Mark Making Practice in Beginner's Pencil Drawing Class

A good book can inspire us to get sketching.  These pages were inspired by Pencil Drawing by Arthur Guptill (more on this book here).  I followed the book's mark making exercise as a warm-up, and felt inspired especially by the marks with varying pressure (top right of the page above).

It can help to reduce the fear of the blank page to start off with mark making, and copying another artist's work is even easier.  Even though in school we've been trained not to copy someone else, copying in art (as long as you give credit to your source) is an important part of learning.

Find an artist you admire and make a copy of their drawing, their marks, even a portion of an artwork.  This process will build your drawing skills and help you to see new ways to solve conundrums in turning a three-dimensional world into a two-dimensional drawing.

 Happy Creating!

Pencil Drawing: A Voice from the Past

A dear friend was cleaning out his studio and gave me this book.  I've been admiring the illustrations -- all done in graphite pencil.

Sometimes, it's simply fun to "picture walk" through a book (as my eldest called it in their childhood), absorbing inspiration from the images.

As artists, we learn from copying other artists.  

These simple exercises in mark making and value studies keep our hand limber, help us expand our skills and explore new types of marks we can use in our drawings.

I hope you copy some of these pages and then add your own twist.

Wishing you sparkling inspiration and happy creating!

The Importance of Playing with Your Supplies

Don't you love discovering new artist authors and delving into their work?

Jill Bays is my recent discovery.  I admire her bold, confident lines. In this drawing workbook, she leads you through ten basic lessons to improve your sketching skills.  Since drawing is the foundation of painting and other art forms, it's a valuable pursuit!

Here are some of my sketchbook pages from the first chapters.

I really enjoyed the process of simply testing out various drawing supplies to discern their properties and answer questions like:

What medium gives me the darkest values?

Can I smudge this material to make softer textures?

Can I erase out parts of a scene, using the eraser to "draw" images?

When you explore materials and experiment, there's no pressure to make "good art."  You're just playing with your supplies.

And having an experienced artist lead you through activities to build your skills takes away the common fear of the blank page.

Your world is full of objects to draw and explore.  What would you like to sketch or experiment with?

Happy Creating!

Mark Making and Art Journaling in Wanderlust 2024

I enrolled in Everything Art's Wanderlust 2024 last November and have been enjoying the weekly art inspiration and instructional videos.  A recent session with French artist Eugenie Billotte invited us to look for treasure in our homes to create with.  

Of course, treasure could mean a wide variety of things.  I gathered words and pages clipped from vintage book pages, an old photo, and interesting papers like the textured brown paper packaging above.

  Eugenie walked us through upcycling and mark-making activities that I found freeing, relaxing, and calming.

After creating a small stack of decorated papers, we began working in our art journals.

Here's my finished page spread with a B&W photo I took one spring decades ago of blooming Bloodroot as the focal point of the page.  Nature is my treasure.  I love walking through the woods in the spring, watching birds at my feeder and listening to their songs.

I made a wheel with samples of the decorated pages I created in this lesson.

If you're interested in joining Wanderlust 2024, you can find information here:

https://www.everything-art.com/p/wanderlust-2024-artjournalingcourse

I played with the remaining words I had clipped from old books to make poetry.

And I took some of my leftover materials to create this little treasure about my excitement about an upcoming adventure.

I hope you take the time to play with art supplies, make an art journal page, or express yourself with words cut from magazines or books.  Making art just for yourself is a great form of Self Care!

Mark Making for Pencil Drawing Class

Today is the start of Beginner's Pencil Drawing Class at the Community College of Beaver County.  On the first day of class, we practice mark making.  It's a wonderful way to get familiar with your art supplies and to give yourself permission to play.

I began with an ink brush, creating on old book pages.  

Each different medium - ink brush, pen, pencil, etc. has its own magic for creating marks, and it's relaxing to discover what sorts of things each medium excels at.

Mark making is a great way to see your own style develop if you are new to art.  Even if you were to copy another artist's marks as closely as you could, you would be creating in your own hand. 

