Mandala Monday - Flower of Life

Do you remember your high school geometry class? For the most part, geometry was not my thing trying to memorize all the theorems for proofs. But I did love the construction unit in which you learned to draw various polyhedrons with a compass and a straight edge. Another unit on tesselation (tiling a pattern), golden ratio and Fibonacci sequence (think nautilus she'll) was among my favorites too. I just think it's super cool that mathematics can be used to explain so many beautiful things nature provides for us. I think it's even more super cool that in nature, so many seemingly different things are connected to each other.

So for today's mandala, I created the "flower of life" pattern. The term, "flower of life", is a recent one though the pattern is ancient. I won't bore you with the details, but if you are interested, start reading this.

I love this pattern so much that I created a couple of stencils with this pattern. I drew the patterns on cardstock, laminated them and cut out certain parts using an X-acto knife. I used the stencils to create my piece for today. I colored using Inktense blocks with a baby wipe. 

And here's the pattern if you want to color it. My daughter was surprised that I created this using only a compass and used the same compass angle until the very end when I drew the outer circle. 

Can you see the different patterns you can create by coloring the petals in different colors? I see a Jewish star, a hexagon, a pentagon, a square, and a triangle.. And if you draw more circles, you can see a cube.. I hope you give this a try.. 

Mandala Monday - Semicolon

Last Monday, I posted three free mandala patterns. I hope you had a chance to download and color them. If you missed it, here's the post. And here is one of mine I colored.

I used Inktense blocks to color. I used minimal water because this was just a copy paper and it can't hold up to much water. I love this pattern because there are so many ways to create different designs by manipulating the shapes within the mandala.

I really enjoyed creating and coloring mandalas so I decided to make this a regular feature on my blog. This week, I used the semicolon as my inspiration. Do you know about Project Semicolon? It is an organization created to support people struggling with depression, substance abuse, and self-harm. It has been featured in many publications like the Huffington Post.

I have family members who struggle with depression and self-harm, so I decided to offer my support for this organization by creating art using the semicolon. What you see above is a mandala done with only semicolon and colored with colored pencils.

I also created a semicolon Ensō (for an explanation of Ensō, here's my post about it.)

I used Copic markers to color it. I love how the colors blend. To me, the circle is eternal, a continuous process. And this particular Ensō suggests Pause-Continue and repeat. Life is full of obstacles and you do need to pause and process the negatives yet focus on the positives. I've had to do that a lot this year. 

And if you would like to try coloring these here are the blank files. Please email me your finished page or tag me on social media. 

Happy coloring!!

Inktober Day 20 - Metallic Leaves

For today's Inktober piece, I knew I wanted to start with an Inktense background of fall colors.

Originally, I was thinking of doing zendalas in silver and gold. And then I saw the Diva Challenge post this morning and I ended up drawing leaves in metallic gel pens. The quote reads, 

"Delicioud Autumn! My very soul is wedded to it. And if I were a bird, I would fly about the earth seeking the successive Autumn."

By George Elliot

And here are the leaves..

I'm afraid the only fall leaves I'll see are the ones I create! (^ ^)

Inktober Day 13 - Using Reference Photos

For today's Inktober piece, I knew I wanted to draw a witch and I was all set to draw these cute stuffed Halloween decorations I have. 

But I wasn't feeling it. I had an image in my mind about a beautiful witch, so I searched Google for a beautiful witch. I found a couple of images I liked.

I love the background of the first and the face of the second. So I tried to combine the two for my piece. I usually save several photos that I find before deciding on which part of each photo I want to use. Mainly, I'm looking for lighting and the "shell" of the subject I'm drawing. My pieces are never an exact copy of an image I use. But many people tell me that they can spot one of my pieces and that I have a unique look.. That's always nice to hear.. 

Inktober -Day 10. Holding on to Sunshine

As with most of my art, I saw the quote first in one of the member's post in Fauxbonichi Journalers group on Facebook. I immediately saw an image but it was different than what you see above.

