Artist Interview: Claire

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Weird Gourds – Colored Ink Art

Join me as I sketch, draw and paint a weird autumn themed knobby gourd using colored ink as a hobby artist.

From Sketchbook to Published Book

by Alison | Sketchbooks and Journals

Author: Alison Hazel – Updated: May 2025

Coastal Inspiration

You may know that I live on the west coast of Canada and I’m pretty close to the beach which I get down to probably once or twice a month. I have sketched many seascapes and features around the coast my most recent one being the concertina sketchbook, but I also did an acrylic over painting of English Bay.

Intertidal Pool

A few months ago, I was working in my grid art sketchbook and on one of the topics I started drawing was of an intertidal pool. An intertidal pool occurs when the high tide comes in and it fills up pockets of water along the beach in amongst the rocks. Then as the tide goes out, the ocean water remains and there are some sea creatures that are caught there, and they must wait in the pool until the next high tide if they want to escape.

Of course, many of these animals live in this beach area anyway. You get organisms like crabs and sea stars, little fish and all sorts of things within these intertidal pools. They are sometimes in amongst the rocks in a small pocket of water along the beach where boulders are as well.

So, back to my sketchbook…

I did six little grid sketches of an intertidal pool. One with a cross-section through the whole thing to see how its lies on the beach. Next, a couple of other views from above and to the side. Then I added a little tangerine sea star.

Sea Star

And if you don’t want to sea star is, it used to be called a starfish, but these days apparently, they are now called sea stars. Which is the correct way to refer to this little 5-pointed (or more) friendly little animal. I continued in my grid art sketchbook doing some more pages, but I kept coming back to this sea star page. Then occurred to me that I could perhaps write a story and make a little children’s book about this little sea star.

The Story

Research

I did a little research and discovered that with children’s books, you have to be in the right age category. For my idea of creating a picture book with perhaps one sentence on each page, I would be in the kid’s age group of three- to seven-year-olds. Now in this clutch, mom is reading to them, and she shows her little darlings the words by pointing with her finger, so it has to be pretty simple. It needs a simple vocabulary, but with a delightful story to it.

Friendship

I probably spent about three to four weeks working on my story. It’s pretty straightforward from an adult perspective, but from a child’s view, it is actually a story about friendship. And to be quite clear, I’ve never done anything like this previously. I’ve never written children’s stories or any fiction whatsoever, but being a hobby artist and creative person, that didn’t stop me.

So, I worked on my story.

Images

Once I had my story 95% completed, I began the layouts for the artwork that would go in the picture book. Now I knew I was going to self-publish this on Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) with Amazon. They have some specific criteria for sizes of the pages and the number of pages which have to be in the book of that size and so on.

Dimensions

To be honest, this is quite a complicated topic, but the instruction are all laid out there on their website and you’ve just got to plow your way through it all. I decided to work on a book that would be 21.5cm by 21.5cm (8 ½” x 8 ½”) which is actually a square.

Page Count

I was required to have at least 48 pages. This meant that I had to do 48 original art pieces, one for each page in the book. Once I had drawn the individual art pieces for each page, I could then add the words, on top of the image.

Procreate

To draw my digital images, I used Procreate on my iPad. This is a hugely popular art app and you can draw things with your Apple pencil which is where I drafted these initial images.

Color Palette

I worked the pages back and forth for quite a few times. Then I decided I need to stabilize my palette to make sure that I was using the same family of colours and repeating things from page to page to page. This is a simple story set on the beach and an intertidal pool.

I didn’t want all of the view points on the pages to be exactly the same, but many of them would be. So, I laid out a few basic backgrounds for myself, with the sky at the top, the sea in the middle, and the beach at the bottom.

Then choosing from my selection of colours I was able to lay in those three main horizontal features of the sky, sea and beach. Next, I did a few more close-ups where I was going to zoom in on my sea star and the things that were going on within the story. At this point I still did not know what I was doing, but I pressed forward anyway. I continued tinkering with the images for the story and by this stage I was adding the one sentence to each page or each double spread.

As not every single page has words on it for example, on a double spread, the words could either be on the left-hand page or the right-hand page. I worked on the words of my story to make sure that it made sense and flowed forward. And I’ll tell you, this process really took a while. I was probably four to six weeks working on this.

Laying out of the whole story, fiddling with the images and making sure that the words were telling the story took time. I wanted to get my tone right and for the story to be friendly, easily read and understood by the children.

Front and Back Matter

Front Matter

I then turned my attention to work on what they call the front matter. This is all the stuff that goes at the front in the book. There are specific things that you must have on this page.

This Book Belongs To

I did an optional “This book belongs to…” page because children love to write their names in their books. In time, when they become beloved books, the readers continuously return to them even later in life.

Title

It has to be the name of the book that matches the listing on Amazon.

Copyright

ISBN Number

An International Standard Book Number (ISBN) is the number of the book, and here you can let Amazon give you a number or you can get your own. My ISBN is 978-1-7389045-1-8. Note: Research this yourself as there are some strings attached to a KDP ISBN number. I got my own ISBN number for this book from Libraries and Archives Canada, but you will no doubt have an institution in your own country that handles ISBN numbers. For example, in the USA it is Bowker for your ISBN numbers.

Back Matter

Blank Pages

At the back of the book there are a couple of pages because there is typically a double blank page at the end of a KDP book anyway. You need to make sure that your book ends correctly.

Characters

Once the story had completed, I added another fun page which listed all the characters who appeared in my book. This page says, “Meet Your Rock Pool Friends.”

My main characters are:

Sandy the sea star.
Crabella the crab.
Fin the Fish.

Here I did a little sketch for each of the characters and wrote their names next to them so the children could learn their names in a different context. It’s a way for the kids to be reminded of who are the creatures in the story. Then the moms can ask things like, “Can you find the crab, can you find the fish?” and it’s another way for the little readers to interact with the book.

More Books in the Series Page: Still Blank

I had planned to finish off with an author’s page listing myself and any other books that were in the series. It suddenly occurred to me that I could do a series of children’s books and maybe have three or five other books related to Sandy, the sea star. Still waiting… The blank page is ready and waiting for additional books to be listed if I ever do any.

Cover

Layout

The cover must be one large image as a PDF that covers the lot. The spine is down the middle, and the front cover part on the right and the back cover section is on the left. There are specifics that are required for your cover. On the front cover, I had the title and a nice friendly image of the star of the story, Sandy the sea star.

Author

The author’s name on the front is optional with KDP, so it’s up to you if you display it or not. I chose to have my name, Alison Hazel.

Back Cover

On the back cover (left side) you must leave a white space for the bar code that Amazon will put on by itself automatically. I wrote a little blurb about what’s in the book, this is a little preamble if you will, a little taste about what’s going on in this book. Next, I had a paragraph about who the book is for which is really for the person who buys the book, i.e. parents, friends, aunts and uncles or bookstore owners. This information is crucial for someone who wants to know if the book will be suitable for little Alex who is turning five next week.

Uploading

Two PDF Files

When you upload your book, you need two files.

One file is the body (manuscript), which is all your pages as one PDF.
The second file is the full cover as a PDF.

Body Upload

So first I uploaded the body of the book. It took a couple of goes because Amazon is very strict about bleed on the edges. Bleed is making sure that the colour goes right to, and beyond, the edge of the page, and here I had to make some adjustments as well. Additionally, I made a few modifications to the actual placement of the words on the page because the cut was very tight. But these are things you learn as you go along.

Cover Upload

The cover upload was something different too. It is difficult to know how thick the book is going to be, and therefore how wide the spine will be and therefore, how to place to the words on the front cover center justified. Now this took quite a bit of fiddling, particularly to align the title of the book on the front cover in the middle.

It took, I don’t want to say how many goes I had, to get this right, but it really depends on how many pages you have, how thick the book is, and therefore how wide the spine is, and consequently how to align the words on the front page as well. So, it was not as tricky on the back (left side) because I have things left justified there and it’s easier to move that text block around.

Timing Approval

This will take time. Every time you upload a manuscript, Amazon chunters through it all and it’s like you’re putting things in a meat grinder. You can go away, make a cup of tea, come back and it’s still working at it. Now obviously they’re overwhelmed with lots of people trying to upload their books at the same time, but really it takes time to get it uploaded. Once I had finally got my body pages file uploaded and I had the cover accepted by the gatekeepers, that was a big step forward.

The next thing was to put all the other information like the pricing, what have you and where you want to sell it on Amazon. You have to click all the buttons and make sure you’re the original author and it’s non copyrighted and all of those little pesky details that Amazon needs to know. So that also takes a little while to get sorted out.

Blurb

At this point you’re also adding your blurb which will show up when people search for children’s books on Amazon. This is a paragraph or two as selling copy.

Publish

When you’ve entered all that information, you can then click through and say, publish. Now, the very first time your masterpiece goes through to publish, it takes at least 48 hours for any approval or comments to come back from Amazon. And I understand that when you are uploading for the first time, as a new author, or when you are uploading a new title such as this was the first time, they actually have a human look at it.

