Did I made a difference today?

I like to think that in some small way I did made a difference today. I used cloth bags for my groceries. I recycled my cans and plastics. I shopped local. These are all the things my family do now as a matter of course.  Little things adds up.

I think it's great that all these things are now part of our normal daily routine. By doing so, yes, I made a difference today.

The weather was much cooler today and I was able to get some knitting done. I found this project while rummaging in my workroom looking for some sock yarn. I forgot all about this project...it's going to be a light knitted tee done with Habu silk. I'm about halfway through so I might be able to finish this before the end of summer. It's all stockinette stitch and knitted in the round so it's really boring.

Just because

I've been doing my digital journal pages like I would if doing them in a paper journal - layering things on, not worrying about things being covered or how it looks as long as it makes sense to me.
It's quite a liberating feeling.

For the first time in many years I'm feeling cautiously optimistic about work. There seems to be a real commitment for change. Same song, same dance, different partners.  Let's wait and see if things will really change this time.

One hot summer day

It's funny how one thought can lead to something totally different than the original. I saw a boy walking down the street.  What was unusual was that he was dressed in black from head to toe...black fleece hoodie, long black jeans, black hi-top runners, black backpack - on one of the hottest days of the summer. I couldn't help but wondered if all that was for the sake of his fashion statement or was there something more? What was his story? Where was he going? Will he be comfortable when he gets there? As I started to sketch, I started thinking about where I was going with all this and I have no idea. I see some sketches people have done and I would have considered finished when they were at the halfway point. How do you know when something finished?

Life is a lot simpler with knitting.

Sketched on iPad using Sketchclub.

Flower arrangement

Flower arrangement

This started as a digital collage in Sketchclub, using some of the soft edge brushes to make jagged shapes to simulate ripped paper.

1.  Load base drawing/photo.
2. Create a new layer on top and fill with a colour you want your "paper" edge to be.
3. Using a soft edge brush, set it on erase and create random shapes.
4. Merge top layer to photo.
5. Select fill and set to erase.
6. Erase colour, leaving shapes.
7. In Sketchclub, how much of a "paper" edge remains depend on how sensitive you set your fill function.

Once I created several sheets of shapes, I imported them into Procreate. Procreate now has a selection tool so you can select specific shapes. You can cut & paste and move the shapes where ever you want.

The picture was then imported to the Glaze app for a painterly effect but this could be easily achieved in Procreate or Sketchclub using Smudge.

Picture was then imported back to Sketchclub for the pen sketch.

Kitchen Sunday

Kitchen Sunday

Sunday mornings are usually spent in the kitchen baking the batch of weekly muffins and whatever else needed.  This week I made a batch of Charshu for noodle and soup.  It's a very time consuming process but so worth it!  The leftover marinade was used to make the soft hardboiled eggs.

The journal page was done on Sketchclub with a couple of photo edits.  I've been creating brushes in Procreate and bringing them over to Sketchclub.  I think my ideal app would be a combination of Procreate and Sketchclub.

Thankful for:
1. The realization that my life is not bad - as much as I grumble and groan about work, it does afford me the ability to enjoy my real life.
2.  Weekends are the best - I've been noticing I do get to spend a good deal of time on the computer or my iPad.
3.  My niece - she turned 20 today and I think the world of her.  She is funny, quiet, shy, unpretentious, quirky, and extremely creative.

New journal book

Journal - July 13/13

 I bought another little journal book. It's small and black with a hard cover but soft binding so it will lay flat. The million dollar question is - will I use it? I'm not sure. I've been reading everything I could find on the Internet and the one glaring fact is that I need to just do it. You can't get better without practice. I know all that. But I really prefer my iPad. There's no undo in a paper journal. I will carry this little kit around until the novelty wears off or until I use it. Until then, it's an iPad page again.

It doesn't matter...I love new notebooks.

On the fibre front, I'm still knitting my sweater from the recycled denim. I regret doing this in 3.75mm needles!  It's going to take a long time!

Simple lines.

Simple lines

I've been reading so much lately about creating or making something everyday. It got to the point I felt overwhelmed by all the great stuff people were doing.  I didn't know where to start again.

Sometimes all you have time for is just a few simple lines of doodle or a couple of rows of knitting. And that's ok too.

Sketched on iPad.

Canada Day

I find it scary in this day and age that so many people still have so little rights. I am so very thankful that I live in a country where my personal right matter.

Happy Canada Day!

Drawing Apps for iPad

I have a lot of apps for drawing and sketching on my iPad. I think I'm hoping that I will find that ONE app that will make me a great artist. Lol! As much as there's an app for pretty much everything, I really doubt there's an app for that. It's just going to take a lot of practice drawing and drawing and drawing. It's like knitting, you can't knit one row and expect to be perfect.

Sketchclub - great for all around sketching. It has text and vector drawing capabilities. Import to other apps with transparency for more editing. Great to use as a photoediting app as well. Great friendly user interface and easy to learn. Files can be easily imported through iTunes or photoshop for editing and printing.

Artrage - it's a great app but the lagging drives me crazy. This might be my second favourite app if it wasn't for the lagging. Love all the different canvas textures. If you don't mind the lag, you can do wonderful work on this app. I like the watercolour on this app, though. It's an app that you need to take some time to learn.

Procreate - love the brushes and the ease you can create fabulous brushes. Importing them to Sketchclub is a breeze. Import can be done with tranparency if you turn off the main colour on the background layer. Easy to import to iTunes and photoshop for more indepth editing and printing. The transform is not as smooth as Sketchclub.

