Some very little progress with my intuitive paintings, and some doodles

I finally made some progress with my two intuitive canvases. Only very little, it was still too hot, and the heat and humidity is robbing me of all my energy. But at least I got another layer added to both paintings. I had actually worked on them a little bit in my holiday, but never got as far as posting them. So here's the earlier layers.

And here's the latest layers. It seems I had an urge to tone them down a bit, using cool colours. And I enjoyed using my new foam roller. And lots of dripping. I just love dripping. It's probably my most favourite technique.

Detail canvas #1

Detail canvas #2

I still have no idea where they are going, but I'm trying to enjoy the process and stay open, and to suppress any urge to plan and decide too much ahead (which is not always easy). Today's finally a bit cooler, and according to the weather forecast, temperatures should go down even more at the weekend, with lots of rain. Perfect for staying at home and spending the days in the studio.

I also got my "left over paint" sketchbook and white gel pen out again, and drew a mandala and some doodles.

Happy Paint Party Friday!

Summer of Colour - Finished!

It's the last week of Summer of Colour already, and I think this must be the first challenge I actually finished! I thoroughly enjoyed it, even though I was away almost half of the six weeks and had quite a bit of catching up to do. 

Week 1: Citron Green & Turquoise

Week 2: Orange & Hot Pink

Week 3: Lime Green & Purple

Week 4: Charcoal Grey & Pale Pink

Week 5: Candy Apple Red & Yellow

Week 6: Sage & Sepia

I didn't quite know what to do at the beginning of the challenge, and somehow ended up just splashing the colours on the pages of my little sketchbook and adding some doodle flowers. Because the colours aren't quite so bright in the sketchbook, I decided to do a bigger version on a sheet of watercolour paper. I liked the two versions, and decided to stick with this concept throughout the challenge. I'm glad I did, it's great to see all the six doodle paintings together, and how different they all turned out.

I can't really remember the combinations I voted for each week, but I think that whatever I voted, it never came up. Which in a way was great, because it forced me to try out colour combinations I probably would never have used myself. Especially the Candy Apple Red & Yellow was quite a challenge, as I don't like yellow at all, and although I do like red, not really in the combination with yellow. But I was positively suprised by the result, and I must admit, it turned out to be one of my favourites of the six, together with the lime green and purple one.

I'm planning to keep up these sketches by picking random combinations from magazines or wherever I see them. I probably won't do it very regularly, certainly not one a week, but it's such an excellent excercise, especially when trying out new combinations.

Linking up to Summer of Color - thank you so much Kristin for hosting this wonderful challenge! - and to the fabulous Paint Party Friday, where I can't even remember how many weeks I've now missed, but it's definitely too many.

Summer of Colour, Week 5

I wasn't too happy about this week's colour combination, Candy Apple Red & Yellow, I must admit. I like red, but yellow really is my least favourite colour, and I just wasn't convinced that the combination of the two could produce something I'd be happy with. But of course I decided to give it a go, and as the yellow wasn't a specific yellow, I decided to make the best of that and use as warm a shade of yellow as possible, bordering on light orange.

I've only come as far as finishing the sketchbook page, and preparing the background on the sheet of watercolour paper. But I'm determined to finish that one too over the weekend, and catch up with the the past two weeks too, to be ready for the final week next week.

I did the doodles only last night, and, with my head being full of all the new stuff that starting a new job brings with it, my imagination was a bit limited. So I decided to go back to one of my older designs from my trainsketches. I love these sketchbooks, they are becoming such a great source for inspiration.

I have to say that I'm quite pleased with the result. The colours work well together, and I'm glad I tried a combination I'd never would have chosen myself. Can't wait til Monday now, when the last combination will be announced (can't believe it's already the last week!). I already can't remember what combination I voted for, but I'm hoping that it's going to be one that includes blue. We haven't really had any proper blue so far, only the turquoise in week one. Anyway, still lots to catch up with, so I'd better start working.

