In this video I talk about the supplies in my “on-the-go sketch kit” which I created in an attempt to do more art while out and about. I’m sharing the supplies within, and why I chose these particular items.

Do you have your own sketch kit that you take with you when you’re out and about? What’s in it? Please share pictures and descriptions in the comments below!

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Later, we and a few other family members were gifted a few more “plein air” art supplies for Christmas. At our annual Thanksgiving gathering and summer family reunion, we decided to coordinate bringing our art supplies and spend a little time, while together, doing a few mini “plein air” painting sessions as a group.

The family lives all across the US, so gathering all together in person is infrequent and difficult. With a general consensus that we were all having fun with our new painting hobby, though some (eh hem) were taking it a bit more seriously than others, we decided to meet up on zoom a few times to continue the momentum! At first weekly, but eventually settling on 2x per month. It started small, but more people in the family learned about our art nights and started asking to be invited. Slowly it grew, and continues to grow and shift each month.

Whenever I share something I’ve created from a “Family Art Night,” I get a variety of reactions, mostly expressing how neat or cool it sounds to have regular family meetings where we create art. They wish they had that!

After chatting with a friend, who had a similar sentiment, we started discussing the details of how to actually execute an ongoing virtual Art Night, and he encouraged me to share those ideas here. So here we are! Below you’ll find format ideas for how you could host a family art night of your own!

CREATING A FAMILY ART NIGHT

Who

Blood relatives, family through marriage, chosen family, or even non-family! Friend Art Night is amazing too!

What

Art/Creative activities together with loved ones. This can be any kind of art. Sometimes we all do the same thing, sometimes we all do different things. I’ll share more specific ideas below.

Why

• It gives you a regular opportunity to connect, without the weird lags in conversation when there’s nothing to talk about. If people stop talking, it’s mostly because they’re working. Conversation flows naturally.

• It gives you a designated time and space to work on something creative, just for fun.

• It gives you a new angle, and a new way to connect with your loved ones in a way that you may not know them well.

How

Now that, ultimately, is up to you! But based on our time together and a few other ideas I got from my friend , here are some things you could consider when setting up your art nights.

Meeting Space

If you can meet in person, I think that would be best. If you can’t meet in person, meet virtually! Zoom only offers 45-minute call times with free accounts. Many people have access to Google Meet or Teams. There are a number of other options available, too, which can be discovered via an online search. (If you have other ideas, please share them in the comments below!)

Meeting Frequency

This probably depends most on your group preferences. We started weekly, which was great for me and a few others who really wanted to dive into art, but it was too frequent for most and ultimately ended up being hard to keep up. We switched to 2x per month. If people can’t attend, they just skip and catch a future one.

Meeting Time/Duration

We meet on Thursday evenings for 90 minutes, starting at 9PM Eastern since most of the family live further west. 60~90 minutes feels good – people come late or leave early as they need to. Day and time will depend greatly on your family’s availability. You could also move the date and time around to make sure no one is left out.

Meeting Setup/Agenda

At first we started doing guided tutorial videos. Initially we each purchased one of these books and did her videos together via screenshare. After a while some people were falling away from watercolor, and wanted to do other things like crochet, quilting, drawing, coloring, etc. So we switched to “free art.” When we did that, we realized that not having a predetermined topic was also proving difficult. So recently we started a new system…

One of the calls per month is “free art” with no topic.

The second call is a “guided topic” chosen by one family member. They can provide short videos, tutorials, reference images, or just the topic idea and nothing else. Each “host” chooses their own topic and their own way of presenting it. This gives half the calls a little structure, and the other half no structure. We keep track of who has volunteered and which topic they’re presenting in a shared Google Sheet.

Sharing Your Art

Depending on the platform you choose, there are a number of easy ways to share your art with each other. We often hold up our art at the end of each video call, but camera quality or lighting can make it difficult to see the images well. Some more ideas for sharing art (and keeping the conversation going between calls) include:

• Zoom chat uploads (Zoom now has a “continuous chat” feature you can post in anytime)

• Google Doc/Drive (or other shared drive) uploads

• A text chain or WhatsApp Group1

• Another social platform group feature

• Email chains

ART TOGETHER with Follow Your Art

Not everyone has family that likes art, or wants to do art, and not everyone has family that they want to spend time with in this way.

