And thank you so much! The quotes are super, aren’t they? It’s a lovely book for inspiration to go wild with art. One page has this, which I absolutely love:
‘When I was in seventh grade, the kindly, curly and somewhat cross-eyed Mrs Walters told me that I was a good writer and drawer. That was that!’ - Maira Kalman
Thank you so much! I like a ‘more is more’ approach - LOL! The biros are my ‘new’ thing to use in, well, everything - a set of four had been given to me as a gift absolutely yonks ago - pink, purple, turquoise and lime green - and I’m using them in everything! A couple of weeks ago I bought a few more colours - orange is proving surprising useful, to my surprise. They’re Bic Cristal brand, 1.6mm, and really, really fun! They do have a tendency to ‘blob’ but heck, I just let them, cos I is just playin’……. 😜
Thanks, Susan! Biro is the generic name for a ballpoint pen over here, named after their Hungarian inventor. Bic is probably the most popular brand - and certainly my favourite! I knew that red, blue, black and dark green are commonly available, but until I was given a set of four very bright colours I had no idea such variety existed! Anyway, they’re great fun for scribbling with - and of course once the ink is on the page, well, it’s there forever, which makes me faaaaar less precious about what the resulting art looks like! That seems to be what I’m all about at the moment, and it’s sooooo fun! x
Love your vibrant pinks! Although pink is not my favorite color, I am more a neutral gal, but I’m tired of grays and blacks in my “wardrab” and color pallet, I’ve been forcing and teaching myself to play around with brighter more vibrant colors. Your post has inspired me to do another substack on some of my art doodles I’ve been consoling myself with for the last two weeks of having he who shall remain nameless at the helm of our country.
But you’ve gone and used another interesting term I’m not familiar with. I’ll have to do as Susan Cooke did and go look up Bic Biros. 🫶🏻
‘Wardrab’!!!!!! Most of the contents of mine is navy blue, pretty much……!!!! 🤣
I don’t like pink, but in the run-up to Christmas Everything Art were doing a free online art journalling course, and the theme was pink. I didn’t like pink - I don’t like pink - but sought out a pan of Rose Madder watercolour paint from my school paintbox to add to my pinkless these-days paintbox, and found the pink biro I’d been given (and its friends: the purple one, the turquoise one and the acid green one!) and I started to fill a sketchbook on which I was using pink on every page. Some of the pages are BONKERS - for instance I sketched out the shapes of two of my houseplants onto a page I’d painted with a pale watercolour wash and then painted around those shapes with bright, bright pink to make a background, and then painted the plants last - I loved every second of that project!
‘Biro’ is just the generic name for ballpoint pen! I’ve just replied to Susan’s lovely comment too in that regard. Bic is my favourite brand - I wonder if they’re available over there?
I love that you’re planning another post on your art! x
AHHH, Balpoint pen!! I thought it was a form of doodle. LOL!
I have several pens I use and yes, we have Bic pens here, Bic lighters, and probably a few other things with the “Bic” brand name. My favorite ball points right now are Pilot G-2 07. They are nice and dark. They will spread a little gray if they get wet, but you can still see the writing or doodle beneath. If I want to doodle with waterproof I will use Micron pens of different point thickness.
The only time I ever got to play with crayons and paints when I was a child was when I would go visit girl cousins homes, or my little friend across the street. She always had crayons at the ready and we would spend hours playing at making and coloring dresses for paper dolls we cut out of cardboard.
I had 3 younger brothers and my mom was a neat freak and didn’t feel like cleaning crayon off any wall paper. Now they make them water soluble. So my artistic slant got a late start unless I was outside of my home. Otherwise, I was allowed paper and a pencil when my brothers were little so I would copy cartoons out of the Sunday “funny papers”.
I shall have to revisit some of my doodles and see where I may brighten them up a bit.
It wasn’t until Covid came about that I got into book binding and making journals Via YouTube. Then the next year I took a zoom class on “Watercolor Painting for The Absolute Frustrated Beginner”. Then I was off and running and acquiring all sorts of colored pens, pencils, watercolor, acrylics, watercolor paper, etc… My daughter sent me a big supply of things she was no longer using or new paint brushes and brush-pens. I just filled up three more plastic see thru tote bins yesterday with things trying to organize my studio. So much “Craftermath” stuff laying around! 🤣
The Craftermath is an ever-growing entity, isn’t it, Gail?! 🤣
I like fineliners too, although I’ve never really got on with Microns. They always seem to trip themselves up on the page somehow! Perhaps it’s my left-handedness? My favourite is the Staedtler pigment liner - but in fact I only use them to write with rather than for arting.
Black fountain pen ink is fun - I love to wet it so it turns into a wet grey wash. MESSY, though!
