How is it already October?! And what an incredible, busy week it was for me. Let’s take a quick look:
There were two paintings created this week
The mountain ash berries for pastel marathon on instagram
this is one of my most beloved trees, I wish there were more of these around
And an autumn view from a picture I’ve taken in a local garden
autumn is my favorite season
2. Make Art That Sells (my MATS adventures can be seen on instagram under the tag #greenrainartmats)
My Illustrating Children’s Books course has begun. Wow, I somehow didn’t expect it to be this full of exercises and information, I thought it was just like Home Decor, intense but doable, but this time it is so intense I dream about things I’ve learned. We have made selection from three stories offered. My choice is a story about a baby turtle that is searching for the light of the moon to go into the sea.
We worked on characters this week and here’s my little guy:
I loved drawing this little guy, I used markers to sketch out the characters, the material might change over weeks to come, but so far I am happy with control I have of the material
Here’s my sketching process for this week:
the best moment was when I felt I “found” my little turtle which later became a colored version above
Daily sketches was another exercise given by our teachers, this week we concentrated on drawing accessories
such a fun activity!
3. Though I am still missing previous week’s prompt drawing, I managed to complete this week’s for the Sketchflashmob (see #greenrainartfromlife for more). This week’s theme was “Spoons”
beloved, but battered spoon with folk painting
4. FolioFocus’ assignment this week was to create some coordinating birthday cards, my head was full of swirls and mosaic effects (probably from looking on a lot of turtle shells all week) and this is what I came up with! (see all works under #greenrainartff17 hashtag on instagram)
aren’t they lovely?
I will work on another set of those in slightly different style, but not sure when they’ll be ready
5. For 52 weeks illustration challenge (all drawings for this challenge can be now seen under #greenrainart52w tag on instagram) I drew a little illustration on the topic of “Rope”
I miss the sea so much
6. I am continuing with my 100 days challenge (see all on instagram under #100daysofgreenrainart and folk art specifically under#greenrainartfolksketch hashtags), I gave myself a permission to skip a day if absolutely necessary, but I am getting closer to my first 20 day milestone
I am working my way through “Imagine a Forest” book by Dinara Mirtalipova, her guidance on creating folk-style illustrations is clear and helpful. I started October with some bugs
I am not at all fond of bugs but these guys were fun to draw
Then I moved on to birds, and that was a CHALLENGE, though I love drawing them and did a lot of those for Home Dec course
I love dark backgrounds but still learning how to make my birds “pop” on a dark page
these guys were a bit easier
This is where I think I started to “get” it, I still need to work on my composition, especially since I don’t want it to resemble Dinara’s, but limited palette definitely helps with keeping it all together
final birdie in the garden, looks slightly sleepy
After birds it’s cats and who knew such a simple shape was so hard to decorate
white kitty is modeled after my own, so it’s my favorite!
I tried to go for a “family” feel here, not sure if succeeded but it was fun to draw
7. Finishing this post with my Inktober doodles (see all work on instargram under #greenrainartinktober hashtag). Just like last year I decided not to do elaborate drawings, and rather do brush work of very small suggestive images.
days 1-4
days 5-8
No embroidery this week, sadly, icons get drawn in my thumbnail art journal, but no big drawings. My plate is pretty full but I am very excited to see how my work evolve over this month.
Have a lovely week everyone and see you soon!
Love,
Anya
As always, please find me on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest and Etsy
