Art – The Artzy Evangawriter

My New Posting “Schedule” and a Few Other Things

Good morning, everyone! Or afternoon, evening, night—whatever time it may be for you, my wonderful reader. (I typed “wonderful,” and for some reason it autocorrected to “wondering” . . . I’m not sure what to think about that. I suppose you could be wondering too, right?)

Well, I shall try to fix that, if you are indeed wondering.

This post is about a few things—most importantly my posting schedule.

As you probably know, I’ve been really busy these last few weeks—as you can infer from the unexplained (until afterwards) absence of three weeks! Then, just a few posts scattered here and there.

What’s going on? Well, if you’d like the whole rundown, read this post—it gives a lot more details. For this post, I’ll stick to raw content.

Raw content? Not like red meat, you say? No, of course not. I’m not actually sure what I mean by “raw content,” other than skipping all the fluff and jumping right to the point.

(What about the above paragraph, you say? Isn’t that fluff? (No comment.))

Well . . . let’s jump to the point, shall we?

My posting schedule is officially not a schedule anymore. You see, trying to stick to a single day every week at a specific time, while beneficial for building consistency, is not the best idea for me right now. I don’t want to eek out a useless or less-than-great post every week just for the sake of fulfilling my own “schedule.” I want to focus on quality above quantity, both for my own sanity and for your own.

I want you to know (yes, you, the person reading this!) that I really, really appreciate your time! I am so thankful for every single one of you, my readers and followers. And I want to produce good things for you to read!

So thus, no schedule.

Of course, I’ll have a goal of posting at least once every two weeks, since just abandoning my blog isn’t the best thing to do (haha, speaking from experience here!). But as for every Monday, who knows? Maybe, maybe not. Maybe I’ll post on Saturday instead (oh, wait . . . that’s what I’m doing . . . XD). Or Saturday. Maybe 9pm on Tuesday? Why not?

The point is, I will write posts when I feel led to or have something worth posting about. Hopefully, that’s more often than not, but we shall see. 😀 Thank you for bearing with me as I make this little change!

Alright, that’s all, folks! Thanks for reading and God bless!

~Janet

P.S. Here are two gifts for you!

A verse: John 14:27—“Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you. Not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”
A collage I made for you in Canva (perhaps slightly Shire inspired, since I’ve been reading The Lord of the Rings lately)! This is big enough to be a desktop screensaver if you like. Just right click to download. 😀

Has it Been Three Weeks?!

*pops in*

*waves hello*

Uhhh, hi, y’all! It’s been awhile—as in three weeks—since I last posted. Maybe some of you noticed, maybe you didn’t. Either way, I did. 😂

Those three weeks have been full of interesting things, such as

My first time drafting my novel six days in a row
My first time entirely neglecting to draft my novel for the next five days in a row
My ~~first~~ time neglecting my blog without warning
My first time in several years drawing a one-point-perspective room design
My first time accidentally putting a book on hold at the library in Spanish, not english 😂
Business troubles (yes, I run my own business. And yes, it is having troubles.)
Story anxiety and some self-doubt that I’ve told no one about 😂 (until now)
Refocusing on God and trying to stay on track with Him
Computer issues
More research on graphic design

And much more! I won’t get into all of these things today (and maybe I won’t dive into details on some of them ever), but I would like to attempt explaining why I’ve been absent from my blog with no warning for almost a month.

First of all, I’ve been thinking about redoing my site—giving it a makeover. I’d like to have some sort of author blog and/or email list soon, in preparation for publishing and selling my books. However, I decided to put off making that decision for a while, so for now I’ll be sticking to the regular blog.

My posting schedule may change a bit though, since I’ve been overwhelmed lately with a lot of things, and blogging has fallen a bit to the back burner. I want to take care of myself, my creativity, and my relationship with God before pushing myself to create content for readers. Sorry, y’all—I love you and I’m so thankful to have you. I hope you’ll understand.

So this unexplained three-week absence has been sort of for that reason as well—I got behind, overwhelmed, and then just quit. For a bit. To be honest, I wasn’t sure how long I’d need a break for, and I was okay with that. I’ve been learning to let myself have the space I need to recuperate, and this has been part of that journey.

