2019

Another Morning Ritual…

| Gina Lento

Another of my routines in the morning is my morning pages. I have spoken of this before in previous posts. I have a sketchbook that I use for a daily routine of writing, sketching, writing what I am grateful for and setting an intention.

I start off the day with two sketches. One in my morning pages and one on my doodle page. This way, it is my routine to draw every day. I don’t always get to do it first thing, sometimes we get up and hit the ground running and I end up doing it in an airport or the car. Once in a blue moon I miss a day but that’s rare. I never make excuses, I just do it.

For the last 100 days of 2019, my morning pages have been Chihuahuas. Since I was doing cats on the postcards, I needed a break. Plus in order to get better at drawing something, I need to practice at it so I used Chloe & Mack as models, but I also used Sktchy for reference photos, too.

For the uninitiated: Chihuahuas come in several versions. Long coat (Mack), smooth coat (Chloe), deer head, apple head (Chloe & Mack), short and compact, taller and streamlined, curly tail (Chloe & Mack) and straight tails All versions are “correct” except the compact version seems to show up in dog shows more.

Chloe and Mack’s tails get curled really tight when they are waiting for food and treats or when they are happy.

Here are some of the Chihuahuas from that 100 + day practice….

End of 2019 Doodle Pages

| Gina Lento

Here are the last two pages of 2019. Doing the creative borders takes more time but I like how they look. I usually spend my Sundays on preparing the page for the week. In the 3rd photo, you can see how the beginning of the week looks before I pop the doodle into it.

Happy New Year!

| Gina Lento

2019 has ended. John and I have been scurrying around through the holidays. We unpacked the house only to have to repack things to put Christmas decorations out. Now we are in the flip flop stage of putting Christmas away and pulling the everyday stuff back out.

I am still using the garage as my temporary studio. We are still debating on using the garage vs a “she” shed. The garage is contained within the house and easier to climate control but there are no windows so it’s like a tomb when the door is closed. Plus it needs lighting, a screen door to keep the bugs and lizards out and it can only be opened when the weather is nice. When the sun hits the front of the house I have to close the door a bit because the sun is not kind to art materials. It’s open right now but it is chilly today so I am a little cold. I have long sleeves and jeans on, so whoever thinks it is always hot in Florida, that is incorrect thinking. It gets down in the 40’s some nights. Good thing I still have my parka.

I have plenty of “doodle” pages to share which, instead of posting them all at once, I’ll stagger them over a few posts.

In the meantime, Happy New Year and I wish you joy, happiness and lots of luck in the New Year.

Happy Halloween!🎃

| Gina Lento

Inktober ends today! And there was joy in Mudville.

Here is today’s Little Witch & friends plus all the ones from 10/22 to yesterday.

I followed the prompts this year and using them gave me ideas that I would not have thought of on my own. It gave me ideas for introducing new characters. I’ll have to use prompt generators more often.

This weekend I’ll be closing the studio to pack. John and I are moving to Florida. It’s a bittersweet move and one that was caused by a job reduction for John. It wasn’t planned but we sensed it was coming and prepared. We’ll miss some things here, but we are looking forward to new adventures. At least we had one more October here before we moved.

Enjoy!

Inktober Week 3 one page spread

| Gina Lento

Here is my daily one-box-per-day spread for Inktober Week 3.

This is a daily ritual I do anyway but this month I decided to take more time embellishing the borders. I usually spend Sunday evenings drawing the borders and I find it quite relaxing. This way the page is ready for the first entry on Sunday morning.