While NOT a political post….I want to warn you that I’m going to ask you if you’ve checked that you’re still registered to vote…or if you’ve registered at all! I’m a civics NERD, and believe in getting as many to vote as possible. No matter your politics, it’s important to have your voice heard.

After my other pair of hand-decorated kicks getting so much attention in the last year, I thought a new pair could drive some conversation about voting, so created a new pair of kicks for myself!

Tutorial: How to draw on your kicks #2 (Sharpie markers)

Watch the video below and scroll to the end to leave comments or questions — or click HERE to watch it on YouTube and leave comments over there. I read both dutifully!

Sharpie doodling tips

Follow the stitching to keep a design flowing naturally around the shoe, or go wild over all of it1

For a calmer look, as I got with these patriotic kicks, make part of the shoe solid. Then you can maybe wear them with your fancy dress clothes. (Ha!)

I used both a thicker and thinner Sharpie – the Taos shoes have a finer canvas than the PF Flyers did, so they could handle the superfine nib, which was great! The PF flyers had a bigger canvas texture and might have been better with Sharpies.

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Alcohol marker doodling

These were from round 1 when I used alcohol markers. You can see on the 2nd pair that I was able to get some soft blending with those.

Commissions, anyone?

LI’d love to do more of these but I can only wear so many. If you’d like custom kicks, pick up a pair that fit you and are comfy, decide on your theme, and hire me for a custom design!

Supplies

1. Sharpie Ultra Fine Markers, Color 
2. Sharpie Fine Markers, Color 

Have you ever seen a drawing with a $125 ballpoint pen?

I often receive emails offering products to test – and usually they just go in the circular file, as they’re for things like brushes for hair, or for those awful websites that keep selling cheap ripoffs of good art supplies.

Bastion emailed, though, and anyone who has pens tends to be intriguing (at what point will I feel like I have enough pens? I don’t know!)….I looked at their site and nearly picked a fountain pen but then I saw the Bolt Action Pen. A ballpoint for $125? That has to be spectacular right?!? So I agreed to try it out.

Tutorial: Drawing with a $125 ballpoint!?

Let’s make a little wash and ink sketch using this pen and see how it works!

Watch the video below and scroll to the end to leave comments or questions — or click HERE to watch it on YouTube and leave comments over there. I read both dutifully!

Ballpoint pen drawing tips

1. Practice adjusting the pressure used to make lines – you’ll be surprised that you can get soft tones!
2. Get a good range of values from black all the way to white.
3. Use a paper with texture, like a drawing paper shown here. That allows for softer lines.
4. If adding a watercolor (or watercolor stick) wash, test first! Not all ballpoint pen inks are equal and you don’t want to create a black mush after all that time drawing.

Loose wash and ink

The color here was added with watercolor sticks – 2 blues, a purple, a brown, not painting feather by feather but just letting it all blend and create that shimmery black bird effect. If you missed my previous video, these are sticks of Daniel Smith watercolor pigment, just in stick form! Check out that video here. 

Have you ever tried drawing with a ballpoint pen?

Give it a shot next time you’ve got something else to wait around at – like the kids ballgames, doctors office, etc. You won’t need an eraser or sharpener like with a pencil. Just pen and paper and you’re good to go!

Supplies

1. Stonehenge sketchbook
2. Bolt Action Pen by Bastion
3. Daniel Smith Watercolor Sticks
4. Winsor Newton Kolinsky Sable Series 7 Round #8 

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We may not all be superheroes (I’m surely not!) but that doesn’t mean we don’t have superpowers and kryptonite just the same. I’ve seen comments from folks thinking I’m some kind of Marvel character, but honestly, my superpower is not one that you’d normally think of as an “art” superpower.

Tutorial: Superpowers and Kryptonite: what’s yours?

Watch the video below and scroll to the end to leave comments or questions — or click HERE to watch it on YouTube and leave comments over there. I read both dutifully!

Busy busy busy

I’ve not had much time for making in the traditional sense this week – gah! I’m about to have some long art sessions to make up for it, because what I’ve been working on hasn’t been scratching my artistic itch even if it is! I did take some time to sit down and write out 75 thank you cards to patrons, because recently I did turn these pieces from classes into cards…and since I’ve been in a big “purge” mode lately, it was time to empty the basket of cards and get them out to make mailboxes happy!

