This one I started last year, but got interrupted by Black Book month. So, it’s finished now:
I am a little bit lazy to write these days, so there were no posts, but I will catch up next week…
Tag Archives: abstract
Black Book January: Update #3
I’ve been working on this one mandala for several days now. I used white posca pen for contours, and had a lot of trouble with it.
It did not want to work and I started to shake it and then the paint came out of it on top of my drawing. I managed to clean it up with black colored pencil, so it did not do much damage. But I am rather upset with posca pen. Why does it stop writing when there is still paint inside? It’s not that I abused it, such as dipped it into the wet acrylic paint or used it over a particularly rough surface, no, this one was used only on paper or on top of coloured pencil, it should not have cause damage. Anyway… I get upset because these pens are expensive and I am pretty sure that the cost-benefit analysis is not favorable for me, and I get even more upset because those pens are not easy to get in shops, I have to order it online and I did not have a spare because this one was new and, you know… I wanted to finish my mandala and the only thing I could do is press the tip to the paper in order to get paint out and then dip the tip back into the paint and use it as a dip pen on my drawing, which produced uneven lines I was not happy with, like this:
This morning I started doodles on top of it, but could not finish, this is how it looks now:
I had to stop and pack because we travelled today to a place close to Austrian-Hungarian border, which is called Rojtokmuzsaj. It’s a village with a most amazing old castle spa hotel. We were here last winter too, and decided that we need to come again.So, it’s four days of swimming pool, sauna, walks in park and a shopping excursion (because an Austrian outlet is close by, so we can’t miss it, right?).
Of course, I have my Black Book and my pens with me, so I will continue with my mandalas during our stay here, of course.
Black Book January: Update #2
This morning I finished the mandala that took several days to do:
There were large areas to color with color pencils and then doodles also took awhile. Color pencils make the surface waxy and slippery, so doodling with ink on top is not very easy. I made lots of mistakes, but I am rather happy with the end product. It looks quite good.
Today was another freezing cold and beatifully sunny day. I went skating anyway, because I felt like going crazy from inactivity. It was very nice on ice, not cold at all and not crowded, probably due to low temperatures. Now, however, I can feel the skin on my face burning and I have a mild headache. I hope the headache will not develop into a migraine. That would be really bad, because I want to go skating again tomorrow.
Yesterday we went to the local tropicarium and watched sharks and fancy fish. It was very pleasant distraction from the winter outside. Afterwards we had coffee and cake and then we had trouble falling asleep because the coffee was big and strong. But it’s all fine, because we do not need to get up early or be anywhere.
That’s it for this Monday. I am off to make buttery popcorn and install myself in front of the TV. Orange is the new black is on.
Mandala for Coloring: 29 November
It’s been ages since I did any line art intended for coloring. This is actually the very first mandala I drew using compass and ruler. Kind of predictably repetitive, but nice anyway. If anyone feels like coloring it, go ahead. I know I will… As a matter of fact, I may decide to draw a weekly mandala or other coloring page and make that a regular post, which was my original intention when I started the blog. Let’s see…
I watched Fantastic Beasts yesterday and it was surprisingly good, as was the popcorn and the whole movie experience, which I always enjoy, no matter how the movie itself turn out to be…
The weather is still sunny, but really freezing, so no running this morning. My gym pass is valid from 1st December, so that will probably be my next exercise day. I hate winter 😦
Watercolor Ink Doodle: 22 October
It’s a nice sunny Saturday. Almost hard to believe that there was a blue sky above those murky clouds we had during the whole week. This means that I will have to do my gardening today, no excuse. I don’t feel like going out, because even though it’s sunny, it’s very cold, so it means my hands will freeze and I am so not up to it. But things have to be done in order to preserve my vegetables from freezing, so I will do them.
And here’s another watercolor ink doodle I did during the past week:
Today I will also be working on another spread in Book of Days. If I finish it today it will be the fourth BOD spread in one week. Well done with catching up on this one, I think. I skipped the Life Book lesson this week – it was some calligraphy practice that I really did not care about, so it made more time for other stuff. Good week.
Have a wonderful weekend people!
Book of Days Update: Week 38
Ok, I am in a Book of Days mood this week. I finished Week 38 yesterday:
Used acrylics and hot glue gun stencil for background, star stencils and heart mask (which I cut from paper) in the foreground. I colored the stars with Sakura Glaze pen in yellow, added black lines with Edding black paint marker and Uni-Ball Eye black pen, and white details with Edding white paint marker and Rotring 0.5 pen with acrylic ink.
