For breakfast... Me? I'm having pencils

 I am not the only creative person

that at the start of the year

felt not creative, burnt out and tired as ever...

So, following the suggestion of some arty friends,

I joined a breakfast drawing club.

Yes, we meet at breakfast time

(actually we are in different time zone,

so some of us might have late breakfast, or even dinner!)

and we draw.

We use photos as references, our ones, or from a variety of 

Free Stock websites (see here, here and here )

and we time our drawings, starting with quick warm ups, then longer "poses" .

The goal is to move our hand on paper, stop feeling precious 

in our work and with materials, and keep practising, together.

Right now, that the word "together" has the most muted meaning of history.

I found this habit started to shift my way of working..

I am not willing to spend ages to perfect a drawing anymore, and I love mark making more than ever.

I think a lot about texture and constantly try new colour palettes.

As a freelance artist, I spend lots of time on my own,

and I have felt very isolated in the last years.

Well, this experience gave me a community, lots of laughs and...

many filled sketchbooks!

I even set up my own group,

that I called Earth Drawing Club (as we are all nature lovers!)

I love the arty chats and encouragement we give to each other,

not only about the drawings, but for ongoing projects and personal life too!

Thanks to these chat, I also found an interesting book

about inner critic, which seems to be always on the look for turning a nice drawing experience 

into a tough art critique... I leave you the link here if you are interested, 

I got the audio version and loved listening in my walks...

I encourage everyone to give this a try, even if it sounds silly at first.

You might discover a new love!

Speak soon,

happy drawing!

Lucia

Real life Exhibition

 Hey,

real life event are happening again!

I will have a super colourful exhibition

at Monkton Arts,

in Ryde (Isle of Wight)

from April the 14th for all the month.

Open Wednesdays and Thursdays from 10,30 to 4pm.

I have on display new work and I will be there for a chat 

on Wednesday the 21st , if you fancy !

Arty Walks are back!

 Hi folks,

My Arty Walks are back!

This is an event I started last year, where I guide

nature lovers through some interesting parts of the Isle of Wight,

we learn about wild foraging, 

and then we sit in a nice location and sketch!

It has been so fun so far, and with the social restrictions

slightly lifting, I couldn't wait to start again...

The first will be this Saturday April 17th 2021,

In Alverstone.

I will share my sketchbooks and tips for sketching outdoors, and also

foraging recipes and tasty nibbles.

To book your place or for  information on next walks,

drop me a message on my Instagram page,

or through my Website 

Let's Illustrate a recipe! For Kids

                                            "What if Art could find its way to the kitchen?

And food could become an imaginative activity too?

To answer these questions

I made a free video tutorial for kids,

 now available on my Website (here) and Youtube channel (here).

We are going to create our own

favourite recipe book (print this cover if you like!)

The video is all about fun, imagination, and healthy taste, and

here you can download the recipes to go with the activity

And if you fancy, print also the characters cutouts!

I hope your kids will enjoy!

Location drawing

Location drawing is my biggest and best discovery  of 2020.

It started off with a chat with Ness Wood, mentor at Orange Beak Studio , where I booked

an online tutorial to see how I could improve my art.

Ness's suggestion was to "go out and draw from observation", 

and since it was summer, and lockdown in the Uk had been lifted, I decided to give it a go.

The first times I mostly had to do with my fear, on the page, but every time I went out to draw, it got a bit easier. Easier to accept mistake and to brave experimentation.

I tried new materials, less paint and more dry tools, like coloured pencils and markers (easier to carry).

I used gouache to correct things, and that made me feel more relaxed: mistakes can be fixed!

If there was a sketch I particularly liked, once back in the studio I carried on working on it. 

I could see new themes, likings and rhythms coming up.

Generally I try to go out once a week, even now that is autumn. I plan my day according to the forecast. The coldest I sat down to draw was 4 degrees, and it was bearable for an hour, to lay down the composition and fix in my mind the values, take some pictures and... lots of hot rosehip tea.

Location drawing reminded me that I got a BA degree in landscape painting... it seems ages ago!

At university we went out with giant canvases and paint what we saw, and what I like was to be out, but not so much to paint realistically.

What  I really love of this new habit , is that I can travel light (ish!)

and that I can play with my imagination. Wildly.

I see stories and animals in my drawings, and I let them in.

I can decide which colours to use, even if they are not true to nature

( as long as I stick with the values, light and dark areas).

This excites me immensely. 

Nature and art are my favourite things on the planet, and I got to enjoy them both at the same time!

The way I decide about my subject is

by walking around, and waiting to see a place, even just a corner, that makes me feel

the magic I felt when I was a child.

I loved to tuck myself under trees and bushes and imagine I was a creature of the woods.

I lived their stories in my mind, by finding their homes.

