Savoring Creativity: A Triple Dose of Sketchbook Challenges - Food Paintings, Inked Recipes & Pleasant Places

Have you ever joined an art challenge? If not, have you ever wanted to join a challenge?

I don’t know how many times I’ve started the #100 Day Challenge only to stop a few days in to it because it was too long a commitment. So this time I decided to create my own sketchbook challenge of painting food from my pantry - spanning only a month long. That can’t be too hard, can it? I also gave myself the freedom to adorn the images any way I want, AND I told myself to not stress about making them too realistic. I knew this meant there would be a few mistakes, stray lines, blotchy paint blobs and wrong colors, but it allowed me to complete the challenge because it was easy and fun!

SEPTEMBER ART CHALLENGE: FOOD FROM MY PANTRY

Using a beautiful sketchbook I bought at Disney Springs in Florida, I quickly sketched out with pencil a basic outline of the food item, then painted away with my watercolors and gouache paint. Partway into the project I realized that some papers had a different level of absorbency and paint wouldn’t spread properly. My best guess is that some pages were put in “backside up,” but I’m not sure. The paper is a gorgeous cotton rag, which has a lovely texture, but it’s known for bleeding. I don’t mind this at all when I’m playing around (in fact - I adore cotton rag paper), but it would drive me bananas if I was trying to do a detailed illustration. That's the fun in allowing yourself to try out new kinds of papers, mediums, and techniques - you learn what you like for certain types of projects.

Here are a few of my favorite illustrations the challenge. You can view them as shorts on my YouTube channel here, or on Instagram here, or on my website here.

After completing my food painting challenge I felt invigorated to do another, only this time I wanted to use a different medium. Since I brought ink back from my recent trip to Japan, I wanted to try it out - as well as use some of my other inks because October is the month for #Inktober!

Instead of using a fountain pen, I wanted to use my glass dip pen from Italy - it works so well and holds a lot of ink. Keeping with the food theme I decided to write out some of my favorite recipes. There wasn’t enough room for instructions, so I limited myself to ingredients and any other necessary parts. I also selected a different sketchbook that takes ink well, in that it has heavier weight paper.

OCTOBER #INKTOBER ART CHALLENGE: RECIPES IN INK

There were so many art challenges floating around for October, but there wasn't time to do them all. I particularly wanted to do one that included words like autumn leaves, cozy chair, cat, hot drink, and fav book. Maybe next year! Here are some of my favs from #Inktober. One tip that helped me complete the challenge was making a list of all the recipes I wanted to write out. Not having to think up something every day really helps.

This challenge was so much fun - and I’m glad to have written down some of the treats that I enjoy that are my go-to desserts. Perhaps one of my children will want this sketchbook one day?!

As if I wasn’t already busy enough, I joined another weekly challenge with Hosanna Revival called #MyPleasantPlaces. If you’ve never heard about them, they create beautiful Bibles and devotionals, plus my daughter works there. The challenge was to create any form of art - whether 2D or 3D or music or a space in your home - all inspired by Psalm 16. Using a few verses each week I decided to write out in ink the part that was most meaningful to me.

For the first week I pulled out my gold leaf and used it for the border - even though i didn’t build up the paper with the pink raised bole as medieval monks used to do. Skipping this step caused the leaf to be applied unevenly since the paper absorbed the adhesive at different drying rates where it was thinner or thicker. I kind of like the loose feel, but I made a mental note to apply the gold leaf properly when I want to have crisp edges.

Doing this project got me thinking - how fun fun it would be to journal the Word in a sketchbook as part of my daily devotional time. That would require setting aside some time to read, reflect, then draw. Hmmm. Do any of you do this?

My mind is already spinning with all the art challenges I would like to do. But, I also want to create finished work, so there is a tension between wanting to play around in my sketchbooks and creating work that can be used for art licensing. Do you have this same problem? There is only so much time to devote to working on our art, and what’s necessary (client projects, biz upkeep, website/etsy updates, IG, etc.) take precedent. That’s why getting away to just create art sounds like a dream!

Let me know what you are working on these days. Have you joined any art challenges lately? Do you join but don’t finish them? Do you feel pressured or are they fun to you?

For those in the States, this Thanksgiving month is one for celebrating all we are grateful for and who we are grateful to. What good is being thankful if there is no one to thank? I thank God for giving me everything I need to flourish in life… and He is the best treasure!