And gosh, what a shame that you only got to engage with crayons etc when you were at other people’s houses. Sounds like you’ve been making up for lost time since - and I’m cheering you on!
These paintings are HAPPINESS personified. Light, giggly, innocent. I want a cotton textile made from each one. I would sew dresses and wear only those. Forever. Congratulations, Rebecca. Keep playing.
Oh, that’s so kind of you, Sharron! Thank you! How lovely to think of some of these on fabric. I’ve got a bit of a project on the go at the moment which I might one day get Jim to print on greeting cards. MAYBE! In the meantime, though, play is EVERYTHING - I’m enjoying myself immensely, even though I did get green biro ink on my armchair yesterday in a moment of hapless overexuberance.
(Shhhhh, don’t tell Jim. He’s the houseproud one.)
What a gorgeous happy colourful post! Thank you for sharing that on this awfully grey day.
And two separate notes: first, I realise I have become bilingual because I know what biros are without having to look the word up (ballpoint pens).
And the quotation about art supplies being toys is exactly how I grew up! My mom was an art teacher and also kept all kinds of arty/crafy things around on open shelves to encourage me/us to play art and create whenever we got bored: scrap papers in all colours and patterns, many colours of paints and pens/pencils, plus stones, shells, sticks & twigs, marbles, glue, tapes, cardboard, puffy cotton balls, twisty stems, you name it! It was sometimes too much to consider and I couldn't decide how to play art. So I'd go into the garden and wander around instead! Thanks for the colour and the memories!
Hurrah for US English/British English bilingualism - that’s AWESOME!
And gosh, it sounds as if you had soooooo many opportunities for arting at your fingertips - that sounds amazing. My mum’s always been extremely creative - she’s a textile artist but has always got stuck in with all kinds of media. We still sometimes get together to mess around with paint, etc!
Thanks for explaining, Rebecca. I have so much to learn! The last time I played with ballpoints and colored felt-tip pens and colored pencils it was already confusing (although always fun) as to what to use, and I guess there are even more things now. I just wanted to do it to calm down (not easy lately)!
Arting’s great for calming down, but I sometimes just scribble the HECK of of a page when I’m really cross! It’ll always make me laugh later!
Recently I’ve been refining what’s in my art kit - for instance graphite pencils don’t work on the type of paper I’m using, so I’ve taken those out of my go-to kit. At the moment there’s a small paintbox, a small tin of watersoluble crayons, 8 Stabilo Woody pencils (kids’ giant 3-in-1 colouring pencils which behave like crayons and paint at the same time) and 8 coloured biros. Those are my picks because that’s just what I like messing around with, and they don’t seem to argue much with each other on the page!
I love your playful art and those quotes. What I learned from 40 years teaching preschoolers is that we are all artists by nature; children only gradually become self-conscious and cautious about expressing themselves through art.
Thank you so much, Kerry, and gosh, YES, you’ve expressed it exactly! I guess when self-awareness kicks in, well, that’s when expectations on oneself arise……. Takes a LOT of undoing later!
Absolutely beautiful and so cheering! Great to see a quote too from Susan Jeffers (if it is the same one, she wrote the classic 'Feel the Fear - and do it anyway!' which was a fav of mine back in the day). I am a 100% doodler myself, often the same things strangely (probably revealing!) and I always fancied doing something more yet somehow never have. I have done a bit of collaging but remain untrained and unsure. YOUR books are always amazing and I do always love a bit of wishy-washy colour like that soft Marc Chagall blue I am obsessed with :)
Oooooh, I just love a doodle! My next post - should I ever get it finished, cos I fear it’s going to miss my self-imposed Saturday deadline - is all about little doodled ‘icons’ of life. I used to doodle a lot during work phone calls - not that it would distract me from concentrating on the calls, but the reverse; it would help me engage with them. Gosh, does that even make sense?!
So, you remain ‘untrained and unsure’? Well, you’re the BEST kind of artist, Sue! GO FOR that collaging and see what happens!
Do yer homework! Lovely art, great quotes!
I HAVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And thank you so much! The quotes are super, aren’t they? It’s a lovely book for inspiration to go wild with art. One page has this, which I absolutely love:
‘When I was in seventh grade, the kindly, curly and somewhat cross-eyed Mrs Walters told me that I was a good writer and drawer. That was that!’ - Maira Kalman
😃
Looks like the loveliest day, messing about with paints n' crayons n' pens.
Oh Prue, totally, utterly and completely! 🥰
Gorgeous!
Thank you, Rosy! 😘
Love it!
Thanks, Tom!
Beautiful & happy!
