Creativity: Week 5 2024 - Mini Paintings = Joy

Week 5: Forgiveness - I choose not to punish myself for my failures, instead learn how to do things differently. (SoulSistersToo - Soulfilled)

Intention Setting: Spirit please assist me in finding peace and acceptance as I learn how to do things differently. 

I am yet to begin physically creating my next artwork series. Previously I would have pushed myself to start, even knowing I was not ready to begin. In the past this has led to many hours of frustration and feelings that my work is not good enough. Joyless creating. 

In choosing to do things differently this month I chose to revisit creating Teacup Flower paintings. Mini little watercolour and ink illustrations that fill me with joy. 

Watercolour Paper - What Side Do I Paint On?

Which side of watercolour paper do I paint on?
As I pulled out a huge sheet of watercolour paper (size A2) I wondered what side do I paint on? Is there a right and wrong side? 

I looked at the paper and the answer wasn't obvious. I knew that my cold pressed watercolour paper had a rough side and a smoother side but what about hot pressed watercolour paper?

So off to google I went.

First, I wondered about watermarks on paper. Using my light box I discovered that 1 of my 3 pieces of paper had a watermark. Then as I read more I found out that this is not necessarily an indicator of the 'right' side. 

Secondly, I discovered that sometimes the page that is on the top of a pad or block of watercolour paper is not necessarily the 'right' side either.

In fact what I discovered was very freeing. It does not matter what side you paint on. There is no 'right' or 'wrong' side of watercolour paper. 

The Inspiration of a New Calendar

The festive season is over, I've opened a new calendar and January 2020 is here. 

Questions and thoughts begin to flow around the topic of goals, the word of the year, what my calling is and most importantly what marks will I make on that blank page.

The first week or two of January have been about planning.

• Participating in the Woman Unleashed (Amber Kuileimaijai Bonnici) online retreat Solstice and the Schulman Art (Miriam Schulman) workshop about The Art of Art Journaling. 
• Brainstorming goals of 2020.
• Refining the goals list into actionable, bite sized goals.
• Selection of my word of the year. MOTIVATED
• Reading and journaling about My Dream Life with the kikki.K (Kristina Karlsson) book Your Dream Life Starts Here. 

Now I'm feeling more focused and ready to paint with watercolour again. But as always after a break in creating with a specific medium (I'd been using acrylic paint in my art journal not watercolours) the fear of the blank page hits me.

March Suitcase Rummage (Art, Not Apart)

The first Suitcase Rummage of the year was part of the Art, Not Apart program and the art stalls were located in the West Courtyard on Phillip Law Street. 

We (hubby and I) found a lovely shaded spot for the day under the trees and I had lots of time to relax and fall into the flow of creativity.

At this stall a new range of cards were available and a few new original artworks were for sale, including: Baby Blue (the original artwork is going to a great grandchild), Hope (the Dove and Olive painting), Easter Wreath and Purple Egg. This market was also the first time two of my original A3 silhouette illustrations were available for sale: Raining Cats & Dogs I and Tightrope Hens I. 

New Cards for March 2019

At this Saturday's Suitcase Rummage during Art,Not Apart I will be releasing four new cards. 
My stall will be open between 1pm to 7pm, in the New Acton Precinct. I will probably be in the Suitcase Art section in the West Courtyard on Phillip Law Street. Map here.

Baby Blue and Easter Wreath
Hope and Purple Egg

All of these new cards are printed on 100% post-consumer recycled, uncoated paper. 

The first new illustrated card is Baby Blue. Baby Blue came to life during my daily drawing series, 100 Days of Circles. Baby Blue is snuggled in a blue starry night blanket inside a woven brown bassinet basket.  

This is a draft of Baby Blue -
I think that the version
with white stars and clothing,
and lighter hair is a better composition.

The second and forth cards were both designed with Easter in mind. 

Easter Wreath, is an echo of my Christmas Card (my first printed card in 2017). In this card I wanted to show the traditional theme of spring, the daffodils combined with Easter Eggs. 

While, Purple Egg, is a homage to my silhouette illustration style and a painting that I gave to my sister as her 2017 Christmas Present. I have taken her bunny and given him an egg to celebrate Easter.

Christmas Bunny 2017 (cropped)

The final new illustrated card is Hope. Hope came from the Sketch Book Skool - A Drawing A Day word list and was my second illustration for 2019. Hope always makes me think of Noah's Ark and hence the motif of a dove holding an olive branch. Additionally, olives are grown in the gardens near where I live, so it links back to some of my other New Acton Precinct inspired artworks: Red/Yellow Chair, Butterfly and Beehive, from my Garden Series 1. 

