Last week I shared some animal mermaids but I do like to paint cute ones, too. So today here are the girly mermaids. They have different complexions because they live under the sea and they could be any colour I guess. I want to get better at drawing different ethnicities but I’m still a bit nervous I’ll do a horrible job so mermaids are great for practice because no one knows how they look like;).
After the animal mermaids I wanted some cute girly ones…
I used a technical pen for drawing (size 0.3) and a small traveling set of watercolours to colour them. Those are my very basic supplies and I like them because they are so very versatile – ink and watercolour can produce so many styles! And they are perfect for the really tiny drawings – like these! This mini art journal is 6×6 cm (that’s a square with 2 1/3 inches side).
I played with poses, colours of their complexion and tails, hairstyles…
I always liked small things – and these journals are really cute and so portable – you can take them anywhere – even in the back pocket of your jeans! And any woman knows there’s not much you could carry there:D. I know what you’re thinking – but you need something to draw with! I have a little tip for that, too! I put a tiny pencil into my paper handkerchiefs – we all carry those – and that way the pencil doesn’t poke any holes or get your clothes dirty;). I carry one in my jacket and I’m set wherever I go:).
So I’ve been rambling about goal setting and how to deal with lack of enthusiasm for our new years resolutions before but here is a simple trick that has worked wonders for me personally. I never was a “habit girl” – I am more of a “campaign learner”. I learn best when I have an exam next morning, I do best when I have a deadline. That hasn’t changed. But I wanted to trick my mind since now I want to learn things that have no exams and I want to do things that have no external deadline. So little habits are very welcome. But how to make them stick for the very spontaneous person?
One small drawing a day is enough – you can only make a part of the drawing, draw one shell, leaf, pebble… or just the outline and you shade it another day.
As I’ve mentioned before, I think that the problem with our goals, resolutions and tasks in general is that we are too ambitious, to eager at the start: “fools rush in” as Elvis would say. But there is something to it: we go in full – head on, determined that we will exercise every single day, stretch or do yoga for half an hour, go to nature every week for a 5 hours long hike, draw for 30 minutes each day… and so on and on… And than the life hits. There are birthdays, we get sick, our kids get sick, we need to pack for their trips, there are work emergencies, bills need to be payed, empty fridge demands a visit to the store… and we somehow can’t fit everything in. We leave out one day, the next day, the day after… and fall of the wagon completely… and ditch everything.
As much as I love art journaling, it can be hard to do a spread every single day. It’s ok for vacation but hard for the normal life…
It’s natural, it happens to all of us – ok, maybe not to the “life optimisation gurus” – although I must say I am pretty sceptical about them;). In any case, it’s normal for life to happen. So let’s plan for the busiest day from the start! Let’s set the bar so low that you can reach it even when you chase your tail all day. Like drawing one line. You don’t have to take out anything, you can do it on a scrap piece of paper, on a receipt, with a pencil or a ballpoint pen. It all counts! I started with 5 minute tutorials and I did not use more than 5 minutes to draw my sketch. That worked. Whenever I tried to extend that goal to half an hour or more I ended up exhausted from work, kids and life and than fell asleep behind my desk more nights than not… Don’t get me wrong – you don’t have to only spend 5 minutes – you can draw for hours when you have the time and energy to do that. But for all the other days, 5 minutes or even just one line is enough. Just picking up the instrument counts. Just unrolling your yoga mat counts. Make it super small!
This artsy calendar was on the verge of my capabilities at the time – I was slower than I am today and needed more time for those tiny circles… But I could do that every day – because it was so small and everything was set up all the time.
You can draw one snowflake a day in the winter (more on that to come;). Doodle one flower in the spring or leaf in the autumn. Those minutes add up. 365×5′ is 1825 minutes and that is 30 hours! You won’t become a rocket scientist in this time but you can chill out and just get the habit in. And you’ll see that many times you will do way more than 5 minutes. But 5 minutes is enough, everything else is extra. It really doesn’t need to be big:) Start slow and speed up as you feel comfortable. You can still learn at your compulsive pace if that’s your nature – these two things don’t need to be mutually exclusive. Take the cake and eat it too;). Just add in a sprinkle of salt – you won’t be able to taste it but it will make it better:).
