Tag: practice

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January Sketchbook Challenge

Day 3 – Sketchbook Challenge

Draw your favorite mug!

Place your mug on a flat surface. You will want to see it from a static angle, so that you can get a sense of how it sits in space. 

Notice in this picture that there are shadows and highlights. See if you can incorporate those into your sketch by using the following ideas:

  • Use a different color to shade in the shadows.
  • Try using lines or hatching.
  • If you are using a pencil, smudge those areas with your finger. 
  • Or, use more pressure with your drawing tool, unless it is a pen or marker. (Pressure can damage the nib.)
  • Below you will see how I use lines to create shadows and volume in this simple line drawing. 

Just remember to experiment and play. Don’t be too hard on yourself and don’t compare your work with another person’s work. The best thing to do is to compare your work with your own over time to see your growth! It’s your personal journey.

Have fun! 

Oh! I almost forgot the best part– After you complete your sketch, fill your mug with your favorite beverage. Savor every sip and swallow. 

Feel free to share your work and ask questions along the way. 

In creative adventures,

Autumn














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January Sketchbook Challenge

Sketchbook Challenge – Day 2

Hope you alleviated some possible jitters by doodling a word in your sketchbook and no longer is it a book with blank pages. After Day 1, you have declared you are serious and you are going to make some marks! Those trees will not go to waste. 

Here we go for Day 2: Draw your art supplies!

Draw what you are using in your sketchbook to mark the page. These supplies can be the “right-now” supplies or ones you intend to use later on. Or, Heck! You can draw ones that you are too afraid to use, the ones that you find intimidating. Add some horns and pointy teeth to those ones. 

Draw them once, twice, or multiple times until you you fill the page. Sometimes, by repeating one thing, you can make a pretty cool pattern on the page that you may want to improve upon for a finished art piece later on. 

You never know what ideas and finished art pieces can come from simply keeping a sketchbook. 

Remember, please feel free to comment on this post or in the Facebook group your work, questions, or A-HA! moments.

Happy drawing!

Autumn

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January Sketchbook Challenge

Sketchbook Challenge – Day 1

Here’s to new beginnings and creative challenges!

I’m excited and nervous about this sketchbook challenge. How about you? 

I’m excited because I love creative challenges, and I know that if I commit to a sketch a day for the next 31 days, growth will happen.

I’m nervous because, well, I must commit to it. I need the discipline to make sure I carve out time in my day to make a sketch. I don’t want this to be something I’m excited about in the beginning – and start off with a bang – to only fizzle out once I hit the middle of the month. So, let’s help each other to not let that happen. Shall we?

So, for the challenge…

You can sketch anything you like or take my suggestions. I won’t be giving a lot of instruction on technique or anything else, but I will give you some ideas of what to sketch. And, I will definitely give you encouragement and tips along the way. Feel free to reach out with questions as you work. I’m here. 

Here we go!

Day One: Pick a word for the year. My husband and I do this every new year. It’s a word to inspire, to work toward, to invite more of its examples and evidence in our lives throughout the year. 

My word: Discipline. 

I need to be more disciplined in order for my art business to grow. And, I most definitely want it to grow. Once my teaching year resumes, I get incredibly busy. My days are

 long and it becomes easy to neglect my creative side and my little sprouting art business. So, this year, I’m making it a priority. And, it will take discipline!

Now back to you:

Step one: Pick your word.

Step two: Doodle it onto the first page of your sketchbook. 

You can make it a fancy script. Or, big and bold. Maybe add flowers sprouting from it. Duplicate the word several times. Write it in different scripts. Fill the page or make it stand it out with a lot of white space around it. But Do Have Fun! 

If you would like, please share your word. Or, share the page. I would love to see your wonderful new year words!

Your friend in creative adventures,

Autumn

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January Sketchbook Challenge

Sketchbook Challenge Eve

It’s December 31st. Not only New Year’s Eve but the eve of our sketchbook challenge. Let’s prepare, shall we?

Step 1: Grab your sketchbook. Open to the first page. Sign it and date it! You can choose to date it for December 31st, 2020, or January 1st, 2021.

Step 2: Set an intention and write it down. What do you want to get out of this challenge? What do you hope for? Make it relevant and meaningful to you. You don’t need to share this intention with anyone. And, you can keep it short. For me, I want to get better at drawing with pencil and ink. More specifically, I want to improve my line drawings.

Some other ideas for intentions:

I want to jumpstart my creativity.

