New aprons just listed....

JUST LISTED....a fun new batch of embellished, vintage aprons have just been added to my online shop.  If you've been following my blog, you may remember my recipe box project a few posts down.  These darling aprons would be a fun gift to go along with the recipe boxes, especially for a bridal shower or wedding gift...a graduation gift....or someone who just purchased a new house.  If you're the artsy type, these would be fun art aprons to wear while painting.  You can find them HERE.  

Floral Journaling Pages....from Jeanne Oliver class

Gosh, just when I got back to posting regularly on my blog, I have Blogger issues.  I'm back and today I'm excited to share some current artwork with you.  I'm taking the latest Jeanne Oliver class called Reflections: Paint Your Story and it's a good one.  You can find Jeanne's site here...amazing classes by her and other artists. 

This was my work in progress yesterday.  There's something about a beautiful mess of art supplies, don't you think? This journaling entry was all about trying to create pages about me but it turned into a wonderful tribute to my mother.  

 The beautiful verse on this vintage postcard that belonged to my great great grandmother is a special wish for my mother. It sparked ideas for the rest of my spread and I ended up sketching and watercoloring more hand drawn flowers.

 Just loosely drawn flowers over the gesso covered surface.  Photocopies of the photos were used for ephemera.

 This is a copy of the back of the vintage postcard.  Miss Cora Beams was my great great grandmother.

 Jean emphasizes mark making in this journaling class. Here I used lines that imitate the gingham pattern on my mother's dress.  I filled in the loosely drawn squares with gesso.

 Here I used scrapbook paper and extend some hand drawn leaves.  That faint glimpse of the photo has three little girls in an old horse and buggy.  Some distant relatives and I love their little bonnets.

 More mark marking, a strip of scrapbook paper and some vintage fabric in the corner.

 The full, finished spread here.  Such a fun day of creating art.  This will be lovely to look at each time I reach for my artist journal.

Thanks for visiting today and I'll see ya soon.

So I got a Traveler's Notebook...

Last year I got me a leather Traveler's Notebook.  A fun leather cover with calendars and notebooks to tuck inside a fun binding system.

Along with my calendar, I had a handy sketchbook nearby at all times.  I made myself a small, tool wrap and kept it all nearby so I could sketch when the desire arose.

Quick sketches added with just a touch of watercolor.

Value sketches with simple pencil hatching. These country prairie scenes are some of my favorites.

Found objects from the garden and yard, a little fun lettering.  A new orange Lamy pen.

Blue ink sketch with non-waterproof ink.  Just add water to the outlines for instant shading.

Pen and ink sketch from a Pinterest photo.

Another fun way to add daily art to my life.  Remember, practice is art.

Today I'm setting up a still life of my first oil painting.  It's a new journey for me and I'm excited and intimidated at the same time.  And just like that I have my One Little Word for the year.....journey.

Watercolored bouquet...

I did this watercolor of a bouquet of flowers picked from my gardens around Memorial Day.  I always love to have fresh flowers sitting around and if they come from my gardens, that makes me even happier. 

I take lots of photos of my flowers, knowing that I they make great pieces of art to frame or stick in a clipboard.  I had the idea that I'd like to paint many of the photos too so I'm glad I snapped lots...especially when there is not a flower to be seen in my gardens right about now.

I sketched out my photo first in pencil.  I will always have a love of drawing.

Then I just filled in colors kind of like a coloring book.

I love doing color studies to match colors to my photos too.  I'm much better at doing that with watercolors than other paint mediums.

I'm now inspired to create a little stash of flower photos to practice my watercolors on.  

Thanks for the inspiring words on my art journey recap thus far. It's fun to visit all of my projects again.  

Morning coffee sketches..

One of the popular subjects for sketch artist Liz Steel is her teacups and coffees.  She does amazing sketches and even though she does a lot of them they never get old.  There's always something new to them.  So I tried my hand at it.  My sketches today were done way early in my watercoloring beginnings and I can see how how far I've come in nearly a year.  

 I have learned to look more closely when I draw and get better proportions.

 I have learned a ton about values and color although I do love this mug of coffee.

 Here I took some more time to sketch my subject in pencil.

 You see on the bottom left that much of that wonderful was lost when I added the watercolor.  My painting looks pretty flat.  I've since learned how to layer some colors and that if I can, I start my sketch with a waterproof pen.  It just saves time and that spontaneous drawing is the look I'm going for.