As I’ve written about before, art challenges are one way to make yourself do art consistently. But they are not everybody’s cup of tea and they can be overwhelming or can get boring if the subject is not right down your alley. So for all of you, who are not into challenges, here are some other ideas how to fit art into your life on a constant basis:
From Carla’s class: she always starts her live zoom sessions with quick portrait drawing and it’s always fun!
incorporate it into your day – we fall into our routines and if we plan and carve out a bit of time each day for art – even if it’s scribbling in front of the tv (if you have it and watch it;) it all counts! I’ll write more about routines and how to make habits stick later on. I’ve studied that quite extensively.
have a system – that can be a class or a book; this would of course depend on your goals – if you want to learn a specific technique or medium (like watercolours for example) you’ll choose a class on that (if you are a professional going into digital art, Schoolism is a great place) but if you prefer traditional art and want something rounded where you get a little bit of everything in small bite but nicely explained lessons, I love Carla Sohnheim’s yearlong classand her books! I have no affiliation to her – she is just a great lady (she doesn’t even know I am writing this) and her approach is very adaptable to everybody which I find very unique. I have never seen a group of students where some are total beginners and others are literally pro illustrators – yet both come every year – it is just amazing!
do it with other people – accountability buddies – kids, friends, husband,… whoever you choose you’ll get double benefits: time with someone you love and a reason to do it when you might not feel like it;). Me and my sone want to sculpt from polymer clay together (we don’t often do it because this one takes more preparation but we’d like to get to once a week), my oldest daughter is into slow drawing so we do that roughly once a week and my middle one likes to draw from a book about drawing for kids so we do that together. Sometimes it’s no more that 10 or 15 minutes but it still does the magic.
Creating with my gentle daughter. It is funny how different each of the kids make their art – one is impulsive and quick, one needs it to be very gentle and slow, one wants to follow his and his ideas only :D. It’s fun to do different things with each of them:). Try to find something in common with the people in your life – there is always something:)
Yearly – they happen all year round: – kick in the creatives: they have several monthly challenges going on and some year round. I’ve participated in many of their monthly and also the 365 yearly challenge so far. It mostly happens on IG and they have their podcast as well. You can get the newsletter with prompts and reference photos that you can use (but you don’t have to). They also have 15 minutes challenges for the busiest of artists where you shouldn’t spend more than 15 minutes (it could be less though) on your project every day. Here you can find their list of art challenges month by month. –doodlewash: another site with monthly challenges where you get prompts every month and draw and colour something using watercolours. I’ve participated in the challenge but didn’t always use the prompts. I love their world watercolour month challenge happening in July! – 64 million artists: they have tons of different challenges throughout the year, community based, many artists give ideas what to do each day or week and how to challenge yourself. –52 weeks inktober: weekly prompts for the inktober lovers so they have something to do while waiting for another october;). I haven’t done this challenge but I do inktober every year. – creative every day: I haven’t participated yet but thought someone might like a lesser known challenge:) – 100 day project: you can start any day of the year but they do have an official day to create the momentum for people who’d like to create together – it usually starts in spring
From my 100 day project last year.
If this is too much of a commitment for you, you can go for some quicker challenges that only last for a week or two: – 100 heads in 10 days: I haven’t tried but I want to:) he’s a good teacher and even provides references! – 10 day challenge: same length, designed for school kids and could be useful for art teachers – list of weekly art challenges – more weeklyart challenges
Folk tale week consists of illustrations based on folk tales.
If a week is still too much for your current life style, there are some one time art challenges, too: – Draw this again: you take an old artwork of yours and draw it again to see your progress – Draw this in your style: you draw or paint an artwork from the original creator – but in your own style. It is fun to see different iterations of the same thing – they come up totally unrecognizable sometimes!
There are many art challenges (a big fat list coming up your way on Tuesday) – and now is the time when we usually have more time for art on dark evenings than in the summer or spring when we’re outside most of the day. So let’s make use of it – and develop a habit that will bring more happiness into our life:). Challenges are a great motivator to keep persisting. But how to choose the right one?
I mermaid that was part of inktober but it could very well be drawn for mermay (my favourite challenge).