If you’re into art and want to be part of this kind of community, I’m creating one here on Substack. 💕 It’s for friends, family, anyone who wants to do more art (or creativity), and be in it together. Our first call is TOMORROW! (3/12/2026, 8:30 PM EDT - zoom link and details on the member resources page here.) For our first one I’m inviting members of Follow Your Art, and a +1 to join the fun. See you there?

What do you think about building your own Family Art Night? What would you change or add from my ideas above? Can’t wait to hear what you do! Post in the comments below.

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See a few of my “Family Art Night” creations below!

Warmly,

Lana K.

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The weight is heavy, and I feel unsure about anything right now. I am scared. I want to retreat, hide, sleep, wait for it all to be over. Move to a place no one cares about with no risk to my family. (If such a place exists.)

My blog is not focused on political issues like many others on Substack, and of course retreating is not the answer. Even if my blog is not making a difference on political and worldly fronts, I know I can still make a difference to some people on a personal level. I cannot change what things are happening, but perhaps I can give people an outlet for how to manage internal emotions. A place for them to connect with others.

So with uncertainty, I decided to move forward with my M-art-CH idea, even if it is a little less formulated than planned.

M-art-CH

30 Days of Small Art

There are three main things I hear when discussing what holds people back from doing art or being creative.

1. Time

2. Fear

3. What to draw1

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I find myself, and others, using these words before describing something they’ve created…

“It’s just…”

“It’s only…”

“It’s a little…”

We’re prefacing our explanation with small words to give the viewer a heads up that we don’t think our art is any good. Or maybe we’re afraid (anticipating) that they won’t think it’s any good so we beat them to it, expressing how we might agree so they no longer have to make that judgement.

It makes sense, we’re protecting ourselves. But at the same time, we’re also selling ourselves short. (And I know I am guilty of this… I promise I’m working on it.) The more we indicate to ourselves we don’t believe in our abilities or our art, the more our subconscious believes it, too.

The next time you’re going to describe something you’ve made, let’s try removing words like just, only, and little, and try one of the following instead?

“It’s ___.”

“It’s a ___.”

“I made a ___.”

“I wrote ___.”

“I created ___.”

Etc.

Practice it now (out loud) with the thing you made most recently.

How does it feel when you say it without any minimizing additions? Does it boost your confidence? How do you feel about that piece now?

And if the other person makes their own judgement and doesn’t like it? That’s fine. Did you like it? Not really? That’s fine too. You made something and that’s amazing.

Comparison

I recently subscribed to two art magazines. I love them. Mostly when I look at them I get inspired, but sometimes (ok, often…) I also get really intimidated. These people are brilliant. They have been studying art for many years. Wow, they are so talented. Their art is so far beyond mine. Even if I dedicate 100 years to my art it’ll never be this good. My thoughts spiral and do more harm than good.

I will try to keep reminding myself:

• My art is mostly for me. It helps me process and express. It helps me keep learning, and it’s fun.

• My art is also for others. Maybe for beauty, but maybe simply to inspire creativity. To evoke thoughts, ideas, and musings. To share. To connect. To encourage others to pick up the creative thing they’ve been meaning to start, or get back to.

• Stay honest, stay genuine. Do it your own way - there was already a Rembrandt, a Monet, a Kahlo, a Warhol, etc. But this is the one time there will be a Lana K. How does her art come from the self, onto the page or into the world? Be her. Do that, and those that are meant to connect with it, will do so.

Though I’m focusing mostly on painting, sketching, and photography for myself, I am referring to all kinds of art and creativity in my attempts to get people to “follow their art.” If your creative focus is elsewhere, I hope that I’ll still be able to provide encouragement and community for you, too - anything to help you carve out time and space for your art!

A Few More Sketchbook Journal Pages

A very wise friend and mentor shared with me at our last meeting: In our art, let’s also remember to have fun.

Join Follow Your Art before February 28th to keep founding member pricing (forever!). Anyone who needs a comp will be given one, no questions, just let me know here.

Coming up for members of Follow Your Art…

• March 12th ART TOGETHER zoom call for members1

• M-art-ch Bingo (An informal month of self-guided prompts to get you doing something creative every day! Or at least, as many days as you can - which, let’s be honest - will probably be more days than you’d make time for otherwise… Info coming to Members soon.)

