Friday Favorites : Watercolor Sketching

1. VW Bomberos y Land Rover, 2. Cuisine., 3. Le Donjon (bar), 4. ébauche: Colmar - France - place Jeanne d'Arc, 5. Hat study, 6. watercolor sketch, 7. man-bagpack - streetsketch, 8. 1999090601, 9. garden visitor, 10. 2012 Pasadena Showcase House of Design by Joseph Stoddard, 11. Huntington rose garden, 12. The Polar Bear Winter Retreat, 13. puente-segovia

September Desktop Calendar & Printable Calendar

Yowser...it's almost September!  You know what that means...?!  October is only a month away.

October, glorious, glowing month of the year.  Fall in full flush, knitting high season and my absolute favorite month of the year!
Oh, whoops...not quite here yet.   Here's September's calendars....

Click here to download the September Desktop Calendar

Click here to download the September Desktop background (with no calendar)

Click here to download the September iPhone/iPad Background

Click here to download the September Printable Calendar

August Desktop & Printable Calendars

August is definitely the month of sunshine in the south.  I always associate August with the colors yellow and orange...I'm not sure why.  But it all fits into my color assignments of different things, seasons and even months, as I mentioned here.

Click on the links below to download the calendar of your choice (choose the size you need for the desktop & iPad/iPhone versions):

August Desktop Calendar

August Desktop (without Calendar)

August iPhone/iPad Background

August Printable Calendar

Please note:
All images and elements are copyright Robin Sample.  You may not reproduce, recreate, or sell in any way.  But please feel free to download for your own personal use.  If  you share (I'd love that!) please direct your readers to this post to download the file.  Thank you!

More New England Sketches

These are from the Hand Book sketchbook I got just for the trip.  I'm really enoying this sketchbook....I know I'll be buying more of them.  The paper takes watercolor just great and it's a perfect size.

I'm still working on sketches in this book, but here are a few :

more to come...!

Sketching New England

I had the same experience as this talented lady when it came to sketching on location during our vacation.  I only completed one sketch on site!  Even though it wasn't a "sketching" vacation, i.e. I knew we would be doing a lot (sketching in between), still I thought I'd get a few sketches done on the trip.

But, I have lots (!) of pictures in my head I'm working to get down on sketchbook pages.  It's slow going, though.

I worked on a little journal for a several weeks before we left.  Kind of a planner and sketchbook combo to record all our stops and plans, as well as a few pages just for sketches.

The first pages had our packing lists, itinerary and hotels/inns/camping reservations :

I did a page that showed what our planned route would be.  That ended up getting changed a little bit, but we did see all the stops we had planned on seeing.

I also bought my first Hand Book sketchbook for the trip, and did a cover page before we left.  I'll have a few of those pages next week.

Summer Colors

I think it's unofficially "officially" here...Summer.

What are your colors of summer?

The Desire to Draw

IF : Liquid

My favorite liquid...Tea!

Sketchbook 05.18.2013

A peek into my sketchbook :

I seem to have food on the brain!

IF : Future

The theme for Illustration Friday this week is "Future."  My immediate future includes a vacation!

Just like it says : a road trip to New England (!!!).  This is the cover of a little handmade journal I'm doing about the trip.  It'll have all of our necessary info in it (itinerary, confirmation numbers, packing list, etc.) as well as a few pages to sketch during the trip.

I tend to spend more time thinking about what to pack for my arts & crafts than I do for my clothing when it comes to vacations.  Which sketchbooks (and how many), which palette, how many pens and pencils, water containers, et al consume many hours of thought.  And then there's what knitting to take, how much reading material, etc.  In comparison, clothes are simple :)

May Colors

It's been a cold spring around here.  I'm ready for the warm spring flowers, but especially the warm!

Timeless Moments

"A sketchbook can transform a moment in time into a timeless moment." - Nick Meglin

I love this quote from the author of Drawing From Within, one of my favorite books about drawing.  In fact, I'll be doing a little review of this book in a couple of weeks, so check back for that!

I love to look back through my sketchbooks and see what I was doing / thinking about / focusing on during a particular time.  When I look at a page in my sketchbook, I can always remember what I was thinking, or feeling when I was drawing.

I love how drawing slows you down, makes you notice what you're doing.  I kind of feel bad for people who don't keep a sketchbook, because they don't have that :)

Do you keep a sketchbook?

Free May Desktop Calendar & Printable Calendar

May always seems like a riot of color to me, as opposed to April which always makes me think of white.  Don't ask me why.  I tend to "assign" colors to lots of things.  Anybody else do that?

Back to May...a warm jumble of spring and summer colors :

   

Enjoy!

Please note:
All images and elements are copyright Robin Sample.  You may not reproduce, recreate, or sell in any way.  But please feel free to download for your own personal use.  If you share (and I'd love that!) please direct your readers to this post to download the file.  Thank you!

Sketchbook 04.27.2013

Here's a peek into my sketchbook from the last couple of weeks :

There's a lot of flowers and spring greens these days!

Colors of Spring

Spread the sunshine!

Inspiration : Spring

How 'bout you?  What inspiration do you get from spring's arrival?
I always feel like doing a thousand things.

In a totally unrelated note, I have cast on some new knitting...a baby sweater, for an upcoming arrival.
The color is "Wisteria"....so that's spring-related, eh!

Little Things

IF : Urban

I love fountains.  You usually see lots of fountains in urban areas.  The whole motion things captivates me, and water, of course.

Words of Wisdom

Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.  Proverbs 4:23

APR Peacock...and Blogging

Watercolor on Arches 140lb cold press paper

One of the things I enjoy about participating in different art challenges...is I'm challenged!  I probably wouldn't have decided to draw a peacock if it weren't for Artist's Play Room.  That's the theme for this week, and I have to admit, I enjoyed drawing and painting my little version.

This is the great thing about challenges....they move you out of your normal comfort zone, but it's still your voice that's speaking.  If you're not involved in an art challenge, I encourage you to give it a try.  You never know what you may discover about yourself!

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One of the things I've noticed over the last little bit is that I'm spending a little more time blogging than I am creating.  Now I know that's a bit of a catch-22, since I blog about the things I create.  But, I've noticed I'm feeling a little time-crunched in regards to my blogging frequency.  (Make no mistake, I love my blog and the blog community!) 

Especially since I'm working on a few new things and heading in a few new directions. As an introvert, I need extra time to process changes and new ideas without any pressure to reveal before I'm ready (even if it's self-induced pressure:).  Some things I want to simplify, and some things are just new roads I want to travel and see where they go.

I enjoy keeping a regular schedule (up to now it's been Mon, Wed, Fri & Sat) and I think readers prefer knowing you'll be blogging on a regular basis.  So, I'm going to change my schedule to Tuesdays, Thursdays & Saturdays for the next little while and see how that goes.

I'd much rather post a little less and have good content, than just blog to get a blog done.  I'll most likely post a picture or sketch on Saturdays, something pretty without a lot of words.  So let's try it, shall we?!

Do you have a regular blog schedule?  Do you enjoy bloggers who stick to a schedule?