There are some key elements that we can look up when we are choosing the challenge that is suitable for us: – the length: probably the most important; I would probably advise anyone who has never done any challenge whatsoever to start with something small – like a week long challenge or the one when you do one thing a week (fairy tale week for example). If you are very busy, start with something simple. – the complexity: how much time will it take you to complete each piece? If you are starting out, it’s a good idea to start with something quick. Kickinthecreatives even have “quick-kick” 15 minutes challenges every month for that exact reason – so you only need to invest 15 minutes a day or less. – the preparation: some people like to prepare sketches in advance. Some look at the prompt that morning, figure out what they will draw during the day and do everything in the evening. Some people just sit down and draw according to the prompt. Some people don’t use prompts. I’ve tried all of the above and every system has its advantages. Think about how you prefer to work so it is easiest for you to stick to the challenge. – the materials: no matter what you chose, it will make your life much easier if you have the materials for the chosen challenge in a designated spot for while the challenge is ongoing. Therefor it’s easiest to chose a challenge that you have materials for already. Many people choose challenges to get to know particular materials that they just got or rediscovered in their stash and want to make the best use of of it. I highly recommend that kind of choice – you will have much more fun with your materials if you take the time to get to know them and challenges are great for that! You might have gotten some new materials under the Christmas tree this year – give them a ride! – the theme: for the first few challenges I’d go with a theme you really like or really want to improve in (I love mermaids so I take part in mermay every year, I want to improve in my inking so I take part in iktober every year). Later when you have a few challenges under your belt, do expand and choose something really challenging if you’d like to push out of your comfort zone (I love colour but I’ve done black and white inktober, I really am not into machinery and I’ve done march of robots). There’s always something fun coming out of those situations! But it could be too much from the get go. Try a theme, really close to your heart first;)
Another one from this years inktober but it could be done for fairy tale week as well.
Of course, you don’t need challenges to do art consistently – you can art journal, nature journal, bullet journal, take a book and follow it from cover to cover, sign into a class (online or real life), take part in an art study group, attend life drawing classes,… This is just one of the ways to make ourselves do more art – but it’s a fun one and there are quite some very interesting challenges out there – more about them on Tuesday, so subscribe for more:).
Folk tale week is already running so I thought I might provide you with some resources for folk stories that I found particularly useful or interesting:)
Illustration of the story – George, the fool, our national folk story
Folklore and Mythology from around the world grouped by theme (in alphabetical order of the themes) – a giant resource!
Myths and legends podcast – this is their website but you can listen to them almost everywhere. What I particularly like about this podcast is the type of the stories and the humorous inserts from the podcasters – it’s very much worth listening to – I highly recommend it :).
Another collection of folk tales, not as massive as the first but it has the covers from book for every tale. You can also find other stories there.
And if you’d like to read our folk tales in Slovene you can find them here. Which folk tale is your favourite? I’d love to know!
5 minutes reading What can you draw in your nature journal if you don’t know how to draw at all?
Nature patterns can lead to some weird shapes…
One of the easiest ways to start is with nature’s patterns. You can find them everywhere, look around, pick one that you fancy and try to recreate some kind of representation in your journal. Here are some ideas, where to find the patterns: round circles and ovals in pebbles:
Pebbles are a wonderful start to drawing because there is no wrong way to draw a pebble 😀
The texture on a bark (that we’ve learned how to draw and paint in this video):
Any organic shape is easier to draw than a human because we don’t notice the little mistakes.
But even larger scale nature elements can provide a lot of patterns like these moss-covered boulders:
You can find patterns in larger shapes as well. Or go detailed into moss…
You can try to mimic the textures and patterns or you can stylize them:
Explore with different kinds of stylizations…
You can do a slow meditative drawing or a really detailed realistic one (if you’ve mastered the skills). Or you can make different kind of patterns based on a simple shape like a leaf:
O draw the same shape in many different forms…
or you could draw a mandala in your nature journal instead on the stone:
5-6 minutes reading What do you need for nature journaling? If you want to do your nature journaling outside, in the nature, on the spot… it’s best to limit your supplies so your bag is not too heavy – it’s easier to take out and put back in when it starts to rain for example… The first, most obvious thing you’ll need is a nature journal – that can be any kind of journal or notebook that you want but if you will use it outside, it should be hard cover – it’s hard to draw on floppy surface… If you want to make your own from recycled materials, the one I used in my video about nature journaling, check my Skillshare class.
Basic nature journaling supplies that will take you a long long way!
