THURSDAY, JANUARY 18 @ 7:00PM ET on YouTube & Twitch
When I was pulling together references for last week’s session I decided to stick to all silly cat poses (which was so fun btw! You should go check it out and draw along if you haven’t already), but I also pinned a ton of other photos of cats doing human things and of people holding and hugging cats. It is these last ones that we will focus on this week!
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Next ART HANG PARTY! will be Thursday, January 25 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! 🥰
Watch past ART HANG PARTY! replays here
THIS WEEK IN MY SKETCHBOOK
MONDAY, JANUARY 8
I finished the rose painting!
I added a second layer of the neon yellow background, and then added a cornflower blue to the edges, which I think really helps to calm everything down a little bit.
Then I had a play in my big sketchbook with oil pastels, turning back to my photos from the Japanese Garden at Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden. I had splotches of acrylic paint in the background that I worked overtop of, giving some nice extra peeks of colour.
TUESDAY, JANUARY 9
Sophie McPike hosted her public Scribble Brigade drawing session on YouTube. The theme was Figure Drawing! I love doing figure drawing sessions with other people. I find it’s much harder to do on my own if I were just to sit down by myself. I think having someone else control the timer and references is a BIG help when you’re trying to speed through a whole bunch.
I started using two brush markers at once, holding them like chopsticks. I’ve never done that before but it was so much fun! Then I moved on to some coloured pencils because I wanted to focus more on my lines to capture movement. After a little show and tell I decided to go back to the two brush markers, mostly because everyone was really loving them, haha! But it really is fun. I think you should try it!
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 10
I really wasn’t sure what I was in the mood for when it came time to open my sketchbook, aside from not really in the mood for much.
I got out my 3-colour watercolour set and opened the duck photos from my niece. I loosely laid down a base, and then went in with some Neocolor IIs. I think I maybe spent 20 minutes on this page.
THURSDAY, JANUARY 11
Well if this wasn’t one of the cutest ART HANG PARTY!s ever, I don’t know what was.
I actually ended up spontaneously vlogging the whole behinds the scenes set up, from setting up the equipment to recording the always-embarrassing promo video to starting the stream to winding down. Let me know what you think of it!
I wasn’t sure what to use. You can see the struggle in the video, LOL! I ended up using my Camel rainbow pencil, which I think was a good call. All the cats look so cute!
FRIDAY, JANUARY 12
The weather is pretty nasty today. Cold and super windy. Colder and windier as the day went on. As I’m writing this in the evening there is thunder and lightning and wet snow happening along with extreme winds! Yikes! You don’t often see lightning in the winter…
Anyway, I wanted to visit somewhere warm in my sketchbook today so I did a quick search in my google photos and settled on this lovely scene from Tulum Mexico.
I only used gouache here, something I rarely do.
SATURDAY, JANUARY 13
I had the thought that one of these weeks we should do master studies at ART HANG PARTY! Crank the timer up to 15 or 20 minutes and really get into them. I went searching for a good reference site and found the motherload! Check the links on this page for all kinds of public domain goodies!
EDIT: I think the master study session will happen as a pop-up on Saturday, February 3! Will confirm next week!
When I was checking out one of the websites I was really taken with Henry Somm’s paintings. I don’t know a lot about art history so I was not familiar with the name, but paintings really grabbed my attention! The bold colours of the main subject combined with the whispers of people in the background… 😚👌
I decided I needed to do some studies right then, so I got out my big sketchbook, Inktense paints and Sailor Fude fountain pen and got to it!
I also started prepping another piece for the ‘memories of grandma’s garden’ collection. It’s a 24x24 canvas that will feature daisies. I prepped it with a light blue gesso mix and traced the flowers on. I didn’t take a photo but I think I’ll work on it tomorrow so I’ll share some then.
SUNDAY, JANUARY 14
More work on the daisy painting today! Before I started on the canvas I thought it would be a good idea to do some colour tests. Not only to figure out the background colour, but to test how to manage the petal and shadows.
I worked over the same gesso mixture I used on the canvas. The blue background is in the lead, but I think I’ll go over the green with a greener-green to see how that looks. I’m really happy with how the petals and shows turned out! Though I think the centres could be a little punchier, which is an easy fix (I think/hope!)
I had a FaceTime call from my 8-year-old niece while I was painting the backgrounds and asked what her opinion was. She had some fun suggestions, including blue and green swirls, a blue to green gradient or different colour behind each flower (Andy Warhol style). All great options and up for consideration, but I think I want to keep the background one colour. Maybe?
And then it was time to move on to the real thing! I did the first pass at the petals using a mix of white and cornflower blue. It might not look like a lot but this took me a couple of hours!
Here are some background colour tests:
Thoughts are welcome!
VIDEO OF THE WEEK
My friend Susie and I went to see the Keith Haring exhibit at the Art Gallery of Ontario last weekend and thought we’d take you along!
And here’s a bonus video for ya - the behind the scenes of ART HANG PARTY! vlog!
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Ok, that’s it for me!
See you Thursday at ART HANG PARTY!
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I love the multicoloured background for the daisies 😊 need to catch up on your vlog and AHP from last week, maybe I will do the 2 cat sessions together 😄 like Saturday +Sunday fun! 🌼
Purr-fect timing because I was just about to open a sketchbook and wondering what to draw! ✨ And I just added the link to the roundup! 😺💖