Step 27. Visit friends

On an Artist Date at the Met yesterday, I visited some of the pieces I've drawn in my current sketchbook.

Step 25. Like a kid

I felt silly buying a painting kit for myself, but I really wanted it when I spotted it in a gift shop. The kit was something I would've liked as a kid, and I indulged myself with the purchase. And, I figured this would be a good way to try painting, which I've been wanting to try lately.

First came the leaves. I missed the firmness of working with a pencil and I missed mixing colors right on the paper. I did like that I could paint a lighter color on top of a darker color once the dark paint was dry, though.

By the last leaf, I got the hang of the brush and paint.

Painting the blue flowers was the best part of the project. I need to find some blue morning glories in my neighborhood so I can sit by them and draw them in blue, glorious blue.

I should've stopped after the flowers, but the kit included gold leaf for the background.

Eh. This part was clumsy, though the photo picks up flaws that aren't as noticable in real life. I'm not crazy about how the project turned out, but I had a blast making it, and I re-lived childhood excitement of working with a new kit. I don't think I'll be in the market for another kit for awhile, but I will try painting something on my own now that I got a start.

Step 24. Dress it up

The knitted flowers at the Knit, Purl, Sow exhibit at the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens got me thinking. Instead of dressing up a gift with ribbons, I crocheted garlands of flowers and a couple of curlicues.

Inside the gift was the stitchery piece I made for my sister of one of my mom's favorite sayings.

Project complete.

Step 23. B is for Bee

Back in my little pocket sketchbook.

A friend's writing plus Sakai Hoitsu (again) inspired me to draw this little bee with flowers. 

Step 22. Ah-choo!

I'm stuck at home with a bad head cold. To keep myself occupied between sneezes and coughs, I used my Morning Pages notebook to do some sketching.

I drew a detail from another Sakai Hoitsu painting. The leaves in the painting are different shades of green, and it was fun to blend colors to match them. But, I am craving some real leaves to work from. 

Colored pencil in Eccolo World Traveler notebook.

Step 19. Find inspiration

My notebook sketches, inspired by artwork by Sakai Hoitsu, whose work I visited at the Met this week.

Step 18. Back it up

I added a dark background to the design based on the ancient Roman floor mosaic. The color blue was a nice treat to use. I usually draw plants and don't get use to use a blue like this very often. (The lighting in this photo makes the blue coverage look uneven, but it isn't.)  I've had trouble with white flowers on white paper in the past, and using a dark background color solves the problem. Plus, the repetitive and easy task of coloring in the background is calming and meditative.

I definitely want to do some more borders and scrolls. It's been great fun doing this one. 

Step 17. Break it down

Different people do things differently. Go figure.

When I have a project to do or a day to plan, I need to break it down into tiny steps. Other people don't do that - they jump right in and manage to do a bunch of things at once. That's great for them, but it's not how I work best. 

I know it's popular to multi-task and it seems like most people like to work that way, but that style feels like chaos to me. Focusing on one task is much more comfortable for me, and finishing one step motivates me want to keep on moving to the next. 

A border design of an ancient Roman mosaic I saw at the Met inspired me to draw it. I worked at it step-by-step this week, mostly in the early morning (thank you for helping me wake up early, Andy Traub).

Colored pencil on paper, inspired by Roman mosaic at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC.

I'm not finished yet. The next step I want to do is adding a dark background, which is a new thing for me. I half-expect that I'll ruin the drawing in the process, but that's okay. I'm more interested in trying to add background color than I am in saving this drawing. 

Step 13. Sketch

My Artist Date was back at the Met this week. I went to the Jewels by JAR exhibit. The guard said, "No photography allowed," but I didn't mind because I was there to sketch.

My expectations and interest in the show were low, to be honest, and I went only because I wanted to try something new for me at the Met. In the end, the show did disappoint me, but some pieces absolutely appealed to me.

And speaking of a peel, this piece was my favorite. 

The orange part of the peel is made of garnets. It sparkles like crazy and the colors are gorgeous. The white part of the peel, in between the orange strips, is enamel. The orange blossoms are diamond-encrusted. But it's not the gems that attracted me as much as the shape and color, and most especially, the attention to the beauty of an orange peel and blossoms.

The artist, JAR, has many pieces based on plants and flowers, and I loved every single one of them. I liked them because they were not simply generic "flower motifs," but looked like botanical studies in gemstone. Botanical studies are what I love best, no matter what the material used. 

I only wish there was some information about his attraction to the natural world and the inspiration it gives him. There was no information provided, and that is a big disservice to the audience, and frankly, super lame for a museum show. 

I wasn't interested in his pieces that were "regular" jewelry designs, and I didn't care for his animal pieces, but the plant-inspired pieces made for a sweet Artist Date.

Step 8. Bronx cheer from Brooklyn

Another sketch from the Tropical Pavilion at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. I was charmed by this plant, Pavonia Multiflora from Brazil.

I sketched it quickly in the garden and then colored it in a simple style when I got home.

When I researched the plant, I smiled at a description that the flower looks like it's sticking out its tongue. The author of The Artist Way, Julia Cameron, prepares the reader to expect some criticism from others as you work through the book. That happened to me this week, and this flower came in handy. I wouldn't stick out my tongue in response to negative remarks, but the flower on my page will.

Step 7. Stay a little longer

After my Artist Date yesterday and sketching the knitted flowers in the gallery, I wasn't ready to go home, and I had enough time to walk through the tropical plants room before I had to end the date. A couple of flowering plants in the conservatory caught my eye.

I wanted a couple of quick sketches to put in my Artist Date notebook, and that's all. As I was drawing a bloom, a woman stopped to ask what I was writing about.

"I'm not writing anything actually. I'm drawing this flower," I said to her.

"Oh," she said. "Drawing."

And then she said, "Why are you drawing? Is that plant interesting?" I wasn't sure how to answer her question.

"Well, I guess that's up to you to decide," I said.

She must not have found it as interesting as I did because she walked away and didn't linger. I would have liked to linger longer, but it was time for me to head back to the subway and make the long ride home, but not until I stopped at the gift shop and bought a couple of plants to take along with me.