Awwww, yes, HAPPY!!! Thank you so much! x
They are so beautiful, loving the exciting mix of media, the biros really add! ❤️ Great quotes!
Thank you so much! I like a ‘more is more’ approach - LOL! The biros are my ‘new’ thing to use in, well, everything - a set of four had been given to me as a gift absolutely yonks ago - pink, purple, turquoise and lime green - and I’m using them in everything! A couple of weeks ago I bought a few more colours - orange is proving surprising useful, to my surprise. They’re Bic Cristal brand, 1.6mm, and really, really fun! They do have a tendency to ‘blob’ but heck, I just let them, cos I is just playin’……. 😜
So good to hear from you! This is just what I needed today (to see and hear).
Awww, thanks, Nancy! So pleased! x
Inspiring, and now I will go look up what biros are!
Thanks, Susan! Biro is the generic name for a ballpoint pen over here, named after their Hungarian inventor. Bic is probably the most popular brand - and certainly my favourite! I knew that red, blue, black and dark green are commonly available, but until I was given a set of four very bright colours I had no idea such variety existed! Anyway, they’re great fun for scribbling with - and of course once the ink is on the page, well, it’s there forever, which makes me faaaaar less precious about what the resulting art looks like! That seems to be what I’m all about at the moment, and it’s sooooo fun! x
Oh, Rebecca! I love the freshness of your playful art-ing! Looking at your art is like breathing in the spring, 100%. You go!
AWWWWW! ‘Looking at your art is like breathing in the spring’ are such beautiful words, Mary - thank you so much! What a lovely thing to say! 🥰
😃 💐 You’re welcome, Rebecca 😁. It’s the truth!
🥰❤️😘
Love your vibrant pinks! Although pink is not my favorite color, I am more a neutral gal, but I’m tired of grays and blacks in my “wardrab” and color pallet, I’ve been forcing and teaching myself to play around with brighter more vibrant colors. Your post has inspired me to do another substack on some of my art doodles I’ve been consoling myself with for the last two weeks of having he who shall remain nameless at the helm of our country.
But you’ve gone and used another interesting term I’m not familiar with. I’ll have to do as Susan Cooke did and go look up Bic Biros. 🫶🏻
‘Wardrab’!!!!!! Most of the contents of mine is navy blue, pretty much……!!!! 🤣
I don’t like pink, but in the run-up to Christmas Everything Art were doing a free online art journalling course, and the theme was pink. I didn’t like pink - I don’t like pink - but sought out a pan of Rose Madder watercolour paint from my school paintbox to add to my pinkless these-days paintbox, and found the pink biro I’d been given (and its friends: the purple one, the turquoise one and the acid green one!) and I started to fill a sketchbook on which I was using pink on every page. Some of the pages are BONKERS - for instance I sketched out the shapes of two of my houseplants onto a page I’d painted with a pale watercolour wash and then painted around those shapes with bright, bright pink to make a background, and then painted the plants last - I loved every second of that project!
‘Biro’ is just the generic name for ballpoint pen! I’ve just replied to Susan’s lovely comment too in that regard. Bic is my favourite brand - I wonder if they’re available over there?
I love that you’re planning another post on your art! x
AHHH, Balpoint pen!! I thought it was a form of doodle. LOL!
I have several pens I use and yes, we have Bic pens here, Bic lighters, and probably a few other things with the “Bic” brand name. My favorite ball points right now are Pilot G-2 07. They are nice and dark. They will spread a little gray if they get wet, but you can still see the writing or doodle beneath. If I want to doodle with waterproof I will use Micron pens of different point thickness.
The only time I ever got to play with crayons and paints when I was a child was when I would go visit girl cousins homes, or my little friend across the street. She always had crayons at the ready and we would spend hours playing at making and coloring dresses for paper dolls we cut out of cardboard.
I had 3 younger brothers and my mom was a neat freak and didn’t feel like cleaning crayon off any wall paper. Now they make them water soluble. So my artistic slant got a late start unless I was outside of my home. Otherwise, I was allowed paper and a pencil when my brothers were little so I would copy cartoons out of the Sunday “funny papers”.
I shall have to revisit some of my doodles and see where I may brighten them up a bit.
It wasn’t until Covid came about that I got into book binding and making journals Via YouTube. Then the next year I took a zoom class on “Watercolor Painting for The Absolute Frustrated Beginner”. Then I was off and running and acquiring all sorts of colored pens, pencils, watercolor, acrylics, watercolor paper, etc… My daughter sent me a big supply of things she was no longer using or new paint brushes and brush-pens. I just filled up three more plastic see thru tote bins yesterday with things trying to organize my studio. So much “Craftermath” stuff laying around! 🤣
The Craftermath is an ever-growing entity, isn’t it, Gail?! 🤣
I like fineliners too, although I’ve never really got on with Microns. They always seem to trip themselves up on the page somehow! Perhaps it’s my left-handedness? My favourite is the Staedtler pigment liner - but in fact I only use them to write with rather than for arting.