Two great additions to my sketchbook.  It's really fun looking back on this journey.  For those who haven't seen any of my journey on Instagram, should I catch up with all the back sketches.....or would it be fun to see some of my current work mixed in?  Just curious...

Sweet peach jam..

Maybe I got back into my art just so I could stare at the beautiful colors...

 It was a double page watercolor sketch of a packaged up jar of sweet peach jam.

 Practicing some hand lettering, sketching and watercolor all at the same time. 

 I think it would be so awesome to have the lettering talents to design posters and the like.

If you like this type of travel watercolor palette, they are a fun investment.  You purchase the palette, the little plastic pans and tubes of watercolors.  I purchase most of my supplies at Blick Art Supply online.

My first daffodils..

Last year I grew my first daffodils, such a beautiful flower.  They were the first flowers to pop up in my flower beds and boy were they a welcome sight.  Right about now I get cabin fever and start dreaming of my flowers and gardens.  It's dreary and wet outside right now so I thought today we could use some sunshine in the form of bright yellow daffodils.  

 I love to photograph picked flowers because you never know when you might want to paint or draw them.

 About this time last year I was gathering up some art supplies.  I kept them in this old tool box which I've outgrown now.

 This was one of the very first entries in my moleskin journal. I wasn't quite sure to go about it so I just started.  Such a concept.  Just start. I had to tell myself that for years and whaddya know, it clicked for me last year.

 Those first sketches are scary and probably not my best. But I'm so glad I can look back on these first pages of my art.

 Any art is good practice.  Practice is art.  I have to keep remembering that.  Those first wobbly sketches were part of my journey and I've come a good, long way since then.

Happy Friday everyone!  Some have asked about my Instagram.  My username is Mish Wooderson if you want to look me up.

You can sketch anywhere and everywhere...and should.

Looking back on my 2015 art journey, one of my best discoveries is that you can sketch and make art anywhere and everywhere....and the more you do it the better.  

My brand new Moleskine watercolor journal, my shiny new Lamy Safari fountain pen and a few other art supplies. 

So anxious to try them out, I used a cardboard box to practice. 

It's art.  It was fun.  The more you just let go, the better your art becomes.  

 Take your sketchbook with you everywhere.  Fix up a little travel pouch, even if it's just to transport your art supplies from the kitchen table to the couch.  It's all good.

If you follow me on Instagram, you'll see that I use the hashtag #practiceisart.  Practice is art.  Every little mark you make and every paint stroke is art.  Maybe good, maybe bad but who cares.  Just start.  That's what I did.

The recipe project..

For Christmas, I gave my girls a recipe box filled with blank recipe cards.  The wood recipe boxes are from One Canoe Two.  

 I purchased sets of recipe cards from Rifle Paper Company.  Great quality here and I love the designs.

 I purchased recipe box dividers and more recipe cards from One Canoe Two. More whimsical designs and great quality. I was lucky enough to purchase the recipe boxes and all of the recipe cards at 50% off during the Cyber Monday sale after Thanksgiving.

 My goal is to actually keep the recipe boxes with me until my girls move out and start cooking on their own.  I'm making an ongoing list of recipes that I want to hand write on the recipe cards and add to the recipe boxes.  I'm starting first with family favorites.  Some recipes may end up actually photocopied or printed and added to a three ring notebook. I'm using my Get To Work Book to keep track of everything.

 Then one by one I'm hand writing out some recipes X 2.  Then I place a recipe into each box.

 One of my girls is a good cook and could actually survive on her on by cooking her own meals.  One of my girls would love for Mom to cook for her forever and would probably live on take out food.  Both are always willing to give me a hand in the kitchen though and along with their dad, we sometimes bake or cook up something special together.  They're both excellent dish washers, their dad, not so much.

My hopes is to keep the hand written recipe card a "thing".  It's so easy just to grab a recipe off of Pinterest and never print it out.  I want our tried and true family recipes to be kept alive and passed down for generations.  On each hand written card, I always write who the original recipe came from or where I first tried it.  I also add serving tips and tricks to the backs of the recipe cards.  Some day the girls will have a treasured gift.  They may not think much of it now or have much of a use for it, but I know one day they'll love this gift even more.

Note:  If you have a source for printed recipe cards (not printables), I'd love to hear from you. Please leave your comments at the end of this post.