Time for INKTOBER

If you are part of the art community, you are probably aware of an phenomenon referred to as "INKTOBER".  This is a month long drawing challenge started in 2009 by artist Jake Parker to challenge himself and improve his skills as an artist. There are 31 prompt words for you to use to guide you through the month.   I personally haven't participated in past years but have always wanted to.

This year I picked up my pens and my sketchbook and decided to give it a shot. Day 18 and I'm glad I did.  From the beginning, I decided that each of my drawings would feature a little mouse. This will help me on my quest to develop a little illustrated character that I can draw into little adventures and build an audience with.  Inktober is going to be GREAT practice for me to achieve that goal.

I thought I would just share a few of my favorite drawings so far this month.

Day 1- Prompt word- RING

Day 2- Prompt word- MINDLESS

Day 7- Enchanted

Day 10- Pattern

Day 15- Legend

Day 16- Wild

I'm Just a Little Nuts About Turquoise

"Turquoise and Lace"  8 x 10 sketch matted to 11 x 14

My love affair with jewelry has been with me for as long as I can remember.  It would be what you could call a long termed relationship.  I'm one of those girls that feel naked if I don't at least have earrings on but I prefer matching sets.  I don't need diamonds and emeralds.  No I'm happy with silver and Lapis Lazuli or Turquoise.  I don't really own many expensive pieces but I do have a few pieces that are priceless to me because they hold a great deal of sentimental value.  Several of those pieces involve turquoise.  It is hard for me to pick out my favorite gemstone because I love so many of them but turquoise would definitely be up pretty high on that list. 

A few years back I came into possession of my dear grandmother's jewelry box and got to keep anything I wanted out of it.  Most things were just little trinkets and silly little junk pieces she had collected but her chunky turquoise necklace and matching earrings (she didn't have pierced ears so they had screw on backs that I had to alter) are one of my favorite pieces to wear and I wear it proudly.  

My grandmother's chunky turquoise necklace and earrings

This week I really wanted to draw a piece that focused on turquoise and this is what I came up with.  I decided to call this "Turquoise and Lace" for obvious reasons.  I love how you can blend Prismacolor Pencils to give it a rounded 3D appearance.  These stones look to me like they are jumping off the page.  It make look difficult, but really it is pretty simple to accomplish.

So easy that I thought I would do a step by step demonstration here for anyone that might be interested.  I started this little drawing in my sketchbook just today.  Here let me show you....

I started by drawing out a simple gemstone design and a row of lace.  I'm going to use some of the same turquoise colors for this drawing as I did in my "Turquoise and Lace" piece.  Aquamarine(PC905), Light Aqua (PC992) and Peacock Blue(PC1027)

I use my lightest pencil color to set aside a small area that I'm going to make as my reflection.  This helps me to remember not to color in this area.

Now I take my Tombow marker and color in the whole area.  There is something about using markers or watercolor paint as a base layer on a pencil drawing that allows the pencil to blend and fill the white of the paper easier.  I picked a very light blue color for the marker.  You really won't see any of the marker when your done but you want the color to correspond with the pencils.

Here I have covered the entire gemstone area with my light aqua color.  Remember to very lightly color the reflection area.  I use a small circular motion with light pressure.  You don't want to go heavy here and fill the whole tooth of your paper so that none of you darker colors will penetrate. 

Now I take my second color.  Int his case it is aquamarine and fill only have of the gemstone area.  I want to leave the center of the stone with only my lightest color.  These small circular motions help prevent a line where the two colors transition.

Now I'm doing the same thing as the two previous steps with my darkest color, Peacock Blue.  I'm careful only to color the widest area of the gemstone design.  This gives the appearance of a rounded stone getting darker as you go further from the light source.  

Here is where the magic happens!  Take your white pencil and color over the whole stone area.  This blends the whole thing together and gives a very smooth appearance.  Now that wasn't hard was it?  I mean you are almost there.  Now you just have to focus on some ink work and shading but you have the most important part of the piece done.

Now this is an important discovery that I just made a few weeks ago purely by accident.  I picked up a few black pens at Michaels because I go through them pretty steadily.  I grabbed this pen called "LePen" by Marvy.  I AM IN LOVE!  Most of my drawing pens don't want to continue to draw over any colored pencil area because of the wax the pencils contain.  Every other medium is fine but just a few strokes on colored pencil and the pen stops working.  Not the "LePen".  This pen works great and I'm ordering more and in different colors.  So here I have added the black webbing or matrix lines that most turquoise has.  Some turquoise has brown or white lines but I decided to stick with the traditional black lines.  

