Danielle Calabro

In between everyday life and learning to use the Silhouette I have still been doodling away. Usually watching Destination America, I am a sucker for ghost stories, on occasion they will have a real scary one that freaks me out a little but what can I say, that is my go to channel.  When I am not sure what I want to draw I will plop down on the couch, grab a blanket and a pillow to put on my lap with my sketch book and pens in hand along with my favorite channel. Sometimes I start and erase 4 or 5 times, other times I know exactly what I want to do. Here is a small collection of 3 couch sessions. Of course if I have something important to work on I will be at either my computer desk or art desk. I am curious to know who else has a go to place when you are just trying to stay creative? Do you have background noise like a radio or TV? What are some of the things you create when you doodle?

One of my favorite sayings....... No matter how it is said it is easy to understand. Live every moment, live for the future, you learn from the past not relive it. Laugh as often as you can, laughter is truly an awesome medicine, not a permeant cure but it makes the rough time more bearable. Love as much as you can, beyond words, actions speak louder than words.

So things have been a bit busy since Christmas, mostly at work. We have had a few changes and it is taking time to adjust but we will get there, just a little wore out. The only thing I have been able to do lately is doodle, but being creative non-the-less. The one on the right may actually make a good coloring page. I also had to take time this weekend to clean up and organize my creative space, honestly I have refused to go into this room unless I had too, I have been doing all of my doodling in a small sketch book for the las couple of months in the living room. I also had to move the game system out of this space, my son is a very talkative and expressive kids so he can become very distracting, only a bad thing when you are trying to focus. Excuses I know, but I have remedied most of them so on to more creative fun.

A week before my surgery our nephew said he wanted me to draw up a fairly simple mock up tattoo that he could take to the tattoo artist. I was a little excited, a piece of my art work on someones body and someone I know, lets do this! So I asked him what he wanted, a heart with a banner going through it and roses at the top, like I said fairly simple. I drew it up a couple of time before I was happy and he was happy with the outcome. Original sketch I scanned the artwork and kept the original, I had other plans for this little creation. Anyway, I told him I wanted to see the tattoo once it was done, he was going to have the tattoo artist add wings. I get a text the next day with the picture, looked nothing like this, he said it would have cost him around $300 to get this one full color. I was a little disappointed but I still had this cute piece of art, so I went to work on it. added ink and designs I played around with it and liked it more then the original, so I went a st...

Well after months of talking about moving it has finally happened. We have been in our new house for about 3 weeks now, we are mostly unpacked except for the stuff that isn't a necessity. I was finally able to set down and draw on paper for the first time in over a month and it was great. I can honestly say I missed it. With all the moving and getting settled I was having a little block so I just drew out the same things I had on my tablet. I was going to use watercolors or inks but had to stick with my Copic Markers, the area where I have my art desk was a complete mess. All-in-all, I like the way this came out, it was just a cute little doodle to get me back into the flow again. I also invested in a better scanner specifically for scanning my artwork, very satisfied with they way it scanned in. It may be slow going for a little while, while we settle in a little more. We have lots of boxes in the garage still and smaller ones lingering in the house and as much as I'd lov...

As moving day is coming closer I have had to pack up most of my art supplies, which has limited me to 2 small sketch books, the pens I use the most and my handy, dandy tablet. I have turned to my tablet lately and have been pleasantly surprised by what I have been able to do. I had a very difficult time at first drawing on the tablet so I did more tradition, pen and paper drawings. Since I basically have no supplies for another 30 or so days I have made it a mission to keep creating what ever way I can in between, packing, children, work and life in general. This is how I have started my last 2 tablet drawings: Just a scribble across the entire screen, in the righthand side I saw a penguin and that was were I was going to started, then I on the bottom lefthand side I saw a duck and thats were I started. This is the cute little duck that came from this scribbly mess: I am finding many benefits of sketching on a tablet Layers - I can start a new layer and not...

As moving day is getting closer it is time to pack up most of the art supplies so I decided to give drawing on the tablet a try again. I am very happy with they way this came out. I started by scribbling all over the screen then staring at it until I found some shapes.I had no intention of drawing something baseball related but that's what happened. It was nice to go into this with absolutely no idea of what I was going to draw. So, LET'S PLAY BALL!

It takes some time to find the right idea, then it takes some time to get it just the way you want it. This is a little look at me coming up with some ideas and sketching them out in pen, a few I did with pencil first. I like to do a lot of my doodles in pen, that way if I make a mistake I have to find a way to work with it or around it.

I have never been a big reader, I hated reading until I picked up one book in particular. I had a friend tell me about a book that had been out for about 8 months at the time, "Fifty Shades of Grey." Yes I was one of those women that read them all, and I love Ellie Goulding song, "Love Me Like You Do," her newest album is great too. I will admit, I was not impressed by the movie, of course most book to movies rarely are as good as the book. So in one of my moments where I was having a block I played with some lettering and tangling, here is the finished result: I wanted to add a little color so I used watercolor pencils to add color to the word bubbles. I am very happy with the end results. I still find it amazing, you can finish one project and think it's just ok then go back to it a few days later and love it. 

