Let’s Draw CLOUDS!

Plus a peek in my sketchbook & what I've been up to 👀 + giveaway winner!

THURSDAY, MAY 30 @ 7:00PM ET on YouTube & Twitch

Clouds feel like one of those subjects that always seem daunting, so let’s practise, shall we?

This week’s photos are provided by Intergalactic Peach Patrol! Peachy is an artist and photographer from Melbourne, Australia, who loves capturing little sparkly moments of joy through her work. She shares most of these on her Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/intergalacticpeachpatrol ) but you can also find her on Instagram and YouTube (https://www.instagram.com/intergalacticpeachpatrol/ )

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STREAM UPDATE: I have decided to stop streaming to Twitch. It’s not going to affect very many of you as 98% of viewers tune in on YouTube, but thought I would mention it!

POP-UP! ART HANG PARTY!

SATURDAY, JUNE ! at 10am et on YouTube & Twitch

Theme: MASTER STYLE ANIMAL PORTRAITS!

We’ll be drawing animals in the style of different master artists - a real workout for our art-brain! I’m weirdly very excited and totally terrified!

We turn the timer up to 20 minutes for these weekend pop-ups so we’ll really spend some time on each reference. We will probably do 4 studies, so have a look at the thumbnail above and come with your preferred selections and we’ll collectively decide which we do!

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Next ART HANG PARTY! will be Thursday, June 6 at 7pm et on YouTube & Twitch

Theme: TBD!

Do you have an idea for a future ART HANG PARTY! theme?

Follow and DM your doodles to @arthangparty on Instagram to be shared on stream! Tag @arthangparty to be featured in our stories!

Join the ART HANG PARTY! discord! https://discord.gg/XztzrCkQT5 🤗💖✨ A place to share your AHP drawings, theme ideas, inspirations, artworks, and for us to get to know each other better! 🥰

🤗 Show support for ART HANG PARTY! here

📺 Watch ART HANG PARTY! replays here

BUT FIRST!

Last week I did a spontaneous portrait giveaway - anyone who commented on the post was automatically entered to win one of my single-line portraits!

I just did the draw and drumroll 🥁🥁🥁🥁

The winner is Kate! YAY! (I will message you!)

Congrats Kate and thanks to everyone who commented! I love that we have this space to connect in what feels like a real and rewarding way

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MONDAY MAY 20

Today is a holiday here in Canada - Victoria Day - and rarely do we have such perfect weather for it, so Ray and I decided to head over to Trillium Park for the afternoon.

Kristin Hastings asked if I had a video with my plein air kit over the AHP discord after I shared this post from Bill Russell with so many great reasons to take your sketchbook outside. I did not have such a video so that was also on the agenda for the day.

Here’s what all I did in my sketchbookssss (I took 4 LOL)

A quick warm-up sketch in my little watercolour sketchbook

A zoomed-in view in a different watercolour sketchbook

Neocolor IIs over some pre-blobbed acrylic paint from the other day (always a lovely gift (read: challenge) when you turn the page and have to figure out how to make it work!)

Some people in my “people from life” sketchbook

I thought they had a cat in that bag but it turned out to be a dog

You can watch the video here or see it below!

Today’s self portrait:

TUESDAY MAY 21

Another day another park visit!

But first, I did this quick watercolour sketch of some geese topiaries from just down the street. They used to keep these filled with climbing plants, but I think it was last year they cut them all out and looks like they’ve decided to keep them empty now.

I knew we were going to sit in the park but I wanted to do this piece as a warm up, wanting to take this loose, what I call in my head “drawing with watercolour”, outside with me.

We went to sit on the little hill that’s nicely tucked off the main path and gives many opportunities for different views.

These are not as successful as my practice piece but they are getting there. I think with this style and palette I need to play with colour more, especially when there are so many greens. Not everything needs to be green!

And value. Needs more value shifts!

Another quick one, where I started with a woman wearing a cute sun hat who immediately moved as soon as I got the hat painted. I’m telling you, intending to draw/paint someone is a super power in getting to move. (I’m not sure I want such power!) Anyway, I just added more foliage where her face would have been LOL.

Today’s self portrait LOL

WEDNESDAY MAY 22

We had another hangout on the AHP discord this morning! It’s becoming a regular Wednesday thing and I like it. (11am et if you’re up for it!)

I was originally thinking we would have an hour of co-working and chatting as I wanted to work on my picturebook but Toronto was just too pretty during my morning run so I snapped some photos and offered them up as references.

We spent 10 minutes on each.

I’m determined to figure out this “drawing with watercolour” idea I have in my head. The sketches above are more along the lines of what I’m looking for, whereas this one below is much too overworked.

There are a few areas I really like in it though, like the pink bush at the bottom, the yellow circle-ish bushes in the middle next to the turquoise blob, and that one turquoise tree in the upper right beside the building. Those areas are more sketchy, less painty. ← notes to self

Then we went to sit in the park because why not! I was already pretty creatively spent so I only took out a Inktense pencils and my little “people from life” sketchbook and caught Simon just straight-up chillin’

I also took a book and read for a bit, which felt so nice!