A sketch of a dove that developed into Hope.

I hope that you enjoy these new cards as much as I enjoyed creating them. 

Keep an eye out in April for some new illustrations that I am currently working on that will become a new series of illustrated cards.

Cats in Bed - Drawing Lab

One of the new books that I bought recently was Drawing Lab for Mixed-Media Artists by Carla Sonheim.

The first activity was to sketch lots of cats while in bed. I chose a few of my favourites and added water colour, pencil and ink to the illustrations. To see each cat illustration go to my Art Gallery.

My Practice Inspired by the Sketchbook Revival

Frenetic
Fun
Fabulous
Freeing

These four words are what I would use to describe my experience of the 2018 Sketchbook Revival: An Online Workshop created by Karen Abend.

It was quite a task to complete the 24 workshops that ran for two official weeks - with a 2 week catch up period. Each day there were two sessions to learn new techniques and mediums from a range of artist's that work towards sketching daily. Each session's video length was around one hour, so on top of the viewing time I spent extra time stopping and starting the videos, following the process to create my own sketchbook pages.
See my sketchbook revival creations later in this post.

Reflection On Workshop

It is now a few weeks since I finished the workshops and I'm really pleased that I took the time to immerse myself in developing my craft's; skills and techniques. Many of the workshops aligned with other creative practices that I am currently following ie: The Artist's Way by Julian Cameron and the Jen Storer's, Scribbles online creative writing course.

Jump

The theme of this week's Character Design Weekly Challenge is Jump/Stomp (Week 3).

I have illustrated a kangaroo jumping over the farm fence.

When my family lived on the farm I used to view this daily occurrence from the kitchen window.

This kitchen window view inspired the idea in my picture book ms of the little dog playing chases with the kangaroos.

Below are the individual images of each kangaroo illustration.

Toddler

This is my illustration for the Character Design Weekly Challenge Week 2: Toddler/Baby.

Over the last week I have been working my way through the Nina Rycroft online classes for faces and body proportions. While this illustration is still very static I am showing progress in being able to draw the face and proportions of the body. 

Plus I  have included one of the toy rabbits that I illustrated a few weeks ago.

I'm hoping the toddler with the toy rabbit will appear in the illustrations of the picture book that I am working on.

Those of you who are familiar with the coloured illustrations from the SCBWI 2017 Storytime Exhibition will notice that I have used the same colour palate for this toddler illustration.

Below is an image of my preparatory work for this illustration. I have used blue pencil as part of my initial sketching process. Utilising the teardrop shaped head and quartering line on the head for proportions of the face. I also draw in the skeleton and body to give the clothes some structure to hang on.

A Bunny Infestation in Leanne's Drawings

I have been surrounded by rabbits the last few weeks and they are multiplying.

Like in nature you begin with a few bunnies and then their numbers explode.

It began with my sister wishing for an Christmas Bunny. (5 rabbits)
It then spread into the PET theme for the first week of the Character Design Weekly Challenge. (17 more rabbits) Continuing through to the Nina Rycroft online classes, The Art of Bunnies in Books. (add 60 more rabbits)
A total of 82 rabbits in the last month.

Oh there was also copying 21 rabbit faces from picture books. I spent a morning looking at the shapes of difference rabbit character's faces.
Grand total of 103 rabbit drawings.

Plus the viewing of rabbit photos on Pixabay and rabbit videos from YouTube.

Cute Baby Wild Rabbits Discover Spring
Cute Wild Baby Rabbits want a Feed / Wildlife in My Backyard

Christmas Bunny

Week 1 PET
Character Design Weekly Challenge

Leanne's copies of Nina's Rabbit and Easter Celebration Illustrations

Leanne's Toy Rabbit Illustrations

Illustration Goals for 2018 - Character Design

In 2018 I want to create illustrations where I focus on developing characters. I want these illustrations to go towards an illustration portfolio that I can present for appraisal then to show to publisher in 2019.

With this in mind I joined the illustrating group Character Design Weekly Challenge on 8 December 2017, this Facebook group was started by Heidi Cooper Smith on 5 December 2017. Already it is a fabulous supportive community.

I also plan to join the Nina Rycroft online classes via Skillshare. I have been wanting to do these classes for 6 months now and I look forward to learning drawing techniques to further develop my own illustration style.

