Friday, November 29, 2019

Learning to Draw

Some of you know I have a lot of coloring books. The first one I bought was by Secret Garden, Johanna Basford.  I think it's the book that started the coloring craze.  I have most of her books, not that I have colored them all.  When I heard she was publishing a new book, I was excited until I saw it was a how to draw book titled How to Draw Inky Wonderlands.  My first thought was that I have a ton of books to color- why should I draw my own pictures?  Then I saw on her Instagram page she was going to do a free 10 day course as a companion to the book.  That sounded amazing, so I bought the book and signed up for the course.  (The course is closed now, but if you get her newsletter, she offers free tutorials from time to time)
I have no affiiation with her;  I just love her work.

So I've been spending a lot of time with pencils, paper and ink lately.  I know I posted a couple of these last time, but here's the whole story. 
 On Day 1 we learned to draw some basic flowers and a simple wreath.

 On Day 2 we added blooms and a bee to a page in the book.

 On Day 3 we drew a lovely grid of different flowers to use in our own inky garden.

 On Day 4 we moved on to the ocean part of the book, and made some cute fishies. 

 On Day 5 we learned abut creating symmetrical designs.

 On Day 6 we added fishies and seaweed to a page in the book. 

 On Day 7- the day before Halloween, we used our symmetry skills to create sugar skulls.  I copied mine onto another page and colored him in to use as a holiday decoration in my office!

 On day 8 we moved on to the forest section and drew some sweet little birds.

 Day 9 was another symmetry lesson, where we created a leafy bug.


On the last day we learned to create a lovely circular design that could be adapted for use in greeting cards, invitations, thank you notes....  I goofed up the lines in the center on this one, but the beauty of her technique is that you copy the original design using thin paper so you can change the details if you want!


So, since the course ended, I have kept up with the drawing, and have been following along in the book to gain skills she didn't have time for in the 10 days we had. 


I loved this little drawing I did during some down time at work so much...


...I colored it right away!












A lot of days are just practicing different basic components, or trying new designs. 
combinations of flowers and leaves
simple borders

Posies

Bugs

 More borders

This is a page in the book where she had drawn the simple leafy wreaths, and the reader is invited to add details.  I had fun with it, and colored them right away.  

 I tried a full page drawing the other day.  When I traced it, I realized I had left a sort of path through the middle.  (OOPs- sideways.  My photo editor and I are having disagreements lately.  Sorry)
 So I went back to the pencil drawing and tried again. 
Still not perfect, but I learned something and have a nice picture to color!

Think you could never draw pictures like these?  I did too.

A week or so after the course ended, she announced she was going to attempt to do the world's largest drawing as a way to inspire everyone to pick up a pencil and draw something .  She asked Instagram followers to draw on post-its as a way to show support for her.  These are the ones I did.

 
 She succeeded!  On November 18, in 12 hours, she drew a picture over 5,000 square feet.

I should be knitting socks, or Christmas gifts.  But for now, I'm enjoying my daily doodling time. Like the coloring, it is meditative and relaxing.


I am grateful for:
A new pastime that is giving me great joy.
My family.
The beast is almost finished!!  (Stay tuned)
A day with my BFF.
Any day I wake up without a headache. 



Tuesday, November 5, 2019

Does anyone read blogs anymore?

I keep posting here, because I feel like it makes me try to get things done, so I have things to show.  But I don't think anyone comes over here anymore- except the spammers, who try to leave comments.  And I suppose the people who try to piggyback on sites to look  legitimate?  (I read an article about it some time ago)

 So, it's been a month again since I posted.  I was waiting for October weather, which finally arrived.   The leaves changed slowly, then all at once, then they were gone.  I found this in the garden one sunny afternoon. Milkweed pods.
 I raked leaves into the garden to protect my tender perennials, then the wind blew.  I can hope enough leaves stuck around to make a difference. 

October was a very busy month for me- as you may have guessed if you've been sitting there waiting for a new post. :-)


 I was responsible for making sure things went smoothly when Linda M Poole visited the Museum Quilt Guild last month.  She was delightful!  We all enjoyed her class, and lecture at the guild.











Since I was with her so much, she and I we had a chance to bond a little bit- even getting silly during her lecture!











And I'm pleased to say that I- who told people I am not a painter-  did this as a result of the class.  I bought supplies to do more of it- when I have time.   The appliqué- the circle- needs a background.  I don't think the one in the picture will be the one I choose, now that I'm looking at it. 











I have spent lots of time with the grands, of course.


Jon and Kiara enjoyed going to the shelter with me on a day off from school.
















And I took Kiara dress shopping for her first school dance.  Isn't she lovely?  Her aunt did her hair and makeup. 












I even had some one-on-one time with Everett.












And the big news here is I am now a (step) great-grandmother!  This is Maverick, born on what would have been my mom's 78th birthday.  I won't be part of his life, since they live in Colorado, but it was a nice connection!













There's one more new addition to our family.  Thanks to Jon telling Papa we had to keep her, I adopted one of my foster babies.
This is Enola.  Now I have two white cats.  I have also bought a few new lint brushes- it was either that or toss my wardrobe and wear only pastels.  Ugh



She has decided a quilt wadded up on the sewing table is a great place to sleep.














For the last couple of weeks, I have been enjoying an online drawing class, given by Johanna Basford.  I'm looking at these drawings and feeling pretty amazed that I did them.  I need a lot more practice, which will be easy since I am enjoying it so much!








I spent some time yesterday coloring this one.  I laughed about drawing my own coloring pages, because I have umpteen coloring books!











So, that's what's new.  I keep saying I need to limit the things I do since my time is so limited these days.  I just can't find things I want to give up.   sigh.


Please please please- pay attention, get the facts, SHARE the facts.  Don't keep quiet about all the things that are wrong in our world.  And learn to talk to people with whom  you may disagree.  We all need to find a way to work together.  Nothing is getting done, except the things being done for the wrong reasons by the greedy and evil people.  And make your voice heard- with your money, with your social media, with  your VOTE!


I am grateful for:
Staying inside to sew weather.
A happy kitty on my lap (at all times these days!)
Long chats with the kids who live far away.
A new skill that gives me great pleasure.
Hugs, always.