Posca "Painted" Garden Rocks

Back in March, I found a bucket of perfectly smooth lake rocks gathering dust in the basement. They were clearly lurking around in hopes that creative inspiration would strike.

So, I grabbed a rock and a handful of Posca paint markers and did a little doodle - just to see if the markers would work on stone. They did, but I wasn't particularly enamoured with the doodle in question, so I tossed the rock into a garden bed and waited for nature to wash the (water-based) paint off.

And waited...

And waited...

While the rock weathered two ice storms and a snowstorm and many a torrential summer storm. And still that doodle would not budge...

So, I grabbed more markers and more stones and got to work, making colourful freeform mandala-esque rocks to hide in the garden.

For more vibrant opaque colours, I recommend going over larger sections with a second layer. A single coat can look a bit too streaky / transparent. With Poscas, as they are poster paint in marker form, you want to make sure to let the paint dry between coats and before adding details. Don't worry, it's fast - much faster than actually watching paint dry anyway!

So much fun, right?

They're a lovely little creative project for whiling away a fair weather day in the garden. Or, you know, for scratching the art itch while you binge watch something on Netflix.

I love them. They remind me of Easter eggs - a burst of brightness even on a grey day!

Have you tried any new creative projects lately? I'm always looking for something new to explore!

Summer Doodles

 

A handful of my favourite doodles from July. I'm a little behind! 

You can see all the doodles here.

I'm not going to lie... between packing and moving and book writing and traveling and life... I kinda failed my daily doodle challenge this summer.

On top of which, my phone took an icy dip and while it mostly works, the camera mostly doesn't. Clearly, without daily instagram posting to keep me in line, my motivation to doodle took a dive.

All of that to say... I had good intentions for a creative summer... but bad follow through.

But I'm gritting my teeth and arming myself with markers and paints and soldiering on... even if that loss in motivation also means a big dip in my love for the results.

I'll keep trying to get back into a routine (returning to blogging and business this week should hopefully help) and keep looking for a way to respark that doodle joy.

How did your creative pursuits fare over the summer? Did you make time to make? Or did you take time off to just enjoy those long summer days that are over too soon?

June Doodles

 

A handful of my favourite doodles from June. You can see all the doodles here or follow along daily on Instagram.

June was full of flowers - as it should be - and lots of watercolour fruit. Faces started looking like faces - hurray for practice! - and drawing on top of painted doodles was my favourite.

I'm now officially 6 months into this project - that was fast, wasn't it?! Not quite sure where this doodle adventure is headed, but so far I'm enjoying the trip.

May Doodles

Some of my favourites from May. You can see all of May's doodles here or follow along daily on Instagram.

May was full of flowers, faces and watercolour accents. Plus a bit of a foray into collage.

Mandalas were a go-to in May - a bit of prep for a big project I'll start working on this month.

Loved playing with watercolour... but literally waiting for paint to dry is not my forte. 

I added a bunch of new markers to my collection. And discovered that the more markers you have, the more markers you want!

Passed the 150 doodle mark last night - which was a fun milestone. 

Thoughts on May?

While the first two-thirds of the month was full of fun, I'm feeling a bit worn out by this project at the moment and let myself get behind which meant scrambling last night and this morning to finish up the final 4 pages - to mixed results. Not sure whether I'm not loving it because the results aren't meeting my expectations or whether the work is suffering because it feels like another obligation. I am committed to sharing the final pages on Instagram because it keeps me on track but keeping track of likes can be just as much of a downer as it is a boost - not many likes on a piece I love or a great response to a piece I'm not sure of both leave me full of self-doubt. But drawing for others was never supposed to be the point. I guess that's the difficulty of making a personal project a public one! Not quitting though -  I'm sure I'll fall back in love with it again... some spark will ignite and it'll be the best hour of my day again... but for the moment it's feeling a bit chore-y. 


I might set some guidelines for June - all patterns (my favourite) or drawing from actual reference (vs images in my head) to see if that makes the month feel more like a progression. I have a few more hours to figure it out!

How's your 2015 creative project coming along?

April Doodles

Some of my favourites from April. You can see all of April's doodles here or follow along daily on Instagram.

April means I'm a third of the way through this 365 project (it also means we're a third of the way through the year... eek!)

New sketchbook. New markers! Still looking for the perfect marker but enjoying the pursuit.

New mini challenge within the challenge... Faces! While I'd be quite happy drawing flowers every day, it's always good to do more of the things you don't love. In terms of drawing, that means people... or to be more specific, faces. Sunday nights are for face practice. I kind of hate it but it's good for me... or something!

I started stretching beyond just markers and began playing with cut up colouring books, a bit of collage, more washi tape and even a bit of stitching. Fun! A bit more time consuming than just drawing but full of potential.

While drawing day to day in April felt good, when I look back over the month's pages, it feels like I made less of a progression this month than in previous months. Maybe that's just because themes and styles and techniques are all over the place.

I wrote a bit about this project and my goals for it here. The desire for drawing to feel effortless, pushing past fear to share work that isn't perfect, avoiding pencils and overcoming the fear of the blank page.

Do you have a favourite marker for drawing or colouring? I'd love to hear about it in the comments!

March Doodles

Some of my favourite pages from March. You can see all March's doodles here or follow along over on Instagram.

Three months in (or 1/4 way through the year - eek!), here's how I'm feeling about this project:

March was ALL about flowers and green things and dream gardens. An inky substitute for Spring.

And faces. I'm trying to overcome a fear of drawing faces by drawing more faces. Makes sense, right?

Cute food is more fun to draw than regular food.

Full page colour and full page pattern are the best. Especially together.

Drawing daily is difficult. Friday and Saturday nights, actually sitting down and putting pen to paper feels laborious... so I usually don't. Weekends away, while I'll pack drawing supplies, actually sitting down and drawing feels like a chore, not fun. So, I usually don't... which leaves me scrambling come Sunday night to make up for lost days. BUT... I've decided that 365 drawings over the course of the year feels just as valuable as 365 days of drawing. I think that, in cases where adapting yourself to the rules isn't working, it's important to adapt the rules to match your capabilities.

1/4 of the way through the year, how are you feeling about your creative pursuits in 2015?

February Doodles

Some of my favourite doodles from February. You can see all the doodles from this month here and follow along day-by-day on Instagram.

Thoughts at the end of February:

Patterns are my favourite. Especially tropical ones.
A month-long theme (even a loose-goosey one like "Things I Love") feels suffocating
Posca markers are still the love of my doodle-life.
I'm enjoying adding in other materials like tape and paper.
I'm not enjoying my new sketchbook - a new new one is in the cards.

January Doodles

A handful of my favourite pages from January. You can see all of the doodles here and follow along all year long on Instagram.

Thoughts so far...

Full page colour makes me happy.
When in doubt, draw flowers.
Posca markers are my favourite.
A blank page on January 1st was frightening, now it's full of potential.
I'm still calling these doodles, even though they're really not.