Making a load of mess this morning, just getting a feel for how I want to work with Inktense blocks and working on junky paper. Getting a few excellent moments amongst the throwaways though. I really like everything about this one. 🥰

This is the place to go for really stunning bird prints to brighten up your home. Her work is gorgeous.

Whew! March has been pretty busy. Our senior dog’s illness got considerably worse, and he eventually had to be put to sleep. 😢 New puppy is sweet and energetic. 😆 We’ve worked a lot on being respectful about art supplies so I’m actually getting work done. Seriously need a long nap though. 😴😴😴😴

So little art, so much puppy time. Also caring for my loyal old dog who is still so weak and ill. stuff’s pretty crazy, but the weather is nice and the company is good. ❤️

I absolutely love the process of collage. And I love not caring about the outcome. The whole purpose of this for me is to create intuitive connections and then start prowling around up close with my camera to find tasty tidbits to print and draw/paint over. I will probably do a few more layers over

More progress with my mini set up and short session art time as I spend my days playing doggy nurse. I’m doing way more small format “don’t care” kind of work and redefining success as creating anything that is capable of being photographed close up, printed, and drawn over again. It’s been a

As always, working on finding out what I like. The shape on the lower right is kind of a landmark moment where I was able to leave some wide open spaces, but not have them feel boring. That’s a really good feeling balance of graphite and watercolor to me. Got the dog hair included, of course. 🥰

Practice with my ultraportable sketch setup. This was done on 1/4 page of A4 waterproof TerraSlate paper with Daniel Smith watercolor sticks, 1.3 mm graphite and 0.5 mm graphite. Working on figuring out my preferred balance of precision and mush - not that there has to be a single preferred style 🥰

This is going to be the year of the ultra portable art kit for me. I’ve got some watercolor sticks and water brushes in the bag, as well as room for phone and reading glasses. Just need to add a little envelope or something for finished pieces.🥰❤️

I will take progress anyway I can get it right now. Surprisingly enough, I actually am making headway in my commercial work, but it’s being supported by really messy recreational art time. Yes, I can get viable starting points even with a big dog in my lap. And that’s good because he’s got a

One week after the spleen removal, Spiffy the Rottweiler is doing very well. Recreational artwork is on hold and professional stuff is moving along slowly. ❤️🍩❤️

If any of you need a little bit of color palette inspiration, I’ve got one of my e-books available for free on Amazon this week. Use the “buy now for $0.00” button to get your copy. Angie's Color Inspiration - Palettes 1 to 250 (Angie's Color Inspiration for Colorists and Crafters) a.co/d/cfnVasa

Today in Black History: On January 25, 1972, Shirley Chisholm launched her presidential campaign. She called for a “bloodless revolution” at the forthcoming DNC convention. She became the first black and woman to run for her party’s nomination for POTUS. She was “Unbought and Unbossed.”

Today in Black History: On January 25, 1851, abolitionist and women’s rights activist Sojourner Truth delivered her historic “Ain’t I a Woman?” speech at the first Black Women’s Rights Convention in Akron, OH. sourcebooks.fordham.edu/mod/sojtruth...

Life is going to be derailing art for a little while for me. Catch up with you all when we are over the hump. The good news is that our dog is recovering well after major emergency spleen removal surgery he’s going to be priority number one for a bit. ❤️

Want to see some amazing inspired line work? Follow this guy and be sure to page down and look at all his drawings. I find this to be so much more real than realism. 🥰

Don’t you just love how fresh and alive the lined and colors are in Kate’s picture?

Photo storage has become so cheap and convenient, and the ability to take a photo is always at my fingertips. A couple of times a week I try to catch up on my artwork pile and take close-ups and accumulate visual stuff to look at on another day. Wonderfully low effort and high reward. 🥰🥰❤️❤️

get in loser, we’re posting lock screens 🎨

#OnlyBeautifulThings Mabel the goat in the garden - this time using the correct hashtag to share her important message.

#OnlyBeautifulThingsDay - Mabel the goat in the garden

This woman’s photography is really stunning and you should take a look at it. Incredible bird photos and also check out the rest of her feed and buy the book she’s written because that’s great too.

I think it’s a really good day for some bright and easy coloring. From Rebalance Easy Mandalas a.co/d/cRkXLbh

Some excellent advice from Jay

@jayispainting.earthskyart.ca pointed out the obvious, that most people here are probably not aware of most artists older work. Here’s something from way back when during old blogging days. www.angiegrace.com/breathe-grap...

