Sometimes, if I angle things just right… at just the right time, I can pretend I am the only human in the park. The bird songs and gentle breeze in the trees can then seem louder than the seaplanes and distant traffic… And racing thoughts and complicated to-do lists fall away… Perhaps now and then…
Tag: drawing
A contemplation
This past week, I had the pleasure of doing graphic recording for a group within health care as they reflected on Trauma and Resiliency Informed Practice. After I completed the transcription report, I decided to do my own a reflection. The result is a drawing as I contemplated the outcomes of the day. The drawing process: Lotus buds…
Store window, Gamla Stan, Stockholm. A study
I came across a wonderful little shop in June 2019. Slow Fox Förlag Antikvariatet. Själagårdsgatan 9c, Gamla Stan, Stockholm, Sweden. And I think about the store window ALOT. A study using Chinamarker, white acrylic ink, watercolour wash added using Caitlin ffrench’s wildcrafted pigments
Decompose on forest floor study (embroidered drawing)
January 31, 2023 Our bodies are garbage heaps: we collect experience, and from the decomposition of the thrown-out eggshells, spinach leaves, coffee grinds, and old steak bones out of our minds come nitrogen, heat, and very fertile soil. Out of this fertile soil bloom our poems and stories. But this does not come all at…
“The Guardians.” A study
For Emma.
Crow study.
For Julian.
The Varied Thrush.
Found on the front steps of building at corner of Barclay and Gilford, West End, Vancouver. Pencil crayon, watercolour, dry pastel on newsprint. “Dead voices, lost sounds, forgotten noises, vibrations lockstepping into the abyss and now too distant ever to be recaptured! … What sort of arrows would be able to transfix such birds?” —…
Slowing down the creative process
Drawing a dead bird from “life.” (It was actually caught by my indoor cat through a small opening in my apartment window on Sept 23, 2018, and unfortunately it was very dead, so I photographed it and buried it in Stanley Park) A resurgence of studying art history and techniques has made me realize I…
Bound Heron. (imagined) Part 1
Currently embroidery: Process continues…
Dead Bird Study Part 2
See: Part 1 PART 2: Watercolour, pencil crayon, ink, coffee, beet juice, salt, on newsprint, embroidery. Next up in Part 3 – add writing.
Dead Bird Study Part 1
Watercolour, pencil crayon, ink, coffee, salt on newsprint. Next up: embroidery.
Imagined bird nest: part 1
Pencil crayon, watercolour, ink, coffee, cherry juice on newsprint. Next step: collage, embellish and embroider
Elle Kari Study No. 2
Image reference: the vintage children’s book (with documentary photography) “Elle Kari” by Anna Riwkin-Brick and Elly James, Rabén & Sjögren, Stockholm, 1965 Medium: pencil crayon, ink, coffee, watercolour on newsprint- plus hot iron
Elle Kari Study No. 1
Image reference: the vintage children’s book (with documentary photography) “Elle Kari” by Anna Riwkin-Brick and Elly James, Rabén & Sjögren, Stockholm, 1965 Medium: pencil crayon, ink, coffee, watercolour on newsprint
Dead mouse (Stanley Park)
Rest In Peace little mouse, spotted on the side of the road in Stanley Park the other day.
tRUTH.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg. 1933-2020
Drawing an eye using charcoal and an eraser (video)
Drawing with Kat – Eye from Anna T Fabulous on Vimeo. Drawing the human eye using charcoal and an eraser.
Simple OWL drawing lesson using kid-grade felt pens
[Film by Anna Thorsen] I teach OWL drawing for most, if not all, of my creative engagement workshops. I use the OWL image as it is easy to break it down into simple geometric shapes on which to build form. I usually use china marker. But we don’t always have the “right” material. We have…
A quick creative project on last day of 2019: The Death and Burial of Cock Robin
Rainy stay-inside sick day today. I have stayed in PJs and creative process. I spent the last few hours interpreting The Death and Burial of Cock Robin with ink, watercolour and salt. [Source: Gutenberg Press. Original text by anonymous circa 14th-17th century] Chanticleer, what want you here, So early in the morning? “Cock-a-doodle-doo,” says he, pray don’t you…
I don’t bleed anymore. Finding solace in journal pages.
“These are the days of tweeting, blogging, posting, instagraming, snapchatting, you name it. Everyone seems to be doing it. Some people seem very comfortable expressing every morsel of their living and breathing and eating into the world. Not that this isn’t totally fascinating to the one sharing, but most people (including me) don’t care about…
Turn the page- visualizing fading memory
My latest favourite daily practice is to quickly sketch and then saturate the drawing with watercolour crayon and coffee. I love the feel of the wrinkled page. How the coffee ages the image. The way a drenched drawing has a life of its own – beyond my control. I am most in love with the…
Quick sketch: Young gull at English Bay
Why is it,” Jonathan puzzled, “that the hardest thing in the world is to convince a bird that he is free, and that he can prove it for himself if he’d spend a little time practicing? Why should that be so hard? – Richard Bach
There are times of no ideas… – Lynda Barry (but there is always process)
Daily disciplined connection with my journal maintains my creative process and even though the entries are seemingly unrelated to my writing project… … they cleanse my brain and I am more driven to write as I stay in flow…
Psaltriparus minimus playing in a tree…
I was charmed this morning by a flock of tiny birds playing and eating bugs in the tree above my bus stop. A whole bunch of bushtits.