- Hi, this is Kath Macaulay with "Pocket Sketching."

We're gonna do something totally fun and different.

It's just for the fun of it.

It is decorative art, and anything goes.

For instance, I'm gonna use flowers.

You get to do that.

I'm gonna use the gunk out of the lid of my box.

Because you clean it up now and then.

And we're going to get results that you won't really, really believe.

It's decorative.

It's done just for fun.

And I want you to come along and enjoy.

It can be any kind of thing.

I just want you to relax, get in the mood, and come along with us.

So I can't wait to have you come join me.

(upbeat music) Today we're gonna do something that's decorative.

And sometimes I find that when people are looking at this subject matter, and I'm gonna use flowers 'cause they're colorful, they do two things, and I want you to try to avoid either one of them.

One of them is they go into the paper, and the image is right here in the middle, a little tiny.

And they have flowers in here, and it's tiny.

They pull in.

That's one.

The other one is they go to scientific illustration, which this is not.

So they'd look at this.

And, remember, I like to use a timer.

This is overwhelming if you're not into scientific illustration.

Because if you're doing scientific illustration, it has to be absolutely accurate, no mistakes.

And doing this one silly little flower is likely to take hours along with its stem and along with the way the leaves come off the stem, no.

This is decorative.

This is fun.

Relax.

Get back into your space.

Enjoy.

I'm using flowers because they're naturally decorative.

They're fun to work with.

And on top of that, apparently I've put other things in this pad.

You know what, there's nothing wrong with using the back of a page.

And that's exactly what I'm gonna do.

The paper I'm using won't bleed through.

So I'm not gonna worry about it at all.

Put your time on it.

So, and I'd use a timer on this.

So whenever I start, 20 minutes, put it on because this is not gonna take all day.

It's gonna be fun.

This is my kitchen timer.

I'm not gonna use it, because it has a very distracting noise.

It goes tick, tick, tick, tick, tick.

But let's say it's 11 o'clock.

Then I'm gonna put in 20.

At 11:20, I've got five minutes to finish, but I doubt that this is gonna take that long.

Because this is where you really slip into a fun phase.

Now I'm using flowers.

I'm gonna switch to the subject matter.

In the first place, make sure that what you're looking at is to your pleasure.

If you don't like your view, for goodness sakes, change it.

If you're working with somebody else, ask if you can change the view.

They will invariably say, "Oh, go ahead."

So you change it to what you like.

Now, that might not be what they like, but it's up to them to say something about it.

Take care of yourself.

So turn it until you find a good view of whatever you're looking at.

I don't like things that are straight on, and you're not gonna see my exact view, but you're gonna see my subject matter.

And then you pick where you're gonna start.

And I really haven't put my time on this yet.

And oh, another thing, if you're gonna use flowers, start with a daisy.

It is by far the easiest flower.

Do not start with a rose.

Don't start with a sweet pea and don't start with an iris.

They're all hard.

In fact, I find the lilies hard and that you have to be more into it.

You don't have to be into anything to do a daisy.

And, if you get it right, get one daisy right, the viewer thinks the whole thing is right.

And this is about decorative art.

So don't take yourself seriously.

This is to be fun.

So I am gonna start with a daisy, and I've got one now at an angle I like.

And because if the daisy's right, everything else is gonna be right no matter.

I spend more time on the daisy.

I want to get it.

I want to get it right.

It's also gonna show you, if you're using a water-soluble pen, it's going to show you one of your problems with the water-soluble pen.

And this one has very long petals.

So it's gonna take me a minute to get this.

And it doesn't matter.

And some of these are gonna be right next to each other.

Oh, I'm using a very light edge on the pen.

It even wobbles.

It doesn't matter.

It's decorative.

Everything is okay.

It doesn't matter how good, how bad, as long as it's decorative.

And it probably is gonna go with something in a room, and it should be fun.

It should be just enjoyable.

That's kind of a cool daisy.

Now, I want to know if it's going to work.