My original thought was to have a child smiling, "beaming" with her hands over her heart. The child would be drawn in b/w and have the sunshine in color coming within her heart. 

But this morning (I woke up at 5:30 a.m.), my drawing took a different turn. I still drew a child, but there is little joy in this child's face. To me, she seemed devoid of all emotions.

I drew her in ink and colored her with Inktense block. I was going to use gray tones for her but instead, I went with reddish brown. I added the sunshine in yellow and orange and colored the background with the color bark. 

I probably stared at her for about 15 minutes trying to see what she was trying to tell me. Then it hit me. This little girl is me. I've been in a major funk the last 6 months or so and things are getting better. But I have major decisions to make in the coming weeks. And though I've not felt my best, I always keep a bit of sunshine in heart. Perhaps she is trying to remind me that happiness comes from within, not from external sources. 

Inktober Day 7 - Playing with Inktense

Today for Inktober, I'm using Inktense blocks instead of pens. Inktense come in two forms, pencils and block. I have the 24-count set of pencils and a full set of blocks. I love them! The colors are vibrant and they behave like watercolors when wet but once dry, they are permanent. That means you can layer colors without muddying them. They are made from India ink so you can make mist sprays with them or use it with your calligraphy dip pens.

For today's drawing, I chose my leaf bowl. It is great for entertaining! Fill it up with chips or other goodies and it becomes a part of your fall tablescape. I usually make my pumpkin dip this time of the year. My recipe is sweet with a little bit of kick to it. It's perfect with tortilla chips made from tortillas and a leaf cookie cutter.

For the last few years, I used Mission brand Carb Control tortillas and used the cookie cutter to make the chips. I toast them lightly until the edges are brown. I put the leaf tortillas in my leaf bowl and serve with the pumpkin dip. Now I'm hungry for some!

Coffee and Love

If you know me at all, you know I love coffee!  I've loved it since high school.  There is no other scent or flavor that signals the morning for me. In college, my coffee maker was continuously brewing for me and my podmates. We didn't care what brand of coffee we used, we were only interested in the liquid fuel.

When I became a teacher, I started out taking a thermos of coffee. When that wasn't enough, I brought my own coffee make for my classroom. I remember my Chem 2 students were concerned for my health, so I assigned them to extract the amount of caffeine I was consuming a day. Needless to say, it was more than what was recommended.

The only time I quit drinking was during my pregnancies and during my nursing period. Most were shocked that I had more than one child. I rarely drank decaf because I thought the residue from the chemicals used to decaffeinate the coffee would be more harmful than the actual caffeine.  

Today, I use the Keurig. But I stopped buying the pods because you can't easily recycle them. So now, I use my handy attachment to make my own pods. I actually like making my pods because I can adjust the intensity of my brew. So with all this love for coffee, I was somewhat surprised that I had only done one art piece with a coffee theme before the one you see above.  Here's my previous one.

I think I'm going to do a series of these coffee-themed art.  Should be fun!

For today's piece, I used my new favorite art supply - Derwent Inktense Pencils.  These look like colored pencils, but they activate with water-based media and when dry, they are permanent because the pencil is ink-based.  One of my favorite techniques I use with Inktense is to activate with gesso, which produces a softer look.

If I had activated this with water, the color would have been much more intense.  Gesso, which is an acrylic base, is milky and gritty.  It's almost like using white paint with ink. 

Now it's time to add details and depth. I wasn't really going for realism, just to make it look plausible. For this, I used colored pencils.  Because I used gesso, the colored pencils go on darker. And I blended them with rubbing alcohol.  What's nice about using rubbing alcohol is that it has enough water that it will also activate the remaining Inktense. The result is what you see above.  

The quote is a German Proverb. I chose this after reading my friend, Brad's blog post on Wednesday. When the relationship is new, the spark is always there. And when you've been married for 17 years sometimes you have to stoke the embers to get the fire going again. 

Time for another cup of coffee.