anika mari

I planned to scan in a bunch of art that’s been waiting patiently while I’ve been busy doing lots of other things, but I found out that my scanner bed is only about 8.5×11.75 inches, and I’ve been using 9×12 paper lately. Oh well. Most of what I’ve done can be trimmed down a bit without losing any of the art, so I’ll get to that this weekend. I was able to scan one small piece of art: my drawing for the the next theme in the Creativity Boot Camp, “full bodied”.

I started out with a very different image in mind, but the drawing evolved as I was working on it. I’m not sure how well it fulfills the “full bodied” theme, but it’s what I came up with when working on the theme, so I’m going to say it’s my “full bodied” drawing, even if it is a bit of a stretch.

Aside from not being a perfect fit with the theme, I really like the drawing. A lot of geometric shapes have been showing up in my work lately. I’m pretty sure it’s because my mom decided to start a new quilt this summer, so I’ve been browsing through her quilting library that’s been lying around.

The books on Amish quilting really captured my interest, and it seems some of the shapes and colors have crept into my artwork. More on that when I get the larger drawings scanned, but it would seem that this “full bodied” drawing is an offshoot of the quilting inspired drawings. It also reminds me of Native American art, specifically the geometric design motifs that are used by many Native American cultures. Plus, I can’t help but think of dream catchers every time I look at the swooping lines.

Only three more Creativity Boot Camp themes left to do! Seems like I might finish the whole thing after all.

I’ve finally picked up where I left off with the Creativity Boot Camp. Drizzle was the next theme on the list, and the main thing I thought of was rain, perhaps because we really need some here! Our grass has given up and is now brownish yellow and crunches underfoot.

But I digress. For the “drizzle” theme, I drew rain drops in the soothing colors of light gray, grayish green and grayish blue. So far this was the quickest drawing I’ve done for the boot camp. It’s simple but I quite like it.

Maybe it’ll help bring some real rain!

I never finished the Creativity Boot Camp. I still want to, but other things came up.

I went on vacation to the beach for one week. Of course when I had time to relax, my body decided to get sick, so it wasn’t the most enjoyable vacation ever, but it was restful at least.

I brought some art supplies with me to the beach, but never had the energy to work on anything. As I was unpacking my supplies, back at home, I decided to make a few watercolor sketches. Watercolor is a little tricky, and there are certain techniques that I still haven’t mastered. For my first attempt, I drew a few blossoms with pencil, and then added layers of watercolor.

The color is still a little muddy. I think I need to work on being more patient so that each layer thoroughly dries before I add the next layer, and I also need to make sure I keep the washes pretty light. I think on some of the flowers, I started with too much yellow pigment on the first wash, so the other colors built up too much and look caked on.

While waiting for the layers of paint to dry, I intuitively painted various small marks and dots and later added some small details with pen.

While then waiting for both of those paintings to dry (I was rather heavy handed with the yellow), I painted a simple texture with crossing lines to create a woven pattern. As I painted, parts of the lines would dry while the other end would stay damp. As a result, when painting the next lines that overlapped perpendicularly, some of the color would bleed a bit. It adds and interesting dimension to the pattern.

I next did a simple composition of some swooshing lines to play with transparency (one of the things I like the best about working with watercolor), then added in some texture with a pen when the color was dry.

I wanted to do more with transparency, so I started out by painting some blob shapes on the paper in what I thought was a gray color. As the paint dried, it had a decidedly purplish hue, and suddenly the shapes reminded me of sea urchins. Instead of adding more overlapping blob shapes, as I’d originally intended, I added a few more similar shapes in a grayish green color.

When dry, I added in the urchin details with a pen.

Later on in the evening, an idea for a shape popped into my head, and I drew it using the implements that were nearest to me: watercolor paper and pen.

I might go back later and add a wash of color to the background and might possibly paint the shapes themselves. Good thing I used waterproof ink!

It’s funny how creativity sometimes comes in bursts. Six images in one afternoon, after nothing for over a week. Hopefully my next post will be about the next theme in the Creativity Boot Camp, but who knows? Maybe another unexpected creative burst will come along instead.

I was able to finish up the next Creativity Boot Camp theme, ornament, over the weekend.

When I thought about the meaning of ornament, I considered it to be decoration that is added to some surface that might otherwise be plain, purely for aesthetic purposes.

A few possibilities came to mind, but I liked the idea of ornamental tiles. Little ceramic slabs can be quite plain without some decoration. Indeed many times they are, but in some traditions they decorate the heck out of them. Talavera tiles are one style that I admire quite a lot, that I’ve taken inspiration from when creating a previous design.

Although making a tile pattern isn’t something new for me, I wanted to create a more intricate design. I chose a monochromatic blue on white color scheme, inspired by the ubiquitous blue and white porcelain designs. I’m often amazed at the level of detail artisans are able to achieve using only one color, so I took the one color approach as my jumping off point.

I did the outline first, as I often do, and scanned it so I could re-color the tile if the blue didn’t look as good as I hoped. You might notice that in the center medallion, each of the four “leaves” are a slightly different design. I penciled in each one, intending to choose a favorite to repeat, but I liked them all, so decided to leave them as they are. In a way this could serve as a “sampler” tile. With the designs worked out here, I might just have to make 4 different tiles using each of the different leaves.

Once the outlines were in place, I added a few shades of blue prismacolor marker for extra depth and interest.

Although I might have had a moment’s doubt that prompted me to scan in the outlines only, I am very happy with the all-blue tile. Now if only I had some actual tiles to ornament!

By now the Creativity Boot Camp is officially over, but I’m going to finish up on my own anyway. Only five more themes left, and the next one is “drizzle”. I have two ideas at the moment, and I’m not sure which way I’ll take it, but I’ll figure it out soon.

I worked on 3 different Creativity Boot Camp themes today. I finished two themes, but one of them is the second to last theme on the list. I want to post the themes in order, so I’ll save it for later.

I finished the next theme, “fly,” after one false start. Initially I tried this really convoluted drawing of various birds in various states of flying. I drew them from photos I took last winter. It ended up as a crazy, confusing mess that I didn’t even bother finishing, let alone scanning.

Attempting to drum up new ideas, I doodled aimlessly with the theme in mind. Before I knew it, three little paper planes appeared on my paper. I liked the doodles, so I refined the lines and the perspective a bit (which is still sort of wonky, but they are paper planes, so wonky is probably ok).

As I was drawing the little planes, I expected that I’d eventually add in some texture, shading, and color. Once the outlines were in place, however, I quite liked them just as they were; somehow precious in their simplicity. So I’m going to leave them as they are: plain planes.

When I uploaded the image to flickr I saw how gray it was. I drew them on white paper, and I thought I’d balanced it correctly in photoshop, but obviously not. I fixed it to make the ground white, but I missed the way that the gray defined the space, so: gray stays.

The only other idea I had was to make the planes white on a gray background.

I like it. I like them both actually, and I’m not sure if I have a favorite.

Do you prefer one version over the other?

Whether white on gray, or just gray, I really like the drawing. It’s really simple, but it’s a fun solution for the theme, and just right for this perfect summer day.

I have an idea for the next theme, “ornament.” I just need the time to draw it!