Abstract watercolor paintings

When I'm tired of sketching and painting detailed botanicals or when I'm feeling stumped, I turn to abstract watercolor. It's a great way to loosen up and to get rid of limiting rules and expectations. I may use a sheet of watercolor or mixed media paper or paint away in my sketchbooks. Here's one from 2024:

I used the Gansai Tambi paints by Kuretake and the Strathmore Visual Journal for Mixed Media. I sealed this painting with Mod Podge gloss just to see how it's going to look like when finished. I totally loved it. 

By the way, I've curated my favorite mixed media sketchbooks for art journaling. 

Art Journal Spread: Faith Love Courage Joy

It's the beginning of another work week. I'm glad that my weekend went well and that I had enough time to rest and recover. I wasn't able to do any serious painting or art journaling, but I was finally able to declutter the mess behind my dining chair. (It's complicated.) I got to give my eldest daughter the chance to doodle and draw in my sketchbook and that made her giddy all over. My second daughter and I also had plenty of talks about her storyline sketches. My husband made this really awesome salmon soup for Sunday lunch. And we all got to attend the Sunday Mass. Yes, 'twas a lovely weekend, I can say.

 

Now, let me share with you this art journal spread that I made last week, while dealing with cold and flu-like symptoms. I wasn't in the mood to draw faces and somehow every time I tried to draw one, it came out really bad. Why bother with portraits when you can make nice loopy flowers that look like electric fans? I drew these flowers on an art journal spread with glued yellow tissue wrap for texture. (Click on the image to see more details.) I stamped some musical notes and old script before coloring the edges and select areas with Faber-Castell gelatos in pastel colors, Lyra water-soluble crayons, and Ranger distress inks.Then I added the tiny word stickers from CosmoCricket. 

I love how this artwork turned out. I spent days looking at the colors and getting some positive energy from them. Yes, this art journal spread is all about color healing and color therapy.  

Have you tried art journaling to help you recover from something?

Sketching in my A6 Monologue art journal

Since I resumed painting in acrylics and other media last November, my watercolor set has been quietly sleeping on the corner of my art desk. If you have followed my old blog and previous IG posts, you probably know that I was mostly into watercolor painting and sketching. When I relived my passion for art more than 2 years ago, the one medium that I chose to 'master' was the watercolor. For the simple reason that it's handy and easier to work with. (I'm a busy work-at-home mom, you see...) But late last year, I decided that perhaps I can already dabble into my dream of doing mixed-media artwork. My kids now know better not to play with Mama's acrylics and brushes, and they are now willing to give me 30 to 60 minutes of art time on a fine day. So I kept doing all these mixed-media paintings and art journal pages... Until I found myself at my art desk 4 days before Christmas, yearning to just sketch and wash. Yes, I've missed the good old stuff!

So I brought out my A6 Monologue sketchbook with gross-grained paper (a really good one for watercolor sketches), a pencil, and a drawing pen. I was stumped for a while and didn't know what to draw or paint. Then I saw my new tube of gesso and thought to use it as subject. It was midnight after all and there's just no way I could find a nice pot of flowers to sketch.  Might as well make do with whatever's there right in front of me. My husband bought the Reeves gesso for me earlier that day 'cause he knew I was badly running out of gesso. So sweet, right? 

 

To make this simple sketch, I just used the usual stuff in my watercolor kit: my Sakura Koi Pocket Field Sketchbox of 24 colors, an HB Faber-Castell Art GRIP pencil, a Zig Kuretake water brush with a large tip, and a black Faber-Castell Fine PITT Artist pen. I hope to make more watercolor sketches in the days and weeks to come. I find watercolor sketching very relaxing. It also helps me come up with quick studies for mixed-media paintings.

What have you been sketching lately?

04 January 2016: New art prints at my Society6 shop

Christmas break is over and my husband and kids are back to work and school. And here I am pecking on this keyboard to let you know that I finally found the time to upload new artworks over at my Society6 art page. I often experience a high every time I post an artwork there. But seeing 3 new artworks is something. I suppose this is pure joy. I just had to printscreen this panel of prints from my homepage, crop it, and post it here and there.

I'm currently working on a series of canvas art and art journal pages with different subjects this time. I do so enjoy drawing and painting girls, but I have to admit that I also get stumped along the way. Maybe I need to reconnect with the other important elements in my art-making process. 

