Digital Mandalas

One of the good things that came out of having cancer en going for treatments and such was me getting into digital drawing. I needed something to pass the time during travel and waiting and I needed it to be fun and compact. I also wanted to learn a new skill. All these things combined led to me buying an iPad and learning both Sketchbook Pro and Procreate. 

Before I started I wasn't sure if I would like digital drawing all that much. I had tried before in the past and back then it never really stuck with me. But times have changed and apps have changed and the Apple Pencil did make all the difference. I fell absolutely in love with it. 

One of the first things I tried to get the hang of was making mandalas. Especially Sketchbook Pro has wonderful options for this, better even than Procreate even though as a whole I like that app better. 

So here are a bunch of mandalas I did when I slowly became more familiar with digital drawing.

It was a lot of fun to play with colors and different colored backgrounds. I also like how you can see that I started with very simple mandala's and they became a bit more intricate as I got along. 

A lot of these were made on the ferry, in coffeeshops or in waiting rooms. It sure helped kill time in a pleasant way and in general I think it's a good idea to use all this 'empty' time for something fun and expressive. 

Hope you are doing something enjoyable for yourself and wishing you all a wonderful and artsy day. 

Seals in winter

When I picked up this blog again it was clear I would not be able to catch up on everything that I made or took pictures of over the fourteen months of my absence. But some things I just cannot not show you, if you know what I mean.

One of those things happened last winter when a lot of seals were found on the beach. This happens pretty much every winter when the seal pups are born. If a storm hits they are not strong enough to swim back to the place they usually live and they stay on our beach until they are. Sometimes that's just one or two seals, sometimes it's a dozen, it's different every year. December 2019 was a good time to go seal watching, so here are some pictures I took during that time.

This is not a wounded seal, it's the umbilical cord, so this one is very very young. 

All these were taken with my zoom camera from a safe distance. It's important not to get too close to them. It causes stress and can even make a mother abandon her pup. Tourists often feel bad for the pups when they see them lying all alone, but nine out of ten times the mother is out in the sea to hunt for food for her young.

Also, if you get too close to the adult seals, you may live to regret it. People tend to forget they are fierce predators, and not to be messed with. 

But it sure is a wonderful sight to behold. 

You can see in some cases there is green spraypaint on the pups, this is a signal for the people who keep an eye on them, that a certain pup has been spotted before and doesn't need to be reported again. It means they will be taken care of if the mother doesn't return. 

Having these seals on our island every year keeps being special and I enjoy it every time. 

Hope you have something to be fascinated by and wishing you a wonderful and artsy day. 

From the Collage Book

I have a very colorful scrapbook in which I do collage from time to time. Not often, but I do like working in it a lot. It's a spiral book that I bought years ago at Paperchase.

When I was recovering from surgery last year, for weeks on end I couldn't really focus on anything, but when I finally felt ready to go into the studio again, collage was one of the first things I tried to do. It's such a relaxing way to do art, just a lot of mixing an matching. I don't plan out anything, I just  let them happen.

So here are some collages from what I call my 'Colorful Collage Book'.

Recently I looked back at these collages and it occurred to me how they (and my many collage cards) always seem to have this theme of living the good life and looking for beauty and calm. These are indeed things I think about a lot and aspire to.

It by no means means that I am a very calm en together person. Like my patterns teach me patience, these collages sort of teach me about peace of mind. It's probably something I will have to work on for the rest of my life. :-)

Hope you are doing something that brings you joy and focus and wishing you a wonderful and artsy day.

Radiotherapy Project

Late August to late September 2019 I had my radiotherapy sessions. It meant going back and forth to the main land for five days a week for five weeks straight. Before it started I was not looking forward to all the travel, but it turned out to be a strangely calm and orderly time. It helped of course that I felt good and suffered only very mild side effects.

What also helped were coffee houses, drawing on the iPad and a little photography project where I took black and white photographs of my trips. Mostly in Leeuwarden where the institure for radiotherapy was situated, but some were taken in Harlingen and one is of the ferry in the early morning before I left from the island.

Here are some pictures from that little personal project.

It was good for me to have more things to focus on than just the treatments and to fill all the waiting time with creative endeavours. Even when your world feels very small you can broaden it by looking around you. I helped me a lot.

Hope you are broadening your personal world a little everyday and wishing you a wonderful and artsy day.

Morning art and not so much morning art

Before the whole cancer ordeal I was for a long time very much into morning art. The idea was to draw or  paint or do anything creative for half an hour right after getting up and before breakfast. In the past year I had to drop that for a long time and wasn't sure if I would pick it up again.

I did draw in the morning art sketchbook from time to time and recently I have actually been trying to get my habit going again. So here are some pattern drawings from my morning art book of which some were  done randomly and others were actually done as morning art.

Morning art is still a wonderful type of meditation for me, but I am less strict about it than in the past. I do it because it is enjoyable and calms my mind before a busy day (or even a not so busy day).

The first four were drawn with Stabilo 68 pens and the last four with Crayola Supertips. I bought the Crayola because they have a larger colour range. I have the 100 set. I like them, but they are not the same quality as the Stabilo's which come in 48 colours. I wish the latter would make more colours. A girl can dream...

Hope you are cherishing some creative habits and wishing you all a wonderful and artsy day.