Sketchbook Pro - when I first got it, it found it hard to learn. I didn't find it user friendly for me. This was my first drawing/painting app and you really need to know how to adjust your brushes. Over the year, the various upgrades made it much more user friendly...or maybe I'm starting to understand how to make adjustments better. I don't know...it is a nice app and I use it occasionally but for now, I'm so much more comfortable with the other apps that I rarely use this one.

I have close to 10 drawing/painting apps. The others are much smaller apps and do a fraction of what these ones do.   I'll play around with them once in a while.

No matter which app you use, the important thing is to get to know it and what it can do. From what I see on the Internet with the work other people put out, they're all pretty good.  It's like knitting needles...it doesn't really matter if you use wood or bamboo or metal or plastic, as long as you're comfortable with the tool you're using, it's all good.

Edited to add - moments after I posted this, Procreate came out with a kick-ass update. Honestly, they're all great apps...Sketchclub is still my go-to app but love all the others too.

Just a doodle

June 27/13 journal page

Done on my iPad using Sketchclub and imported to Artrage for the texture. Coffee cup brush was created with Procreate.

Perpetual Night

Perpetual night

 The painting was inspired by a wonderful Canadian artist, Ted Harrison - I love his use of bright bold colours.

I wanted to play with the new smaint feature on the app. Smaint is smudge with paint. Colours were laid down for the sky first in bands of darkest purple to a sunset orange/yellow. Once that was done, the paint option of smaint was set to off and smudged to blend the sky. White stars were done using small tiny dots. The water was the hardest but I was happy with the results. I wanted it to have some waves for movement. Once that was done, all the layers were compressed and a copy was made. The top copy was put through a noise filter to give it a glow effect.

This was done on my iPad, using Sketchclub app.

Remember to breathe

Remember to breathe

This is something I tell people at work when projects are overdue and everything has to happen at the same time. Sometimes I feel so overwhelmed that you just want to crawl under your desk and hide. It's something that I need reminding of once in a while - breathe.

I'm on vacation now - two weeks. It's not going to be a relaxing vacation. We're finally getting our floors redone. The carpets are finally going. I'm excited but it's a lot of work. We're not doing the actual floor work - a company is doing that. We're painting and moving furniture. Daunting task in the best of times. Last week, I sprained both ankles - stupid thing to do. It's been very interesting trying to stay off my feet and washing walls painting at the same time.

This was done during my "rest" periods on my iPad.

Remember to breathe - everything will get done and it will be okay.

Kindness of strangers

June 6/13 Journal page

Crazy busy at work, shit happened repeatedly all day. Bright spot was going out for sushi at lunch. Left work late, got off the bus and promptly fell, and skinned my knee. The same knee I skinned badly less than a month ago.  The same knee with the ugly scar that was starting to fade. Oh well, it will fade in another 20 years.

But, you know what? It was not a bad day really. I've been looking for binding coils and someone gave me a name and phone number of a print shop. They didn't have what I needed but gave me the number of the company they dealt with. So very helpful. The second company didn't have what I needed but offered to bind my scrapbooks for free when I told him I only needed to bind a couple every so often. Wow! He said they bind so many that slipping in a couple for me is not a big deal. Kindness of strangers made my day.

Journal page June 4/13

June 4 journal page

Salted toffee biscotti with drizzled chocolate

Chocolate drizzled toffee biscotti 

Costco had the Noni ones and they are so very yummy. Of course, once you're hooked, they went and discontinued them. 

I found the recipe here at A Few Shortcuts. 

Sometimes you gotta improvise. The plan was to make chocolate dipped salted Caramel biscotti.  But I couldn't find any of the caramel bits without having to peel wrappers and chop into itty bitty pieces. I found Skor toffee bits. Close enough. Same recipe, sub in toffee bits. It's all good.

Sprinkled less salt on top - request from my salt-conscious hubby, used a nice, fancy smancy chocolate and drizzled, not dipped.

The thing with homemade biscotti is that it never lasts as long as you hoped. Good thing they're pretty easy to make.

EDiM - 30 Closet

Hall closet

We're in the process of clearing out a lot of stuff in our house.  In a couple of weeks, our carpets are being ripped up and replaced with wood floors. As much as I'm looking forward to that, it has been quite a task going through everything.  When I say everything, I mean EVERYTHING!  It's really amazing the amount of stuff you can accumulate in 18 years.

I've really enjoyed the challenge of doing a sketch everyday. I started late with Every Day in May so I'm going to continue in June until I've completed the set.

Sketched on my iPad with Sketchclub.

EDiM 28 - Pitcher

Lemonade

I thought this would be an easy sketch but it was harder than I expected. Drawing glass is not easy. And I suck at drawing ice cubes. I guess I'll have my lemonade warm.

Drawn on my iPad with Sketchclub.

EDiM 27 - Sticky

Sticky molasses

This was in my cupboard. I really don't know how long it's been there but I don't think molasses goes bad.  I love the smell and taste of molasses but it's so sticky that it's a pain to clean.

EDiM #25 - Tote Bag

Duluth tote bag

Sketched on my iPad using Sketchclub. I'm going to be sad when May is over and there's no more EDiM.

EDiM 23 Summer Joy

Fresh peaches

Fresh peaches with mango in a smoothie. Yummy!