• Community, accountability, and art sharing in the Substack chat!

Upgrade/Become a Member

Know someone else who is looking to make more time for their creativity?

Gift a Membership Instead

What do you struggle with more? Making time for art, or showing people art you’ve made?

Most sincerely,
Lana K.

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A few days later I also attended a “Flowers in Fields” workshop locally.

Instead of focusing on the intricate details of flowers up close (like we did in an earlier workshop), we were learning how to work with flowers when surrounded by greenery, or how to focus only on a small area within a larger structure.

Most of the following were practice pages for technique practice rather than finished pieces.

While on a flower kick I tried out a few more practice sketches in my sketchbook.

Finally, I did these (below) in anticipation of Valentine’s Day. I’m not a big Valentine’s Day fan, but the school asked for families to bring in a card to be read out loud in class. It was a good excuse to clean up my desk, pull out the space heater (why did it take me this long?), and start painting again. I heard from one of the teachers that the mini flowers were much appreciated, and it made me feel good to do them myself.

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The Process:

To execute this, I printed some reference images of wildflowers that I found around the web. I painted directly onto a pre-folded Strathmore watercolor paper card that I purchased at a craft thrift shop.

I taped a box in the middle and free-hand painted small blobs around the border, starting with colorful petals, then adding the interiors and last adding the stems and leaves. I mostly used round brushes size 3, 4, and 5 - a bit smaller than my usual paintings.2

Once it was dry enough to pull up the tape, I wrote their names in the center with a Prismacolor Brush Marker (B) pen.

I’d say they turned out better than expected for a first try. I’m excited to try more of these as spring comes. Reviving “the art of letter writing” is one of my goals for this year, so why not try making some of the cards in addition to the words?

I liked that they were small with minimal detail - it made the project quick and attainable.

Have you incorporated flowers into any of your creativity recently? Join the chat to share your work!

Most sincerely,

Lana K.

P.S. Founding membership pricing ends at the end of February! To join at the current pricing of $5/mo or $50/year join our crew before March 1. 💌 Here’s more about what’s coming.

Join as a founding member

-From “When I Turned a Hundred,” by Mark Strand1

In our local sketch group last week, a member brought in her sketchbook project and some research about Mark Strand, whom her project incorporates. She read the above quote and it immediately resonated with me.

I started pursuing art to find myself. A part of me that I’d lost a long time ago, but really needed to find again, especially these last few years.

Then I joined Substack to find artistic individuals, and to connect with others. I found you, and so many artists in this glorious community. I was surprised that when I started telling people about my blog, they subscribed!

It meant so much to be supported in my artistic endeavors and it allowed me to keep going. It put a fire behind me that told me I could keep going. I SHOULD keep going!

As I explore art, and figure out “who I am” and process the world through art, I share my progress. Progress means not all my images are great, but they’re all mine and part of me. I receive messages from members expressing how sharing my journey has encouraged them to start, or rekindle their own creative practice, too.

Based on this feedback, I’m inspired to put even more energy into this endeavor. I want to help more people figure out a way to pursue an art form, whatever that means to them, as a way of expressing themselves or processing the world. Is there something you’ve always wanted to try? Something you used to do that fell away that you want to pick up again? Something you’re afraid to start because you think (or know) you won’t be good at it right away?

In order to offer more here, I’m also going to start posting art tips, setup inspiration, and occasional art prompts in addition to sharing my own art. New things to try, or ways to bring some art into your day.

Here’s what that will look like:

• 1~2 posts per month for everyone

• 1~2 posts for members that are resource/art prompt specific

• 1 monthly “Art Together” zoom call (mark your calendars for March 12th at 8:30 PM!)2

• Art community, art accountability, and art sharing chat in Substack

My ultimate goal: through action and sharing (i.e. showing even my not so good art days), I can encourage others to start, continue, or return to their creative and artistic pursuits.

To make these ideas come to life, and to help people in a way that will be meaningful and impactful takes a lot of time and energy, not to mention -- art supplies! So here is my ask: If you are enjoying FOLLOW YOUR ART, please consider becoming a paid subscriber (member) to help make all of this possible. You’ll be getting all of the member benefits mentioned above, as well as the opportunity to help this movement grow! For the few of you who are already subscribed and have been members from the beginning, you have my deepest and sincerest gratitude. YOU made this possible. You inspired me to make art a priority.

