A Source of Wonder

The Lemonade Award

2009-03-27T21:44:00.001-07:00

I haven't posted on here for so long but I received an award for this blog from ana over at http://sewgroovychick.blogspot.com/ for showing great attitude and/or gratitude! What a surprise for me and how thankful I am to her for passing this along to me. Now as a kind of "pay it forward" blogging thing, I am to pass this award along to some others that I think deserve being rewarded for showing great attitude and/or gratitude that are in this blogsphere.

Besides ana, I would suggest visiting these other blogs that I am passing along this Lemonade Award to:
Mommy's House
morninggladness
Cotton
Mercy
I would agree with the ones that ana has chosen on her blog, also. Thank you ana, for your kindness and a unique way to pass on attitude/gratitude:) Hope to be posting here soon *sigh*

For you whom the award has been given, please:
1. Put the above lemonade award logo on your post or blog.
2. Nominate blogs which you think show great attitude and/or gratitude.
3. Link to your nominees within your post.
4. Let them know they have received this award by connecting on their blog.
5. Share the love and link this post to the person from whom you received your award.

The Technical Pen

2009-03-16T22:56:00.001-07:00

I know I am jumping all over the place with this artwork from zentangles to comic characters to monks! ha! But as I was working on zentangles, I thought of my technical pen book by Garry Simmons that would be helpful. He has 30 basic pen strokes for the technical pen. One of the exercises in the book is quite extensive. You take the above drawn picture of a monk and make 24 copies to work from. In each monk, you will work your exercises from the strokes he gives for that particular monk, working from Monk No. 1 to Monk No. 24. I have only done 2 completely and am almost through with No. 3 but posted it here since it's almost finished. It is very good practice in control and I thought I could learn some new strokes for ideas in my zentangles.

These photos were very difficult to photograph so please click on each photo for a closer look at the different strokes. The above is Monk No. 1 using continuous line, merging and radiating lines - variant 1, and solid black strokes.

The above is Monk No. 2 using continuous line, geometric pattern, merging and radiating lines - variant 2, and loops and scales - variant 2.

This is Monk No. 3 which is not completely finished. The pen strokes used here are engraving effect, waves and zig zag lines - variant 3, and solid black.

These exercises are time-consuming but relaxing to just sit and do in front of the TV or in complete quiet. It's almost like meditation.

Can You Believe Comics?

2009-03-14T17:37:00.001-07:00

Another genre of art I have discovered! Japanese comics! I found this book on drawing Japanese comics and decided to try my hand at it.

This was my first attempt. I sat up very late one night to try drawing some of these little characters and it was so much fun. They're "rough" but I will keep drawing them because I just think they're SO cute and SO much fun to draw and "color". I'm going to keep working on faces but can't wait to progress to the bodies and clothing, too, to make little characters such as little nurses, cheerleaders, etc.

You know where I'm leading with this. My granddaughter will love these! (I hope - I think!)

My First Zentangle

2009-03-06T22:44:00.001-08:00

This is my first Zentangle. I just discovered zentangles and decided to try my hand at it and I like it very much. It's just a type of doodling but it is great meditation and very relaxing. I just finished it and it's almost 1:00 am here! This is my imaginary flower.

If you'd like to know more about this art form, go to the zentangle website and check it out. It's very interesting and there is a very intriguing gallery.

A Cafe Somewhere

2009-02-28T20:55:00.001-08:00

Just some drawing practice from looking at a drawing in Art Escapes by Dory Kanter. I used pen and ink and tried to copy her drawing. I have realized that I need to do much, much more contour drawing before I move on to volume drawing. It pretty much flowed and I enjoyed it. She water colored hers BEFORE she drew it! That amazes me. I've seen one other person in New Orleans do this and it just amazed me to watch him. But I just wanted to leave mine black and white. I really am pleased with it although I know it's not perfect. The important thing is that it was enjoyable to do and I made time to do it after such a busy day today. I hope you enjoy it.

Escape Artist

2009-02-22T22:23:00.001-08:00

OMGoodness, I'm up too late tonight. My original intention was to just make the color chart below with my markers because I've realized as I've used them that the colors on the paper around the marker is NOT the same color as the ink that comes out! I did the chart and then decided to copy the above piece (since I was waiting for my clothes to dry anyway) from a book I have entitled Art Escapes by Dory Kanter. She did hers in watercolor and used salt to give it a starry quality but I was working in markers. I did try to give it a "mottled" look in places with the markers. She called this Escape Artist and suggested to find art to copy in order to frame (or reframe) what you see. It's a windowpane painting.

