along with it, but I thought that if I took the prompts they provided that would give me a specific thing to work on when I sat down to create. I tweaked the challenge a bit more to suit me and the time that I can find to work on my art. I decided that my challenge will be to take one prompt a week to do and then to share it here. I think that will be doable but still enough of a challenge.
I officially chose to begin as the first week of September opened its pages. And so, last week I began.

Change is the Constant

The only thing in life you can be sure of is change.
 
For awhile baby and I had a good system going that allowed me to work on my art. He has grown and changed and become mobile and now that system doesn't seem to be working very well anymore.  Now I must adapt and change too. Unfortunaty I haven't quite managed to figure out a new routine that works yet. This weekend, however, I was just reminded, by family and church, of the importance of making room in my life to work on my art. As a result, I have made a resolution to find the time, even if it just in little chunks.

In the meantime, I haven't been completely neglectful. I had the chance to show a few of my recent pieces at the New West CRC re:Create art show and I currently have a new piece in progress (slow progress, yes, but at least it's something).

Momentum

Inspiration and Chain Smoking

No, I don't smoke, let alone chain smoke, but I am borrowing the idea as it applies to my art. I came across the term from the author, Austin Kleon whose work I follow. He describes the process of chain smoking as "instead of taking a break in between projects and worrying about what’s next, use the end of one project to light up the next one." By working in this way "you avoid stalling out in your career by never losing momentum." When I read that I thought it was a great term to describe the process.
This last series of paintings I have been working on is a perfect example of keeping the inspiration flowing and the pieces coming. While working on the first piece I had items that I wanted to use but that just didn't fit. That led to a bit of brainstorming and the beginnings of the second piece, after that I still had things (different ones) leftover. So I continued on to a third painting and now I have a fourth piece percolating (slight logistical stall- I need another support to work on before I can begin). I have quite happily been able to go quite far with just one small dose of inspiration. Hopefully I will be able to use this idea of chain smoking to my advantage and keep my creative momentum going.

 Detail of Piece #3

Wood Veneer Piece #2

Here is my second painting that was inspired by the wood veneer. But don't look too hard for a piece of veneer hidden somewhere in the painting. You won't find it. The veneer was simply the inspiration that got the creative juices flowing and the painting evolved and developed from that inspiration in a slightly different direction.

 Wooden Squirrel

30" x 48"

Found Objects and Mixed Media on Doorskin

 Detail #1 of Wooden Squirrel

 Detail #2 of Wooden Squirrel

I had so much fun making this painting that I started another one almost before I finished this one!

Wood Veneer Piece #1

Veneer Moth

16" x 20"

Mixed Media on Wood Panel

This piece began with wanting to show off the beauty of the dark wood veneer sheet I picked up at Urban Source. With the veneer as my inspiration and foundation for the painting I began adding various elements, playing with things until I found a pleasing composition. It has been a piece that I thought was done at a couple points along the way, but kept changing my mind. Now, finally, I have decided that it is finished. Let me know what you think (I realize it is quite different from alot of my other recent work, but it was fun)

 detail #1 of Veneer Moth

 detail #2 of Veneer Moth

The Stealing of a Few Minutes

From one small piece of inspiration that became a painting to the beginning of a third!
Not bad for someone stealing a few minutes here and there while trying to keep the baby amused. But that's exactly how I've managed to be so productive. I have everything out or easily accesible near where baby plays, so while he is happily amused I can have a few minutes to create. It feels so good to be able to be creative this regularly. It's almost addictive! That small taste of a few minutes, being able to see progress, simply whets the appetite and now I can hardly wait unil he goes to bed at night so I can have a large uninterrupted chunk of time to work.
I have photos to show you, just not at the moment. I need to spend some time with them and have not quite had the chance yet.

I say Tree, you say . . . .?

What comes to mind when you hear the word tree?

Yes, I'm looking for word associations. Why? For an artwork of course. Piece #2, of what is becoming my wood inspired series, has developed a bit of a word theme. Here's a sneak preview of just a small segment.

Wood Veneer Inspiration

A couple weeks ago, on an outing to Main St., we stopped to peruse an art supply store called Urban Source. This is not your typical art supply store neatly stocked with rows of paint tubes, sketch books and blank canvasses. This delightful place is stocked with boxes, bins and baskets filled with all sorts of random materials, ranging from industrial off-cuts and misprints to old typeset and slides.

On this particular day they had a box of wood veneer that caught my attention. A couple sheets of exotic wood were especially interesting with their dark wood grains. Looking at them I began daydreaming of what I could possibly do with them and I quickly came up with a few ideas. Needless to say, these sheets came home with me and then a new painting was promptly begun.

The Anti-Secret to Success

Here is some inspiration for today in the form of some great anti-advice stolen from Austin Kleon's tumblr

Originally from  “How to feel miserable as an artist” by Keri Smith

First Completed Piece of the New Year

Not too long ago I completed my first artwork of the new year, you could say. I did not create the whole piece this year, I simply finished putting it together. Each of the individual pieces were created at different times over the previous year. 

 

They began simply as play. To fuel and fasciltate my art, I collect many little pieces of this, that and the other thing, and then sort them into collections that I store in clear plastic containers. These are not strict collections of only one type of item per container. Rather they tend to be organized by theme, such as colour or texture. Many times I find myself admiring the aesthetic quality of a collection in its storage container, so I decided to try and find a way to display and share that enjoyment. These were quite a departure from my normally highly organized pieces and I felt they were anomolies that acted as an interlude from my typical style.

 Choatic Anomaly Collection

approx. 24" x 24"

I read a book

Last night I read the book Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon.

I found it to be a fun, easy read, but not a light read. Instead I found it to be highly inspiring and thought provoking. While I did read it all in one short sitting I feel like I need to sit down and read it again in a week.

There are plenty of quotable and profound thoughts to be found throughout. Some immediately resonated with where I am at with my art now and some statements I read and noted "that's a good thought, but I need to come back to it later". There is almost to much to absorb all in one reading (or so my new mommy brain thinks).

So far this is my favourite quote:

A New Year

Typically, as January begins there is a flurry of goal-setting and resolution making. Most years I like to set a few reasonable goals for myself; recording and prioritizing those vague " I should do's" into specific attainable actions.

 Last year was one of those unusual, memorable years one finds oneself experiencing every so often. The arrival of our baby was anticipated and celebrated. It was an event that, like a major weather system, sweeps in and dramatically changes life's landscape. It is expected and understood that life will be different after the arrival of a baby, but quite another matter to experience it.

 At this stage of life I am not sure what is realistic and attainable anymore. So, as I look ahead to the coming year I see many milestones ahead rather than specific goals. I simply want to enjoy and experience each milestone as it comes along this year. Which, I suppose, is inadvertently making a resolution for this year, but perhaps this resolution is attainable.