Black fountain pen ink is fun - I love to wet it so it turns into a wet grey wash. MESSY, though!
And gosh, what a shame that you only got to engage with crayons etc when you were at other people’s houses. Sounds like you’ve been making up for lost time since - and I’m cheering you on!
These paintings are HAPPINESS personified. Light, giggly, innocent. I want a cotton textile made from each one. I would sew dresses and wear only those. Forever. Congratulations, Rebecca. Keep playing.
Oh, that’s so kind of you, Sharron! Thank you! How lovely to think of some of these on fabric. I’ve got a bit of a project on the go at the moment which I might one day get Jim to print on greeting cards. MAYBE! In the meantime, though, play is EVERYTHING - I’m enjoying myself immensely, even though I did get green biro ink on my armchair yesterday in a moment of hapless overexuberance.
(Shhhhh, don’t tell Jim. He’s the houseproud one.)
Turn that green mark into a leaf, add a blossom, make it look intentional. Do the whole armchair? Just a thought. ha ha ha
Great idea! I'm on it!
I love your artworks Rebecca, they are full of joy and feel uplifting.
That’s so kind, Janet - very many thanks! ☺️
What a gorgeous happy colourful post! Thank you for sharing that on this awfully grey day.
And two separate notes: first, I realise I have become bilingual because I know what biros are without having to look the word up (ballpoint pens).
And the quotation about art supplies being toys is exactly how I grew up! My mom was an art teacher and also kept all kinds of arty/crafy things around on open shelves to encourage me/us to play art and create whenever we got bored: scrap papers in all colours and patterns, many colours of paints and pens/pencils, plus stones, shells, sticks & twigs, marbles, glue, tapes, cardboard, puffy cotton balls, twisty stems, you name it! It was sometimes too much to consider and I couldn't decide how to play art. So I'd go into the garden and wander around instead! Thanks for the colour and the memories!
Hurrah for US English/British English bilingualism - that’s AWESOME!
And gosh, it sounds as if you had soooooo many opportunities for arting at your fingertips - that sounds amazing. My mum’s always been extremely creative - she’s a textile artist but has always got stuck in with all kinds of media. We still sometimes get together to mess around with paint, etc!
Ohhh what fun you and your mum must be together. I'd love to be a fly on the wall for those creative sessions!
Thanks for explaining, Rebecca. I have so much to learn! The last time I played with ballpoints and colored felt-tip pens and colored pencils it was already confusing (although always fun) as to what to use, and I guess there are even more things now. I just wanted to do it to calm down (not easy lately)!
Arting’s great for calming down, but I sometimes just scribble the HECK of of a page when I’m really cross! It’ll always make me laugh later!
Recently I’ve been refining what’s in my art kit - for instance graphite pencils don’t work on the type of paper I’m using, so I’ve taken those out of my go-to kit. At the moment there’s a small paintbox, a small tin of watersoluble crayons, 8 Stabilo Woody pencils (kids’ giant 3-in-1 colouring pencils which behave like crayons and paint at the same time) and 8 coloured biros. Those are my picks because that’s just what I like messing around with, and they don’t seem to argue much with each other on the page!
I love your playful art and those quotes. What I learned from 40 years teaching preschoolers is that we are all artists by nature; children only gradually become self-conscious and cautious about expressing themselves through art.
Thank you so much, Kerry, and gosh, YES, you’ve expressed it exactly! I guess when self-awareness kicks in, well, that’s when expectations on oneself arise……. Takes a LOT of undoing later!
Absolutely beautiful and so cheering! Great to see a quote too from Susan Jeffers (if it is the same one, she wrote the classic 'Feel the Fear - and do it anyway!' which was a fav of mine back in the day). I am a 100% doodler myself, often the same things strangely (probably revealing!) and I always fancied doing something more yet somehow never have. I have done a bit of collaging but remain untrained and unsure. YOUR books are always amazing and I do always love a bit of wishy-washy colour like that soft Marc Chagall blue I am obsessed with :)
Oooooh, I just love a doodle! My next post - should I ever get it finished, cos I fear it’s going to miss my self-imposed Saturday deadline - is all about little doodled ‘icons’ of life. I used to doodle a lot during work phone calls - not that it would distract me from concentrating on the calls, but the reverse; it would help me engage with them. Gosh, does that even make sense?!
So, you remain ‘untrained and unsure’? Well, you’re the BEST kind of artist, Sue! GO FOR that collaging and see what happens!