Amazon doesn’t want me to say I’m doing a children’s book about sea stars and inside there’s something about how to make a bomb or something nasty like that.

I believe, they do get a human to go over, or flip through, what you’ve written, what the story is about, what images you have within your book and the actual content of it, which then gets clicked for approval. Finally, you will get an e-mail saying yes, your book was published and it’s all good. Or yes, we checked your book, and you’ve got errors here and there because your pages aren’t right. Or you need to fix the colours going over the edge or something. Or you didn’t choose the right paper, or they can’t do this in glossy or something like that.

Adjustments

Every time from here on in, when you make an adjustment and reupload the book for approval, it takes at least 48 hours to hear back from them. Now the first time it got approved, I flicked through it online and made sure everything was lining up, that I had my words the right way up and the pictures went back to front and everything like that.

I wanted to make sure that my double page spreads were spreading at the right point and not going over the edge to the next page. This all took time. On it went, I uploaded and edited, uploaded and edited and on and on the saga went.

When I thought I’d finally got it right, I was fine. I was flicking through then lo and behold, there was a typo. I had made a spelling mistake, which I hadn’t picked up. So once more I had to get the spelling correct. On the page I’d written sea start, not sea star. I mean, it’s an easy enough error to make and of course my spell checker wouldn’t pick it up because start is a word, even though it was supposed to be star. Then I did a second double check on my spelling, punctuation and the grammar and I went through it with a fine-tooth comb at this point because I couldn’t have it uploaded publicly with a spelling mistake.

I mean, really?

Author Copy

Finally, it was uploaded to my approval and once it is live you can order an author copy. Now the benefit of ordering author copies straightaway that you don’t get charged any profit. It goes on at the at the basic rate, so you get it as cheap as possible at all you’re paying for is the cost for Amazon to manufacture it and the shipping. It gets delivered to you, if you’re lucky, within 10 days.

Customer Copy

But I’ll tell you a trick. If you do order an author copy, there’s a big flag printed across the front of the book that says author copy right across the book, so you can’t really see. Although it’s cheaper and it’s for you to check for your spelling and what not, I find that I don’t like doing it that way. I actually prefer to order a full-blown copy the exact same as a customer would order and see what arrives from Amazon. I ordered my customer copy, sat back and waited. And kudos to Amazon, I would say I had it within three days because you know once they get going, they can get the stuff out to you.

Book In Hand

Delivered

The book arrived.

Faded

Once I got it, I realized that my colours were slightly too faded. I really needed to step up my colour palette, the sky, the sea and the sand were rather muted. That was the one thing.

Paper

The second thing was that the paper that Amazon prints on is rather thin and there’s not much you can do about that because that’s the paper they are using. So, I thought, I’d have to live with it, what can I do? I made the book as a softcover, a paperback, and that was fine.

The cover was fine, it was smooth and glossy and everything, but again the colours were quite muted. Now, if I wanted to step up these muted shades to a more vibrant colour palette, I would have to go through every single art piece for every page for all the 48 pages and adjust the colours. I asked myself, “Do I want to do this?” I hummed and hawed and I thought, well, yes, I need to fix it because it wasn’t working.

I had to go back to the drawing board and adjust all the colours for all 48 images in Procreate. Then once more I uploaded each page image into my master PDF document. This took time. When I was ready with the final colours, I once more reuploaded the manuscript, a new cover then I ordered another customer copy. The book duly arrived, and I was quite delighted with it.

Final Thoughts

First Copy

When I got the second book in hand, I was able to show it to my daughters because they knew I was working on something, but they hadn’t seen it. They were amazed that their old mom had done this and honestly, so was I. Fun at the Rockpool with Sandy Sea Star is never going to be a best seller, it’s not that sort of book. What it did do was offer another creative outlet for me as a hobby artist. It’s an extra way for me to put my art and my ideas out into the world.

Series

Will I make a little series of these books? Well, to start with I thought that was exactly what I would do, but as time has gone on, clearly, I’m not going to create another one soon. Honestly, I don’t see my future in children’s books.

Genesis

Takeaway

But what I want you to take away from this long story of my process is that it all began in my sketchbook. As you perhaps know, I have multiple sketchbooks which I use for different things, but this is the first time any image from one of my sketchbooks has developed into something else. It grew into a children’s coloured picture book.

Original Sketches

If I had of spoken to you about this before this ever began, I would have suggested that I might have done a sketch and then made it as the basis for a painting. So, here’s the sketch in the sketchbook. I think, “Yes, that’s my concept art. Let me now move on and do the actual painting.” That’s what I thought would have happened. But what did occur was that I took my six grid art journal page and used it almost as a storyboard. I was able to flesh out the grid into a story for my children’s book.

The Path

I think it just goes to show that, even as a hobby artist, you never know where your art is going to go. You never know where the journey is going once you start putting pen to paper and you’re sketching, painting, creating or collaging to create something beautiful. I mean, do you have to kiss 1000 frogs to find your prince?

Daily Art Practice

The point is that with daily art practice and working in your sketchbooks, as I encourage you to, something beautiful could grow from one of your images as well. I don’t know what it will be, and I had no idea I was going to do a children’s book. It was not on my horizon at all when I started, but it developed, it seemed the logical thing to do and once I started, I just pushed on.

Images

I’ve showed you several images from this book.

Just a reminder, this book is called Fun at the Rockpool with Sandy Sea Star by Alison Hazel. It is available on Amazon, and you can see the type of work I have done as my very first children’s picture book. Who knows what the future will bring?

Overarch

Sketchbooks

I encourage you to use sketchbooks, do your art as often as you can and lean into your creative life. I believe all humans are creative and it’s good for the soul. I’d be interested to know if any of your sketches from your sketchbooks have leaped off the page to become something unique in their own right. I would love to hear from you.

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More For You

To see past editions of Artzlife, read the library.

Author Bio: Alison Hazel

Alison Hazel is a hobby artist and she shares her ongoing journey about becoming an artist later in life. She creates simple art that anyone can make. She hopes to inspire you to reach your creative potential in the area that suits you.

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Concertina Sketchbook

by Alison | Sketchbooks and Journals

Author: Alison Hazel – Updated: April 2025

Concertina Sketchbook: Vancouver Seawall

There are many types of sketchbooks and I’ve spoken about a few here. This week I’m chatting about a fabulous architectural sketchbook which I’ve recently completed and that is a concertina sketchbook. This is not likely to be the first sketchbook you get, but it is definitely a fun one.

Concertina Sketchbook

A concertina sketchbook is one long continuous page folded into a concertina fashion. It has a hard cover at both ends. They are also called accordion sketchbooks, zig zag sketchbooks or continuous sketchbooks.

Video

You can see the process video below .

This is where I talk you through everything that I did to create this special concertina sketchbook.

Sketchbook

Concertina

I ordered my A5 concertina sketchbook from Seawhite on Amazon. It was shipped from the UK and arrived in about four weeks. To be honest, I’d forgotten that I’d ordered it until it arrived. But when it did, oh my…

It has two pages sandwiched together back-to-back and you can draw on both sides if you want to. The paper is watercolor quality so it is super robust for most applications. It comes in a handy dandy cover to contain the spring of it all.

Process

Map and Layout

There may be other ways of using this type of sketchbook, but I’ll tell you how I did it. I live in Vancouver and the city lies on a peninsular with water on 60% of the sides. To help you understand what I sketched, here is a map of the Vancouver city peninsular. You can see that there is a lot of coast that wraps around the downtown core. The rest of Vancouver and the suburbs is south or below.

Topic Selection

I decided to draw the whole sea scape, sea wall and or promenade of the coast looking outwards as seen from the city side of the water. There are multiple bridges and these were how I initially paced the pages in the layout. I’m drawing it clockwise from the Science World sphere and choosing only certain features to add. The arrangement of the pages took some time as I wanted the flow to be as balanced as possible.

Concertina Path

The red dotted line shows the path that aligns with the concertina pages. I’m on the mainland looking out towards the sea.

Pencil Sketch

Layout

First, I sketched out the layout for the coast with my 2H pencil.

Front Page

I left room for an open page at the front, like a frontispiece page, and here I wrote the year I started it, 2024.

Back Page

I only finished it in 2025 so I wrote that date there. I still have some more thoughts to write and these ideas will go on the back page.

Black Pen

Thin to Thicker

When I was happy with the penciled layout, I began inking the drawing. I started with a very thin 0.1mm pen to lightly get the outline of horizon and the hills across the water. Then I moved onto a 0.3mm pen for the foreground bridges, the lighthouse and the other main structures along the coast. For some buildings very close up I used a thicker 0.5mm pen.

The penning took ages and I did it over several weeks as I was not rushing at all. After I was happy with the inking, I erased all the pencil marks.

