contours

Lately I have been exploring blind contour drawings. I am really enjoying them! I recently found a sketch group to join. I don't go every week; I seem to go every other week it seems.

I have talked about blind contour drawings to a few people and mentioned it to one person at the sketch group. I told him what to do and suggested giving it a go one time. When I went the next time after I mentioned it, he hadn't drawn any so I said we would practice them right then.
I had my sunglasses so I placed them on the table and explained again how to do it (pen down, don't look at the page, and don't lift the pen). If you lift the pen/pencil or if you look at your page, that's when you're done! 😊

We and another gal gave it a go. She was on the other side of the sunglasses and he and I were on the same side. His drawings were very basic; mostly rounded shapes (I feel he was feeling a bit shy about it since it was totally new to him). He didn't follow the exact form. Mine turned out rather well and I ended up colouring them in! I have not done that before and I quite like the end result. 

I used lines for some fills and pixelated others. I will continue to explore this. I like it because I definitely gravitate toward realism. I love how abstract these drawings end up. I may just do them even larger and see what happens!! 💕

wedding

I went to a wedding a few weeks ago. I hadn't been to one in literally years and years. It was a beautiful day and quite hot outside. The ceremony and reception were both at the same venue so that worked out rather well. 

The day of the wedding I decided to make the card instead of buying one. I did end up giving cash which is not my preference. It just worked out that way in the end. 

I had an idea to draw two hands both holding rings towards one another. I used a photo of a male hand and used my hand as the female hand. 

The final drawing 

I ended up softening the edges which I am not sure was the best way to go. I am still happy with it. I did complete the drawing rather quickly because I left it to the last day. I hope they like it. 💖

And yes most artist say that hands are difficult to draw. I have always drawn them even when I was young. They are quite 'handy'.  

one other one

I actually made another card for a friend before I made the card for my mother. My friend turned 50 so I wanted to paint something with a five and a zero.

It was a quick card and it is cute. On the back I wrote: Welcome to your 50s! plus a few other things about growing together yet separately.

She is big into gardening so that's why the new plant with roots. It somewhat like when someone turns 50. Roots are fairly established and the person is still growing. 

something new

 A few weeks ago I was wondering what type of card I would make for my mother for her birthday. Last year I painted her a daffodil and she loved it. Well this year I wanted to do something different than a painting.

At Easter, I bought my standard (so it seems) yellow 💛 and purple 💜 tulips. Costco had a decent sized bunch so I bought a bunch for myself and another bunch in pink 💕 for my friend I was seeing for Easter dinner. 

As many may know, I like dried flowers a lot and like drawing them. This year, I didn't do that; I didn't even make paintings of the tulips this year, I simply enjoyed them. When they were beyond their prime, I thought I'd pluck their petals off and dry them and that's when I thought of what I would make for my mother's birthday card. 

I took the petals, flattened them while allowing them to dry, and made new "flowers" out of the petals. I really like how it turned out! I need to sort out the background a bit more; the leaves are okay; I feel they could be better. She loved the card! She was showing it to her friends on her birthday. And the card even arrived to her on her birthday; perfect!

Since I had a lot of flowers, I have a lot of petals. A friend of mine hasn't been feel well these past few weeks so I thought to make her a get well card in the same fashion. I realized as I was typing this, that I didn't sign my work (I didn't sign her card). Weird!

Either way, this is the other card I did. It also doubled as a thank you card since she's been helping me with trading.

 I took a side shot of this one to show the 3D portion of the petals. I like this one too. As I was returning from the mailbox, I said to myself that I really enjoy multimedia. I have thought of other ways to do things like this and I think it's something to explore. 💛

Thanks for reading. 

eve

Here it is: The eve of my birthday once again. 

What have I done this past year? I feel like it's quite a blur in many ways and at the same time it hasn't been. I did do more hiking than I have done in recent years so I was taking more photographs instead of drawing and painting. Some really lovely hikes shown below. 

Galetea Lakes

                                        

Frozen Lake

I have done a few artistic things prior to now and I have not posted any of them. I made a few holiday cards back in December. I made snowmen primarily, as well as candy canes and jiggle bells. All around, they turned out well. Below are some of the ones I made. The snowmen evolved from the ones I made in 2019 (which were similar to the one that is top centre).  I like them both and both were easy to paint yet I like the new ones because they are looser.

What will my 2021 year bring me? Who knows! I look forward to finding out. 

butterflies

A friend of mine lost her partner back in October. It was sudden and unexpected. She was devastated by it and I still haven't seen her since it happened. I send her love everyday and I hope she is okay and feeling better about it. 
I wanted to make her a sympathy card and I couldn't think of what to do for it. Then I received an email for watercolour butterflies so I decided to do that for her. Something cheerful and colourful. The YouTube video is by Let's Make Art. I have made other things she does in the past too. I absolutely love her oath at the beginning before she starts her painting: "I promise to be kind to myself, I promise not to compare my work, and I promise to HAVE FUN!" 💕

I did add another colour since we all know how much I like purple. 💜 I quite like it. It is really loose and colourful. I made this card at the beginning of November; I just hadn't posted about it.

My friend did receive it and sent me a photo of it sitting on her table amongst her other cards. I know it's not easy when you lose someone that is close to you especially when it's so unexpected. My heart still goes out to her. 

gratitude

 As mentioned yesterday, I am making a thank you card. I actually made two and one is already in the mail. One for the fellow I mentioned yesterday from Real Life Trading and one for his girlfriend (for something completely different) from The Limitless Creator. 

I feel the hands turned out much better in round two than they did in the first go. Once I added the highlights I knew it was complete.

For the other one, I made another chakra tree. Chakra trees in my mind are about our chakra centres growing (and opening). I felt it was very appropriate for her.

I thought initially to send one card for both of them then chose to make two cards since I wanted each card to fit the person who was receiving it.

I am very happy with both of them. I have been using "photo corners" when I make cards now so that if anyone wants to frame the piece of art, they can remove it easily.
I am now off to mail the second card! (And yes, it is still snowing here.)