Knowing when to give up and go to the beach...sounds so simple, doesn't it?! And yet most of us just keep slogging rather than taking that much needed break.

It's hard to step away even though we may not be at our best and on top of our game. We keep pushing and pushing.

Giving ourselves a break is often much easier to do than we think it is. We may not be able to get to the beach, but what about playing with the dog or sitting in the sunshine?

When I saw the original quote that gave me the idea for this, it was about having a drink and while that works too, I think getting outdoors and enjoying the springtime is a much better choice—especially if you happen to be close to the beach!

With that in mind, I set out to create a quick page in my sketchbook and that blossomed into a class!

I'll be teaching this at Keeton's Office and Art Supply, this Saturday, March 26th. They're located in Bradenton.

I hope you can come and enjoy the fun. You do not know how to do lettering to create the page!

I hope to see you there!

There are those days...when it seems that despite the very best of efforts, mistakes happen.

And let's face it, mistakes are going to happen. They can no more be separated from the creative process than breathing can be separated from living.

We're stuck with them...and I dare say that's a good thing!

When Mistakes Happen
During the last class at Keeton's, I heard the telltale "gasp!" quickly followed by, "Oh no!!" from the artist sitting at the front table.

When I glanced up from helping another artist, Faith* was staring down at her work with a horrified look on her face.

"I painted the strawberry juice on the table instead of on the plate!" she said.

Sure enough, it looked as though someone had been very messy ladling out the strawberries for her shortcake. Of course, they hadn't gotten a drop on the plate!

And here's why I say mistakes are the gateway to creativity—because at this point, we have three options:

1. Start over. Give up, tear the page out, gesso over it, glue another piece of paper down, use acrylic paint to cover the offending gaff, or turn the page and ignore it like it never happened. Optional behaviors: wring hands, gnash teeth, wail inconsolably.
2. Quit. Quit painting, quit sketching, quit trying, quit being creative. Swear off all creative endeavors. Optional behaviors: Sulking, stewing, anger, temper tantrums. 
3. Play. Recognizing the opportunity that's just fallen into your lap and playing! That's right, play. After all, if your other two choices are either to hide or destroy the work and the other is to quit, why not play and see what happens. You will not have lost anything if you still cover up or tear the page out. Optional behaviors: laughing, learning, thinking, smiling, embracing, experimenting, shrugging, moving on.

Starting over can be creative, but what I'm talking about is embracing the mistake and finding a way to incorporate it without giving up and beginning anew. This takes Intelligent Creativity. It requires stepping back, taking an objective look at the work, consider the tools at hands and how best to create something new or different from the detour we took from our expected outcome.

This usually requires a bit of ingenuity and letting go of expectations as to how the page was suppose to turn out.

Are Mistakes Bad?
The foregone conclusion most of us operate under is that mistakes are bad...but are they?

It's worth our time to examine that statement to see if it's true. Have you ever gotten lost on the way to a destination only to discovered a newfound place you'd never have stumbled upon if you had not gotten lost?

When I looked over Faith's page, I saw a "fix" immediately to do away with the messy strawberry juice that marred her creative effort. I suggested painting the "table top" red as if there was a table cloth. And it worked. In fact, it gave her work a strong "pop" of color and a bold, graphic look.

I made a big mistake that day as well. Take a look at the page at the top of this post and you'll see three layers of white whip cream...there were only suppose to be two! This is the page I did for class.

What would have happened if I'd thrown up my hands and quit or gnashed my teeth and threw a temper tantrum because I had too much whip cream? (Is that even possible?!) They probably would have thought I needed some kind of intervention.

Realizing I had too many layers, I decided to incorporate the area to look like an extra layer of whip cream and no one, except for the folks in the class would ever know, unless I told them.

Stop To Think
When we make mistakes, we panic and it seems our default position is usually to start over.

Instead, why not take a deep breath, calm down and figure out a way to make the unexpected change work for us by using our gift of intelligent creativity? By making a conscious decision to let go of our expectations and fear so we can embrace the opportunity to play, we increase our chances of going somewhere new, maybe even better, exponentially.

This is the gateway to creativity and the key usually comes gift-wrapped as a mistake.

What will you do with your next "gift?"

*Faith gave her approval and blessing for me to share her story on the blog. 

Can you go wrong with strawberries...and shortcake and whipped cream? Or dipped in chocolate for some decadent yummy? Or just plain berries, fresh from the field?!

Strawberries are in season in Florida and our Strawberry Festival starts next Thursday so it's seems the perfect time to add some strawberry-awesomeness to our journal.  Berries are a favorite subject of mine because they're easy and because of all that delicious color!

We're going to be painting strawberries AND strawberry shortcake at Keeton's Office and Art Supplies in Bradenton.

Come and join the fun this Saturday, February 27th from 9 am to noon! Please contact Keeton's to register.

Alternate Title: Feeding The Fish

A fanciful interpretation of a Sheephead

Got a few minutes? Let me tell you about our fishing trip last Friday. Our family gave my father-in-law (FIL) a voucher for a fishing trip for his birthday back in September and you know how it goes, we assled (southern word) around and time got away from us.