Colored Ink

I began with colored acrylic inks. I used my Windsor and Newton inks. Inks are less forgiving than watercolors, but I wanted to practice more with this medium. I’d done other ink sketches and swatches before. I began with the lightest colors first and I began on the sea.

I used:

Blue
Emerald
Cobalt

I thinly washed the whole book on the sea part using a combination of the three inks colours which I have, emerald, cobalt and blue. Then I spread the whole thing out to dry.

Pages

Structure

In my sketchbook, I designed it so that each open double spread contains one specific feature be it a bridge, boat, the lighthouse or the nin o’clock gun. I made sure to run each double spread image over the edge of the page, so you are encouraged to turn the page or indeed open up the concertina to see the whole picture. In this way it become an interactive book and like an adventure.

Ideas for Using a Concertina Sketchbook

Horizontal Drawing

Ideally a concertina sketchbook lends itself to a long horizontal drawing. Some examples of this are:

You could do a city street with rows or buildings and trees and so in
You could a 360° landscape from the top of a hill.
You could do a full circle of your own garden and house and include all the buildings, the potting shed, garage, greenhouse and fishpond or whatever fun features you have in your back yard.

A Seasonal Frieze

Use the concertina sketchbook to capture the changing seasons throughout the year. Start in January and divide the book up before you start into twelve months so you can add the natural changes as the seasons develop. Like a nature journal,

Tell a Story

You can tell a story. Perhaps tell the story of your family and your life or a more well-known story from a part of history that interests you. For example, the Bayeux tapestry tells the story of the events which led up to the invasion of England and the Battle of Hastings in 1066.

Record your Travels

If you are going on a long journey, or a one-off world cruise, your concertina sketchbook can be a record of your activities. As a timeline, you can use the length and divide it up into the days or weeks of your great travel adventure. Note what you did and where you went on separate double page spreads. The story of your epic voyage will be from the start to the end.

Honeymoon

Perhaps you decide to go to New Zealand for a fortnight on your honeymoon (as my friend did), then you can capture the main highlights of the trip in your concertina sketchbook. This then becomes a part of your wedding memories and can be enjoyed in years to come by your kids and other family members.

Color

Colored Pencils

Over the next few days, I started to use my Faber Castell polychromas coloured pencils. I started really with the buildings in shades of grey, cool greys and warm greys and some beiges. I went through the concertina and did all the buildings first. Then I started on the trees and used several different colours of green to work through the trees as I flipped through the sketchbook.

Once I’d picked up one colour of green in my hand, I went through the whole book with that colour. Then I started back at the beginning and took a lighter green and continued on in that way. It took a while. Quite a while.

Markers

Wanting to bring some other features into higher focus, I chose to use some of my Tombow markers to add definition to some of the actual features. Features like the lighthouse, the Totem poles and The Drop and some of the boats and so on. I want to say it was sparingly that I went through and added richer colour with markers. I spent several days tinkering away with details and in some places going back in with my black ink pen to more clearly defined the foreground features as I thought best.

The Sun

I did originally create the Sun in yellow as it was setting over English Bay. The reason I colored the Sun in that way, fading onto shades of pinks, mauves into blues, was that I just didn’t want the whole sky just to be blue from one end to the other. I was trying to show a little bit of interest, changing the sky as well as I had done with the sea, working with the different colours of inks. I attempted to show some clouds as well just to add extra interest.

Is It Finished?

Nearly

Now when I got to this stage, I was pretty happy with how this sketchbook was looking. It did occur to me that I will probably tinker with this concertina sketchbook of the Vancouver Seawall. I may perhaps even fiddle for a few more weeks, adding bits and bobs, bringing more features to life and adding a bit more colour here and there.

Almost

I think the real question is when is an art piece finished? This concertina is not quite finished yet. I realize that, but I wanted to show you how I’ve created it and the potential for using concertina sketchbooks overall.

Overarch

Annually

Using a concertina sketchbook is not likely to be something that I will do all the time. I perhaps will do another one next year if I find a suitable subject. Overall, I love how this Vancouver seascape has turned out. Not everything in the sketchbook is to scale, but rather there is a good representation of the whole seaboard that surrounds the city.

The Future

I’ve already ordered my next concertina sketchbook, so I’ll have it ready for when the urge presents itself. I can’t wait…

Over To You

Have you used a concertina sketchbook? What would you draw in one? I’d love to hear from you.

References

Photo Credits

Lions Gate Bridge photo by Priscilla Du Preez 🇨🇦 on Unsplash

Granville Island photo by Mia de Jesus on Unsplash

Burrard Bridge photo by Jorge Ramirez on Unsplash

Siwash Rock photo by Brandon Brown on Unsplash

Brockton Lighthouse photo by Willian Justen de Vasconcellos on Unsplash

Totem Poles photo by Itsuka Iwaki on Unsplash

9 O’clock Gun photo by Albert Stoynov on Unsplash

Float Planes photo by Aditya Chinchure on Unsplash

The Drop photo by Pascal Bernardon on Unsplash

Port Vancouver photo by Ronin on Unsplash

Canada Place photo by Lauren Kan on Unsplash

Save this pin to read later.

Author Bio: Alison Hazel

Alison Hazel is a hobby artist and she shares her ongoing journey about becoming an artist later in life. She creates simple art that anyone can make. She hopes to inspire you to reach your creative potential in the area that suits you.

Inukshuk – Pen and Ink

How to draw the Vancouver Inukshuk with black and grey scale drawing inks. Nature Journal. Hobby Artist

Weird Gourds – Colored Ink Art

Liquitex heavy body acrylics

Join me as I sketch, draw and paint a weird autumn themed knobby gourd using colored ink as a hobby artist.

Artist Interview: Jules

by Alison | Artist Interviews

Author: Alison Hazel – Updated: March 2025

Our Conversation

This time I have something really special for you and I was delighted to meet with and interview an exceptional artist and friend of mine, Jules, from Toronto, Canada. Jules creates a lot of portraiture alongside some still life paintings. She explores themes of universal understanding and shared experiences. Her favorite medium is watercolour, though she creates most of her work in acrylic as watercolours take a lot more concentration and focus. She is self-taught and is fascinated by the intricacies or colour and representation.

Welcome Jules.

Genesis

What was the earliest inkling that art would be big in your life?

Art has always been important. It’s one of the most consistent things we as humans strive to create. I always loved everything arty, from picture books I read to cartoons I watched as a kid. When something resonates with you, you have to follow it.

Inspiration

Are there any past artists from whom you draw your inspiration?

Alphonse Mucha and Saul Bass.

Who is your favorite artist?

Martine Johanna.

Do you think inspiration is all around us or is it something that has to be consciously brought into focus?

I think inspiration is everywhere but if you don’t have the capacity or mental energy to lean into it when you have it, it can be flighty.

Why do you paint?

Because it makes me happy. It’s intrinsic and simple and so very obviously something I like to do. So I do it.

Galleries and Events

Do you visit art exhibitions and events and which ones would you recommend to my readers for inspiration?

I recommend visiting your local city’s art college and university grad expo days. Each school will have an exhibition each year showcasing their graduating classes’ art and it’s one of the best (and free) ways to be inspired by local artists just starting out.

Are you likely to attend galleries when visiting other cities as a matter of course?

Always. I’ve never stayed in a city too long before visiting the museums and galleries.

Which galleries do you recommend in Toronto?

The AGO (Art Gallery of Ontario), The ROM (Royal Ontario Museum), The Latcham Art Gallery in Stouffville.

Movement

What is your favorite art movement and why?

The impressionists did so much for art, I can’t imagine another movement impacting me as strongly as that one did.

Color

Would you say you have your own palette of colors that you return to each time?

Yes. I’m always using Prussian blue with Phthalo green and neon pink. I never go without a cad yellow and some alizarin crimson. Opera Rose, especially watercolour, is one the greats.

Opera rose

Daily Art Practice

Do you practice art every day/week/month?

No. I fit it into my busy life whenever it strikes, though.

How does that process look?

Striking while the iron is hot is most important for me. I tend to have a small window of opportunity in which to plan and paint something and, just to make things interesting, I also have a small attention span for topics, so moving quickly is very key in making my art happen.

Do you work on one art piece at a time or do you have a few on the go at once?

One at a time.

Motivation

What motivates you to begin a new piece?

Inspiration is usually all I need to get the ball rolling. Sounds simple and easy to pin down, but it isn’t.

Composition

Do you always draft out your composition or do you ever wing it?

I draw sketches first to get the composition and hierarchy in order before I plan out what colours will work best. Then using the grid system, I map out my subject on the canvas or board. I’m getting better at not rushing this process. Most importantly, underpaintings have become critical.

Art Challenges

Many of my readers are getting back into art after being away for many years, how do you feel about art challenges to help spark creativity?

I think they’re great. Anything that helps a person practise is worth the effort.

Sketchbook

Can you share your ideas on the value in keeping an artist’s sketchbook?

