Nifty Journal
Hi everyone! It looks like 2017 is turning into a year where I'm spending a lot less time with words and a lot more time embracing the joys of quiet. That makes for kind of a quiet blog, lol. Ha Ha - so far I've filled about half a sketch book page while typing this. [...]
Breathe – In Graphite (Slow Coloring -Finishing Up)
Wow, this one took just about forever to color. It was wonderfully relaxing, though. Slow coloring always gives me a chance to take a little inventory. As each tiny shape gets filled in, I notice whether the slowness feels nurturing or if I feel tense or distracted. The more I practice slow coloring, the more [...]
Breathe Wide Tipped – Part 3
Sometimes coloring progresses so much more slowly than you expect. One of my most reliable coloring times each day is as my husband and I watch our daily episode of our show of the moment on Netflix. Over the years we've watched quite a few TV series this way, starting at episode one and day [...]
Breathe Wide Tipped – Part 2 + Thinky Thoughts
(A few thinky thoughts before the coloring update.) On January 1st, musician Brian Eno released his ambient music album Reflection and his companion generative music app with the same name. As I type this, I'm streaming the album track on Amazon Music, listening to the 54 minute long evolving piece of music and reflecting on [...]
Breathe Wide Tipped – Part 1
Out of all of my books and all of the drawings in each book, do you ever wonder how I choose which drawing to color next? So do I, lol. There's not a lot of thought or logic to it. Some days a particular title strikes me as being one that really matches my mood. [...]
Centered (Wide Tipped) – And Then There Were Dots
I don't draw uncolorable dots or lines into my linework, but that doesn't mean that you can't go dot crazy if you want to. Feel free to embellish your colorings however you like. Sparklies, gel pens and little drawn details can be a lot of fun. I loved the way this coloring turned out so [...]
Slow Coloring Wow – Day 1
Today I'm coloring from Wow, and Wow is a book that always seems to want to encourage me to use lots and lots of wild colors. Wow is more about surprises than about cozy, comfortable coloring rhythms and there is so much to explore in each of the drawings. Even though I know every one [...]
October Bouquet – Day 1
My coloring moods tend to jump around. One day I might really be into sophisticated and artsy coloring and then the next day it's all about recapturing a sense of childlike coloring freedom. As an adult colorist, you get to decide how you want to color and there's no pressure to be consistent in your approach. [...]
Two-Tone Shading – Finishing Up
I'm finding it helpful to make a practice of disconnecting from expectations about how long it "should" take for me to color a picture - and that has done so much to increase my comfort with shading. Once there is a comforting foundation of ease, and acceptance of things taking however long they may take, [...]