Another small part of this has been college work and computer issues. I’ve been busy trying to keep on top of drafting my novel, fixing my business issues, and keeping my poor lil computer running (and not on fumes, hopefully).

Yes, a computer replacement is on the list, hopefully in the near future.

So there you have it! I’m sincerely sorry for disappearing off the face of the internet and leaving you all hanging (if you even noticed XD), but here I am again.

From now on, I’m not sure what my posting schedule will look like. I saw a friend, Leah, announce recently that she’ll be posting only when she feels led to, and I might do the same—we’ll see. Or, ya’know, when I have something exciting to share. ;P

For now, here’s a picture of the one-point-perspective drawing that I did, since I mentioned that in my list! I hope you enjoy it. (DISCLAIMER: this is not my own design. I was copying someone’s design on Pinterest. ;P)

Also, just for fun, here are a few books I’ve read recently! 😀

Gone-Away Lake by Elisabeth Enright

I can’t say this book has a huge plot or stakes or anything, but all the same, I loved it! It’s a safe, fun middle-grade story about two kids who discover a hidden lake . . . and some interesting people. I highly recommend this for a fireside story with little kids or just for curling up with yourself for a fun read!

Offsides by Lori Z. Scott

Pivoting from the fun middle-grade stories to a deeper YA novel, Offsides is an entertaining and yet heavy story. It deals with some difficult topics and staying alert to dangers young people face in the world today. It’s a good awareness story, but at the same time a heart-warming story of friendship, faith, and love. I’d recommend this book for older teens and parents, but I leave it to your discretion. 😀 I did really enjoy reading it!

And that’s it for today! See y’all next time, and God bless <3

~Janet

Digital Creativity: Character Collages and Exploring Canva Pro!

Good morning, everyone! Today I’d like to talk a little about art. Surprise, surprise, am I right? (Or not ;P)

I think you all know I like art at this point. It’s pretty much established by my tagline Art. Writing. Jesus. at the top of this page. But that’s not limited to pencil on paper anymore, right? In this day and age, we have many more creative tools on computers and the like. It’s not something I’ve dabbled in much, but recently I’ve been giving it another try—and I’ve been having a lot of fun!

So let’s dive into the world of Canva—more specifically Canva Pro. I have been using Canva for several months now and have been weighing the usefulness of paying for Pro since I started. For a while, it didn’t seem necessary for what I was using it for. But last week, incentivised by their 50% off sale for the holidays, I went ahead and did it.

And honestly, I think it’s been worth it!

Normal Canva is super useful, but Pro has a lot more tools and stuff that have been really fun to use and figure out. So for now, I’m sticking with that.

For instance, I have access to so many more templates that are super awesome and customizable, more fonts, and most of the “magic” options for background removal, enlarging, touchup, and the like.

Disclaimer: this is not an ad for Canva Pro or anything. This is completely my own opinion. XD

So . . . moving on . . . what have I been doing in Canva lately? Well, a lot of it has been covers and collages for myself and other writer friends. But I’ve also made a writing tracker, daily planner cover for my mom, and flyers for my business! I can’t show them all to you, but I would LOVE to share the collages I made for my two main characters in my next novel—Vickie Allison and Loryn Wilkins. So here they are!

I hope you like them as much as I do, although of course everyone is entitled to their own opinion. But these characters are so near to my heart, and making these collages was super fun and a learning experience! I did use Canva templates to start and then customized them. 😀

Here are a few of my favorite things about digital art:

I can easily change and adjust things rather than having to erase and draw them over again.
It’s clearer than trying to scan or photograph physical art, especially for flyers and such where you want it to be clear and concise.
There are lots of options for banners, fonts, graphics, etc!

That being said, I still LOVE physical drawings, so never fear! I’ll still be using my pencil and paper. 😉

I’d love to hear your thoughts on digital art—Canva, Pixlr, Photoshop, etc! Do you use them? What are your favorite tools?

Until next time, God bless!

~Janet

The Mind’s Eye: How I Draw from Scratch

I’ve wanted to write this blog post for a long time. Wonder why I haven’t? Well, it’s in fear that I won’t be able to actually explain how I draw because I think a lot of my talent is just inherent—I wasn’t taught, so how can I explain it to others?