Sketchbooks are very important. They show progress over time because as you practice, you get better. It’s nice to see evidence of this progress when looking back.

Medium

What is your current preferred medium and why?

Acrylic. It dries quickly, so I can fix my mistakes easily.

I understand you prefer to work on wooden panels. Can you tell us why you like wood panels? And what to look for in those?

I like wood panels because I prefer a sturdy, flat surface over the give of a canvas. When buying panels, I make sure they’re properly attached in all four corners. Some will bend and warp if they’re not securely glued.

Where Artists Work

Can you tell us about your home art studio?

It’s small. Just a table and an easel. Storage is key to keeping it tidy.

What about the light?

I use clamps LED lamps to keep my work well-lit when painting (I tend to work at night).

What music or podcasts do you play while painting?

I listen to all kinds of audiobooks while painting. Currently listening to Savage Appetites by Rachel Monroe.

Your easel?

I have a DeSerres brand Le Marc Easel.

May we have an image of your art palette?

Pay it Forward

What advice would you give to other hobby artists who might be hesitant to even start art again or pick up a pen or brush?

The reason to start is because you want to. Starting now vs. starting later is up to you, but the time will pass anyway, so why not up your skills, practise and then see yourself grow in the art space you love so much?

Contact Details

Instagram

I’m on Instagram @PeachesArtStudio

Favorite Supplies List

Jules’ favorite art supplies which she uses most.

Amsterdam acrylics

Winsor and Newton watercolours

Nobel art brushes

Raphael brushes

Strathmore paper and sketchbooks

Staedtler pencils

Prismacolor colour pencils

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Meet More Artists

Here are a few more artists whom I’ve interviewed to inspire your art practice.

If you know an artist who’d like to be featured here please email me at alisonhazelart@gmail.com.

Artist Interview: Claire

by Alison | May 23, 2025 | Artist Interviews

In this artist interview, get more inspiration and meet Claire, a graphic designer and founder of Price Design Studio.

« Older Entries

Artist Interview: Jules

by Alison | Mar 23, 2025 | Artist Interviews

In this artist interview, meet Jules, a traditional artist based in Toronto, Canada. Her acrylic and watercolour works focus on bringing life and energy to portraits, still lifes, and media.

Artist Interview: Arwynne O’Neill

by Alison | Jan 13, 2025 | Artist Interviews, Living a Creative Life

In this artist interview, meet ARWYNNE O’NEILL an artist and writer from Vancouver, Canada. Arwynne creates fantasy art with goddess themes.

Author Bio: Alison Hazel

Alison Hazel is a hobby artist and she shares her ongoing journey about becoming an artist later in life. She creates simple art that anyone can make. She hopes to inspire you to reach your creative potential in the area that suits you.

Valentine’s Heart Art Journal Pages

Grid Art Journal

As a hobby artist, for Valentine’s Day explore using a heart shape in your grid art journal sketchbook and celebrate love.

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Neurographic Art Grid Journal Page

by Alison | Grid Art Journal

Author: Alison Hazel – Updated: March 2025

Neurographic Art

About three years ago I came across the technique of neurographic art. When you see neurographic art you’ll realize that we’ve been doing all along, but since Pavel Piskarev coined the phrase and put it out there, it became clearer on how to use neurographic art in your art practice.

For a quick overview, neurographic art is a practice you can do which brings focused thought to the art piece on which you are working. In a way, it’s almost like a meditation or therapeutic art piece. Neurographic art can be as simple or as complex as you like, and you can add embellishments as well to the piece. I created a basic neurographic art explainer video if you need a little more.

Artist Trading Cards

Around two years ago I did some work with artist trading cards and I used the neurographic. method for them which was quite a lot of fun. I still have some of these cards and because they’re trading cards, you trade them with other artists. Since then I’ve probably traded five or six cards, but I still do have half of the full twelve pack with me.

Then towards the end of last year, I started working with grid art journaling, where you get six blocks on the page, or different shapes on the page, such as hearts and so on. This week it occurred to me that I should do a neurographic grid art journal page, so that’s what we’re doing this time.

What’s on Your Mind

Question Wrangling

One of the benefits of doing neurographic art is that it calms your mind. This is done if you have a troublesome question or decision that you have to make. Say for instance, your question maybe, “Should you move and downsize to a smaller apartment?”

Moving house is a huge decision to be made of which there may be many permutations, such as:

I’ll miss my garden…
Will I like living in a high rise…
I’ll have to get a new job, but it’s in a bigger city, therefore the chances are better…
What about the children’ school…
Perhaps I’ll have to put the dog in a kennel for a week…
Then there’s the moving truck fees…
I’ll have to find a new church…
I’ll have to go to a new yoga studio…
Will my fabulous cat, Mr. Pickles, run away, or get lost…
Will I make new friends…

Ruminating

Life’s questions can be complicated, but these are the ideal ones to pose as you do neurographic art in any form. Your question doesn’t have to be complicated and in fact, it doesn’t have to be a question at all, but it could just be something that you are ruminating on. Perhaps it’s about what happened yesterday or a conversation you had last week and you’re just trying to clear your mind. This is the time to do some neurographic art. Let’s get started.

Blank Page

On Your Mind

If you do have a question or something you’re ruminating on or something that’s been worrying you, before you start, write this down either at the bottom of the page or on the back of the actual artwork. It doesn’t have to be complicated. You could just put the words “move?” or “new job” or anything which is troubling you for which you want to try and find some resolution.

I’m not saying that you’re going to have the answer at the end of it, but your thought processes of creating this neurographic art and the alignment of the synapses that occur in your brain as you think will possible provide fresh ideas for you. The idea is that this neurographic art technique will ease your mind and benefit your mental health.

Draw the Grid

2:3

For this grid page I went back to basics and chose the two by three (2:3) 5cm or 2-inch squares in my A5 sketchbook. As a reminder, you can check out how to set up a grid art journal page with six blocks in this manner.

Circles

Start with some circles and you can use a template for this or do it freehand. As I wanted to lay them out in some type of compositional form within the block I did each of the circles a different size. In each of the blocks, I sketched one or two circles lightly with my 2H pencil.

Neurographic Lines

Inside each of the blocks, I drew one or two neurographic lines going from one edge through to the second edge as by now you know that neurographic lines never dangle. These lines break up the six blocks into smaller sections, as we will see later.

Inner Corners

Next comes the fun part where you start with your black ink. I used a 0.3mm black pen, but you can used whatever pen you have to hand and it doesn’t have to be black. Curve in each of the corners and so for the four corners on each block I curved them in. I used about a 3mm radius here for each corner arc. If the curves are too thin the piece looks kind of spindly. So those are the four corners neatly rounded.

Intersections

Then I turned my attention to the intersections where two lines cross, or where a neurographic line overlaps with a circle, or where two circles meet. Anywhere where two lines cross each other will be an intersection, and every crossing needs to be curved. If your lines are very close together, you will end up with a very small blob shape and that’s okay. Depending on the angle at which the two lines come together, the junction might be quite whopping as well, and that’s acceptable too.

No Rush

Inking the intersections is the stage where you are mentally getting into the zone, finding your flow state and contemplating the question or issue which you put before yourself earlier. Take your time here, there is no rush. In fact, I took a full day from starting the curves on these corners and intersections and then I left my sketchbook overnight.

Returning to it the next day I could see the page with fresh eyes and was able to find the bits I wanted to smooth out further. I really didn’t like some of the pointy looking corners I had, so I smoothed out my curves even deeper and in this way laid down more black ink on the sheet.

Pattern

Now you have a page with several open squidgy areas, also known as blobs, and here you can definitely get creative. You can add patterns like swirls, zigzags or waves as you see fit. For guidance use your intuition and don’t feel the need to overdo it. To have one focal point (blob) in each block is a good idea. Try to think back to the issue you posed before you began and let your thoughts run on that path and create new tracks.

Colour

The next step is to add some color in the open shapes. Only as your art piece evolves can you decide on color. If you make the page too busy with multiple patterns and colors it can become somewhat of a blur overall. I like to use a limited color palette when I’m working on such small sketches like in this grid art journal page. This time I chose pinks and greens.

Embellishments

But wait, there’s more! Now you can add some embellishments if you like. I typically add some flourishes of gold pen here and there and that seems to be enough for me, but you could collage some sequins, ribbons or other trimmings if you like. It’s up to you.

Creating Grid Art Pages

Why

I think that the practice of creating grid art journal pages in your sketchbook has two main benefits and it could have more if I thought about it longer.

Practice Art

The first benefit is that it gets you doing daily art practice and you keep sketching your art in your style. I do like the idea of doing the weekly or daily art practice. This is why I love using my grid art journal sketchbook and you can get a peek inside.

