Danielle Calabro

Still just doodling away, my goal is to fill this small sketchbook up over the next few months.  The biggest challenge with this trying to use different patters for each section.

Over the weekend I learned two friends of mine are getting married and I am super excited for both of them. So excited it inspired me to create this: I wanted to do something with hearts, I found some awesome inspiration, this Celtic knot was perfect for the meaning. This knot has no beginning and no end just like love should be.  The back ground was painted with watercolors and then drew in the weave which was shaded with pastel pencil and the black was done with a black Copic marker. This was a true mixed media project. Watercolor, pen, marker, charcoal pencil and pastel pencil.  I got a little worried when I got farther into this project,  I decided to do the weave in the background, which was a hell of a lot harder then I expected but it was too late to back out, I had already started the lines but it turned out better then I thought it would. I decided to add some shading, everything was looking a little flat. Let me know what you think, this may end up...

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?

I know I said I was done doing trees for a while but I picked up this really cool handmade watercolor journal from hand-book journal Co from Hobby Lobby. The pages  have deckled edges, Love it! I wanted something to go across the first two pages and what better then a big tangled tree. As you can tell by this painting I really like Blue and green together and I added a touch of yellow. I also wanted to test some new white pens, which I have been on the hunt for forever and after a very intense search for the perfect white pen I stumbled across a few reviews on Uni-ball Singo Broad. I had never seen these in the store here so I ordered them off Amazon and I can say I absolutely love these. They have a nice thick line and have a great opaque white pigment. I didn't have a problem with them pulling up the black gouache, only one minor  problem, I went though the whole pen with this one tree. I also picked up the Uni-ball Angelic, it is great for the thinner lines but it doe...

I have finished my final Zentree, as I have mentioned before I have decided to have prints made of my ZenTree Collection. There will be 4 of each for know. The first three I should have in a couple of weeks. They will be on cold press watercolor paper and printed with archival inks. I have made sure I have picked a high qualityArt printshop, I also did a walk through and I was very impressed. Needless to say I am very excited and proud of myself making this step. I know it will be an investment well made. My Etsy shop will be going through a name change and facelift over the next few days also. Watercolor, gouache and pen I let my daughter pick the colors for this one and in observation of the 4th of July she picked Red, White and Blue.  So it is on tho the next project, I have decided I am actually going to follow through with something I keep saying I am going to do. I will be creating my own Christmas cards this year. I know its a little early but I have had a habit...

Watercolor Pencil and Ink Well, here is another Zentangle™ I did, what should have only taken me a couple of days to finish took me about a week. Here is what I have learned with this little piece of art. I decided to use watercolor colored pencil to add color, which by the way is not the norm for a Zentangle™, from what I have read anyways. I drew out the basic area that I wanted to tangle then used the watercolor pencils to color the area in then used water to turn it in to the watercolor. I used regular watercolor paint for the larger background color. Which I think I may upgrade to the tube watercolors, using the smaller pallet watercolors can be a bit time consuming. So here is the problem I found when using watercolor pencils with your regular multiliner pens. Apparently the watercolor pencils still keep that waxy film even when it is diluted with the water.  Don't get me wrong, I loved the pencils and I think they will be great with other projects but not so much wit...

As I have said before when I have painters block I will doodle, sketch or Zeltangle®. Well I have had painters block for a few days because I have been under the weather, of course that doesn't mean I haven't try to throw some paint on canvas, just means I don't like whats on that canvas...:) So between the coughing, sneezing and everything else that goes with a nasty Florida Cold I have been working on this: As you can see it is unfinished, I am using gouache to put color in it. I love Zentangle® it is a great outlet when painting isn't going my way. I would really love to incorporate it in an actual drawing of a landscape or something along that lines.  At the moment the only thing that is finished is the orange going around the outside. I am hopping a feel a little better today to at least get half of it painted. I can't wait to update this when it is finished.  Tell me what you think? 

Every artist knows you have to keep your creative juices flowing, I can not always find the time to paint so I doodle or draw. I have been interested in Zentangle for a while, I think it is a very interest form of art. Now I can't say I dont use an earaser (you are not suppost to) I am too much of a perfectionest not too. Anyway, for me this is a great way to get your creative juices flowing. I would like to share some of my skeching tools with you. When I find a product that I love and I know works I want to share them. I will admit, some of my tools can be pricey but I have used trial and error and found that spending a little extra money on a great product makes a big difference. These are my go to sketching tools: Blackwing Pencils - they are so smooth to draw with Copic Multi liner pens - Great to use with my next tool, they do not smear when used with markers. Copic Sketch Markers - they are alcohol based so the blend beautifully Prismacolor colored pencils - these ...