Monday, April 20, 2015

Balboa Park Sketchcrawl


The sketchcrawl group met today at the Rose Garden in Balboa Park. The center of the pergola has some beautiful Clivias blooming, so I sketched them instead of roses (go figure).

Then I wandered around the park for a while. The baby koi in the lily pond are growing really fast. These all are around 5 to 7 inches long, and there were quite a few more in other parts of the pond.
The guy with the snakes was there taking them for a walk. :-) He had one large python, a medium python, and an albino Colombian Red-Tail Boa, which I got to hold for a while.
He was pretty active at first, wiggling all around. He climbed up my arm, over my shoulder and started going down my back inside my shirt! I put a stop to that! After a while, he calmed down, wrapped around my arm and just chilled out.
I recently purchased a Balboa Park Explorer Pass that gets me into any of the museums. I've visited a few, but since I had my sketch things today, I went to the San Diego History Center, where they have a delightful exhibit dedicated to Dr. Seuss. The funniest part is the "Unorthodox Taxidermy" animals that are hysterical.

I had to sketch this "Flaming Herring".

I also like the Mulberry Street Unicorn. I didn't get good pictures of the others, but they are all great, with wonderful expressions.

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Go make art!

Sunday, April 19, 2015

#CreativeSprint Day 19


"Walk aimlessly for 5 minutes, then stop and make something using whatever materials are available where you've ended up. Leave it there for someone else to discover (but be sure to document it first!)."

I've been taking care of a friend's yard & they have a greenhouse area and a lot of junk way back of the backyard. After doing a bunch of watering this morning, I sat on their patio for a few minutes while I was checking my email and found this for today. Decided to see what I could find/make amongst the junk. Started with a piece of scrap wire & tried to make a butterfly, but that was kind of a disaster as the wire was too stiff to get any kind of decent shape, and I figured getting out the metalworking tools kind of defeated the whole idea. So then I made a weird steampunk bunny sticking out of an old jar. I left it on the workbench for him to find when he gets home.
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Go make art!

Thursday, April 9, 2015

#CreativeSprint Day 9 - Happy Face

"Open a random drawer where you live or work and create something with just the contents." Haven't been feeling into the creativity thing for a couple of days. Honestly I forgot yesterday (blush). I've been feeling grumpy for a few days so decided I needed a Happy Face today. I can't explain why - it kind of looks to me like a Labrador with aviator goggles, but it's pretty funny, so it did the trick. :-)
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Go make art!

Monday, April 6, 2015

#CreativeSprint Day 6 - The Box

Today's Creative Sprint prompt is to make something inside a box. I decided I would rather make the box instead. While I was making the first box from paper, I realized I didn't remember exactly how to make it so once I got it right, I made a tutorial so I can remember. Supplies: You will need 2 rectangular sheets of paper that are the same size, scissors, a ruler, and a pencil. You can use pretty much any size of paper, as long as they are both the same size.  You only need the ruler for making lines, not for measuring, so it actually doesn't have to be a ruler. If your paper is heavyweight, you might find it easier to use a scoring tool or bone folder for each of the folds, which means you will be measuring. If you don't understand that last sentence, ignore it.

Please read through all the directions before doing any folding or cutting! Let me know if you find a mistake or if something doesn't make sense and I will fix it.

Step 1. I used a sheet of 8 1/2 x 11 inch decorative paper that I tore in half, making each sheet 5 1/2 x 8 1/2 inches. Normally I wouldn't tear the paper for this as one edge will be showing when it's finished, but for some reason my paper cutter is in hiding. You can use different colors if you want. This decorative paper I'm using is just slightly heavier than text weight paper, but you can use cardstock for a sturdier box. I probably should have used some solid color paper to make things easier to see in the pictures. Sorry about that...

Step 2. With the ruler and pencil, mark the center of the paper on the back of each sheet.

Step 3. Start with the paper that will be the bottom of the box. Fold the sides into the center so they meet exactly together.

Step 4. Unfold it and fold the other sides into the center so they meet exactly, then unfold it.

