The #CreativeLife 2021 A to Z Blog Challenge: Z is for...

Zero excuses

Nope, this is not a post to preach to you today. This is what I decided at the beginning 2019 - no more excuses. I take part in challenges like this blog challenge, Inktober, and NaNoWriMo so that I can plan to do creative things.

I love my job, but working too many hours is not good for my mental health or my need to create. So I made the decision to stop procrastinating and to stop using a bag full of excuses to not do the things I love.

Is it working? Yes! Do I need time some time to just binge on Netflix? Yes, but it is a decision and not just an excuse anymore.

Until next time!

💚 Linzé 

PS: Keep an eye out for a series about some other stuff I do like to do - coming very soon!

The #CreativeLife 2021 A to Z Blog Challenge: Y is for...

 Yellow

The last of the three primary colours. I find it interesting that two of the three colours are considered warm colours - red and yellow.

Last year colours were some of the prompts we did for the #inktober52 challenge. Since I like illuminated letters, here is the Y I drew for the challenge.

Illuminated letter Y

Comments and sharing you art are most welcome on Twitter, thank you for visiting my blog today.

Until tomorrow!

💚 Linzé 

The #CreativeLife 2021 A to Z Blog Challenge: X is for...

 Xanadu

Some colours have weird names, but who am I to argue? 😉

Here is one of them. The colour was generated using the website coloors.co 

Comments and sharing are most welcome on Twitter, thank you for visiting my blog today.

Until tomorrow!

💛 Linzé 

The #CreativeLife 2021 A to Z Blog Challenge: W is for...

Watercolour

Watercolour paint used to scare me, until I realised that it is such a lovely medium to work with. I love combining it with ink.

Here is a painting I did for the lab I work with. It is now framed and hanging in the soon to be second safety test facility - my field of engineering expertise.

iSERT house (RF, EMC, and safety test facility)
in Montana, Pretoria, South Africa

Comments are most welcome on Twitter, thank you for visiting my blog today.

Until tomorrow!

💚 Linzé 

The #CreativeLife 2021 A to Z Blog Challenge: V is for...

Value

Value in art is the lightness or darkness of a colour. It is the differences in value (contrast) that helps us to perceive a drawing or painting as lifelike or three dimensional.

Pretty nifty technique in the artist's arsenal don't you think? 😁

Hatching and shading to show value changes
with a Staedtler Mars Lumograph Black 4B pencil

Comments are most welcome on Twitter, thank you for visiting my blog today.

Until Monday!

💛 Linzé 

 

The #CreativeLife 2021 A to Z Blog Challenge: U is for...

Ultramarine

Today we look at one of the cool colours. With so many shades of blue to choose from, it is sometimes difficult to pick a favourite. But I have to say that ultramarine is truly a lovely colour, don't you think?

Read some more about the pigment and how the colour is made @ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultramarine

Comments and sharing you art are most welcome on Twitter, thank you for visiting my blog today.

Until Monday!

💙 Linzé 

The #CreativeLife 2021 A to Z Blog Challenge: T is for...

Texture

Adding texture to any art project can be both challenging and exciting. With dry mediums like graphite, the texture is implied with the method of application.

With wet mediums, texture can be physically applied with texture paste. Oil paint is such a heavy medium that the paint itself can be used to add textured effects to a painting.

Most mixed media projects are textured in some way, making it a popular technique for many artists, including myself.

Comments and sharing you art are most welcome on Twitter, thank you for visiting my blog today.

Until tomorrow!

💜 Linzé 

 

The #CreativeLife 2021 A to Z Blog Challenge: S is for...

Stencil

Stencils are handy for mixed media work. Whether they are used with inks, paints, or to add textured elements to any painting.

I love using stencils in my art journal. Here you can see the textured effect for the flowers I did in my Stoicism art journal a while back.

Comments and sharing you art are most welcome on Twitter, thank you for visiting my blog today.

Until tomorrow!

💚 Linzé 

The #CreativeLife 2021 A to Z Blog Challenge: R is for...

Red

One of the top favourite colours for most people ir red. Although I am not one of those, I like using red in art. Do you know the meaning of the colour red?

Samurai warrior from Linzé's sketchbook
for #inktober52

Read a bit more about this hot colour here.

 Comments and sharing you art are most welcome on Twitter, thank you for visiting my blog today.

Until tomorrow!

❤️ Linzé 

The #CreativeLife 2021 A to Z Blog Challenge: Q is for...