Join as a Founding Member

All founder pricing will say as-is for the remainder of this month. $5 monthly, or 17% discount for an annual subscription. As of next month I’ll be increasing the new member prices, so anyone who joins in February will stay in the founder pricing (for any tier) forever. You can also gift a subscription to a friend that you think would enjoy and benefit from the membership!

For those who are not currently in a position to upgrade but really want to join this community, I offer you a comp membership - no questions asked. We are here to support each. Send me an email to let me know and I’ll add you: info@lanakitcher.com. 🩷

“The goal of art isn’t to attain perfection. The goal is to share who we are. And how we see the world… One reason art resonates is because human beings are so similar. We’re attracted to the shared experience held within the work. Including the imperfection in it. We recognize some part of ourselves and feel understood. And connected… Expressing oneself in the world and creativity are the same. It may not be possible to know who you are without somehow expressing it.”

-Rick Rubin, The Creative Act: A Way of Being

Thank you for being here.

Have any questions or requests? Let me know in a message and/or fill out my quick anonymous Substack survey here.

Know someone else would would appreciate joining a community to help kick-start (or revive) their creative practice? Please share this post and publication with them!

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Warm regards and with gratitude,

Lana K.

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• It was hard, but I enjoyed being forced to step outside of my comfort zone/normal drawing style for a few of the exercises.

• Each exercise was intentionally limited to 10 minutes. This kept us from getting too bogged down by trying to make something “really good.” The short practice made it easy to get started, and helped keep us moving. It also limited tendencies of perfectionism.

• The short time limit also made certain mediums/materials more accessible than others. It encouraged me to use my limited sketch kit which consisted of a few pens and pencils, brushes, and a small watercolor palette.

• We got to learn a little art history in the process, and see many different kinds of artists and art styles.

• The consistent prompts helped keep the momentum for 30 days.

• Creating community around this practice was also very helpful - cheering each other on and using groups for accountability. I didn’t participate in the large group chat every day, but was part of a smaller family/friends chat where we shared our work daily-ish.

I didn’t produce my favorite pieces this final week, and I ended up skipping the very last prompt (which was to make a membership card), but all in all I really enjoyed it. For February I’m hoping to test out Samantha Dion Baker’s “My February” challenge, though the structure is quite different and I’m already falling behind.

Take a look at my final “DrawTogether” sketches below.

25 - The “You” Starter Pack

26 - Lettering & Drop Caps

27 - Four Panel Comic Journaling

28 - Abstract Comic

29 - Draw Your 30 Days

30 - Skipped

A hard thing for me to do, but I granted myself permission to let it go.

I received a few art prompts from last week’s post! Have more ideas? Submit and review below:

1. Submit a drawing prompt idea!

2. See the list of submissions and use one of these when you feel stuck!

If you have just two minutes to spare today, I could use some feedback on how to grow this blog to make it as useful as possible for people looking to add more art to their lives. Please let me know your thoughts by filling out this quick survey.

Catch you soon,
Lana

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1. Here’s a link to a Google Form where you can submit a drawing prompt idea!

2. Here’s the link to the connected Google Sheet, so you can see what other people submitted and use the list for your own continued art practice!

And on to the sketches! Here is week 3 of DrawTogether.

18 - FINDER

19 - OBJECTS OF DELIGHT

20 - DELIGHT IN NATURE

21 - DELICIOUS DELIGHTS

22 - CLOTHES

23 - SHOES WITH STORIES

24 - RING OF KEYS

I’d love to hear from you. Send me a message with your thoughts or fill out this quick survey.

Super Short Feedback Survey ->

I’d also love to see your art - please share it with me! (In the comments below or in a direct message, whatever feels most comfortable.)

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Important Feedback Survey

Most sincerely,
Lana

Do you have a daily or weekly practice? What does it look like for you?

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11 - LINES WITHOUT A POINT

12 - AUTOMATIC SHAPES

This one here inspired me to try something similar in my sketchbook group project. Here was the result while in progress…

And here is how it turned out when dry. (I prefer the in-progress one when it was wet. It gives off a stained-glass effect. I wonder if there’s a way to mimic that when dry?)