I loved her use of the Pablo Picasso quote: "Good artists copy, great artists steal."

It was good use of my time to make this chart. I did have 24 colors including black but had forgotten that I bought some grays, too, to work with tones. There are much bigger sets and many more colors but they are expensive so I'll have to add to my collection little by little. I'm not complaining. They should be expensive. They're wonderful markers. The ink just flows like paint so you're really painting when you use them. I did mix two colors this time to get the gray I wanted in the above painting in one of the panes and was successful to get the color I wanted. The more I use them, the more I enjoy them.

If you'd like to see some wonderful art using these markers (and what's possible!) with these and their other products, too, go to this site and browse their gallery. Hope you enjoy!

Color Chart

2009-02-22T20:24:00.000-08:00

Tonight I am just making a sample color chart of my marker colors. I have 24 in the set and I've noticed that when I have chosen a color to use, sometimes it's not the color I imagined. I read a suggestion to make a color chart in the margins of your art paper but I think I'll just make one on paper to keep on hand to refer to when I'm drawing. Maybe tomorrow I can get back to actually drawing.

Fishing Village

2009-02-21T22:06:00.001-08:00

This is my try at copying a fishing village drawing from a book in monotone blues. It's not a good photo. It's blurred on the left and I see the shadow of my head on the right but it's late. I should have tried lightly drawing it first, too, and then using the markers to give it color and I should have used a ruler to make the lines straight. I decided to post it anyway. Practice, practice, practice and be brave to post what I practice.

Prismatic Painting

2009-02-20T22:41:00.000-08:00

Well, Conan is over and as I was watching his last show (I enjoyed his show last night better), I did this prismatic painting. It was fun and therapeutic for me today. As you can see, it's centered around a coffee cup. I did it with my Prismacolor markers which I still love.

Excuse the plug in the photo - my cropping tool was not doing right and I just gave up on it since it's so late. At least I did something for the blog and this interest in my life tonight. It reminds me of things we did in elementary school which were fun and I DID have fun. That's what counts!

Wondering

2009-02-18T20:38:00.000-08:00

Are you wondering about my Source of Wonder? ha! This blog is suffering but I am NOT giving up on this. I have just had a lot of people and things to take care of lately and haven't had time to draw or even read about drawing. I'm not giving up so please don't give up on me. Other things are taking up my time.

An Organizing/Recycling Idea

2009-02-06T18:10:00.000-08:00

If you're one who reads all my blogs, I know you're probably tired of hearing about me going to the dentist today! ha! It wasn't exciting except that I've been "penned" up for so long and the sun was shining and it did feel so good to just "get out"!
Anyway, my dentist always gives his patients the above little kit when you leave. Usually I take the little samples out and throw away the pouch but today I decided it would be a good idea to recycle it to hold my Prismacolor markers as in the photo below.

I'm working with gray markers in different degrees of tones right now so I put all my grays in this cute little pouch. A good recycling idea, I thought! On to drawing!

Negative Space Drawing and Shades of Gray

2009-02-05T20:52:00.000-08:00

The above photo is an exercise in negative space drawing. In each picture, the one on the left was already drawn in the book and the one on the right is what I drew into a blank space. I drew the negative space and ended up with a white man and a white tree. It does make you look at the shape of the negative space instead of the image you're trying to draw. I used a black Prismacolor marker in each one.

With this next exercise, I was put behind a few days because I did not have gray Prismacolor markers, only black. I did have some other brand markers and tried it with those but guess I got spoiled to Prismacolor! So I went shopping and found out that they DO sell the Prismacolor markers separately. The grays comes in percentages of gray and I think I will still have to go back to shop for some more grays. I bought a 40% cool gray and an 80% cool gray and had black so I thought that would be correct for these exercises but I was wrong. As you can see in the bottom exercise, the black and 80% cool gray are too close together in tone. I did the same thing in this exercise as I did in the top photo. The picture on the left is the picture already drawn in the book and the one on the right is mine.

I did try it in color before I purchased the gray markers and I think it would be a good idea to go back and do that in monotones, different shades or tones of a certain color so it will help me to see the difference in tones, whether it be gray or a color.

