It's Christmas time, mistletoe and wine...

Well, no wine for me after my horrendous hangover after the Christmas party! This week has been a blur - work, Christmas, Boxing Day and having a cold. I've gone back to the 1000 things to draw, and only managed one thing so far in a week:

32. Redesign a book cover (The Wolf Hound and the Raven), using my Graphiter app on my tablet

I should probably still finish my dragon piece, however my family got me a new sketching set for Christmas, and I've treated myself to some half decent coloured pencils today, so I think today will be spent playing with those. I bought my friend one of those adult colouring books for Christmas, and I've had an idea to make my own colouring sheet, so I'll probably be doing lots of doodling tonight.

At the start of the month I bought a Groupon offer to do 10 sessions of yoga for £10 at my local leisure centre. I've been doing the 30 days of yoga by doyouyoga.com, and in true spirit I've done them haphazardly. I've just done day 3 today, and it's probably taken me about a week to get this far! I wanted to get a feel for yoga though before going to a proper class. If anyone has tips or hints for me post a comment below.

I came across this link during the week and thought you might like to see it:
http://www.houzz.com/ideabooks/13091885/list/11-tips-to-get-the-creative-space-you-crave

And here is my Pinterest of the week, I literally don't even have a corner to set up an art space, so I'm settling for checking out other people's spaces for the moment: https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/330592428875273399/

Also, as of the 23rd of December my blog was a year old! I can't believe I've stuck at this for more than a year. While I haven't done as much art as I would've liked it's certainly kept me more accountable than if I hadn't kept a blog.

Anyway, the plan for the week ahead is to do some more of the 1000 things to draw, and I really need to finish the dragon piece. I have a terrible habit of leaving things half done. I've been having a think how to make it really work with colour, as I didn't get on with Bobby Chiu's method, so I'll have an experiment during the week. I'm at work between Christmas and New Year though (boo), so my time is as limited as normal. Hope Santa brought you everything you wished for, and have a happy new year!

Back from Amsterdam

Hey, so I'm back from Amsterdam, and I had a brilliant time while over there. We did everything we had planned, and more! This is what we got up to:

Friday: We spent the day exploring, and went to the Rome exhibition at De Nieuwe Kerk. We didn't get up to much in the evening.
Saturday: Spent most of the day at the Rijksmuseum. It's number 1 on Trip Advisor, and for good reason! Went to Boom Chicago in the evening for some laughs.
Sunday: Went to the Van Gogh museum, and was a bit disappointed with it. Spent most of Sunday evening bar-hopping.

Our room, had a cage for a wardrobe, and a mini-jail on top of the bathroom!

Our hotel, Mauro Mansion

Centraal Station 

Night Watch, Rembrandt, Rijksmuseum

Portrait of Vincent Van Gogh, Rijksmuseum

Library in the Rijksmuseum, it's like something from Beauty and the Beast!

Model of an oriental vessel, Rijksmuseum

Quick 5 minute sketch

Tried to do the same on my tablet, didn't work out quite so well

My first day back at work was 2 days out of the office doing team building. The morning's activity was outdoor-based, and was OK, nothing special. However the afternoon's activity was a take on the Great British Bake Off - I was in my element! Our team didn't win but I still had fun. There was a party in the evening, and I behaved myself and drank diet coke for half of the night. I was very smug the next morning when a lot of people had hangovers!

I haven't drawn much while being in Amsterdam, or since I returned, I'm not sure what to do next. I'm sure I'll figure something out. I should probably finish my dragon piece.

I found something on the internet before I went on holiday, designers might find amusing, it certainly made me smile: http://www.creativebloq.com/design/creative-process-timeline-nails-it-111518018

For my Pinterest of the week I must admit I've not read this yet, but I've pinned it for future reading: https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/240238961349923858/

Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and a prosperous new year. Dream big, don't give up, and don't take yourself too seriously :)

Schoolism complete

So I finished Schoolism last Monday, and listened to the book excerpt from Bobby Chiu. It was quite insightful. I feel from doing the Painting Creatures course I've learned a lot, and also learned how to figure out quick and easier ways of doing things. I've also learned that using reference is not cheating if applied correctly, although I've learned this several times in the past few years it still comes back to give me a kick up the arse.

