A challenge for challenging times.

   I hope in these challenging time you are finding some peace of mind in creativity. My studio has certainly been my sanctuary in the last month and I'm so grateful for it. 

   I've been playing with a lot of different things and exploring a few new ones. Although I had lots of things to do and play with I decided to give myself a challenge for the month of April. I am doing a sketch/drawing each day and posting on Instagram. Drawing is something that I have been wanting to do more of so I thought this was a good opportunity. 

Day 3 Flutter

Day 4 Nest

Day 5 Lush

Day 6 Breeze

Day 10 Fledgling.

   If you'd like to see more or to join in use #sketchapril2020 on Instagram.

   What creativeness have you been doing to keep you going?

Wendy

Still challenging myself

   I haven't kept you posted here about my monthly challenges but I have been continuing to do them most months with the exception of a little break in October. A few months things got busy so I didn't get the challenge done every day of the month but I kept going and did what I could. 
   In November my challenge was to draw or doodle every day. This was a fun a easy one to do. I made a small book to work in so even though I was away for a few weeks I could bring it along to work in. 
   I'd like to get better at drawing so I thought doing it everyday would be a good idea. I probably didn't draw as much as I doodled so I might have to do another month of drawing next year. 
   Here are a few of my drawings and doodles:

Day 4 Whimsy

Day 6 Layers

Day 7 Remembrance

Day 11 Chinese wine glass

Day 18 Museum of Anthropology UBC

Day 10 Whimsy with dangles

If you'd like to see more you can go the facebook group page Dragonfly Dreamers Monthly Challenges. 

For the month of December the challenge is more of a theme. I'm going to try to do something seasonally creative each day. This is leaving it pretty open ended so I hope you can join me in this challenge. You can share your seasonal creativity here or on the facebook group.

Happy Creating!

Wendy

September Challenge- Lettering

I'm kind of surprised that I'm starting a third month of challenges. It was not my intention when I started, to do more than a month of collages but it seems to have taken on a life of it's own. Each month I get to a point where I struggle to finish the challenge but then at some point I get an idea for the next months challenge and it motivates me to finish so I can start the next one. It's funny how things take on a life of their own and yet feels so right.

Day 1

So this months challenge is Lettering. It's going to be a busy month for me with 2 shows coming up and some fall workshop planning to do, so I wanted something that I thought would be easy to do. I've been reading Joanne Sharpe's book The Art of Whimsical Lettering and I guess it inspired me for this month. It doesn't have to be fancy or a finished product, it's just about playing around with letters and maybe making your own font or 2. 

Day 2

I'm going to be working in a small book I've made that's about 8 1/2" by 5 1/2" but you can work on or in whatever you like. I've chosen a 110 lb cover stock because I wanted something that can take a little ink, paint and/or water to do some backgrounds. 
As you can see from my first 2 days, I plan to have some simple days of just doing different letter styles and when I have time possibly a more finished product like day 1. Well it was the first page so I had to do something special on it!

If you'd like to join in and share your lettering, I will be posting again on the Dragonfly Dreamers Monthly Challenge group and would love to see your work too. 

Keep Creating!
Wendy

End of the Tag A Day challenge

I'm at the end of another monthly challenge. I realized I've learned a few things from these challenges that I thought I'd share with you.  

Day 27- Perspective

Firstly, there is a reason they are called challenges and each month there has been a point where it really was a challenge although not always in the same way. Usually there comes a point in the month where I struggle to keep going. Wondering where all the ideas have gone and why did I think I could do a whole month of these!

Day 28- Art is...

And then at some point during the month I realized I'd gone a little off track from my original idea. With this months tags I did keep with the tag and stencil idea part but I also had some other things that I thought the tags would be that didn't entirely happen. I had hoped to use a larger variety of products on the tags so they could be reference samples in the future and this did happen on some of them, and it did give me an idea for a project more devoted for that purpose. 

Day 29- Calm

I also had planned for the tags to be inspirations creations that I could enjoy in the future which for the most part I think that happened. 

Day 30 Abundance

I learned that working on one tag(or project for that matter) at a time doesn't work for me. So it wasn't really one tag a day but I did get a tag done for each day of the month. And most days there was some time spent on tags. It is always good when I become more away of how I work best creatively.

Day 31- Past/Present/Future

And last but not  least, I learned that challenging myself is a good thing. I found each challenge made me focus more on the theme of the month and as a result I learned more about it.

Now with August's challenge done It's time to work on September. It's going to be a busy month for me so I think I'll make this next one a little easier. I'll share it will you very soon.

Happy Creating!

Wendy

New Challenge for August.

July's collage challenge taught me a few things, both about collage and about myself. I learned that is was great to concentrate on one thing for a whole month. It was a great way to learn more about collage art, something I hadn't done much of before. I learned that I have a hard time sticking to one thing for that long but that it is probably a very good thing for me to do more often. I also learned that it was great to share it on social media. It was a great way to get feedback and support to keep going. It was also inspiring to see the art of others that joined me in the challenge.

Day 1- BE

So for all those reasons and more I'm going to try it again this month. I think I'm going to make it a little bit easier this time though. Collage was something pretty new to me which made it more of a challenge. So I've chosen something that I've worked with quite a bit more and something I love to use in my creations. And that is STENCILS. 

Day 2- True/False

Stencils are such a big thing right now and I can't seem to get enough of them. Often I'm asked what can you do with stencils and I think the possibilities are endless. Once the idea came into my mind I couldn't stop thinking of different ways to try them.

Day 3- Life

I've decided to do the challenge on tags. The ones I'm using are a #8  6 1/4" x 3 1/8". This is a nice size to work with but I may go to a larger size once in a while if this becomes too restricting. My idea with these is to make them into a small sample library of stenciling ideas. I will make them into finished pieces but not too complicated for the most part. 

Day 4- YOU CAN

Day 5- Reality in Imagination

If you'd like to join me I'll be calling it the August Tag a Day Stencil challenge. You can post your creations on the face book group Dragonfly Dreamers Monthly Challenges. Please don't feel like you have to do the same as me to join in. If you want to use something other than tags go ahead, feel free. If you just want to do one once in a while, not every day that's fine too. It's just fun to join in how ever it works best for you.

Happy Creating!
Wendy