Step 5. You will be cutting along the folds from each long end up to where it meets the other fold. I have marked it with dashed lines in this picture. Do both long ends.
After cutting, your paper should now look something like this:

Step 6. Fold up the long sides so the flaps you just cut meet together, and attach them with a bit of tape or glue. Tip for gluing paper: Use only a tiny bit to prevent the paper wrinkling. For large areas, use lots of tiny dots of glue. It's kind of hard to see, but I used a little tape in the middle to hold the two flaps together.

Step 7. Fold the remaining flaps up and over, taping or gluing them on the inside. I took the picture with just one little bit of tape in the middle, but later I taped it all along the edge of the flap - it makes life easier when you go to use the box. Now congratulate yourself, you have finished the bottom of the box!

Step 8. Now for the top! It is made almost exactly like the bottom. You repeat Steps 2 through 7 with the following exception: For Step 3 and 4, instead of folding the edges all the way into the center, fold them about 1/8" away from the center mark, for both directions. The amount isn't critical, but you should try to make them the same for all four folds. If your paper is a heavy weight, leave just a little bit more space from the center, or the top will be too tight.

Step 9. The rest of the construction of the top is the same as the bottom. You will end up with a box top half that is just a little bit larger than the bottom half. Yay, you are done!

Of course, your X from marking the center will show when you are done, unless you mark very lightly with the pencil so that you can erase it when you have made the folds in steps 3 and 4. If your paper is the same on both sides, you can fold up the boxes so that the x is on the outside of the box half (or make the mark on the good side of the decorative paper). I normally do that for the bottom half of the box, so the X doesn't show on the inside of the box. If you are going to decorate the top of the box, you can paint over the X or glue something down that will cover it up. Or leave them on the inside and paint or glue something over them on the inside.
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Go make art!

#CreativeSprint Day 5

The prompt for Day 5 is "Make something boring seem exciting." So, we start with plain, boring vanilla ice cream:

To make it exciting, I added Police Box Geeky Sprinkles and Lightning Bolt Geeky Sprinkles from the Geeky Hostess! I'm proud to say I supported the crowdfunding project for the #geekysprinkles.

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Go make art!

Sunday, April 5, 2015

#CreativeSprint Day 4

The prompt for Day 4 is "Make something inspired by and/or that goes over an eye (yours or someone else’s)." So I drew my glasses. I tried to finish in 5 minutes, but I think it was more like 7 or 8.
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Go make art!

Spring Harp Fest

Every year I enjoy going to the Spring Harp Fest - a celebration of harmonica music - primarily blues harmonica. It is great fun and I love the music. This year I couldn't stay as long as I usually do because I had other things to do. But I did help a friend make the delicious homemade potato salad that they were serving up. If you ever get a chance to go, please do.  When I was sketching this, I was in the back where I could get some shade, though it wasn't too hot. On the other side of the people and tents is the amphitheater where the music was happening. There were lots more people there, but I'm not comfortable with drawing people, so you only see a few. I'm trying to learn to sketch faster too and not be too fussy with details. I actually did most of it with watercolor only, then added pen and more watercolor later.

I forgot to take note of who this is, but it was mighty fine music.

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Go make art!

Saturday, April 4, 2015

#CreativeSprint Day 3

I'm trying to participate in the Creative Sprint this month. Day 3's prompt is to use your non-dominant had to create something, so I made this sketch with my non-dominant hand, including the watercolor and writing. Not too bad, if I say so myself!
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Go make art!

Spanish Village SketchCrawl


Another First Friday Extra Credit sketching in Spanish Village. As I was going to the location from the parking lot, I noticed a bunch of these little flowers from one of the trees in the parking lot. They are only about one inch long, but are cute so I decided to sketch them.
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Go make art!

Sketchcrawl Anniversary

Monday March 30, our sketchcrawl group celebrated its 6th anniversary with our annual birthday party in Spanish Village. April 1 is the 4th anniversary of when I joined the sketchcrawl group. Rachel printed ATCs with information on the back and passed them out to everyone who was there to decorate. This one is one of the colorful doors of the Studios in Spanish Village. At the end of our meeting we put all the cards in a hat and each drew out a random one. I won the card done by Petar, a talented artist in our group.

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Go make art!