As such, since finishing the Schoolism course I've done no art at all. Nothing. Nada. Zip. So I did a few figure drawings this evening:

On Friday I attended my first Christmas party for my new job, and I was absolutely annihilated. I've never had a hangover so bad - I was still being sick at 8pm on Saturday! Needless to say this has inspired me to come out with quotes I'll never stick to, like 'I'm never drinking again'. I probably won't drink too much over Christmas now as I've had my blow-out for the Christmas period.

I'm off to Amsterdam on Thursday as part of my birthday celebrations (the big 3-0, eek!). Don't think I'll be drinking much while there, but I have some expeditions planned - the Rijksmuseum, the Van Gogh museum, and we have a couple of shows at the Boom Chicago comedy club booked too. I can't wait! I went to Amsterdam a few years ago, and loved it so much that I've always wanted to go back. It's such a vibrant city, and we didn't do half of what we wanted to do the last time we were there. That, and the fact we were knackered from walking around on the first day didn't leave us with much energy to enjoy the city for the remainder of our time there.

Well, I hope you're all getting ready for Christmas - I managed to put my boyfriend off from putting up the Christmas tree until 3rd December, and now it looks like a festive elf has sneezed all over our living room; there's tinsel everywhere!

Well, right now I'm going to finish watching my recording of The Hunt, narrated by David Attenborough. I love everything he narrates, and the camera skills of the crew for this series are just astonishing.

I won't be posting a blog post next week due to said holiday above :)

And last but not least, my Pinterest of the Week: http://batkamal.tumblr.com/post/70928746752

A full-on week

2 days left of the Schoolism subscription, and I've done nothing since last Sunday. I watched the last video on finishing touches, but there's a book excerpt at the end I've not found time to listen to yet.

I travelled to Center Parcs at Longleat on Wednesday on a business trip, and had a wicked time :) This was the view from my apartment:

It was a couple of long days though, the traffic on the drive back was horrendous.

I've been back to Center Parcs today (this time to Sherwood Forest) with my friend's family, and had a wicked time, although I didn't feel like we did much. Totally shattered now, watching the Formula 1 before going to bed.

So I've struggled to do any art this week. I'm still keeping in touch with it though, I finished the TV series of Landscape Artist of the Year this morning while doing the week's ironing. I live such an interesting life...
I've added my colour to my dragon a la Bobby Chiu, however I cannot get it to look anything better than washed out. I don't understand his technique enough to fix it, so I'm going to figure out a different way. This is the best I have so far:

Anyway, as is the norm now here is my Pinterest of the Week: http://theultralinx.com/2012/06/art-colour-coordination-infographic/

I've also come across some more relaxing music here for anyone that's interested: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCYk9CRx0g8

Holidays are coming

Well, I've made it to the last lesson of my Schoolism subscription, although I think it's more of a watch-video than a doing-video. In the last week I've worked on scales, hands and eyes, though I'm the first to admit I've not done a very good job on these things. If I have time at the end of the course I will go back over these videos. So below is what I've been working on. Please note I haven't done the base drawing, only the faint scales, eyes and hands:

I haven't worked on my dragon this week. I'm not really much further into my writing course either.

Yesterday I went on a chocolate-making course and made 24 chocolates for an advent calendar, including a few spares. It was loads of fun!

I've been listening to more relaxing music while I study, I'm still really into classical music, although I have deviated slightly... to Disney classic on the piano, ha! The link is here for anyone that's interested: https://youtu.be/tp5hgjD_Y5g

I was listening to classical music while writing this blog post, but then someone came on singing opera, and I'm more of a fan of instrumental classical music, so now I'm listening to Planet Rock. Old habits die hard.

