inktober #3

inktober day number three.   prompt: "collection"

oh.my.goodness, how i struggled with this!

(and as i sit here staring at this photo, i see so much that needs work!)

i am waaaay far away from my comfort zone 

with this "ink only" rule, and it's painful.

yeah, i know, "no pain, no gain",  but

do you think anyone would notice if i picked up my mechanical pencil

and got out my watercolors.....just for a tiny second?  :))

the majority of artwork on this page was created with

my Pentel pocket brush pen, and the lines were softened a bit

with a waterbrush.  other details were added with a micron .005

see you tomorrow.....xox

inktober #2

it's inktober day number two!

here's my take on our challenge prompt of "noisy".....

and these are the ink supplies i used!

xox

you can find more info about inktober here!

{supplies:  j. herbin ambre de birmanie fountain pen ink, 

pilot flair pen, crayola marker, black uni pin}

inktober

a new calendar page has turned,

and that means it's time for one of the biggest drawing challenges

in cyberspace known as "InkTober"!

to quote its founder, jake parker, 

"Every October, artists all over the world take on the InkTober

drawing challenge by doing one ink drawing a day the entire month."

the rules are easy:

you create a drawing using the ink of your choice.....

then you post it online with an inktober2016 hashtag.

now just repeat for the next 31 days.  gulp.

so here's my inktober drawing for day one, 

with the prompt being "fast".....

which i find rather ironic as i sit here writing this at 5:30 p.m.,

just barely getting it posted before a new day begins!  

:))

would you like to join in on the challenge?

you can read more about it here on jake's site!

{supplies:  aqua bee sketch paper, pitt pens, crayola markers}

celebrate today

sometimes the best way to solve the

"i-don't-know-what-to-draw dilemma"

is to look around and document 

all those things that surround you every day.

some of them might seem a little humdrum,

but it's always great practice and sometimes quite challenging!

i mean, who knew i'd get stuck….and do a lot of erasing!…. 

trying to draw a hairbrush!

(thankfully, i had less trouble drawing the chocolate….

it's a subject i'm very familiar with….heeheehee)

here's to celebrating all the little things….

and a big thank you to danielle donaldson for such great inspiration

through her "storybooks and studious girls" class….i'm having a ball!

{and my celebration continues today, as i've been featured in Dasherie, 

a beautiful publication devoted to the lettering arts!  

i'm thrilled, honored, and very thankful to be included in the Summer issue,

where so many fabulous artists have had their artwork showcased!

all orders for this gorgeous magazine that are placed today will 

ship tomorrow….all those placed after today will ship the first week 

in August.  you can read more info here!}

{journaling supplies:  stillman&birn beta series journal, .3 HB pencil}

chair party

little tiny chairs (some no bigger than a quarter)
all together on one page so they can
mix and mingle and get to know each other a little better.

let the party begin!


{supplies:  stillman & birn beta series journal, watercolor, .3 pencil}

inspiration monday

i went out on a "retail safari" the other day and found this new grid paper pad.   i know it seems a bit kooky to get excited about a pad of paper with lots of non-repro-blue boxes on it, but i'll openly admit i absolutely love me a grid!  and once i added a new pencil to the mix, inspiration wasn't far behind…..

because before i knew it,  i was doodling fun letters and little swirlies…..

along with some whimsical little scallop banners…..

and other things straight from the heart.

but what surprised me was this little girlie.  i don't normally draw people, or pencil-shaded trees, and i don't know anyone named phoebe…..but here she is with her hair blowing in the breeze and a basket on her arm!

which just goes to show…..when you go on retail safari,  you never know where inspiration is going to lead you with all your new supplies!  

p.s.  and speaking of retail safari,
i also picked up the mar/april issue of Somerset Studio magazine…...

thank you, christen,  for the absolutely beautiful feature!!  xox
(i. am. SO. excited!!!)


{supplies:  bienfang grid paper, 6B uni pencil}

a sketchbook, some wisdom, and tape man

The Sketchbook Stories from Art House Co-op on Vimeo.

meet Joop.

he's the creator of "tape man".

drawing is one of his favorite things to do.....

and he also gives really great advice.

