Art Day: Coloured Pencils, Palettes & Artistic Identity

Art Table - Jamie Ridler Studios

Every Sunday is Art Day at our house! This year we often spend it working on a lesson from Carla Sonheim & Lynn Whipple’s Year of the Spark. This week we dove into an exploration of our artistic self, including our favoured colour palettes.  It was fascinating to see the through-lines in everything from our favourite foods to our favourite shapes and colours.

Shannon at Art Day

It was especially nice for my sister Shannon and I to be able to talk through our answers and share our artistic selves. It was fun to see where we were the same (we both put a big table as key to our creative environments) and where we are different (I choose simple. Shannon chooses complex.) Not only did we get to know ourselves better but one another too!

Jamie's Palette

This is the palette I favoured this week.

Shannon's Palette

And here are Shannon’s.

Sizing Coloured Pencils

I also drew on Lynda Barry’s book Syllabus. One exercise she gives her students is to do a lot of colouring and then line their crayons up in a row and see which colours they favour. So fun! When I was figuring out what to call my set of much-used colours, Shannon noted they are “garden colours” and that works for me!

Studio Leaf

Speaking of the garden, I popped out to try and find a plant that Shannon really enjoyed the scent of when we painted with found items last year. This geranium leaf was a contender but not the right peppery one!

Art Day Markers

Art day is also giving me the opportunity to learn to use my DSLR! Hopefully we’ll keep seeing my photos get better and better!

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