It was quick and easy. I think I will try to do one more today! Have a good Wednesday you all!
Play Journal Update: 14 October
I had a very long meeting on Wednesday, so I did some doodles in my Play Journal.
I used only ballpoint pen. The photo is not so great, I took it this morning when it was still dark outside, so it’s under the lamp. You get an idea of the conditions under which I create in the morning… I hate cold and darkness. Maybe it’s time to find my light therapy lamp.
It’s been quite a gloomy week here. This morning I woke up at 5.30, so I had plenty of time to draw before going for a run and then to work. In summer when it’s light and warm outside, I go for a run first and then drink my coffee and do art. Now it’s too dark to go out at 7.00, so I either sleep longer or do art before the run. It was a pleasant morning today and I worked in my play journal on a coloring pencil doodle I started few days ago. I started it with the crappy pencils and today I finished it with my new luminance pencils. What a difference! There are just a few finishing touches and it will be done, tonight or tomorrow morning.
Oh, and it’s Friday today! Happy Friday people!
Watercolor Doodle Time: Video
Lately I’ve been obsessed with watercolor and ink doodles like this one:
I did it today, recorded it and video is now processing as I write this. I did upload to my shop on Redbubble, have a look, it’s really cool.
There is another one that I did yesterday. Here’s the video of the process. Unfortunately the painting part of the video is lost by some funny glitch in my video processing program, so you can see only the doodle part. Today’s video seems to be complete and it will be up later today.
Play Journal Update: 03 October
I did several pages in my Play Journal last week:
This one is done in lunch breaks at work. The left page is obviously hand drawing practice. At first I thought there is nothing coming out of it, without an eraser and looking at a scanned book page on the screen, so I must say I am again surprised with myself. They actually look like hands 🙂 One very satisfying thing about it is the pencil I used – it’s a Derwent Drawing pencil in chocolate color. I have two of those pencils (the other color is blue) that I bought who knows when and why and almost never used because I almost never draw. LOL! The pencil is beautiful soft and creamy and I really enjoyed using it. Another thing that I did not have, besides the eraser was a pencil sharpener, so I used up the pencil almost to the wood which of course prevented me from doing any details, which was scary but I think very helpful in the end because it stopped me fussing about the details and worrying about being very accurate in reproducing the photos. So, it’s a sketch. The mermaid on the opposite page was a practice for Vitamin Sea painting I need to do this week. Mermaids never give up when it comes to drawing practice. Far from perfect, but perfection was not the goal.
The next two pages. The left is one more mermaid practice. This time I gave her some sea water with water soluble pencils. On the right hand side an autumn doodle with colored pencils and ink. Here’s a more detailed photo:
The next two pages look like this:
Obviously left page is still empty. And the photo of the mandala on the right in more details:
That’s it for today. My idea about putting my work out there on Red Bubble did not leave me. So this morning I registered and uploaded my first work. It looks amazing. I will write about it some time soon. For the time being, have a happy Monday!
Play Journal Update: 30 September
I am sorry that the video I posted yesterday did not work. I will have to use YouTube for videos obviously. I don’t know why there is an option on WordPress to upload videos if they won’t play. Ok, I give a slight chance that I did something wrong 🙂
Anyway, here’s the doodle from the video:
It’s in my Play Journal, done with crappy colored pencils and ink. I ordered very expensive colored pencils and they should arrive next week (when I will be away), so in two weeks time I will post a photo of my new treasure. I am in as much love with colored pencils as I am with watercolor, so don’t ask. Yes, I do have Polychromos 60 pieces tin and I love them, but I also wanted to try Prismacolors. Now as everybody’s saying that Prismacolor quality control is crappy, I did not want to buy them and in addition they cannot be easily found where I live, so I opted for something even better: Caran d’Ache Luminance, which are… um… very expensive… I thought to myself: WTH my dear, if you have that money, spend it on something you really want. Not that I needed much persuasion… So there we go. They are on their way to me. They say that they can draw on black paper too, so one reason more to try them!
And yesterday I started a new watercolor doodle in my Strathmore Journal:
I planned to doodle around the painted shapes, but this morning I changed my mind because it looked so pretty as it is. So I will leave it. I used turquoise Ecoline and new gamboge from Daniel Smith. I think they are beautiful together.
Migraine is definitely gone. I went for a run this morning. The weather is still great, weekend is coming and all is good. Have a happy Friday!