{oh, and he'll absolutely steal your heart.  no doubt about it.}

you can watch this in larger format here.

inspiration monday

a few days ago i had a small chunk of creative time,  and i wanted to make the most of it,  but i had a tough time getting started.  so here are a few questions i asked myself to help get some creative juices flowing....

my first question was:
 "do i want to draw or paint?"

the answer:  draw - yes,  paint - no.

the second question was,
"what supply do i want to use with the answer to number one?"
the answer:  my favorite mechanical pencil.

question number three was,
"do i want to draw on blank paper, graph paper, or in my journal?"

the answer:  in my journal

and with all that decided,  now comes the tough part:  what do i want to draw?
this question will normally stump me for days,  but thankfully i've been thinking about
Easter coming up soon,  so my mind went to bunnies.  yay!  i'll draw some bunnies!

so i googled "bunny images" on the computer, and lots and lots of photos popped up...
definitely enough to fill that small chunk of time i had left to draw!  

sometimes getting started is as easy as asking yourself a few questions....  

and inspiration (along with google) will always be there to help you find the answers!


******

i'll be taking another "chunk of creative time" in late october
 to travel to new york city!
 michele at little bird creations has invited me to teach a workshop
at her manhattan studio, and i couldn't be more excited!!

if you're in the area, please join us for
"Creative Cursive"
(much like my "letterLAB" online class,
this is a one-day workshop focus on cursive lettering
for those who hate their handwriting!)

please contact michele here for all the details and registration.
i'd love to meet you and share some creative time with you!

inspiration monday

autumn is almost upon us....

but i'm still finding it easy......

to be inspired by some of my favorite summertime things!

(well, except for the pesky heat in the air that keeps melting my chocolate.....
 or maybe i'm just not eating it fast enough!  heeheehee)

{this artwork was created in a semikolon graph paper journal
using assorted graphite pencils}

inspiration monday

here's a fun way to challenge yourself by creating something with only three supplies......
you'll need a piece of paper, a pencil, and an eraser.
with your pencil, lightly draw some simple shapes onto your paper (i've drawn letters, but you can use any shape.....a flower, butterfly, circles, squares, abstract shapes, etc.).  

you can also use a stencil to pencil in your shape!

now add some texture by drawing some scribble lines all around the outside of your shape......

keep adding lots and lots and lots of little scribble lines!

(you can make some areas darker for great shadowing effects, too!)

and when you're done, you've got something that looks a little complicated, 

but it's actually quite simple!

but just to take it one step further, let's add a tiny bit of color (i know i'm breaking the
three-supply-keep-it-simple rule,  but curiosity got the best of me!).
i'm using a yellow colored pencil, but you can use whatever inspires you! 

and now i'm adding a small bit of orange colored pencil, too.

(i think the supply count is up to five now.....)

 i just added a few details here and there to keep it simple, but the sky's the limit here!
sometimes it's fun to let yourself be inspired with just a handful of supplies.....
see what you can come up with by using only three five supplies!!

{materials:  arches textwove (velin) paper, mechanical pencil,
white vinyl eraser, derwent coloursoft pencils (orange and deep cadmium)}

inspiration monday

there's a lot to be said for giving yourself permission to take a rest......i had visions of reading books, catching up with old friends, shopping at my leisure......but every time i sat down to "rest" i'd get distracted by one of the many things that needed to be done in the house, and as a result, instead of taking a breather, i'm absolutely exhausted!  one of the things i did treat myself to, though, was an inspiring girls weekend getaway to orlando for a drawing workshop taught by lettering artist kristin doty.  we started out by introducing ourselves to our pencils......

and then we got into all of that mind-bending left-brain/right-brain stuff.  kristin gave us an image that was upside down, and she told us to "draw what you see, not what you think it should be".  by seeing images as nothing more than a set of lines, it's a lot easier to draw what you see......rather than seeing something as a "face" or a "foot" (and knowing that i'll completely freak out because faces and feet are hard to draw!).

when we were finished with our drawing, (and after a mini break to quench our left-brain/right-brain with mega-quantities of chocolate) we were allowed to turn it right-side up and a sweet geisha girl was revealed!

then things got really scary interesting.....just when my left-brain/right-brain had entered the no-brain zone, the next challenge was to draw our hand.  yikes!  i have lots more shading, highlighting and general drawing to do on all those craggly lines and wrinkles.....and maybe add one more important thing......

the perfect finishing touch.......heeheehee.

