Designing a Hand-Sewn Patch

I've been inspired by the book, The Wander Society by Keri Smith.  The society's purpose is to promote aimless wandering as a creative pursuit and its motto is "Solvitur ambulando," or "It is solved through walking."

Have you ever noticed how taking a walk in nature helps you to unwind and sort out your troubles?  I walk for exercise, but also for peace of mind and creative inspiration.  I wanted to create a patch that celebrates how walking in nature inspires, heals, and strengthens me.

I started with a sketch on paper, then made a copy of the final design and covered the back of the copy with graphite.  I pinned the paper to a piece of denim cut from a retired pair of jeans and traced the design, pressing hard to transfer the graphite onto the fabric.

It was a little hard to see the graphite marks on the denim, so I darkened the design guidelines with a Sharpee.

I watched a video on making your own decorative patches.  It helped me to figure out how to fill in the boot with color and how to bind the edges of the denim.  Other than that, I have no real training in embroidery.  I just made up stitches, doing the best I could.

I stitched while watching videos with my husband or having conversations with my family. It was a pleasant way to keep my hands busy while listening.

My embroidery thread came from the Pittsburgh Center for Creative Reuse (25 cents per skein!).

I like the wobbly wonkiness of the patch.  It looks handmade and organic. Human.

As a foil to the rise of AI art, I enjoy celebrating human-made art.  I find it makes creating more relaxed when I celebrate my wobbles and imperfections.

I hope this inspires you to design your own patch and create expressive, wearable art!

Happy Creating! 

A Trip to the Beach

I recently escaped winter on a trip to Florida.

I took lots of photos, and sketched while I was on the beach.

When I returned home, I extended my travel experience by painting from some of my photos.

I laid out each painting with a few pencil marks, then painted the sky, with large washes first, blotting the wet paint with a paper towel to create clouds.  After the first washes dried, I added shadows to the sky and clouds.  

I worked on both of these little paintings at the same time, practicing my painting on the vertical version, and then repeating each step on the horizontal layout.

When the paint was dry in the sky, I began laying in washes for the ocean and waves, avoiding painting the white foamy areas.  When each layer was dry, I added another layer, building up colors and complexity.  I finished with layers of earthy brown beach sand.

The wet sand along the shore was darker.

After all of the paint had dried, I added some cloud reflections on the water with a white gel pen and white acrylic ink applied with a dip pen.  Above are the tools I used.

I propped up the finished paintings with a few seashells on my art table to remind me of the Florida sunshine.

I hope you'll dig out some old vacation photos and create art from them.  It's a lovely way to extend the joy of a getaway.

Happy Creating!

Mixed Media Valentines!

Each year when the winter snows fly, I make Valentine's Day cards to give to friends and family.  

 The process always starts with experimentation, ideas, & splashes of brightly colored paint.  I try out a variety of ideas and choose one to make multiple copies of.

This is the final design. The tri-fold card has hearts cut out with an X-acto blade so you can see into each of the interior pages.

Creating Multiples of the Design

Using 12" x 18" pieces of cold pressed watercolor paper, I measured off four-inch strips of the paper and creased it to make it easy to fold the cards after painting.  

I painted the whole paper with the design -- permanent rose watercolor paint and dioxazine purple.  Once the watercolor paint was dry, I added white "snowflakes" in the pink area using white acrylic ink.

Next, I cut each larger sheet of painted paper into three segments (6"X12") and folded each one at the crease marks to make a 4"x 6" card.

I traced & cut a large heart shape from the front page, and a medium heart shape from the middle page.

I painted the final, interior page on all of the cards, beginning with splashes of warm, Azo yellow. I traced a third, smaller heart in the center of that page before painting.

While the yellow paint was still wet, I mixed Alizarin crimson and permanent rose, and filled the rest of the page, letting the colors run together.

I played with splattering paint, too.

Once the paint was dry, I inked in the center heart, and added some finishing touches with a white Posca pen.  I wanted to repeat the white of the snowflakes.

I gave myself the luxury of experimenting with final decorative marks.  I let my intuition lead the way, and discovered that adding wobbly black marks around the purple heart-window set off the white stripes, making them look bolder.

In the center heart, I used an extra-small permanent marker to make playful, vibrant designs.  I loved the result! I discovered that the secret was to slow down and let myself play rather than trying to be perfect.