White Egret looking for an early breakfast

Fast forward to the first of the year and my FIL was in a panic thinking he was going to lose the trip because the voucher was about to expire, so plans were made. And fell through because the weather is kinda iffy out on the water at this time of year with all weather fronts moving through. (Apologies to my Northern friends, I know this is nothing compared to what you're dealing with!)

Gulfport Marina

Finally, the date was set—February 12th and...the weather holds! It's kinda cool and there's a front scheduled to move in, but we're going. Now there is some kind of a law that says you have to go early if you're going to do anything outside (in Florida) and if you're with my FIL, you'll be there even earlier than early.

Unfortunately, the guy with the boat did not get the "early memo" and was not there early. This left us plenty of time to explore the marina. This took about 10 minutes. After that, we started bird watching...osprey, sparrows, egrets and a big blue heron (which I missed getting a photo of). It sounded a little like Jurassic Park with all the bird cries.

He was dissuade from going fishing with us after being shooed away from the boat

Boat guy shows up, gets the boat in the water, gets bait and we're on our way.

The next three and half hours include watching the dolphin, catching fish (and throwing the little ones back), motor issues, being towed, more fishing and finally, coming back in. As they* say, "a bad** day fishing beats the best day in the office."

Engine trouble on the water. This is the tow boat taking us back to shore.

*They as in expert fisherpeople.
**This was in no way a bad day!

Blue skies, sunshine, and biting fish—the recipe for a most excellent day on the water!

Keepers of the day

As for the title of this post, there are times to sketch and there are times not to. I found between the movement of the boat, the boat wakes, the cold and the general environment (wet), I was not inclined to attempt to sketch. even though I had my sketching stuff. The boat was a tight fit for five people with each of us constantly casting, reeling in fish, getting hung on the rocks below and baiting hooks.

The Fishin' Ferlitas!

Could it have been done? Yes. However, after weighing the odds of dropping my sketchbook (probably overboard, knowing me) and/or being in the way of the others, it didn't seem worth the attempt. I waited until I was home and the floor had quit moving before sitting down to sketch.

Up above you see my take on a colorful Sheephead rather than with its normal coloring. An excellent reminder of a super fun day with family doing something we all love. And we still have the fish fry to look forward to! Yum!!

An Imaginary Visit To Norway starts March 3rd!

Examining My Approach

First Up: Quick Lettering Guide Tutorial

There are times when I'm out in the field and I don't want to take the time to carefully draw out lines to get a title of type just right. With this in mind, I came up with a quick way to do lettering without having to invest a lot of time.

Once your art is complete and you're ready to add your title, grab a piece of paper. In my example, I'm using tracing paper as I usually have a piece tucked into the back of my journal. Plain white paper works just as well. (The art is from the Keeton's class demo I did this past Saturday.)

The art is fine the way it is, but I really wanted to add the word, Seaside, at the top of the art.  I probably should have used "gulfside" as this is the Gulf of Mexico. You can click on the photos to see the steps more clearly.

Size the tracing paper to the width of the area where you want the type to appear. In my case, I wanted my type to stretch all the way across the top of the art. Please click on the photos to see the steps more clearly.

Once you have the size, fold the paper in half, then into quarters and then down to eighths. This step really depends on how many letters you'll be using. Fold down as much as you want, but the more folds you have the smaller the lettering will be. It may be necessary to space the words rather than the letters. Please click on the photos to see the steps more clearly.

Once I have my folds, I usually mark the folds as it makes them easier to see. I also mark my center fold with a "c." Based on how many letters and the lettering style I want, I then write out my word(s).

If you already know what lettering style you want, you can use the edge of the paper as your straight line. If you're going to play around with a few different styles, draw out several straight lines to practice different styles.

Knowing I really wanted the long, stretchy lettering, I flipped my paper and wrote out my letters in between the folds rather than on the folds themselves as I did in the first example.

Next Up: NEW Classes Over At ImaginaryTrips.com!!
Okay, I'll admit I jumped the gun a little bit as the poll is still open, but Norway got out in front and never looked back! It's a pretty safe bet we'll be heading there first! To learn more about An Imaginary Visit To Norway, please click HERE! Class will get started on Thursday, March 3rd. Come and join the fun! Did you know they have a knighted penguin?! (I didn't either!)

After Norway, we'll head over to Sweden as Norway and Sweden share a border of over 1,000 miles. The history they share is also quite complex and intertwined. We'll head out for An Imaginary Visit To Sweden on Thursday, April 7th. Wanna come along? Click HERE to learn more! Sweden is home to the largest reindeer herd in the world and I'm pretty sure they've a huge moose population as well.

There's still time to vote on the poll and help decide where we go after we leave Sweden! Click HERE to go to the poll. It's open until February 1st!

I look forward to traveling with you this year!

Have you ever wondered how to sketch a waves, whether on location or in person?

If you're local, please come and join me at Keeton's in Bradenton where we'll be painting waves on Saturday, January 23rd, from 9 am to 12:30 pm. It will be loads of fun! Click here for more info!

