THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 15 @ 7:00PM ET on YouTube & Twitch
I can’t remember who suggested it at the end of last stream (thank you to whoever it was!), but Vintage Valentines was thrown in the chat when I asked if there were any ideas for this week. While technically the day after Valentines, it felt like the perfect thing!
The next morning I went in search of reference photos and stumbled upon this cute Vintage Valentines book from Little Golden Books - a book of valentines that actually pop-out into cards! It’s so cute!
I scanned every page and cropped them down and I’m very excited and can’t wait to draw them!
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Next ART HANG PARTY! will be Thursday, February 22 at 7pm et on YouTube & Twitch
Theme: TBD!
Do you have an idea for a future ART HANG PARTY! theme?
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Watch past ART HANG PARTY! replays here
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 5
I made some progress on the new still life painting! I’m having so much fun painting this you have no idea.
I filmed this stage of the painting so you’ll see it evolve in my vlog this week (I’m assuming that I’ll have one out by the weekend-ish).
I don’t think I have much more to do, actually. Grandma needs a face and the cheetah needs spots. The stickers need a little more suggestive details, as does the book. Oh and the Neocolor II labels. Oh and a little shine on the strawb. Is that a lot? That sounds like a lot. LOL!
My hope is that I can finish it up while still maintaining the loose feel of it right now.
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 6
I was planning on working on the still life, but Sophie McPike was having a Scribble Brigade livestream session on patreon and the theme was vintage National Geographic landscapes so of course I had to join!
She started us off with a really fun playful exercise, where we changed colours EVERY 5 SECONDS 😅 Here’s what that looks like:
Then we settled in for some nice relaxing 5 minute landscapes
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 7
Have you noticed a little update to the look of this post? I spent some time today updating my section breaks - let me know what you think! And yes, I was most definitely procrastinating from working on client social media content. 🙃
And then I finished the still life painting!
I can’t tell you how much fun it was to paint this! Slowly building up the details, moving from here to there and back again. Trying to keep the looseness of the early stage but also get it finished enough to where it feels rights. The bits of underpainting and sketch lines still visible feeling like happy little surprises for my eyes. I LOVE IT!
I am already planning my next one - a still life for the memories of grandma’s garden collection!
I filmed Monday’s and today’s painting session so you can see the bulk of this come to life in the new vlog I posted last night over on YouTube, but here are some closeups for ya!
Don’t forget to check out
substack! And have a go at Sari Shryack (Not Sorry Art)’s amazing turtorial!THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 8
It’s ART HANG PARTY! day! We had a bit of an experiment today, where we drew the same reference 3 times. I honestly was not sure how it would go, but it was so fun!
First we drew for 30 seconds (so fast!). Then for 2 minutes (a false sense of security). Then for 5 minutes (not as long as you think!).
The theory was that as you do each drawing you take forward what you saw from the previous one, giving yourself a bit of a head start and allowing you to see more and more in the reference photo each time. Which I think happened!
It’s also really fun to see the progression as the timer increased.
Watch and draw along to the replay here!
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 9
Earlier in the day I set up a new still life and took a ton of photos of it for a new painting. I wasn’t really loving it. It was all feeling a little too flat. And it was missing flowers! It is about my grandma’s garden after all, so flowers are a must.
But because I took the time to set it up and all I thought I should at least document it in my sketchbook. I pulled out my Strathmore mixed media and used my Lamy Safari fountain pen to do a slow and steady single line drawing, then filled it in with Inktense paints.
And then because I still felt like I wanted to draw, I opened Pinterest and turned to my People board. The woman in the top right caught my attention, and so it was decided I would do a spread of women reading on the subway :)
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 10
Not the still life I was expecting, but I started a new painting for the memories from grandma’s garden collection
I started prepping the canvas with the neon green ground, which honestly is so fun to work on.
It’s an apple!
I would have put money on the fact that grandma and grandpa’s apple trees had eating apples on them, I just couldn’t remember if they were red or green, but my sister told me they had crabapple trees! Memory is so funny.
This isn’t done but it’s not far off. I followed the freehand sketching right on the canvas with a paintbrush method - so fun! It just needs a some highlights, a little more background and a deeper shadow and I think it’ll be there!
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 11
Today was a good art day. It started after breakfast with a fun sketchbook spread. I was looking for something that would work over the swipes of leftover paint I added to this spread from the background of the apple canvas and remembered a photo that Intergalactic Peach Patrol shared in a recent patreon post - the Giant Koala!
I used grey and white Kuretake paints for the koala and used then colour pencils for the rest.
I mean, look at that face!
And then in the afternoon I finished up the apple painting!
As with the previous still life I love how unfinished but finished it feels.
This is now my fifth canvas piece for the collection. My plan is to have 8-12. I was thinking I’d complete about 1 per month but I am well exceeding that at this point. I still have no idea how or when (or if) I’ll exhibit them, but I want to do something.
I might have an opportunity to do so at a DJ/music/twitch community event this summer. Or I might just rent out our party room and invite everyone I know for a private showing/party type thing. I also want to have an online component somehow so all my online friends can participate! Maybe a livestream? I’ve never seen such a thing but it could work, maybe?
If you have any ideas or if you’ve organized such a thing for yourself I’d love to hear your experience and ideas!
I recorded the process so I’ll share that in a video soon!
Watch the still life painting come together!
A flip through of my NINETEENTH completed sketchbook while I answer some questions.
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Ok, that’s it for me!
See you Thursday at ART HANG PARTY!
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One more week full of great drawings Melissa 🤩 I didn't catch the last AHP over the weekend as I intended 🙈 but I've made a list from all the AHP sessions I want to do! P.S.- I really hope you can make more sessions during weekend like the pop session, 1 per month as you said would be amazing!!! 😉✨️