February is over, and I’m now done with my one sketch per day. My goal for this project was to get better at sketching. I’m not sure if I’ve accomplished that, but I did enjoy my sketching sessions. Since I kept all my sketches on my iPad, I also learned more about which tools I prefer to use, and which programs I like the best. All of the sketches that I am showing you were created in Procreate using a Sensu. Below are my favorites that I haven’t shown you yet. Enjoy!

It’s been a week, and so far, Sketchy February is going really well! I’ve only missed one day of drawing, and that was only because we had plans for all day on Saturday. By the time we got home that night, it was already Sunday. But on the good side, if I have extra time, I’ve been doing more than just one drawing. Hooray!

I had thought when I started this project, that not having any guidelines would be really good, because then I could just do whatever I want. But that is proving to be more challenging. I am struggling more with figuring out what to draw, than I am with the actual drawing! And I’m wishing that I was more of a knick-knack person, because those are really easy set ups for a quick still life. (Things to keep in mind for future projects.)

Here are three of my favorite sketches from last week:

Welcome to Sketchy February! For the month of February, I am challenging myself to do a sketch a day. My hope is that it will get me into the habit of doing at least one creative thing every day, even if it’s something really small. I also want to improve my drawing skills. I feel like they have gotten a little rusty.

So here are the two sketches that I have done so far. I know. It’s February 3rd…Where’s the third sketch? Well, I haven’t done it yet. I’m really looking forward to cuddling into bed and sketching, so I’m saving it for later tonight. Even if I am so tired that I can’t keep my eyes open, I promise myself that I will create a sketch.

In case you are wondering, I am leaving this project really wide open. So far my two sketches were done on my iPad with my Sensu, but I may switch to paper or use my computer or switch it up every day. I don’t want to limit myself and see how it turns out. I’m thinking that the less stressful I make it (trying to figure out what to draw, what medium to use, etc), the easier it will be to turn into a habit. If this goes well, I have found some ideas online that will make it a little more challenging. But that’s for the future. At the end of the month, I will post my final sketches next to these, and we can see if I improve. Wish me luck!

Sorry for the lack of posts. It’s been hectic, and I haven’t had time to do anything really creative lately. Things are slowing down a bit, so hopefully I can get back on track!

Here it is finally! The painting that I did for my friend, Kristin. She has seen it now, so I can post it for the rest of the world to see. Hope you enjoy it!

This has taken me almost two years to complete. But it wasn’t a full two years of painting. For at least the first six months, I sat in front of an empty canvas, not sure about how I should proceed. It was pretty daunting. I wanted this to be the best painting I’ve ever done, and I think that slowed my process a bit, because I agonized over what I could do and how I could make great. Once I came up with an idea, things really got moving. And then I started to move…literally. So the painting had to be taken to my mother-in-law’s house so we could show our house. After the house sold, I got the painting back, but had moving in duties to complete. And after that, I really got to work.

This is the largest painting I’ve ever done, and it was not as easy for me as smaller paintings have been. It was done with acrylic, which dries really quickly. Since the canvas is so large, I would be working on one side and blending things, and by the time I got to the other side, things would already be dry. I tried to use a medium to keep the paint wet for longer, but it seemed to only thin the paint out, so I didn’t get as good a coverage.

There were days that I could spend hours painting, and days that I had to give up quickly because I was annoyed that things were not working out how I wanted them to. Overall, I am really pleased with the painting, and I think I reached my goal of making this the best painting I’ve ever done! Hooray!

In addition to the final piece, I’m also including some photos taken mid-process. Enjoy! (You’ll have to click to enlarge them. The automatic thumbnail-making machine started at the left-side of the photo.)

A few weeks ago, I took an encaustic painting class that was offered through the Dakota County Library system. I had first seen encaustic painting at the State Fair a few years ago, and I fell in love with it! It wasn’t completely clear to me, but the painting appeared to actually be a photograph of the woods, and the wax was painted over the photograph to look like snow. (Or the artist was incredibly talented, and the photograph was really a painting!) It was beautiful! Ever since seeing that, I’ve been really interested in trying encaustic. But the price and the supplies have made me shy away from it. So when I saw that the library was offering a class, I jumped at the chance!

I’m not really sure what I was expecting, but the class was not at all like what I thought it would be. I guess I thought maybe we would have a painting that we tried to recreate or there would be more instruction. It was basically a workshop with a table of bins full of fabric, sequins, yarn, paper scraps, and other miscellaneous things. On our tables, were glue, watercolors, and scissors. There were two women who ran it, and they passed around some paintings that they did and then gave a brief instruction about how to use the wax.

I guess I thought that we would be painting with the wax, but really we were collaging or using watercolor and then preserving the collage in wax. You could paint on colored wax afterwards, but there were only three colors to choose from and not a lot of wax (which I understand because the wax is expensive, and this class was free).

I have to admit that collage and I do not get along at all. So I thought I would try it. And I thought maybe after dipping things in the wax, they would look more interesting. I was wrong. My first collage was with the leaf and the green paper. I didn’t mind it so much before I waxed it, although it does remind me of  the art they used to have nailed to the walls in Arby’s restaurants, but after the wax, I really did not like it. For this piece, I had brushed the wax on, instead of dipping the whole thing into the wax bath.

So for next piece, I decided that the wax bath was the way to go. I grabbed an old National Geographic and found a lovely, dated photo of a woman with huge, oversized glasses. I decided that for this piece, I would go all out, glue all sorts of things together and then wax it. I think that I started out trying to make it look cool, but then gave up and decided to go as ugly as I could. In that way, I think I was very successful! After dipping the piece in wax, I was hoping to maybe scratch the wax off a bit and get a texture, but the scratching really didn’t show up well.

Overall I think the class was good, I think it was just not my kind of art. It had more of a scrapbooky-crafty type feel to it. I think a lot of people can make some amazing scrapbooks and craft things, I’m just not that person. And that’s ok with me. On the good side, I did realize during this class that the supplies I have to make candles could also be used to do encaustic painting. I think if I were to paint and use the wax as a medium, instead of just for preserving, I may like it more. And since the colored wax is so expensive, it might be fun to mix my own things into wax to get something colored. We’ll see though. I’ve got so many projects I want to start, and I’m not sure if encaustic will be high on my list.