My art skills are rusty, so I loved how this workshop and the project gave me ample opportunity to experiment and refine. I also appreciated the freedom to try new things without worrying about the outcome.

After Dylan's Leveling up class, I had colors and lines (and using lines to make textures!) on my mind, so I decided to start with

1. COLORS THAT BUZZ

I started with three colors I like, the green, the blue-green, and the orangy-pink. The first color combo I came up with was this: which certainly buzzes... in a too bright for my eyes sort of way. Oops! Workshop project: Lines, Colors, Florals, & Avocados - image 1 - student project

So then I tried to use those same three colors to create a palette that I might want to actually use, and came up with this:

Workshop project: Lines, Colors, Florals, & Avocados - image 3 - student project

The next project, I chose was

2. 25 LINES

This was definitely harder than anticipated, but I enjoyed using some of my lines to try and make textures and patterns. I experimented with a few pens, too. In all honesty, I'm not thrilled with the outcome--I feel like I was forcing it instead of feeling a creative spark. I'm not sure how to shift that, but might try this exercise again sometime, or maybe just go for texture instead.

Workshop project: Lines, Colors, Florals, & Avocados - image 5 - student project

3. FAVORITE FLOWER WITH BOTH HANDS

I did this after doing some of the drawings for Peggy's Find Your Creative Style class.

Workshop project: Lines, Colors, Florals, & Avocados - image 6 - student project

I've always loved gardenias, but have never tried to draw one before--maybe because I've just never been that confident in my drawing ability. (Thank you SkillShare for helping with that!). What was so interesting to me about this exercise is that there are things about my left-handed drawing that I actually like better than my right-handed one, though overall, I prefer the right one. I think I'll try this exercise again in the future, to loosen up.

Workshop project: Lines, Colors, Florals, & Avocados - image 7 - student project

4. SUBTLE BOUQUET (?)

I moved on from sketching flowers to attempting to watercolor some... not as successfully as I wanted to. Oh well! This was supposed to be a subtle bouquet, reminiscent of washed out indigo ink. If I mess around with it digitally, I'm able to get more of the effect I was going for, but in person I don't care for it. You win some, you lose some ;) but at least I got more much-needed watercolor practice!

Workshop project: Lines, Colors, Florals, & Avocados - image 8 - student project

5. DRAW YOUR FAVORITE FRUIT 12 WAYS

My final project felt very much like a cumulative project. I took some of the ideas from the different classes like the vase project:

Workshop project: Lines, Colors, Florals, & Avocados - image 9 - student project

and various techniques I've seen other people do, and I played... I figure that since an avocado has the pit in it, it's considered fruit ;)

Here are all 12 versions, and then below I'll include close-ups of some.

Workshop project: Lines, Colors, Florals, & Avocados - image 10 - student project

L-R (Though this is not the order they were created in)

1. Colored pencils, made totally out of triangles. Take away: Pencils aren't my jam.

2. Quick sketch using Micron pen & colored pencil. Take away: Meh, also not me.

3. Watercolor & Masking fluid. Discussed below.

4. Torn paper. Take Away: I love the process and style, but would love to do this again using something other than the basic kids construction paper I have on hand. Imagine it with different textures and patterns!

5. Fabric & thread. Discussed below.

6. Micron Pen & Watercolor. Discussed below.

7. Watercolor. I was inspired to try using a different color by the first two required classes, actually. I wanted to see how switching the color would change the feel. Take away: I think it'd be super fun to do a full series of the same avocado image in different colors. Future project, perhaps...

8. Watercolor & Micron pen. Discussed below.

9. Watercolor only. I wanted to experiment with slight color variations and simple shapes. Take away: I was mostly able to make the color do what I wanted, but the piece feels unfinished. I'm not sure if I should add a whole avocado to the side behind it for contrast and balance, or if I should bring in some pen. Things to consider.

10. Micron pen. I wanted to make a simple repeating pattern using just the avocado and pit shapes. Take away: I like it, but think I will digitize it and experiment with colors.

11. Watercolor pens, paint brush, water. Discussed below.

12. Watercolor & Micron pens. I saw something Peggy posted on Instagram about letting colors bleed together and I kind of went overboard. I did the whole shape in a very light yellow-green and then dropped color all over and let them blend and bleed. Finally, I used Peggy's idea of doing many outlines. Take away: The outlines made it look MUCH better. Also, letting everything bleed together gave a much more realistic color. However, this is not me at all--I prefer much cleaner colors and lines.

I wanted to keep this one simple black and white, and just utilize lines, textures, and negative space. I really like the outcome. Workshop project: Lines, Colors, Florals, & Avocados - image 11 - student project

For this one, I got the idea from Peggy to play with the offset lines. I like how clean and simple this one is. Workshop project: Lines, Colors, Florals, & Avocados - image 12 - student project

Watercolor paper let me down on this! I used pens and then blended them, and for some reason, this resulted in the funky bleeding. I mean, I guess it is appropriate for lumpy avocado skin, but it's not what I was expecting!

Workshop project: Lines, Colors, Florals, & Avocados - image 13 - student project

With this one, I used masking fluid and then played with color. I wanted it to be a little abstract: bright and vibrant, with just part of the avocado. I love the end result!

Workshop project: Lines, Colors, Florals, & Avocados - image 14 - student project

For my final avocado, I wanted to try a very different medium--FABRIC! I'd seen some gorgeous fabric art recently and wanted to give it a go. I dug through my scraps and came up with these colors, and then had so much fun layering and stitching. I definitely want to do more fabric art.

Workshop project: Lines, Colors, Florals, & Avocados - image 15 - student project

Thank you so much, Dylan and Peggy, for offering this workshop and giving us all a chance to play and experiment. I needed the motivation and the prompts to get myself creating! it has further confirmed the sorts of colors and styles I gravitate towards. Now I just need to practice, practice, practice to develop my skills.

Sarah Jackson

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