MM10: Sketchbook Play

It's a fanciful, fractured Mandala Monday, for which I chose the shapes (and later the colors) quite randomly, then tried to tie them together in a way that made sense. Or was, at least, vaguely harmonious? I think I miiiiiight have done slightly better with the "random" aspect than the "harmony"... but all of it was FUN which is the main thing, right? Hope your week will be full of pleasant surprises and unexpected inspiration!

Tombow Dual Brush and Pitt Artist Pens in my Canson Mixed Media Sketchbook

MM008: Soft and Scribbley

This one is what I believe Tammy Garcia would call a, "Free-Range, Organic Mandala Monday". No rulers, no circle tools and no erasers were employed; just scribbled Pitt Pen outlines filled in with messy Tombow coloring and topped off with a few random patterns. Super-relaxing pre-bedtime activity. Happy Presidents' Day!

Hello, Monday!

It's a Simply Symmetrical Mandala Monday with a hope that your week is off to a smooth start!

Pitt Artist Pens by Faber-Castell in my Canson Mixed Media Sketchbook.

 

Mandala Monday(s)

You would think by NOVEMBER I would remember every week to load the latest Mandala Monday onto my blog buuuuuut... nope. I'm playing catchup again, so here's this week's take followed by last week's!

MM46: Sharpie and Posca Paint Pens 

on an extra-large paint chip from the Big Box Home Improvement store. 

Pasted into my Traveler's Notebook.

MM45: Flowery Zen-Doodle inspired mandala

 drawn with Pitt Artist Pens and watercolored with Tombow Dual Brush Pens, 

made into a 6" square card. 

Pretty in Pink

It's the first Mandala Monday of October, aka Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and thus the choice of colors was a bit of a no-brainer!

Watercoloring with Tombow Dual Brush Pens over 

Pitt Artist Pen lines in my Canson Mixed Media Sketchbook

Monday, Monday

It’s a mellow and muted Mandala Monday. Hope you have a wonderful week!

Pitt Artist Pens and Tombow Dualbrush Pens in my Canson Mixed Media Sketchbook

Going Around

It's an Inner Circle Mandala Monday, with all of the details inside the central circle. This style of mandala always reminds me of a Pennsylvania Dutch Hex Sign, though obviously a bit more detailed; and not currently decorating a barn, lol.

Pitt Artist Pen linework colored with Tombow Dual Brush Pens; 

in my Canson Sketchbook, with the help of my Helix Circle Tool

 

It's a Candy Mandala Monday?

Ok, technically there is NO actual candy in this post, but I did use my beloved set of Bright Zig Dot Markers, which always remind me of those candy dots, which came stuck to a narrow sheet of cash-register-like paper, that we had as children in the 1970's. For the record, I don't think I particularly enjoyed eating those candies... (they were basically just sugar and food coloring and didn't have much in the way of flavor) ...but they were so fun and pretty I always enjoyed having them anyway! I hope your week is off to a sweeeeeeeeeeeeet start!

Sunglasses Not Included

It's a Rambunctiously Rainbow Mandala Monday thanks to big messy smooshes of watercolor goodness from some of my most vivid Tombow Dual Brush Pens. I hope your week is off to a bright and cheerful start! ♥

ALL the Colors!

It's a flashy, splashy Mandala Monday with LOTS of spritzed and smooshed watercolor, from my Tombow Dual Brush Pens, plus a bit of White Dina Wakley Gloss Spray on top. IRL it has a magical shimmer which my phone photo utterly fails to capture; but trust me, it's kinda cool!

The lines are super simple, and frankly stretch the bounds of what is or is not a mandala, but I'm ok with that! And on the plus side, thanks to my Helix Circle Maker, it's as close to 100% symmetrical as I am likely to get in this lifetime. 

Mandala Monday Round-Up

Once again I noticed belatedly that I haven't remembered to do a blogpost for the last few Mandala Mondays, so today there's a bumper crop to savor! 

