I have been having fun with drawing with either watercolor pencils or water-soluble pastels, which are so cool! Love working with pastels but when I saw these, I had to have them. Wild to actually wet the pastels and they look like watercolors then! Charvin is the brand (I believe). I don't think about sharing my drawings, much, with others. It is a pleasure I do for myself - I might share with my husband who is gaga over everything I do (he is my #1 fan after all!). But doing a lot of illustrations for my children's books and usually use watercolor paints but thinking about using the watercolor pencils, especially since I draw the illustrations before painting them, makes sense to use watercolor pencils.

Yes I do art journaling and blogged about it, sharing images, here:

http://stephanierosebirdstudio.blogspot.com/2014/04/the-art-of-journaling.html

I stitch, cut, collage, embellish, paint and draw in my journal.

Okay, here are my cheating pencil/ink drawings, and a blog post on journals.  I am writing 20 mintues and today it was on journals, writing fast and not thinking too much.  I posted my silly writing today.  

http://zenkatwrites.com/2013/07/17/journals-at-powells-bookstore/

I am looking toward a barn series but I am beginning to think this is simply calming for me to draw so many versions of barns... pencil then inking many thin lines.  I see them in shades of reds and sepia tones, or deep blue water.

Anyone else have some to share?

In some cultures, spiders spun the world into existence.  In some, spiders created the written word.  Charlotte was not so far off, and I wonder if E.B.White knew these myths . . . 

My grandmother knew I was afraid of spiders.  She told me never to kill a Daddy Longleg because one day she was coming back as one.  And I never have -- consciously -- killed one, and tried to get over my fear of spiders altogether, though never was able to do so completely.  

How curious!  I was into spiders and half-spiders/half-women, and also the same but with scorpions when I lived in Mexico.  They were a bit frightening.  Maybe we're talking about archetypical images.  

Thanks Susan,

Yes regarding the metaphor.  I went through a very long time where eggs, handprints, and spiders showed up.  It became a series on my family members.  Eggs became children, spiders had a great deal to do with the mothers, and hands became connection.  I did not know what I was painting in the portraits until I was done and had time to "think" about them.  

I also have always drawn -- doodled -- stars, which form interconnecting fields if I am stuck and doodling for a long time.  I am sure a handwriting expert could have a field day with these things!

Kate, I love the energy, movement and variety in your journal and the way you work out your ideas visually.  So fresh with each page.  Boddhichitta heart reminds me of an entry I made in my journal just after I retired last year.  Eggs and rays of color are recurrent metaphors.  For some reason there's no text, which is odd for me. Do you find that certain images seem to reappear in your journal...almost like messages?  Sorry for the blurriness.  I need to reshoot this page.

My post yesterday got gone -- I saw it after it was posted and boom, gone.  I did have a picture of a naked girl; wonder if that is the reason why?  

Here goes again.  I journal and draw in my journals, most of which are blank paged journals.  I have a handful of markers that travel with me, but I also like thick graphite pencils and watercolor pencils.  

Sometimes elaborate doodles arise on my pages:

That is doodling around writing. Below is a sketch which will most likely not become a painting, but is very much about boddhichitta heart.

Sometimes the journals become sketches that are developed for paintings.  I am thinking about painting and sketches arise that I may paint someday.  Below, Crow as Garuda!

wow.  it was there when i left the page; must've been a glitch -- will repost later and delete this!

Hi Katie.  I'm not seeing anything here.