Today’s self portrait

THURSDAY MAY 23

Simon and I had a really nice walk at lunchtime and had a little sit and snuggle by the lake. I snapped a photo of us and used that as my self portrait for the day 🥰

^ drawing/painting this was me procrastinating on my picturebook illustrations

Another drawing with watercolour. I tried to keep it looser and less over-worked. I think this is getting there. Or at least the benches are.

And it’s Thursday which means it’s ART HANG PARTY! DAY!

This week’s theme was FLOWERS! I set the timer at 3 minutes and encouraged everyone to use wet or messy media to keep things fast and loose. The results from everyone were so colourful and pretty - a real feast for our eyes during show and tell time!

I knew I was going to use watercolour as soon as I set the theme. I taped off some 9x12 pieces of watercolour paper (FYI Canson XL watercolour paper is so nice!) and used my Holbein HWC watercolours (plus Daniel Smith’s Moonglow for the dark purple).

I basically threw paint at the paper and am really pleased with how these all came out! I don’t think I could paint better flowers if I intentionally sat down to paint flowers. I need the slight panic™️ of ART HANG PARTY!

I cut these up into cards and will send out with the next sticker orders!

Catch the replay here!

FRIDAY MAY 24

I went to meet my friend Rosanna for a coffee date this morning! She took me to this cute cafe on Queen St West called Cafe 23 that has a really nice back patio filled with trees and plants and bistro tables and birds.

I brought Rosanna one of my little 10x10cm sketchbooks so we could draw together!

I didn’t take any photos of the patio but hope my drawings will give you an idea of the vibe. The bottom right is Rosanna drawn in a single line blind contour at the same time she drew me - so fun!

And here’s Rosanna again, this time not-blind, just single line (and proof she has a mouth):

After I got home and we had some lunch, Ray, Simon and I headed back over to Trillium Park for the afternoon.

We started out sitting on top of a little hill overlooking the lake, with Hanlan’s Point beach across the way (a nude beach that has been an important gathering place for Toronto's gay community since at least the late 1930s - also where we take Simon swimming!)

We started to get swarmed by midges so we gathered our things and went back to the little tucked away spot we sat at last time. I wasn’t going to do any more drawing but I was sitting facing the other direction and it was looking pretty cute so I slowly did a single line drawing, adding light touches of watercolour after. I kinda love it!

Today’s self portrait

SATURDAY MAY 25

We all know who Melanie Chadwick is, yes? Well after watching her latest YouTube video drawing wildflowers over a colourful wash of ink I was so inspired to give it a try!

I prepped my page with acrylic ink, letting and encouraging them to bleed into each other. When that was dry I went in with my black Pentel pocket brush pen and added various Ontario Wildflowers.

I found a website filled with Ontario wildflowers (that you can view by colour!), so I started with one colour, looked at the different options and started adding them where appropriate. Then I moved on to the next colour, then next. When the main colours were pretty much filled in, I started adding a some small patterns and marks fill in all the little spaces.

It was so relaxing and I love the outcome! I’m even thinking that we should do something like this for an upcoming ART HANG PARTY!, but maybe using mushrooms or a different subject - stay tuned!

I used leftover acrylic ink and brush pen for today’s self portrait

Fun art day, not so fun life day. Simon woke up unable to put any weight on his right leg, poor guy. It’s happened a few times before and he heals quickly but it requires a vet visit and help with pain. Our vet isn’t open on the weekend, but luckily Ray found an online vet service that we were able to get an 8:30am appointment with for not much more than our regular vet cost. It meant that Simon didn’t need to walk anywhere and we could pick up his prescription from our pharmacy. I hate it when our babies are not feeling their best. This self portrait is a very accurate mood. (SUNDAY EDITING NOTE: Simon is walking like nothing ever happened - the magic of medicine - but we are still only going out for quick pees and other business and in a “no play” mode.)

SUNDAY MAY 26

I can’t remember a time when I tried so hard to make a specific vision or style I had in my head come to life, like the “drawing with watercolour” paintings I’ve been doing (read: struggling with) this week! Since first teaching myself how to paint with gouache I have just kind of gone with the flow of what was coming out of my paintbrush (and pencils and pastels) and being happy with it, letting things evolve naturally as they came.

But for some reason after doing the Music Garden watercolour sketch (see Wednesday last week), inspiration came and I’ve been chasing it ever since.

Yesterday when I was gathering references for our June 1 pop-up I saw what I was striving for in the work of Henri-Edmond Cross, his mosaic watercolours were like my vision come to life!

So, I had his photos open on one side of my ipad, a photo I snapped of Coronation Park during my morning run on the other, and with my watercolours in front of me I started to “draw with watercolour”.

THIS! This is what has been trying to come out! I feel an equal sense of relief and excitement and can’t wait to try again to make sure it’s not a fluke.

One more for good luck?

When I was refilling the cartridge for my brush pen yesterday I used today’s self portrait spread to wipe my fingers on and catch the mess. LOL a gift to my future self!

I decided to grab my two Uber-chunky posca markers and, holding one in each hand, did blind contour selfies 🫣

This is from Monday’s outing, where I packed up my supplies and then headed to Trillium Park to fill some sketchbook pages!

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Ok, that’s it for me!

See you Thursday at ART HANG PARTY!

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