New Year Shopping (办年货 bàn nián huò) the Chinese believe that buying new items in the new year symbolises welcoming new things and getting ready for a new start. The traditional shopping list includes meat, vegetables, fruits, candies and nuts are popular items which are later seen on the dinning or coffee table of every Chinese household during the Lunar New Year
Vine Charcoal and Oil Pastel make for a messy, smudgy experience. A certain amount of messiness can make a process feel more real and human. When things aren’t perfectly polished, it reflects a genuine effort, imperfections, and growth. In personal life, letting go of the need for everything to be tidy can promote a more authentic existence. The hat is a Stormy Chromer. It also evolved out of a mess. More on that later. Peace.
Stream of consciousness portrait. Just for fun and... to use of old markers and pens that have been lying around forever. In other words, getting rid of old materials.
Kingfisher is a digital drawing completed on the iPhone 7+ (im looking at getting the ipad pro next month!) This is 1 of a current 6 pieces with the collective title 'Birds Of A Feather' leave any suggestions for birds
I tried getting some ideas on duckduckgo images for a theme on magma.com that was titled Mythological Creatures. Drawn online/live at magma.com using an iPad Pro (no pressure sensitivity and no Ai).
One of my early oils from 2017. I was still getting used to the medium. I liked how the oils worked well for the misty distant hills, and I used glazing for the first time on the clouds.
I've been experimenting doodling on fabric with Sharpies an turning that fabric into pencil cases...I'm getting a good response from people so I think I'll get good quality fabric pens and create some unique items with doodles....
Before getting to this result, I never a actually drew a full fledge skeleton before. So rather than take on the entire thing at once, I took it upon myself to only focus on the upper half of the body. I’m still practicing human anatomy for drawing but I hope overtime, it only improves. :)
We were having a thunder storm, so I figured I’d do a sketch waiting for my markers to get here. I ended up getting carried away and inking it right away. I put a few layers of fixatif on it, and I'm hoping that'll stop the paint/ink from bleeding too much when I apply the markers.
Another "Sick Day Scarecrow" I did recently getting over a cold. There's too much comic stuff to get into to explain this, but in summary its a parallel universe Scarecrow I decided to design who is more of a superhero. Kinda.
I've been getting questions about how I create my art here, so I figured I would upload some progress pieces. Here's the first one! I was listening to the Westworld season 2 soundtrack which always makes me want to draw Harvey (for some reason). I wasn't really practicing anything in particular, just doodling. It was fun to just let my hand wander, though I think the sketch was much better than the inking I did.
A reminder to myself:
On rough days when I feel lost, rudderless, overwhelmed or without direction, I like to remind myself that my track record for getting through tough times is 100% so far. And that’s pretty darn good in the scheme of things.
I am an art teacher with a master’s degree—trained by brilliant professors who believed that art could do more than decorate walls. I offer safe spaces for teenagers to grow—nourishing soil where their imaginations can take root.
And yet… I am assigned to hallway duty.
This is compulsory education, after all.
So I sit—posted like a sentinel—watching young lives stream past.
“Get to class,” I say with a smile and a nudge.
The system wants attendance; I’m hungry for presence.
Armed not with a whistle or clipboard, but with a pen—
my scribble’s soft insurgency.
The hallway stretches out like a geometric hymn.
Columns and corners chant structure.
Teenagers swirl past—half-formed galaxies of limbs and laughter—
their orbits chaotic, their gravity pulling time forward.
I begin to draw.
Not their tardiness, but their motion.
A shoulder. A blur of sneakers.
A tilted head chasing freedom.
Feet flickering like seconds.
Each mark a pulse.
Each smudge a breath.
My paper becomes a seismograph of seeing—
trembling gently through the mundane.
This isn’t about making art for a frame or a feed.
It’s about refusing to leak away in the fluorescent hum of obligation.
It’s a quiet mutiny against the clock.
I do this on long car rides, too (passenger side, mind you).
Letting the lines grow wild, jagged, and unapologetic.
Not for polish—
but for presence.
This is how I remember I’m still alive.
Still growing.
Still watching.
Still choosing to see.
Because sometimes mental health looks like
a piece of scrap paper,
a moving pen,
and the simple, sacred act of
marking time with wonder.
2B pencil focusing on the eye, nose and mouth. The reflection today is a suggestion that we find what we look for, and we see what we want to see. Our family dinners include a sharing time of: 1. Who blessed you today? 2. Who did you bless today? and 3. What are you thankful for? It is suggested by some that if you focus on the abundance, you will not see so much of the lack, but if you focus on the lack, you will not be able to see the abundance so well. This was illustrated by the questions: "How many red cars did you see on the way to work this morning?" My answer was: "No Idea!" It is because I was not looking. If I was being given $100.00 for each red car I spotted, I would have certainly been looking, and maybe even getting creative with the definition of 'red'. What are you looking for? What are you finding?
Practice in crosshatching and drawing skulls in black ink pen, its not perfect but we are getting there folks!
Also, special thanks to fellow doodle addict ❀Misti❀ for her awesome crosshatching tutorial, girl you are awesome!