I want to practice how to trust my creative voice.

I want to start a daily sketching habit.

I hope to overcome my negative self-talk about my abilities as an artist by drawing every day despite myself. (Yep!)

Your intention for taking on this sketchbook challenge can be as personal or general as you want. But, do set an intention. Give this practice purpose so that when or if someone were to ask WHY you can answer perfectly. 

Bonus Step 3: After signing, dating, and writing down your intention, doodle around it!

Bonus Step 4: Maybe decorate the cover with stickers.

If you are so inclined to share your why, please comment below or on my Art Journaling with Autumn Facebook Group (You can still join this group). I would love to hear some of your reasons for doing this with me.

Autumn

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January Sketchbook Challenge

January Sketchbook Challenge

With a new year, often times comes a want for new habits and growth. For me, I have a pretty long list of goals I would like to target in the year 2021. But, I will start with the 31-Day January Sketchbook Challenge for now. 

To answer what it is, watch the video below. 

As a quick note, I plan to keep things simple and use limited supplies–such as a pencil or ink pen and a smaller sketchbook (I’ll post what I will use soon). But you can decide what supplies you wish to use!

Oh! And as a supply option, I forgot to mention crayons! Don’t forget the beauty of drawing with crayons. Hope you will join me!

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Intuitive Sketching

As an elementary school teacher, I make a multitude of decisions every hour, every minute and, seemingly, every two seconds. I spend my day reacting and responding, attempting to analyze and judge every decision I make in hopes of an improved outcome. Needless to say, when the end of the day comes, I’m tapped. I’m exhausted. Even deciding what I want to eat for dinner seems laborious. I don’t want to make any more decisions. I just want to be. My guess is that you don’t need to be a teacher to know this feeling.

When it comes to art, depending on the project, sometimes I don’t want to dwell in my thinking and judging brain. I want to dwell and create via my intuition and instinct. I need this balance, especially when I show up to my studio needing and wanting to create. I believe it’s important for fostering creativity.

If I am working on a book or commissioned piece, I tend to work with much more intention and from within that place of thinking and judging. I love this work. I love solving creative problems through the thinking and the judging. But, it is also important to give myself a break from this place.

So, at times, I will pull out a pad of paper, a sketchbook, the first tin or pouch of materials I find, and just go for it. I don’t think. I work from a flicker of inspiration and simply start.

I don’t plan. I just do. I scribble with charcoal. I make marks with a pencil. I fling and splash paint. It’s a time to be messy. And, I don’t erase. I rely on my intuition to start making marks and I rely on my instincts to form them into some image on the paper. I honestly don’t know how it will turn out. Sometimes it’s garbage. Sometimes it’s a piece that shocks me, making me question as to whether I actually did create it.

Working from an intuitive place is not only inspiring and freeing, but also healing. It’s a time I practice trusting my abilities, trusting my inner voice, trusting that my hands and fingers will work in sync with that intuition. It’s a time I learn how to rely upon and trust my abilities a little more, which I otherwise question and doubt daily.

I practice making quick decisions and don’t worry about what the final outcome will be. I don’t judge it. I just act. I just do. It is an absolutely freeing moment that is necessary in order to gain balance back in my life. I think we could all use more balance between thinking/judging and instinct/intuition. I think we could all gain from learning how to trust that which is, and always will be, within us.

In fact, I believe very strongly that in order to be a creative, you must practice trusting your inner voice equally as much as learning how to reflect and analyze your work deeply. Lose the fear. Lose the need to control every decision. Too much of that attempt to control will zap creativity. At least, it does for me.

Now, the next step would be to share those pieces born from instinct and intuition with all of you. So here’s to the next step!

The Polar Bear Cub Series you see in this post were all made from the gut, the intuition, from being in the moment. Each piece was created in less than 30 minutes, on 18 x 24 mixed media paper. I even left the original pencil marks on the page. I worked fast and put down paint in a messy manner. Working on large paper forces me to rely on instinct by making larger marks and brush strokes. My instincts guided my decision when adding paint and layering color. It is frightening for me to post these publicly. But, I know, it will be equally freeing and healing to do so.

We need to sit with our intuition more often, tapping into that mysterious inner voice that is responsible for creating. We need to learn how to trust that inner voice. We ALL dismiss it far too much and far too often.

How can you practice using your intuition today? And in what way can you make space to rely on your instincts?

Happy creating!
Autumn