Guest Post - Maken Art

Thank you to Annabel for the opportunity to share my Sketchbook Project journey with you, on her wonderful blog.

This is my first time participating in the Sketchbook Project. In fact, this is the first year since highschool that I’ve done any kind of art. But one of my New Year’s resolutions was to take an art class and start creating. Unlike all my previous resolutions of ‘lose weight’ or ‘save more money’ I’ve managed to stick to this one. Actually, I think it’s safe to say I’ve blown this resolution out of the water!

1. At the start of the year I began an art blog to journal my progress. http://makenart.blogspot.com
2. I signed up to an online art class called Suzi’s Les Petit Academy (http://suziblu.ning.com/), where I learned to use mixed media and really get messy and wild. Suzi Blu quickly became my muse.
3. I then took a creative drawing class at the Australian National University three hours a week, where we did everything from still life to life drawing, painting with spoons and ink, to collage, and watercolour. Also made some great, arty friends along the way.
4. After my art class I began working with watercolours for the first time ever, and let me tell you I fell in love! Somewhere between the start of the year and now I went from loving monochromatic pencil and ink sketches, to wanting colour everywhere. In my art, my house, my wardrobe, my life. The more colour the better!
5. When the drawing class came to an end I found myself lacking the discipline to keep creating regularly. So my drawing class friends and I started hosting regular Crafternoons as a way of continuing our creating and ensuring we made time for a bit of a catch up. (And an excuse to eat cake and drink tea).
6. I also started participating in Illustration Friday (http://www.illustrationfriday.com) to make sure I did a little something each week.
7. On the Illustration Friday website I found a link to the Art House Co-op Sketchbook Project. Well, I’ve never been so excited. I’d never heard of such an amazing, collaborative art project. I was hooked, and began ordering books for everyone I knew! I started a Facebook page, a Twitter list, a Flickr group and I think I told everyone I met about it.
8. Through the Sketchbook Project I think I’ve really found my style. I call it four-year-old art. I’m the first to admit that I’m probably not very good, but boy do I enjoy putting pencil/pen/brush/crayon/fingers to paper! You can see all of my entries so far and track my progress on my blog (http://makenart.blogspot.com/p/sketchbook-project-2011.html).
9. I  couldn’t bear the thought of my Sketchbook Project book coming to an end, so I’ve signed up to a few other projects to start once I’m done. Including the Australian version of the project, the ‘Artist Notebook Project’ (http://fibrearts.viviti.com/notebook-project), the Moly_X Sketchbook Project (http://www.flickr.com/groups/moly_x/), and the 1001 Journals project (http://1001journals.com/)

 

Next on the agenda I’m determined to find myself a summer watercolour class to take, and learn some new techniques with my new favourite medium. I’m also looking forward to next year when I won’t be trying to finish my Masters full time (while working full time) and will have a lot more free time to devote to art projects!

I’d love to hear how others got into their chosen art mediums, projects, style. Feel free to drop me a line on my blog (http://makenartblogspot.com) or you can usually find me on Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/papier_et_encre). Happy creating!