Oh, by the way, these art prints are available for purchase in various sizes over at http://society6.com/connieluayon. Free worldwide shipping offers come out every now and again, so you might want to check on that in case you're interested. Thanks and have a great week ahead!

Learning How to Draw The 3/4 Profile

I am perpetually in awe of artists who can draw the human head from the 3/4 angle without so much effort. Drawing the 3/4 profile can be a bit of a challenge for me. And, as I've read through forums, many other artists deal with this dilemma too. Somehow it feels good to know that I'm not alone. Then again, I should never seek comfort in this knowledge every time. Getting out of my comfort zone and taking risks are necessary to further my growth as an artist. I may also suffer from embarrassment, I suppose. And that's totally fine by me.

Image copyright 2016: Connie Luayon

Anyway, while attempting to draw a new portrait one afternoon, my husband suggested that I draw one facing "the other way". I had to explain to him that drawing from the other 3/4 angle is a daunting task for me and this is why most of the faces I draw are facing my left. It's a lot easier that way. But then, at that moment, I decided to take his suggestion and drew a woman in a different 3/4 view. I started with the eyes and then the nose and lips and then the face outline, and so on and so forth. Was I happy with the result? Yes, surprisingly ... I was! 

The mixed-media painting that you see above was done in my A5 Artist's Loft sketchbook. I sketched the subject with the Inktense outliner. I used Koh-I-Noor Mondeluz watercolor pencils to color the skin and the clothes. I painted everything over with acrylics and lined the rest with Inktense pencils. The background elements and overlays are made with the help of clear stamps and rubber stamps and archival inks. 

For those who could use additional guide to drawing the head, I highly recommend Hogarth's Drawing the Human Head.

My First Brown Paper Bag Art Journal

A big hello to all of you! It's been a relatively busy Christmas break for me so I haven't had much time for artsy stuff. Well, I did a lot of background pages in my art journal two days ago. And, I worked on a portrait study yesterday afternoon (while my tween girl looked on and got some painting tips along the way). OKAY, maybe I've done much during the holidays after all. I was probably just exaggerating or lacking that sense of normalcy in terms of art-making. Sorry! Sorry! Sorry!

Anyway, I'm sharing with you this time my first ever hand-stitched brown paper bag art journal. Wait .... did I say BROWN PAPER BAG!?!?! Yes, you and I got it right. Brown paper shopping bags! I made an art journal out of brown paper bags from National Bookstore, a popular chain of bookshop and school supplies store here in the Philippines. I guess it's not surprising that I have lots of these bags. It's just hard to walk out of that store without any purchase. I mean, admittedly, I really am a heavy stationery/office/school/art supplies consumer. And so are my little girls. NBS is our favorite store and we make it a point to visit a branch every time we go to a mall. So, yes, I do get these brown paper bags every so often. I realize it's not enough that I just use them as mats when I paint; I thought it's time I glorify them with some upcycling movement.

 

Thanks to Cristina of CreativeMag.ro for the lovely idea. I made my own brown paper bag journal in less than a hour. Seriously. I cut up the brown paper into small sheets without following exact measurements but made sure that they would all end up in approximately similar sizes. I trimmed a few uneven edges before I stitched everything pamphlet-style. Then I secured the binding with wide washi tapes. I've gessoed a few pages in this journal for mixed-media artwork and have done a portrait study. I'll share with you my progress in the next few days ... or weeks! 

Blogging resumes in January 2016. Today is going to be a busy day 'cause we're all preparing for New Year's Eve. Happy New Year to all of you! May you always find the Beautiful and the Sacred in the Ordinary.

Sketching With A Charcoal Pencil

Sometimes the only thing I want to do at my art desk is sketch with a pencil. Most days I make do with watercolor pencils. I like to mix and match different colors for study. In some cases, a simple charcoal pencil would suffice. And when I do a charcoal sketch, I usually just leave it as it is. No other color to go with it. Just a plain sketch. This one, however, is an exception: It's a preliminary sketch for a short art journal series that used quotes from the Jane Eyre novel.

 

This drawing of a young girl was done in my A5 Artist's Loft sketchbook. The pages are all white; I just glued a blue tissue wrap on the page for texture and then drew on it. As you can see in the photo, I used a Derwent charcoal pencil to sketch. I prefer the Light pencil because it seems to have a softer and smoother glide than the Medium or the Dark. 

Do you like to sketch with a charcoal pencil?