Sparks of inspiration July ’24
+ an invitation to have a more relaxed summer schedule
Summer is in full swing in this part of the world, which means more social gatherings than usual, a football championship taking place and generally more time spent outside - all demanding my attention and distracting me from my usual routine.
Since the beginning of the year I managed to be pretty consistent with posting 4 times each month, but didn’t manage to do it in June (still I posted 3 times - not that bad) and I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one falling behind schedules during the summer months.
Instead of worrying about it I suggest us all to consider a more relaxed approach and permit ourselves to have a summer schedule.
After all both readers and writers need to enjoy this wonderful time and all the adventures summer has to offer us!
And here is some inspiration from me to you for the month of July:
Creative ideas and projects to consider this summer
The Summer Sketchbook Challenge - Renée Mueller. A great invitation to document your summer experiences in your sketchbook!
Creative Freedom: 52 Art Ideas, Projects and Exercises to Overcome Your Creativity Block - Maggie Price. The book contains simple, yet very useful projects you can fit into your busy summer schedule! Painting with your non-dominant hand, exploring new colours or using a limited palette, tackling a difficult subject, etc. - you can choose exercises that speak to you and feel free to interpret the tasks in your own way!
World watercolour month - a global celebration of watercolour with 31 prompts for each of the 31 days in July. Use the prompts in whatever way works for you!
Packing your paints - Blakely Little. I always wondered how to pack supplies for a trip if I want to paint with acrylic paint and here’s a short and clear guide!
How-To: Mounting Watercolor on Wood Panel (2024 UPDATE) - Angela Fehr. As mentioned in the article above, travelling with paper is more practical, but if you wish to present your finished work on a wood panel here’s a great tutorial on how to do that!
Artists sharing their valuable experience
Signature of All Things: Reflections on Finding My Creative Voice - Laura Horn. Finding a style or voice is a big part of growing as an artist and while there is no one way to define it, there are ways to encourage deeper reflection on what are the common threads in our art.
Learn to Paint podcast with Emma Carlisle. This conversation is very inspirational and has a lot of great tips on various topics, including working on location and working in different scales, which I am very interested in.
10 Essential Watercolor Tips from Jane Blundell. Lots of great advice from Jane!
Colour explorations
The Hidden Hues of Colour Mixing - Will Kemp. Colour theory can be challenging and misleading, so this deep dive into the topic of colour bias is a great resource if you want to have better mixing results.
Brave Color Mixing with Hayley Morgan. It’s a free video with a fun exercise on colour mixing, so that you can explore your paints and practice some of the wisdom you gained from Will’s post.
A great initiative from artists for artists
Artist Reference Photos. I absolutely love this idea by Marian Parsons - creating a web site with royalty free photos made by artists for artists! You can use all the photos from the site AND submit your own to share with others! I’m currently prepping some florals and landscapes for submission. Wouldn’t it be amazing to see how different artists interpret the same reference?
If you found something inspiring, feel free to share it with an art friend or leave a comment, I’ll be happy to hear from you!
Thank you for being here and have a great summer!
Until next time!
Lisa
