I’ve discovered Copic Markers

Over the last seven or so months I have rediscovered the fun and relaxation of just making art. Just for enjoyment, not for a specific project.  I hadn’t realized how much I’ve missed it.

I took a watercolour class last spring.  I always loved watercolour painting but it was one medium I’d never really tried.  I LOVE IT!  It is a fast painting method and easy set-up and clean-up.

I started doing Name Art in the summer and working with the felt pens and markers got me looking into what other tools were available. I discovered Copic Markers – wow. Expensive, but they are sure fun to work with.  The blending ability is amazing.  I really like the Multiliner marker – I’ve been sketching with it almost everyday and now need to go buy some ink refills.  Which is one of the features of the Copic Markers – refills.

I’ve kinda-sorta set myself a One-a-Day Art Challenge – but I am not strictly enforcing it as some days there just isn’t time.  However, using that Copic Multiliner marker helps me whip out some quick sketches.  Much faster than pencil for me as I can’t erase or do over – once the mark is on the paper, that’s it.

Here are some of the sketches I’ve done over the last week or so with the marker. I am posting all my daily art on my Facebook page Shannon Fennell Art – I’d love a Like if you check it out.

I took a kiln fused glass workshop yesterday and am very excited.  I want to take more workshops with glass. I only got two cuts and neither bled.  I made three plates – these are what they look like before firing.  Some of the colours are going to change in the kiln.  I get to see the finished plates on Thursday after they have been fired.

I signed up for a photography class that starts this week – I need to learn about my fancy camera that I’ve had for almost 4 years and only used once.

All in all I am really having a great time exploring different mediums and getting back into creating things just for my own pleasure.

My life in art

Well that title sounds a bit pretentious, but in this post I am sharing art I created throughout my life so that is what it is.

I spent part of today photographing most of the stuff I’ve been carrying in my big zippered art portfolio.  A lot of the early work my mom had saved initially, then it all got put together when I acquired the case.

Lots of school work, stuff I did at home, things I’d doodled to kill time but really liked, etc.

I’m on a binge to cull all non-essential materials and want to make sure I have a visual back-up of things I treasure.  It is a challenge for someone with the “collecting gene” to get rid of things, but I am doing well at off-loading things that don’t have a lot of emotional attachment. Like my pin-back button collection and my pin collection – sold those.  Still have more “collections” to sell or otherwise disburse but I’ll get to it all in time.

Going through things today it was easy to see my progression/improvement as I learned and practised.

One of the earliest that I still have is this drawing I did of Marmaduke when I was around 5 or 6 years old. Mom kept this one in her cedar chest for years.

I have always been able to copy what I’m looking at.

This is another very old one.  I was around 8 or 9.  Granny was a very talented artist and always gave me art supplies for birthdays and Christmas.  This was done with pastels – and no technique!

This painting was  done in Grade 5 so I was 10 years old.  I’m positive I copied it.  A lot of my school art is damaged from being mounted by the teachers – some torn on the edges like this one, or, stained by tape.

I did this one in Grade 6 or 7 – The Marlboro Man aka Tom Selleck BEFORE Magnum P.I.  I am upset about the tape damage – I was/am really proud of this one.  I had the BIGGEST crush on him!

The shoes were done in Grade 8.  This has a story… I was attending a small all-girl catholic junior high (BTW, not a catholic) and the art teacher was a nun with a BA in fine arts. There was going to be an art show of student art for parent’s day or something so we all had to draw our shoes – she then took our drawings to put up on display.  Well…MY drawing was NOT on display.  I, and my mom, asked where it was.  Her comment was that I hadn’t turned it in.  I did, and had witnesses to that – the whole damn class!  So she had to back pedal, and oh, surprize, she “found” my drawing but too late for the art show.  My mom said she was jealous as she couldn’t draw herself.  Nice nun, eh?  Lies and does a dirty to a 13 year old student of hers?

BTW… those were the most comfortable shoes!

I wasn’t really into drawing people from life but tried.  I had a hard time with eyes.  This is a portrait of my sister from 1977.  It was much easier working from photos.

This is of a fellow recruit I did while in the Army in 1978/79.  I was getting better at faces.

This next one is Mom working on getting Special to halter lead.  It was summer.  LOL. Mom commented about me including the stomach rolls.  BTW… working with horses in bikinis and barefoot is NOT recommended.

This next one is the logo I designed for the Pacific Pinto Horse Association in 1981.

This cat skeleton isn’t dated – but I think it was in a drawing class.

Quick sketch of my brother Neil in 1985.  It actually does look like him.  I wish I had been more consistent about dating my work.

And another from 1985 of one of our horses, Major.  We left the farm in 1984 and I had a lot more time to draw and do other things so I have a fair amount of stuff dated 1985 in my portfolio.

With that extra time I did some needlework too.

And moving along to 1987.  I was into drawing horses – almost all of my 10th year I drew nothing but horses.  Then we actually got horses!  Then I drew our horses. The Arab below is not one of ours.

During the 1990s I took many classes in various mediums at the Surrey Arts Centre.  The following are some of the results:

This pastel of Little Dog sleeping beside me I did somewhere between 1990-94.

In 2001 I painted this one of us all watching the Leonides Meteor shower.

I’m only just getting back into putting pen/brush/pencil to paper again.  I’ve been busy with my other art, make-up, for a lot of years and it satisfied the urge to create, but now that I have more time on my hands I’m itching to try out other mediums and try new things.

Over the last little bit I started doodling with these results which I find quite satisfying.  I can’t stand “adult” colouring books so just start on a blank page and keep going till I run out of room.

This one was gel and ballpoint pens.  Took me a month to finish.

This one was done in three days because I found my felt pens… much faster filling in the shapes!

I’ve signed up for a watercolour class starting this Wednesday which I am really excited about.  That is one of the mediums I haven’t tried yet.  I love the look and admire what people can do with it so am really looking forward to learning about the techniques.