Cleaning my palette

After doing my lunch time drawings, I still had quite a bit of paint on my palette that I did not want to just wipe off and throw away. I decided to use it for a background, maybe.

but as I looked at what I had on my page, I opted for tracing them instead:

I added some background colour:

and gave the shapes a bit more definition:

With the background colour, they reminded me a bit of giraffe spots. Another very simple doodle done:

Come bloghopping with me...

Every now and then, I find myself following a link on a blog, and then following a link on that blog, and then that one and so on and so forth. I love these little treasure hunts, as often I find blogs I end up following, or videos that inspire.

Today was no exception.

It all started on Danny Gregory's blog. I love his books, I love his blog. His drawings are a huge inspiration as is his 'Everyday matters' movement that inspired people to draw even the most mundane objects in their lives.

The other day, he posted a introduction by Stefano, a new member to his Everyday matters group. It was a lovely and touching introduction, which rightfully made a lot of people curious to see his artwork.

Danny posted the link to Stefano's blog later, which turns out to be a fairly new blog, going back to April of this year. Stefano's drawings are similar to Danny's, in the sense that he draws anything and everything that's around him, sometimes quite literally. From his cat to the rubbish bin, from food to bull clips on his desk at work. Great stuff!

On Stefano's blog, there was a link to Herzkönigin, which, if I'm correct, translates as Queen of Hearts. Clivia says being creative makes her happy and it helps calm her down. I can related to that!

Her blog is written in German, but even if you don't speak or read that language, you can still enjoy the amazing pictures. Clivia seems rather obsessed with Polaroids, she's made some very cute Polaroid inspired stamps. (Click on Ältere Posts, it translates as 'older posts'.)

And then to make this blog hopping session complete, I found inspiring videos on Vimeo:

New Orleans Artists – Kaki Foley from Anthropologie on Vimeo.

New Orleans Artists – Rebecca Rebouché from Anthropologie on Vimeo.

Don't you just love evenings like this?

Illustrated Journal -- Lunch time drawings

Doodle!

Sun shining on my back -- check! Ice tea with lots of ice cubes -- check! Nice big palette of W&N watercolours -- check!

Let's doodle then!

More drawing in the garden

There were even more weeds for me to draw in the garden, I'm surprised Keesha had not taken them out yet -- lazy dog!

Summer time!

So it was finally Summer here last week. I'll spare you pictures of the grey and rainy sky we have here this morning, but it was actually hot enough to sit out in the garden last week - imagine that!

What better time than this to do a little sketching and painting? Weeds may look horrible in the garden, but they make great examples to sketch from:

Challenge!

As you may or may not know, Artjournaling-dot-ning-dot-com has a biweekly 'Challenge!' run by different people. The idea is to get your Art Journaling juices going (again), trying out a technique you may not have thought of, using colours you might not normally use, trying out something new or something you had forgotten about.

At the beginning of the month, it was my turn. And today, I added my second Challenge! If you want to go see it, you need to sign up for the Ning site, and then sign up for the free(!)Challenge! workshop. Yes, you read that right, it is free. But if you like what you see there, there is a donation button to show your appreciation.. *hint, hint*

Please be sure to add your pictures if you've joined in on the fun!