I have been working on my watercolour and B & W, hen and duck illustrations for several months now and upon a request from my little sister it has culminated into this new rabbit character.

Painting By Numbers

David Stuart

I always thought that painting by numbers was a commercial way to help non-artists paint.

I was wrong, totally wrong. I came to this realisation as I listened to David Stuart, former Australian Ambassador to Austria, talk about Ferdinand Lukas Bauer at the National Library of Australia on 20 October 2017.

Around the time of this talk I was mixing my own paints and unintentionally giving them numbers. I used these mixed  watercolours for my illustrations and then used the numbers to help me create hand painted copies of my own work.

Ferdinand Lukas Bauer.
Ferdinand was born in Feldsberg, Austria in 1760 and died in Vienna in 1826.

I found it intriguing how his life was touched by botany and art time and time again. Maybe this is because I find myself drawn again and again to Australian botanical watercolour artists; Dorothy English Paty  and Cheryl Hodges. It might also be the influence of  Australian writer and illustrator May Gibbs on my childhood and shadowing me and my aspirations to be a children's book author and illustrator. Or it could even be my own love of botany from 10 years of running a Landcare group and identifying native flowers on people's properties.

SCBWI Story Time Exhibition Originals for Sale.

The following illustrations are available for purchase; 

Bantam's Books x 1, Riding High x 1 and Red Door x 1. 

Size: A4 (21 x 30 cm) - illustration size 13 x 18 cm

Medium: Watercolour and ink on paper.

       Cost: Unframed, $40 each + Free postage in Australia.

I can accept Direct Deposit only.

I cannot guarantee delivery before Christmas.

If interested please contact me - see sidebar on the web version of my website.  

Christmas Wreath

This is the bonus challenge, Christmas card illustration for the 52-Week Illustration Challenge.

Choosing and Mixing Colours for Illustrations

How do you choose the colours for your illustrations?
Do you make choices at random or from photos?
Where does your inspiration come from?

In September 2017 I attended the SCBWI ACT - Level Up Conference where author and illustrator, Tania McCartney, revealed that she liked the colours in the TV show 'Bewitched' and these colours are featured in one of her books.

Tania also spoke about colour sequence in picture books, choosing colours from reference images and paint swatches. She suggested that we use a limited palette for each book, creating a combination of mixed colours to give the illustrations in the book a consistent look.

Bantam's Bookshop

This is the illustration for the week 41 of the 52-Week Illustration Challenge.

Swing

52-Week Illustration Challenge: Week 29: Swing
This week I wanted to focus on doing a more 'illustrative' type of picture. The illustration is a girl swinging off a rope into water.

See the 52-week Illustration Challenge page for more information about this art work that I have created.

Why do some artists produce work sporadically?

Card and Envelope
Gigantic Lilly (Doryanthes excelsa), Newcastle, 6 Nov 1835

Ever wondered about the number of works that a female artist produces?

This thought struck me during a recent talk by Treasurers Curator, Nat Williams at the National Library of Australia (NLA), Life and Death - Dorothy English Paty's Newcastle. 

So how many works do artists produce? 
Some artists create works daily, called by their creative need to create continuously. While other artists create sporadically or they express their artistic ability creating less traditional productions.

I wonder if the amount of work that an artist produces and whether we consider ourselves artists could be directly linked to our artistic pursuits towards the end of our high school education? Maybe at this point of our artistic endeavours we could be categorised into three main groups of artistic pursuits. 

1. You were discouraged to pursue your art interest at school beyond year 10 and were told to pick something else as 'Art is not a real subject.'  
2. You studied art for your High School Certificate but followed other pursuits after school.
3. You continued your artistic pursuits well beyond your school years.

If you categorise yourself in groups one and two you have probably dipped in and out of your artistic pursuits, letting less traditional artistic productions be the expression of your creativity.

Bush Countryside

52-Week Illustration Challenge: Week 27: Bush Countryside

There were a lot of ideas swirling around in my head for this theme. The distant hills, the mid-ground of farmland with its lone paddock tree and leaning on fences made out of wood from local trees are very strong images for me. We may have farmed sheep but a lone cow seemed right for this illustration.

See the 52-week Illustration Challenge page for more information about this art work that I have created.

Dinosaurs from the Past

52-Week Illustration Challenge: Week 25: Past

This week I had firm idea that I wanted to paint a pair of dinosaurs and when I sat to sketch the idea was already fully formed in my mind.

See the 52-week Illustration Challenge page for more information about this art work that I have created.