Figure Drawing at Breakfast

Sometimes in the morning news, a photo will catch my eye, like that of professional basketball player, Alysha Clark, above.  All I need is a pencil and my sketchbook as I sip tea and draw. It's a wonderful way to practice.

You can also find figure drawing reference photos online on several sites like Line-of-Action.com   

I like to think of drawing as being like a sport -- the more you do it, the better you become.  And, you have to stay in practice or you lose your conditioning.

Even drawing your own hand is good practice.

Happy Creating!

Draw Your Breakfast Challenge

 

In my Beginner's Pencil Drawing Class at CCBC, I assigned homework to keep us all drawing during the week.  This week, we have drawn our breakfasts.

Because I don't like to wait to eat until I've finished drawing my breakfast, I snapped photos each morning, and drew from the reference photos.

This project made picking out breakfast more fun!  The bagel was my favorite breakfast to draw, but these cherries were fun, too!

And the iron skillet full of sausage and eggs is a classic.

What do you like to eat every morning?  Try drawing it at the breakfast table.  

You'll be surprised how good it feels to start your day with drawing.  

Most breakfast foods are mushy (oatmeal), blobby (scrambled eggs) or formed into simple shapes like berries, fruits, eggs and sausages.  It's a great way to be creative and feel accomplished before you leave the breakfast table.  And much better for your digestion than doom scrolling!

Happy Creating!

Pencil Drawing: Sumo Orange Sketch

I often find that the simplest of things can make a wonderful subject for drawing.  

We've been enjoying these sweet, juicy Sumo oranges this winter. One morning at the breakfast table, I sketched this trio with a 4B pencil in my sketchbook.

What are you eating for breakfast these days?  Would it be fun to sketch?  What items around you catch your eye and call out to be sketched?

I hope you'll have a play with making simple sketches.  It will build your drawing skills & help you observe the world around you better.  I find that drawing relaxes me, slowing life down a bit and helping me be in the moment. 

Happy creating!

Pencil Drawing Class at CCBC

 

I'm currently teaching a beginner's course in Pencil Drawing at the Community College of Beaver County.

I asked my students to bring in a small object to our first class to draw -- first from memory and then from observation.  I invite you to try this activity, and notice which approach is easier-- drawing what you remember or drawing what you see?  Which technique creates a more accurate drawing?

Leave me a comment below with what you discovered!

The class meets once a week.  In order to keep developing our skills, we draw every day.  This week's prompt is to draw your breakfast. 

I must admit to missing some days, but these flapjacks and blueberries were so beautiful, I had to sketch them.

Having a plan to draw every morning helps to make it happen.

If you're interested in learning more about pencil drawing, please join us for the next course -- Pencil Drawing: Colors and Shading.  The class begins on November 6th, and runs 4 weeks.

Find out more & register here:

https://ccbc.coursestorm.com/category/arts

Copyright 2023 Betsy Bangley, Betsy's Bliss Art Blog.

A Watercolor Sketch A Day Brings ... Delight!

I've been painting in my sketch book at the kitchen counter at breakfast, and looking out the window to the trees outside.  I begin by finding one area that fascinates me. Here, it was that deep shadowy bit in the bottom left area of the trees. I paint directly on the paper without a pencil sketch and expand my painting out from there.  

Simply practicing, exploring, playing in my sketchbook brings ...

New discoveries
A low-impact way to learn how to put on paper what I see
Better brush skills
Joy
A meditation on nature, color & stillness
Artwork to prop in my studio to remind me I'm an artist.

What would painting or drawing at the breakfast table bring for you?
What little moments of down time in your life can you fit artistic explorations and peace into?

Art for Self Care: Watercolors for Breakfast

I had planned this morning to have an art adventure before work took me away from the beauty of spring dawning in nature.  I grabbed my backpack & my morning tea, sat outside, and quickly spotted a scene I wanted to sketch.  

Approaching the grand landscape with a 3" x 5" postcard is a wonderful way to simplify, reduce expectations, and allow yourself to play.  And playing with watercolors is one of my favorite self-care practices.

My kitty Boo joined me at my picnic table in the sunshine.

Wishing you a happy spring full of artful self-care and connection with nature!

A Simple Winter Watercolor Landscape

I'm currently reading Cathy Johnson's book First Steps: Watercolor Painting (North Light Books, 1995).  She shares her step-by-step approach for beginners to simplifying a landscape.  I tend to get lost in details, wanting to include every knobby tree trunk and bowing weed stalk in a scene.  I am happiest when I can fall into the tiniest features of some bit of nature -- an acorn or autumn leaf, for instance.  

But with an entire landscape, I am learning to see & paint the larger forms first.  What a relief not to expect myself to trace every bramble and bough in the landscape, but just to capture the spirit of the moment.

Saturday morning, I sat down with my paints at the kitchen counter and looked out the sliding glass door to the image above.  The morning mists made the distant trees look hazy, and I focused mainly on Grandmother Sugar Maple -- the bushy looking tree on the left.  

In years past, Grandmother Sugar Maple has provided us with gallons of sap to boil down into delicious, golden maple syrup. I have a special reverence for her, which deepened my painting experience.

Each painting is a learning opportunity. A chance to connect with nature.  A chance to slow down. A chance to express ourselves.  

I hope you will keep painting -- it leads to delightful discoveries!

Reconnecting at Breakfast

This morning I woke up and this is what I saw out my kitchen window:



As I ate oatmeal and drank hot tea, I picked up a few Micron pens and my colored pencil set to sketch.




The holidays can take us away from our routines, and finding just a few minutes for a sketch reconnects us to nature, to what is deeply meaningful, calming and real.  As your pen travels down the contours of an elegantly twisted Black Cherry tree, you connect with the tree's essence and native beauty, and you are reminded that you, too are part of Creation.  This feeling of community with nature heals me, settles me, and lights that spark of joy in my heart that I am a living being on this amazing planet.

May you find a moment to reconnect through art today.

Catching Up!

Here's a collection of journal pages I haven't shared.

28 May 2019 -- Chubby napping on the porch. We've been inundated by the periodical cicadas this summer.  17-year cicadas sound louder today -- a steady droning presence in the woods.

29 May 2019, 6:30 pm -- Trader Joe's Parking Lot after work. "Pouring rain, crashing thunder, people running to & from their cars or walking with hunched shoulders under umbrellas.  The 2nd day of heavy rain in a row.  I forgot my umbrella, but I don't mind an enforced break to sketch inside my dry car.  Traffic is heavy right now anyway."

9 pm At home, after the rain, fog forms in the valleys.

Portraits of fellow commuters on the bus.

31 May 2019 Back at home at the end of the day watching Chubby in the evening light.

4 June 2019 Breakfasting on a kale and pepper omelet.

10 June 2019

Drawing of a Barn Swallow from my friend Brad's photo.