10 Minute Sketch Tea Kettle

Here is today's 10 minute sketch of my tea kettle. I used my colored pencils for this sketch.  I decided to keep it simple today:)

Here is the real tea kettle with a cut out drawing of a cup

Kind of weird right?  I was going to collage this drawing of a cup into my sketchbook but I thought it looked kind of funny next to a real tea kettle.

Here is my studio space.  I worked in my kitchen today because there was tons of natural sunlight today:)  Sunny but cold....I am so ready for warm weather!

Well enjoy the rest of your Sunday!

10 Minute Sketch: Favorite Nail Polish

Here is my 10 minute sketch...actually it took a little longer because I used acrylic paint and had to wait for some areas to dry...but it was still fairly quick!  This is a sketch of my favorite nail polish called " Pedal to the Metal" by Sally Hansen.  You can see it on my nails in the picture!  It is a silvery/purple color and I love it so much!  The sketch was completed with a mixture of black pen, watercolor pencils and acrylic paint.  I love working in mixed media:)

So what is in store for you this Saturday?  Today the husband watched the baby while I was able to run on the treadmill for the very first time in 2 months!  I am starting to feel more like myself again:)  I can't wait until it is warm outside again so I can run outside (one of my FAVORITE things to do!)  Hope you are keeping warm wherever you are...this morning it said it was 2 degrees outside!  YUCK!

Have a fantastic Saturday!

Items on my desk....

Here are some items that were on my cluttered desk tonight.  I am really trying to do something creative every day  (New Year's Resolution!) and so I decided to do a little still life drawing.  Of course the paper I used was a little larger than my scanner so some of my drawings are cut off...next time I will use smaller paper:)

Hope your day was wonderful...will post more drawings soon!

Ordinary to EXTRAordinary

Happy Saturday! Hope everyone has had a pretty restful New Year weekend!  I know for me it is going to be pretty hard getting up very early Monday morning for work.  I have been sleeping in until 8:30 every morning (it feels so good to do this!)  To get myself back into the work mode I recently updated my school blog with some of my student's artwork.  If you get a chance please check it out here.

I have the best students this year and am so proud of them:) It has been kind of hard to update both this blog and the school blog- but I am trying!

Have a lovely Saturday!

Red cup drawings

Hope everyone had a wonderful Monday! I just wanted to share some of my drawing students'red cup drawings. They are pretty cute and wonderful:) I gave each student a red plastic cup and had students study the highlights and shadows that were on the cup. Students used colored construction paper and colored pencils. They really turned out very fun:)

Well I must go and paint..have a lovely rest of your Monday!

Crazy Surreal Collages

Here are some of my Intro to Art Surreal Collages. They are so much fun and so interesting.








Students are going to grid the drawings


and then redraw them using any media they want. I will post the drawings when they are finished. I think they are going to be great!

On another note.....my dog Jack Henry



got a haircut...and he looks fat! Time to start taking him on more walks!



Well I am off to bed! Have a great night!

A little music to go with your morning coffee...

Let us wake up with a little Norah Jones this morning. She has been one of my favorite singers since she came out over six years or so ago. I know she is so mainstream but I just love her voice.



Here is a cup of coffee to enjoy the music with! Happy Sunday!

Little Jack Henry

Well I was going through some of my old sketchbooks the other day and I came across a collection of sketches I did of my little dog Jack Henry. Yes my dog has two names...he is a very dignified little guy! Usually when I am sketching I draw whatever is in front of me, usually Jack is laying by my side sleeping. He has gotten very lazy in his five years. I don't have much time to draw him because he is a very jumpy little guy so many of my sketches are quick drawings.

Here is the real Jack Henry:


Here are some of my sketches of little J.H






Here is my favorite and most simple sketch of Jack. It was a blind contour drawing done very quickly with a sharpie!


Jack is my muse I guess! What is your muse?

10 minute sketch: Crazy electrical socket

Here is today's 10 minute sketch. It is of a crazy electrical socket in my Grandma's basement. Every Tuesday I go to my Grandma's house to paint, draw...basically anything art related. I love this so much! I completed today's sketch using a blue pen (not waterproof!) and watercolor.

10 minute sketch: Clothes for tomorrow

Here is today's 10 minute sketch. It was done in blue pen and with watercolor. It is of some of my clothes that I have laid out to wear tomorrow for school. They are hanging from a door knob. I am such a dork and try to plan what I am wearing in advance each night. I know the sketch is a little rough...I definitely rushed through it tonight (I am stressed with work and my 2 masters classes!) so the 10 minute sketches are getting pushed to the back burner...*sigh*

10 minute sketch: Nomad's Dream and Mascara

Here is today's 10 minute sketch. It is of two of my favorite beauty items: OPI nail polish in Nomad's Dream (very subtle color that looks great always!) and my mascara. I drew this with black pen and then used my Chartpak markers on top for color. I have decided I like colored sketches more than just black and white.