13 - CREATURE FORMS

14 - NEGATIVE SPACE (fail)

NEGATIVE SPACE (D/O)

15 - POSITIVE SPACE

16 - THUMBNAIL MASTERPIECES

17 - DRAW WITH YOUR WHOLE BODY

Also, changes are coming… I want to offer even more to individuals who are yearning to do more art - whatever that may mean for them. Writing, photography, drawing, doodling, painting, etc. Napkin scribbles = art! I want to help you make time for your craft and help you gain confidence to “be bad” at first, and push through making it anyway.

I’d love to hear from you. Send me a message with your thoughts or fill out this quick, painless, anonymous survey! Also, I’d love to see your art - please share it with me!

Super Short Feedback Survey ->

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Most sincerely,
Lana

DrawTogether with WendyMac

Drawing explorations, lessons, and weekly art assignments from New York Times-bestselling artist Wendy MacNaughton. Paying subscribers get full access to the DrawTogether Grown-Ups Table creative community and drawing assignments.

By Wendy MacNaughton

I won’t share the prompts here (you can check out Wendy’s blog to learn more!) but I will share the end result of my first week below. For each day there is a 10-minute LIMIT, meaning “pencils down” when your timer goes off. So don’t expect anything too fancy. 😉

Lana

MORE/LESS FOR 2026

SPIRALS

CONNECT THE DOTS

BLIND CONTOUR

DOODLE 10 WAYS

SILLY SELFIE

SPLATTER FACE!

GET GOOFY!

FROM A TO B

BILATERAL DRAWINGS

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Sincere apologies for my recent absence… life got the better of me this past holiday season starting with Thanksgiving, then a bout of sickness that spread through the family, then snow, then Christmas, then New Years. I was feeling a little over-extended during all of that and didn’t have much energy to dedicate to art.

Not only did I find the holidays a bit overwhelming, but I also struggled with the transition from fall to winter. I was feeling cold, tired, and completely unmotivated.

But now…

I. Am. BACK!

I totally just jinxed it, didn’t I.

I enjoyed lots of time with friends and family toward the end of the year, but I’m also looking forward to a slightly quieter few months ahead.

This year I’m hoping to focus on two things:

1. Art - More consistency but smaller projects, experiment, branch out, play

2. House - Tidy, organize, purge

Part of my challenge getting into art as the days shortened and the temperature dropped was that my art setup in the basement was too cold and too dark for this season. In order to get me through the slump, I cleared up a spot in the kitchen and brought up a few essential art supplies. A simple setup for a small space. Limiting my supplies means I’ll probably be focused more on sketches than painting this winter, but I’m happy to be continuing an art practice in any capacity!

Mid last year I started my first ongoing sketchbook, thanks to a few sketch friends who recommended ’s online courses. I signed up for his “Start Your Sketchbook Journal”course1 and they were right - it was amazing. I’m so happy I did it. (I highly recommend any/all of his books and courses if you’re looking to change your life! 😉)

I’ve found that incorporating this sketchbook habit, as many days a week as I am able, has me feeling happier, less anxious, more relaxed, and just generally feeling like a better version of myself. I love sitting down to sketch. I love how it makes me feel in the moment and also after the fact when I can look back at all of the things I’ve stopped to observe and draw.

Below are a few sketches from my first sketchbook.

More to come.

Happy New Year, and I can’t wait to sketch/draw/paint/art with you soon!

Lana

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P.S. As of January 1st, I’ve also joined with here on Substack. It’s been really fun to connect with others (the larger community and a smaller group chat I’m in) around art. The prompts are short, just 10 minutes a day, but I’m loving the new ideas and momentum I’m gaining from the practice. I will post some of the drawing challenge sketches next week!

I’m considering starting a small art community of my own here on Substack… do you have any thoughts around that? Please let me know! Would that be fun and inspiring for you! What kinds of posts and support would help bring more art and creative joy into your life?

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(Click on any of the images below to see the full version of each.)

Color Swatching

First we tested our neutrals colors, and did a few exercises and theory work. As someone who didn’t take any art classes or go to art school, much of this information is new for me.

Class notes:

Then we practiced loosely blending the neutral colors with each other, and created another swatch sample with primary colors. On the right of each color you’ll see a “gray” streak. On the left, you’ll see a series of neutral colors that were created using the original swatch color plus a complimentary combination to get a new gray color.

