Wednesday WrapUp MidCentury Week

Welcome

On most Wednesdays, check this blog for a strategy, process, or reflection for illustration with the iPad app ProCreate or Affinity Designer. This week I’ve two projects: NaNoWriMo and MidCentury styles. Let’s see…

NaNoWriMo

This is National Novel Writing Month, and I’m writing in a community called Novel November in the ProWriting platform. The art is writing. I write 2000 words a day for 30 days in November — a story, a novel. Mine are always science and fantasy. Here’s the beginning of this year’s novel [I’ve been doing this since 2011], Find Her:

Quest
Kidnapped

She huddled next to the lone pine, pulling her hood over her head to block the gusts of wind that flowed over the harvested fields of wheat, usually golden in the autumn sunshine, but now dull beneath the heavy thunderclouds overhead. She tugged the cord to tighten the hood and crouched down to rest.
Behind her the fields rolled into basalt formations dotted with pines and various bushes, from sagebrush and bunch grass to service and current berries. Still flowering rabbitbrush pushed forward hope with its bright yellow blooms.

Pushing her hands into the pockets of her raincoat, she felt the last piece of her home, a piece of paper written in her father’s hand with only two words: “Find her.”

excerpt from Find Her by Sheri Edwards

I’m a pantser. That means I have no idea what my story is. I had snapped a photo of harvested wheat fields on a stormy day of thunder clouds with the mountains and a communication tower in the background. It showed up in my “pop up” memory photos on my iPhone, and this became the inspiration for my story.

I have no art yet, but am 11,122 words into my 50,000 words. Day 5. Ellie has discovered Stella is not her sister, but she’s close to finding her.

MidCentury Art Projects

I decided to take Jutta Schneider’s new MidCentury class, Mid-Century Illustration Fun with Markers & Ink: Make it Wonky!. She’s take you through three projects to help you develop the strategies of midcentury art — from loose and simple lines and shapes, some outlined, some within shapes, abstract shapes, limited palettes, and negative space, with lots of squiggly lines and fillers. Here are my projects for the class:

To practice MidCentury style, I’m attempting to do the Bardot Brush Making Art Every Day prompts in mid-century style: fresh bread; fridge magnets; art moment; comfy outfit, and morning coffee or tea.

Updated Midcentury Style for Thrift Store Challenge

I did update my Spoonflower Thrift Store Treasures Design Challenge. It reminded me of the unmatchy trend and midcentury style so after I had gathered together some retro images, folk art birds, circles, and dots jumbled together in required reds, yellows, and blues for the challenge, I then added some quirky shapes and lines and fillers for the midcentury style. I think it’s fun — click image to see on Spoonflower.

Thanks for stopping by!

I hope you do enjoy your day and find time for art. Even though I’ve got writing to do, I’m still finding time for art!

You can find many helpful artists teachers on my Artist Resources  page. Take a look at their IG and YouTube. Find one that fits your learning and art preferences and stick with them a while to develop your skills. If you have any questions, just ask!

You’re welcome to follow this blog for art inspiration. We can share with #warmup4art to enjoy our work together! I look forward to your sharing and find me at @42Sheri, on Mastodon Sheri42, on Flickr teach.eagle Sheri 42.