But, shoving down that worry, I’m tackling this post. I’ll do my best!

I’ve been artsy for as long as I can remember. I remember coloring a picture of Strawberry Shortcake when I was four or five even! It was one of my favorites at the time. Let’s disregard the fact that my brother (older by a year and a half) didn’t like all the pink and decided to draw a huge black X over the whole thing. 😬

Besides coloring, I was HUGE into drawing horses for several years. I had pictures, photos, drawings, trinkets . . . you get the idea. I was obsessed. The way I started out drawing horses was probably how you can imagine it: a rectangle body with four legs sticking straight out of it with a chunky neck and head.

But my mom had an interesting book about drawing at the time, and it had some animals in it. I just copied those over and over until I got the idea of how circles and curves joined together into the body of a real animal.

After that, I began studying the things I drew more carefully. Stick figures turned into something resembling cartoons . . . and it went from there.

I think a lot of it has to do with talent and interest in what you’re doing. It goes for any hobby, whether it’s mechanics, art, or computer programs. My dad is an engineer, and he’s tried many times to explain trig and calculus (among other things) to my siblings and I without much luck. I think some people’s brains are just wired differently, and I’m not here to say anyone can be an AMAZING artist! I’m definitely not—it’s just a fun hobby that I’m pretty good at.

But moving past that . . .

When I moved on from horses, I took up faces avidly. I LOVED drawing whole faces, eyes, noses, ears . . . my sketchbook looked pretty creepy in some parts. But my mom let me snoop in her portrait drawing books as well as old photo albums and pictures. I started copying more—this time whole bodies. I practiced a lot.

And when you practice a lot, you get better.

I began drawing some cartoon/anime styles as well as hyper-realistic drawings. I love a mix, and I practiced all of it. I colored with markers mostly and had some fashion design books as well. Clothing has also been super fun to experiment with!

When I got really into writing, I started drawing characters. That was a little harder because I had just a picture in my head to follow for a lot of them. That’s where the mind’s eye comes in. It’s not something everyone has, and those who do have it have it to a varying degree.

It’s when you can picture an image or design in your head and make it come out onto paper or other designing programs. I have it to a certain degree—when you say “elephant” I can picture an elephant. I could probably sketch a decent one from memory. But a bear . . . well . . . that’s a little harder. I use reference pictures a lot in my drawings to make them stay realistic (especially animals—not my strong point!).

So yeah! The subtitle of this post is “How I Draw from Scratch.” And how do I do it? Well, it’s a combination of things. First, inherited artistic ability. I know some people just aren’t artistic. And that’s okay! You have other skills. 😀 Second, mind’s eye: knowing which shapes to use and how things look in real life. Third, reference pictures. I know that’s sort of cheating since it’s not “from scratch” at that point, but I’ll admit I do use them!

And that’s all I’ve got today! Have a lovely day, everyone, and thanks for reading. 🌼

God bless!

~Janet

A Grand Tour of . . . My Desk Area.

Good Monday to you all. 😀

I wanted to give y’all a little tour of my desk area today! I was going to do an entire bedroom tour, but since I share a room with my sister I decided not to do so, for her privacy and my own. So instead, I’ve settled for my desk (I promise, the desk area is more exciting anyway)!

I will start out by saying that my desk is built into what used to be a closet. So my space is smaller than some (although with more headspace ;P). If any of you are looking for closet office inspiration, here you go!

I’ll start out with the big picture. This is the whole space I have for all my writing, crafts, reading, and anything else I want to do.

Off to the right of the picture (in the bottom right corner) you can see that I have a filing cabinet. That is not used for files.

On the contrary, that’s where I store all my stamps, paper, tape, and other card-making/scrapbooking/letter writing tools! On top of it, I store most of my (extensive) collection of markers, pens and pencils (along with two erasers). Also, my jewelry rack. I don’t have any better place to put it currently, so that’s where it goes!

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On the left of my chair, I have a little shelf underneath the desk with two white tubs where I store my watercolor supplies, stamp-making supplies, and washi tape (I have a LOT of washi tape). On the middle shelf is my change-jar (helpful) and my keepsake box—which is mostly full of letters from pen-pals!