Summer of Colour catch up

Back from my wonderful two and a half week's holiday in England, and I've got a bit of catching up to do. In the first week of Summer of Colour, I did a sketch in my sketchbook first, and then a second one on a sheet of watercolour paper. I enjoyed the different effects of the different papers and watercolours, but it also meant that I felt that I had to keep this up for the following weeks. Which is rather time consuming. I did take some watercolours and sketchbooks with me on holiday, and although I haven't been very productive, I did a page or two, and back home again, I spent today with preparing the backgrounds of this and last week's colour combination and with adding the doodle flowers on the background sheet for week two.

Week 2: Orange & Hot Pink

Week 3: Lime Green & Purple

Week 4: Charcoal Grey & Pale Pink

I found a sketchbook with a landscape doodle I did one and a half years ago, and thought it would make a nice change from the flower doodles. The flowers doodles from week two came from the same sketchbook. I didn't even know I had done these! I'm afraid the pale pink didn't turn out too pale though.

I can't wait to learn which next week's colours will be. So far, none of the combinations I've voted for has come up in the respective week, but I've thoroughly enjoyed each and every one of them. But then that's the fun of these challenges, to do something you wouldn't normaly do yourself, isn't it.

A citron green & turquoise flower garden

It's the first week of Summer of Colour, and the colour combination that got the most votes was citron green & turquoise. And as usual, with challenges, my mind immediately went totally blank when I started thinking about what to paint with these colours. I saw postings popping up everywhere, in the Facebook group, on blogs, thinking, 'ah yes, that's a good idea', and 'this techniques works well'. Blank. Then I saw Tracey's gorgeous bag (I want one!!), and thought, well that's an idea. Look around the flat for something in those colours, and just draw it. Blank.

So at the end, I decided to keep it simple. I did this flower doodle page in my little sketchbook on the train to and from work, and decided, to just paint the flowers turquoise and the background green. 

I quite liked it, so I decided to do another one, this time using proper watercolour paper and watercolours. I splashed some green and turquoise on the paper for a background, and then started doodling on top of it. It's not the most ingenious idea, but I'm in a kind of doodling mood this week, and it makes me happy, and that's good enough for me, really.

And of course, when I had finished my two little sketches, I saw all those turquoise and citon green things everywhere around me. That necklace, which I haven't worn for ages, and somehow just felt like wearing again today ( - just look at its shape!). 

My current favourite mug which I bought on my holiday in the south of England last month.

And my new notebook that I got earlier this week, and which is going to be my little "blog book", to help me get more organised with my blog, and better keep up with blogging. And the new matching pens, and the different washi tapes I already had. And my other favourite mug. Isn't it just typical!

Linking up to Summer of Colour and Paint Party Friday.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone! Can't wait what next week's colour combination will be. I might just keep going on with my water colour splashes and doodling, to save my sanity :)

Getting into the habit - Train and Lunchtime Sketches

One of my resolutions for this year was to get into the habit of (daily) sketching. As so often, it's not so much the motivation that is the problem, but time. But I discovered that I actually had a good 1 to 2 hours each day to make time for sketching - on my daily train commute and, occasionally, during my lunch time.

Yesterday, I found myself all by myself at lunch, so I used my break to quickly eat my sandwich and then spend the rest of the time happily sketching away. As subjects, I just choose whatever was within reach on my desk - scissors, pen, pencils eraser. I started with a pencil, then added pen lines in different widths until I was happy with it.

I couldn't wait to get home after work, to add some colour to it. I had used my new Derwent Sketchbook, which has beautiful, thick, white paper, and which, unlike the Moleskine sketchbooks, should take watercolours well. I just wanted to finally try it out.

I added only little colour, but I think it worked quite well. The paper is not quite like good watercolour paper, and the paint dried quiet quickly, I thought and where I used more water, I seeped a little bit through the paper. But all in all, I'm very pleased with it. It works very well for adding a touch of colour to your sketchbook drawings. It's also a good size to take with you anywhere. And it has the round edges and a rubber band to hold it closed. I love sketchbooks with round edges!

