Quick sketches in crowded spaces

I love to carry a small sketch book and pencil/pen with me in my purse. It is perfect for a quick sketch when you seem to have lots of time on your hands. For me it seems to be waiting in doctors offices or for a prescription. I take advantage of this time by sketching people. It's hard to do and not make them nervous with all the stares. Quick glasses and fast sketches work best. It's fun and remember it doesn't have to be perfect, it's practice.

Capturing another moment in my sketchbook!

My grandsons came to swim. Blake, who is four, spent every minute in the pool but the baby, Bryce cried everytime we put his toe into the pool water. So I spent most of my day enjoying his giggles as I kissed on him and played with him. Mom and Blake were then free to swim together. It's taking time to record these moments that will transform your sketchbook from a book of scary white pages to something you treasure.

I decided to do a two page spread showing different angles, some more challenging than others. I did some live and some from photos I took. I quickly layed out where I would put each little head and the size. I got carried away as I was sketching and just decided to go with it and have one of his portraits be in pencil! 

Big brother and mommy got to enjoy their time together in the pool. 

Color me Happy with yellow Sunflowers and more!

Being an artist you begin to notice all the little things. We notice the things that other people miss in the busyness of their daily lives.  It's so easy to forget that we have been given a special gift of awareness. A gift of seeing an abundance of colors when others see only gray. Have you noticed how as summer approaches the colors begin to shift from the pastels of spring to the bright yellows of summer.

The sun is directly over us and it lights up the garden in a different way. It's now becoming time for sunflowers and rudbeckia, for marigolds and peaches. They light up the yard like little beacons of sunlight and I love this time. 

When we take the time to sketch and paint we really become intimate with the thing we are painting, learning each curve, the colors, the turns and twists of the line that will reproduce it onto our paper or fabric with our own personal dynamic.

Take a moment to look around and to see something new today, something that is brightening up your day.  Take a moment to really take it in with that special artists appreciation and vision.

This month my Mug Rug Club received a sunflower template for their pattern. I not only showed them how to do some reverse appliqué but I made a book bag with my little mug rug and sent them my first video insert!  Sunflowers are everywhere!

Here's to filling your days with warm sunshine, sweet aromas and bright yellows! I hope you have a happy, sunshine sunflower day!

Have fun and improvise!

I happened to be cleaning out a fruit/vegetable bowl that I keep on the counter. In this heat the things don't last quite as long as normal. I had lots of lemons and oranges that had just started to dry out so I was going to throw them out but decided to cut them in half and make some painted stamps. It can be done with anything so I would encourage you to try different things around your kitchen. I love the designs and textures you can achieve with different areas and different cuts of the oranges or lemons. You can make up a stamped page ahead of time and paint over it or just use it as a journaling page, a page just to write about the day.

I let it dry for a few days so it wasn't so juicy and then painted watercolor over it. There are so many possibilities, different colors, outline, make labels. stamp wedges, paint seeds. Have fun