@lettieblue.bsky.social and I have a new book available on Amazon. This is the easy version of our Rebalance mandala book. As well as being a great way to support your friendly neighborhood Bluesky artists it’s also a fantastic way to relax and work through color ideas. amzn.to/4alH4EP

It’s disco eyeball man! And he wasn’t even close to the weirdest thing that was on that page. 🤣🤣🤣 And look at that lovely textural graphite with crispy edges and no smudging. That’s a 1.3 mm mechanical pencil lead on TerraSlate paper, which hits all the right sensory notes for me. Loving this! 🥰🥰🥰❤️

For @bjbalas.bsky.social - screenshot examples where a single line work drawing and the same palette of colors are interpreted differently by different colorists. The fourth picture actually had me double checking to make sure that really is the same pattern.

Now in the accumulating piles of doodads stage. 🤣 Happily focused on manipulating shapes and oblivious to outcome. Switched to the fast synthetic paper where the pencil feels like it’s skating on ice – which is appropriate for the upcoming weather.🤣🤣🥰❄️❄️🥶

Even though these are all interesting and fun to color, they don’t work as a direct feed into my coloring book art. Any one of the motifs would be worth developing into a mandala, but I think books constructed out of the same shapes over and over and over again would be boring and tedious to color

Today I feel like I banked enough shape starts recently to feed into my commercial drawings, so it’s a good time to explore a different path with my recreational stuff. I’m curious what range of art constructs could come out of new morphings and arrangements from my shape harvests. This is kind of

@motherofwolves1111.bsky.social welcome to blue sky!

Fun with process. This is 5.6 mm graphite drawn through puddles of wet watercolor on waterproof paper. It was very tactile and immersive even if the line work and color are quite raw. I consider this kind of thing a 100% win as a start and there are a lot of things that can happen next. I could…

Preparing for the “ruin it” stage. 🤣 I absolutely know that my pencil hand and focus will have a disconnect between the way it was moving last night and the way it will move this morning. I don’t even attempt to fight stuff like that anymore and just enjoy veering off in a new direction each day. 🥰❤️

😵‍💫😵‍💫🤣 90% of my tortured artist struggle is due to obstinately drawing what I want to draw knowing that it has no readable meaning to others. The other 90% of the struggle is the endless search for new leading lines to follow. And yes, I know that makes 180% tortured artist to struggle, lol. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤪🤪🤪🥰❤️

A slightly different twist on graphite over watercolor on waterproof paper today. The light watercolor wash included Daniel Smith’s hematite genuine shade, which has magnetic pigments. Some of the texture was formed by waving a magnet over the paint floating in water. 🥰🧲🥰

Ah, that’s better. A few art material changes and a big snowstorm tipped me toward trying to control things more than playing follow the leader – and I just don’t like my art as much when my lines or colors look like they are being pushed. This one had some good moments and led itself. 🥰 😁❤️🥰

Trying very hard to use a little restraint today and not use all of my colors all at once. It’s working so far, but I know it’s not going to last much longer. 🤣🤣🤣🤣

Close-up areas from some fun color work yesterday. At the moment, I’m not really caring about anything beyond colorful details. I think it’s going to be a tiny pieces over pictures kind of day. 🥰

Lots of moving pieces in my practice today – color and line doing their thing and not always sure how they want to play together yet. Each of these pictures is like a doorway toward some interesting exploration and I’m not sure yet which ones I’ll like, but I’m very curious. 🥰🥰❤️

This is basically a swatch sheet. The full page has 16 different watercolor shades (often on top of each other) and then soft pencil to play with the underlying shapes. It’s going to be messy, but it’s enjoyable. 🥰

Fun with neutrals today. 🥰 This is the Daniel Smith lunar black and sodalite genuine over graphite on waterproof paper. The colors go well with our pre-snowstorm cloud colors outside this morning - except there’s a lot more variety in my neutrals than in real life at the moment. 🤣

Simple shapes and pretty colors. I am totally loving the combination of graphite, Daniel Smith watercolor sticks and TerraSlate waterproof paper. With a small brush and a thimbleful of water it’s such a grab and go kit. And to change out rinse water, there is so little that I can just wipe it out…

A typical start of the day 🥰

Art material stuff is often an endless cycle of revisiting various media after a new addition to the paper stash opens up another million possible combinations of ways to do things. Finding just the right pencil to use on this waterproof paper to balance smoothest drawing with lowest smudge risk. 🤔🥰

I really love these two colors together - Daniel Smith’s cobalt teal blue and nickel azo yellow. And this utilitarian paper I’m using this morning doesn’t even begin to show the range they can achieve to their best advantage. 🥰🥰🥰❤️

Fun with making watercolor textures today

Playing with some new water colors today and everything is turning into accidental landscapes featuring tractors by the side of the pond. These tractors are just magically appearing out of nowhere. 🤣🤣🤣

The fast pencil and watercolor on the glossy paper again and this time it ended up looking like two brides fighting over a bouquet, with a third one laying on the floor unconscious. The bride on the right apparently has her foot on the 3d to hold her down. Crazy lines with a mind of their own. 🥰🥰❤️