Out Walking in the Snow

Although I haven't been posting many of my neighbourhood walk sketches, I have been faithfully going out on my walks no matter what the weather. It is amazing what you learn about your surroundings when you walk and observe. Many of the older neighbourhoods are transforming. The small older homes are being knocked down to make room for massive modern homes that have no yards. It is really a shame because the history of the area is then lost. Some of the older homes are so beautiful and speak of days gone by. They have wonderfully large yards with beautiful gardens and areas to sit and enjoy company. There are large old trees around these homes which are sadly lacking when a new home is built. The fact that our neighbourhoods are changing gives me the desire to get some of these older homes down in my sketchbook before they are gone. Below are some of my sketches from the last couple of weeks.

The front of my church building

Inspired by the Passing of Time

We are already more than half way through February 2016! It seems to me that time is passing much too quickly. It didn't pass quick enough when I was a youngster impatiently waiting until I could wear high heels, learn to drive or start dating. But now that I have accomplished those things, if feel like if I don't do the things I would like to do, one day I'll run out of time!

It is always good to set goals and timelines if you strive to get something done. And so, a calendar is an essential tool for that. With the passing of time, I thought of calendars. You can get a calendar with scenery on it, or flowers, or even your own photos plus lots of other subjects.

I've made small calendars in the past of my artwork which I put together myself and have given away to family and friends. I've also made birthday calendars that can be used from year to year. In January, I started to make a calendar that I hope to have printed professionally.

I started with a 14"X14" sheet of watercolour paper and started on the month of January 2017. The theme of January is Winter, obviously. It became a collage as well as watercolour page.

It is in blues and purples and has a painting of birch trees in the snow as well as some blue hydrangeas. I also printed some of my photos of the ice storm from a few years ago onto card stock and glued them to the page. As well I included a text from the Bible.

February is also on a sheet of watercolour paper and its theme is....Love.

 This page is in pinks and reds and includes hearts painted into the background as well as some cross stitched hearts which I glued onto the page.

When I started March, I thought I could use the theme of Art or creativity. I decided then to make the March page from fabric. In my sketchbook I sketched some of the tools I use to make art. I then traced the sketches onto tracing paper and used the tracings to guide my stitching as I transferred the sketches to my page.

The fabric for this page was an experiment I did one time with liquid dyes. The calendar section is also stitched, as is the word March. I also stitched the numbers for the dates and the brushes and pens. The pencils are cross stitched and sewn to the page with a zigzag stitch.

So now I am thinking about April. What will the theme be? What colour should I make it? What media shall I use to make it?  The first three months were easy but now I have 9 other months to do. Do you think you could help me out and send me some theme ideas, colour choices and different media to use? Your help would be greatly appreciated.

Looking forward to hearing your ideas!

A Glimpse of Things I'm Working On

I didn't go on my neighbourhood walk this morning. I had all my warm clothing on...long johns, undershirt, turtleneck sweater, etc. The temperature was -16C with a windchill of -22C. I was really debating but thankfully I got unexpected company for coffee. The temperature is supposed to get up to -8C which is a little more manageable. So maybe I'll still go for a walk later today.

Once again I am busy with a number of things in my studio, so I thought I'd give you a glimpse. You can try to figure out what my projects are by the following photos.

Sketchbook Skool Inspiration

In January, I enrolled for Sketchbook Skool again. This is the fourth Sketchbook Skool course I have taken. The first course was called Beginnings, the second, Seeing, the third, Playing and this one is called Expressing. Each Friday, for six weeks, I get a new lesson emailed to me. Tomorrow will be my fourth week in this session. The lessons are very inspirational and they get me trying things I wouldn't otherwise try. So I am building my library of tools and techniques each week.

Our first lesson was on Lettering. I have always found my lettering lacked luster and professionalism. Honestly, I really didn't spend a lot of time on lettering, just wanting to get it done. But I found that if you spend a little more time, the result is really pretty nice to look at.

Here is one of my practice sheets

Here I used several different
types of lettering.

The second lesson was about documenting things in a handmade book. I have made some of my own books in the past, such as accordion books. Our teacher taught us how to make a 6 page book out of one sheet of paper.

Canoe Trip Accordion book

Our third lesson was about Info-graphics. These are drawings with commentary which tell something about the drawings. Below is my info-graphic.

I am truly enjoying the new things I am learning and trying to use them in my art regularly.