I started this 2 page Mandala a few weeks ago and decided to finish it up. Done in watercolors, gouache and white pen. I left the black circles blank because they were too small for the pens I was using and I hit a block. On one of the mandalas I tried using a black Copic marker but it was absorbed into the white ink so it now looks gray.  The large one is my favorite, probably because I had more room.  This was defiantly a test of patients for me, that why it took a few weeks to finish, I had to go back to it when I wasn't completely stressed out.     

Staying true to what I love to draw I have yet another page of flowers.  Still doodling my way through life, after the kids are in bed and the hubby is off to work this is my way of shedding off the stress of the day. There was no planning to this, I went straight to paper with pen. This took about a week to draw out, and a few days to fill in with Copic Markers. I am trying to make sure I am creating everyday, in between work and life I am staying on track. there are days I only get in an hour but more often then not I am going at it for a few hours. I have learned a great deal of patients doing more pen sketches, and it has trickled over to outside of my art. I have said this before in other post, I am not a patient person by nature but over the last few months doing more tangles has taught me to slow down, evaluate then execute.

Some how I have been able to keep my creativity flowing, even with everything going on. I am calling this one, "Ladybug Landings." This is page 2 of the new sketchbook and try to my word, I tested out the watercolors. They worked great, didn't lead through at all. I also used water-based paint markers and of course my trusty Copic markers and pens. I did something a little different on this one. I wanted a little more depth so I added extra shading with multiliner pens.  I like the way it turned out, there are a few areas I would like to re-do but for the most part very happy with the way it came out. With a little more practice shading with pens and that won't be a problem anymore, of course we are our own worse critics.  Do you see the ladybugs? 

Doodle done with Copic markers, multiliners and pencil Last Friday I did a little shopping, got paid and needed to (wanted to) pick up a few things.  One thing was a smaller sketchbook, something that could fit in my purse. I always have to get the first page done right away so above is page one of my new compact sketchbook. I was hoping it would stand up to my Copic markers but unfortunately they bleed through a bit. I will be trying out  watercolors next to see how it stands up to the water. You should be able to check that out in a few days, that is if the kids don't come home with loads of homework every night.

There is a place in Orlando, FL called Leu Gardens , it has been well over 10 years since I have been there but I remember it like it was last year. It is magnificent, I remember walking around there for hours. When I was younger I would go there to photograph the flowers. Sadly I have lost touch with it, talking about it makes me want to go again, take my kids to one of the movie nights they have there. Go during the day and photograph some of the flowers all while listening to my children tell me how hot and bored they are, it's great to torture your kids with a little fresh air. Honestly I'm not sure how they will act bit hopefully they would enjoy it. I sat down last weekend and started this sketch and I finished it up last night, it reminded me of the times I use to go to the garden. I sketched this out in pencil then went over the sketch with my Micron pens and color was added with Copic markers. I am sure you have heard me say this before and I am going to say ...

I originally started this garden with the intentions to do tangles on it and as you can see I changed my mind. I started with a watercolor background and used salt to add some little effects. Once the background was dry I drew out my little garden. I then painted it in with gouache, outlined and added some details to the plants and rocks. After staring at it for about 30 minutes I figured out what I was missing....some depth. To be honest I have been staying up so late lately that the last thing I wanted to do is get the paint out and then have to clean up a mess but I wanted to finish. I grabbed my copic markers and figured what the hell, lets see if they will work on top go the gouache and they did. All of the shading was done with Copic markers.

My art has changed over that year since I have started. I started with acrylics and have moved to smaller more detailed art. I still like playing around with the acrylics but I am still trying to find myself as an artist. I love doodling, I love watercolors and I love mixing them. I also love working with my Copic markers. I purchased a new compass last week and I wanted to put it to the test. I am not sure if any of you remember from an earlier post I had started a page with just the rectangle and had a bunch of white left. I decided to add to the page and this is what I came up with. I used Copic and Micron multiliner pens and filled the tangles in with Copic Sketch markers. I am not sure if this type of doodling will get me anywhere but it is defiantly a way to keep my creative mind flowing.  What do you do to keep your creative mind flowing?

We are have now made it to negotiations with the bank for our new house, hopefully they do not come back with a ridiculous counter offer. Then it is one to running the numbers then inspection. If everything good good then hopefully we will be moving in a couple of months. Then my poor children will get pulled out of school to start a new one, wish this would have been finished before school started but I have lost hope with that. So I have been a little stressed and have hit an artist block again, painting is being forces so it is time to step back. Instead of forcing an idea I have turned to my trusty sketch book and doodling. My way of keeping my creativity flowing, when I can't focus. I do plan on starting the next painting I am going to use for a Christmas card, that should be one of the next couple of post so look for it, think Carrot and coal.