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Ok, on to the top of the desk. I have a three-drawer storage thingy (not sure what it’s called) with electronic wires, cables, adapters and such, along with my camera and instruction manuals for things that I already know how to use.

Also, you may notice above the drawer-set a little white wire rack on the wall. That is actually a repurposed dish rack from the Dollar Tree, bent over and hung up for paper storage. Right now, I’m just using it for those random scraps of paper that don’t have an official home and my little notebook. And my sunglasses (that I probably won’t need to use as much as the weather turns to fall).

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Also, I just recently installed the two other white shelves on the wall, which hold my tracing board and some other decorations.

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My whiteboard is also new! Let me know if you know what movie that quote is from. 😀

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I have a little wooden crate in the corner that holds two candles, other decorations (fake flowers XD), and my alarm clock.

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Also, another little candle—pumpkin spice! I’m enjoying the scent as I write this. That and freshly brewed coffee are my favorite candle scents right now!

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On to my peg-board rack—also a new install (I recently re-did the whole desk area, which is what inspired this post! So most of the storage items are new).

I have all my bigger stickers (bought, hand-made and gifts) in the shallow shelf on the bottom, pens in the cup above, and . . . more pens above that. I also have my handy headphones mounted there currently, although they don’t really fit . . .

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The shelf directly above the desk holds all my drawing books, sketchbooks, etc. I probably have way too many . . . LOL! Also, my little quote board and a rubiks cube (that, yes, I do know how to solve ;P).

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Above that is my less-used storage shelf, holding other random binders, recipe books, and one of my many DIY houses.

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And more DIY houses, mounted on the wall to the right of the desk! These are the product of many hours of concentrated work. I started doing DIY houses about four years ago, and I have several more not displayed here!

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I hope you enjoyed this peak into my area and the supplies I use! Obviously for privacy, I removed some of the items I usually have on my desk (such as pictures of my family), but other than that, you can see exactly what it looks like!

I’m not sure what aesthetic I have in my room exactly (if any), but these are my favorite colors—turquoise and white. And the fall-colored flowers behind my clock can be changed per season to match the weather! (I can’t wait for that part XD)

Anyways, that’s all I’ve got for today. Let me know what you think in the comments!

Until next week, God bless!

~Janet DuBois

Art “Therapy” and the Perks of Doodling

I took art classes once, for about a year. Other than that, I’m completely self-taught. The classes mostly covered art crafts and painting but not much drawing or sketching. It was a ton of fun, and I picked up some interesting skills and learned some fun techniques!

Some of the things I remember distinctly were the stamps that we learned how to make, painting patterns, and following a Bob Ross tutorial (let me know if you’d like me to do a post on any of these in the future!). But I think the most important thing I learned through those classes was to enjoy art.

My teacher is actually an art therapist, which means she helps people dealing with mental problems to work through their struggles through art—whether that be doodling, painting, knitting, or anything like that. I think her background in that area helped her imbue a love of art to us (or at least me) that went beyond sitting down to draw something.

To this day, I find relaxation in drawing and painting. It’s not at all like meditation, just a true joy that I find in letting my creative juices flow. When I’m stressed out, art usually helps me calm down and refocus, especially when I’m not drawing something super complicated! I particularly love painting landscapes and God’s many wonderful creations.

Recently, I’ve found the addition of a good audiobook a great way to calm down after a stressful day. I’ve been listening to James Herriot’s All Things Bright and Beautiful audiobooks on YouTube recently, and they are super fun! That way I can learn something while drawing, painting, or whatever I happen to be doing (this applies to other mindless activities, such as weeding, as well XD).

Even if art isn’t your hobby, you might find it relaxing to get out some pencils, pens, paints, etc. and just play around! What you draw or paint doesn’t have to be anything in particular, just have fun. 😀

When I was little (maybe 9 or so), I’d doodle in my schoolbooks when I finished my lessons (and before I finished *hides*). That helped me focus for some reason. I still doodle or draw when listening to lessons or sermons because it occupies my hands so that my mind can listen more easily. At least, that’s what I think happens. Either way, it helps me learn faster, even though it looks like I’m not paying attention . . . LOL!

Overall, I love to doodle and draw a lot, even if it’s just a smiley face on my mom’s day planner. It adds a little personality to stuff, in my opinion. And it’s fun to see her face when she finds random drawings in the borders! XD

What do you think of doodling? Do you doodle for fun? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments!

Until next time, God bless and happy drawing 😀

~Janet

PS: Here are some of my recent doodles! Just some yummy food (at least, most of it looks yummy ;P)

Teaching Skills to Others: My First Painting Class

The Author Conservatory has been stretching me to try new things lately, one of which being starting my own business!

Although I haven’t officially launched my business or finished the training to do so, my instructors were alright with me doing a sort of test class to teach some friends acrylic painting.

This first class happened on Monday the 29th of May: just this week! I think it went pretty well, although I was really nervous about it.

Here is the painting we did!

I’ve never tried to teach anyone to paint except a friend and my siblings when we did art and science classes together many years ago. And this time, I was teaching adults who were a lot older than me (except my younger sister XD).

Thankfully, all my students were amazing and friendly, wanting me to succeed. Add to that the fact that I knew all but one of them, and I started to wonder why I was so nervous . . .

Anyway, here are some things I learned during the class and my hopes for future ones!

Take it slow, and don’t rush the process. As the teacher, I seemed to finish each step a lot faster than everyone else! I had a lot of waiting time, so I went around the group to see how everyone was doing and give tips. It was amazing how different everyone’s painting turned out!

Demonstrate well. This one is very important, and one I need to get better at. For the leaves in the painting, I had a particular brush stroke that works pretty well with the brush I was using, and I showed everyone how to do it by using my finger as a “canvas.” With a dry brush, I held up my finger so everyone could see it and “painted” vertically on it while showing when to press harder and when to lighten up. I think it worked pretty well!

Do a simple painting. The class was supposed to take two hours, but it ended up going over a bit because the bird was so complicated! So a note for next time, do something a little easier.

Give each student tips relative to THEIR painting. Like I said, everyone’s finished piece was completely unique and different! So when I went around the circle giving tips, what I suggested for one person wouldn’t work for the other. I gave custom tips to each person to help them with their piece. I think this helped a lot.

Friendly conversation. I think this was a key to the happy atmosphere. As we went step by step, I would demonstrate and they would follow. While we were all working, we talked a lot!

What’s Next?

I hope to do many more classes in the future, maybe even make some recordings so that others who aren’t local to my area can buy them and learn at home! First, I need to work on my Conservatory homework though. It might take a while until I’m launched and teaching regularly, but I’m looking forward to it!

And that’s about it!

God bless,

Janet

PS: I mentioned a free list template a while ago, and I have finished that for you all! There are downloadable pdfs below so you can print out some pretty cool blank lists for yourself! You can see the explanation HERE.

To-Do-Lists-Template-1 Download

To-Do-Lists-Template-2 Download

Challenge with My Sister—Continued

Heads up: this post will be short. For an explanation, go to THIS post!

Here are the other two characters that I have drawn from unnamed descriptions! Although these I did guess correctly after drawing them, since they were pretty easy.

A tall and gracious woman with black hair that fell almost to her feet, marksman, grown-ups thought her the pretty one of the family, the most beautiful lady they had ever seen, had freckles.

As a side note, I was able to finish listening to The Hobbit audiobook that I had started in THIS post while I drew both of these! Such a great book. 😄

As another side note, both are done in colored pencil with a little gold gel pen for highlights. Are there any other mediums or styles you would like to see me try?

Drunken, charismatic, long, dark brown hair adorned with all manner of beads and trinkets and a short goatee beard. Wears a faded black tricorn hat, long sea boots and long, hard-wearing linen trousers and a long brown coat. A knotted striped-red sash is tied around his waist, where he stows his pistol when it is not in use. A faded blue waistcoat with a shorter lightly-colored back area, and a torn white undershirt. A red bandanna is always wrapped around his head, he wears two belts, one to which he attached some odd additions, beneath the belt, he wears a sash. He wears four rings and a shredded black wristband on his right wrist.

As I said, this one is short. So enjoy the pictures and I’ll see you on Thursday!

God bless,

Janet