[ creativity is human nature ]
Released a new traditional art coloring page today, and even got a sketch in too! I’ve started using my watercolor sketchbook more, and I’m hoping to actually get it wet soon.
Working on my mid-year Art Supply No Buy check-in post, so stay tuned! See you soon!
[All photo credit goes to my partner this time around! It was much more frustrating than I expected to take photos of my tiny travel sketchbook. She really made this post possible, I was ready to give up! Thanks, love!]
This is just a small sample of the doodles I’ve made with my red/blue color palette. I would show more, but I need to figure out how to get decent photos!
These red and blue Sakura Pigma Micron PN pens were some of the last supplies I bought before I decided to do an Art Supply No Buy, I bought them right before Birdie was born because I was anxious and I thought it would cheer me up. I didn’t start really using them until this year though!
I had read about limiting one’s color palette and how useful it can be, and I’m really glad I tried it out for myself. The rumors are true, it’s fantastic! I struggle a lot with decision fatigue and this solves that problem. I don’t like working in just black and white all the time, so this gives me that color I crave while still not overwhelming my brain!
Deciding what elements of the drawing to make which color is exciting for me. Since most of the things I draw are not actually blue and red in real life it’s so interesting to see how different it looks when I cut down the colors to just two. I love how I can add emphasis and contrast using this method.
When it comes to doing art on the go I think a very limited palette is the best choice for me and I will continue with this method in the future. I would like to try experimenting with cyan, yellow, and magenta next time! Those are my 3 favorite colors, and they’re a famous trio!
That’s all for now, see you in the next one!
Again, I’d love to post full tours (or at the very least, more google drive folders!) of all my completed sketchbooks but I just lack the energy to devote to something like that right now.
So in the meantime, here are some highlights from that sketchbook I just completed tonight. That one was definitely more of a messy sketchbook, there were countless terrible doodles, but I thought these pages turned out a little better than the rest.
2/3 sketchbooks filled towards my New Year’s resolution! Just one more to go! I hope to finish up even more than 3 as I have quite a few half-finished books in my cabinet.
I recently decided I must take a new approach to my art making: I must create with only the experience of creating in mind. I must create for the sake of my own satisfaction and not get caught up in the aesthetics of others.
Obviously I’ll still have a plan of what I want to create most of the time, but I must accept and even expect for plans to change as I go along. Some of my favorite features in my favorite drawings have come from mistakes!
This new approach is why I was able to fill this 30 page sketchbook in only 3 months. I started it on December 8th and finished it this evening of March 2nd. Otherwise I would have found myself frozen by my debilitating perfectionism and afraid to make anything others might deem “ugly.” Sometimes ugly art is the most fun to create!
I actually bought this sketchbook at The Dollar Tree! I knew I didn’t need any more sketchbooks but I hadn’t started my No Buy yet and just couldn’t resist trying it out. I was actually thoroughly impressed! I have had more expensive sketchbooks of lower quality. Not that it was anything super fancy, but it certainly got the job done. I enjoyed the texture of the paper and it took to all of my supplies much better than I would have expected.
Don’t let YouTube sketchbook tours fool you, most artists do not create only finished pieces. Most of us doodle and explore, making mistakes and messes. Some people keep sketchbooks that are only for finished pieces while simultaneously keeping a private sketchbook for scribbles.
On to the next one! Happy doodling 🙂
It’s always a special day when I finally fill a sketchbook from front to back.
I almost exclusively work in sketchbooks because they’re so easy to store compared to loose papers and canvases. Whenever I make art outside of a sketchbook I generally give it away!
I noticed that my Google drive folders that contain photos of every page of my first two sketchbooks are down. I’ll have to fix that soon, but our computer is currently out of commission.
I may attempt to film sketchbook tours some day, but life is far too busy and messy to devote time to that right now. Plus my phone camera isn’t as good as I’d like it to be for something like that. I don’t even have anything that resembles a tripod!
I just wanted to pop by and share my excitement! I made a resolution to finish filling 3 sketchbooks this year, since I have so many that are partially filled. That makes 1 down and 2 more to go, and it’s only the 11th of January! I’d love to fill more than 3 if possible, but we’ll see about that.
That’s also why I’ve been blogging so much more lately, I made keeping up with this blog another one of my resolutions. So far so good!
I’m happy to report that I was able to get a few doodles in during the hospital stay before our daughter was born!
Birdie was born very healthy via a semi-emergency cesarean. I was induced but failed to progress for 24 hours after my water broke, and then she was having some heart rate dips. Turns out she had the cord triple wrapped around her neck! We are very lucky that things turned out as they did, even though the whole situation was very stressful… Not to mention uncomfortable. My spinal failed so I had to go under for the surgery but luckily I was still able to meet her not long after. C-section recovery is no joke, I have never been in so much pain in my life. Luckily now I am more or less all healed up, though I do have nerve damage on my lower tummy.
She’s almost 2 months old now and doing very well so far. She is getting progressively wigglier as she trains to start walking and crawling! I can’t wait until the day she can grasp a crayon…
I actually came here to write a different post, but I realized I hadn’t updated you all on the baby situation! So here’s that. Stay tuned for another post hopefully quite soon!
