Doodle - How my life changed!

It has been a while... almost 6 months.

I am expecting a precious little addition to my family and I can't wait for the day that I can have my baby in my arms :)

In the sketchbook that I sent off a while ago to Brooklyn Library, I wanted to share my feelings and this new phase of life and this is how it turned out:

You can see more pages of sketchbook Here and Here. 

How to Cross-Hatch

Hatching is a technique to make shading effects or tonal values. It is done by drawing parallel lines. When lines cross one another, it is called cross-hatching. 

With adding more layers of lines, darker values can be created:

Hatching lines should always follow or wrap around the form of the object, especially when it comes to round shapes: 

Drawing / Sketching - Ball Point Pen

In my previous post on ball point drawing inspiration I mentioned that I had done a drawing myself and promised to share the results and here it is:

I wrote all the tips and steps that came to my mind during the process, around the tea pot to give it a nice background. Since they might not be easily readable on the above picture, I am writing them below with more explanations. If you like to know more about cross-hatching and How to cross-hatch, go to this post.

Step 1) pencil sketch: Just drew the object and mark the highlighted areas

Step 2) very light shading and marking with pencil to know where the dark and light areas will be.

Step 3) Grabbed a ball point pen for the rest of the process and traced around the object.

Drawing / Sketching with ball point

Have you ever tried drawing or painting with a ball point pen? The same pen that we use everyday at school, at home or in the office....If not take a look at these amazing drawings to get inspired and grab a pen:

"All Our Yesterday" By Andrea Joseph

"Fame is but a fruit tree" By Andrea Joseph

Drawing Hand using Ball Point Pen by

France Van Stone

Another Great Ball Point Pen Drawing By Lee

You can check out their blogs by clicking on their names below the pictures.

I got so inspired that did a drawing using ball point, I will show you my drawing in the next post, Just don't expect the same quality of work! 

Zentagle Doodle - Sketch book

It's time for two more pages of my sketchbook.

First few pages were full of colors and It was time for a change. This doodle started with a face; a half circle and curly hair. Then it went on and on...

"You are not Old, until you stop dreaming."

One of the things that I love about Zentangle is that when doodling you can let your mind fly freely but not completely free!!!! You still have to focus enough to keep your shapes in harmony. What it does is that it keeps your mind in a state that you can't focus too much on what you are doing (because it is a repetitive task) and you can't really think about anything else either...such a great meditation technique!

Did you notice the mandala ?


Have a great day,

How to make a spring card

One of the cutes cards I have seen in a few days is the "Songbird Card" by Cassandra Cooper.

She has an article on "Scrapbook and Cards Today" explaining step by step how she made the lovely branches.



"Songbird Card" by Cassandra Cooper

You can check her tutorial out by clicking Here.

Have Fun,

Card Making Project

Looking at the pile of cream card stock and papers that were sitting around my desk made me want to make a simple and elegant card:

The base card is cream colour with a greenish undertone. Brown of the second layer made a perfect frame for the cute floral design of the top paper. The frame around the "Happy Birthday" is a chipboard frame that I inked the edges to make it pop and it is siting on two rows of shimmery ribbons; cream and green.

A card making project is never complete without an envelope, is it?

Sketchbook - Front Cover

As promised before, I am going to post all the pages of my sketchbook and talk a little bit about how each page was done.

This picture is the front cover page. I drew an initial sketch on a piece of paper, this way I didn't worry about damaging the paper or making mistakes. Then cleaned up my sketch, and this is a process that usually takes me a few attemps....ok, maybe more than a few!

When I was happy with my drawing, transfered the image to the cover sheet and with a Sharpie fine tip pen (marker?!) I went over the lines to make them darker.

To paint the background, I used Titanium White acrylic paint and a one-inch brush to paint all around the shape, I had to change to smaller size brush to paint between brushes on the sketch and TaDaaaa!!!

The brown inside the drawing is the actual color of the cover paper  

Lesson learned: "Next time, before jumping to grab a pen, I should write the wording in pencil to make sure they fit nicely "

Watercolor - Iris

How much i love Irises, they are such fabulous flowers that come in variety of colors. They grow in different climates, from cold mountains to grassy meadows, and they are great subjects for painting!

and here is a monochrome painting, using a negative approach to add a little more interest to it.

by the way, did you know that "Iris" is the Greek word for rainbow?

Watercolor - My Favorite Food

A while ago I came across a very interesting website named "100 illustrations". This is a great website founded by Diana Evans, aiming to gather and feature all the illustrators around the world. It is an annual free-to-join project and the first 100 illustrations or paintings submitted and approved will be published, a dream that most of us have as artists and illustrators.

For 2012 the subject of the project is "My Favourite Food" which was an absolutely exciting topic for me, as it was a subject completely out of my comfort zone.

Being a food lover makes it difficult to choose only one favorite food; I gathered a list of all the foods that I regularly make and eat and like. Then crossed out those that I may get picky about sometimes . But the end I thought "Rotisserie Chicken with Salad" should be on top of the list.

Following is the steps to the painting that was finished and submitted in hopes that it get approved:

Step 1 ) Pencil sketch; I tried to make my sketch as detailed as possible. I drew all vegetables in the salad, the ice cubes and even bubbles. Then masked off the places that I wanted to keep the white of paper for highlights, such as for bubbles or most of the ice cubes.

Following close up picture shows the masking more visible:

Step 2) It was time to start the layers of watercolor. To paint the chicken a mix of orange and raw