Last but not least it's my Pinterest of the week, and this time it's not an image, it's a podcast: the Creative Pep Talk podcast. I've only just got into them, and they seem pretty good so far, check them out: http://illustrationage.com/2015/11/17/96761/?utm_source=hootsuite

Scaly things

Last week I kind of cheated with my dragon. I wanted to draw scales, but couldn't be bothered to draw every single scale individually, so I made a custom brush and painted them in. I didn't think it looked too bad.
The next Schoolism video showed me how to paint eyes and scales, so I've gone back to the drawing board with the scales on my dragon and refined them:

It looks subtly better now. Oh, and I did some work on the rabbit! I will probably shrink it even more though.

I'm hoping to get the Schoolism course finished now, I'm on lesson 7 out of 9, and I still have 2 weeks to do it. I've also quit Slimming World now, so I'll be getting my Monday nights back. I'm also still a week behind on my writing course, and I'm still as blasé about it as I was last week.

Nothing much to report on from the past week. I have a busy schedule for the next 6 weeks (including, but not limited to: work visit's, seeing my nan, Xmas party, work away-day, Amsterdam and Xmas to name a few!). I think December will be a quiet month for drawings, as I'll be so busy, I'll try to get some things done though.

Also, I've come across a few websites where you design something, and if you upload it to a particular website it can be printed on things like phone cases, cushions, you can earn a commission from it if people buy it! Let me know in the comments below if you're interested and I'll post the links next week.

Anyway, that about wraps it up for this week, I've re-discovered a playlist on youtube, it's called a Study Playlist, but it's good for having as background music while I draw: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLx65qkgCWNJIs3FPaj8JZhduXSpQ_ZfvL It's totally not my style of music, but sometimes I don't like listening to someone sing while I'm studying/drawing as I find it off-putting.

And here is my Pinterest of the Week, hope you have a good week everyone! http://lisapace.com/files/2014/07/1601284_802860943081664_2679415269977914934_n.jpg (sorry, I have a thing about rabbits)

Here be more dragons!

I carried on with the Schoolism videos, and I spent quite a lot of time on the 'fur' videos. I quite like drawing straight fur, but curly fur is quite difficult. I also felt like I spent way too much time on fur, so towards the end of the video I glossed over the last points. Then it was back to the dragon.

So I've spent quite a lot of hours refining my dragon. I feel like it was worth it, although I was feeing pretty down about it earlier today. It's nothing spectacular, but I feel it's a pretty good effort on my part:

Please excuse the giant rabbit. I wanted to get the silhouette down before I called it a day with this today. The rabbit won't be that big when this is finished!

I'm not sure if I'm going to get the Schoolism course finished. I have learned some key points already though, even if they're not the ones I'm supposed to be learning! I've learned that:

• Making a small thumbnail as an extra window on your screen helps you see the bigger picture while working on small details
• Use lots of reference
• Try to make sure whatever you're drawing has virality ie is cute/clever, etc
• Make sure you're drawing is clear and concise, the 3-tone drawing is good for this
• Always start with big brushes and work down to small for finer detail. Seriously, I never realised how useful this was
• I can pay for all of the tutorials I want, but unless I learn the basics and use basic techniques I'm never going to get better!

My writing course is going OK, I'm a week behind now, but I'm not stressing too much about it as this course is free, and it restarts in January anyway. If I get behind on this course because of my Schoolism course it's not a big deal.

I follow InPursuitOfArt on youtube, he posts some pretty good videos about being in the art industry, and I've just watched one of his recent ones this weekend, it's driven home a point to me that I don't need a Wacom Cintiq with state-of-the-art computer to be a good artist: https://youtu.be/1rg2c8FPf2E

And my Pinterest of the week is the following, hope you enjoy! https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/164386055/white-rabbit-print-rabbit-time-rabbit?utm_source=Pinterest&utm_medium=PageTools&utm_campaign=Share

Here be dragons!

As it turns out I did do the first Schoolism video wrong, so I've had to go back and redo it. This week I had to do a 3-tone sketch of my design, and it still has to look recognisable:

I'm going to watch the next video once the Formula 1 is done with, although I got wasted last night, and as a result today has been wholly unproductive, and this blog post will be fairly short. Although we did go and watch the fireworks show at my place of work, the fireworks were pretty spectacular. The even has to be called Guy Fawkes night, they can't call it Bonfire night as they can't have a bonfire in the middle of the forest.