So get my stuff out.

And remember how to open if you're using this paint box.

You don't put it up here to open.

They all fall out.

And picking them up takes critical time.

I'll show you first what's gonna happen that you're not going to want to happen.

But you need to know about it.

If you're using a water-soluble pen, the minute you touch those lines, this is supposed to be a white daisy.

I'm gonna get a gray daisy.

In this case, it doesn't matter, because part of it's in the shade, but I wanted to make the point that when you touch those lines, they run.

So what do you do about it?

If you have an insanely perfect daisy, you just leave it and you build everything else.

This is not insanely perfect.

So every place where lines are going to touch each other, touch the lines, let them have time to stabilize.

When they have stabilized, they're dry, and they won't run again, and they won't be in your way.

So that takes care of the interior lines.

Then actually I like this ragged daisy.

Oh, big deal.

If you didn't like it, you change your focal point, put in another one.

And then you're gonna more or less cover this up with other flowers and other junk.

Now what do you do with the outside of each of those lines so it doesn't bleed?

You bring whatever the background color is right up to the line and take the line.

It's now merged here.

And when that's dry, this is gonna stay white.

It's gonna work perfectly.

I'll just do the other edge here.

And by the way, at this point, I could change the shape of it if I wanted to.

If I come all the way down there, some of this green will flow down there, but it'll be kind of interesting.

It's decorative.

Get over it.

Now, I think that one's gonna be fine.

So I've got these great colors to play with, great colors to play with.

There's one out there.

Okay, there's something here.

Do I care?

There's a bunch of these guys, a bunch.

Remember this is gonna go in a room somewhere.

And just for the heck of it, I want to be sure you know what I do with the vase.

So why not, oh, wait a minute, I haven't done this yet.

This is one of those places where you play with your toys.

You brought 'em.

You want to play with them.

That's wax.

Then I want to put a bottom on it.

There's the bottom.

There's the bottom.

There probably are some stems.

Stem, stem.

It's all about being decorative, but I want you to see what happens when you get to the vase, and you're supposed to make it regular, really.

Well, there's on side.

Let's, come on, put some strength in there.

Is the other side going to match perfectly?

No.

It's decorative.

There's the other side.

Good enough.

And that means I got room to stick something down here.

Why not?

Why not put something down there?

Why not?

And would there be things on the vase?

Would things have come down here?

Now, I can't see this.

I won't be able to see it.

I'm also gonna put a stem to it, and I don't want the stem to run.

Wax on top of it is going to hold it.

Now, what else?

Is there any other thing I want to play with?

Well, maybe the credit card may be scraping.

It's fun.

Okay.

There's enough stuff in here now.

Are there any darks?

Are there any darks?

Now, that one I know is wax, but why not dark right in here?

Why not?

Whoops.

I hit wax.

By the way, the pen will not write on wax.

It doesn't like it.

Good enough.

Put it away.

And remember you're relaxing.

You're taking it easy.

You have no idea what's coming up.

You've got a room in mind.

You've got colors in mind.

So if I have that color, the blue that's up in here I've got blue in my room.

Notice how carefully shaped these are.

Just notice.

If they're coming closer to me, they're going to be brighter, stronger color.

Yeah.

I got blue flowers.

I hate to tell you how fast.

(snickers) It's always a surprise to see how quickly these can get done.

Now, there's a pink one over there, and I'm gonna put some water in there just for the fun of it.

And then come up with this.

I'm gonna try to get a salmon pink, but maybe it won't work.

Maybe.

And maybe it will work.

What color is this gonna be?

Does it matter?

It's in there.

There's a flower.

How hard was that?

I want to make it stronger right there.

And incidentally, if this is a room with blue, I'm thinking of the room.

There's nothing wrong with doing decorative art.

The purist will say, "Oh, you've got to paint your way, and the audience has got to like it.

And you're successful when they buy it."

No, you may wait a lifetime for that.

Have fun instead.