This week's mandala is inspired by and composed of papers from Prima Marketing's new "Farm Sweet Farm" collection, which has just arrived at Paper Anthology and is, imo, one of the prettiest paper collections of 2022! I started this mandala with a stacked hexie center (you'll definitely be seeing that again!) and added circle punches, upside down hearts, butterflies and tear-shaped elements. 

(PS: this style of mandala is the easiest everrrrrrr and also a great way to use paper scraps!)

A subtle lineart mandala, drawn with colorful Emott pens and surrounded by a Pinkfresh Studio Folkart Frame diecut that happened to be sitting on my worktable when I was getting ready to draw.

I bought this cool Strathmore "Grey Toned" sketchbook during a BOGO event at the big box store and haven't really worked in it much, so this seemed like a good time to break out the Posca paint pens and add pink, silver and white, with a little bit of superfine Pitt Pen black outlining.

Tombow Dual Brush Pens, used both directly on the paper and also picked up with a waterbrush for a looser and more interesting background. In the colors of the Ukrainian flag.

♥♥♥

I hope your Monday is off to a good start and that you'll 

find time to do something fun and creative before it's over!

Magic Pencil Mandala Monday

A few years ago, my friend Paul bought me a Magic Pencil at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and it instantly transported me back to grade school art class and the joy of simple, colorful, fun supplies. Since then, Miss Stephanie has found several different versions, including the astonishing set of Koh-I-Noor Tri-Tones that you see in the photo. Amongst the many things that Magic Pencils are awesome for is drawing and doodling, because it really allows the "magic" of the random color distribution to shine. 

Magic pencil mandala, outlined in Pitt Artist Pen, 

in my Canson Mixed Media Sketchbook

Drifting Downwards

Somewhat stretching the boundaries of a mandala, in this case lots of mandala-style circles are cascading from the top and sides of the sketchbook page. 

PS: The Helix Circle Tool is my favorite (& most used!) tool for drawing mandalas, because it lets me draw perfect circles in a range of sizes AND it has the 360 degrees on the outer ring, which is handy for evenly spacing the "petals" on a more traditional mandala. 

Pitt Artist Pens from Faber-Castell in my Canson Mixed Media Sketchbook.

 

Citrus and Sunshine

ORANGE you glad it's Mandala Monday?! This one's bright enough to melt the rest of the weekend's snow off my driveway! :)

Mandala drawn with Pitt Artist Pens from Faber-Castell on Strathmore Watercolor Paper, 

and colored using my beloved Tombow Dual Brush Pens from Paper Anthology... 

then flicked with a few "splashes" of color!

MLK Mandala Monday

Remembering the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King this Mandala Monday, “We must walk on in the days ahead with an audacious faith in the future.”  

Pitt Artist Pens from Faber-Castell on Strathmore Watercolor Paper, 

and colored with Tombow Dual Brush Pens from Paper Anthology and a waterbrush.

Loads of splashes on top; some blotted and some left on. 

Would You Like to Build a Snowman(dala)?

Snow is by far my least favorite form of precipitation in real life, but it must be said that snowflakes... and snowflake mandalas... are A LOT of fun to draw! ♥

pitt artist pens by faber-castell; tombow dual brush shadows, 

helix circle maker tool, canson mixed media sketchbook

Week 7... Seriously?!

Yes, as difficult as it is to believe, we're heading into the last few weeks of ICAD and here are the index cards to prove it:

day 39: off prompt

a patchwork of various patterned paper scraps, which i embellished and outlined.

day 40: silver

admittedly there's more green than silver. and in the photo the silver looks grey, but still... this was fun to draw, based on a swatch of wallpaper i cannot imagine in any room anywhere lol!

day 41: off prompt

more embellished patches of patterned paper... apparently this is becoming A Thing?

day 42: mandala monday

rainbow colors courtesy of my sadly neglected pilot frixion pens.

day 43: off prompt

this week's bonus idea is to make an ogee pattern and reminded me how much i've loved doing those in the past. this one is drawn with pitt pens and colored with my trusty tombows.

day 44: off prompt

surprise... another ogee! this one is handcut paper shapes, with machine stitching on top.

day 45: kaleidoscope

pipsticks gem stickers, arranged on a gridded card... not the fanciest ICAD ever, but fun to make!

