February Sketch Challenge: OPPOSITES

Thank you so much  for your feedback on yesterday's post. I really appreciate all the support I got from everyone. I definitely don't intend to stop sharing. On the contrary. However, I do think a lot what to say and what to leave out from my blog posts. I wish I could share my creative process, my space, my tools, my new shopping adventures, my newest designs, a few tutorials and so on. But how can I open the door when I know wolves are out there, ready to grab whatever comes out? (That is another episode. Today we are talking about opposites.)

If you remember my post from last month, I have decided to join the Sketchbook Challenge this year and I am happy to let you know I managed to do the February theme too. The theme is OPPOSITES. I thought about it for a while. For me, opposites are black and white, man and woman.... but none of these themes called for a sketch until one day it came to me: LEFT AND RIGHT.  When it comes to drawing, one of my greatest challenges is symmetry. I know I am a little obsessed with perfectionism and I used to take 9 hours for the same still life my colleagues in art school drew in 2.  But that is something I like about myself and although I will not accomplish as much and as fast in this lifetime as others I know I am enjoying every moment of it.

So what about this butterfly? This is the very first time I actually sat down and took the time to draw a proper butterfly. I was always scared of drawing them because I had to make the wings symmetric. So one night when I was too tired to do anything else I took a butterfly stamp, glued it to my sketchbook and used it as guide to exercise my symmetric drawing.

The Sketchbook Challenge - "Highly Prized"

I don't know how many of you have noticed that from the beginning of the year my blogroll has a new link in the "Challenges" section.
It's the Sketchbook Challenge blog. They have started a 1-year challenge to make sketches and share the process and I decided to join them.

For this purpose I made a new sketchbook with small pages and paper that can support wet media.
Small because I can't work fast and I tend to be intimidated by large canvases. Wet media, because I love watercolor and will probably use it on most sketches.



The theme for January is HIGHLY PRIZED".

For me greatly prized is the paper I work with (breaks my heart to throw away the tiniest bit and would love to recycle it all). That is why you will more often than not receive my invitations in reused packaging and my favorite way of making cards is by using scraps. Even this little book is made from cardstock that was left over from some of my invitation cards.

If there is anyone out there making paper by hand I would gladly send you paper scraps (free shipping).

I haven't drawn a stack of paper for the sketch challenge though. I have drawn a symbol of where paper comes from. A simple leaf. One of my favorite things on earth.