Tag Archives: Watercolor

Creative Juice #336

Standard
Creative Juice #336

Quilts. Art. Books. Signs. Writing classes. And other interesting things to think about.

Some Selections from my Art Book Shelf

Standard

You might know that I’m a bookaholic. So is my husband, Greg. We love books. We have many bookshelves scattered throughout the house. We have closets stuffed with books we haven’t read yet. We’ve given away hundreds of books. We have books we can’t bear to give away because we have reread them multiple times and plan to reread them again.

My art book shelf

These are the books currently on the art book shelf in my writing/quilting room. I have more art books in the bookcase in our foyer.  

I’ve pulled out five books that I especially like.

I’ve posted about first book, Samantha Dion Baker’s Draw Your Day: An inspiring guide to keeping a sketch journal, before, and you may want to check out my review.

My son Andrew gave me The Complete Book of Drawing Peopleby Barrington Barber (and two others) for Christmas one year. I especially like it because Barber breaks down the parts of the body and draws them at different angles. Barber also breaks drawings into steps so you can see how to plan and construct them. A few years ago I worked from this book for the Index-Card-a-Day challenge.

The Complete Book of Drawing People

A couple of years ago I saw the sketchbook 300 Drawing Prompts by piccadillyinc.com at Target and grabbed it. It has pages with prompts and ample room to draw. I have not yet used it but I intend to start this year—it’s one of my unofficial artistic goals.

300 Drawing Prompts

I love watercolor, and I want to get serious about it. I bought 15-Minute Watercolor Masterpieces by Anna Koliadych because I’ve seen some of her tutorials on YouTube. I’ve used some of her designs for World Watercolor Month, and I think I’ll use this book again this year. She has a section on mixing colors and watercolor techniques, and she breaks her masterpieces down to doable steps.

15-Minute Watercolor Masterpieces

The final book I have read many, many times: A Walk Through the Cloisters by Bonnie Young, about the medieval branch of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, located in Fort Tryon Park in Manhattan. If you’ve followed ARHtistic License for any length of time, you know I’m obsessed with the Cloisters, and especially with the unicorn tapestries that are housed there. Unfortunately, this wonderful book filled with history and gorgeous photographs is out of print, but you might be lucky enough to find it in a library or used book store.

A Walk Through the Cloisters

Now it’s your turn. What are some of your favorite art books? Share in the comments below.

Creative Juice #328

Standard
Creative Juice #328

Interesting stuff to read. Artistic stuff to love.

Creative Juice #326

Standard

Articles too good not to share.

Creative Juice #323

Standard
Creative Juice #323

Neat stuff floating in our creative juice this week.

Creative Juice #319

Standard
Creative Juice #319

The Thanksgiving weekend edition. I’m thankful for all the creative artists who inspire us.

Creative Juice #309

Standard
Creative Juice #309

A baker’s dozen today. (No, actually 14 beautiful or helpful things to look at today.)

  1. A lot of these Twitter posts made me laugh out loud.
  2. Fairyland paradise.
  3. Amazing prize-winning nature photos.
  4. Cute quilt pattern make with different fabrics.
  5. Gorgeous red-and-white quilts.
  6. Writers, delete these words from your manuscript today. (Yeah, I know. I’m guilty too.)
  7. The apprenticeship of Leonardo da Vinci.
  8. A watercolorist’s process.
  9. Fabulous child photography on this Instagram page.
  10. Sunflowers, sketched several ways.
  11. Interesting double exposures.
  12. A potter discusses the contemporary modernism of a 500-year-old Chinese vessel.
  13. Have you ever seen a murmuration of starlings? Watch this video, and then look at these etchings.

Creative Juice #307

Standard
Creative Juice #307

Quilts. Writing. Art.

ICAD2022 Day 61; World Watercolor Month 2022 Day 31

Standard

One final half-zendala for the last day of ICAD and World Watercolor Month. Patterns used: Brayd, Cat-Kin, MI2, Golven, Laced, Gem.

Half-zendala #3

This year I made a total of 38 cards, far less than the goal of 61; last year I completed 52. I comfort myself with the thought that if I complied with my normal goal of working on an art project on every even-numbered day, I’d actually have fewer products to show.

All my ICAD cards 2022

My cards are evenly divided between the calligraphy practice I did in June and the watercolors I made in July. I love doing challenges like these, because they push me to be more deliberate in my practice. As of this writing, these two cards got the most “likes” on ARHtistic License:

B
B
Sky
Sky

This card got the most likes on Instagram:

Ogee grid with onamato and A.L.F.
Ogee grid with onamato and A.L.F.

That surprised me, because my absolute favorite of the bunch is this one:

Wave
Wave

And I’m also very fond of these two:

Kaleidos
Kaleido
Half-zendala
Half-Zendala #1

I always enjoy these challenges, and I love seeing what other participants post.

Click to see more ICAD offerings and more WWM paintings on Instagram.

Creative Juice #304

Standard
Creative Juice #304

Lots of artistic things in this week’s offerings.