Armed with my new monogrammed lidded mug and fresh home-made poppyseed bread, I made a feeble attempt at filling 9 pieces of marker paper in 24 hours or less.
I only accomplished one piece in 5 hours, most of that time spent researching references or procrastinating, and now I’m mentally exhausted!
I’ve had this idea floating around in my head lately- “wouldn’t it be fun to try to fill an entire sketchbook in a day?” And since I haven’t touched this Strathmore marker paper pad in over a year, I asked my partner if she’d like to partake in a silly challenge with me.
There were 18 sheets left in the paper pad, which I divided into 9 sheets for each of us. I thought that if we really gave it our all we could definitely get this done in 9 hours or less… Oh how naive I was! Sure, it’s only been 5 hours since we started, but I can tell for certain there is no way we will successfully fill all 18 sheets in the next 19 hours.
For starters my partner and I are both perfectionists. Part of the point of this challenge was to overcome our perfectionism, but to the surprise of absolutely no one: that’s easier said than done. Second of all, we both have ADHD! That part speaks for itself. It’s probably hard for anyone to dedicate a whole day to one activity, but it’s especially so with ADHD in the mix. And lastly… Making art takes so much mental energy!! I was hoping we would really let loose and just do some really bad doodles… and my partner was attempting to do just that… She still ended up calling it a day after two sheets full of thumbnail sketches. I got totally sucked into wanting to make something that looked good, so in the same amount of time I only accomplished one piece. At the very least my partner got down several different ideas!
Despite all of that, I’m so happy we decided to take on this silly challenge! It got us to draw, it got us to start using up materials that have just been collecting dust, and it got our creativity flowing. We probably won’t fill up all 18 sheets in 24 hours, but even then the challenge still accomplished exactly what I hoped it would!! A very successful “failure” from my perspective.
I went into this challenge with very low expectations, knowing full well that this exact scenario might occur. I accepted the possibility of failure in advance and gave it my all anyway, and in doing so I was able to do more than I probably would have today otherwise.
It’s better to quit 15 minutes into the race than to never pass the starting line in the first place! Trophies for participation might be unnecessary, but I find that participation and the experience that comes with it is it’s own reward.
We will still try to fill up this paper pad as quickly as we can, perhaps modifying it to another “fill one page or more a day” challenge like we’ve done in the past. Definitely more manageable and a lot less pressure!!! Maybe one of these days I’ll be able to succeed at a sketchbook-in-a-day challenge, but I’m content with today not being that day.
Since I’m nearing the end of my pregnancy, I’ve been having loads of doctor’s appointments. At this point it’s a weekly occurrence, so that means lots of time spent waiting in the waiting room, and then waiting in the office between being triaged and actually seeing the doctor. The best way to pass the time is to whip out my tiny sketcher and just doodle the minutes away!
I bought a brand-new watercolor sketchbook (a Strathmore visual journal) a week or two ago, but I hadn’t gotten it “dirty” until today. I did some swatching and testing in the back of it, but until I actually create art in a new sketchbook I don’t consider it to have been started.
It’s been a long time since I’ve really tried to paint something that looks like anything, so I decided to take it easy and start with something simple. I recently watched some YouTube watercolor videos for inspiration, and decided to take the abstract florals route. I ended up painting the pink flowers in a patterned spacing by accident so I went with it.
Had a lot of fun making this piece. My partner is impressed by it too, and her reaction made me very happy.
I practically haven’t drawn in months. I did a little bit of vent art earlier on in the year, and then a little bit of doodling here and there on my 3DS, but nothing aside from that.
Now that the weather is nicer, and since my partner and I are under quarantine due to her testing positive for COVID-19, I started thinking about picking up my markers again.
Last year I did a 90 day video game “detox” during the warm months and I used that time to do a lot of drawing while lounging outside in our backyard, so I guess it’s only natural for me to associate this time of year with creating. I like allowing myself to play as many video games as I want during the cold months when I can’t spend as long outside, and then taking extended breaks from them when it warms up again.
I don’t know if I’m ready to undertake another daily drawing challenge just yet. Since she’s had COVID for about a week now and we haven’t had any symptoms yet, I’m worried it’s going to hit like a brick in the next week. Though I haven’t tested positive yet, I know I will absolutely get it because there’s no way for my partner and I to isolate ourselves from each other effectively in our current living arrangements. Getting sick would definitely make me have to postpone any challenge I take up.
If I don’t catch COVID this entire time, that will be the craziest stroke of luck I’ve ever had. Maybe it does help that we got vaccinated, even though it was only days before the COVID exposure. If I test negative again this Friday, we will be able to end our quarantine a few days later on Tuesday. If either of us start having obvious symptoms, or if I do test positive on Friday, we will be restarting the two week countdown from that day. We will be playing things incredibly safe on the 3rd week, whenever that is, only extending our freedom to large outdoor spaces and drive-thrus.
Regardless of all that, I hope to be making more art soon and posting here more often again. Stay tuned!
Ari October Art 