fall afternoons and watercolours.

The weather is just warm enough that I can have my windows open, but cool enough for lots and lots of tea!  I've had quite a few projects on the go - mostly in English class - but some afternoons I save for myself. I spent my afternoon listening to Regina Spektor and doodling with watercolours. Life is good!

finding inspiration.

If several years of art classes in school and at local galleries, along with independent projects, have taught me anything (besides art of course), it's this: when creating, you can't just sit around and wait for a strike of inspiration to hit you. Sure, you will occasionally get sudden inspiration, but when actually working and doing projects, you can't rely on that. It's hard, I know, it can be very difficult to be able to get your creative juices flowing right away. So, I've found some ways that can be used all the time to help jump-start your creativity. Cool, right?

1. Have a folder on your computer or phone or even in an actual folder of images you like. Paintings and photographs and drawings, things that you like for whatever reason. You can draw on these images based on themes or colour schemes or shape, what ever you need. This is similar to when art teachers hang up work around the room, except it's personalised.

2. Music. Over time, you'll find music that you listen to more often when you're creating. Listen to it, and work like that. I've found that movie soundtracks and other plain instrumentals work very well for me.

3. Experiment with colour. Just take your pencil crayons and draw. Look at what colours match and what colours don't, and go from there.

4. Wait. Just sit for a few moments, close your eyes and envision what you might want to do.

I know that these might not work for everyone and might sound kind of ridiculous. I've gone through long periods where I haven't created anything, and that was a pretty bad feeling. I've been slowly working and searching for ways to improve my creativity and productivity. The best part? I'm still a student! I have all the time in the world to improve, and I'm starting now.

Experiments with art and the internet.

So, I've been experimenting with different types of digital art, and I've also discovered this super nifty site called RedBubble. This site allows you to upload artwork you've created and put it for sale on things like tees or cards. Awesome, right? I've been slowly but surely updating my personal RedBubble with my works, and it's fun (plus, I've made a few sales)! I think it's a great way to get work out there, have initiative to create and maybe make a little bit of money.

Here are some of the stuff I've put up as cards/prints:

It's something that I'm trying out, and I like it. I'm slowly getting better which is amazing. I love the way the internet has influenced the creating and sharing of art, and I'm proud to be a part of it!  (x)

Daily doodles!

I love creating. I love inspiration and drawing and art. But, unfortunatly, I'm very absent-minded and tend to forget that I'm in the middle of projects. However, one of the reasons that I have this blog is to share my art, my life, my photographs and I love it. This blog is keeping me responsible for my art and I adore it. My daily doodle project is a warm-up project to get the creative juices flowing. Often it's digital, but sometimes not. It's a moment captured to help me start my day, end my day, or fill up empty time. I hope you enjoy this as much as I do. Mostly it's figure sketches or colour templates. Who knows?

Experiments using only black and white + a new Photoshop brush

Art in the Park

My town hosts an annual "Art in The Park" weekend every summer. It's one of my favourite times, so when I had the opportunity to volunteer, I took it. We have artists from all around our area and even from as far as Toronto come down and set up booths in our little patch of shade. It's full of live music and vendors and food stalls and summer air and shade. I had to get up early yesterday and today to help set up tents and booths, and spent time walking around, giving water bottles to vendors and handing out brochures and chatting.
My favourite part was the group of singers that sang a bunch of old, 1950's-esque songs acapella. There were even some Andrews Sisters, which was fun to sing along with (with my sister!)

What I made today:

Today was especially hot and boring, so I decided to put my time to good use. I had a whole bunch of old comics (that I had already read) and decided to make a sort-of comic book collage to hang on my ever-growing Wall of Stuff. 

Want to know how I did it? A very brief and badly explained tutorial:

1. Avengers assemble! Or, in this case: materials assemble!

2. Cut, cut, and cut. I chose a triangular theme. Make sure you have LOTS!

3. Arrange. Try out difference styles. Don't glue right away, you might change your mind.

4. More arranging, and gluing. I used hot glue, but others glues work too!

5. Finally, display it! Looks great, eh?

And that's it for my project! I'm thinking about going over it with acrylic sealer or something to preserve it, and maybe getting some card stock for a proper backing. All in all, it was easy and fun, looks good, and took my mind of the ridiculous heat. Enjoy!