Concept Art

The second reason to work on your grid art journal pages is as micro concept art ideas. In general, concept art is a form of visual storytelling used to convey ideas before the final work is developed and is a process which allows creators to experiment with ideas quickly. With concept art the goal is to capture the essence of a concept, ensuring a clear and cohesive vision. It’s a way that something which evolves in one of your blocks, in one of your grids, on one of your pages, may one day be the genesis for a larger drawing or painting piece which you can later develop further. Clearly, not everything you doodle in our grid art journal is going anywhere, but some of it can.

Last year I took one of my grid art journal pages and developed it into the illustrations for a children’s book which I’ll explain more about one day. And to be perfectly honest, of all the sketches I’ve done in my grid art journal pages, only the sea star page did develop into something further. Although I have taken a couple of the sketches that came through my grid art journal page earlier and created larger images which I’ve used on greeting cards and you can check out more of those in my art shop.

Overarch

Let Me Know

Let me know if you’ve tried grid art journaling or if you tried neurographic art at all and how you are getting on.

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Author Bio: Alison Hazel

Alison Hazel is a hobby artist and she shares her ongoing journey about becoming an artist later in life. She creates simple art that anyone can make. She hopes to inspire you to reach your creative potential in the area that suits you.

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Perpetual Sketch Journal:

by Alison | Sketch Journal

Author: Alison Hazel – Updated: February 2025

Your Perpetual Sketch Journal

A Visual Time Capsule of Your Life

As someone who tends to spend a lot of time sketching and writing and making a combination of the two through sketch journaling, grid art journaling and travel journaling, I now find myself wanting to share with you my perpetual sketch journal, which is something that I began last year. I happened to receive a blank A4 art sketchbook (similar to this one) from one of my daughters last Christmas.

Obviously, I was thrilled because the potential in a blank sketchbook makes my heart sing. Then I wondered what to do with it. As I flicked through it, I noticed that there were more than 52 pages, so immediately I thought gosh, I could do 52 sketches, one for each week of the year.

Then it occurred to me that I could do a perpetual sketch journal, very similar to my perpetual nature journal which I’ve spoken about in the past. So, I converted this new blank, pristine journal into my perpetual sketch journal.

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What Is a Perpetual Sketch Journal?

Diary or Journal

A perpetual sketch journal is a unique way to record your life, one small drawing at a time. Unlike a regular sketchbook, that you fill up from the front to the back, this journal is structured to record little weekly illustrations over multiple years, allowing you to later revisit and reminisce over past moments.

Imagine flipping back to the same page next year and seeing what you were doing on that exact week in previous years. It is a way to create an almost visual time capsule of your artistic and personal journey.

Sketchbook

Sketchbooks to Choose

Select a durable sketchbook with enough pages to last multiple years. You need a journal that has at least 52 double spreads. A double spread is when the book is open and there is a left-hand page and a right-hand page. Choose a book with thick, high-quality paper that works well with most mediums including watercolor if that’s what you use.

Sketchbooks to Avoid

Avoid thin and see-through paper as those pages won’t stand up to the test of time. This is not the time for a newsprint or tracing paper book as that type of paper is way too thin. I mean, let’s face it, ideally you will keep this journal for years to come and maybe even for the rest of your life, so you need pages with paper that can take it.

Sketchbook Sizes

When I started, I just happened to have the gifted A4 size sketchbook and that was the one I used. But if I had to choose again, I may probably select an A5 (5″ x 8″) size because they are easier to handle and they sit better on the shelf, but I mean, that’s no criteria for choosing your sketchbook. Or is it?

Art Supplies

About art supplies, I’m always of the opinion that you already have what you need. There is never the requirement for anyone to go out to buy more art supplies, but of course we as artists love doing so. I believe you already have all the pencils, pens, markers, crayons and paints that you need to start working in your perpetual sketch journal.

And let’s not use the excuse that, “Oh, I don’t have a red marker, therefore I cannot begin!”

No, no, no, reach for your pen, there’s bound to be one somewhere so check in the kitchen drawer, and start with your creative sketching straight away.

Recommended Materials

These are the art supplies that I use in my perpetual sketch journal.

2H pencil.
A fine-tip pen (0.3mm nib) for sketching details
Colored pencils, watercolor paints, or markers for adding life to my sketches
I’d like to have a simple date stamp or pen for marking each year’s entry

Dividing The Pages

So you’ve got your blank sketchbook. There is at least 52 double spread pages available and now we’re going to divide the book up. There are two ways (well actually probably many more ways) of doing this. In general, you can either do it weekly or monthly.

Weekly Layout

With a weekly layout you would go through the year, going week one, week two, week three, week four. For instance, on your week one double spread you would write there January the 1st to 7th. The next double spread will be January 8th to 14th and the next one will be January 15th to 21st. In this way you get through all 52 weeks and each week has its own double spread. I started off this way and then moved on to naming the months.

Monthly Layout

The second way of dividing your book if you have slightly more than 52 double spreads is to divide it into 12 months. So here for example, you could open five double spreads per month. So that would be 5 x 12 which is 60 in this case if you had 60 double page spreads. You could definitely work the months and give each month 5 double spreads each because some months will have 4 weeks and some will have 5 weeks and each year is different.

Another way to get around this is just to count out four double page spreads per month. So that would be 4 x 12 which is 48 double page spreads and you could just squeeze the last week on the half a page. But either way, you need to get your book divided before you start. One benefit of segmenting the book into months is that you can then do a special monthly introductory page and colour it in say, April, May or June and make a whole embellished monthly page if you like.

Creating Yearly Sections

Annual Segments

The way I’ve been using my perpetual sketch journal is just by drawing a small sketch for the week. I’ve simply plonked these drawings about the spreads as I’ve gone through the book. However, if you want to get more organized, you could grid the whole page out and say this is 2025 and that’s 2026 and that’s 2027. But I think that might be a little rigid, but it may work for some of you.

So just to be clear, you don’t have to fill the whole page with a sketch for the week. You need to leave space on each page for the multiple years of sketches still to come. Then in time, you can look back over your sketchbook, perhaps to a particular week and you can see, “Oh, last year I was doing this, the year before I was doing that, and five years ago we were doing the next thing.”

How to Use Your Perpetual Sketch Journal

Draw One Illustration a Week

Each week, draw a small, simple mini sketch which is a snapshot of something that stood out to you in that week. It could be:

A cup of coffee from a cozy café visit.
A flower blooming in your garden.
Your cat curled up in a funny position.
A street scene from your daily walk.
An agreeable lunch you shared with a friend.
A weekend away.
Annual celebrations and birthdays.
The light pouring in through your window.

Spark Creativity and Reflection

Using Prompts

If you’re unsure what to draw, you can use prompts to guide you. Here are a few ideas:

Seasonal changes: Sketch something that represents the current season.
Daily rituals: Capture something from your morning or evening routine.
Favorite objects: Draw an item that holds meaning for you that week.
Unexpected moments: Document a surprise or special event.

Capturing Everyday Moments

What to Sketch?

Don’t overthink it! Your journal is a personal record, not a masterpiece. Focus on small, meaningful details from your life.

Example: The Tea Lady

Helen Houghton

I recently came across a video on YouTube about an artist, Helen Houghton, who drew tea, tea sets, teacups and teapots all year. I’ll put a link to her video here so you can see that tea was her subject for her weekly art.

The Benefits of Your Perpetual Sketch Journal

Artistic Growth

The idea is that looking back over the years you can not only see what you were doing, but also how your artistic style and skills have developed. You can reflect on past sketches that will reveal how your drawing skills and techniques evolved over time. I believe it’s a rewarding way to witness personal artistic progress without the pressure.

A Personal Archive

Bearing in mind that, I’ve only been doing this for just on 14 months, I suppose in a way the ideal will be that it will be your legacy.

Edith Holden

I think it may be like a visual diary of my life, very much like nature journaling can be, and I’m particularly thinking about The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady by Edith Holden whose marvelous book has inspired me no end. Not that I’m saying I’m in Edith’s class at all, but what I’m saying is that yours and mine works will live on after you and I are long gone as our legacies.

Your perpetual sketchbooks can be left for your family or your grandchildren to say, “Hey, this is what she was like, this is what interested her and it’s so interesting that we still have some records of her work.”

Leonardo da Vinci

I always like to use the example of how Leonardo da Vinci’s sketches have stood the test of time. We can still see what he was doing and thinking about at the time, and this, from an artist who was sketching over 500 years ago. Each sketch holds a memory, making your journal an invaluable visual diary. Unlike traditional written journals, your sketches capture feelings and experiences in a way that words sometimes can’t.

Building a Consistent Sketching Habit

Weekly-ish

By committing to just one small drawing a week, you’ll establish a sustainable creative routine that doesn’t feel overwhelming, but keeps your artistic practice alive.

Making It a Relaxing Weekly Ritual

I suggest that you choose a set time each week to sketch, perhaps on Sunday evenings with a cup of tea. Treat your mini sketch as a mindful, enjoyable practice rather than a chore.

