Buds

I like to watch dogs.  I especially like it when they are good buds and all the ranking has been settled and consequently they relax and play.  Their antics crack me up.

I suppose I was thinking about this when I randomly sketched this:

"Buds" (ink and colored pencil)

Clearly this came out of my imagination as there is no green grass visible anywhere in my neighborhood as very little snow has melted.  The sun is shining and the days are clear; however, the temperature hasn't warmed up to freezing (!) in days and days.  Br-r-r.

On a positive note, the snow is quite beautiful :-)

Something for me :-)

I am a fan of Diane Culhane's whimsical art.  I acquired another small works painting, "They Spoke With Birds" earlier this month.  Want to see?

"They Spoke With Birds" by Diane Culhane

The colors are so beautiful and vibrant.  Color me happy :-)

Art journal - stacks

These came from the Misc: section of my art journal - stacks:

Days of the Week stack

0-9 Stack

Expressions stack

I think the stacks grew from my love of grids and patterns.  I think the Expressions stack is pretty funny :-)

Blooms and Tweets and Remy

Today - cold and sunny changing over to grayness and snow.  But the flowers are blooming and the birds are tweeting in my studio:

I call this "Blooms and Tweets".

Remy was laying on the foyer rug while I put on my cold weather clobber for "walkies" this afternoon.

Doesn't it look like he's sniffing the flower?

I am so fortunate that he is a patient boy <3

Primary color.

Only red, a lot of red, will do right now.  And it absolutely will be oil pastel because of how it feels.  It is rare for me to know such things before I open my art journal to the day's page.  Well then, okay, away I go.

The result: a red (sort-of-a) horse

Mixed media - oil pastels, ink, paint pen, gel ink.

I love daily art journaling because it is there to catch the unplanned, the fleeting.  Where would my red horse be otherwise?

A MOO can be a MOOdle :-)

A MOO that is somehow different from a regular MOO is a MOOdle.  I don't know, it just came to me :-)

And today's MOOdle...

Beginnings -

This is the page from my art journal where I first sketched the idea:

A quick little sketch.

Giving it some more thought, I'm pretty sure this little dog drawing -

I blogged about this swirly little guy here.

must have been floating around in my head while I was doodling (he's from the sketchbook I always carry with me):

Fun stuff!

From my art journal today...

an ink and watercolor crayon sketch:

Two buddies at play :-)

With dogs, it's all about having FUN <3

From my sketchbook - a new MOO

I had this fleeting MOO thought a couple of weeks ago and happily it circled back around to my brain today :-)

A page straight out of my sketchbook.

It's a reminder that I can maintain a healthy perspective without negativity.

Happy snowy day!

It's snowing big fluffy snowflakes - and they are beautiful.  Happily I do not have to drive anywhere today which makes the snow even more lovely :-) 

Here's a goofy Golden who's in the holiday mood:

Woof!

Art Journal DRAW

I miss seeing flowers outside (wintertime in Colorado).  I was daydreaming about how lovely it would be to see colorful spring and summer flowers on a snowy background or brightening up the dry grasses and leafless shrubs.  O well.

Doesn't surprise me too much that flower-like forms appeared in this morning's Draw: section of my art journal :-)

Ink and colored pencil

Some imaginary winter flowers. Yay!

The Inconstant Journaler

Yes, I was an inconstant art journaler; days or even weeks might pass without a new entry in my officially designated art journal.  However, an idea from Year of the Spark plus a recent online class have changed my ways :-)

The first influence I attribute to an art journal page layout that Carla Sonheim shared in a Year of the Spark lesson.  The page looks like this:

Draw it new every day.

Creating the boxes and printing a set group of words is a nice ritual to get my hand moving.  I like the categories for the boxes – I find them to be very useful.  Also, the sketchbook is a plain wire bound one (so it isn’t precious in any way) and it is a larger format – a Strathmore 400 Series 9” X 12”.

The second influence is from an online class I recently completed – “Making Art a Practice” – which was taught by Cat Bennett.  Cat emphasized enjoying the creative process and doing it daily.  She generally sticks to simple tools and media e.g. a few brushes, colored pencil, opaque watercolor, and NeoColor II.  Cat’s approach is relaxing and playful :-)

These are some randomly chosen pages from my art journal – specifically of the Draw and Misc boxes:

Remy in ink.

Colored pencil, ink.

Pitt brush pens, ink

Sharpie pens, ink, Pigma Micron pen, randomly created “stamps”

The content is pretty much what I see around me or doodle or imagine - probably why my red coffee mug appears so often :-)  The "10 Ideas" box is great for capturing thoughts or projects which come to mind first thing in the morning.  I like capturing all of it in one place.