This exercise is important because it will help in shading and highlighting and tones in-between when I transfer to other mediums such as paint, pastels, colored pencils, etc. as well as continuing with the markers. I really like those markers!
I also bought a colorless blender (which I didn't know existed) that I can't wait to play around with.

The next exercise is to use the different tones in color (or gray) and draw tiger lilies. I tried that in colors and did not like my results enough to post. I really think my problem was the photo in the book to use as my example was a poor photo. I could not really see the fine differences in tones so I am going to skip that lily exercise and find other images that are clearer to try to give depth to drawings with the shading, highlighting, and in-between in color and grays, too. And I want to play with the colorless blender.

More Drawings but Not Photographed Yet

2009-02-01T21:07:00.000-08:00

I did work on a few positive/negative space drawings last night but did not photograph any of them yet. Hope to do some more drawing and post the photos tomorrow.

Tip Me Over and Pour Me Out!

2009-01-31T12:25:00.001-08:00

I guess you've noticed that there hasn't been a post here in a while. The main reason is fear. This is the exact place I stopped in this art book when I used it about 10 years ago! Interesting, isn't it? I was encouraged by a fellow blogger to turn the page and keep going. I finally did. Now we are still contour drawing but doing a still life. In every art class I've ever participated in or every endeavor I've ever tried concerning still life, I have some sort of block. I don't know what it is. I've had more luck with portrait-type drawing and painting than still life and landscapes. BUT. . . I will continue and press on. Here it is and it's not bad in the way that you CAN recognize what the objects are (although you may not know what that object is in the back! ha! - it's an abacus! Why? I don't know. I'm just following instructions in the book. She says she used it for detail.) I did learn in this exercise to draw objects in the front first, to be aware of overlapping lines when objects are behind another, etc., how to place an object so it looks like it's behind, to try to project your entire still life onto the paper before you make a mark so you will not "run out of room" on the paper or make it too small for the paper, to try to mirror sides of objects such as the tea pot and the vase. So the tea pot was the first object I drew (in the front) and I didn't realize it was tipping over so until I had finished the drawing. That made me think of the little song, "I'm a Little Tea Pot"! Then we were instructed to place the items on a mat of some sort to anchor it so the items will not look like they're floating in air. The author suggested at this point in the book not to let children (or adults!) color in a background with markers because they are not a good medium to do backgrounds and will just look streaked, etc. After all that work of coloring in the background of my birds :(

I do love my new markers. They are like a velvety ink and I love the feeling of using them. So I will continue with a little more of still life contour drawing and then we move on to volume drawing, negative space, shading and highlighting, etc.

I have realized more and more by doing this that with certain things in my life, I am SO impatient. When I want something really badly, I want it NOW!!! That, and the fact that I am so afraid of failure at this point, is what has stopped me at this point. So I am going to be patient and realize I cannot have the paintings I want right now. I have to practice and work for them. And it's ok to fail and make mistakes - that is how I will learn. Onward and upward!!

The Carousel Horse and "Upside Down" Drawings from the Past

2009-01-20T18:29:00.000-08:00

Here is my carousel horse. This is also another drawing I did about 10 years or so ago. I gave it away to a little 8 or 9 yr. old girl. She likes to draw and gave me a piece of her artwork. After asking permission from her mother to keep it :), I went home and chose a drawing I had to give her. The only difference in this one and the one I gave away is color. The one I gave her was more of a decorated carousel horse and had color, lots of color. NOTE: This second time when I drew this horse, I was able to draw it very much faster!

This drawing was an upside down drawing I did in Mar of 2008. If you'll look closely in the bottom right-hand corner, you'll see 80. That is not eighty. It is '08 because I drew it upside down and signed it upside down. I hope you understand what I mean about drawing upside down - I'm not upside down! ha! The drawing that is my model to draw from is upside down and I copy it (not trace, but copy) upside down. I do not look at it until I'm through. It is very exciting because it looks better than you think it will when you turn it right side up! I love doing upside down drawings.

Charley Harper is one of my favorite artists. (I saw on the Sunday Morning CBS Show not too long ago a segment about him and heard that he has passed away which made me sad to hear.) I bought this book years ago before he passed away. I decided to try an upside down drawing from his book because they are so graphic and it is shown below.

This is Charley Harper's drawing from the book that I used as my model. The Cardinal is my favorite bird and I just love this drawing.