What to Do If You Miss a Week

No guilt, just keep going. Life happens. If you miss a week, don’t stress, rather just move forward. During last year I was quite ill for a while, and I missed several weeks, but that doesn’t matter because this year I’ll be able to capture my weekly images and move forward. You can always leave the space blank or add a quick doodle to fill the gap.

Reviewing Past Years

Inspiration and Reflection

It’s only over time that your perpetual sketch journal will become a rich tapestry of past experiences. The longer you work at it, the better it becomes. Revisiting old pages can spark new ideas, remind you of forgotten moments and serve as a visual representation of how much you’ve grown artistically.

Overarch

Start Today!

A perpetual sketch journal is a low-pressure, rewarding way to track your artistic journey while capturing moments from your life. Even if you don’t do other types of sketch journaling, nature journaling, travel journaling or bullet journaling to have a perpetual sketch journal where you only do one sketch a week might be a great entry level sketchbook to help you develop your artistic habit.

This practice can bring joy, creativity and mindfulness into your weekly routine. Start today, and in a few years, you’ll have a beautiful collection of full color memories and artistic growth to look back on!

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Author Bio: Alison Hazel

Alison Hazel is a hobby artist and she shares her ongoing journey about becoming an artist later in life. She creates simple art that anyone can make. She hopes to inspire you to reach your creative potential in the area that suits you. Read more about Alison’s story. Get her newsletter.

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Valentine’s Heart Art Journal Pages

by Alison | Grid Art Journal

Author: Alison Hazel – Updated: February 2025

Valentine’s Day

Origins

Having dug around and done a little research I discovered that Valentine’s Day, which is celebrated on February 14th, seems to have its origins in both ancient Roman traditions and early Christian history. It is believed to be named after St. Valentine, who was a priest who was martyred in the 3rd century.

Legends

One legend suggests that Valentine secretly performed marriages for soldiers who were forbidden to wed under Emperor Claudius II. Another tale tells of Valentine sending a note signed “From your Valentine” to a jailer’s daughter before his subsequent execution.

Celebrate

The celebrated day became associated with romantic love during the Middle Ages, thanks to poets like Geoffrey Chaucer author of The Canterbury Tales. And then by the time we get to 19th century, the practice of exchanging cards, flowers and gifts became ordinary for the common people. This led to the Valentine’s Day traditions that we know today.

Galentine’s Day

Ladies

The relatively new special day of Galentine’s Day is celebrated on the day before Valentine’s Day, so on February 13th, and is dedicated to honoring female friendships. It was popularized by the TV show Parks and Recreation in 2010 when the character Leslie Knope, who was brilliantly played by Amy Poehler, over brunch declared it a day for “ladies celebrating ladies” with the official guide to friendship, fun and cocktails. What started as a fun fictional holiday quickly became a real-life tradition.

Everyone around the world now celebrates Galentine’s Day by hosting brunches, exchanging small gifts and expressing appreciation for their closest gal-friends. If you are in a romantic relationship, then Valentines Day makes sense, but if you are single, you can celebrate your friendships on Galentine’s Day. Many people actually celebrate both days, friends on the 13th and partnerships on the 14th and why not? Galentine’s is a fun, empowering alternative (or addition) to Valentine’s Day, which emphasizes love, support and sisterhood over romantic relationship.

Heart Grid Art Journal Page

Sketchbook

The sketchbook I’m using is my A5 Peter Pauper Press which has quite substantial paper but are not exactly watercolor density.

Heart Template

When I work in my grid sketchbook, I usually do squares or oblongs, but this time I thought I’d look at hearts. Finding a heart template was quite tricky, but then I it occurred to me that I needed to look to my quilt and sewing supplies because I did have heart template in there.

After some rummaging, I found I actually have a pack of three acrylic heart templates which I’ll show you. Due to the fact that these heart templates are not specifically for drawing, they don’t have any measurements on them, but we can just eyeball it and go from there.

Heart Page Layouts

Page Layouts

Now normally in my grid art sketchbook, I can get six small 5cm (2 inch) squares on each page, but because of the shape that the heart is there’s only a couple of ways of doing this. One layout is just to have three hearts straight down vertically. Another way is to lay them in a set of five, which seems to work well. So you’ve got the one heart in the middle, two hearts above and two hearts below.

Three Hearts

For my three hearts that were vertical, I just wanted to have the shape on the page and then be able to put a word in each of the hearts. Of course, these words could be anything you like, but clearly, we’re talking Valentine’s here and so talking hearts. We’re going for themes of love, joy and happiness and these are the words which I used.

Five Hearts

On my 5-heart page I decided to use some phrases and words which I believe are inspirational for my art practice. I have a few main themes, and I wanted to highlight those words.

Process

Pencil

In both cases, I drew the first heart right in the centre of the page. I used to light 2H pencil just to give me the outline of the heart careful to make sure that it was aligned vertically with the bottom point and the top point of the heart to the vertical line in the middle the page. From there I was able to eyeball and position the other hearts leaving a gap of about 5mm or quarter of an inch between each of the hearts.

Word Guidelines

Next, I drew two light horizontal guidelines to line up my words on and to make sure that they were even within the heart. Then I wrote the words.

Pen

At this point I got out my Pigma Micron 0.3mm black pen and went over the words and the actual outline shape of the heart.

Colored pencil

Using a selection of coloured pencils, mainly in reds and pinks, I continued to colour in each of the heart slightly differently. Tending to have it darker on the outside edges and lighter in the middle, so it looks as though the heart was pushing out from the page to give it some dimension. I’m not quite sure how successful I was at this, but I was trying to get some plumpness to each of the hearts.

Where to Use Hearts?

Ideas

Now of course, once you’ve got your heart design going, one of the benefits of using your grid art journal sketchbook is that it triggers ideas that can be used later on. And I was thinking about, well, where could I really use hearts? Because it’s not the sort of image that I would print out and put in a frame and hang on my wall.

Greeting Cards

But these sorts of designs, hearts, would be great to use on items like greetings cards which would be ideal for sale in your art shop, a craft fair or places like that.

Stickers

Heart stickers are also a popular theme for many young people and older people too, but a lot of hearts are loved by young girls, so I thought that was a good idea too.

Overarch

Onwards

Really, this week was an exercise in using different shapes in my grid art journal book. It’s a way to start thinking differently about the shape on the page that you have to work within.

While squares are almost a perfect shape, I do believe that heart is as well. But honestly, it’s not a silhouette that I would use regularly. I’m only really likely to be working with heart shapes in my grid art sketchbooks around Valentine’s Day because that’s when hearts just come to mind.

Let me know what you think about using a heart shape and your grid art journal book. And a Happy Galentine’s and Valentine’s to you!

Save this pin to read later.

Author Bio: Alison Hazel

Alison Hazel is a hobby artist and she shares her ongoing journey about becoming an artist later in life. She creates simple art that anyone can make. She hopes to inspire you to reach your creative potential in the area that suits you. Read more about Alison’s story. Get her newsletter.

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How to Set Up an Artist’s Vision Board

by Alison | Art Business Ideas

Author: Alison Hazel – Last updated: January 2025

Artist Vision Board

Over the years, your creative energy and passion for art will no doubt ebb and flow. Hopefully it will evolve as well. Sometimes it’s hard to stay motivated. You might not have any creative aims, or if you do, you may simply not concentrate on your artistic goals. One simple yet powerful practice to help reignite your creativity and help you stay on track with your art, is to make anart-themed vision board.

Your Visions

I believe that we all benefit from having visions and let’s be clear, I don’t mean seeing ghosts or having déjà vu. What I mean is raising your sights to the horizon and wondering what’s over there? Considering where can your life journey can take you and speculating if there be dragons?

What you could do if you didn’t have to work your day job, work your two day jobs, look after three kids, shop, cook and clean for your family and be a supportive wife to your aging guy who seems to be becoming a hermit himself, not to mention the constant wrangling with your mother-in law…

You get the idea. That if it was only you, what would you aim for in life? That’s what I’m getting at. Your vision for your life.

My Vision Board

I’ve created myself vision boards on and off over the past ten years. Personally, I use a vision board and like to refresh it every year. My current one is a large piece of cardboard (50cm x 90cm or 20″ x 35″) cut from the side of an old Amazon delivery box. It hangs on the wall with some ribbon I had lying around. It used to hang in the bathroom, as I’d see it every day both morning and night, but then my sister said to move it away from all the drains as the energy could disappear literally with every flush. So now my current vision board hangs proudly in my bedroom. It is directly opposite my bed, so I see it first thing in the morning and last thing at night. This is a much better placement.

Aspirations

In general, a vision board is a visual representation of your hopes, dreams and aspirations. It can act as a constant reminder of what you want to achieve and can encourage you to stay motivated on your artistic journey. If you have just begun exploring your creative side, a vision board can help you clarify your intentions and reignite your creative spark.

In this article, I’ll take you through how to set up and use an art-themed vision board, especially designed for hobby artists like yourself. I believe these ideas will help you stay inspired, organized and motivated to create more original art this year.