Quinacridone purple

... is an organic compound used as a pigment in inks and paints. I just love the name and was curious as to its origins. Now you know too! 😃

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quinacridone

 Comments and sharing you art are most welcome on Twitter, thank you for visiting my blog today.

Until tomorrow!

💚 Linzé 

The #CreativeLife 2021 A to Z Blog Challenge: P is for...

Pastels

When most of us hear the word pastels, we either think of subtle shades of colour or chalk pastels as a painting medium. Yes, pastel artworks are called paintings because of the painterly effects that they give.

I like pastels despite the dust they leave behind. The worst are the sticks, but the pastel pencils and the PanPastels are virtually dust free. I have been converted on the day I first used the pans, and prefer them and the pencils instead of the sticks.

A few pastels in my studio: PanPastels, Koh-I-Noor pencils,
and Faber-Castell half sticks

Which pastel sub-medium do you prefer to use in your paintings?

 Comments and sharing you art are most welcome on Twitter, thank you for visiting my blog today.

Until tomorrow!

❤️ Linzé 

The #CreativeLife 2021 A to Z Blog Challenge: O is for...

Oil Pastels

This is one medium that continues to challenge me, no matter how many times I work with it. So to limit the pressure I put on myself to get it perfect, I am now using it in my art journal purely to practice for fun.

Do you like oil pastels?

   Comments and sharing you art are most welcome on Twitter, thank you for visiting my blog today.

Until tomorrow!

💙 Linzé 

The #CreativeLife 2021 A to Z Blog Challenge: N is for...

Neutral Colours

Black, white, and all the shades of grey form the neutral colours of the artist's palette. Of these black is often the most interesting since it can either be a cool colour or a warm colour depending on the pigments used to mix the final colour.

I love black as a colour to wear, but Pane's grey is my favourite neutral colour on the dark end of the spectrum.

Five of the neutral colours in the
Faber-Castell polychromos pencil sets

  Comments are most welcome on Twitter, thank you for visiting my blog today.

Until tomorrow!

💙 Linzé 

The #CreativeLife 2021 A to Z Blog Challenge: M is for...

Medium 

The substances we use to create art is called a medium.

My favourite mediums are graphite, ink, and colour pencil. Today I am sharing a drawing I made as a group project with my art group. It is made with watercolour pencils.

The art group members don't like the medium, but this is one instance where a high quality pencil definitely makes a difference.

As always your comments are most welcome on Twitter. Thank you for visiting my blog today.

💚 Linzé 

The #CreativeLife 2021 A to Z Blog Challenge: L is for...

LINE

The basic mark in a drawing. Whether a dot, or a line, we all use this same basic structure to write and draw.

So here is to the humble tiny structure of ink that is the base of the way we communicate with words or pictures. Cheers! 🥂

Comments are most welcome on Twitter, thank you for visiting my blog today.

Until tomorrow!

❤️ Linzé 

 

The #CreativeLife 2021 A to Z Blog Challenge: K is for...

Knives

Knives are useful tools for various applications in art. Palette knives for painting and texture work are widely used. A palette knife is also handy for separating the pages in a watercolour paper block.

Other applications for using a sharp blade includes scratching lines for detail work in watercolour, colour pencil, and graphite.

An interesting technique for using a knife blade is the sgraffito method which I used in an oil pastel painting.

Which techniques do you use a knife for?

Comments are most welcome on Twitter, thank you for visiting my blog today.

Until tomorrow!

💚 Linzé 

 

The #CreativeLife 2021 A to Z Blog Challenge: J is for...

Journaling

A journal in any form, shape, or size is the best friend of the creative person. Whether you like to craft or do art, a journal is a space for thoughts, ideas, and experimentation to explore new ideas, or revisit old ideas.

Today I am sharing a book about journaling as a form of self-expression and growth. Ok, I wrote it, but it will be the only self promo post this month so I am entitled, yes? 😏

As always your comments are most welcome on Twitter. Thank you for visiting my blog today.

❤️ Linzé 

The #CreativeLife 2021 A to Z Blog Challenge: I is for...

Inktober

A daily challenge for October now also running as an annual weekly challenge. Ink drawing is the challenge, but many artists prefer mixed media too. Find out more at inktober.com

Here is a drawing from last year's challenge 😎

Comments are most welcome on Twitter, thank you for visiting my blog today.

Until Monday!

💙 Linzé 

 

The #CreativeLife 2021 A to Z Blog Challenge: H is for...

