... exploring in my creativity further in 2022



29 March 2010

Zen and Fruit, Fruit and Zen

This week's creations were much like last week, I continued to try pastelled fruit and did more zen doodles. Different fruit, though. I smiled when I saw Leah's theme for April "5 Senses" as I felt my fruit explorations fit the description nicely: Sight - looking at the fruit closely to try to make my version somewhat like the original; Sound - especially when biting into some of them after their portrait was complete; Taste - yummy!; Smell - the riper the fruit, the richer the smell; Touch - holding them to eat, to figure out texture, to peel. Working with pastels on these fruits has been interesting. I've learned you always need an extra piece of paper around to rub off the excess colour the crayons pickup when blending. What I haven't yet learned is how to create a sharp edge for outlines and details.

So here are my activities for the week:


Monday:


Tuesday:


Wednesday: I liked these but couldn't get the colour quite right. None of my red pastels was the red of the strawberries. Out of a 50 pastel pack, I'd thought I'd have better luck. 


Thursday:


Friday:


Saturday:


Sunday:



So what else did I create this week? I tried a couple of new recipes with changes so that kind of qualifies as creating. I continued my exercise program and exercised 5 times this week - my work on creating a fit body continues... (will it ever end???). I participated in the Sunday Sketching challenge again that Sophia at Blue Chair Diary hosts. And I finished a second acrylic that I started last week. I have a wonderful hydrangea tree at my front door that blooms in the fall - and tried to capture one of its flowers here.


Enough of me. What about you? Did you have a good creative week? What was the most fun for you? I look forward to checking out your work on Leah's Mr. Linky! Thanks again to all of you who have commented. Have a great week ahead!

28 March 2010

Sunday Sketching 28March2010 "Orchids"

I'm trying to press harder when I draw so it will show up when scanned but looking at today's efforts, I'm not sure I have succeeded. It is much better if you click to enlarge though! I am still drawing from real life but I am very taken with some of the fanciful ones others have done. I'll spend more time looking at all of your work after I take my daughter to the art gallery. I am hoping to come back with lots of ideas. (And a fancy new blank journal for my CED2010 efforts! I can't believe it is almost full.)



I played around with my drawing pencils to help me decide which to use when. While not a sketch, it helped to produce the "Orchids"!



Hope you had fun sketching today!

22 March 2010

A Fruity kinda Week!

Still going strong! Well, perhaps that is an exaggeration. Some days, I have more fun and more ideas than others. What about you? But I am keeping at it. This week I had a bit of a theme. While shopping, I thought that I really should eat more healthy food and bought a bunch of fruit. On Monday, I decided to draw some of it, so the major focus this week has been pastelled fruits with a couple of Zen Doodles thrown in for fun! Lovely fruit to look at and all very delicious to eat afterwards!!

Mango Monday:


Tasty Gala Apple Tuesday:



Happy St. Patrick's Day!! (aka Wednesday):



Thirst Quenching Kiwi Thursday:


Fabulous Nectarine Friday:



Saturday:



Sweet Raspberry Sunday:



Along with CED2010, I have been working on a few other projects this year. Fitness is one: - and I exercised 5 times again this week (Yay!!). Cleaning and De-cluttering my House is another: - mostly this has been a room by room superclean. This month was my basement family room and I decided to clear off the desk that used to be stacked with old computer equipment (ugh). Then we discovered the secure computer recycling depot and now it is all gone (Yay!). So I cleaned the rest of the clutter off of it and decided to use it to try out some painting. Starting small, I bought some little 4x6 canvas boards and acrylics at the dollar store (I do own more expensive paints but I thought I'd first try these) and thought I'd experiment with a flower. So here it is:



There are two others started but not complete. Maybe next week. And I tried participating in Blue Chair Diary's Sunday Sketches.

So that was my creative week. What about yours? I'm looking forward to reading all about them!




21 March 2010

Sunday Sketching 21March2010 "Yuri on the Shed"


Still bare bones in the garden, as I look out my window. Only branches except for the evergreens. Yuri, my Russian Blue pussycat, decided that the top of the shed was a nice place to sit and enjoy the day. So here is my sketch for today, the first time I am participating in the Sunday Sketches Challenge at Blue Chair Diary.


I'm going to have to learn how to press harder when sketching as it isn't too clear after scanning. Clicking on it does enlarge the image and makes it clearer. (Thanks Lissa for pointing  that out.) I tried using fancy* drawing pencils instead of my usual HB. They seem to smear a lot. I guess that is by design but I'll have to learn which pencil is best for what use. 

Sketchers, do you just use HBs or an assortment of pencils when you sketch? Thanks!

*well they were from the dollar store..... but they were "drawing pencils"! I have more expensive ones but I can't tell the difference yet, so until I can, I will learn to use these. 