Why an Art-Themed Vision Board

As a third-age hobby artist, your creative expression may be deeply connected to personal experiences, nostalgia and a desire to express yourself in new ways. An art-themed vision board allows you to visually organize and reflect on what you want to achieve in your art practice.

Clarify

A vision board will help you define what you want to achieve. Perhaps you want to start a grid art journal, have a go at artist trading cards, try a new art style, master a different medium, or simply rekindle your joy for painting, drawing, sketching, journaling or creating.

Inspire

A vision board can serve as a daily reminder of the things you want to explore. You create a visual reference for artistic ideas.

Constant

Keeping your goals front and center can help you stay focused and motivated. Even on days when creativity feels elusive, your hand-crafted vision board will be a reminder of your why.

Steps to Create an Art-Themed Vision Board

Gather Materials

Before you start, gather the supplies you’ll need to create your vision board. This can be as simple or as elaborate as you like.

Here and a few things you might need:

A large piece of cardboard, corkboard, or canvas (something sturdy to hold your visuals).
Magazines, newspapers, or printouts of images which inspire you.
Scissors and glue, or pins (depending on how you want to attach items).
Markers or pens for writing your goals or affirmations.
Any other decorative elements like stickers, washi tape, or paint (to personalize your board).
Some of your own mini art pieces that you want to develop further.

Guiding Theme

Before you start cutting and pasting images, take a moment to reflect on your artistic journey.

Ask yourself:

What are my long-term artistic goals?

Do you want to learn a new technique, like watercolor or charcoal sketching?
Are you interested in participating in an art show or selling your artwork?
Perhaps you want to rekindle your love for painting or focus on a particular subject, like landscapes or abstract art.

What themes resonate with me?

Do you love nature, animals, or vintage aesthetics?
Are there particular colors or styles that have always inspired you?
Which art movement draws you in?

What challenges do you want to overcome?

Is procrastination or lack of confidence holding you back?
Begin a daily art practice, see how one artist did this.
Would you like to make more time for art?
Do you first need to build a consistent morning ritual to kickstart your day?

Write these thoughts down in a journal or on a separate sheet of paper. This will serve as your guiding theme for creating your vision board.

Images, Quotes and Illustrations

Now, it’s time to search for images and quotes that represent your artistic goals and dreams. Personally, I have a collage box where I keep all cut outs, tissue papers and words that speak to me and which I can use at times like now. I’ve always been someone who has an art journal and I like to embellish it with images. When I buy physical art magazines, instead of keeping the whole thing. I cut out images, words and process steps that speak to me for later use. I keep my collage papers in an old flower delivery bag.

Please consider the following:

Art Techniques

Find images of art supplies, tutorials, or paintings that showcase techniques you want to master.

Art Styles

Look for pictures that capture the art style you’re drawn to or want to explore. These could be watercolor florals, realistic portraiture, or abstract designs.

Inspirational Quotes

Find or write down quotes that inspire you to keep creating. Quotes like, “Art is the only way to run away without leaving home” or “Creativity takes courage” can be great reminders of why you make art.

Personal Touches

Add personal images or mementos that resonate with your artistic journey. These can be photographs of places you’d like to paint or symbols that represent your creative aspirations.

Arrange Your Visuals

Once you’ve gathered your materials, start arranging your images on your board. There’s no right or wrong way to do this. It’s all about what feels visually appealing and motivating to you.

Group Images by Theme

You might want to organize your board by categories, like “techniques,” “inspiration” and “goals.” This can help you focus on different aspects of your artistic practice at various stages.

Leave Space for New Goals

While you’re arranging your board, keep some empty space for adding new ideas or inspirations over time.

Attach Your Visuals

Images

Once you’ve found the perfect layout, it’s time to glue or pin your images onto the board. Feel free to be creative with the way you position the items. Add interest by overlapping images or layering visuals as this can add a dynamic, artistic feel to your board.

Words

Use colored markers or pens to write down any personal affirmations or specific artistic goals which you want to achieve. For example: “Master watercolor florals” or “Create one new piece of art every month.”

Display Your Vision Board

Now that your vision board is complete, find a place to display it where you’ll see it regularly. Ideally, it should be somewhere near your art supplies or workspace, so it becomes a daily source of inspiration. It could be in your studio, on your desk, or even in a dedicated corner of your home where you relax and reflect.

How to Use Your Vision Board

Now that your vision board is set up, it’s time to actively use it to stay inspired and motivated. Here’s how you can incorporate it into your daily life as hobby artist:

Make It a Daily Practice

Spend a few minutes each day reflecting on your vision board. Look at the images and words and reconnect with your artistic goals. Use it as a source of inspiration before you start your art practice, especially if you’re feeling stuck or uninspired.

Set Achievable Milestones

Break down your bigger artistic goals into smaller, manageable milestones. For instance, if your main goal is to “learn watercolor,” set smaller milestones like:

Watch three watercolor tutorials this week or,
Paint one small watercolor piece by the end of the month.

Update Your Board Regularly

As you achieve goals and evolve as an artist, update your vision board.

Add new images.
Swap out outdated ones.
Add new aspirations as your journey progresses.

This keeps the board fresh and aligned with your ever-changing artistic practice.

Reflect

Every few months, look back at your vision board and evaluate your progress. Celebrate the achievements and take note of what’s still a work-in-progress for you. This will help you stay accountable to your goals and recognize how far you’ve come.

Overarch

Benefits

An art-themed vision board is an incredibly personal and powerful creation that can keep you focused and inspired as a hobby artist. It allows you to visually express your dreams and aspirations while providing a tangible, daily reminder of what you want to create. Maybe you are dying to get started as a hobby artist, improve your art skills, explore new mediums, or simply make more time for your art – a vision board can guide you every step of the way.

Begin

Now it’s your turn to create your own art-inspired vision board. Gather your materials, reflect on your goals and start crafting a vision that will inspire your artistic journey for years to come.

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Author Bio: Alison Hazel

Alison Hazel is a hobby artist and she shares her ongoing journey about becoming an artist later in life. She creates simple art that anyone can make. She hopes to inspire you to reach your creative potential in the area that suits you. Read more about Alison’s story. Get her newsletter.

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Artist Interview: Arwynne O’Neill

by Alison | Artist Interviews, Living a Creative Life

Author: Alison Hazel – Last updated: January 2025

Artist Interview

Arwynne O’Neill

This week I have something really special for you my dear reader. I was recently honored to meet with and interview an outstanding artist and good friend of mine, Arwynne O’Neill from Vancouver, Canada. Arwynne creates a lot of strong female figurative artwork. She explores many mythical and fantasy themes in an irreverent, pinup style.

She blogs about art, books, movies, nostalgia, sociology and anything that interests her. Her favorite medium is pencil drawings, finished and colorized in Photoshop but recently she’s been experimenting with colored pens and colored pencils for a faster turnaround, with more organic results. Arwynne attended the Maryland Institute, College of Art in Baltimore, MD, USA and majored in illustration.

Initial Impetus

Alison: Welcome, Arwynne. What initially drew you to participate in art challenges like Pinktober and Drawcember? Can you tell us a little about your first experience with these contests?

Friends

Arwynne: Well, to be perfectly honest (and I think you know this), it was you! My good friend Alison, dear readers, inspired me to participate in the Inktober/Pinktober challenge.

Dr. Sketchy’s

I hadn’t created any new art since Covid shut down my favorite drawing class, Dr. Sketchy’s, which had been my monthly source of inspiration for nearly a decade. In that time, I created a series of “Zodiac Pinup” calendars starting in 2014. In 2018, I started a series of Badass Goddess calendars. Despite Covid, I had enough material to publish a calendar in 2021, but then I ran out of steam…

Taking Action

In late 2022, a friend discovered my website and gave me a good natured harangue that shamed me into action. I pulled together a few drawings I had been working on but never completed, and added several of my favorites from previous years to publish a sort of “best of” calendar with about five new pieces for 2023. But then I stopped again, until this past summer.

Inktober

When Alison told me about Inktober, I decided to give it a try, and it ended up being one of the best things I did all year! By the end of October, I had 31 new drawings, more than enough material to print a 2025 calendar, and the desire to start up another challenge in December (Drawcember)!

Daily Art Practice

Many artists find it difficult to maintain a consistent creative practice. How has participating in daily art challenges helped you develop a regular artistic routine?

Deadlines

Maybe it’s because I’m a Virgo, but I find I really need an “assignment” or a deadline to get me motivated, until something becomes a daily habit. I can’t just wait until I feel like doing something new because I’m never going to want to do it.

Limber Up

There are all kinds of books that advise writers to do “morning papers” or some kind of journaling, just to keep the writing muscles warm and limber, so I’m coming at art the same way. Not all of my drawings will be good, but I’ll feel good that at least I created something, instead of spending that time scrolling Instagram or YouTube.

