Let’s Draw SPRING!

Plus a peek in my sketchbook & what I've been up to 👀

THURSDAY, MARCH 20 @ 7:00PM ET on YouTube

Towards the end of last session I asked if anyone had any ideas for themes for this week, before I went to grab the theme pot, and the idea of nature came up, which felt like something we were all into, and then I think it was Susan who brought up Spring, which solidified the idea.

It feels like we are very slowly/quickly approaching the transition of winter to spring here, so I’m looking forward to getting lost in some pretty springtimey references with everyone!

We’ll have 12 references, and work from quick times and get progressively longer as we go.

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✏️🤗💖✨

Next ART HANG PARTY! will be Thursday, March 27 at 7pm et on YouTube

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

Illustrated Cats at Free Draw Friendzy!

✹ SATURDAY APRIL 5, 11:00m et on zoom
✹ RSVP https://lu.ma/2a5bay9t

Join me and Deb Turcio Debbie Draws Funny for a live drawing session! We'll chat and laugh and draw ILLUSTRATED CATS!

While on my trip to Japan I found the cutest little book filled with funny, cute and a little bit out-there cat illustrations and we thought they would be purrrfect for us to draw!

This is a free event and we hope to see you there!

MONDAY MARCH 11

Charlotte Hamilton was in Toronto for the day so we met up for a too-short coffee and a bit of people drawing!

I brought along my Japan sketchbook and (almost) all of my new toys for her to play with. We chatted about our trips (she was recently in Oaxaca and San Miguel de Allende) and it was really really lovely.

Jet lag is still hanging on even though I’d rather it didn’t, haha. I almost didn’t get my sketchbook out after dinner, but after a bit scroll through my photos I felt ready for a quick scribble of Shibuya.

Today’s self portraits

TUESDAY MARCH 12

This afternoon I was happy to be able to join Charlotte Hamilton and Samantha Dion Baker’s Mexico drawing session!

I really liked the format of this session. It started with 3 five minute blocks of time which we used to do quick sketches of whichever references we wanted. I chose the ones that had people in them. Then we had 3 ten minute blocks of time to refine our sketches and add colour. And then one final fifteen minutes to use however needed. For me, that meant getting out my colour pencil roll and adding details and scribbles, something I haven’t done in a long time.

I used the new Holbein Cake Colors and they were pretty fun!

Today’s self portraits

WEDNESDAY MARCH 13

One of the things that sets Japan apart from anywhere else I’ve ever been is that sometimes when you’re out walking around you turn a corner and find yourself at a shrine or temple. They are tucked into busy neighbourhood, but as soon as you enter things slow down.

That happened as we were navigating our way through crazy-packed Dotonbori. All of a sudden we were at Hozen-ji Temple.

There was a family dressed in traditional clothing doing a photoshoot. I’m kinda thinking they are tourists going for the full package, but it was still really cute to see.

Today I drew the mom and kids with the lovely Kakimori pen and ink, and painted it with watercolour. (I’ll add just the mom on the other page during AHP this week :))

Today’s self portraits

THURSDAY MARCH 14

Did you know that Charlotte Hamilton does a livestream on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday mornings over on YouTube? They are open to everyone, and honestly sometimes my motivation for getting out of bed in the morning when I would rather sleep in.

This morning she was painting Terry Fox, and after watching for about 40 minutes enjoying my coffee I thought, I could be painting him too, on my ipad, so I did.

I split my screen in two, YouTube on one half, procreate on the other. I used Char’s reference photo as my reference photo. It was really small which meant I couldn’t get bogged down by detail, allowing me to keep my painting really loose.

Fun!

Today was ART HANG PARTY! Day! My first back live since before the trip and it was really nice to see everyone!

But boy oh boy was I ever rusty 🫠 That, or the jet lag plus cold I seemed to have picked up was effecting me more than I thought.

I felt like I was drawing really slow, even though we had 7 minutes per reference today. There are only a few images that I would consider complete, so I’ll have to go back and finish them up (or completely redo them).

I do really enjoy this night scene, drawn over some pink watercolour I set myself up with while figuring out supplies I was going to take on the trip.

And LOL the last image. That’s when Knitty came to say hi and settled herself directly on top of my sketchbook for the whole 7 minutes.

Catch the replay here!

Today’s self portraits

FRIDAY MARCH 15

Some of my drawings from yesterday really bother me. They would be fine if I did them in my little AHP sketchbook, but because I wanted to fill some pages in my travel sketchbook, which is more like a memory book than anything, I want everything in there to be a little nicer, you know?

So today after dinner I squeezed a big blog of ivory white on top of the temple sketch and completely painted over it. I decided to use the same reference photo, so I lightly sketched that in and then had fun exaggerating the shadows using acryl gouche.

Much happier with this!

Today’s self portraits

SATURDAY MARCH 16

This morning I joined Charlotte Hamilton for her “Chicken Barn” zoom session which did not, in fact, include any chickens. The Chicken Barn used to be a chicken barn, but is now a gigantic flea/thrift market that See recently visited and shared some photos from.

When thinking about what materials I wanted to use (when I thought we were drawing chickens) I realized I hadn’t opened the Sumi ink I brought back from Japan yet, so that was a must. And I just replaced my fluorescent pink solid marker, which I thought would pair nicely.

It was a pretty fun combo.

After dinner I wanted to work on my travel sketchbook some more. I got out my colour pencils and Neocolor IIs and had a fun scribbly time adding to the bases I started during AHP on Thursday.

I think I need to get back to this mixed-media style more!

Today’s self portraits

SUNDAY MARCH 17

More finishing up more pages from AHP this morning.

Today’s self portraits

Here are some clips from the trip!

And don’t forget to enter my Stationery Giveaway!

Details: Enter at arthangparty.ca to win 1 of 5 envelopes filled with fun things I picked up in Japan! Name & address must be filled in completely in order to qualify. Limit one entry per person. Giveaway closes March 31, 2025 and winners will be selected shortly thereafter.

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I’m off to make breakfast for lunch, and then I’ll be joining Char’s 5-year celebration on zoom, which I’ll share about next week.

See you Thursday at ART HANG PARTY!

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