Don't Mind the Arrow

A Little Lull

I have felt a little out of the creative mindset recently, although I just came back from viewing some art that might inspire me out of the doldrums (more on that on Wednesday's Inspiration post, I think). Anyhow, I did manage a quick ink (black 03 Micron) and watercolor sketch on an envelope sent off to a pen pal.

It is a section of a Shorpy photo, again.

 

I don't have any particular proficiency with watercolor, but I was reasonably happy with the results. I have a hard time leaving it alone and not working it to death in the pursuit of detail. Sometimes details aren't really important, you know?

Good Intentions ....

I had intentions to post sometime during our week-long trip to California, but it just didn't happen. (I'm sure this surprises no one but me - wedding preparations, wedding, honeymoon take up a lot of time pretty easily.)

But Morgan and I are back at home, and we both have rings on our fingers (and smiles on our faces) to show that we did, in fact, get married. The wedding was absolutely phenomenal, the honeymoon was perfect, and I'm exhausted from traveling, worrying, planning, talking, and generally running on adrenaline for a week.

Luckily, I have a few things I had done before the trip that I can share with everyone to fill the gap until I start doing something artistic again. Two more pieces of mail art, in fact. Colored pencil instead of markers this time. 

First up, a space-themed one for a partner who said she liked astronomy.

Trying to figure out how to draw clouds seen from above, floating over land and sea wasn't the easiest thing, but I'm reasonably happy with how it turned out. It at least gets the idea across.

The second piece is one of my favorites of things I've ever drawn. It was sort of hard to put it in the mail and send it off, but I was pretty sure the recipient would love it. And she did, so that made it completely worthwhile to just have the picture instead of the actual item.

Both of those were drawn on 6" x 9" white envelopes. 

Hopefully I'll be able to fit in some time for new art soon!

Mail Art ...

Recently I had a couple of swaps going that involved mail art. Two envelopes were done with markers, two with colored pencils. The colored pencil ones are going to have to wait for another day, because I haven't heard if one of them has arrived at its destination yet. 

In the meantime, I'll show the marker ones. First up, a daffodil that immensely pleased its recipient.

This was all done with Sharpies, Bic Mark-It pens and some other similar permanent markers. The envelope was one of those rigid cardboard mailers, and the sheen interfered with the flow of the pens after a bit of drawing, so it was challenging to get anything approaching even coverage. But I think, looking at it in retrospect, it created a sketchier look to it that I like.

The second piece was done on the same kind of envelope, but it involved much smaller areas to be colored in. Also, I used mostly vellum markers, Prismacolors, and Copics. I used old travel stickers cobbled together from various sources across the net and put them together in an overlapping arrangement.

Some aspects are a little wonky because I don't use rulers or other guides to get the shapes entirely right, but hey, I want it to look hand-drawn, you know? I had a lot of fun finding the images I wanted to use in this one and figuring out how to lay them out.

5 Minute No-Eraser Sketch

Yesterday while out having coffee, I decided to challenge myself to draw the flowers on the table quickly and without using an eraser.

My preferred style is much tighter and more controlled, of course. I used to balance that by doing quick sketches while we were out and about, but I've fallen out of the habit. It was good to do it again. 

In other news, now that they're on their way to the recipients, I'll post about what I used those Mayan sketches for. Artistamps! It's something I've wanted to try for a while. So I looked up what the Maya used for currency (cacao beans) and found a couple of currency names to use on my stamps. What do you think?

Inspired by Visiting the Art Museum

Morgan and I went to the art museum on the free day this last weekend. It was very, very crowded (I didn't actually expect that, even though it was free). But I guess there was probably extra interest because they've just reopened their American Indian Art display. We braved (no pun intended) the throngs of people to see that. It is much, much better. They have everything much more thoughtfully arranged. I'm always interested in seeing Native American works of art, so I'll wander through and look at everything anyway, but they did it all a great service by spreading it out and standing more things up. Before, it was sort of like case after case of things laying down - not terribly eye-catching.

After that, we went to our two favorite areas - the Pre-Columbian and Asian art floors. Unfortunately, I wasn't feeling terrific so we didn't get to stay that long. I did take a few photos though, with an eye to drawing from them later. I finished one drawing today; I'll be sending it as a postcard to someone on Swap-Bot later.

I think maybe it's the ancientness of Pre-Columbian and much of Asian art that appeals to me so much. Things that they made to depict their everyday life are now so completely alien-seeming. Also, many times the results they got with the equipment and knowledge available to them are just amazing.  I'll have to go back soon and take pictures of some other things I loved. For example, we saw some incense covers that were in the shape of gods and vented so that the smoke would come out of its eyes, ears, hands. 

I noticed after we left that the guide to the museum said that you were welcome to sketch in their galleries in notebooks 8.5" x 11" or smaller, with pencil. No ink or colored pencils allowed. I supposed I get the size restriction, sort of, and definitely understand the ink. But no colored pencils seemed odd. Oh well, now I know in case I ever decide I want to do my drawing at the museum.

More Giraffes?!

For a swap on Swap-Bot, I'm supposed to send a decorated envelope. I looked at what my partner likes to get some ideas of how to decorate it, and see that her favorite animal is ... the giraffe.

Did I have more giraffes in me? I figured I'd at least give it a shot. So here is the envelope I'm sending out to her today.

Baby giraffes! I took the photo at the Denver Zoo on our last trip there, in December. I like giraffes okay, but the baby ones are just beyond adorable.  It will be interesting to see how much bigger they are when we go back next time.

I think I'm done with giraffes for a while!