Arteza watercolor pens

That’s Right WoodChuck Chuckers…

| Gina Lento

It’s GROUNDHOG DAY!

Groundhog Day was always one of those days that you acknowledged but didn’t make much of a fuss about, (unless winter has been an especially cold and snowy one…) until the movie “Groundhog Day” came out.

I fell in love with the movie immediately. We even had a VHS version, then a Blue Ray version of the movie in our library. If the movie wasn’t on TV on February 2, then I would pop the movie in and watch the video version with my family.

My children were small when the movie came out but as they got older, it began to be a tradition to watch it in our house. It wasn’t just that the movie was funny. It was philosophical and theological. What would you do if you relived the same day over and over? Is there a Supreme Being reliving days over and over and that’s how they know everything? I am sure Danny Rubin and Harold Ramis were thinking more along the lines of poking fun at the day when they wrote the script, but the movie became so much more that I am sure they intended. It was done so well and it really makes you ponder life as you are being entertained.

The lines in the movie are classic. How can you ever look at a groundhog and not think “don’t drive angry?” That line was so hilarious in that setting. And my special favorite was Bill Murray when he’s on the phone “What if there is no tomorrow? There wasn’t one today!” OMG, that made me laugh. I am sure many of us sitting at desk job have thought that very thing.

The music, too. As soon as the opening theme comes on the TV, it doesn’t matter where you are in the house, you know what movie is coming on. It’s as distinctive as the James Bond themes.

If you are working from home today, the movie is on repeat on the AMC channel.

Enjoy!

Groundhog Day sketch done in a Hahnemuhle sketchbook using Arteza brush pens and a Lamy safari with Carbon ink. Hand lettered. Groundhog looks like he could pass on the whole day.
It’s Groundhog Day!

Friday the 13th

| Gina Lento

Today is Friday the 13th and I decided to play around with my Arteza brush pens. I used a sketchbook made out of the Arches Text Wove paper which can be a little temperamental for using the brush pens.

Black cats are not bad luck so I thought this kitty would be purrfect for today….

Water brush and ink sketch of a seated black cat with a collar that has the name Lucky on it
“Lucky”

Merry Christmas

| Gina Lento

Merry Christmas! The day is finally here. Just when you think you won’t get everything finished on time, it all falls in place.

Played with the brush markers this morning and decided to do a tree. It feels good to play with the materials for the fun of it. It’s not perfect, but trees are not perfect, are they? And they are beautiful for all their imperfections.

I also added today and yesterday’s carved stamps below.

I wish everyone a very Merry and loving Christmas. Hug people today just because you can. Love everyone. That’s what today is about.

Simple Wreath

| Gina Lento

Today I made two loaves of cranberry bread, a holiday cake, carved my stamp, did chores, and made a lasagna for tomorrow evening. John made his sauce, I added the ground sausage after it was finished for the lasagna.

I finally sat down to do my holiday sketch and with a tad of holiday stress, decided that I needed to play with traditional art supplies for therapy. It was very soothing.

One of the December prompts is wreath and although I carved one as a stamp, I wanted to do another for the challenge. I used brush pens, charcoal pencil and paint pens for this wreath.

The stamp today is an abstract design that I did spontaneously. I like experimenting with random designs.

Witch

| Gina Lento

The fourth prompt is “witch” and it happens to be one of my favorites. Usually for Inktober, I work on my “Little Witch” series, which started back in 2018 as a desperate need to find ideas for postcards to mail to my mom.

(Mom was placed in Assisted Living back in 2018 for memory care. I mailed her postcards to give her something to look forward to and help her settle in.)

This year I did the “TheyDrawtober’s Cook” list and that’s what I sent my mom this year. I thought the food art would give her some memory triggers. I haven’t seen her since December 2019, thanks to CoVID 19 but occasionally my sister is able to FaceTime with us.

I have to admit it’s been hard to keep up the daily practice. She likes cats and always dressed as a witch for Halloween, so that’s where the idea for the “Little Witch” series came from. I do enjoy doing the “Little Witch” series and Inktober made it fun to use the prompts for the character.

Here is the Little Witch as a pre-schooler….as I mentioned yesterday, I might switch to watercolor; I actually used watercolor and the Arteza brush pens together.

“witch”

Haunted

| Gina Lento

I am still trailing the other October lists for now. As I write this, I have one of the Hallmark channels on TV to help with the holiday transition, even though I don’t want to transition yet. I’d love to wallow some more in post-Halloween, pre-Thanksgiving vibes and enjoy November for November.

It’s hard to transition in the State of “endless” summer. Autumn creeps slowly into my part of Florida. The overnight temps creep downward and daytime temps are around 80, for now. We actually do have autumn here and trees will lose their leaves. It’s very comical. One day the trees have leaves, and the next, they drop them like PJ’s dropped on the floor before a shower.

Today’s prompt is “Haunted.” I am trying to use the Arteza brush pens that I normally use for Inktober, but they aren’t performing very well on the textured Arches paper. I’ll probably switch over to watercolor on the next one.

Inktober Day 28 – Float

| Gina Lento

My Inktober sketchbook is finally full. I started with the Little Witch Series back in 2018 and used that sketchbook only for the Little Witch drawings. Now that it’s full, I have moved over to my Innovative Journaling Halloween Journal, which is appropriate. This journal is perfect for my Little Witch series and yes, those are skulls dangling from it. It freaking rocks and it’s refillable. It comes with Arches text wove paper which I’ll report back on how it performs. Today’s sketch with the Arteza brush pens scumbled a bit but I used that to my advantage. I tried the dragon floating on his back, though I did think about doing a side view. I used my dog for positioning the feet.😂

The Halloween sketchbook
Floating dragon on arches text wove paper.

Inktober Day 27 – Musk

| Gina Lento

Perfumes that contain Musk are like catnip for dragons.

I sketched this from the car and this is the last page in the sketchbook. Now I need to see if I have another 4×6 sketchbook or I’ll have to make one.

Also, I have included the gaggle of dragons that live in my house.