Finding Inspiration

I always get asked how I find subjects for my art or where I find inspiration. I take a lot of photos and I save a lot of photos that are sent to me. One friend travels the world taking these amazing landscape photos and my mother catalogs every bit of my nephew's being.

It's his amazing eyes and beautifully fluffy curly hair that sucks me in so I decided to try and use him as a study subject.

I am not a strong sketcher so I gave myself a leg up by using a projector to outline his shape and features. The details are being filled in slowly as I stare at zoomed in photos.

I'm by no means perfect at this form of art but I am so very proud of my ability to put detail in hair! When given a choice, I will always start with the hair.

My recent desire for sketching is also partially driven by the tools I am using, in this case a sanguine oil pencil. Both the color and composition of this lead is quite enjoyable to work with.

Outside that, I have lots of flagged Instagram posts, Pinterest boards and screenshots of amazing elements that I want to pull into my art at some point.

Embracing The Study

Whenever I am looking for direction or inspiration, I like to create challenges for myself. I had a few goals with this challenge which has turned into what I consider a full study.

These were my guidelines:

  1. I had to use my gel plate and confine the piece to the size of the plate

  2. This forced me to leave some white space on the page. My typical practice is to cover the entire piece with color.

  3. Each piece has a randomly generated word that helps direct the layers.

  4. I pulled out a few different supplies (listed at the end) as I wanted just pick up items randomly and try them out

  5. Look for opportunities to add contrast

I tried to make all of the pieces unique in layout and color which can be hard when you work on so many at a time. For each layer, I only gave myself a few minutes before moving on to the next piece. When I reach the end of the stack, I circled back to the top for the next layer.

In total, I have about 100 of these on the go. The ones I've included here are just a few that are inspiring me to continue. I'm not sure what the next layer holds but I'm looking forward to continuing the study. I even shared a few pages with my friend Erika and she added a few lines of poetry and prose based on what she saw.

Materials used: gel plate, acrylic paint, sharpie, graphite, stencils, crayons and anything else I could grab within arms reach. And all on a lovely cheap paper found in IKEA.

Building a Simple Sketchbook Practice

Keeping a sketchbook has been the most helpful aspect in practice that has helped me improve my art. I've temporarily closed my shop and paired back my services while I take on a temporary work assignment. But, the sketchbooking will continue.

Inspired by a photo on Pinterest, this floral sketch is simple and loose using paint markers, color pencils and art crayons.