Here I have used my N60 Tombow marker (my favorite of all markers in my set of 96).  This color is absolutely perfect for shading.  I just draw around any area that I want to be shaded and talk about making it pop right off the page!

More ink work added here.  I am using the tip end of a Tombow marker.

I made the decision to make the lace a teal color to match the gemstone.  The same shading applies.  You use three colors to give that depth you want and then I blended the whole area with white.  

My final step here is to add the spots of white highlight to the composition.  I use a fine tipped painting brush and some white acrylic paint to lightly apply spots of light to the specific areas on the gemstone, silver and the lace.  

See how easy that was.  I would love to hear from you if you try to create your own or if you found this blog helpful.  In a few weeks I'm planning on teaching this to my after school art club I am starting.  I'm really looking forward to helping kids have as much fun as I do with some pencils and a sketchbook.

Be sure and check out my website if you want to see more of my artwork!

Excuse Me...But Is That a Dog or a Small Horse?

So I started this little puppy piece yesterday that features a little doberman puppy. This is an 8 x 10 drawing done in pen and ink stippling, enhanced with Prismacolor pencils and Tombow markers

Pretty much all puppies are cute, no matter the breed but dobermans in my opinion really are one of the most beautiful dogs in the aggressive dog breed category.  I'm not fond of pit bulls or rottweilers but dobbies are so athletic, strong and very intimidating.  My oldest son owns 2 of them and the oldest one is absolutely huge.  His name is Odin and I think that is pretty fitting name.

My tiny granddaughter is dwarfed when she stands next to him and that concept of the problems a tiny girl could face owning such large dog just keeps rolling around in my head and I just can't seem to let it go.  I think it has the possibility of being a cute story line.  So I'm revisiting some of my earlier drawings on the subject and I have started writing some verses to go along. I thought I might share both of my works in progress with my blog readers as I work my way through this.


Here are two verses of about seven or so I have written so far.  I will share more of them as I work out more of the illustrations.  I hope you enjoy this and don't mind my anxiousness to share all this fun I'm having.


The smaller the puppy....
The cuter he appears
From his little black nose to his floppy ears
If only he could stay this size for all his years.

The growing puppy....
Don't fall for all this cuteness and be deceived
He will surely grow much bigger than you have believed
I hope you're ready for all the PUPPINESS you have received.

Seeing Double....Not Quite

So my last blog post from Saturday, I shared about this particular sketch I was working on that included  two bluebirds and a nest.  I included this photo that showed examples of how I would scan and then print out copies of incompletely sketches so that I could have a opportunity to experiment with different backgrounds and colors.  Yesterday, I went on printed one more copy out of my artwork but this time I printed it on my nice Bristol, acid free art paper and used the good printer.  I then finished the pen work on the incomplete nest on both the original and the copy.  Last night I began coloring them in using my colored pencils.

Original Artwork- "Nesting Bluebirds"

One original with realistic tiny blue eggs in the nest and a second original with 2 small red hearts.  My plan for the second piece that has hearts in the nest is to be able to use it as a gift for weddings and anniversaries.  I can customize it by lightly adding initials or names to each heart to make each piece of art personal and unique.  I will also hand embellish each piece to maximize the contrast and color.

What a great artcard or small print to give someone as a gift to mark that special day.

Original Artwork- "Love Birds"

June is almost upon us and June has always been considered the wedding month so there are plenty of weddings and anniversaries for all of us to remember.  If you are interested in ordering a matted original customized artwork from me, just send me an email message.

My prices for all my art cards are $5 each, 5 x 7 (matted to 8 x 10) are $25 and 8 x 10 (matted to 11 x 14) are $45 + shipping.  Message me if you are interested in putting in an order.

This past month I have been trying to write a little poem for each of my pieces of artwork and so I started playing around with a couple of verses about bluebirds.  Here is one of the rough drafts so far.  

Good Morning Mr. Bluebird

             By

     Julie Townsend

You are a wee little bird all soft and fluffy

I'm in love with your bright orange belly all puffy 

And your azure blue feathers are far from stuffy

Sitting there singing in my tree all huffy

I could sit in this chair and watch you all day

Please, oh please don't fly away

For just a little longer won't you stay

Because watching you is pure joy I say

Two Little Birdies Sitting in a Tree

Work in Progress -"Pair of Nesting Bluebirds"

Most of this week I have been focused on sketching a pair of blue and a little bird nest in a tree branch.  I thought that this concept might make a good gift for a wedding or anniversary.  In my first sketch I have left it incomplete at this point because I could either include eggs in the nest or I thought putting two hearts in the nest might work well for the gift idea.