And if it doesn't work, wait till you see how much time it takes.

Okay, I want to make my daisy show up, and it's going to be a blue room, blue, opposite color on the color wheel, orange, orange.

Remember, I've got a flower in there.

And here comes the base of it.

The base of that particular flower.

Remember I put ink in there?

There's that flower.

And then how about a green stem on this guy and a bottom?

There we go, and a green stem.

That'll do.

Don't get carried away.

And now I could tell you right now that I'm satisfied and could be done.

I'm satisfied.

This took only a few minutes.

Does it need more?

Because of the lines I've got down here, something has to be done, and it might be nice to splash that color just a trifle, just a trifle over there, just a trifle over here.

It's there.

And because of the line, and remember, I had the thought of putting wax in here?

And I want it to show up.

Okay, I'm gonna go for a darker color.

And you get the feeling that this is totally up to you, really.

I hope so.

That's a dark side.

Do I want that a dark side, this side?

I'm gonna make this the dark side.

One perfect brush stroke.

Don't go back and do it again.

Incidentally, if you're getting mud, you are probably going over a brushstroke again and again, mixing it to where it's dead.

That is a cool brushstroke.

What's left when I just, oh, there was wax down here.

Isn't that cool.

It's gonna accent it.

Now I've chosen the color for the vase.

I'm gonna water this down considerably.

Because there's also wax in here, I thought.

Didn't I put wax in?

Yeah.

So far I'm loving this.

I'm gonna bring a bit of this color up around that daisy just to accent it, just to accent it.

I want it bluer.

Remember, we're keying to blue.

So I want you to think that there's a background in here and that there are petals.

And maybe I won't like this, 'cause I love that.

I'm gonna go back and just accent just a bit because I like the whimsiness of the daisy.

And I love these little lines.

Darken this, although it's a beautiful passage.

Leave those lines.

Now come in with a final touch.

And we are at the final touch.

The final touch is the opposite color of the color you want.

It's a very perfect, good as you can get it, orange.

Not a yellow, not a red.

This is a pretty good orange.

And you might have just a bit of this in here.

Now, remember it says decorative?

Guess what?

I'm done.

And that took only minutes.

Now, if I blew it, I like this one.

If I had blown it, then I've got tons of time to do others, but I didn't blow it.

There it is in a mat.

And then I'm gonna change the mat colors because I want to have you see what it looks like if it's done seriously.

Relative, it looks good in that.

But I bet the last choice is the most fun of all.

I'm not putting the mats right on it because it's really very wet.

Put a decorative mat on it, stick it in a room.

And it took only minutes.

You saw how little that took, and I have tons of time and plenty of energy to do others.

And there's no reason to criticize it.

None.

It stands alone.

I'll try to get it out.

And because these are so fast, if it's decorative, anything goes, absolutely anything goes.

And they're fun, they're fast.

And if I were to just slight variation on the theme, why not?

Another quick daisy.

How fast, how fast can I get this done?

Oh, incidentally, one time, my brother, who is an art collector, visited me and didn't like anything I had that was finished and asked to go through the garbage.

And he picked out a just over, over, over done floral.

I mean, it was in the garbage for a good reason.

It was bad, and he picked it.

This time I'm gonna go with a different color for the fun of it.

He picked that piece, and said he wanted it.

And I said, well, go ahead.

It just is short of the garbage can, that's all.

So he took it.

Years later I was in his condo and used the bathroom.

And there was this incredible floral in a really elaborate, elaborate, elaborate frame.

It was beautiful.

And I went up and looked at it and saw the signature.

It was mine.

Put into an elaborate frame, the elaborate floral looked terrific.

Just plain fun.

Now, I don't want to use that same flower over there, but I like its immenseness.

Let's do something else with the background.

I don't usually use a square face, but I don't need to go with what I see.

And I made it like sort of a loop down.

I'm gonna put a leg on it.

There's a leg, just making this up.

Stick another leg here.

Bring the leg down further.

