Roz Stendahl of Sketchbook Skool by Leada Wood, Texas Artist

copyright by Roz Stendahl and Sketchbook Skool
 

 

What a wonderful week we have had with Sketchbook Skool's Roz Stendahl. The whole class has been great but Roz's generosity and teaching videos were extraordinary! This was one of her parting gifts to us, a memento of our week together. I had to print it out and cut the cards of course but it was worth every minute! Roz has an awesome blog you should check out: http://rozwoundup.typepad.com

It has been so cold this week the only live animal sketching I did was of my little Yorkie, Mollie. She was very suspicious of all the activity following her around with my sketchbook and pen. I found that sometimes standing up and calling her name was the only way to get her to be still...she is a little hyper.

This was my first attempt at a live animal subject and sketching with a Pentel brush pen. This was drawn standing up calling her name as it was the only resource to get her to stand still. This is called a gesture sketch and probably doesn't take over 35 to 40 seconds to create...or however long your subject cooperates. These quick sketches are not meant to be fine art but only practice of capturing the essence of your subject.

The assignment was to draw a live animal everyday. Another gesture pose of Mollie with the brush pen. I really like it for fast sketches.

Mollie getting use to me following her around and tired too...but she won't be still for long!

 

 

 



 

 

I caught her napping in the sunshine before I left for work so I had a quick go at drawing her again.

 

 

 

 

 

And this is the way she looked laying in the sunshine on a cold winters day When it warms up a little I will try again sketching live animals on the farm. Maybe sheep, goats or llamas!

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Catclaw by Leada Wood, Texas Artist

Catclaws have always intrigued me. My Grandmother was very creative and she made Texas cowboy mosquitoes out of them. I still have one that she made. Although she has been gone many years, the sight of a catclaw brings back memories of her and her creations. 

I am taking a class with Jane LaFazio this week in Sketchbook Skool and we are doing grids and composition. I decided to do the life cycle of a catclaw in ink and watercolor and it is 7x10.

This was my set up so that you can see the actual catclaw. The bloom reminds me of a small orchid and has a very heady smell. I can smell them on the wind sometime and the bees love them. They say catclaw honey is very tasty. The pod when it ripens splits into and then falls off and the catclaw is left to dry.

This is what my Grandmother made out of Catclaws and sold many of them.  Texas Catclaw Cowboys.   I guess she was ahead of her time in recycling things. She also made beautiful little rocking chairs, very ornate from cans. Grandmother could make anything!

Have a great week!

Fire Cider by Leada Wood, Texas Artist

Fire Cider by Leada Wood, copyright 2014

Yes Skool is back in Session...Sketchbook Skool that is. This week I am documenting the days of my life in my sketchbook. This was my homework for today.

This sketch is very special to me because it represents time my daughter and I got to spend together. We don't get to spend much time together even though she lives in the same town, as she has seven children and is homeschooling them. Our time together is very precious to me.

This recipe is suppose to boost your immune system and hopefully keep you healthy during cold and flu season. This is our first year to make it and it has to sit for a month. I thought I would share it with you. To your good health!

I'm A Little Tea Cup by Leada Wood, Texas Artist

 I have been enjoying Liz Steel's class this final week of Sketchbook Skool. Liz is an architect and lives in Australia and has given us invaluable information on sketching fundamentals. She gets to know her subject, whether a tea cup or an amazing building, by drawing thumbnails and breaking them down into grids. Sure makes you see differently when you do this. That was what the whole skool was about...seeing. I think the more you sketch in your sketchbook, the more freeing it becomes and the better you see things. It trains your eye to take the subject in more quickly and to really look at the shapes and the lines.

I guess you might think that drawing a teacup and saucer looks fairly simple, but is in fact quite a challenge. Go ahead get yourself a pretty one out of the cupboard and give it a go! Who knows...it just might lead to a series.

copyright, Leada Wood, 2014

#leadawoodart #mixedmedia #watercolor

Leada  Wood

 Live Joyfully!

