New app and new pen

I am continuing on my journey with digital art, drawing with a digital pen to be exact.  I have been considering the apple pen for a few weeks now and with the stimulus money everyone is getting I almost talked myself into it but then I went on Amazon and found another brand cheaper.  I was hesitant at first but 2 things made me purchase it.  1. This is a hobby I don't need to spend the big bucks yet ($36. versus $100.) and 2. This pen got a 5-star rating!

Also the app I am now using is Procreate.  I'm sure everyone in the world has heard of it except for me but now I'm on board guys!  So here are my 5 latest drawings:

You can teach an old dog new tricks

I have 2 boys, ages 13 and 11 and they both like to play video games, surprising I know.  Well back in the day I did too! My favorite was a toss up between Centipede and Q*Bert... oh then there was Frogger and Jungle Hunt, oh the memories!  So I guess it will come as no surprise that I’m a casual gamer today. My boys and I have a lot of fun playing Roblox together and we’ve been playing Minecraft for about 7-8 years now.  Yes they were very young when they started playing video games.

I’m sure you’re wondering what video games has to do with crafting. Well, I have found a few apps that let me transform on pictures into watercolors or Monet-type paintings. And while this is fun, I want to be more creative. Enter the world of drawing apps! I NEVER thought I’d find this art form satisfying but guess what? I do!  My favorite one is called Sketchbook although I’ve downloaded Procreate because everyone says that’s the best one to get.  I can see why everyone says it’s good but it doesn’t have the one feature that I like about Sketchbook: the division aspect. Let me show you:
I start out like this:

It’s like a pie that has been divided into 10 sections.  I add color to one section and it mirrors it in the other 9 sections.  Then I use the smudge tool to start blending the colors and eventually I end up with something like this:

Then I add my curly-q’s in there and polish up the lines and end up with this:

Here is another one, start to finish:

 And I post one last one:

During this quarantine I haven’t stopped creating but quite the opposite, I’m teaching this old dog new tricks!

I have put a few of these designs on Spoonflower, the app that lets you create custom fabric, but I haven’t gotten the alignment right yet.

Since March 13,2020

March 13, 2020  Friday.  This is the day the world stopped, school had been cancelled for the next two weeks because of the corona virus (Covid-19) and no one knew what this meant.  No one knew what to do with themselves. I had just finished up my first week at my new job - a nanny for a 16 month old little boy.  At the end of this two week period the governor announced that the school systems in Virginia would be closed through the end of the academic school year (but they would still continue to do school work via the computer).  WHAT?!
 
My quilt guild meeting was supposed to be held Saturday, March 14,  where we were to enter our guild challenge quilt that I had been working on since November.  Actually I had finished mine in December but I was so excited to show everyone what I had done... and to post pictures here!

It has been 3 1/2 weeks now and I know this will go down in history AND I know I should be writing about it but I am still dumbfounded by it all.  For introverts like me I LOVE this time, I don't have to interact with people and I can sew all day.  But then I watch the news and it scares me, no it terrifies me! I worry about my parents in WI and really wished they didn't live that far away.  But I check on my mom daily to make sure they are wearing masks when going out... not that they should be going out except for groceries and medicines.

And if anyone is reading this years later, YES we had to wear masks in public.  There are a lot of tutorials on how to make masks with household items but when you are a quilter like me you have fabric for the entire world!  But it takes time.

My sister-in-law asked me if I could make a total of 19 for her and family and friends.  I was hesitant at first only because I had never made one and it made it seem that more real. But I did and I'm glad I did.  I dropped them in the mail yesterday and felt good that I had given 5 people a little hope for not contracting this disease.

Stay safe and stay at home everyone.  What they keep saying on the news is that we need to "flatten the curve."

I've been doing more drawing than sewing

Last November (at my last post) my quilt guild announced the theme for this years guild challenge, "Let's Go Fly A Kite"... immediately my creative juices started flowing... a little black girl flying a kite... in a little yellow dress... make her 3-D... make the kite 3-D...!!! So that's what's been on my sewing machine BUT I can't post any pictures until March, that's when they'll be judged.  I can't wait because mine is so out-of-the-box that I'm not sure what they are going to think, but generally they like my work.

