#DRAWtoberfest Begins With A Kiss

October has begun and the creativity from artists on Twitter continues to awe and inspire. If you haven't already, check out the hash tags #DRAWtoberfest #thedailysketch, #printoctober and #draw2live

I finally got around to drawing a piece to submit for the first week's theme for #DRAWtoberfest which was entitled "The Kiss". The first thing I thought about drawing was the kiss of a dog, so went on an internet search for a photo to draw. I found many with people being the recipient of the kiss, but the photos I liked best were all dogs kissing other dogs or cats - then I came across this one lol:

I don't know who to credit for this wonderful photo, but just love the expression on the cat's face and the far off, dreamy look in the dog's eye, so decided to give it a go. I started working on it just after dinner and wanted to submit it last night before the weekend when the theme would be changing, so it was a quick drawing (for me) and I took a couple of work in progress photos along the way:

And below is the final drawing - a little rough, but was a fun piece to work on. I quickly realized what is needed in my art supplies are more graphite pencils with varying degrees of softness (used a 2B pencil) and a smudge stick, seeing as a piece of tissue paper is not at all precise while trying to blend shadows:

The Kiss

I may give this one another go for the practice and because I love the subject so much - maybe as a color pencil drawing. The next theme for #DRAWtoberfest is Paris. Not sure what to do for that yet, but there will surely be lots of interesting art by others submitted to be inspired by.

Thanks for reading, have a great Saturday everyone! :)

#PaintSeptember's Final Contribution

September has come to a close.  I only painted one more for the month - a water color painting from a photograph of a flower (I think it's a dahlia), growing in a neighbor's garden. The piece started out using water color pencils, but I was unhappy with the way it was progressing, so switched to actual water color paints about two thirds the way through.

That just made the piece saturated with water paint and didn't necessarily make me any happier about it lol. I was going to post some work in progress photos, but decided to just post the finished painting because it ended up changing so much from how it started.

There is a reason I usually work with acrylic or oil paint, because I tend to try for too much detail using the paint instead of allowing the water to help create the final image.  Perhaps I can learn how to chill about it - keeping the 'less is more' attitude for the next water color painting I attempt, or maybe staying with acrylics and oils is a better match for me and the style I'm most accustomed to.

There are a couple more hash tag groups starting this month - #thedailysketch and #DRAWtoberfest - both of which are a great way to keep moving forward producing new artwork, while also continuing to meet and support other artists which has been so inspirational and fun.

Regular color pencil drawings and water color pencil drawings/paintings would both fall into those hash tag categories, so this might be a good opportunity to keep practicing with them more - or maybe getting out the graphite pencil and keeping the artwork dry for awhile is a better idea.

Thank you to anyone who may read this :)

Where Does the Month Go?

September is almost over, it has been a very creative month. Today I'm working on what will likely be my last #paintseptember painting which I will post when complete, but meanwhile, here is the next one painted after those posted already below. A brightly colored, stylized version of a flower  - acrylic paint on canvas.

Following that painting, I was inspired by something I saw one night while outside. I looked up and the moon was for a very brief moment peaking through from between the clouds. I photographed it (which was of course blurry and non defined seeing as I used my phone), but it did give me enough to go on for inspiration to paint this next one - acrylic paint on canvas.

While trying to decide what to paint next, I thought to give painting some rocks I have collected a go - I've collected many rocks over the years and as I was going through them to decide which ones to paint, came across the three heart shaped rocks that I'd found while digging through the garden. This first photo is the work in progress, showing the actual rocks and the water color pencils that I used to create the drawing, with the first one painted.

This is the finished artwork, though I may still add a background - haven't decided yet, but for now it is complete.

Have a great Sunday everyone and keep the creative juices flowing! Now back to #paintseptember number 7 :)

Inspiration and Motivation are back!

Well, here we are again, it's been ages since I've posted anything. It's time to catch up with this creative journey I've been on and for anyone who reads this, thank you for visiting my very sporadically updated blog.

Since my last post, much has changed in my life - at least in the material sense. I am no longer working at the job I previously mentioned, unfortunately the company downsized the division and laid off staff - me included.  Since then, I've been looking for employment and recently found new inspiration to be an artist once again - on Twitter of all places - lol.

Since activating my account in the twittersphere recently, I am finding myself embracing the social network platform in ways I never knew were possible. I've met so many talented artists and inspiration absolutely abounds there.