I Am an ICADian

...and here are my index cards from week four of the Index Card a Day event. i hope your week has been both fun and creative, as well!

day 18: off prompt

when i started this, i *thought* it was going to be a mandala, but after i had attached the white doodle circle to the pink card, it seemed like it would be more fun to try to connect up the design outside the circle. so i did.

day 19: parallel

considering i started this card with three smallish scraps of patterned paper and NO PLAN... i'm fairly pleased with how this came out!

day 20: off prompt

this was the day i finally got to the garden center plants to go on our deck, next to the mailbox, and by the door... so obviously i needed to celebrate with big smooshy pink flowers.

day 21: mandala monday

most of the time i trade speed for accuracy when it comes to mandalas, but on this day, i used both the circle tool and a ruler to increase my symmetry; then had fun varying my line weights and embellishments!

day 22: chartreuse

flashing back to a prompt from last week, although technically i think i've used EVERY shade of green EXCEPT chartreuse, lol. 

day 23: off prompt

apparently this summer i'm going to spend several nights each week cutting random shapes out of patterned paper scraps, sticking them to an index card and sewing on them.

day 24: off prompt

it's a minimalist doodle rainbow! taking advantage of the fact that index cards have a bunch of perfectly spaced parallel lines that are almost exactly the width of a tombow's brush tip.

Happy Mandala Monday

And happy first day of November, as well! Let's break out the pens and celebrate in a colorful way, on The Ink Pad Blog today!

ICAD Wrap-Up

How is it possible that ICAD2020 is over already? I'm pretty sure somebody is messing with the calendar and very likely has stolen part of July. Is there a CSI for Time Crime??! Meanwhile, here are my last few index cards, and the photo of my big sprawly book at the end. ♥

day 55: off prompt

on this day i took dina wakley's awesome "focus on gloss sprays" class via facebook live, so obviously i had to use something from the class and i chose this painted flower which i cut out and put against a random background i painted to use up one of my "puddles" of spray.

day 56: paisley

paisley doodle extravaganza with faber-castell pitt artist pens on a robin's egg blue index card.

day 57: mandala monday

i had cut this little sewing machine illustration out of a spanish language children's book a while ago, mostly because the soft green color reminded me of my own sewing machine, which once belonged to my mom mom. it seemed like a good centerpiece for a library card mandala.

day 58: billiards

various shades of green distress oxide applied through circle stencils, on a mint green index card. with pen doodles on top.

day 59: off-prompt

last week i assembled a bunch of handmade paper assortments for the ink pad and there were only the tiniest pieces of this super-sheer variety so... shhhhhhhhh... i "liberated" them because i thought they'd be pretty cool to layer in a collage. i stand by that hypothesis, actually!

day 60: bossa nova

technically i think these guys are doing something called the continental hustle; they're from the most amazing book i found at a sale some years ago called, "the official guide to disco dancing" which i chose entirely for these little line drawings which showed the steps to all the various dances. the background is a first draft of a stamped background for a paper anthology "class in a kit" i made called "big blooms"; it wasn't what i wanted at the time, but i still liked it, so it went into the collage fodder bin to become a fanciful dancing arena!

day 61: adventure

i will take literally ANY excuse to make a collage, especially a vintage travel collage. so i did!!!

and now the famous before and after pics of this year's ICAD book:

june 1st: skinny book

july 31st: not so skinny!!!

♥♥♥

Many thanks to Tammy Garcia, of Daisy Yellow Art, who created and has hostessed the awesome Index Card a Day Challenge for TEN (10!!!) years now, making everyone's June and July more creative and inspiring! Thanks also to everyone who played along or just followed along. And special thanks to those of you who have persevered on m'blog through 61 cards per year, times 9 years, for a total of 549 ICADs!!! ♥♥♥