Smitten with a Side Walk Crack Illustration

 It all started when I uploaded a photograph taken by Carla Sonheim of a side walk crack. Her challenge was to look at the photograph,  turning it all around until you saw an image.The next step was to sketch out what you saw and transfer it to watercolor paper. After transferring the image it was our job to create a drawing / illustration.

If your wondering if everyone saw the same image the answer is no. I gave a copy of the photograph to another art teacher and one of my students and we all had different drawings. How fun was that?

I've included this post with Alexandria's Sunday Sketches, follow the link to see what other artists have to share this week.

Sunday Sketchs

 The Love of Succulents

 Top left is a Pachyveria hybrid, Center are the very cute Stone Faces, and on the right is a Split Rock.

So excited to finally have an illustration for "Sunday Sketches." Its taken me a couple weeks to get a head of the Sunday deadline. As many art teachers know once classes start in September your so busy setting up your classes for new students there is no time to work on your own art work.  Thank goodness we had  Columbus day off, I was able to finish two watercolor illustrations! Love both of them  it was so hard not to post each one, but had to make sure I had something to share for next Sunday.
Yesterday I started something new and  hopeful I'll have something to exhibit with the group in three weeks. 
Hope you enjoy and can't wait to see what the others have posted today.

See you next week,  Karen

Creative Tuedays....

 Watercolor / Pen

 Wow its been so long sense I took part in "Creative Tuesday". I love old barns and enjoyed working on this watercolor / pen sketch. If it looks kind of familiar it should. Not having any photo reference of my own to use, I went to my library and pulled out one of my favorite books "Wolf Kahns's America" by John Updike to use as my inspiration.

Of course it can't compare to Kahn's oil painting but it was fun trying to match his colors and after looking at the photograph I realized my barn is rather boxy and I didn't have enough reference to capture the foreground grasses with my pen work..

Let's Paint with Susan Schwake

This summer I signed up for an online course called Let's Paint with Susan Schwake. As a high school teacher we are required to take so many hours of professional development each year, and I prefer to do that over my summer break. This year I decided to refresh my painting skills and learn a few new techniques from another art teacher.
Susan's 6 week course was great! We covered everything from color theory, mark making, choosing the right tools, experimenting with different tools, developing your own style, critiques and finding inspiration.
I'm still experimenting and playing with some of her suggestions I've had so much fun, and. truly enjoyed her on line class
Here are a few of my favorite paintings from the course. Can't tell you how they came about... you'll have to sign up for her class.You can find her at Susan Schwake or  follow her blog The Art and times of Susan Schwake,

 

Sketchbook and Small Watercolor / Pen Art Works

 ACORN LOVE

 Many of you now I just love acorns, you could safely say they are my go to things to sketch or doddle when I can't think of anything to draw. At the end of the school year when students are asking me to sign yearbooks I'm always reminded to include my signature acorn drawing. What can I say I'm just a nut at heart.

6x6 Paintings

Sketchbook / Journal

Where Have I Been You Might Ask?

Social media has taken over our lives and I’ve gotten lazy when it comes to my blog. It is so much easier to post a picture with a few words on fb or on instagram, and press the (Like) button to respond to a friend’s latest post or picture that I haven’t taken the time to update my beloved Art Journal, which is actually my blog.

I’m going to change that and make an effort to document my adventures and art more offend.

So today I’ll start where I left off at the end of the school year just before summer vacation, and try to catch you up every few days with what I’ve been doing over my summer break.

Let’s get started with my Studio Art students’ final projects. Each year the students choose a theme to create their own Art Journal that represents techniques they learn throughout the year while combining the Elements & Principles of design. The categories were; Line and Pattern, Contrast/Value, Texture/Rhythm Movement, Space/ Emphasis, Art History/Painting Styles , an All About Me page, and then designing front and back covers that pulled it altogether creating Unity. 

Covers

Space/Emphasis

Value/Contrast below

Music and Pop Art

All About Me

All about me and love for Soccer

Texture/Rhythm and Movement

Music was a popular theme

Betty's journey is right below her.

Front/Back Cover Design.  Theme, Doctor Who

The last day together Group Selfie!

6x6 Artworks Donated to Support ROCO Art Gallery

This year my drawing students voted to participate in Rochester Contemporary Art Centers global fund raiser. Artists from around the world donate 6x6" square artworks that will be exhibited anonymously in the gallery and on line starting May 23rd. All enteries are accepted and will be for sale to the public for $20 each to benefit the gallery. On line purchasing begins June 10 at 10am.We all including artwork to donate.