My Instagram

Of all social media I like Instagram the most. I start most days scrolling through amazing images that people around the world captured and it always brings a smile to my face. It also enables me to have a glimpse of everyday life of people I love. And, I think it opens me to the beauty that surrounds me. I love looking back through my own photos. Like a sketchbook - every picture puts me right back into that moment and I get to relive it again :-) Here are some of my pictures:

-Autumn in my neighborhood-

-Captured feeling of total awe-

-Cool places I saw-

-Good food-

-Cozy moments-

-I can't believe I captured this!-

I am almost sure that before the day is out, I will have more memories in my instagram flow :-)

Are you instagramming?

How to make a quick sketch/collage combo (real-time video)

Did anyone try to do the 3 minute sketch? As I said, I doesn't have to be good... the looser the lines are, the more interesting the result. I think this is the longest video I posted (13 min). Probably because I did not speed it up. I wanted you to see how quick this is. (OK, I did speed it at the end, but only because I had to thread the needle and it took me forever and because looking at someone sew random patterns on paper really is not interesting.)

 Here is the YouTube link, in case your reader does not show the video (I use Feedly and sometimes I see videos, sometimes I don't).

I hope you'll like it!

2-3 minute sketches (2 videos)

Thank you for the lovely comments on my sketches/collage pieces. Randy Roelen van der Vlugt (can I say how much I love your name?) asked if I really did the sketches in 3 minutes. I didn't know the answer, because I didn't really measure the time. It just felt like 3 minutes. So I was curious to see how long it really is. 

You will see the first sketch in the following video:

- Better quality, bigger video when you click HERE -

Please keep in mind - these are really quick, rough sketches. Even I can do it somewhat better if I take my time.  I wish I had a picture of me drawing the second one - my camera and tripod were in front of me, the ipad on the left side (which means I was holding my hand in a completely unnatural position)... Doesn't matter. What I wanted to show is that in 2-3 minutes you can have a (probably better) sketch to play with. 

I will show you another example tomorrow - from the beginning sketch to finished collage.;

- Better quality, bigger video when you click HERE -

I am not sure how the videos will look, since I didn't upload them to YouTube first. They look horribly pixelated in my preview screen... If it turns out to be really bad, please let me know and I'll use Vimeo or something like that.

Collage and Sketching Mix

Sometimes simple things bring simple, good joy. I sketched several faces, spending maybe 3 minutes on each, then I layered them with paper that was on my table, making a simple collage. 

Crayons, color pencils and casein paint were a fun way to add random patches of color.

Then I just "had to" pull out my sewing machine, dust it off and add more red to my collages. That was the part I didn't have the energy to do yesterday, and they somehow seemed unfinished without it.

I'm so happy when I spend time creating something :-)
The only question now is - what to do with them?  My studio is exploding with stuff I made...

Paper snippets

I started a fun little project, but have no energy to finish it today...

Color Explorations - Yellow & Black

Did you know that when you mix black and yellow you get green? I didn't. It makes sense, when I think about it, but I never thought of it before I played with them in my pretty red moleskine. 

Of course depending on which black and which yellow you choose, the results are different. My plan with these color explorations is not to get into color theory. I am not mixing clean pigments, primary colors etc... I just took the black I have (mars black, Golden) and all the yellows I could find and combined them. Look at my palette! Love it!

Here is a page I painted in my journal. One yellow, one black, white and the biggest challenge of all - no stabillo pencil.

This is with different yellow, and it mostly is yellowish, but when you look at it there is a lot of green too.

This one is on wood. Quick, expressive, just seeing what can I get with a limited palette.

Here I used all yellows mixed with black and white in different proportions.

Although I liked it, I wanted to push it a bit more so later I added other colors. I filmed a video of it, so as soon as I get time to edit it, I'll show you what happened.

If you try this color combination, post a link in the comments so I can see :-)

On a book page