There was a fantastic happening among a group of artists called #drawingaugust last month, where artists were drawing every day and posting their new art or works in progress daily.  Better late than never, I discovered it just in time to contribute this eye, drawn specifically for it on the 31st.

Since then, a new happening called #paintseptember has been taking place. It is the same idea except for painting and so far I've completed three new works. The first one isn't really to my liking in it's entirety (you can see it on my twitter page), it was painted using water color pencils and I'll post a detail of it here.

Cropped from a photo taken on my phone:

The next two are both water color paintings and were scanned:

So, there you have it - on the social media site I used to resist getting involved with, thinking it was only a self promoting bombardment of narcissistic tweets, inspiration and motivation have both been found - along with a real sense of community.

I'm lovin' it in the twittersphere and if you do too (or like it a lot), give me a follow - I follow back (unless you seem to be crazy, obnoxious or rude - then I probably won't).

Find me here: https://twitter.com/OnlineBy_Design :-)

Time Goes By...

I can't believe how long it's been since my last post!

My reason for starting this blog was to build inspiration, to draw, to paint more... well, shortly after starting this blog, I also began working full time because being a starving artist really isn't as much fun as it sounds.

Working a 40 hour week has left me little creative energy at the end of the day, even though it looks like it from the lack of blog entries over the past year, I haven't been completely idle when it comes to creating.  At my job, most of the projects I do are creative - which is a great thing.  Copy writing/editing, graphics, photo editing and optimization, web design and maintenance, document layout, brochures, leaflets, video editing... this is all part of what I do there every day, so the creative juices still flow, just not offering me so much to write about here.

With that said, I am determined to get back at it - had to break the 'nothing to post about' streak with something and this seems like a good place to start. So if there is anyone out there who actually reads this post, welcome back... now, where did I put my paints?

A Golf Ball and Tee Drawing For Dad

My father just celebrated his 80+? birthday (any time I ask, the answer is always 29 - which I know is impossible, but I let him think I believe - lol).  Golf is one of his favorite activities and he still plays often so I decided to draw this golf ball and tee for him.

I discovered drawing a golf ball is a lot harder than I originally thought - those little craters are very specific and about half way through I began to regret not mapping the ball out more accurately first instead of just eyeballing it.  Oh well, lesson learned for the next one and I'm happy enough with the way this turned out regardless :)

I glass framed the original drawing adding a dark green matte which cropped the sky and grass down to frame the ball and tee nicely and signed it for the occasion, but forgot to photograph it - doh!.  Here it is after scanning and maybe I will add a photo of the framed image to this post later.  

One of the groups on Red Bubble is hosting a Father's Day card challenge so I added lettering in Photoshop and entered it.  I don't know how well it will do in the challenge, but I do know that golf has been synonymous with my father in my mind for as long as I can remember. I love you dad! xo

New Features and A Contest Win for 'John Lennon'!

It is very affirming and inspiring to have any of my art featured, so I was especially thrilled to find BOTH of my flower pencil drawings featured together on the front page of this group Quality Art and Photography on Red Bubble!  Pencil Dahlia has been featured 4 times in the past two days and Pencil Rose has been featured twice, so I must be doing something right with those color pencils lol!

On Fine Art America I received a comment on my John Lennon painting congratulating me for a contest win.  Lol, I don't think I would have even known if not for reading it there!

The contest was called "Musician Art".  Here is the link to the leader page where you can view the placements of all the art that was submitted (some wonderful stuff!) My painting tied with two others for the top three placements.

Both RB and FAA have several challenges or contests where you can submit artwork that fits with a particular theme created by the group or host.  When any of my art fits the criteria I'll usually enter it.  On RB it is easy to keep track of them all because they appear in the default feed, but on FAA, the only way (that I've found so far) is to go to the contest and look at the tab for your own submission.  Maybe it was in a feed somewhere and I missed it, I don't know for sure, but I was completely surprised and delighted!

RB has been very active in the past couple of weeks, 'Bono' got another feature on May 29, 'Two Tulips' got it's first May 15, 'Boats In Sunlight' received four more, including a permanent feature page here: The Alphabet Marathon on May 19.

Two of my photos have been featured; 'View From Mayne Island' got it's first on May 22 and 'Poppy Close Up' on May 26 and 27th.  It also came in second place in a RB contest redbubble.com/poppies-and-orchids-challenge.

I think that about covers it for now...  back to the drawing board!