Here's my upside down copy photographed right side up (!) done in colored pencils so it's not as bright as in the book. I was please with it even though it's not perfect and as precise as Charley Harper's graphic drawing. But I was not trying to get that precise. I just wanted to draw and use the colored pencils.

"There are times when a word is worth a thousand pictures." - Charley Harper

More Color

2009-01-19T22:08:00.001-08:00

Here are the birds with color. I spent a little time on the computer researching the colors of the different species of birds but then just gave in and applied color. I know a little bit about color, have studied it a little, but I am not that concerned with color issues right now. I'm just learning about drawing and squeezing in time to practice drawing.

Tomorrow I will still be contour drawing - a carousel horse. While I'm working on it, I will post some of my "upside down" drawings I've done in the past. I want to keep my followers interested and coming back :)

"It is never too late to be what you might have been." - George Eliot

Contour Drawing

2009-01-18T18:28:00.001-08:00

Times have been busy lately but I managed to carve out some time to continue doing my contour drawing. Contour drawing is just drawing the edges of objects and it is very flat, has no dimension. When I learn to do the shading and highlighting, it will give my drawing dimension and depth and look more realistic.

When I drew with the exercises in this book about 10 years ago, I drew a parrot. I didn't want to repeat that so I just went on to the next assignment which was to draw a variety of birds and to make a composition using these birds. This is what I drew. I haven't colored in the birds because I need to research what colors to use. I was surprised that I did this drawing quickly. (My husband liked this drawing :)

"Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great." - Mark Twain

Art From 10 Years Ago!

2009-01-13T20:36:00.000-08:00

I didn't have time to draw today so I pulled out my art from 10 years ago when I started exercises in this children's art book. This is Leo the Lion from 10 years ago.

And here's the little bird. It's dated '07. As you can see, I didn't feel like finishing filling in the background with black marker (or either I ran out! ha!) So now I don't think I'll "color in" my bird from my previous post. I think I'll just move on. In fact, the next assignment of a tropical bird, I may just post my drawing from 10 yrs. ago and move on to the next assignment which is where I gave up and put it away. I don't want to do that this time. I want to keep moving forward which I hope this blog will help me do.

Here's one from 10 years ago in which I branched out a little. I tried to do a landscape with pointillism. The wind was trying to blow the paper off the table which accounts for the weird angle.

And lastly, just a warm-up exercise. Hope I have time to draw tomorrow!

"Paintin's not important. The important thing is keepin' busy". - Grandma Moses

All Kinds of Cats

2009-01-12T21:30:00.001-08:00

OK, I'm being disciplined and following the directions in the artbook for children. The next assignment was to draw this lion (Leo the Lion) with step by step directions. After the basic lion is drawn with markers in black, then I was free to finish it as I wanted and this is what my finished drawing looks like and it really does look like child's play. It was fun again. I did do a first one and Paige came over to play for a couple of hours and that sweet little girl sat at the bar with me and "colored" for almost an hour! She really liked my lion, birds, and flowers and wanted to take it home so I did two of them. She named the lion Paw Paw Lion and said the two birds were bearbear and Paige! lol What an imagination plus I'm wondering what the psychology is behind that! ha! After we finish an assignment in this book, we are encouraged to "branch out" with other drawings with the same theme on our own.

Here is my second try at a lion. I read that is IS OK to copy other artists for learning purposes only and that professional artists DO copy other artists for learning purposes. When I say copy, I assume you know that I mean look at it and draw, not trace it! So I found this poster that I just loved of a lion and just started to sketch it (if there is such a thing as sketching with a marker) with a black marker. It's not finished but I kind of like it. I have worked in pastels before and I really think this one would be a good candidate for pastels. I can just envision it with the colors and texture, etc. So this may be a work in progress or maybe not. I don't know. Art does take up a lot of time. It's enjoyable but it's time-consuming.

As I was studying in my photography book, I came across this beautiful silouette and thought, you know, I think I could draw that with just two colors of markers. I did draw it freehand. I did not trace it. I didn't get the mouth just right but I got close and worked on that area the most. I was pretty happy with it as a beginner and it's a different style than the others. I guess you could say this is a "cool cat" photographing something - yeah, I know that's corny! For more on cats, please go here to see one of my special cats (audreypawdrey, I linked per your instructions for the first time with this one and that excites me, too, that I've learned to do that - thank you!).