Classes mentioned

With the sale this month (June 2023) on ALL classes, a few are highlighted because they’ve been made into cards – there’s more about each one here. The mermaid printables are here.

Human Rainbow II

This class comes with the drawings you’ll need….and teaches a variety of skintones and hair. Both colors and textures! Tap to see class

Market Street Sketches

This sketching class provides templates with measurements – and lots of fun line work with pens, plus watercolor tips with epic shadows! Tap to see class

Sunrise Sunset: Epic Skies

This is the first course I tried teaching in both colored pencil and watercolor pencil! Either medium works to create skies you can use for all kinds of art and cards to add some drama. 🙂 Tap to see class

Tiaras and Tutus

I mentioned Artventure has some classes in it – and this is where little card classes are! In Tiaras and Tutus you’ll get tips on coloring stamps on Desert Storm cardstock, then adding white elements to them. Taking advantage of how to make gouache both thick and thin gives options for making some elements see-through! To find classes at Artventure you MAY need to view it on the web; some app stores are abysmal about approving classes within Mighty Networks, so purchasing it through the website itself works better for some phones. Tap to join Artventure

Cards coming next week!

For those who miss my stamping, keep an eye out next week…there are two new releases that I’ve been invited to participate in, so I’ll be in both hops. I’m stoked to get back to creating again after taking time away to get the house project going!

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In my last post and video, we talked about when a crafter is called an artist – and the feedback was so powerful I decided to create a part 2! And of course that gave me an excuse to make some more patterned paper, yay! This time – no watercolor, just stamping inks; so you can take the class without having to watercolor everything. It has a different look, but still very pretty. (This follows the template for Lesson 2 with some adaptations that are discussed in class.)

Tutorial: Overcoming “bad art” days….and learning to respect your art

Watch the video below and scroll to the end to leave comments or questions — or click HERE to watch it on YouTube and leave comments over there. I read both dutifully!

Ten minutes a day

I always recommend that artists create something every day. What does that mean?

1. At ten minutes a day, you’ll develop a practice habit.
2. A tiny notebook and a pen or pencil is all it takes.
3. Figure out when you have 10 minutes to sit still and just make art without thinking.
4. Drawing shapes and lines helps to develop habits, work on hand-eye coordination, line quality, etc but the real benefit is  learning to loosen your mind while you work.
5. Drawing objects is better – but if that’s at all intimidating, don’t go there til you’re comfortable and have a habit already developed. This can become your “omg do I have to do this again” thing, and the idea is to let pencil and paper become something you love and crave.
6. By the way, this 10 minutes is in addition to —or a way to start off on —a regular session of making art.

Keep a grace journal

What’s a grace journal? At the end of your daily 10 minutes, write down a compliment in a little journal. Just the date and a sentence. Look at what you just made, and write down something like:

1. These colors make me feel joy.
2. The lines in the upper left look really elegant.
3. I sat down frustrated, got up peaceful.

You needn’t detail whatevr you worked on – but this is practice in getting GOOD words on paper to stick in your head. Every time you open up this journal, it’s filled with statements of grace you’ve poured out into yourself.

Befriend a cross-discipline artist.

I’ve found that the best people in my life to encourage me artistically are the ones who are making art NOT like mine. They DON’T make what I do. They use a different medium. They have a completely different style.

Those are the people who can see your work for what it is—not comparing it to the same circles you walk in. (There’s a place for those kinds of friendships to wax on about your niche, but if you want to start seeing your work on the spectrum of ART and not get sucked into thinking you’re “only” a crafter again, you need some outside input.)

Urban sketching is where I’d recommend starting to find an artist friend. Other “fine art” groups will inquire/compare notes on who does what, and I find that’s not so in sketching groups….they don’t care what kind of artist anyone is – just that you’re there and drawing with them is plenty. You’ll find people who are just barely beginning, as well as people who’ve been drawing for years. Some have made lots of progress, others are slower. And it’s all good. All that matters is you’re there and participating, and you’ll not find judgment!

Yesterday’s YT short

In case you missed it, I posted a short video with this piece on the left; it uses the template from Lesson 5 from Pattern Stamping class – but with different stamps and products; the blue is a water-based marker since I didn’t have the “right” blue in distress inks. So you can use other water-soluble mediums for class, too!

Supplies

1. Catherine Pooler Inks:
   1. Queen for a Day 
   2. Sage 
   3. Be Mine 
2. Neenah Cardstock, Solar White 250pk 

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