Wellbeing Benefits

Many artists speak about the mental health benefits of regular creative practice. What changes have you noticed in your mood and or wellbeing since committing to daily art?

Get Moving

Honestly, drawing every day is a lot like working out every day. I may not always want to do it, I just resolve in my mind that it’s something I have to do every day (or almost every day, because life happens). Then just do it. With exercise, even on days when I don’t want to, I change my clothes and put on my headphones, cue up the latest audiobook or podcast and get moving.

Get Started

With art, I pull out my pencils, pens, sharpeners, etc. and get started. I know I’ll feel better once I’ve done it, whether it’s a workout or a drawing challenge. To paraphrase a quote from Joe Rogan, I don’t know anyone who works out regularly and is depressed.

Build an Art Habit

It’s the principle of creating healthy habits through repetition. If you don’t start somewhere, you’ll never get anywhere. Just commit to making a tiny change, walking around the block or taking the stairs instead of the elevator or carrying a bottle of water with you to remind yourself to hydrate.

Daily Art

Do a quick drawing every day. If structure helps you, do it at the same time every day, right after your morning coffee, or on your lunch break. If you’re a procrastinator, find ways to reward yourself. No lunch break until the drawing is done, or whatever works for you!

Make Space for Art

If you’re a perfectionist, set a timer to take the pressure off deciding when it’s good enough to stop. It’s all about tricking the body/hands into carrying out what the mind wants to accomplish. Don’t think about it, just do it. Set up a space in your home where you can sit down and draw without any preparation.

Reconnecting to Art

You’ve returned to making art after some time away, what role did these daily art practices play in you reconnecting with your artistic passion?

Finding the Fantastical

I hadn’t done any drawing for over a year, aside from a couple of months in 2023, when I attended a drawing class in Vancouver, but I didn’t love the fact that you never know what the model is going to look like. While I appreciate the idea that drawing any model is great practice and all body types, genders, shapes and sizes can be beautiful, my preferred subject matter has always been fantastical women.

Fantasy Inspiration

I really loved the Dr. Sketchy’s concept, where burlesque dancers would pose for three hours in a series of exciting, often heroic poses. They had great themes and costumes, spanning the gamut from traditional pinup outfits, lingerie and feather boas, to famous characters from books and movies, to more outlandish fantasy/sci-fi and horror movie inspired themes.

Take a Risk

One of my favorite models, Little Miss Risk, was always a delight to draw. She’s a bona-fide B-movie actress, having starred in a number of independent films under her “real” name, Tristan Risk. Some of her more memorable costumes were inspired by Mad Max, Aliens, Predator and Quentin Tarantino’s Deathproof. She posed with her pet snake once and those drawings inspired Kadru, the Indian goddess of serpents.

Pinktober in Born

Anyway, this past October, I committed to the Inktober challenge (calling it Pinktober because my pseudonym and website are “Ms. Pink”) and set up my sketchbook with 31 mythological prompts, including goddesses like Eris and Aphrodite, creatures like mermaids and sirens, and strong female characters from popular culture like Elektra and Furiosa.

Accomplishment

Like I said, I didn’t know if I’d be able to complete the challenge, but having an assignment worked so well for me that I found myself drawing every day of October, then turning around and doing it again in December.

Calendar Catalyst

I understand you’ve just created a calendar from your art project pieces. Could you tell us about this thrilling project and how it emerged, like a phoenix, from your daily practice?

2025 Calendar

As soon as Pinktober was over, I decided to print a 2025 calendar from my twelve favorite drawings. I had been disappointed with myself for failing to pull one together in 2024, but I wasn’t sure if these daily challenge sketches were up to my standards for a calendar.

Polish Your Art

My preferred style is a combination of fantasy painting and digital collage, so these new drawings seemed very unfinished to me. But I managed to bridge the gap between the fresh, spontaneous style and a more polished look by scanning them in and cleaning them up in Photoshop.

Time Crunch

The fact that I had a very limited time to produce a calendar between November 1st and the end of the year prevented me from getting too picky with the details. I was able to get all twelve drawings finalized and the PDF sent to my local printer (MinuteMan Press, highly recommended!) and they were ready before the end of November.

Micro to Macro Approach

Some artists feel intimidated by large projects or blank canvases. How have these daily art activities, with their smaller scope and size, affected your approach to creating art?

Sketchbook

I bought a small (6″ x 6″) sketchbook for Inktober and Drawcember, which was not only perfect for posting to Instagram but also kept me from getting intimidated by a larger blank page.

Reference Images

In addition to using some of my previous drawings and photos of myself and my mother as inspiration, I combed my Instagram feed for great images of burlesque dancers and other heroic babes as a way of finding much-needed reference models.

Modern Inspiration

The big difference between now and a few years ago is Artificial Intelligence (AI). When I was creating my list of prompts for December, I asked ChatGPT to provide some inspiration with a list of winter-themed goddesses.

Extended Repertoire

It returned a lot of names I was familiar with, and had drawn in the past, like Sedna, Marzanna and Yuki-Onna, the Japanese Snow Woman, but also a number of goddesses and creatures I never thought of, like Winter Dryad, Skadi, the Norse goddess of winter, and Perchta, the winter goddess of the Northern Alps.

Art Prompts

Even better, when I found myself staring at an empty page and not knowing where to begin, I could ask Meta AI (the free one that is now bundled with WhatsApp) for inspiration. I would start out by saying something like, “imagine the goddess Arachne in comic book style” and it would create an image for me.

Refined Reference Images

It usually took at least three or four refinements, and about half the time, it failed to return anything I liked. But other times, I got a great reference image, and the AI is getting better every day.

Technology

AI is already a huge game changer in so many aspects of our lives, and art is no exception. There are pitfalls and controversies to be sure, but if artists can use it to generate ideas, we can at least benefit from this technology that is throwing so many creative industries into chaos.

Imaginarium

My advice is to experiment with the free AI tools as much as possible. Ask it for ideas, reference models, different poses, different costumes, backgrounds, whatever you struggle with imagining on your own. Brainstorming is one of the things it does best.

Pay it Forward

What advice would you give to other hobby artists who might be hesitant to even start art again or participate in daily art challenges?

Promise

Just do it. Commit to doing something every day, no matter how small. When I started the Inktober challenge, I thought I would have trouble drawing every day so I set myself a 20-minute time limit. I never actually needed it, but that was a way of tricking myself into getting started. Who can’t commit to 20 minutes?

Muscle Memory

Draw something… anything. Draw your pet or a plant, or anything you can see out your window. Copy a drawing by a favorite artist or a picture you like in a magazine. Ask AI for inspiration and reference material for your drawings. Get your hands moving every day (or once a week, whatever works for you). Once you trigger that muscle memory, your body will remember what it’s like to create.

Enter The Void

In time, just like any form of exercise, it will get progressively easier and easier. You’ll start to feel a strange guilt or emptiness when you don’t do it. On those days, you can brainstorm for ideas and write them down as prompts in your drawing journal, which will make it easier to start your next drawing.

It’s Never Too Late

This applies to any medium, by the way. My grandmother was a gifted artist who drew and painted all her life. In her 60s, took up clay sculpture and filled her home with tiny nude figures and familiar celebrities. I would open her fridge to find half-finished fairies and elves between the eggs and yogurt cups being serenaded by the torso of Jimi Hendrix. So it’s never too late.

Arwynne’s Contact Details

How can my readers find you and support your creative work?

Website

I invite your readers to find me at www.mspink.net.

Newsletter

Subscribe to my weekly newsletter, which I publish every Saturday.

Shop

Visit my RedBubble art shop to find Badass Goddess prints, coasters, clothing, stationery, notebooks, home decor, phone cases and more.

Book

My Badass Goddesses book, which explores the art and myths of 50 of the fiercest female deities from around the world, is in full color and available in paperback, hard cover and digital format from Amazon.

Meet More Artists

Here are a few more artists whom I’ve interviewed to inspire your art practice.

If you know an artist who’d like to be featured here please email me at alisonhazelart@gmail.com.

Artist Interview: Claire

by Alison | May 23, 2025 | Artist Interviews

In this artist interview, get more inspiration and meet Claire, a graphic designer and founder of Price Design Studio.

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Artist Interview: Jules

by Alison | Mar 23, 2025 | Artist Interviews

In this artist interview, meet Jules, a traditional artist based in Toronto, Canada. Her acrylic and watercolour works focus on bringing life and energy to portraits, still lifes, and media.

Artist Interview: Arwynne O’Neill

by Alison | Jan 13, 2025 | Artist Interviews, Living a Creative Life

In this artist interview, meet ARWYNNE O’NEILL an artist and writer from Vancouver, Canada. Arwynne creates fantasy art with goddess themes.

Author Bio: Alison Hazel

Alison Hazel is a hobby artist and she shares her ongoing journey about becoming an artist later in life. She creates simple art that anyone can make. She hopes to inspire you to reach your creative potential in the area that suits you.

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