Thursday, July 09, 2015

The art of sketching

Last time I wrote about my green quiet place. So this time I'll write about one of the things I thought about while there.
Sketching.
The thing is I have become a devotee of sketching. Most artists start their careers learning to draw, then sketch and then paint and move on to big canvases etc etc. Well, not me. I started with watercolour house portraits and then moved straight on to large canvases. I never did learn to draw or sketch.
Then I met my friend Rosemary, a journaler par excellence. Check out her website. I hadn't thought of painting like this before since I couldn't see a way to make money out of it. As a professional artist, when I paint I want to make money....I don't paint for fun.
We took a trip up to Maine in 2013 and I bought a journal on a whim... and promptly fell in love with chronicling our travels in my new little watercolour journal and now I do it all the time. I traded up to Moleskin watercolour journals and pretty much use them all the time, unless it's my own homemade ones. I use left over strips of 300lb paper which is glorious to paint on. I tie it together with string and it looks super cool.
Once I started really getting in to it I had to think of ways to make some income from it. So I started using a mix of my sketches in with my photographs when I do my travel writing. Then I used quite a few sketches when I produced the Art Strolls in Delaware online magazine.
So as I sat contemplating my navel, I thought well, it's working a bit. I am making some money from my sketches. So for fun, I decided I'd share some of my sketches and travels in a magazine form. Not for money but for the sheer joy of sketching and travelling. A couple of my favourite things.
Another of my favourite things is food. But I have never had much success with painting food. So this year I made it a mission. Paint some foodie things every week, daily if possible, til I got the hang of it. I'm still working on it. Who knows where it will lead.
But here for you dear readers... is my magazine. Get yourself a glass of wine and enjoy your trip with me.

Bon voyage!

No comments: