My Dogs in a New Sketchbook

I took a trip to the art store today and bought a few full (22" x 30") sheets of Fabriano Artistico paper in 140 lb. weights and a variety of finishes - hot press, cold press, and rough. Inspired by Cathy Johnson's no see folded journal video on YouTube and Esther K. Smith's Making Books book- I folded and cut the full sheet into two new sketchbooks.

I've been enjoying using a square format for my sketchbooks lately, so I cut down the full sheet into a 22 x 22" square and then folded it in half several times until I had a 5.5" x 5.5" sketchbook.

With the remaining paper, I made a little 3.5" x 4.5" accordion sketchbook.

To inaugurate my new sketchbook, I painted my dogs from some photos I took a little while ago.

I can't wait to show you the completed sketchbook! Stay tuned.

Barcelona Travel Sketches

We were only in Barcelona for 4 days - and there was so much to draw. I did my best in completing sketches while there, but there was not enough time to draw all that I wanted. So, I took lots of photos.

Here are some sketches I recently completed and added to my travel sketchbook.

Él Born Cultural Center - about a block from our apartment

Sketching with Miguel Herranz and Lapin near the Cultural Center

Stay tuned for more!

Devour Barcelona Food Tour

On our recent trip to Europe, we took two lovely food tours. One in Paris's Latin Quarter with Sidewalk Tours and one in Él Born in Barcelona and Barceloneta with Devour Barcelona Food Tours. They were both wonderful!

Here are the pages from my travel sketchbook detailing our Devour Barcelona Food Tour.

Casa Gispert, Pasteleria Hofmann & Bodega Fermin

Have you taken any food tours while on vacation?

Urban Sketching Commissions

Before my trip to Europe, I was lucky enough to get a commission for four art pieces of my choosing from an art lover on Instagram. Although I completed these two pieces while on my trip - stupid me left them on our plane from Barcelona to Paris! 😩

So, armed with my many photos from the trip, I put these four pieces together since coming home.

I'm so happy that my client loves them.

Latest Portraits for the 100 Day Project

I haven't posted my latest portraits in some time! Though you can always click on the link above to see my entire 100 day portrait.

And finally, yesterday's portrait.

Thanks for following along!

Progress on Athena Mixed Media Illustration

Juliana Coles's Sketchbook Skool Polishing klass has really inspired me. In working on illustrating a Greek mythology book with my friend, Steve Seinberg, I've found that using mixed media will allow me to incorporate all of the symbols and information Steve wants to convey about the goddess, Athena, visually.

I love Juliana's method of layering and adding to the piece over time as well as letting the art speak to you and become what it wants. Here are the first three phases of my Athena illustration.

What do you think? Any ideas for further phases/changes?

Mixed Media Sketchbook Skool Homework

This week's Polishing klass for Sketchbook Skool is being taught by Juliana Coles who is a mixed media artist. In her klass, Juliana showed us how she layers mixed media on drawings to create multi-layered art that she continues to work on over the course of months or even years!

I tried Juliana's methods with a 5 minute sketch done with my figure drawing group. My friend, Steve, is writing a book on Greek mythology and has asked me to help him illustrate it. I started this mixed media piece with the goddess Athena in mind.

Athena, the Goddess of Wisdom and Warfare

I plan to keep working on this further. What do you think of it?

Possible Athena? (16/100)

I'm exited to start working on illustrating a book about Greek mythology with my good friend, Steve. We are starting with Athena, the goddess of wisdom and warfare. All I know physically about Ahena is that she has gray eyes.

So, in doing my 16th portrait for the 100 day project, I thought I would look for an inspiration for Athena. I love Marissa Poetzl's light eyes in the inspiration photo for this drawing.

What do you think - does she look like a good Athena?