Daily Drawing Complete!

Hi there. How are you?

My Creativebug 31 days of drawing challenge is complete! It was a great experience and I'm proud of the work I created.  Click HERE to see the first 12 days of drawings. Here's what I've drawn since I last posted:

Daily Drawing Challenge, Day 13-20, January 2016

January Daily Drawings - Days 21-26

January 2016 - Daily Drawings days 27-31.

So, I decided to make the Day 29 drawing the large one in this vignette, as I like it much better than day 31. I didn't have a whole lot of time to draw those phones, and it's not my most successful drawing. At least I still did the drawing, right?

What's Next?

I woke up on February 1st feeling a little bit of a letdown. With January's drawing challenge complete, I just didn't know quite what to do with myself!

There are actually 2 different February drawing challenges out there and I was planning on taking part in one or both. I sat down to draw yesterday and was just not enthused about either course. I guess I'm getting a little tired of someone else telling me what to do (although that was quite comforting over the last month. ) 

I've got my own subjects to tackle and I'm ready to get cracking on these! I want to do a special drawing so send out to my mailing list later this month. I want to draw wine and coffee illustrations to complement my beer tea towel design. I want to finish up my second coloring book.

I'm not going to give up the practice of drawing each day, and posting them on Instagram, but I'm going to draw what I want to. If the prompt in one of the daily challenges seems appealing, I'll draw it, but I won't feel beholden to the draw what's been prescribed for today.

That's all for today!

Ciao friends. I have to go draw. See you here next week! Like to see what I'm up to in the studio on a daily basis? Follow me on Instagram.

A Card is Born

Hi there. How are you? 

I love sending and receiving "snail mail." Who doesn't, right? Finding a handwritten note in your mailbox amongst the bills and junk mail is so gratifying! I'm pretty good about writing and mailing birthday cards and thank-you's to friends and family. I'm not so good at sending cards/letters just to say "hi" and catch up. In fact, I don't remember the last time I sent a "just because" letter to a friend as I did in the days when we didn't have email in the palm of our hands. 

A recent drawing in my sketchbook

There Was a Need

I have a couple of old friends that I've been thinking about, but haven't talked to in a while. I wanted to reach out to these old pals to say "Hi there. How are You?" Sure, I could email, but I wanted to make a little more effort. I decided to make a new card just for this reason.

If you follow me on Instagram, you've seen that I have been drawing a pattern a day in my sketchbook. I've been brainstorming ways that I can put these patterns to use in my work. I was particularly taken by this one below.

A leaf pattern I drew in my sketchbook

The Process

I scanned my drawing and cleaned it up in Photoshop. Then with the nifty "image trace" feature in Illustrator, I turned my drawing into vectors. (A vector drawing is a collection of points and lines- all of which are based on mathematical expressions—to represent images in computer graphics.)

Using Illustrator to turn a drawing into vectors

Vectorized

I played around with several different colors and configurations of this pattern. Working with Illustrator and vectors is such quick way to work. In just a matter of mouse clicks, I can change the size, shape, and colors of each line and leaf of this pattern. If I don't like something, it's very easy to change!

Anytime Greeting Card by Jennifer Johansson. Click to purchase!

A Card is Born

After much Illustrator tinkering, my Anytime card was born! It's sweet and friendly and could be sent anytime to anyone. It's a card for the masses! 

I ended up working with a very Swedish color palette. (Maybe, I'll do a version with the text in Swedish too???) Eventually, I may also produce this card in a green color palette, but for now I'm quite taken with this card. And, now it's for sale! Click the button below to add to your cart.

Well friends, that's all for now. I'm off to do my daily sketchbook drawing. I'll talk to you again next week!

Ta-Ta!

The Evolution of a New Illustration

 

Hi There. How are you?

I had a very successful weekend in the studio and created this lovely little Red-Breasted Nuthatch illustration. I thought it would be fun to share some of the pics I snapped as I worked on this piece,  and walk you through my process.

First off I made a simple drawing of the bird on aqua paper. I worked from a photograph.....I am not one of those artists who can work out of their head! I applied a sheet of sticker paper to the back of the drawing, and then cut the whole thing out and adhered it to the graph paper.

The first bit of ink I add to my bird illustrations is always the eyes. That very quickly brings a drawing to life. I used a black Bic ballpoint pen, a white Prismacolor pencil and a dash of white Sakura Gelly Roll ink in the highlight of the eye. 

I continued to add detail with the ballpoint pen and Prismacolors. I added a little bit of a golden brown to give this cutie his "red belly."

After a spell, (I have no idea how long this took.....I don't really pay attention to the clock when I'm in the art zone) the bird was fully formed. I drew in a branch to have him perch on. 

Once all of the inking is complete, I started playing around with my signature collage elements. As I've mentioned before, this is sometimes the most difficult part of the process for me. I tense up and worry about overworking things. Even now, I second guess...This was kind of cute like this....Why did I change it? 

And voila! All that is left to do now is give the whole thing a few coats of a satin varnish to seal and protect it. This original 8"x8" is available for sale in my etsy shop.

Have a great week friends. Until next time. Ta-ta!