What I take with me , basically is:

-Sketchbooks, I use Royal Talens

-My colour sketchbook, a place where I note all my favourite colour combination

-Markers, I like Tombow dual tip and Ecoline Brush markers

-Coloured pencils, my favourites are Luminance by Caran D'Ache

-A selection of acrylic gouache , by Holbein Acryla Goauche

Then a tiny container for water, couple of kitchen papers or tissues, and a

small plastic box with a secure lid,

where I put some wet tissues and some tracing paper cut to size on top, 

and this is a simple "stay-wet" palette if I need.

Brushes (nothing fancy), sharpener and rubber. 

Ta-daaa!

If you feel inspired, in the spring I will do more of my Arty walks

on the Isle of Wight,

where I share tips and inspiration to sketch outdoors.

On my Instagram feed, 

Lucia.elfina.para 

I post also the photos of the places where I go,

if you fancy a look!

Woodland treasures

 Here in Britain

Autumn has arrived.

With all its treasures, and a more chilled air.

The woodlands are beautiful in this season, and I feel so grateful

to be able to sit there, observe, listen and draw.

 

This is my first year spent drawing outside

and I cherish these moments

like the ones spent with a loved one. Precious.

I also went for a few days in Italy, 

while was still possible to travel without to many restrictions

(at least from Britain to Italy).

The things I treasure the most of this trip

are the days out in Nature.

Every place has its special feeling, scents, and colours.

I  find Italian woods very different the British ones,

they are drier in a way, but still vibrant and full of life 

and perhaps more sweet scents...

 I have of them lots of memories

of walking with my little dog, almost 10 years ago now.

What I like of nature, and hope you will agree,

is that it always gives something new, always has a new light, different air, sounds...

Always welcomes you in a different mood, but always listens.

The possibility to spend time in a place, visit it often, to get familiar with it, 

and to experience its ever changing atmospheres, is what makes me feel at HOME.

Autumn is also a time where many of us feel the need to retreat,

to find the space inside.

And this is also what I feel, these days, specially when it gets dark.

Yesterday I went out collecting acorns to make ACORN COFFEE, 

a recipe I discovered this year and put in my 2021 Woodland Calendar.

This special drink is also what I will take with me this Saturday in my 

second Arty Walk, to taste together while we walk in the woods.

During these weeks,

I have also added new items to my Etsy shop,

You can now order a framed print of your favourite image I created,

a service many people had asked me for , and now is available!

Plus new homemade treasures on the way,

for your Christmas gifts (also listed in my Etsy shop)!

I am sure this autumn will gift us

many colours and discoveries!

Till next time,

take care of yourself... there is not a bigger treasure.

Arty Walks!

 Autumn, when the light gets soft, and the air sweet, and

my favourite word is COSY..

I have a new Adventure which I hope will bring you

as much inspiration as it does to me!

ARTY WALKS

is a combination of walking in the stunning nature of the Isle of Wight,

sketching the landscape to inspire our best memories and get creative,

and wild foraging to know all the treasures that Nature offers us in this colourful season.

I lived on this magical Island for almost 9 years, and I always felt intimidated to draw its beauty,

until I discovered that I could take my imagination with me.

Yes, I can look what is in front of me, and make it mine.

If I want, I can add my favourite animals, colours and stories to my drawings outside, 

just as I do when I am inventing them in the studio. 

And by allowing creativity to step in, the landscape become suddenly a different setting, 

full of magic.

Even in cinema they do it a lot: many movies have a colour filter applied to them, 

to better convey emotions and suggest atmosphere and drama. 

When I draw what I see, I feel I am talking with "IT", I feel I learn about it,

and the challenge of making sense of it on the page is like a childlike game.

Once you start, you are part of a discussion between the material and the place. It's so interesting.

And sometimes, I think speding hours in the same place, outside, 

gives me the chance to listen, to see, to experience

things that I normally wouldn't notice 

in the everyday rush.

I feel very inspired by the Walk to see community.

#walktosee is an hashtag that people use on Instagram when they draw from location and it is so varied

 and interesting... you can really see that every personality has its own way to see life!

I thought to share all the good energy I get from these sketching walks,

together with what I learnt in these years about Wild foraging

(here, here  and here I talk a bit about it)

Autumn gives us a lot of treasures: berries, mushrooms and seeds, 

all full of minerals and nutrients, plus many more treasures to discover!

Given the actual guidelines about Covid, spaces on the Arty Walks are limited 

and booking will be essential.

Price is £15 for each person.

The walk will take about 2 hours, and all you need to take with you are

basic art materials ( few sketchbooks and pencil, or watercolours, or your favourite drawing material)

and forager kit ( a cloth bag or wicker basket, secateurs and gloves).

If you are interested in joining in, please send me a message through Facebook.

It's gonna be MAGIC.

First walk: Sat 26th September, 11 am/13pm, Niton

Second walk: Sat 17th October, 11 am to 13 pm, Newchurch