Intro to Art Projects

Here are some of my Intro to Art students' early exam projects. At my school the art department is allowed to give a project to students for their exams. If the students finish the project they do not have to come in during the exam period. It works really well to motivate students to work!

For the early exam project students were to draw a collection of 7 items from observation. They could use their favorite medium or combination of media (we previously worked with all different kind of media such as paint, charcoal, pencil, pen, oil pastels and colored pencils on other projects.) I had in class a box of wooden shapes, a collection of glass bottles, a box of shoes and fake flowers. If they wanted to bring in their own collection they could. My main objective was to have students draw from observation and to shade the objects to make them appear 3-D. I will be posting this lesson to my educator page if you want to check back for it.



Shapes done with pencil


Shapes done in ink on a light gray painted background


There is always one really creative student! This was done with oil pastels on a painted background.


My bulletin board of shapes (this was a popular item to draw apparently!)


Art supplies done with ink on a painted background


Perfume bottles done with a charcoal pencil on a painted background

10 minute sketch: My favorite boots

Today's 10 minute sketch is of one of my favorite pair of boots. I bought these boots at Target (one of my favorite stores!) I live in Ohio so therefore I wear lots of boots throughout the winter. These are comfortable, cute, affordable and have 3 buckles! In my book, that is a good boot! Oh and yes the foot on the boot is that small...I wear a 5 1/2 which is freakishly small I know! I rarely can find cool shoes in my size! This sketch was done with watercolor and ink.

Hope everyone is staying warm tonight...it is supposed to be -15 to -20. Usually we would have school canceled for tomorrow but since it is a teacher workday I will be forced to brave the cold!

I will be posting some fun new art projects my students did tomorrow so please stay tuned!

Happy Weekend Eve!

10 minute sketch: Tootsie Pop

Here is my latest 10 minute sketch. It is of my favorite candy, Tootsie Pop suckers (chocolate flavored!) I did this in watercolor and black ink. It kind of turned out a little weird but oh well. I think I overdid the hatching in the background...hmmm...I will try to control this next time:)

Today has been a stressful day...I hate stress! I am starting two online masters classes and am trying to figure out when I am going to complete all of the coursework and work my full time job as a teacher and still do the whole art business and blog thing! I will just figure it out I guess! Have a great night!

Art Giveaway: Last day is tomorrow!

Hello! If you have not entered the Art Giveaway please do so by Monday January 12th. The giveaway will close at 8 p.m central time. Thanks to all that have participated in my first one! I cannot wait to give my artwork a great, new home:)

I hope everyone has had a great weekend! I was basically snowed in for the majority of it. I did some artwork, some cleaning and watched old episodes of the Gilmore Girls (one of my guilty pleasures!) Kind of a lazy weekend if you ask me! Tonight I went to a Japanese steakhouse to celebrate my cousin's 30th birthday. Very fun and festive. They through food at you and expect you to catch it in your mouth! I definitely got a shrimp whipped at my face tonight....it did not go in the mouth as planned.



Well here is my 10 minute sketch for today. I did the classic hand pose sketch. I used watercolor and a black pen. Very basic I know...oh well...hands are hard to draw and it is always good to practice them!




Have a great night!

Student Self-Portraits: From Observation

Students in my drawing class just finished these self-portraits from observation using pencil on watercolor paper. They HAD to look at mirror to draw these, no photos! Before we did these we practiced drawing facial features and other people. Students are now working on their final, CREATIVE self-portraits. I will post these when they finish.

10 Minute Sketch: Spoon on an ugly placemat

Well I am on to day 3 of my little resolution! This little drawing was of a spoon I saw laying on the table at my parents' house. It was laying on my Mom's awful looking brownish gold placemat on her kitchen table. Now my Mom has really good taste...so I really do not know why she has these placemats. I guess it will be one of those mysteries in life....

The drawing was done with a ball point pen and Prisma markers. I just love my Prisma markers! They are so old and still work like a charm:)

I hope everyone is doing well on this Tuesday! I thank all of you who have left comments for the art giveaway ! I am super excited about it and cannot wait to give my little artwork a new home!

Since school has started up again I have been very busy and have barely been able to get online (and my internet connection at home is not cooperating!) So I am trying to update this blog and visit my favorite blogs as best as I can! Technology can be so frustrating when it does not work..don't ya think?!

Have a wonderful evening...I am off to bed!

4 Seasons Drawings

I hope everyone is having a great Saturday so far! Where I live it is snowy, cold and icy out! I am happily staying in the rest of the day and plan on drinking a LOT of hot chocolate!

I wanted to post some drawings completed by my Introduction to Art students. The assignment was to complete four drawings that represent each season (Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall.) Students were to use a viewfinder and look through magazines or personal photographs to find images for each season and draw with the following media: pencil, colored pencil, oil pastels and ink with watercolor. Here are some of their drawings:

Winter done in pencil




Spring done in watercolor and ink






Summer done in colored pencil


Summer in oil pastel


Autumn done in colored pencil