One thing that I really think is important and I have learned this lesson the hard way.  I know scan my sketches when I have finished the pen and ink work and before I begin to apply any color or consider background treatments.  I don't want to ruin my original and regret a decision later which will result in my having to start all over again.

Trying out different mediums and treatments-One is Watercolor and the other is Colored Pencils

The first copy I did was on a piece of letter size card stock.   I took that copy and applied an abstract watercolor background and finished off the nest by hearts.  The second one is again copied on card stock but I printed it as a 5 x 7 which made it smaller than the first.  This one I used Prismacolor Premium Pencils and added a ink background of small circles.  I really liked the colored pencil one but I felt I had made the nest too dark.  So when I do get ready to finish the original sketch I have a much better I idea of how I want to handle it.

Bird Nest with Eggs- Pen and Ink only

I started a similar sketch just this morning while enjoying my coffee.  I just find bird nests to be so fascinating and the detail pen work is a real challenge.  I really like how this one is turning out even if there are no birds to be found in my composition.  

I had some struggles with the first nest sketch of the week.  It wasn't until after I had it drawn it all out I began to realize that most bluebirds build their nest in holes it seems.  Here I have them building their nest on a branch.  This is what comes from depending on reference photos and not have live subjects to study.  While the Mountain Bluebird is the Nevada state bird, they must only be in the mountains up north as I have never seen one down here in Southern Nevada.  The Mountain Bluebird also doesn't have the orange belly feathers that we see in my most recognizable bluebird species.  They are still magnificently blue and therefore beautiful but just not as stunning as the ones with orange feathers.

So this nest is just a nest with two tiny blue eggs. That of course leads to the question, "What type of bird lays blue eggs?"  Well surprisingly there are a number of species.  Of course the robin is well known along with the bluebird but there are also starlings and mockingbirds and cowbirds to name a few. 

Either way, no matter why exact species of birds nest this is that I'm drawing, I hope you enjoying my sketches this week half as much as I didn't drawing them. 

My original sketches are 8 x 10 draw on Strathmore Bristol acid free art paper and are matted to a standard 11 x 14 for easy framing.  I will also have matted prints in various sizes available.  I will be adding these drawings to a collection of greeting cards that feature birds if you are interested they are available on my country store gallery on my website at JulieTownsendStudio.com

"Bird Nest with Blue Eggs"- Pen and Ink w/Colored Pencil

The First of a Flurry of Fluffy Feathers

Image as seen on my "Country Store and Cowbell" tab on my website

It always amazes me that I can spend an hour drawing a little sketch design and then spend two hours on the marketing of that sketch.   By the time you write 3 or 4 paragraphs about the piece, scan it, upload and edit the image and then upload the image to all the applicable websites, you have invested several hours of time. Not to mention the time spent writing this blog each week.

I've just recently expanded my marketing efforts by opening an Etsy store under Julie Townsend Studio.  Now that I have some smaller inventory such as art magnets and art greeting cards that feature my work to offer, I felt that an Etsy store might be a good idea.  I am also checking into putting my images on Zazzle, Cafe Press and Redbubble but haven't quite figured out how those all work.  Then of course I have been uploading my images for a number of years to Fine Art America.  I guess I should get and "A for effort" and hopefully someday all this work will begin to pay off as I brand my self and grow a group of collectors.  Well at least that is my plan and I've always heard that you make a plan and that you work the plan and marketing artwork is WORK!

Now that I have finished my 2nd Down Country Roads art card collection I'm ready to focus on a new theme or collection. Collection 1 is of my farm animal pen and ink sketches and the 2nd collection is of my five Down Country Roads paintings.  Here is the link to my Country Store.

 I was pretty excited this week to get my first order of each image in collection II in art magnet format.  The collector shared with me that the images make her remember her childhood on her grandparents Iowa farm and they make her smile.  What a touching thing for her to say.  That very much blesses my heart as an artist to know that my work has touched an emotion and in some way has lifted a spirit and made someone smile.