"You don't have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great". - Zig Ziglar

Just A Joke

2009-01-11T19:14:00.000-08:00

I tried to draw today and just couldn't do it. Guess you have days like that. Too many distractions. So, instead, for you who visit here I just wanted to pass along a joke I heard in Sunday School this morning. We are church-goers and have missed the last couple of weeks and were happy to go back today. We belong to a Sunday School class of which most of the members are our parents' age and the gentleman that taught the class today is a man I just LOVE!! When he teaches, he always has a good joke or two (or three!). Anyway, here goes:

A nun was on her way to a hospital to take some hospital supplies and ran out of gas. Two elderly gentlemen were watching her as she was pouring gasoline into her car from a urinal bedpan. One man looked at the other and said, "if this works, I'm going to become a Catholic!" hahahahaha! I loved it! (Hope all who read have a wonderful sense of humor - I do not intend to offend anyone!)

More Child's Play but with COLOR!!

2009-01-10T16:44:00.000-08:00

This was more fun than I expected and definitely felt like child's play. I spent over two hours playing with this and just got lost in it. There were instructions given in step form for this child's warm-up, Level 1, and then at a certain point freedom was given to do what you want. I used Prismacolor markers in just two colors. I also like ZIG markers. I like the red and teal together. There are two more warm-ups to do - Level 2 and Level 3 - that I will do next.

I skipped ahead a little (wanting to draw) and drew the first drawing by following step by step directions just using a Pilot pen. I am supposed to color this with markers and haven't decided if I will or not. All of this does remind me of childhood and it is so much fun and therapeutic. Here again, I'm peeling off my layer of doing something "wrong" and just doing it, having fun, and putting it out there. It IS a fun thing to do in front of the TV while hubby watches football :)

Somebody Come and Play

2009-01-09T19:01:00.000-08:00

here i am playing and discover i CAN draw recognizable objects.

look who's trying to get in the picture? do you see Elmo? he's singing, "sombody come and play!" these were fun to play with. i copied the drawing from the center top to the left and down to the bottom and then start at the top again and draw the matching (mirrored) side on the right. this exercise will really make your brain shift from left to right! i'm sure a lot of you have heard of Betty Edwards' book, Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. she uses this technique to help you get the "shift". you can also draw an object looking at it upside down. i will do that later. it's amazing! i can't explain how it feels. it almost feels like time is suspended.

elmo says hello again! he loves all this playing. elmos says he thinks i need to draw at night and photograph in the morning. photos look much clearer when taken of the drawings outside in natural light. but i did play a little with my white balance on my camera and that was interesting. elmo doesn't care how i play as long as i play!

"Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up." - PABLO PICASSO

Polly Wolly Doodle

2009-01-08T12:27:00.001-08:00

MY FIRST DOODLING - I felt like a child again. It was fun!

This little child's Crayola sketchbook plus a Pilot ink pen are all the supplies I'm using right now. I chose this pad because they're so cheap and I can find them anywhere and they will take almost any medium. Energy is up a little and boredom has really set in so I've gotten the courage to start drawing. I "assessed" myself to be at Level 3 to begin. The first assignment is to copy the doodling from the book onto squares on drawing paper and above is my doodling. It was fun to do, as doodling always is, but my hands were a bit unsteady I discovered (probably from the medications I'm taking). I'm not trying to make excuses, really :) I will probably do this exercise over a few times for warm-ups and I have to admit I did NOT get the spacing right on the far right doodle. It's supposed to look like a tree, I think. My top branch on the right is way too fat! ha!

Got To Start Somewhere

2009-01-01T17:57:00.000-08:00

This is the book I've decided to use as my teaching tool. I've had this book a long time and have begun it many times but never finished. Right now I am doing my preliminary reading and getting my supplies together. Hope to post some beginning drawings soon!

I kind of feel like Grandma Moses here but this urge to draw and make art just keeps coming back over and over. I've dabbled in it for about 10 years now so I'm hoping that keeping a blog will make me do it. I DO believe anyone can learn to draw. I chose A Source of Wonder for the name of the blog because children are a source of wonder to me and I love children's art. This also had a lot to do with which art book I chose to start with. (If you could see my bookshelf with all my art books!) Although I know I could never duplicate the charm of a child's drawing, I hope to learn to draw and have the courage to draw through this blog. Hope you all can hang in there with me and be kind! :)