Favortie Pencil Drawing Supplies

Over the summer I challenged myself to create a small pencil drawing every day. I wanted to be able to easily travel with all of my supplies so pencil was the perfect medium. I generally travel with 2 pencils (2b mechanical, 3H) a large tri-tip eraser, Faber-Castell pencil eraser, blending stump and a small sharpener. I used a small sketchbook to keep my pre-cut paper clean and flat in my purse. 

I switched from regular pencils to a mechanical one over the summer and I love it! Although I still start my drawings with a sketch using a 3H pencil, which allows me to fully erase my mistakes. My favorite eraser for this stage is my 'Generals tri-tip' eraser. It is soft and gentle on your paper but erases almost anything! Once I'm happy with my sketch I switch to a  0.5 mechanical pencil with 2b lead for the remainder of the drawing. At this stage I start using a blending stump and my Faber-Castell detail pencil eraser. I love that I can sharpen this eraser which helps keep my detail work clean. 
My daily drawings are for sale in my Etsy Shop. 

Birds in The Snow

I was inspired by the holiday season and the accumulating snow in my yard to paint some seasonal birds.
I kept my colour pallet simple and "cool" for this little series to help illustrate the ice and snow. I layered fluid acrylic paint over watercolours to get the vibrant reds and white snow. Each painting is 4" by 5" and painted on a watercolour board. 
These paintings are available for $20 each in my Etsy Shop!

Snow is so beautiful, unless you have to drive in it. As a child I loved playing in the snowy forest at my cabin. The silent snow blanketed the forest like icing on a cake, making everything look like a fairy tale land. I can remember making snow angels while gazing up into the milky way as snowflakes gently fell on my face. 

When I painted these birds I wanted to capture those quiet magical moments that occur in nature.

Journals of Gratitude

Winter holidays are a great time for celebrations and deep reflection. We contemplate fresh starts and new goals while we take time giving gifts of 'thanks' to those who mean the most in our lives. It is a time to get your affairs in order and dream those big life dreams.

 

Keeping a journal can be a very personal and therapeutic practice. Everyone has a different approach bun in the end we are all a little less stressed after writing down our thoughts. Keeping a gratitude journal or a quote book can be a positive daily ritual to help you stay focused on your goals.

 

 

Personally I always prefer to physically write things down on paper , which has led me to acquire a notebook collecting problem.

 

When I create these journals I am trying to make  a book worthy of your thoughts and inspirations. A safe space to feel empowered and inspired or a convenient place to write down your grocery list. In the end I hope it is an artistic addition to your life.

 

These journals feature original abstract watercolour paintings on their covers. They are hand stitched with bamboo cord using a coptic stitch that allows the binding to open flat to any page.

These Journals can be found in my ETSY SHOP

 

Postcard Prints

My postcard prints are in and I love them! I printed them trough Moo.com as I have always been impressed with their quality. I also print all of my business cards through their service because I can have a different image on each individual card. Most print companies charge extra for a service like that.

 

I chose five of my favorite animal paintings from the past year and five paintings from my ballet themed pointe shoe series to make up my postcard sets. These 5" by 7" prints look awesome when framed or you could choose to send them across the globe. These art prints are a great way to cheaply decorate your space and enjoy some art!

 

You can find these fine art postcards in my Etsy shop with the rest of my available paintings and prints.

Series of Succulents

I started this little series of paintings back in May. Since then they have sat around in various places, almost complete but not quite. I finally got around to finishing them off this week and listing them in my Etsy shop!

I started these paintings at the end of May, which is a hectic month for me so I was looking for something calm and zen to paint. Succulents caught my attention because there are so many different kinds and they are so individual and unique. I'm generally not a huge fan of painting still life's but every so often I enjoy a little experiment.

I worked on them at the same time to keep the colour theme cohesive. I splattered the background with the paintings side by side which made the background process quicker....even though it  took me 4 months to actually complete them. Let's face it, I'm really good at procrastinating! 

I now have them listed in my Etsy shop in separate listings. As cute as they look all together I feel that they will most likely sell individually, although I'd be willing to give a deal to anyone that wants the whole set!

Autumn Fox

 This little fox was inspired by the colours of Autumn. I'm not a huge fan of Fall but natures colour pallet is pretty awesome this time of year.

I took the time to document my process along the way to show the different stages of mixed media that I used.
I used a variety of mediums for this painting to get the effects that I wanted. I started out with the background leaves using my favorite Winsor & Newton watercolours.

After a few layers of watercolour I used a sharpie pen to outline everything and clean up my corners. Then I pulled out my Faber Castell pencil crayons to really get into some detail.









After creating layers of fur with pencil crayons I used my smallest paintbrush to create white highlights with fluid acrylic paint. When I got to this stage the fox finally started looking cute! 

This 8" by 10" Autumn Fox painting is now listed in my Etsy shop!

Mouse with a Heart Balloon

This little painting started out as one of my daily pencil drawings. With all the negative events going on throughout the world this little mouse stayed in my mind as a hopeful image of peace and understanding. 

There seems to be a lot of hate being expressed throughout the world right now. Some people have legitimate reasons to be looking for justice while others are acting out and causing more hurt in the world because of their religions, beliefs and ideologies. Regardless of our political stances, religions and ideas I think we can all agree that we need a little more love in the world. 



I documented my process for this painting. I started with the background for a change and worked my way forward. I used my Winsor and Newton watercolours and Higgins white ink for the clouds.

