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Lorraine Bell

Artist•Wanderer•Dreamer
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FOCUS

March 21, 2015

March Theme
Making Your Mark (Doodles & Mark Making)
March 21 - Week 12
Art Challenge:  As a Focal Point
Journal Prompt:  Coming Into Focus


Hey Everyone and welcome to Week 12!  I am so excited about this week because our featured artist is Danny Gregory - an artist that I greatly admire and who has been indirectly instrumental in my own art journey.  I started reading Danny's blog years ago and was thrilled last year when he and fellow artist, Koosje Koene developed "Sketchbook Skool," an online klassroom for sketchbook artists.  I spend a lot of time in their klassroom and have learned from so many wonderful and interesting artists.  Sketching is probably one of my favorite pastimes and I love keeping detailed art journals of my travels.  In honor of Sketchbook Artists everywhere, I decided to put myself out there and do a sketch for this week's challenge.  In his classes, Danny encourages you to start with a PEN - not a pencil - YIKES!  But the good thing about using a pen is that it forces you to ignore {or embrace} imperfections in your artwork!  You can't erase, so you have no choice but to keep going.  Sketching this way has helped me to draw faster and looser. I am always "on the fly" when I'm trying to document things in my travel journals and I have no time to erase things and do the over.

So to begin the challenge, I took a deep breath . . . and drew the outline of my camera.  Aaack!  See the wonky lines in my lens? My brain was telling me, "you suck - that is all wrong," but my heart was telling me to keep going - don't worry about those funky shapes and the weird perspective.  So I kept pushing.  I added some cross-hatching to define my darker values. . .

Okay - well at least it resembles a camera . . . my brain was starting to calm down a bit at this point.  There was no going back.  It's in PEN!

Adding watercolor made this camera come to life - {be quiet brain - it DOES look like a camera}.  The stressful moments passed and then I got comfortable with my sketch. Dare I say I actually liked it?  And because I am in love with my camera strap, I decide to add that on too . . .

A few well-placed stamped letters are now a reminder to me to stay "focused" and not to listen to the negative voices inside my head.  I loved this challenge and I am looking forward to seeing how you all approach it - be sure to stop by Danny Gregory's blog to see what he has in store for us - I know you will be inspired!


supplies used this week

Ranger Dylusions Journal (large) 11 13/16" x 9"
Schmincke Horadam 48 Half Pan Watercolor Set in an Aluminum Tin
Yasutomo Niji Water Brush Medium
Pitt Artist Pens - Wallet Set of All 4 Pen Styles in Black
Stewart Superior Memories India Ink Inkpad Large Black
InLinkz.com

For more information on this week's challenge you can find us here:
Flickr
Instagram: #documentedlife #documentedlifeproject

Looking for previous challenges? click HERE

Visit our blogs: Sandi Keene, Roben-Marie Smith, Rae Missigman

Join us on The Art to the 5th™ Academy™ - a thriving "community" and classroom for "The Original" Documented Life Project™!  Find us on Instagram: #documentedlife

In Artist Tags Focus, Sketch, Danny Gregory, Inspire, Art Journal
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