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Daddy's Keys, by Leada Wood, Texas Artist

Daddy's Keys

 

 

copyright2014Leada Wood

 

 

 I have been doing Sketchbook Skool the past 5 weeks and one of this week's assignments was to do a drawing of a collection. I had a bunch of antique keys for clocks from my dad laying around, so I decided I would sketch these as a tribute to my parents.

 

Their anniversary was yesterday, August the 8th and they would have been married 65 years! My mom and dad had a jewelry store and they both repaired clocks and watches. Clocks hold a dear place in my heart as I was always around the chiming and heart beats of their steadfast ticking. Their continual ticking can still be heard in our home and the chiming of the hour. It will be a sad world when they are no more. Something about them is comforting...familiar...homey. 

 

This sketch was done with a Bic Velocity Gel pen in blue because it was my dad's favorite color. I leaned a lot from drawing with only a lowly ballpoint pen and think my shading got a little better toward the end of the drawing. I plan on drawing the keys again in some way with another medium.

 

One of the things I have enjoyed the most about Sketchbook Skool is that it reminded me of my love of drawing. I have also enjoyed seeing artist's work from around the world. It's a small world after all!

  

 

 

 

 This is their wedding day photo. Don't you just love old black and whites? 

 

 

 

 

 

#leadawoodart #mixedmedia #watercolor

Leada  Wood

 Live Joyfully!

my website

galleries



 

 



Drawing The Blues by Leada Wood, Texas Artist

I have been busy trying to absorb all the information coming at me the last five weeks in Sketchbook Skool, and keep up with all the assignments. It has been awesome! Artists from all over the globe have been sketching to their hearts content and sharing them online. It is awe inspiring to see all the wonderful work that everyone is doing.

This week I have been studying with Andrea Joseph from England. She does ezines and draws with ballpoint pens. This lesson was about drawing a page in our sketchbook of various objects all in one color ballpoint pen. Sound easy....well it is NOT! You have to learn the feel of the pen and how to make the lines so there will be value changes and shading. The humble ballpoint has a lot to teach me. It has been an interesting learning curve. This was my first go with the pen.

We also are learning to write creatively with our ballpoints. We wrote personal favorite quotes connecting each word and not lifting our pens and then embellished the words so they would pop and make the quote readable. Very tricky! You should give it a try...it's fun!

Why Make Art? By Leada Wood, Texas Artist

        

I have been busy sketching in my sketchbook these days because I am enrolled in Sketchbook Skool, along with 4500 other artists around the world! It is amazing! We have master artists instructing us and encouraging us along the way. Technology is amazing when used for good purposes.

Danny Gregory is one of the instructors and he has raised lots of questions and given some very profound answers.  One that really got my attention was with all the technology was, why make art? If you can copy and past images and compress them on a computer and make art, why pick up pen or brush and create? 

Here is what Danny said:

"So if, in one split second and with no real experience or skill, you can use the phone in your pocket to make an image that is technically superior and precise to anything you can make with pencil, why make art at all anymore?

That’s a question people have been asking themselves for almost two centuries. And the answer that Manet and Monet and Seurat and Cezanne and Van Gogh and the rest of the gang came up with over a hundred years ago is that the purpose of art is no longer to reproduce physical reality, it’s to convey how we feel about it. To capture the human condition, the way we see the world through the veils of subjectivity, experience, emotion, history and all the rest of the stuff that make us who we are.

This is something we have to think about when we draw.  Stop assessing your work based on how close it is to “reality”. Don’t bother posting a snapshot of your dog next to the drawing you did of it. Who cares if you are almost as good as that camera in your pocket. ‘Cause in fact, you’re not even close. That photo is a far better way to make that image. More efficient, more accurate.

But that image isn’t really what you want, is it? What you want is to capture your soul, your inner state, the love you feel for that dog. You want to make a picture of the inside of your mind.

Don’t worry about Xerox®ing reality with your sketchbook. Focus on capturing You instead.

So far nobody, in Silicon Valley or elsewhere, has come up with an app for that."

                                                                                                                      -Danny Gregory

I think he pretty much sums it up don't you?  I know I create because I have to...it's who I am...it completes me.   Leada Wood