Drawing in the train is a bit more challenging, especially the evening one is extremly wobbly. So I'm just doing sketches of pattern, or fantasy flowers. It's quite addictive, and the time passes so quickly. I'll add some colour to these during the weekend.

Linking this up to the fabulous Paint Party Friday. Go and have a look at all the fabulous work there, it's always so inspiring.

Runny nose, daytime tv & doodles

It's been going around for quite a while, and it really was just a question of time until it was my turn. And now it finally caught up with me, and brought me down, that nasty cold. So I've spent the last couple of days on the sofa, trying to find something decent to watch on the telly, and with life's essentials close at hand.

With daytime tv being what it is (I really wonder how many times Pollyanna has been repeated in the past few months?!? 100? 200? Certainly more than enough, as with pretty much everything else), boredom soon sets in. Thankfully, my sketchbook was close at hand. I wasn't in the mood to start another portrait, so I just thought I'd try some doodling. I've never been a natural doodler, really. I don't tend to draw patterns or whatever while talking on the phone (maybe because I'm not really a telephone person). Whenever I try to doodle (and I really tried hard last month, when doodling was the Sketchbook Challenge's theme for January), I usually find myself, pen ready in hand, staring at the white paper for a while, until I give up. I tend to think too much about what I want to sketch, draw, paint in order to just happily doodle away without thinking

But with an aching throat, watery eyes (mainly because of bad, boring afternoon telly), a slight headache (mainly from having to blow my nose about every 10 secons), and having blown half my brain out through my nose (or so it feels), doodling really seemed the only thing to do to pass the time.

I'm really starting to enjoy this doodling thing. I like using coloured pens, but I definitely prefer the simple black & white, just using pens with different tips, from very fine to broad. 

It's the third day on the sofa now. If this is going on like this, I'll have my sketchbook filled from cover to cover by the time this cold is over :)

Doodle Brushes

I've learnt how to do brushes and turn them into a collection in Kim Klassen's e-course The Art of Texture (where, of course, I'm way behind. The class ended last week, and I'm only about half through. 3 more weeks time to finish...). But anyway. I've figured out (I think/hope) how to turn the brushes/collection into a Zip-file/folder and found a free file sharing website, 4shared, to make them downloadable. Of course I managed to register with a wrong e-mail adress (wrong country code ending, which is the thing that easily happens when you have too many e-mail accounts with too many different country codes and a "midget's brain" (Muggehirn, as  we say). It doesn't seem to be possible to change the e-mail in ones account. Ah well, it seems to work alright, I suppose I just won't get any e-mails from them. I think that once I start seriously uploading stuff for free downloads, I'll just have to create a new account. I certainly have enough spare e-mail addresses...

The brushes I made are just some doodles, and I don't really know how or where to use them myself, to be honest, and I don't expect that you'd actually want to download and use them. This is rather experimenting with it all and seeing if and how it actually works. So these are the doodles, they come as a collection in one ABR-file, which can be used as brushes in PSE (I created them in PSE8, so I haven't really any idea in which versions they can be used. I'm still learning...):

Doodle brushes

Anyway, here's the link for the download: Doodle brushes.zip or just click on the image. If you like, download them and try them out, and if you do, let me know if it actually works or not. As I say, it's the first time I'm doing this and I haven't really got a clue... It's all a big learning experience at the moment.

As I'm writing this I just realise that I might have made a bit of a mistake when creating the brushes. When selecting them and saving them as individual brushes, I think I should have made them a certain size, instead I didn't define the size of the selection tool. So I've no idea what size they are and they may just be far too small. Well, I'm afraid this comes from when one's just of a very impatient nature and never really reads through things/instructions/tutorials/one's own notes properly. Did I mention that I'm still learning and pretty much clueless?

But I hope to be able to make more of these brushes (and nicer/better ones), as well as textures, in the future and share them with you. I also have to see about a scanner. I used the one at work and I'm not happy with it at all. I don't know if it is just an old one, or not working properly anymore or, more likely, I just don't really know how to use it properly.