I thought I’d try my hand at another illustration. This one is of a little girl watering her red flower. I used soft pastels on a cream colored paper.
drawing
#537 of 1001, The Furst Gnome Reads A Book
The First Gnome like some of enjoys kicking back and reading before bedtime. Today’s illustration is done on white paper using a black pen and soft pastels.
#536 of 1001, Dancing
There are times when I break out the soft pastels, draw something and then let my imagination take over. Dancing is an 8×10 soft pastel on white paper.
#524 Be Careful Where You Sit
A soft pastel rendering highlighted in pen created on an 8×10 old book page.
#512 & 513 Two Simple Line Drawings
In the course of my artist’s lifetime there are many times I create simple line drawings and then color them in for effect. These are two of those drawings. They are 8×10 drawings done in #2 pencil highlighted in pen then colored in with colored pencil.
#506 Picking Flowers
My twist on an older painting I saw. I was trying to practice my observation skills…i.e learning to see things more for details than just looking. The drawing was done with a #2 pencil on an 8×10 white piece of paper and then the flowers were highlighted with color pencil. I am taking a course on studying the Bible and one of the things I learned is this read the passage, read round the passage, read the passage some more. Once you have done this go back and keep reading it until God and the Holy Spirit make it clear what you need to be learning from reading the passage. It is funny how art sometimes translates into life. In art you must, look, look and then look some more .until you see what needs to be created.
An Accidental Artist
I have very limited art training. The sum total of my formal training being a few classes at the local community college. I am what I call an accidental artist. I stumbled into it because I wanted to be a cartoonist like Charles Schulz. I started drawing my own cartoons based on a cat I used to have.
I then moved on to silly cartoons panels. I even got to the point where I would send my cartoons out, yes send them out, to the big agencies. Most just sent back the standard, “Don’t call us we’ll call you,” letter.
A little while later I took a class on pastels. I loved and still love the ease of use of soft pastels. Now oil pastels are a little more difficult to use but I love the brilliance of the colors. Today I have branched out to all mediums.
What is the point of this whole ramble? Just this, do not devalue you artistic ability just because you’re what I call an accidental artist. Someone who just for the shear joy…creates. An artist is an artist.
5 Ways I Find Ideas of What to Draw
Someone in one of my comments recently asked me this question, “How do you choose what you want or draw?” Off the top of my head here are fives ways I seek out art inspiration.
1. I look. What I mean by this is I’m ever vigilant for the things around me which fit into what I like to draw or paint. The world around us is full of ideas if only you train yourself to see them.
2. I use free picture sites and apps. There are several apps like Unsplash and Pexe which offer royalty free to use photos. Some of these I use outright. Others I use but change the picture.
3. Old Art. There are several websites which offer up old images as inspiration for art. Two of these websites are 99Designs.com and Vintage.com.
4. Pinterest. While a lot of the art on Pinterest is copyrighted you can still use it for inspiration or for practice.
5. I redo old art. I am constantly drawing. Many of these drawing accumulate and end up sitting in a bin or file at my art table. Every so often I will get out these pictures and rework them or colorize them.
3 Reasons Why Art is My Therapy
In my 60 plus years on this earth I have discovered one truth, well besides the fact God is alive and well, life is a rollercoaster. One day your climbing the hill and every thing looks good from the top but once you reach the pinnacle and the car your riding in clicks and heads down the steep hill things can change quickly. It is on these days I lean on God but I also get out my drawing pad and some for on pairing medium and commence to creating. While I don’t consider my art to be anything special there are three reasons art is my therapy.
1. Creating is calming. Sitting down at a table in your hand and a drawing pad or picture to color is calming. There is something about sitting there that make you feel peaceful. Maybe it is because of my second reason.
2. Art is time filling. When you art tome seems to fly by. Some call this the left brain/right brain switch. I call it the joy of creating. From the moment you .ay down the first line of a drawing to the moment you see the finished painting it is time well spent. Which leads to the third reason I like art as a therapy.
3. The finished drawing brings joy to the heart. When you look down at what you have created it brings such a peace and joy to your heart that at times I wonder if this what God thought when He created everything then stood back and said “This is good.” Art is a process and while the start of any pieces of art is exciting to me, the end is where I get the most satisfaction.
These are the three reasons art is good therapy for me and could be for you. I am not an art therapist but if you want to email me I would be glad to talk to you about how you can get started.