I finished the mouse off with my Faber Castel pencil crayons so his fur would look softer and then used acrylic white paint for highlights and whiskers! 

This 6" by 8" painting can be found in my Etsy shop!

Symbiosis

Symbiosis - acrylic 9" by 12"

This painting was dreamed up a few months ago but I finished it over the summer at my cabin. I was having an art block one day so I asked Sebastian to draw me a plant....and this is what I ended up with! Ha ha :)

It's one of our stranger collaborations, but I kinda like it. I enjoy the odd pairings of life in this painting, which seem to be both reliant and independent of each other. It's always fun to paint some crazy idea from someone elses head!









 It took me a few weeks to pick a title but I finally settled on "Symbiosis," which refers to the essential relationships between all of the different kinds of life found on our planet. 
This acrylic painting is painted on a 9" by 12" gallery wrapped canvas and is available in my Etsy shop!

Greeting Cards in my Etsy Shop!

These cards are a collaborative effort between Sebastian and I. He dreamed up the idea of providing different greeting inserts for the cards and of course they feature my paintings and recent pencil drawings. We are printing them with my Epson Stylus Photo R3000 on white cardstock.

These cards come with five different greeting inserts so you can choose your favorite card and coordinate it with your specific event. The inside of each card is outfitted with photo corners so you can easily remove and change the inside greetings without using glue or any other adhesives. 

This pack of cards is designed to cover you for all of those events that sneak up in your schedule. It's always nice to have an extra birthday or anniversary card on hand. 

These cards are available in my Etsy shop as well as on Ebay.

Drawings 47 - 50

This is my current stack of daily drawings. It's a little smaller than it was a few days ago since I sold a handful of them in my Etsy shop! 

47 Wolf

Although this series of drawings is a technical exercise for me and I'm not creating them simply to sell, it is always cool to send them off to a new home.

48 Ladybug

This wolf drawing stretched over three days but now it is one of my favorites. I think it was the background that took so much time!

49 Koala

I am quickly catching up on my Etsy uploads and I'm almost there....almost!

50 Mouse and Balloon

This mouse and his balloon are part of a cute little series of mice I have drawn. The next two will be in my next drawing update.

End of Summer Plein Air

Summer vacation is officially over. I've had my last sunny cabin weekend and now starting next week I'm back to my hectic schedule of teaching and dancing. 

This summer I spent almost every weekend sitting at my cabin relaxing and observing the forest and all the critters that enjoy it. I can sit on the deck all day long watching animals and observing the ever fascinating ecosystem around me. 
I decided a few weekends ago to pull out my paints and a small canvas to create a plein air painting of  one of my favorite trees. I generally don't paint landscapes so this painting was slightly experimental, but I like it. It's kind of cute!

As You Are

This little project started a few months ago. Sebastian composed a mix of one of our favorite Kimbra songs and wanted me to put together a dance for a video project. The song is five minutes long so it took my most of the spring and summer to complete the dance and get it ready for filming. 
 

It's nice to take some time and focus on myself as a dancer. I spend so much of my studio time on my students and I am often too tired at the end of the day to take a personal dance moment. I wanted this particular dance to be technical...so it ended up being a full competition lyrical solo. Haha
We spent two hot mornings in the studio working it all out. There are things I love about it and some things I will do differently next time! As I get back into the regular dance season I'm hoping I will find a little time to put together some more little dance projects.

Drawings 41 - 46

41 - Bunny

Here are some more drawings from a few weeks ago. I'm heading back up to my cabin for the weekend so I'm trying to be as productive as possible before escaping to the land of no technology!

42 - Sugar Glider

Some days I feel like I'm running out of rodents and small things to draw but if I watch some David Attenborough nature documentaries I find that the world is full of odd, cute little furry creatures! It's amazing how many different variations of these small mammals have evolved over time throughout different parts of the world.

43 - Bumble Bee

Various insects, fish and birds have been a fun break from furry rodents but I have found that I have a few favorite animals. So far I've drawn multiple raccoons, foxes and bunnies but mice (or things that look like mice) seem to be my subconscious favorite. Otherwise I've been reasonably adventurous and attempted have to draw a wide variety of animals.

44 - Siamese Fighting fish

Part of what has slowed me down in this drawing process is getting good photos. I waited a week to take all of my fish and duck photos in front of a lake! It is also time consuming getting all of my Etsy listing photos edited and uploaded. Basically the tech side of things is the most frustrating part of making art, but let's face it, I have nothing to really complain about. 

45 - Ferret

Hopefully I will have a productive weekend at my cabin and have another batch of drawings ready for next week!

46 - Snail

Drawings 34 - 40

34 - Bald Eagle

I'm sad to say that I have fallen behind. I am about five days behind on drawings and two weeks behind in my social media postings. There simply isn't enough time in a day to get everything done!

35 - Beaver

Despite falling behind and not quite achieving my goals I intend on pushing forward and attempting to catch up before I go back to being a full time dance teacher in September.
I may go back to making small weekly watercolour paintings depending on how busy life gets.

37 - Chipmunk

38 - Duck

I am slowly catching up on my photography so I can finally share these drawings from a couple of weeks ago!




















I will hopefully have these guys in my Etsy shop before the end of the week.

 

 

39 - Clownfish

I have been adding a few new drawings a day the past few days to try and catch up, so be sure to check out my shop! 

40 - Koala

I've sold a few drawings so far; Big thanks to those people for their support! 

I should have another bunch of drawings to share soon!