Getting Back to My 2021 Goals

 Remember forever ago when I said I was going to finish a new piece once a  month for the whole year?

And then I got sick with the plague and it took months to bounce back from it?

Guess what?

I'm back!

I'm ready to re-commit to the new-art-once-a-month goal. Here's August:

New Work for February

 Posting new artwork in the online shops for this month. It's a bit of a piggy-back off last month, but we're going to count it as "new."

Because everything is better in color (or so I'm told):

Hoo-rah.

I don't have a very clear idea of what March's new artwork will be. I have a couple of sketches that could potentially become finished pieces...but I'm also feeling a little "meh" about everything in my sketchbook right now. 

Maybe I'll come up with something completely new and unrelated...

...or maybe I just need a good night's sleep to disperse the "meh" feels and in the morning I'll realize that I have some solid sketches that deserve to have some work put into them.

Never underestimate the value of a good night's sleep.

You can see this painting on various products on Redbubble by clicking here.

And it can also be found on similar items on TeePublic by clicking on this link here.

It's also on apparel, mugs, stickers, and prints on DesignByHumans on this link here. 

(There's usually a sale going on at least one of these sites at any given time, so try visiting all 3 shops to get the best deal. You're welcome.)

Udemy Courses

 I have felt my painting skills getting rusty, and at first I thought, "It's fine. I don't really need those skills right now...most of my time is focused on my kids anyway...I'll just let those skills fall to the wayside."

And then another voice in my head went, 

"NOOOOOOO!!"

Apparently painting is more important to me than I thought.

So at the beginning of this year when Udemy.com illustration courses went on sale (like 80%-90% off, it was crazy!) I invested in a few courses.

First is the Complete Drawing & Painting Illustration Course, taught by Jaysen Batchelor.

I just finished the colored pencil assignment, we drew a portrait of Chris Pratt. 

I have never done any work in colored pencils before. I've never even considered trying. Just never had an interest.

But I learned that colored pencils are actually really fun!

I also learned that using a random mixed box of my daughter's old colored pencils instead of the name brand pencils recommended by the instructor is a terrible idea. 

Live and learn.

(I spent so much time staring at Chris Pratt, you guys. I can't even tell what he looks like anymore O_O )

Here's the illustration:

 Can you tell it's Chris Pratt? I honestly can't tell anymore.

Regardless, it does look like a human face, and so that's a victory!

All jokes aside, this assignment was so fun, I am really looking forward to trying this again. I'll post if I do and we can bask in my improvement. 

Goals for 2021

Artist goals for 2021:

Take a couple classes. Brush up on my skills, learn new techniques, improve.

Draw something every day.

Post new work in Redbubble, TeePublic, and DesignByHumans once a month.

 Behold, January: "Build, Dream, Create"

 So far it's only posted in Redubble, but I'll get it in the other places, too. Soon.

P-A-I-N-T-I-N-G

 We are visiting my in-laws today.

The kids are playing with grandparents and their aunt.

My husband is busy cooking pies for Thanksgiving.

So I holed myself up in the spare bedroom, with my computer and Wacom tablet...

...for over 4 hours.

O_o

It was amazing.

I haven't painted for that many consecutive hours since...ah yeesh, probably since before I had my first baby. Which was 8 years ago. Wow.

Want to see what I was able to accomplish in a little over 4 hours?

I had 3 goals:

Glowing Object

Metal Texture

Experiment with the Water Color brush

I usually trace my lineart with the Real G-Pen, but this time I darkened my pencil sketch with the Darker Pencil, and left all my sketched rough-draft lines unerased, and painted over that in layers with  the Transparent Watercolor Brush.

I ended up making a custom Textured Transparent Watercolor Brush, which I liked a lot more. That and occasional Dense Watercolor Brush and Charcoal (for texture), I think that's all I used.

This was fun to make. It felt so good to paint for so long. Maybe the kids are old enough now to let me spend more time on these kinds of things?

Also, if you know anyone who wants to write a children's book about trees, or set in a forest, let me know. I would love to illustrate that book.

Commissioned Work and Other Projects

Someone reached out to me the other day to commission me for a drawing. I love getting commissions!

Anyway, it was for a boy as a birthday gift for his girlfriend. The scene: the first time he noticed her, 6th grade art class. This is how it turned out:

Looking at this makes me feel woefully out of practice, but he likes it. And if the customer is happy, then I guess I'm happy, too.

I've also been coloring some of my basic sketches, here's how they are going so far:

Fun times.

Whirlwind of Junicorn!

I kept myself really busy in June by doing a challenge called "Junicorn."

I think a couple of other people have done it, but I made it up as a summer activity to do with my daughter. She joined me in a couple of them, and colored a lot of the ones I drew, but it was mostly me.

Here are some of my favorites:

Unicorn meets Narwhal

Breaking out of the norm and dabbling in sculpture!

Mermacorn

Trying to think outside the box

Unicorn with a princess rider

Me, as a unicorn (unicorn-sona?)

Again, getting outside the box

Junicorn Finale: find the unicorn!

Lunar unicorn

There were many, many more (you can see all of them in my Junicorn2020 Album on my facebook page: Facebook.com/KennaArt)

I want to color some of these, especially my favorites, but coloring takes a lot more time than quick sketching (especially with young kids around...young, curious kids with sticky fingers, yikes!), but I'll work on it as I can.