It's a good practice in fact to visit a museum and copy the marks or even the whole composition of a master artist.  You learn so much through the process.

So long as you don't claim the work as your own original idea, it's perfectly ethical.

I find mark making a relaxing project, good for when you don't have much time, or for when you've seen another artist's work and been inspired.  It can be a form of notetaking on the marks you saw that you liked.

Next time you are stuck waiting in your car, or have 10 minutes to fill, try grabbing a sketchbook (or even the back of an envelope!) and a pencil and making marks. It's a great way to keep your creative gears turning.

Playing with India Ink

A new bottle of India ink and a stack of watercolor paper invited an afternoon of playing with shapes, brush strokes and drawing implements.

Each tool creates a different mark, and by experimenting with a variety of different strokes and expressions, I made discoveries.

After my first round of paintings dried, I looked them over and noticed that I liked:  

• Bold, thick lines next to fine, scratchy marks, 
• Graffiti-ish strokes combined with dots, slashes & fine marks, and 
• Repeated slash marks done quickly & with energy.

I noticed that I didn't like marks that looked too carefully thought out or representational (trying to look like something in reality).

My favorite pieces were wild, messy & free.

I took my top picks and reduced them in size on a copying machine, then combined them with other elements, like this handmade paper from yucca plants.

I've always been a fan of bold contrasts next to earthy midtones.

What type of marks do you like to make?

I encourage you to experiment with whatever you have on hand -- a ballpoint pen, pencil or a bottle of ink and a brush.

Then take notes on what you liked making, and which artworks you like the most afterwards.

The more you experiment, the more you discover.  The more you know about what you like, the more satisfied you will be in your artmaking.

Happy Mark Making!

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

A Relaxing Evening with a Fistful of Micron Pens

Often in the evenings, I want to do something artistic, & relaxing.  I saw this idea online, and was inspired to fill several pages with pen & ink textures.  The power of working within a tiny grid block and having lots of rectangles to fill -- 35 per page in this instance -- is that there's no risk in trying some new pattern or design.  You fall into a playful mindset as you experiment with varying line widths, shapes, and mark-making approaches.

 

The Importance of Playing with Squiggles

One of my aims in teaching art is to liberate people to create.  So many of us feel that we must make something of meaning or value, something pretty or even Perfect.  Of course, we all know that there is no such thing as perfect in any human endeavor, and saddling ourselves with these expectations before we even pick up a paintbrush or pen can turn our hands to lead.

I recommend giving yourself over to the experience of discovery as you draw or paint. Look at your subject and find the parts that fascinate you, then dive in and play with ways to represent those things. Removing any expectation of the finished result opens you up to create freely.

Another great way to play with your creativity is to focus merely on mark making.  I was inspired by Amy Maricle, of Mindful Art Studio, to take up a brush pen, loaded with India ink, and paint swoops, swirls, and squiggles on heavy paper I had cut to various sizes.



I set up outside on a picnic table and just let the painting happen.  By keeping my paper small, and having stacks of these little "canvases," I could create, explore designs and marks, then set the work aside and start fresh on a blank page.  I found myself drawn to thick and thin wavy lines, like the curve around a woman's hip.

As I created, I experienced the bliss of the present moment, the brush slipping over the paper, a Song Sparrow warbling nearby. The designs evolved, becoming trees, grasses, simple curves, then tadpoles swimming in a pond. Occasionally, I would dip back into familiar shapes and symbols, often used, and I noticed that these were not fulfilling to me.  I sought a fresh experience, and the explorative marks were the ones that felt exciting and refreshing.

I finished the experiment by cutting scrap pieces of white mat board to post card size, and making tadpole post cards.

Tadpole post card.

At the end of the experience, I laid out my favorite paintings on a board, and placed them where I would see the artworks as I walked by.  The joy of the creative experience lingered for days, and every time I passed by my little paintings, I felt a thrill.  I created that!

I hope you will try this technique, too.

At the end of my experiment, I added a Micron pen to my tool kit. Perhaps my next mark-making project will begin with bubbles & ovals!