I like sketching with pencil first but if you’re more experienced ink artist, you might be comfortable drawing directly with ink. In any case, you need a waterproof pen – especially if you want to colour with watercolours. Even if you colour with coloured pencils or don’t use colour at all, waterproofness is desired because your drawings won’t get ruined by potential rain, dew or splatters of water or smudged by your hand so easily. I like fine liners (my favourite are Pitt pen fine liners by Faber Castel; Staedtler also makes nice ones. However, I don’t like Microns) or a technical pen like from Rotring is a great refillable choice but it’s quite pricy so I am afraid to take it outside to be honest. John Muir Law recommends ballpoint pen and there are many artists who know how to use it very well – I’m just not one of them;).
Coloured pencils are a great choice for nature journaling.
For colouring I recommend a small set of coloured pencils or watercolours (in this case you’ll need a brush and water or a water brush and a rag). You don’t need many colours because we can mix them in watercolours and we can layer them in coloured pencils. Some pencils have different colours on each end and are very practical for taking outside.
Black and white drawings can be done with literally one single pen – like this one…
I recommend keeping everything in a small pouch – I use a small plastic pouch that I got some baby onesies in. I think I use the pouch much more than the kids used those onesies :D. You can use a pencil case, a small pouch, a cosmetic case or even a sturdy zip lock bag. Some people (we call them men :D) just wrap everything with a rubber band and call it a deal :D. In any case – just have all the supplies together so you can just grab everything and go.
Additional supplies: a ruler, a spray bottle, an alcohol pen, scissors, a glue stick and a stamp pad.
You can enrich your nature journaling bag with some additional supplies, if you like (none of these is necessary and it all depends on your art practice in nature): – a ruler for measuring different plant parts, do draw straight lines and to help you make the perfect frames and diagrams – scissors for cutting small pieces of leaves or flowers to put into your journal, – a glue stick for sticking pressed leaves or flowers onto the page, – a mini stamp pad for getting texture from nature objects (like pieces of bark or leaves,…) onto your journal page – I recommend keeping it shut with a rubber band so it doesn’t open when you carry your pouch around – a white gel pen for highlights (not pictured) – a spray bottle with water to moist your watercolours quickly – a double nib alcohol marker for marking things in nature (when measuring distance etc…)
4 minutes reading What is nature journaling? Nature journaling is journaling inspired by nature. It can be in the form of drawing and writing, you can add numbers and graphs but the main point is – you go to nature at some point and than you draw or write or both about what you’ve seen of felt there. It has no strict rules and can be done as a part of a scientific study or to encourage scientific thinking or as an artistic endeavour or just to preserve some memories from nature (which is what I promote the most;).
Start with a simple drawing – I only used one inexpensive pen for this.
A lot of people think it has to be done in nature – but it not always is. Sometimes the weather is not so kind and it’s hard to draw in the rain or freezing cold (although James Gurney can do it as I’ve talked about him already). And sometimes it’s down right impossible – like to draw underwater in a normal sketchbook – so we do it when we get out of the water;). And even in normal conditions, some people are just not comfortable sketching outside – I’ll write some tips how to deal with that in the future.
Sometimes it’s not possible to sketch on the spot – like underwater…
Another misconception is that it has to be done in a certain scientifically approved way. It’s your journal! If you are not planning to publish it in a scientific publication, there are no strict rules about how to go about it. Yes, if you plan to use the drawings for exploration of certain species or even for memories, it’s nice to add a date. But it’s not necessary. I first started just drawing and that was it.
Add names, dates, closeups and detail in labels if you’d like to take things one step further…
You can add the name of the species if you know it – you can even add Latin name if you want, you can write in date and place, draw a close-up to a particularly interesting part, you can make diagrams, count eggs, petals or specimens, measure distances, size, parts… All that is great and very welcome – but there is nothing wrong with just starting out with a simple drawing and maybe a question “I wander what that is”…
But don’t overthink /overcomplicate it – just start!
As some famous yogi said – a milligram of practice is better than a ton of theory:). I’ll try to help you along this journey with some ideas:). Today I will list you some resources, there is a process video coming your way and list of my favourite supplies on Sunday, so stay tuned! Next week we start exploring how to incorporate everything into our journal:).
If you can’t get out, bring the nature in – more on that coming up:)
Hera are some great resources and literature: – John Muir Laws: he has a great website and YouTube channel as well as a book that I have sadly not been able to get my hands on yet but it seems really nice – A Brief Illustrated Guide to Nature Journaling has a nice collection of resources – Michael Chinery wrote a great book that is also translated into Slovene as “100 idej za naravoslovce” and there you can find ideas for nature journaling as well (among other 99 ideas;). The design is really old but the ideas are great!
Very Arty Fairy 