In fact, I made a mantra of telling myself that wobbly, wonky art is human art.  It's authentic and real, and the antithesis of plastic, AI "creations."  Every time I made a mark in the wrong place, I celebrated my humanness.

I finished up each card by writing the greeting in the inner page, being careful not to let the words show through the heart cut-outs.  

A pencil line traced from a yogurt cup gave me a guide for the words.

I wrote the greeting on the line and set it aside to dry. The last step was erasing the pencil marks.

Now my Valentines are ready to sign & mail!

 Wishing you happy creating and a happy Valentine's Day!

Valentine's Inspired Weekly Planner

Snowed in and making Valentine's cards, I felt the draw of bright pink gouache paint for this week's planner page.  

I love Valentine's Day, making Valentine's cards and hearts in all shades of pink and purple!

Finding the theme, medium or idea that's inspiring to you is the first step.  The next step is to give yourself time and permission to play with that idea or material.  A weekly planner page is a great, low-pressure place to play.

Happy Creating!

Phipps Collage Sketchbook: Final Watercolor Painting

This grand old palm tree elegantly stretches her fronds high & greets you when you first arrive to the central greenhouse of Phipps Conservatory in Pittsburgh.  Seeing her in January made me feel welcome, as if I'd stepped off a jet in Florida.

I painted the old palm tree in my collage sketchbook on a blank page (no background acrylic paint on this one).

I started with a light pencil sketch, then painted the first washes of color.  I practiced making the frond-y texture of the palm leaves with a fan brush on scrap paper before adding them to my painting.

The dark shadows under the palm tree make her lofty tips seem brighter, and set off the pink orchid blooms surrounding her. 

I kept layering in lights and darks until it felt right.  

Colors I used:

Hooker's green for the palm foliage.

Hooker's green plus yellow ochre for the yellowy fronds.

Burnt sienna and yellow ochre for the brick steps and retaining wall.

Permanent rose for the pink orchids.

Hooker's green and permanent blue violet for the dark shadows in and on the palm tree.

Sap green plus Winsor lemon for the touches of yellow-green.


If you're feeling winter's chill and can't escape to a greenhouse, I hope you'll make your own drawing or painting from my reference photo!

Happy Creating! 

Creating in my Collage Sketch Book

You may have seen my earlier posts on creating a painted paper collage sketchbook

here and here.

In this post, I'm sharing a few photos of the process and including the reference photos I took at Phipps Conservatory.

If you're inspired, I hope you'll make drawings and paintings from my reference pics!

I've always loved this little statue, and especially delighted in the sash of dried flowers she's now decorated with.  I started with a pencil drawing on a blank page.

I added in watercolor greens to the background, with yellow-green first.  When the first wash of green dried, I mixed a dark green with phthalo blue and burnt sienna.  I added a touch of permanent blue violet to make extra dark shadows.

It was fun to make shadowy leaves and then to use the shadows to "carve" lighter green leaves (bottom right area).

With the background done, I mixed a pale violet for the shadows on the statue.  

I wanted to show that she was made of stone, so I kept the colors cool and desaturated by mixing permanent blue violet with a touch of yellow ochre.  The yellow muted the purple's brightness.

I splashed in Azo yellow, permanent rose and permanent blue violet to the sash for the dried flowers.  I added a few touches of the warm Azo yellow to the background to unify the page.

I drew these orchids in with Posca paint markers.

Here is some gorgeous foliage with striking patterns.  I used a Stabilo All pencil for the dark markings on the leaves.

Here's a yellow orchid I drew with Neocolor II watercolor crayons and the Stabilo All pencil

The bold magenta color of these begonias caught my eye.  It was fun to mix the Posca marker colors to try to recreate that shade of pink. I love how the green from the painted paper page shows through in spots & contrasts with the pink.

I love the gnarly trunk and twisted limbs of this bonsai tree.  But there was very little contrast between the tree and the background.

I used the filters function on my phone's photo editor and turned the color photo black and white, then turned up the contrast.

I used both photos as references for this drawing.

Adding in the trunk first with Neocolor II watercolor crayons, I created foliage with Posca paint markers.

I found that having these painted papers made the process of drawing so much less "scary."  I realized that fear of the blank page is a real force holding me back from creating. 

Splashing paint on paper in a messy, no-pressure way is fun in itself, AND it helps me to jump into drawing faster.  Win-win!

I hope you give this technique a try!

Happy Creating!