Sunday Sketches

Decided that I could sketch during football games.   This a window at Coventry Cathedral in the UK. I discovered that these are really hard to draw.

Check out what other sketchers are doing this Sunday

I hope you are having a relaxing Sunday doing what you love.

Kate Robertson

Winner of 21 Secrets Fall Giveaway

The winner of my giveaway is .......  Number

That means you gma are my winner.  I'll contact you by email and let you know how to get into class on October 1. Thanks to everyone who entered, I wish I could have given away a spot for all of you. Don't forget you can still sign up by clicking on the link in the sidebar.


Kate

Art Journal Wisdom

I have been playing along with Connie Hozvicka's Art Journal Wisdom class. Its a free course for nine days. You can join in here

I started this page with lots of oranges, yellows and reds.  Then I did some journaling on a separate page and tore it up and glued it down with gel medium. More paint was added on top.

I first saw the lady on the right and then the other two ladies showed up.  While yesterdays work was about contrast todays has very little contrast. If I painted around the ladies in a darker color they would definitely pop more.

Here I am playing with circles and pastels, both soft and oil.  Its a fun way to play with color. Soft pastel is in the background and oil pastel in the circles. I was using a really cheap oil pastel and you can really tell.  The artist quality ones are so much better.

I am giving away another spot in 21Secrets Fall.  I am picking a winner on Saturday night. Go to this post and leave a comment to be considered for the drawing. To sign up for the course just click on the link in my sidebar.

Linking to Paint Party Friday Today.

Explorations In My Journals

I have been trying to make art every day this week. That can mean working on paintings or in my art journals. Yes I do have more than one. Sometimes I am called to a particular size or style to work in. I have been leaning to bigger and bigger journals. I still like to work in small ones though. Some of my journals were bought for classes I am taking, so I only work in them for the class. That is until the course is over with, but I like to continue using it with the concepts learned.  In today's post I show a few of my different journals and pages.






















This is an imaginary landscape. I used Inktense Blocks and colored pencils in the piece. I started with blocks of color which looked like a landscape scene so that is the route I took.  Colored pencils were used to highlight the river and grasses. I like the soft quality that resulted.

This Albino bird was the result of playing with colors. Napthol Red, Hansa yellow light, Titanium White and Quinacridone red.  This was an exercise where you paint for 2 minutes and cover half of it up and then repeat 4 times.  From Flora Bowley's bootcamp. It was fun to do. One I think I will explore again and again. Its a great exercise if you fear the blank page or are just feeling stuck.

In my sketchbook skool journal some crows came for a visit. Pencil, watercolor, a dip pen and acrylic ink were used. There is a new session of Sketchbook Skool starting next week. There are three different classes to choose from. I am doing Storytelling this time and I can't wait for it to begin.

I've been playing along with Connie Hozvicka's Art Journal Wisdom free e-course this week. This is my first page. I also incorporated Flora Bowley's idea of using strong contrast. It really made the image of the woman pop off the page. You can join in on Connies class here. This journal is one I made myself.  It has Fabriano paper in it and if you've ever worked with this paper you know what a dream it is to work with.

In what way are you expressing your creativity this week?

Kate

Filling Up The Cart

My cart all filled up. Haven't started using it yet and i have rearranged things already a coule of times. I could have filled up two carts easily.  What this is doing for me is getting supllies out of drawers where I forget about them.

Top has some golden fluid favorite colors, gelatos, high flow golden colors, 

sennelier oil pastels, acrylic ink. tools, paint brushes,

Second shelf has distress ink, dylusions sprays, reinkers, liquid watercolor, gesso
Third shelf has watercolor crayons, oil pastels, pens and markers, baby wipes, ATC gun

So now I can be at my table and wheel the cart right to me and have easy access to so much more. This cart is from IKEA and is made really well. So worth the 49.00 price. If I lived close to IKEA I would go buy another one. It will have to wait until my next trip to Utah which has the closest store.

Another excess paint painting.  This has been on my painting wall for a long time. I keep adding to it when I have excess paint but it doesn't seem to be going anywhere. I am trying to decided to whether take it down and roll it up for later or cut it up for art journaling use.

Don't forget to enter my giveaway in yesterdays post.

Kate

21 Secrets Fall Give Away

Its hard to believe it, but 21 Secrets will start next week.  It seems so long ago that I was asked to teach for this wonderful workshop.  I almost forgot that I have another free spot that I can give away to one of my lucky readers.  Yes that could be you.

What do you need to do to enter:

Just leave a comment on this post and tell me what is your favorite art supply and how you like to use it.

I'll pick a winner on Saturday.

 

I stopped at Ikea when I was in Utah over the weekend and picked myself up one of these carts for my studio. Got it filled already. Somewhere on Facebook I saw people showing their carts so I had to get myself one. I could easily use another one of these. They are really nice. I saw some people attaching baskets and bicket on the ends to offer more storage.  Its going to be nice to have access to a lot of my supplies in on place. I think I'll probably be changing my mind what goes in the cart after I start using it.

My Weekend Getaway.

This is the only sketch I managed to make this past weekend.  Sitting on the back porch of my friends house, just a view of the trees.

I spent a lot of time spinning and knitting and visiting we friends old and new.  A very relaxing place to be. Sometimes a weekend away is just what you need to get a new perspective on life. I felt very proud of myself because I still managed to write the three days I was there, and even took two walks. Sometimes its the little things that are big accomplishments.

I fell in love with this tree, it was in the front yard of the house I stayed at. It had incredible energy about it. I took tons of pictures. I think I need to paint it at some point.

We replaced some sidewalk and I had to leave my mark. It is not that easy to write in concrete. My spiral symbol came out a little wonky.

Did you do anything fun this weekend?

Kate

Lots Of Work In Progress

I am headed out of town tomorrow so there will be a little blogging break happening here. I started working on some new paintings or I should say continued with them. They are both works in progress as I have nothing else to show you today.

I started to work on the painting of red trees. I had a few minutes before I needed to go to the dentist this morning so I laid in the trees. At least it is a beginning.

This canvas has been the one where I put excess paint from my pallette.  I have been adding to it for months. Today I decided to work on it some more. I made several big mistakes and it ended up quite muddy.  So now I'll let it all dry before I tackle it again.  I should have know better to mix warm and cool colors without letting one of them dry. The next time you see this I am sure it will be totally different.

Here is that lily pad painting I was working on. It needed some more work so I tackled that today.

I think it looks a little better but to make it more like the photo I would have to change so much. Really didn't feel like spending that much more time on it. I hate when you think its just a little change you need to make, when it turns into a major redo. To do it properly I would be better off to start over.

See you back here on Monday,

Kate