Redesign that space.

Come over here.

There would be another leg, but this is the light side.

Did you see how fast that got laid in?

When you get to this kind of stuff, why not?

Okay, then not even going to that.

I've already decided what I want to do here.

I want a dark side over here, and I want it to be kind of a seedy natural kind of color.

And I want to let the lines flow.

There's my dark side.

Hope I like it.

I want a little green in there.

Why not?

Like that texture.

Don't kill things that are nice.

Don't kill 'em.

Now, what about the other side?

What about the other side?

If I wanna use a red up there, I want an off-green, real off-green as a background.

And I want it to be light.

We're doing this differently.

This, by the way, is referred to, and I didn't even think of it till right now, negative painting.

You're painting the spaces between.

So some of this would probably be over here, and because that flowed so beautifully, let this one flow.

Don't have as much water in the brush.

Look at that flow.

Is it gonna work?

I have no idea.

Does it matter?

No.

Am I having fun?

Yes.

Junk out of the lid of the box.

Oh.

Now if I'm really hard put for time, hard put for time, I'm going to take junk out of the lid of the box and see if I can build something in no time whatsoever.

And did not play with wax, did not play.

Why not?

Because I didn't get to it.

Will now.

It's all about just being decorative.

Take the stuff out of the lid of the box.

Will it be interesting?

I have no idea But why not?

Why not find out?

Now, that one?

Is there any color in any of these flowers?

Frankly, I don't like that yucky green.

I want it to have more umph.

Now let's keep going.

This would be light over here.

A touch of red.

A touch of red.

Why not?

Ooh, like that color better.

Again, are we being decorative?

Will it work?

I don't know, but I better find out pretty soon.

This argent squiggle.

I'm taking this stuff out of the lid of the box.

I want it to be a little redder squiggle.

Squiggle.

Now let's see what this looks like.

Oh, center of the daisy real fast.

Done.

This is extremely loose.

Now try this one.

It's got a little bit of that red in it.

Would that work?

Yes.

Are you gonna take yourself seriously?

I hope not.

You're playing with decorative art.

You've got color.

You've got line.

You've got dark.

You've got light.

Lighten up and enjoy.

This thing is actually nice.

Put that on the wall and sign it.

And you saw it was done in seconds.

Really start to enjoy as much as you can of this.

This is way beyond trying to get reality.

This is just for fun, for color.

And to see what you can get in a very, very, very short time.

I knew a couple of women in Ruidoso who got together once a week.

This was basically to get away from the kids and the family.

And they had dinner together, a glass of wine, but they set up a still life first.

And they did it every week.

It was to gossip, but one of them makes about $40,000 a painting now in still lifes.

And the other's about $30,000.

They never planned to do that.

They were simply having fun gossiping.

So if you can do this with somebody else, it's even more fun than if you do it all by yourself, and you can teach your kids to do this and do it together with your kids, and even go on trips together.

There is so much fun in Pocket Sketching, way beyond being serious.

I can say now I like this, and I wouldn't change a thing on it.

I would simply sign it.

(laughs) Is it dry enough?

I mean, this is it.

This is all.

This is all it needs right there.

And your signature should also fit.

If this is damp, and my pen, so it's heavier than normal, your signature should fit the illustration.

So I'm delighted that you were able to come with me.

I think we had a lot of fun.

A lot of this was made out of the gunk in the lid of my box.

Just relax and enjoy.

And when you look at, you need time out, look at doing something decorative for fun, and space your brain out to where you're very, very relaxed.

I've loved that you came along with me today.

Thanks so much.

And I think you can have a lot of fun with this.

Happy sketching.

(upbeat music) Want to learn more about the wonderful world of Pocket Sketching?

Then visit my website at pocketsketching.com.

We have so much there for you to explore, including free tips and training videos, to Pocket Sketching supplies, photo galleries, and how to access additional training.

All this and more is available at pocketsketching.com Learn enough to play for a lifetime.

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