From the Sketchbook

My Fabriano Sketchbook doesn't get used as much as I would like, but I think that's the case with all of my books. I just have too many of them and my creative interests are just too varied. But every now and then I do manage to fill a page or two in all of them.

Here are some spreads that I filled recently in the sketchbook:

Shells in graphite pencil and a girl in coloured pencil. (The girl I already showed you before in a step by step post here.)

Attempts at sketching my assistant.

The same shells as above in watercolour and my Remy stuffed toy that my family gave me years ago.

Every time I actually take the time to draw something from life I wonder why I don't do it more often, because it's really enjoyable and even though not everything is great (who knew shells were so hard to capture?) I like having a record of things that speak to me visually. Even with all the time I have (and I have loads of it) it seems there just aren't enough hours in the day. But maybe that's a good thing. I know I will never ever get bored! ;-)

Wishing you all a wonderful and artsy day.

From the Doodle Book

Every time I post the progress of one of my coloured doodle drawings on Facebook one or two people will comment on my patience and how they have none. Well, let me just inform you that I am not a patient person either. I would love for these drawings to be done in like half an hour and move on to the next. In fact when I'm in the middle of one I often wonder why I'm doing these at all. They really take me out of my comfort zone.

But that's kind of the point of them (that and just that I like the result): they are a training in patience. They are the paper version of embroidery (even though that takes even more patience, at least for me). I am someone who is very result oriented as much as I hate to be that way. So this kind of work is teaching me about quality over quantity and about living the process instead of focusing on 'productivity'. In the end productivity should be measured in the time spent enjoying art and making things and not in the amount of pages filled or work produced.

Here are two of my latest doodle drawings:

These drawings measure 25x25 cm (that's 10x10 inches). They were both drawn with Stabilo 68 felt tip pens and coloured in with coloured pencils. The pictures (especially the close ups) make the pencils seem a bit less opaque than they really are. They actually give quite a nice overall coverage.

I hope you are testing your patience in an artsy way and enjoying it too. Wishing you a wonderful day!

Snow!

If you've been reading this blog for a while you know I am a big lover of winter and you also know that over the past two years we've had very little of it over here. But...Thursday we actually had some snow and it was also actually cold enough to still be there on Friday. And since Friday is a no work day for me, off to walking I went. Of course I brought my camera too, so I could take you all along with me. You're welcome.

Now as you can see there wasn't a truck load of the white stuff, but at least I was able to capture and enjoy a little winter this year. As I'm writing this most of it has already melted away again, but at least I have the pictures to prove it was really there.

Wishing you all a wonderful and artsy weekend!

A painting a day....

I have started a new personal project. I call it Morning Paintings (in Dutch it's 'Ochtendschilderingen', which actually sounds a bit more poetic). It was a very spontaneous decision to start these and I'm not even sure why I did, but I do know how it came about. Let me fill you in:

This is the Seawhite of Brighton Eco Sketchbook that I am using for the paintings.

A while back I bought my first sample of Uppercase Magazine when I was in Amsterdam. I very much enjoyed an article about Jennifer Orkin Lewis (aka August Wren). It was about her daily painting project. She does a painting in a sketchbook every single day and has been doing so for over a year now. You can see her sketchbook work here. I dare you not to fall in love.

17 January 2015 (on the inside cover I write the dates and subjects of the paintings and where I painted them)

Her work reminded me of one of my artistic heroes Maira Kalman whose very outspoken gouache paintings I absolutely adore. Now here's the funny thing: as much as I like their work and as much as I admire Jennifer's daily discipline and Maira's work ethic, neither of them truly made me want to do daily paintings of my own.

#1 - My first painting - good morning indeed!

Oddly enough the one who 'made me do it' was Pam Garrison! She put op this post on her blog. It was about her wanting to do a painting and a pattern every day (she's more ambitious than me).

18 + 19 January 2015

I don't know why this made things click inside of me, but since January 17 I've been painting every single morning! I think my approach is quite similar to Jennifer's: I work mainly with gouache, I just fill a page and I try to take no more than about 30 minutes to do it, although sometimes I do take more time.

#2 - This is a place on the island called Kooisplek  as seen through the trees.

I don't really have any rules except to fill the page and to do it every morning, preferably before anything else (otherwise it just won't happen). I'm not calling this a 365 project or anything like that, because that is way too intimidating. I don't even know if I will keep painting, I might switch to some other thing at some point. I'm just taking it one day at a time.

#3 - A pattern with ovals and dots.

To start off I picked a very simple sketchbook by Seawhite of Brighton (because their paper is very allround). It's A5 in size and has only 32 pages. My first goal is simply to fill that sketchbook. I figured that whatever happens I can at least say I filled an entire sketchbook with paintings in a month. I'm over halfway through right now. ;-)

20 + 21 January 2015

This project has already withstood some challenges as I've been to the mainland for four days in the past three weeks already, so on those days I can't paint at home. Gouache is not too practical to take with you, so for those days I have used my pocket sized watercolour box and that works perfectly. Can you see me getting up early in a hotel just so I can paint?

#4 - The babushka's on my table cloth put the Kate Bush song in my head.

That's the other cool part about this. I actually want to get up so I can paint! That's pretty revolutionary for a person who does not like getting up early, haha. Even on my already early start workdays (I start work at 7.00 am!) I get up extra early so I can a paint and I love it. Well...the painting, not the getting up. I have made some simple changes in my routine so I have a little more time in the morning and so far it's all quite manageable.

#5 - Some fantasy flowers.

How this all works out in the long run remains to be seen of course. I'm not making any promises and I'm not making any plans. I'm just enjoying it while it lasts and I'm surprised I'm already in my third week of doing this (can you tell I'm not usually very good with these kinds of commitments?).

22 + 23 January 2015

I will keep you posted on my progress. I'm thinking that no matter what, to do a painting every single morning (and they are no masterpieces mind you!) just has to make you a little better at it, so if anything this is good practice. And you do know how much I like good practice, right?

#6 - A pattern with drops, dots and dashes.

In this post you can see the results of the first week. As you can see there's no rhyme or reason to what I paint. I simply paint what I feel like painting and if that's a simple pattern that's just fine and if it's something realistic that's fine too.

#7 - An imaginary girl.

I hope you enjoyed these first paintings. More will come in future posts and I hope they will keep on coming. Keep your fingers crossed that I can keep this thing up!

Wishing you all a wonderful and artsy day!

From the Pattern Book

My Pattern Book is a continuing source of joy to me. I like working in it and I like looking through it. Just the thought that I drew all these colourful patterns makes me happy and they look so pretty together in one little book (a Moleskine sketchbook)!

Here's a selection of some of my latest patterns.

As always my patterns were drawn with a normal sized Pitt brush marker and then coloured in with my Pitt Big Brush markers. If you are looking for a nice marker that will go well with your Moleskine sketchbook paper (and few things go well with it has been my experience), doesn't bleed through the paper and has a good lightfastness then these are the markers you want (and no I don't get paid for saying that, haha). I love them so much and they seem to last forever. The only drawback of them is that the colour range is limited, especially compared to alcohol markers like the Copics (which I don't like at all). Nothing is ever perfect is it? ;-)

Hope you have some art materials you're in love with and that you play with them a lot.

Have a wonderful and artsy day my blogsy people!