Rainbow Art Journal – Stone Sprite

Another Sprite for the series contained within this Rainbow Art Journal. This one is a stone sprite. I imagined her body being constructed from piles of stones, like a cairn, just like the small one I drew balanced on her hand. I added in some craggy shapes, like split rock, to offset all of the curves, but I think I like all the rounded shapes better. What do you think? I have struggled to use Daniel Smith Lunar Black effectively to really make the most of its wonderful granulation. I am, therefore, especially chuffed with how that paint choice has worked out in this illustration. I really think that visual texture adds so much to this drawing.

Rainbow Art Journal – Wood Sprite

I have lots of ideas for Sprites in this neutral section of my Rainbow Art Journal so at least one more is likely to make an appearance. My first idea, however, was to draw a Wood Sprite so this character is the result.

I thoroughly enjoyed creating this illustration. All of the weird and wonky shapes and all of the tiny linework to create the bark was absolutely what I love most about drawing. This is the type of drawing that really relaxes me. As I have mentioned before, one of the unexpected benefits of having worked on this mixed media project over a number of years is that I have really come to understand and appreciate what media, methodologies, and styles are really the core of “me” as an artist. I am pretty confident that I am going to abandon my mixed media dabblings to focus on ink and watercolour once I complete this particular Art Journal project.

Rainbow Art Journal – Candy Sprite

Since I instituted a tradition of creating a sprite figure in each colour section of my Rainbow Art Journal, I decided upon a candy sprite for the pink section. I was thinking of what I call candy floss and Americans know as cotton candy. I personally cannot abide the stuff – the texture on my teeth makes me spine crawl – but it was what popped into my head when I was thinking of pink things that could inspire the illustration. As you can see, open mouth smiles are still an area of challenge for me. This has turned out as a bit of a rictus grin. Teeth are tricky too. Something to keep working on.

Rainbow Art Journal – Storm Sprite

After a (too) long break from creating art, I am determined to use Summer break to recalibrate my life, get back into the habit of making regular time for art, rediscover my creative mojo in the process, and hopefully restore some much-needed balance to my life. My gears and joints have all seized up through lack of use so I thought a good way of dipping my toe back into regularly creating art without feeling intimidated would be to keep plodding along in my Rainbow Art Journal.

I cracked the pages of the journal open and the first completely empty page was in the purple section. Since I unintentionally started the tradition of having a Sprite figure in each colour section, I decided to create a purple sprite and I thought of stormy skies and lightning storms. That is, therefore, what this figure is supposed to represent. I was actually surprised by how easy I found it to put pen to paper and draw again but where I really observe the rustiness is in my ability to manage proportions – even in accordance with my own wonky style – and my aptitude with drawing hands. I have really experienced a setback with drawing hands. This is frustrating when I had been making good progress in that regard but, knowing I managed to develop the skill beforehand, I trust I will at least catch up to myself again with more regular practice.

Forest Creature

This is a quick illustration I created with the contents of this month’s Art Snacks box. I received a very chunky black alcohol marker which presented me with quite the challenge. I am definitely a fan of fine line pens and have accumulated quite a collection of them. I am not very adept at using anything with a broad tip – nor am I very capable with alcohol markers for that matter. My solution was to draw a chubby little character with the marker. I don’t know why I thought to give him branches or antlers sprouting from his head but that choice led me to leave negative forms on his belly in the shape of leaves. Now white gel pens are something I love. Every single one of my pencil cases contains at least one Uni-ball white gel pen. I perhaps went a little over the top with the white pen details but I do like the effect on the antlers in particular.

Rainbow Art Journal – Air Sprite

This next page in the blue section of my Rainbow Art Journal was actually created back in February. It was made with the contents of that month’s Art Snacks box. I received blue and green products so I decided to produce an illustration of an Air Sprite. The blue of her clothing is an acrylic ink and the colour of her hair was actually produced by diluting the pigment from a metallic green marker. That same marker has a nib that produces dots of varying sizes depending on the pressure placed on it. As you can see, I had a lot of fun creating those dots.

Rainbow Art Journal – Moss Sprite

For the first page in the fully green section of my Rainbow Art Journal (as opposed to the transition page) I wanted to work entirely in green (excepting a little black ink).  I, therefore, decided to draw one of my sprite figures.  I have a fondness for moss so decided my illustration would depict a moss sprite.  I also used it as an experiment in layering my green watercolour paints.  For the body I used a wet-in-wet technique and as such achieved lots of blossoms and pigment blooms where the different greens puddled and met each other.  For the hair, I allowed a layer to completely dry before I added the next layer of paint.

Rainbow Art Journal – Sunshine

As I have mentioned in previous blog posts, one of the ways in which I use  my Rainbow Art Journal is as a record of art supplies I own and the way they behave on the paper I use for art journaling (Canson Mixed Media).  This illustration, therefore, was created using the two shades of yellow in my set of Dr Ph Martin Hydrus watercolours – hansa yellow and gamboge.  My intention was to be much looser in my creation of a figure on the page but I guess I couldn’t suppress my control freakery enough so the illustration ended up pretty tight regardless.  She is one of those sprite type characters I have drawn before and I decided she could represent sunshine.  I added a circle in the background using a yellow watercolour pencil and then I filled the rest of the background with spatter.  It’s a very imperfect drawing but I had fun creating her and process is much more important to me than outcome when art journaling.

Elemental Sprites

Last week’s Art Journal Adventure prompt was “4” with an additional challenge to use three or more media in the creation of the page.  The obvious subject was the Four Elements and initially I resisted because it was so glaringly obvious.  However, having just depicted a Flame Sprite in my Rainbow Art Journal, I liked the idea of creating an image of other elemental sprites so I decided to go with my first thought and see what developed on the page.  I used micron pens, watercolour, and Inktense pencils in creating the illustration so I fulfilled the side challenge too.  Time and other life limitations meant this page was a much quicker and simpler illustration than the Flame Sprite and the figures are simplified as a result.  However, there is a germ of something in each of them that I might return to and nurture into a more detailed illustration at a later date.

Rainbow Art Journal – Flame Sprite

In addition to being a place for creative play and experimentation, I am aiming for my Rainbow Art Journal to be a record of what I can do with the various art materials and media I own.  This page, therefore, is a record of how three of the Jane Davenport Mermaid Markers interact with each other.  Consequently, I knew that I wanted to produce an illustration that was splotchy and liquidy and involved puddles and blossoms of pigment.  I decided that flame would be the perfect subject for such an experiment in the orange section of the journal so I chose to draw a flame sprite.  The page got very wrinkled from all the liquid media but I am happy with the final outcome.  I think she is a pleasing wee character and I got some lovely interactions between the different watercolour markers.