There is so much turmoil in the world today, not just the pandemic but the economy and politics and social unrest. It can be overwhelming and I often find myself wondering what I should be doing, if there's anything I can do, about it all.

And here are the answers I've been led to:

• Care for my family, especially my kids
• Appreciate the good moments in the present
• Do something creative every day

Maybe these points will help you, too. Maybe not. They've provided a good compass for me, personally, and I intend to stick with them as long as they remain relevant.

Jumping Back In!

It has been awhile. A long while. But my youngest is more independent every day and so I find myself with extra time again, which means...

...being an artist again!

It's been challenging to jump back into creativity. There was a bit of stagnation that had to be waded through. A lot of stirring up the creative juices again to get ideas flowing. One thing that helped in that process was collage art. Check it out:

For Book Lovers

Dare to Dream

Wanderlust

A Few of My Favorite (Steampunk) Things

Take Me Away

All of these are available on all kinds of home decor products, btw, at any of the shops linked to in the side bar. So if you like any of these, consider visiting the online shops to bring this artwork home.
And thanks.

What's Eating My Time?

I'll tell you.

I found an outlet for making a webcomic.

(secret confession: I have loved webcomics since I was a teenager)

And now I'm publishing one of my own! It's called #MomLife. Here's the latest episode:

It's been really fun rediscovering my love for drawing expressions and cartooning. I'm still finding my groove. Each week I get a little better.

You can subscribe for FREE and read new episodes every Thursday on Tapas.io, click here!

Taste of Steampunk

Going through old sketches, fixing them up.

White on black

Color

MOAR Halloween

More Halloween art in the more creepy category:

Grim Reaper

Skull and Tree

Skeleton Puppet

Halloween Approacheth...

HALLOWEEN!

This is my favorite time of year for drawing, true story. Here are some previews for you:

It's not all cutesy for-kids-only Halloween art, I promise. Here's my fav so far:

Jack-o-Lantern of Awesome!

More to come
...bwahahaha!!

Time for a Touch of Whimsy

As much as I love charcoal drawings of leaves
(and I srsly do)
I felt I needed to take a break and do something different.

So I perused through my files of old drawings and found an Inktober drawing that I really liked:

I've wanted to see it in color ever since I finished this sketch.

It took a slightly different turn than I had originally imagined, but that's how the creative process goes sometimes.
Here's the finished piece:

You can find it in all the Suspended Dreams shops. Check it out. Like it. Share it.
Because that would be great.
Thanks!

Two Tone WIP

After those tentacles, I wondered what this octopus:

...would look like in two tones.

The results:

Which is fun. And then my brother-in-law asked me if I was trying to become "The Octopus Lady."

...no?

Let me start by saying, I don't have anything against octopi. They're fascinating creatures, besides being very popular these days, and they're pretty fun to draw.

...but my REAL passion...
(is going to sound dumb, brace yourself)
...is drawing LEAVES.

WIP Leaves in charcoal drawing

This was done digitally; I used the "charcoal" tool for this instead of the pen. Personally, I like the textures that resulted (plus it took a FRACTION of the time!), I hope other people like it, too.

This is a work-in-progress, in case you were thinking it looked a little unfinished. I'm going to add other nature/organic embellishments - add some rhythm and flow in there.

Again, thanks for watching. Keep checking back for the finished picture.

Wow I love drawing leaves...

Cuz Octopus is Weird

Christmas is over, which means my feverish knitting and crochet craze has also come to an end.

So it's time to make ART

For the last two months I have been thinking about two-tone drawings and how much I love looking at them. Even when they're terrible, they are AWESOME.

(For those who don't know, by "two-tone drawing" I'm referring to drawings in only white and black ink on toned/colored paper)

In the next few weeks, I'll be getting stuff like this out of my system:

Octopus Tentacles two-tone drawing

This drawing, by the way, can be printed on phone cases, notebooks, t-shirts and lots of other random things you might want to own. Check out the store links, it is now in TeePublic and Redbubble and will be appearing in DesignByHumans in a few days.

Thanks for watching! :)

Slice of (True) Life

Inktober Complete - Achievement Unlocked!

31 sketches later...

Day 25 - hastiest sketch EVER

Day 26 - Running Late

Day 27 - First Witchsona (the ideal)

Day 28 - Second Witchsona (the reality)

Day 29 - Raven and the Spider

Day 30 - Sketch at church...cuz I love kitties

Day 31 - the Final Inktober, Happy Halloween y'all!!

And just like that, Inktober is over and my sketchbook haz 31 awesome new sketches and looks WAY more legit (as far as sketchbooks go) than it did in September.
Thanks for watching ;)

Halloween Continues to Approach

My only regret this Inktober is that I didn't make more of an effort to get involved with other artists on it. The competition and inspiration from comparing to others' work is hard to replace.

But there's only one week left of this, and the rest of my life (you know, stuff like being a wife and a mom and keeping the house together...not-so-small stuff) is starting to catch up with me.

Getchya caught up on Inktober thus far:

Day 20 - Bats and a kitty

Day 21 - Witch's kitty

Day 22 - My kitty (this one is alarmingly accurate to real life)

Day 23 - The mask I wish I owned and would wear EVERY DAY

Day 24 - Haunted Forest

And there is a lovely Autumn storm brewing up outside. It's perfect: overcast skies, gusty winds, gold and yellow leaves whipping past my window. Aaaah. Life is good.