Something that I've been doing for years and years is drawing zentangles, or zendoodles.  I have created a separate blog for my works of art here: Timeless Tangles and I just posted a new challenge created by Jake Parker of Inktober that you might want to check out.
This is one of my zendoodles but everyone creates them differently:

Crozet Arts Festival

This weekend since both of my boys had playdates at friends houses I took the opportunity to sneak up to Crozet, VA for their annual arts festival.  Last weekend was the Newport News Fall Festival and although I went to it, this was the first year I wasn't able to participate in it (since getting a full time job).  So that is two art shows in two weekends!!  I am still trying to get my creative mojo back and this weekend was what I needed.  I met three wonderful women with amazing talent and in the next post I will share links to their amazing works.  Thanks for stopping by! 

Getting back into watercolors

Since getting a full time job I haven't wanted to cut or sew fabric because it takes a lot longer to sew a quilt now.  I can only work on projects at night and by the time I get home all I want to do is rest (I work with two-year old's at a preschool). 

I taught myself how to watercolor about 10 years ago so I thought I'd try my hand at that again.  I started with leaves because they are kind of easy:

My first one was the one in the top left but by the time I got to the bottom right one I didn't like how they were turning out.  My favorite one is the one with yellow leaves and a few roots.

Since moving to the Blue Ridge mountains I've seen a lot of artists paint these mountains so I thought I'd give that a try too:

I loved how my leaves turned out ( above) so I returned to those but tried my hand at an entire tree:

To me it looks like a "Winnie The Pooh" tree.

I then decided to paint lavender but I don't like how this one turned out:

My favorite flower has always been the Black-eyed Susan so I tried to paint two different versions, one tighter and one more loose and free flowing:

 One of my favorite birds is the blue jay so I sketched that one yesterday and hopefully I'll get it painted this weekend so stay tuned!

Update, I'm back!

Where do I even start?  Well I have decided to change the name of this blog back to KIMagination.  The main reason being that when I did art shows, and my sign read October Cat Studios, people thought I only sold cat stuff.  And while I do love and adore cats, I have never limited myself to one subject.

The last time I posted I had briefly mentioned that my husband and I bought a house.  As of June first we have lived in it a year and not only do my husband and I love it but our boys do as well.

In April my mom had hip replacement surgery so I flew up to WI to help my dad take care of her for two weeks and it was nice to see them again and to know what a big help I was.  They moved a year and a half ago to Wisconsin from my childhood home in Virginia.  I've had a hard time dealing with their move as I've always been close to them.  My mom's new hip is doing great though!

When I got home from WI I started looking for a job.  I have been a stay at home mom for 3 years but our boys are becoming more self sufficient and we have a house note to pay!  Within a week I had a new job! I am now working at a preschool with the two year olds (pray for me!)  "rejuvenating place" of art.  I haven't wanted to sew or quilt or paint or draw or anything for about six months now.  It seems like after the NN Fall Festival (my last post) art no longer brought me joy.  I have done a few projects here and there but I am now trying for get my creative mojo back to relieve the stress from working with 2 year olds.

Over the next few posts I'm going to be catching you all up on what I have done this past year AND what I'm working on now.

Thanks for sticking with me!
Kim

Newport News Fall Festival!

I know I've been MIA for a while but it's because WE BOUGHT A HOUSE!! So this summer was all about purging old junk and moving to our new place.  As soon as the boys went back to school I told myself that I really needed to buckle down and get ready for this year's fall festival.  So here are a few pictures from this weekend:

One of my new items this fall was my zendoodle notecards.  Here's a better picture I took before the festival:

My booth may look totally different next year because as I was sitting there assessing what people were buying (and not buying) and what creative endeavor I like to spend my time doing now... I think I'm "reinventing" myself.  

I probably won't shut this blog down but I will be devoting more time to my newer blog over here: Timeless Tangles Thanks for looking!