Getting ready to say “goodbye” to June. Times sure flies, but things got done despite the heat and general  desire to rest that always comes in the summer.

What have I been up to:

1. I celebrate a year of focused drawing. On June 19th, 2015 I decided to move from casual sketches here and there to a much more focused effort. I vowed to draw at least one sketch per day, no matter how big or small. The challenge that expanded first to 21, then to 30, then to 100 and finally to the full year was a success. I only missed 2 days because of illness, but other than that I drew every single day. The progress surprised me, I didn’t realize how far I’ve come, because for me it all felt very gradual. Here’s the comparison of the same object drawn roughly a year and a half apart:

2. Other than completing the challenge, or rather taking it into 2nd year, my June was full of color- flowers and juicy fruit. When it comes to my favorite material this month, I think Sakura Koi Brush Pens were a huge favorite, they worked well in my smaller sketchbooks and I was able to achieve watercolor effect with them at last.

3. Painted letters was a new thing for me in June. I tried to create mini paintings on wooden letters ($1.5 or so per letter in Target) using ink, acrylic paints and metallic gel pens. I am very happy with how they turned out. I also did one on paper to test out Yasutomo pearlescent paint (which I am not sure I like yet).

4. Most of my inspiration this month came from nature and the outings with my family in local parks and gardens. I am looking forward to new ideas in July. My main goal is to finish one of the projects I have in mind and get at least halfway through another one. The new things I am excited about are Midori Travel Notebook that I have recently purchased (stay tuned for the post on how it works out later) and Nichols Peerless Watercolors. The paints are most unusual because they are neither pans, nor tubes, but rather strips of paper covered in pigment. I saw a number of videos on youtube and was curious how it would go. I still have to test them out properly, but I have to say I like the colors very much indeed.

So here is my June report. Hope everyone had a productive month and happy July to all!

As always, find me on instagram @greenrainart and I also just made “art” pinterest, so join me there as well.