sketchbook

Finding my groove.

| Eileen McKenna {my creative resolution}

I’ve been all over the place this week, creatively speaking. With extra time on my hands, I participated in an online hand-lettering workshop, I painted with acrylics (for the first time in months), I created St. Patrick’s Day art, and I painted in my sketchbook. Even with all of these different projects, I’m realizing what I love and what my focus should be.

Not that long ago, I worried that my creative journey didn’t have a clear path. That I was headed in too many different directions. Back in January I wrote a post, “But where am I going?” As I mentioned in that post, I found the book, “Making Art A Practice: How To Be The Artist You Are,” very helpful. The Author, Cat Bennett, suggests that you analyze your work and look for connections in theme and style.

I’ve been looking through my work and I’ve noticed what current projects make me happiest. It’s funny because I started scratching away with the ink pen (on watercolor) on a whim, but each time I do it I love it. I feel like I’ve found my style. I won’t stop exploring other things – lino, lettering, patterns, etc., but I now have a focus.

Here’s a collection of new and old illustrations that feels like “me.”

Color!

| Eileen McKenna {my creative resolution}

burpeecatalog
It may be shades of white and brown in my garden but inside there is color! The Burpee (seed, plant, and flower) catalog arrived. I couldn’t be happier using every color in my palette to play in my sketchbook. There is something very freeing, for me, when I work in my sketchbook. The pressure is off! And my new sketchbook is a heavier weight paper, so it’s better for painting with watercolor.

I’m especially proud of my Zinnia. 🙂

IMG_5648

Valentine’s Day Mantle

| Eileen McKenna {my creative resolution}

valentinesdaymantle
I’ve been having fun the last couple of weeks creating art with Valentine’s Day in mind. I challenged myself to post my creations on Instagram for 14 days in a row. If you’ve been following, let me know which one you liked the best.

It’s been great, working within the same theme – coming up with different ideas and using different mediums. I’ve used watercolor, watercolor and ink, scanned doodles from my sketchbook and painted them in Photoshop, created a pattern, and a linocut. One more to go! Hmmmm.

My daughter’s art teacher gives them one word and they can execute it anyway they’d like. I love seeing her creations. It must be fun to be in the class and see how other people interpret the word. Their words have included – bounce, sticky, and bump. For “bump” my daughter drew a pregnant woman (focus on the bump) with a crib in the background. I thought it was very creative. Maybe I can sneak into the class!

I’m planning on another themed Instagram challenge – March 1 – 17th. The theme is St. Patrick’s Day (of course). Join me in the fun by including #mcrstpatricksday in your Instagram post. Join me for a day or all 17. It will be fun!

Have a happy Valentine’s Day!

Striking while the iron is hot.

| Eileen McKenna {my creative resolution}

cupid-1
It is an amazing feeling when you are “into” a project and the creative ideas are flowing and you’re excited and inspired and motivated. I’m always better off “striking while the iron is hot” and working on a project when the inspiration first hits me. If I wait, sometimes the spark is gone. The enthusiasm dies down and it’s hard to motivate myself to work on the project.

When I’m in the “creative mode” I can move from one project to another and get things done, while new ideas are popping up, and it’s great! I’m on fire! Other times, I spend days thinking, “I should sit down and paint something.” For some reason, it is hard to sit down and do it, and gets harder as the days go by. Once I do sit down, and start, it all seems to come flowing back.

I also feel this way about blogging. I’ll be on a roll with ideas and posting, and then a couple of days go by and I start to question myself – “What should I post? I can’t post that!” I get kind of shy and start thinking, “Maybe I shouldn’t share that mistake.” Sometimes I have to remind myself that I’ve made a commitment (to myself) to be honest about my successes and failures. The best medicine, again, is to sit down and share and get the ball rolling again.

Cupid was a Sharpie doodle in my sketchbook that I scanned and painted in Photoshop. Follow me on Instagram to see my other Valentine’s Day inspired posts!

A day on the couch feels good.

| Eileen McKenna {my creative resolution}

onthecouch
I was a little under the weather today and spent the day on the couch. I’m usually running around – between the kids, errands, and work. It’s not often that I just sit. Today I put my feet up, flipped through magazines and catalogs, found inspiration, drew in my sketchbook, and watched TV. It was great! Today recharged my battery. Just in time for the weekend. 🙂

6 months of my creative resolution!

| Eileen McKenna {my creative resolution}

watercolors
…and still going strong. In the past 6 months I have accomplished 52 watercolor paintings, 8 acrylics on canvas and 64 sketches! It is amazing to me what writing a goal down can do.

When I first typed the words, “I hope to draw, paint and create my way through 2014!” – I didn’t know what I would spend my time doing. Would I be decorating the house? drawing? painting? refinishing furniture? Imagine my surprise when the first months were filled with acrylic painting – one of the things I have the least experience in! I even pulled unfinished canvases – years old – off a shelf and finished them, like this carrot.

Carrot
Carrot

And one day I decided to add watercolor to my sketchbook and suddenly I was falling back in love with watercolor! I wanted to do more and more things. Each project led to ideas for 10 more! I felt joy and fulfillment.

I certainly had moments when I wavered. The unexpected connection and support from fellow bloggers pushed me on as well as the encouragement from my family who kept saying, “Don’t stop.” Six months in and I’m not stopping. I’m still not sure of my direction, but I’m “finding” myself as an artist and learning a lot along the way.

Thank you for joining me on my journey! 🙂

TV Sketching

| Eileen McKenna {my creative resolution}

tvsketch2
Can you guess what show I had on when I sketched this? lol. Last night I plopped on the couch with my sketchbook and starting flicking around. When I found something or someone I wanted to sketch, I paused the TV. (Don’t you love that you can pause live TV?) I sketched for as long as I needed/wanted. The sketch above was the last one of the night and I think best. Here are the other sketches:
tvsketch