{drawings done with an HB and 4B pencil.

heart added via the magic of photoshop.}

**thank you SO much for continuing to visit my blog while i was on break.  

your heartfelt comments made my day!

you are the bloggy best and i appreciate each and every one of you!!!   xox

party girl

welcome to friday......the official

put-on-your-party-hat-and-let's-get-the-weekend-started day!

woo hoo!!!

journal page finished with pencil and blending stump

the art of procrastination

staring at a blank journal page can be a little intimidating....especially after my last attempt at drawing a face.....when i finally just drew a frame around her, because she was starting to look a little too much like a member of the hair-bear-bunch....

so i stared at the page for a while, got up and ate a piece of chocolate, threw a load of laundry in the washer, vacuumed the floor, ate another piece of chocolate, made a few phone calls, stared at the blank page again.....and decided that the procrastination had gone on long enough. it was time to draw.....

and after many pencil marks, some smudging of graphite, one more piece of chocolate and lots of erasing, here's my girl....with hair!! woo hoo!! her 'do is about as simple as it gets....kind of a marlo-thomas-in-that-girl type hairstyle, minus the 60's flippity-d00-dah over the shoulders......but i'll definitely take marlo thomas over hair-bear any day!

p.s. on a different note.....thank you SO much for all of the sweet, sweet birthday wishes you sent to my little dutch boy yesterday!

you absolutely made his day!!

inspiration monday

hi. my name is lori and i'm an online-class-aholic.

i have a yearning for learning.....and there are SO many wonderful instructors out there in cyber-space to gather inspiration from, how can i resist the classes they offer?!

take pam carriker, for example......she's a very talented artist, and i truly appreciate her "you can do this" teaching style! i recently finished pam's shades of gray class, so it seemed only natural to go on to the next step with her pursuing portraits class! of course, drawing faces is waaaaay out of my comfort zone, as this is definitely something that i've never done before (unless two dots for eyes and a curved line for the smile counts as a "face"!), but pam takes it one-step-at-a-time, making it seem very do-able! and now with practice, i'm starting to feel a little more comfortable drawing the facial features.......the hair, however, is a completely different story! i have been drawing the faces, only to fail miserably when it comes to drawing the hair.....and by the time i'm finished, they all look like candidates for the state penitentiary! yikes!!! so, when i finished drawing this little face, i decided to take the easy way out and just draw a frame around her to hide the fact she was having such a bad hair day! which i know looks a little strange, but i can see that i'm going to need lots more "hair practice".....either that, or find an online class that features drawing hats..... :))

shoe encore

my sweet daughter, melissa, put in a request for shoe note cards a while back...and here, finally, is the result.   i took four of my drawings from a few months ago to make this set.  of course, now i have all kinds of ideas for new shoe series...what i really need to figure out is how to squeeze three or four more hours into my day so that i can finish all of my projects!

urn

our drawing group met yesterday and stephanie gave us a beautiful still life arrangement to draw. my eye immediately went to this fabulous urn, so that's what i started with. of course, i got so caught up with the details of the urn that i didn't have time to draw the candle stick, books and fern that went with the grouping! oh well, my simple brain gave me permission to draw just this one item, so that's what i did. and i'm happy with that.

joie de vivre

here, finally, i've added some color to one of my drawings! for this piece, i used my favorite watercolor pencils for the flower and gouache for the lettering. i really enjoy creating this type of art...it's colorful and it makes me happy!  joie de vivre!