On the walk to the pub yesterday I did manage to get some nice autumnal shots on my phone of our local park:

I've completed week 2 of my writing course, I had to listen to a line from a radio station and build a story on that. The line I had was 'Once you come out of a situation like that, it's like coming up from the sea-bed'. Week 3 starts tomorrow.

I've not watched any interesting videos this week, however I do have a Pin on Pinterest, hope you like: http://www.zeutch.com/graphik/moleskine-doodles-50270#

Becoming a recluse!

I finally knuckled down to do some homework this weekend, and have literally not left the house all weekend. I've completed video 2 and assignment 2 of the Schoolism workshop I'm doing, and just about completed week 2 of the Start Writing Fiction course I'm doing with FutureLearn.

I've just finished watching video 3 of the Schoolism course, and realised I've just been drawing animals, not creatures, as the title of the course suggests 'Painting Creatures', duh! So now I need to go back and create some creatures. That'll be in next week's blog entry. However from video 2 I've been learning all about drapery, and had to sketch a couple of things to learn different drapes:

With hindsight the rhino didn't have that many folds in its skin to study, I should've picked something more wrinkly...

Video 3 is going back to my original creature sketches, but I now need to draw some creatures, not animals that already exist.
Also, for week 2 of my Start Writing Fiction course I need to write the start of (or complete) story, no more than 500 words. I'm finding the course quite interesting, and it's harder than I thought it would be, but I'm getting some good feedback from other people on the course.

I've seen this video before but thought I'd share it, as I particularly like the part about showing up to do your part of something, even if some other part of you struggles: https://youtu.be/86x-u-tz0MA

And, as promised I would do a Pinterest of the week. I spent a fair bit of time yesterday trying to find something, then I happened across something which I knew would be right, as it's so cute. Hope you enjoy! http://www.duitang.com/people/mblog/50764978/detail/

More of the same Schoolism

I've been working on the same ideas as last week, and I've come up with a few more too. I've sketched the ones I thought were better ideas:

Chimp Selfie

Hungry Worm

I quite liked the concept for Chimp Selfie. Children learn to copy their parents behvaiour, it's part of their learning cycle, and it's quite scary how a two year old knows how to work a mobile phone or tablet. I bet chimps would learn from the hoardes of people that go to visit them in the zoo or wildlife parks every day, so I wonder if the zoo keeper gave a chimp a camera on a selfie stick if they would copy the behaviour of the people observing it? Just a thought.
I'm really conscious that we're more than halfway through October now and I still haven't watched any more of the videos I've subscribed to on Schoolism. I've not developed my current ideas too far, as I'm intrigued to see what the next video will bring, and I want to get a move on with the course.

I've also signed up to another course: Start Writing Fiction with FutureLearn in collaboration with the Open University. Talk about burning the candle at both ends! I figured that I struggle to come up with good ideas for my art, so if I do a course on writing it may help. It's free anyway, so I have nothing to lose.

A new feature that I'm going to do on my blog every week is Pinterest of the Week. This will be where I've pinned something on Pinterest that was of interest to me. I have a few boards on Pinterest, fitness and baking to name a few, but I also have a board for Art and another board for Inspiration. So this week's Pinterest of the Week is:

http://www.sheknows.com/living/articles/1003285/25-pinterest-myths-debunked/page:3

I love the idea of melting crayons onto paper to make ink splats, I have an idea for this so I will revisit this project.

That's it for this week, let's see what the next part of my Schoolism subscription brings!


Liked this post? You may also like: http://kimshibbybob.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/the-start-of-my-schoolism-subscription.html

The start of my Schoolism subscription

Still back in the old habits I'm afraid, but it's not for lack of trying this week. I've watched the first lesson by Bobby Chui, and whilst there wasn't much visually in the video there was a lot said which has given me stuff to think about. He talks about the virality of art, and what makes art viral. So my assignment was to think up 10 creatures. I've thought of 3, and drawn 2. I don't know how far we're supposed to take the drawings, so I've done it quickly in a cartoon style. What feelings do the following inspire, and would you share them to friends or just move on with whatever you were doing at the time?