15 March 2010

Doodling Away... in one form or another

Another week and another seven small creations. Still on my mind were the story threads from last week. A bit of fitness, a bit of Alice and doodling - some zen and some pencil.

Monday:

Tuesday:



Wednesday: I have been looking at the sky a lot lately and noticing things I haven't noticed before. Finally we have had a clear week (until the weekend of course!) and on this day especially, the sunset was phenomenal! And I was driving by a location where it was particularly visible but not blinding. (Usually I am driving East at that time of day and only see rear view window or mirror sunsets.) I had never really noticed before that the sky is lighter at the horizon and darker overhead. No doubt I have been colouring skies wrong all my life (not that I have coloured a lot of skies). As soon as I arrived home I quickly tried to capture the sky with watercolours in my CED2010 book. I'm thinking that one of the benefits of CED2010 is increased attention to details and seeing things in different lights, with a more considered perspective.


Thursday:



Friday:



Saturday:



Sunday: My favourite this week, I think.


I am very happy I am still on track with the CED2010 challenge and with my fitness challenge of exercising 5 times a week. I wish the pounds were dropping like flies but they aren't . Fitness however is the goal and I am becoming fitter . Also this week I created a presentation for a conference I'm attending on Tuesday, and a little collage of last week's "walking with a camera" outing. The theme was change and here is the collage. Wish I could have captured the sound of the melting, running and draining water.



And I was the beneficiary of others' creativity. I decided to bid on one of the amazing pieces of art in Inspiration Avenue's recent Art Auction. Soon this lovely piece by the very talented Lisa of Priti Studio will be making it's way to me. The Moon, Stars, the Sea, - how perfect!


Hope you had a great creative week!
All the best for this new week! I'm looking forward to seeing your creations!

08 March 2010

Pastels and Pens - CED2010 Weekly Check-In

As I suspected last week, the theme of STORY isn't really working for me. Yet in spite of that, story threads did emerge in my little creations this week. Two threads - one of my continuing work to create a fit body: and the other - Alice in Wonderland (no doubt because of all of the publicity with the new film release). Mostly I played with pastels and pens.

Monday:

Tuesday:


Wednesday: This was an attempt in more than one way. Working on strengthening my stomach and knees in the physical form and working on a frontal view of sitting in the drawn form. Hard and harder!


Thursday:


Friday:


Saturday:


Sunday: Trying "Wall Sitting" again. Argh. This person looks deformed not like they are sitting with no chair. :(   Maybe I'll have to take a photo and see how to improve my perspective. (Note to self - must learn how to do happy/sad faces on blogger)



Still creating small things. Exercised five times this week too! Went for a walk with my daughter and our cameras. Maybe I'll post a few photos next week as I haven't had a chance to look at them or edit them yet. Beautiful weekend!!! So happy to see signs of Spring! I was invited to speak at a conference and created an outline for my talk. More work on that this week. A few words made it on to my page/word document but not nearly as many as I had hoped. 

That's it for me! What about you? Did you have a creative week?

I look forward to seeing your work and reading your stories! 

Have a great one!

01 March 2010

"What Makes a House a Home?" Series. Plus Now and the Future

This is the last week with the CED2010 HOME theme. It's been a fun month. I managed to continue to create every day and to create using the HOME theme. How about you? Most of my week was spent exploring the idea of "What makes a House a Home?". I finished with two all encompassing little experiments that seemed appropriate for completing this month. Here are my efforts:

Monday:



Tuesday:


Wednesday:


Thursday:



Friday:



Saturday:



Sunday:


I did a few other creative things this week. I participated again in Inspiration Avenue's weekly challenge - this week was "Purple" (while on a plane from Toronto - making creative use of travelling time!). Also it was a full moon yesterday and time for Jamie Ridler's Full Moon Dream Boards, this month Dreaming Big on the Full Snow Moon. I continued to work on creating a clean, less cluttered house and a fit body. The habits I am trying to create are still intact and I exercised 5 times again this week. :)

Next month the theme is STORIES. Sigh. So far nothing excites me about this theme. (Sorry Leah.) AND I am getting about concerned that my keen interest in participating in CED2010 is distracting me from the writing I want to create. What to do.....??? My plan so far for next week is to do something in my CED2010 book every day but it will not likely be on theme and may be just something easy, and not terribly time consuming - so I have something to "show" to myself and to you. My main goal, however, will be to write every day. 500 words a day ideally, 3500 or the week. Or sit in front of my word document for an hour each day - hopefully that way the words will come! If successful, I will be creating! 

I hope you had and will have a great creative week! I look forward to seeing all your efforts! My heartfelt thanks to those of you who have been commenting!