Below are some observations on my approach to sketching waves from a photo. After sketching from waves, I highly recommend tackling a few in your sketchbook while you're on location.

Even if you were the speediest sketcher ever, it's doubtful you'd be able to sketch just one wave while you at the beach. Instead, you'd be sketching parts of different waves as they rolled into shore. With a photograph, that's one thing you don't have to worry about as the wave is stopped for you.

Before you start sketching, there's a very important first step you need to do and that's to study the waves to see their shape, light and dark parts of them, where the sun is hitting and what reflections are showing up in the water in front of the wave as well as behind it. All of these things are necessary to sketch a realistic looking wave.

It's up to the artist whether or not to sketch waves in pen or pencil. I've done both and I've found that I prefer just pencil.

When you're ready to sketch, take note of where you place the horizon line. Try to avoid placing it in the middle of the sketch. As humans, we like things divided in thirds rather than halves.

Once you have the horizon line in place, decide if you will add any sand or if your sketch will be all water.  If you're going to add sand, indicate the sand line (bottom of the sketch) AND the water line. I always try to make my water line uneven as water seldom rolls into the shore in an even, straight line.

Study the waves to find out how close to shore they're breaking. You can adjust the waves closer or farther from shore to make a more pleasing composition as well as how many waves are breaking...remember the photo is just for reference!

Sketch the general shape of a wave, clearly defining the white splash of the wave as it breaks. Notice it is not even on the bottom or the top. Include lines to indicate the reflections in front of it. Be sure to draw the edges where the water can be seen curling over on either side. Pencil in the small wave as well. I do not mark the areas of white foam before and behind the smaller wave that can be see in the image above as I know it's there. If you're concerned you'll forget it, lightly mark it in pencil.

Once you're satisfied with your sketch, pull out your paints and paint in your sky. I used a tissue to blot up some of the cloud shapes. While this is drying, I switched to the other end of the paper and painted in my sand and I make sure to go past my waterline as the sand would show through the shallow water.

Once I went far enough, I feathered out the edge so that it faded back to the white of the paper. After the paper was dry, I went back with a dark blue and started at the horizon line and painted down towards the big wave. Along the way, I added some green to the blue to indicate we were closer to shore and the water was not as deep.

Picking up more dark blue, I continued painting around the whites of the wave and towards the foamy area of the water. To indicate the foam, I leave lots of skips allowing the white of he paper to show through. At this point, I stop and check out the reflection in front of my wave. If it needs to be lighter, I can either lift with my brush or use a tissue.

Picking up more of the blue-green paint, I start below the foamy area and begin to paint around the smaller wave line. I then repeat the foamy area and paint up onto the sand area.

I make sure everything is dry and then go back with a damp brush and tickle the edges of the foamy area to soften some of the edges. I pull some of the paint into the white areas so they're not all the same value.

Next, I make adjustments to the wave areas. If you look at the base of the wave where the white water meets the blue, you'll see lots of very dark shadows in a dark blue. These shadows help to give form to the wave. I also take a very small amount of the blue mixed with water and begin to paint all kinds of random marks and squiggles to indicate the water frothing in the white of the wave. If needed, I add more dark areas along either side of the wave to give it more definition. I repeat with the smaller wave.

Last, using the same blue-green paint I used for the water, I paint a section of the sand to indicate where the sand got wet from a prior wave rolling up onto the shore.

After everything is good and dry, I take my white Uni-Ball Signo® pen and put in the white splashes around the waves and along the edges of the water line closest to the sand. If needed, I may add some of the white ink to the foamy areas.

Painting waves is lots of fun and very rewarding. I hope this helps you get started painting waves and I highly recommend going to the beach and sketching live! Meanwhile, I hope to see you at Keeton's!

And don't forget to vote on your favorite location for the 2016 ImaginaryTrips.com classes! Click here to access the poll.

If you're not able to participate in interactive classes, check out the self-paced classes over at The Imaginary Realm. You set the pace and you have access to the materials for a year from the date of purchase! Go here to learn more!

Where would you go if you didn't have to worry about jet lag, expenses, danger, your health, obligations at home, work obstacles, child- or care-giver responsibilities or anything else?!

It's a big place out there and there's so many incredible places to go!

Below, I have added a list of locations that I am considering for the ImaginaryTrips.com Interactive class schedule for 2016. I'd love to know what your TOP 3 choices would be! Feel free to share in the comments why you've chosen your three locations.

If you don't see a destination you'd like to go to, please add it in the comments. I can't promise we'll get there, but I will put it on the list for consideration. Voting is open for 14 days. Three votes per person per day, please!

Willis doing her gargoyle impression in the dark of night

Why are you looking at cute cat photos on an art blog?  On Tuesday, he and I had to run some errands, including stopping by my mother's doctor's office. That took the better part of the day. Wednesday was more phone calls and another visit to their home. Make no mistake, I'm glad to help out and I'm thankful he called so we could get matters taken care of, but I also have to acknowledge it shot a huge, gaping hole into my plans. 

Joey on the "traveling tree skirt" back during the holidays

Moby lounging in the shipping supply box