Mid-June

I have to say that considering how horrible the weather was this past week, and how miserable I have felt with allergy season in full swing, I didn't realize how productive I was until I started compiling the images for this week's summary :) This is most definitely a lesson in keeping up momentum, even when you feel like being a bump on a log.

My lettering practice continues on a semi-regular basis and I thought
I'd try branching out a bit with these to add design elements with a little layout practice :)

I've always wanted to paint feathers and this font was so much fun to do - it's my new favourite :)

Aside from lettering practice, I chose to spend the morning at one of our many parks to get out of my usual space and do some painting and sketching while enjoying the outdoors. It was so much more fun that I expected it to be. The park was pretty quiet that time of day, though I did get to meet the most adorable puppy :) My intention was to get out some inspirations that had been itching in my brain. I wanted to do some light painting and work on some line drawing work to help with future designs and patterns. I also really wanted to sketch out some of the waterfowl.

This was a fun exercise in creating a pattern. I laid down some watercolour paint blobs first
and when that was dry I drew over them with a micron pen.
Then for extra fun, I added splatter and drop marks in watercolour.

Some line work with lilies, ivy, milkweed and ground cover.

Ducks are so much harder to sketch than
 I thought, they keep moving!!

Rose flowers from a bush near home that
I had taken a picture of. I really like the
way these turned out :)

And of course, this weekend was Father's Day and I thought I'd surprise my husband with a card made by yours truly. To keep it manly enough I thought I'd go with more feathers for the wreath. I hand lettered the text and even did a little lettering on the inside to let him know what a wonderful dad I think he is to our two girls. I think he really liked it :)

I've also been working on my digital design skills with Photoshop and Illustrator by following along on tutorials with DesignCuts.com. The site is cool because they give you the elements you need to follow along with the design and you learn for free. I haven't saved my two posters as pics yet but I will show you my progress on that next week.

That's it for last week. Next time I hope to have a few more wreaths to show you for teacher gifts for my girls, they have 2 teachers each - that's a lot of wreaths!!

Until next time :)

Mandy

If you're interested in commissioning me click the Contact Me button up at the top to send an email, I'd be happy to answer any questions!