5 x 7 pen and ink sketch with colored pencil

So last night I got busy and pulled out my sketch pad and colored pencils.  This is what I came up with and I think this will prove to me an excellent start on a collection that features my favorite birds. Topping that list is no doubt in my mind, the feisty hummingbird.  Nothing makes me smile faster, except for maybe my grandchildren, then this tiny little winged aggressor that darts around my yard.

You had better be quick if you want to snap their picture because they only rest a few seconds before flying off in a flurry of fluffed feathers.

Original sketch is available along with prints, cards and magnets of this image at my website gallery.  Feel free to check it out along with all my other works.

Finished sketch before adding colored background

Stipled Smiling Swine

"Lunch and a Spa Treatment"- Pen and Ink w/Colored Pencil

I will never give up painting but I have to confess that I am finding more and more pleasure in sketching.  This week I had a blast drawing this smiling pig standing in the middle of a mud puddle while chopping on a tasty apple.   Her eyes are closed in anticipation and you can see a slight smile across her face as you know she is imagining the crisp crunch and sweet flavor that will soon be her experience.  If this little sketch of mine has brought a smile to your face then I have accomplished my mission.

Sketch in Progress

I started her in the morning, worked on her for a few minutes during my lunch break at work and then couldn't wait to get home to finish her up.  She is drawn on a 9 x 12 Canson Bristol paper with pretty much using my Prismacolor Fine Line Markers exclusively and the .005 size the most.  It is a lot of inking but I find the process relaxing, probably much in the same way that those adult coloring books have gained in popularity.  I just love using the stippling technique but it is rather time consuming when you think of the thousands of little dots necessary to fill in a sketch.  I will be adding just a little color to the scene by adding red to the apples, a light tint of green to the grass and some shading to give her depth.  I will probably use my Prismacolor colored pencils to add the coloring.  

The whole time I was drawing this I had a smile on my face as I kept thinking of funny captions and titles but I think I've settled on "Lunch and a Spa Treatment".  I can't wait to add this gal to my new line up of greeting cards and prints for my "Down Country Roads" series and solo show coming up in April at the Boulder City Gallery.  The original of all my sketches are available until they are sold. Prints and greeting cards are available at JulieTownsendStudio.com and I'm also have an Etsy Store.

Finished sketch before I added color

Practice Makes Perfect

 I have blogged on several occasions about how drawing consistently will make you a better painter and for sure a better pencil artist.  This morning I was looking at some of my early sketches and it is so obvious how my frequent drawing has come to improve my skills.

Here are a couple of examples of early sketches that I did of my son, his wife and my grandson in 2009 and 2010.  I'm pretty embarrassed at those SCARY teeth.  Thankfully my daughter-in-law is still talking to me.

These were done at the very beginning of my artistic journey and as you can see,  I needed a lot of improvement.  That is the thing about being an artist, your journey is never over and you never stop improving your skills.  As long as you have your eyesight and the ability and strength to hold a paintbrush or pencil steady, you are always honing your skills and techniques.  You are always thinking of the next painting or looking for inspiration at every turn in the road.  In my case, this past year I have been sketching a great deal.  Mostly portraits but there are wildlife and some still life thrown in there too.  My sketchpad and my pencil box are with me usually wherever I go.  I have recently started an artistic journal and am very excited about that.  I have plans of filling it with lots of small sketches as I enjoy my summer travels.  

Now if you will just humor me and allow me to show you some recent sketches so you can see that my ability with a pencil and pen have improved over the past few years and this is all a result of my dedication to drawing regularly.  I do need to interject here that I by no means think I am accomplished as a graphite or pen and ink artist.  I have SO MUCH more to learn but I am simply trying to encourage you to grab that sketchpad or doodle just a little bit more because as your mom would always say, " PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT!"

Graphite 8x10 of my favorite actor- Tom Selleck

A granddaughter of a good friend- I'm really having fun with this stippling technique

"Through Sad Eyes"- another ink sketch using stippling and colored with pastel pencil

Here are some pages from my artistic journal that I have recently started.  I have plans to start branching out into watercolors soon but right now I have only been using my colored pencils to enhance the pages.  This is really fun because the pressure of creating something that I feel I have to frame and show isn't there.  I also think this will be something that perhaps my grandchildren will treasure and enjoy looking at as I am sure there will be plenty of drawings in the future that include them.  I'm going to embellish the cover and make it something really fun and colorful rather than leaving it with it's boring sketchbook cover.

I would love for you to leave me a comment, share your experiences or follow my blog posts.  You can also check out all my work at my website at julietownsendstudio.com.