Travelling Zen Doodles - On the Road with Pens

Well I kept at it. Can't say I believe these are my best little creations but little creations they are. 

I was away most of the week at a conference in Chicago. Very busy. Worked more at creating/building an increased knowledge base and friendships than artistic endeavours. I also created my own presentation and paper for the event which were well received. 

Monday: I tried using the pencil pastels but only had red and white. They didn't blend to pink as well as I had hoped.

Tuesday: My second favourite for the week.

Wednesday:

Thursday: Tried gel pens. Yuck. Very messy, lots of smearing.

Friday: My favourite for the week.

Saturday:

Sunday:

So that was my week. I still have a little creation to show for each day. I'm now back. This should be a more normal week coming up and hopefully I will be more creative at least in terms of media. I was thinking I should sketch people when I was away but I (thought I) didn't have a pencil! (I'm not ready to sketch solely in pen yet - or maybe I am just being chicken). Just before landing at my home airport, I dropped the case for my headphones and out popped my pencil! Dang!

Hope you had a great one! As always I look forward to seeing your work!

How do you keep up your creative habit when you are travelling for business or pleasure?

A page from my Gardening Journal

Not the best page but the most recent.....

I started this journal, using more than pencil and pen, this year. I have another that I would make notes in and draw beds and where I planted things etc. After starting the FAKE journal and doing all my CED2010 creations, I thought I'd start a new one with more colour. Other entries even include real flowers lacquered to the page. 

Are you a gardener? Do you keep a journal? Is it like my old one and just pencil? Or like my new one with colour?

I should have taken a photo of that bed - pre-weeding and pre-drawing! Filled with grasses and other invasives, it took almost a full day to clean it up and it's only a 6x3 foot length! I had better luck the next day and finished another  3 1/2 sections. The soil was so dry, I'm sure I'll have to work some more as I no doubt didn't get all the grass roots out.

Earlier this week I planted these in my planters by my backyard stairs but I only wrote in description. Later I will draw in the plants.

I need to go back to my old journal and add in the names of some existing plants - see what's survived and what I've lost over the years.

Garden inspiration and Experimentation

This week many of my little creations were inspired by my garden. It is starting to bloom and while a source of frustration and hard work (with all the weeds that have overtaken it), it is also a source of inspiration. Last week ended with watercolour pencil and zen versions of a lilac, and this week started with a painted watercolour version of it. (My scanner dislikes purple - not sure why - so this is not the true shade.)

Monday:

Tuesday:

Wednesday: Today I tried to capture a lovely alpine poppy using my oil pastels.

Thursday: Same alpine poppy using pastel pencils. It always amazes me that two media called "pastels" can be so very different in consistency. I am liking these pencil pastels very much though I have very few colours.

Friday: Pastelled pepper plant... 

Saturday: I love these pink Sea Thrifts (Or Armeria Maritima), they are lovely in my rock gardens and borders! I think the pens captured their essence well. Note to self - plant more!

Sunday: My weeding companion!

That was my week! Hope yours was great! 

Next week will be crazy. I am off to a conference in Chicago and it promises to be very busy. I will take a tiny sketch pad but not my CED2010 book. I hope to keep this up but..... we'll see! 

Have a fun week everyone!

Bird on a Wire

Serenading me as I weeded today was a very vocal bird - probably a mourning dove. He sat on the telephone wire high above me and cooed encouraging sounds as I worked.

Here is my meager attempt to capture him:

The bugs are starting to come out so time for me to relax and check out all of your work! Hope you had a great weekend - in Canada we have one more day to go  - Victoria Day. Yay for long weekends!

Intuition on Wednesday and Other Flowery Creations

This week was a challenge. Much harder to get back to "normal" than I expected. But the one thing I did do was my little creations. And on Wednesday I tried to follow the CED2010 theme for May and just ask my intuition what to do. I'm rather surprised what it did. Not sure what it means....

Here is my week, I am forward to seeing yours!

Monday:

Tuesday: I tried some pastel pencils vs my oil pastels today. Interesting effects! Especially the way they can mix and smear together. I liked it.

Wednesday: I asked my intuition what to do and these are the prompts I got. Draw a hand. Add eyes on the finger tips. Palm lines as vines. Hmm - needs something else. A turtle here. A bird there. A snowflake on that finger. 

Is there meaning here? I don't know!

Thursday: Trying those pastel pencils again...

Friday: I did this using oil pastels based on a photo from Holly Herick for a little challenge she was hosting.

Saturday: A little sprig of lilac - zen doodled. Not sure why the scanner doesn't make purple its true shade.

Sunday: Another small lilac spring done with watercolour pencils - before and after water was added.

This week I also started a journal for everyday use and drew, painted and wrote all week. I may post some of it but I haven't yet decided. I learned a hard lesson though. I am using both sides of each page (unlike my CED2010 book where I only use one side) and I used sharpie markers on one. Big mistake!! It pretty much wrecked the image on the previous page. Unfortunately that was my favourite so far. Well I won't do THAT again!

How was your week?

I'm looking forward to see what your efforts brought into this world!

Inspiration Avenue - Architecture

When I read about this week's Inspiration Avenue challenge, I immediately thought of this variety of different "architectures" and homes. Hope it's okay that it wasn't done just this week I created it in February when the CED2010 theme was "Home".   

Here is my humble and somewhat frivolous submission :

Flowering Quince Art with Holly Herick's Beautiful Photo

Holly Herick, a fellow participant in IFJM, posted a gorgeous photo of a flowering quince bush last weekend and invited any and all to join her in creating a rendition of our own.

This means you too!

I have an apricot coloured quince bush/shrub that is not yet in bloom and have always admired it, so I immediately loved her image and decided to play along. Instead of watercolours, I chose oil pastels and did this in my CED 2010 book. (As always, double-clicking makes it SO much clearer!)

It isn't quite the right shades and I didn't do the dark background but I had to work with available supplies (and time). Here is her photo. Please make sure to go to her blog and see the other creations and (I hope) submit your own!