In a nutshell, we were learning how to create shadow by using a darker version of the object’s original color and mixing that color with its complement on the color wheel - avoiding black or gray pigments which makes the shadow too stark and unrealistic.

Here were the reference sheets for the following exercises.

And these were my practice exercises.

Here was my final image for the class, which was an amalgamation of the hills scene and the barn with shading. I ended up using the neutral palette for the hills and regular primaries for the barn and greenery, but learned that I’m not supposed to use these palettes together.

I’ve learned a similar concept in Shari Blaukopf’s online “Light, Color, Shadow” course for those looking for something remote.

What are you working on these days?

Also, I am looking for feedback from readers and subscribers. Please take a minute to let me know more here!

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Thanks,

-Lana

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I originally chose the dock scene, but after attempting to sketch it decided to switch to the grassy church scene. The details and tricky perspectives required a bit more time than I had available during our call.

Final Painting

Recently I’ve found myself in a bit of a winter slump. We’ve all been rotating through one sickness or another, and with so few hours of daylight already, I basically just get the kids to bed and crawl into my own bed by 8pm.

With many factors working against me (sickness, cold house, early sunset) I’ll need to find a way to change my evening habits if I want to get back into making art.

Here are a few ideas for myself:

1. Drink less coffee - switch to tea or even just hot water (I love coffee, but I’m pretty sure it’s making me feel worse)

2. Drink more water

3. Prep warm clothes for when I need to head to the basement - have a basement uniform

4. Prep tea or other hot beverage for the basement (I just invested in a new hot water kettle and I can’t wait for it to arrive!!!)

5. Wear warm socks, employ fuzzy slippers

6. Do a pre-basement routine - make tea, warm a heat pack, do a hype dance or jumping jacks, etc.

7. Have a specific project in mind that I want to work on, make it fun

8. Have a folder or list of projects I’d like to consider trying - make it easy to jump right into them (keep the list accessible, desk clean, and the supplies ready!)

9. If I need a breather right after the kid bedtime routines, consider sitting on the couch with some easy reading.

Or from another angle:

1. Go to bed as early as I want! It’s winter and the body operates on different rhythms.

2. Switch my painting routine to either the early morning or during the workday.

3. Maybe this will be a season of less painting and more reading? More photography? Or I could bring much smaller projects to a different space in the house.

Any ideas or inspiration welcome.

In other news, we are considering a small guitar or ukulele for our daughter for Christmas, who has showed interest in the subject. She’s not interested in being instructed about notes or chords, but she likes to strum and sing along to her strumming.

We’re borrowing a ukulele at the moment and I found some easy songs and tabs online. I’ve tried learning guitar before but lost momentum quickly. I picked up the ukulele today after she went to bed, and it immediately felt a lot easier to get started. It felt good to bring some music back… Perhaps winter’s creativity will be music-based? (If you know anything about guitar vs ukulele for young children or if you have brand advice, please chime in!)

More words than art today. Here are a few photos for you.

Ruby Red

New Sketchbook
First page, a few doodles.

Spilled Milk
The above sketchbook page was inspired by the following bird. MAB spilled milk all over the kitchen table and it soaked through my art magazine. I tried drying and pulling apart the milk-soaked pages. Despite my initial annoyance that the new magazine I hadn’t read yet was “ruined,” in the end, I liked the new warped and imperfect feeling of the magazine better than the original smooth, glossy, perfect feeling. I haven’t solidified the theme for the new sketchbook yet, but it’s definitely going to be something around the idea of “mistakes” and imperfection. Experimentation.

Three Eyes
Our pumpkin had a hole in it thanks to a squirrel. We carved a second hole to make the second eye. Later, another eye appeared.

Card Doodle
Trying more looseness… maybe that can be my winter theme?

-Lana

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Small Paintings

Scribbles & Exercises 1

I’m loving Indigo…

Scribbles & Exercises 2

Some of the splotchy ones were an attempt to capture leftover palette paint. I’m not sure what I’ll do with them, if anything. Any ideas? Perhaps a greeting card, quote block, bookmark, etc.

Plein Air Attempts

So far I haven’t had much opportunity to get into plein air - the setup is hard and I usually have little kids around competing for my attention so these have been small and quick, mostly abstract. Someday I’ll try some more. At the moment I prefer my “studio” where everything is in its place, I don’t have to carry anything around, and it’s relatively quiet and free from distractions.

