It is still a bit grey outside, and the end of the year is approaching. Which also means that a new year is coming. I want to make the best of it. Even though plans may be changed, I want to search for the positives: for me, my business but also for those close by. We need hope, comfort and joy. So that is how I am starting the New Year.
To you I am sending:
Wow, it is pretty grey here. Winter is showing its different faces. So when there is some sunshine I go out for a walk. And sometimes you find surprises, like snow and fog in the morning. And because there are not many people about, and nature is being silent, it is magical...
A page from my sketchbook: on the left some playing around with acrylic paint, on the right some drawings with an old Calligraphy pen (Sheaffer- brand).
I like the colour purple. A woman pointed that out to me on an Art market, she saw many shades of purple in my work. I also like green, and my art teacher did not like that colour at all, so when I started with green, she could not watch me do it... :). Colours I do not use a lot are bright red and yellow, I think. What is your favourite colour?
On www.etsy.com you find all sorts of handmade products, art, craft etcetera from all over the world. Each maker has its own shop, and purchasing items is quite easy, a bit like every online shop. I am also represented on ETSY (it is not my only channel though) and I am very happy with it. I can put my recent works out there in an instant and I have a worldwide audience. I have sold to Alaska, Australia and Hongkong through ETSY, wow, amazing, I never thought I would... Recently I am selling more to the Netherlands, which is also nice.
Find Christmas cards, small and large gifts, craft material, vintage and customized objects here on www.etsy.com.
You find my shop under the name of zizolabel.
During my open studio I took some in between time to just play around with some paper. From an ordinary magazine I started selecting nice colours and ripping the paper into strips. I like adding, glueing and seeing what results there are.
Glue and paper is all you need!
Walking slowly, looking at your surroundings, focusing on what your eye catches, which colours you see and what you see below your feet: it unconsciously gives me references for structures, lines and combinations. For instance these pictures I took on a forest and lakeside walk:
... go out! I did and went for a hike, it was quiet in the forest, not many people around (no birds either, they were hiding) but nice autumn colours. And ideas for paintings, compositions and colour combinations.
I used an old trick, which we also learned on elementary school, to make weird creatures. And once started I tried some more:
On a bikeride I stopped to visit an old mill in a picturesque village. Inside the soft autumn light shone through the window, beautiful stillness captured on camera.
Sometimes you read a sentence and it hits you because you understand its meaning. I was reading an article about the work of an artist and they wrote: Art is about the way you see it. I read it again: Art is about the way YOU see it. The reason to make art is, amongst many other reasons, to show others how YOU see it. How you look at this tree, how you interpret this portrait. So we can all look at the same tree, but Art can show you how I see the tree. Often people want art that is realistic, that shows exactly the way a photo would look. But that is not art for me, it is a technical achievement for sure, but I like to see in art how YOU interpret it. This broadens my horizon and I like that.
So just to remind myself:
There is a favourite area which I revisit to walk and to enjoy the seasons. On an evening walk I spotted all the violet flowers in the field, I had not seen them before and am not sure what their name is. Three weeks later I visited the same spot and they had mown the whole (!) field, they were gone. I know it is the time to mow and the seeds will be there for next year, but I was so happy I had seen them flowering.
The models in the glossy magazine are a great inspiration for drawing. This ballerina had a beautiful posture, so I made a simple drawing.
I am still joining the Septemberchallenge of #coloricombo. My sketchbook is filling up with colours, I love it. The combination of saffron and cornflower reminded me of the Mediterranean coast with those magnificent pine trees. And since I am longing for a holiday, I painted myself a landscape view.
At the moment I am joining the #coloricombo challenge by Este Macleod, in which two colours are paired and you are challenged to only use those two.
This is indigo and mushroom for instance:
It is not easy, first to think of what I will draw, and second to use colours which are sometimes very close to each other. The results are always a bit surprising, and that is what I like about it. You can still join or do the challenge for your own study.
Love this palette of colours (I save these scraps of paper too...), I added another layer to this still-life.
In between fruit harvesting I am finding time to make some drawings by following a course by Alisa Burke. This time the idea is to draw your wardrobe, so I first drew this with pen:
I would not have thought about drawing my wardrobe, but when you start it seems to come easily, and the result is more fun than I expected :). Maybe I'll add some coloured pencil to it.
Today it was time for some drawing exercises on request, a custom lesson to stimulate creativity, to look at new ideas and to fill sketchbooks. Very nice to teach young children again :).
I have read a lot about creativity and what it does for your personal development, there are many important benefits. One of them: when you stimulate (by doing) the creativity in your brain, you learn to see more solutions. This can help children a lot in their thinking.
I am a biker, I bike a lot. It is probably easier when you work in your own village :), but taking groceries with you on your bike is more of a challenge :(. So I have two waterproof bike-packs and they can take a lot.
But my bike is also there to go out for inspiration, along those lovely bike-trails we have here. The weather may be a challenge sometimes, so I keep my eye on the forecast.
Here I go!
Word play, another fun lesson by Alisa Burke. And so nice to just play around in your sketchbook and enjoying the process. I chose the word DEPTH on a sort of blue ocean tones. We need depth in our thinking, responsiblity, creativity and in our processes. We should not avoid it, or be afraid of it. It makes your life richer when friendships have depth, when you have taken time to think things over. It has worth.
Sometimes I am left with little dots of paint. I use them to make backgrounds in my sketchbook, or as a base for something new.
Here I already knew I wanted to paint some flowers with this combination, so I painted the shapes, and when it was dry I added some coloured pencil strokes.
Another online course by Alisa Burke is called Portrait play. I followed this one some years ago, and now used one of her methods of experimenting with portraits. You look in magazines for faces which appeal to you. Here I liked the colours of her jacket. You glue it in your sketchbook and with paint and markers you make the portrait your own. I added a background, exaggerated the colours of her jacket and used markers for her face.
Up close you see I used different markers and added a white dot in her eyes. I am not completely happy with the end result, but I have made it my own and it is a good practice :).
Still enjoying some online lessons, this time the inspiration was from carpet patterns. I had already made some umber backgrounds, unto which I added some patterns free-style.
For the right one I followed the patterns of the print I made, and then added some detail. I like the end result, probably also because purple and violet often come back as a favourite colour of mine.
Last weekend my studio was open to visitors, and it was this type of weather:
I am still in the making mode of the online classes. One of them is drawing inspiration from rugs, and this is what I made in my sketchbook. First some painted paper as inspiration and preparation, and then drawing with permanent markers, thinking about rugs:
Another fun class by Alisa Burke.