Hardness

Graphite pencils are graded for the hardness (H) or blackness (B) of the graphite. The harder the pencil (rated H to 9H) the lighter the marks on the page.

The softer the pencil the more dark or black the marks (B to 9B) will be.

HB is the "middle" pencil if you like, and the one we all used at school for writing and drawing.

Here is a graphite drawing made with a few of those pencils.

Comments are most welcome on Twitter, thank you for visiting my blog today.

Until tomorrow!

❤️ Linzé 

The #CreativeLife 2021 A to Z Blog Challenge: G is for...

Gouache

A painting medium popular with designers before computer software became the first choice. It is water based and opaque. It has the odd characteristic that it can be reactivated even after it's dry.

This makes is also highly useful for paints (tempera) for children since it can be washed out of clothing or from other surfaces.

Here is a monochrome gouache painting I did on gouache paper, of the Edinburgh train station.  I used a photograph taken by my husband as the reference.

Gouache painting on white gouache paper

Comments are most welcome on Twitter, thank you for visiting my blog today.

💙 Linzé 

The #CreativeLife 2021 A to Z Blog Challenge: F is for...

Fixative

Fixative is used to prevent changes to a painting after it is completed. But, there are fixatives that can be removed should you need it.

Using fixative is choice, because the colour and values of dry mediums like pastels and pencils can be affected by the application of fixatives.

Fixatives can be applied with a brush (typical for oil paintings) or as a  spray (airbrushing or spray can).

If you want to preserve a painting made with pencils or pastels, rather have it framed behind glass then it will remain beautiful for years.

Your comments are most welcome on Twitter, thank you for visiting my blog today.

💗 Linzé 

The #CreativeLife 2021 A to Z Blog Challenge: E is for...

 Encaustic painting

Encaustic is a wax medium applied after melting the wax. You can either use a brush or other tools, but it is not a medium suited for children because of the hot wax.

I have not used this medium but I love seeing what others have done, although it is not commonly used today. Check out these YouTube artists for more techniques and tips to use encaustic wax in mixed media projects.

Comments are most welcome on Twitter, and thank you for visiting my blog today!

Until tomorrow!

💜 Linzé 

The #CreativeLife 2021 A to Z Blog Challenge: D is for...

Drawing

The most basic skill needed for creating art is drawing. And anyone can learn how to draw. I am not going to jump on that soap box again, so I will just share a drawing I did for the first SA Drawing Guild challenge and a link to the website of an excellent online art teacher.

Enjoy!

Shells and ropes - a graphite drawing on white paper

Comments are most welcome on Twitter, thank you for visiting my blog today.

💗 Linzé 

The #CreativeLife 2021 A to Z Blog Challenge: C is for...

 Colour pencil

Sharing another drawing today. This is a colour pencil drawing of a moth that my art group and I did last week.

The "underpainting" if I can call it that, was done with two Chameleon alcohol markers. The dark areas were done with a warm grey (WG3) and the light (areas not left white) were done with the sand (NU0) marker.

I used Faber Castell polychromos pencils for the details on the moth.

Moth in coloured pencil and alcohol marker

Comments are most welcome on Twitter, thank you for visiting my blog today.

Until Monday!

💜 Linzé 

The #CreativeLife 2021 A to Z Blog Challenge: B is for...

 Brush care

While it's fun to paint with all kinds of mediums, we should not forget to take good care of the brushes after we finished. Most mediums, like watercolour and acrylics, are water-based so it takes only a few minutes to clean them.

Oil-based mediums will require a solvent, but it is still a good idea to clean the brushes as soon as possible to ensure the quality of the bristles.

It does not require expensive brushes to produce a painting, but not taking care of them will be a waste of money.

Using ink with a paintbrush can be a particular pain since the ink will not only stain the bristles but can also cause damage if the ink becomes dry. If you paint with ink, like I sometimes do, it is a good idea to have a brush or two specifically for use with ink and to rinse it really well after use.

Comments are most welcome on Twitter, thank you for visiting my blog today.

💙 Linzé 

The #CreativeLife 2021 A to Z Blog Challenge: A is for...

Alcohol markers

An interesting and surprisingly useful medium to use in mixed media projects with other mediums such as colour pencils.

Below is a drawing I did in January.

These posts will also be shared on Twitter, where you are most welcome to leave a comment.

Please share your own experiences with alcohol markers. Which brand is your favourite?

Until tomorrow!

💙Linzé