Technically the Blue House wasn’t plein air - I painted it from a picture on location instead of setting up in the street.

And some other random art

I think that’s it. I have a few other workshops and river views coming up in the next couple weeks. See you then!

-Lana

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P.S. See something you like from this or any previous post? LK Studios is open for holiday sales. 😉

Then a short lunch break on the lake allowed us to take a closer look at the trees in action.

After lunch we worked on this final project.

Paints and brushes used for these exercises.

Primarily PRUSSIAN BLUE, BROWN MADDER and NEW GAMBOGE.

-Lana

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I enjoyed this project, and felt like I could continue learning from it.

I decided to do the sketchbook a second time, with slightly different parameters.

1. I am now practicing with the Winsor & Newton Professional paints

2. I’m only loosely following the 1, 2, 3 pigment progression

3. I’ve adjusted the images slightly - I didn’t realize the first printing cropped them all, so I’ve printed them again in different dimensions and I’m following that for the new sketches

I’ve completed the first three so far, shown below to compare with the originals. There’s still plenty of room for improvement, but I’m happy to see that I’ve made progress since the first paintings.

Sadly I forgot to date the original book so I’m not exactly sure when I painted them, but I think I started sometime around March 2025.

Sketch 1, Original Photograph in B&W

Sketch 1, First Try - Early 2025

Sketch 1, Second Try - Late 2025

Sketch 1, Side by Side

Sketch 2, Original Photograph in B&W

Sketch 2, First Try - Early 2025

Sketch 2, Second Try - Late 2025

Sketch 2, Side by Side

Sketch 3, Original Photograph in B&W

Sketch 3, First Try - Early 2025

Sketch 3, Second Try - Late 2025

Sketch 3, Side by Side

-Lana

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For this idea I just wanted to get started without over-deliberating, so I didn’t make any sort of plan and encouraged myself to just sit down get started. That often meant not having a reference image or even sketching first. I was successful for a few days before fizzling out on the idea (again). Here are the sketches I produced, most of which are rough and ugly on purpose (ish).

“Just Paint” Experiment - Fall Foliage

Of the set, these were my favorite:

All images from this series are on 5“ x 5” sheets.

In the end, I decided to give myself permission to let this go also. I realized that it was no longer fun, and I wasn’t enjoying the process. I would still like to paint or draw something every day, but it doesn’t have to be the SAME thing every day. And if I miss a day, oh well. No need to beat myself up about it. If I turn painting into a chore I’ve lost sight of its purpose.

If you read my “Through the Looking Glass” post, you’ll know that I struggle with reconciling the two halves of my personality. One being very loose and creative, the other being very orderly and exact. Sometimes I operate too much from the rigid side, and then to compensate swing too far in the other direction, attempting to FORCE myself to be loose with no guidelines. Then I swing back again trying to be rigid with creativity, creating challenges like the one above. Oi.

A client did a soul-reading for me a few months ago and shared a meditative vision. She said that I will be most inspired at the intersection of where these two halves meet, one being a bright white light and the other being a blue column. I interpret this to mean creativity in my own orderly way. Based on my projects so far, I’ve definitely found this to be true. I like practicing images a few times in a row, but not too many times. I like having a project with some parameters, so I know what to paint when I sit down and look at the blank paper, but also allow myself the flexibility to break the rules when I feel like it. Stop or change the project when the original parameters are no longer serving me.

Three (Abstract) Self-portraits

I was inspired to try to capture the feeling of my two halves in paint. A dear friend created an amazing Pisces image for my daughter, and it kept coming to mind as I was thinking about how to draw these two halves. I am also a Pisces. To depict both sides, I used an Indigo pigment - the same for both light and dark.

Self-portraits make me think of Frida Kahlo, who I’ve been told I look like more than once. I always wondered why she painted herself so many times.

As I paint, I think about life. Sometimes I think about death, too. I know someday I will die, and life seems more painful and more vivid to address that reality. After I die, perhaps my paintings will remain. Maybe friends and family will look at them and remember something about me, or remember a time we shared. It feels like I’ll be leaving little bits of me behind.

