Hello, it's me.

It's been months, I know. I've really missed creating artwork. And now that the school year is over, I feel like I can breathe. It has been a challenging four months. Wait, it was only four months since I started teaching again? Wow, it seems longer. What started as a temporary job as a substitute for a teacher having surgery, it turned into a permanent teaching job! It was challenging because I had to juggle three classes that I was subbing and the three classes that I was actually teaching. Enough. Let's get back to art, sort of..

I created the piece you see above this morning. It felt good to draw and paint, though I'm clearly rusty. It's going to take more practice before I my confidence back to create. I feel like I've lost my mojo. And that's why I started with a quote and a Jane Davenport-style girl. I drew her with my favorite Platinum Carbon Pen and used Shinhan watercolors to paint. The writing was done with Posca white paint pen and a bit of shadowing done with Prismacolor colored pencil. Her face is a bit wonky but it's a start. And I love the quote.  So much of what limits us is in our minds. We create so many imaginary obstacles that prevents us from trying - I can't draw, I'm not creative, I can't do math. And I'm usually good about not letting those obstacles get in my way. I just need to start creating daily again, even if it's just random doodling.

Here are a few pages I've done since the last post. My birthday was May 1 and one of my students made a cake! It was a beautiful strawberry layer cake and it was delicious! She was thrilled that I drew her.

And for Mother's Day, I got a french press! Good bye, Keurig.. I love how the richness of the coffee flavor comes through with the press. And it is a bit more work cleaning it, it's definitely worth it!

My youngest got to attend a mock 1942 White House State Dinner as part of the 7th grade social studies program. Remember, she's the one who also participated in the re-enactment of the Battle of Gettysburg. Her social studies teacher is just wonderful. And on the right, you see a picture of the Bitmoji portrait of my IB SL students. If you don't know about Bitmoji, it is an app that creates an avatar of yourself and I had each student create his/her avatar and send it to me and I created the class picture. I even had a poster made for my classroom and I got each one to sign it! 

I drew this one during work. LOL. My second year students were taking the IB exams so on this day, I didn't have to teach at all but had to cover classes for other teachers and ended up not having time for lunch. But of course, I made time for art. Priorities...

And now, an update on planner. As you recall, I started to use the Bullet Journal system to plan because it wasn't enough to put things on my phone. I am not naturally organized so I have to force myself to be so I can get things done and oh yes, not forget to pick up your child from cheer practice. I was using a dotted (has dots in grids)  Moleskine journal for my BuJo and when I starated teaching, I used a gridded composition book. But then I found a journal with dotted Tomoe River papaer (I use journals with tomoe river paper for my art) from Nanami Paper. Unfortunately, it was sold out and not available until end of June. And so I searched for others like it and found an Etsy shop that sells them and I bought the last one. So this will be my new BuJo.. Yay! By the way, I used Microsoft Sway to create the slideshow. As a side note, I've been using Microsoft products, especiall OneNote to teach and I've come to really appreciate the suite of software that comes with Office.

Art Challenge Day 2 - Elf

Today's challenge is Elf. I know the all the craze about Elf on the Shelf and I have seen some really creative photos of them. And I've also seen Mensch on a Bench for us Jews. Fun, but way too much work for me. 

Another elf I considered drawing is Hermey from Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer movie. Yes, I still watch it every year with or without the kids. 

So the elf that drew is from the movie, "elf" with Will Farrell and James Caan. And the scene is when Elf is eating spaghetti with syrup and candy and is barf-worthy but kids always love that scene wondering how Will was able to eat the concoction. 

We don't celebrate Christmas unless we visit my sister and mom, but we love  so many of the Christmas movies and songs. Which movie is your favorite holiday movie?

December Art Challenge Day 1 - Tree

Happy December! If you didn't see my last post (late last night), I created my own art/drawing challenge. Here is the challenge:

Today, I offer two trees, both using a zentangle pattern. The one above uses the pattern, Gnarly. You can see how to draw gnarly here  Gnarly is such a bold pattern and I knew it would be a b/w drawing. I love the curvature (though it was difficult to make it smooth)!

This one uses the pattern Popsicle and you can see how this is drawn here  When I saw this pattern, I knew I'd try to draw a bonsai. Unfortunate with my brown thumb, this is the only type of bonsai I can grow. 

I used my new Shinhan watercolors for this. The set came with 30 tubes of paint. And since I didn't have a palette with 30 wells, I had to get creative. So here is my solution.

I used my cheap 12-well palette and added additional wells cut from my daughter's allergy meltaways.. They are perfect! And here is my palette filled up.

If you actually count, there are 32 colors. I had to add my Daniel Smith Quinacridone Gold and Quinacridone Burnt Orange because they are fabulous on their own and great for mixing colors.

The colors are very vibrant. I'll have to really try them before I can properly review. I'm waiting on my new 24-well palette for my Holbein watercolors. Both were Black Friday purchases.. 

Happy drawing!!