Something I know I need to work on is perspective, particularly in the top drawing.

The cool thing about signing up to Schoolism is that (if you sign up for the full course) your work is critiqued, but as I've done mine through Kickstarter I don't get that option. However I see feedback videos that Bobby Chiu has recorded, so I'm still learning a lot from those.

Anyway, I've not done, or seen, much else in the art world this week. I've kind of enjoyed the downtime of not having pressure to draw something every day, however trying to think up 10 ideas for creatures that could go viral has been so difficult. I'm thinking maybe the Tea Dogs idea could be one, however it would need a witty quote to go with it to make it truly humorous. I think I'm just going to go for 5 creatures rather than beat myself up over the fact I can't think of 10, otherwise I will probably spend the rest of October trying to think of good creature ideas. I only have until the end of November on my subscription, so I need to get a move on!

Drawing-a-day is done for now

Howdy doody people! It's Sunday and I've only done half a week of drawing... and here it is:

29. Somewhere you'd like to go - space! Apologies for my very quick, crappy drawing of our galaxy...

30. Imaginary friend. Well, I didn't have one as a kid, but I pretended I had a barn owl, as I think these are beautiful birds. I tried to paint with the biggest brush possible to not get lost in the details... and I think I'm finally getting the hang of it :) Quite happy with the effort to quality ratio of this

31. Latest dream. Just to put this out there I regularly eat cheese before bed. As I did on this night. I was pretty upset I didn't manage to get tickets to the latest Muse gig. So in my dream I dreamt that Muse had gone to shit, and Matt Bellamy was hiding out in a camper van at the foot of the Canadian Rockies, and I was there consoling him. Weird.

So, I only managed 3 drawings this week before my Schoolism subscription started... and I fell right back into my old bad habits. There has been nothing stopping me from drawing the rest of the week, as I should've done, because I didn't watch the first Schoolism video I subscribed to until tonight. My last drawing was on Wednesday, so that's been 4 days of drawing I haven't done.

Anyway, moving on from the negativity, the first video has given me a lot to think over, and quite a big assignment at the end! I'm not sure how much of the video I can give away, but I think it's safe to say we'll see how my future drawings go, and how much interest they generate based on my learning from this course. I can tell you the course I signed up to was Painting Creatures. I normally come up with ideas in my sleep (as long as they're not cheese dreams like the above...), as in I like to sleep on ideas, and then the next day, or the next few days once my subconscious has had time to process the information I have a pretty good idea of what I want to do. I have 10 things to draw, which is more than what I draw in a week, but this is something I want to work on properly, not just bang out a drawing a day.

I'm already intrigued as to what my next blog entry will bring (hopefully not a big empty space!) and I hope you can join me next week to see what ideas my crazy cheese-addicted brain comes up with!

Quick mid-week update

Just a quickie, my Schoolism subscription starts tomorrow!! So I might not be doing my daily drawing for a couple of months, but I should defo be producing something, even if it's not daily.

Also I've signed up to a free course called Start Writing Fiction with FutureLearn (through Open University). Whilst I love drawing I often struggle to think of a back story for my drawings, which can make them seem a bit pointless. So hopefully this will help me think up new ideas, which will then help me think of things to draw!

I've still been doing my daily drawings this week, and will share with you all on Sunday :)

Week 4: 1000 days of drawing

Hi everyone :) I'm back off my hols and I did no drawing whatsoever, did you really expect anything different? ;)

I was back on it as of Monday though, and have been drawing every day again:

22. Something you miss. Pizza! I miss this so much due to dieting, but since eating clean since Feb if I do eat bad my body hates it!

23. Something you need. I always need more sleep, I've been poorly since the end of my holiday, and last week really was a struggle with sleep.