While painting the splatter version of this portrait, I finally got some paint on my, until now, pristine plywood desktop. Finally! I’ve broken the seal! Now I can stop worrying about the top and get a little messy. Perhaps it’ll still be “tidy” in the way that I can find what I want, but un-buttoned in that I don’t have to keep every drop within the lines. Or… maybe there won’t be any lines at all? Who knows.

-Lana

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Fair question. I’m a mother of two (young kids), have a job (trying to run my own business), a house (1869), a dog (woof!), etc.

Here’s the answer:

1. I have severely reduced how much TV I watch, and also sadly how many books I read. 🥲

2. I paint between the hours of 9pm and 11pm after the kids have gone to bed. 😪 (This is when I used to watch TV and read books.)

3. I’ve actually stopped using most social media. It has been liberating. I get back some time, and also mental space and reduced emotional angst.

4. I’m taking virtual pre-recorded classes that I can watch at any time and at my own pace.

5. I’m taking occasional in-person classes that occur on Sundays.

6. The house is pretty consistently a mess.

7. I’ve built in two accountability groups to keep me going. One is the sketch group which meets weekly and the other is family sketch night, which takes place weekly or biweekly on zoom at 9pm Eastern.

Our Recent Family Zoom Sketch

So there you have it! I’m often sleepy when I paint, and sometimes it just doesn’t happen, but I’ve been more consistent than not and I’ve noticed that greater consistency has both helped me improve my painting ability, and also find a little something that felt lost - or perhaps buried - and is finding its way back to the surface.

What is it that you’ve been wanting to make more time to do?

-Lana

P.S. I’m trying to better understand what brings people to Words, Photography, Art. Would you mind taking a moment to let me know here in this very brief survey? 🙏

Let me know your thoughts!

Woof! I mean, thanks. 🐾 Hm?

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In class with her, we did the first few pages which were rows of pure color (and values practice) as well as the primary mixing combinations.

For the Sketchbook “9 Views of The Hudson River” project I practiced a few color wheels.

I also experimented with the Umber, Sienna, and Blue mixes to create “black.

Recently I’ve been curious to list all of the essential primaries, which for Greta’s palette are:

1. French Ultramarine

2. Cobalt Blue (but the Daniel Smith brand??)

3. Alizarin Crimson

4. Cadmium Red

5. Cadmium Yellow

6. Winsor Yellow (which is Lemon Yellow in other lines)

Above is the order she has them listed in her own color labeling system, but I put them in my chart as R Y B.

Is there a specific order they should be in? If so, why?

Since she listed Daniel Smith Cobalt instead of Winsor & Newton Cobalt, I also wanted to understand the difference between those two. So I did a second test just mixing the different blues with the same primary reds and yellows.

I can see some subtle color differences (though that could also be how I mixed them) and the Daniel Smith seemed to spread in water a little more quickly than Winsor Newton. Plus the Daniel Smith seems to have slightly more granulation…

Although creating mixing charts and swatches like this can be a bit tedious, and sometimes feels like I’m wasting a lot of paint, I’ve found it to be more valuable than not. It gives me first-hand experience to answer my questions and to test the advice I hear and see, especially since each teacher has their own preferred way, brand, palette, etc.

-Lana

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During the class we painted the Curve-billed Thrasher.

The instructor passed along a few other reference photos that I decided to try on my own after the class. I thought I’d attempt a “30-day Painting Challenge,” the idea to paint the same bird 30 days in a row.

Parameters: Draw/paint the Gilded Flicker 30 times (reference image below), but feel free to change and experiment with paint colors, paper sizes, brushes, techniques, and even mediums.

Perhaps my subject was too hard, or I got derailed a week that everyone in the house was sick, but I did five days of this challenge before dropping the ball and letting it go.

On the second to last day, as you’ll see, I got quite frustrated with my progress and started venting my frustration on the page.

I brought the images to Greta and she gave me some feedback.

• She wasn’t a fan of the background color splotches.

• She mentioned that if I focused a little more on the sketch composition, the final painting would get closer to the reference. The original bird was a bit more horizontal than my sketches, which ended up quite vertical. I think I should have tried reorienting the paper, or made them square.

• She recommended focusing more on making the light areas lighter, such as the underbelly.

There was more feedback, but I’ve forgotten what else she said.

I’d like to try this experiment again, but perhaps a much smaller sketch or a slightly easier (and less detailed) subject. Any ideas?

-Lana

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