24. A couple. This is my boyfriend and I dicking about at a festival a few years ago

25. Scenery. This is a sunset at Queenstown, New Zealand

26. Something you don't like. I hate tuna! Raw, cooked, steak, tinned, blegh, it's all disgusting

27. Someone you love. This is a very unflattering picture of my boyfriend

28. Anything you like. The stuff I was thinking of to draw I had already done before, so I thought I'd draw a quick chibi-style of my boyfriend and I on our cruise last year

I've also been looking at arty things on the internet, which I'd like to share with you. The following link makes me feel extremely patriotic, although you should watch it to find out what the UK has given to the art world! http://www.creativebloq.com/creativity/englands-cultural-history-91516907

Also, I'm not sure if I'm going to take part in Inktober. I'm drawing every day anyway, I'm not sure drawing in pen is going to help my skills. I am finally starting to learn what I like drawing, I like drawing portraits, and I really enjoyed the scenery piece. I'm always blown away by amazing concept art for games and films, I'd love to be able to draw something like that one day, but for now I'm pretty happy drawing from my photos :)

Week 3: 1000 days of drawing

Hi all, it's getting late on Sunday evening, and I've had a very busy weekend redecorating my house and packing for holiday (again)! I've also found 4+ hours to draw today, and it's substandard, I'm not happy with it.

Anyway, before I go to bed I'll share with you this week's drawings. I'm still enjoying the daily challenge, however I'm having a break from it this week. I'll take my tablet on holiday with me, but I doubt inspiration will hit as I'll be in the pub for most of it! Maybe I'll do what this guy did... http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/sep/07/michigan-tech-student-drunk-designed-plane-twitter-viral-mark-keith

15. Family Portrait. I ran out of time to add the facial features, but on reflection I'm glad I didn't as I wouldn't want to you see them, or for me to do them an injustice with this image!

16. Inspiration. I was trying to use Bobby Chiu as inspiration but it wound up nothing like what he produces, oops! I was also playing around with a different brush option in Photoshop. I'm not sure if I like it yet.

17. Favourite plant. Mine is the daffodil!

18. Just doodle. Did this at the pub while doing a pub quiz. Everyone thought I was being antisocial!

19. Something new. This tomato was picked fresh off my tomato plant just before I drew it. Now it's been peeled and put in my freezer for later consumption.

20. Something Orange. I don't really own anything orange, but a suggestion made to me was to draw The Orange Box. I spent far too long on it though.

21. Something You Want. This was quickly rushed, as I want to go to bed. However I want to be recognised as an artist, although the above is symbolic of an art gallery I don't necessarily want this to be how I'm recognised (although I wouldn't complain)!

Week 2: 1000 days of drawing

Well, I've kept up the regular drawing! Albeit some days I don't draw, so I have to catch up the next day... Also I think it's pretty obvious when I draw something that interests me versus something that doesn't interest me.

Last week I found my favourite drawing was of my best friend, however this took me a few hours to do. I don't have a few hours to spend every day drawing, so I'm trying to limit myself to one hour. It stops me procrastinating and it forces me to work more efficiently.

I've had a really busy week socially, so while I've struggled to get my practise in I've also not really looked at any art-ish articles, or listened to anything inspiring. So without further ado here is what I've worked on this week!

Day 6: Favourite Book Character. The above is (supposed to be...) Vimes from Terry Pratchett's Discworld

Day 7: Favourite Word. I was really un-inspired for this one, I think I spent a grand total of 10 minutes on this. I really couldn't be arsed

Day 8: Favourite Animated Character. This is Randy Marsh from South Park. If you're interested as to why his ball-sack is in a wheelbarrow watch the Medicinal Fried Chicken episode

Day 9: Favourite TV Show. In my opinion this is the greatest TV show EVER!!

Day 10: Favourite Candy. My actual favourite candy is Bonfire Toffee, but as that would just look like black glass I thought this might be more interesting

Day 11: Turning Point in your Life. This is supposed to show the day I flew to Australia from the UK to backpack for a whole year!

Day 12: Most recent accomplishment. Regular readers will know I am a member of Slimming World, and I'm doing OK so far on it. The above is a representation of how I felt before and after. PS I'm not that thin

Day 13: Comic. I didn't read comics when I was younger, I was a bookworm, but when I ran out of reading material I would borrow my younger brother's comics. The Beano was about the only thing he read. The above is Dennis the Menace

Day 14: Favourite Fairytale. Again, I struggled to think of something for this, but eventually landed on The Ugly Duckling