Challenge Yourself to Improve Your Skills

 

Blog 6

 

Hooray, I am almost at the half-year mark. At the time of this blog's publication, I will be in Vancouver, visiting my son and his fiancée. Therefore, I will post the artworks of the month and my images from Vancouver in an additional blog on July 10.


Let's start with the last four drawings from May. The comic characters are inspired by my three Cartooning and Comic courses at François Dupuis Recreation Centre in Orléans. During the four-week session, we developed characters from simple shapes, drew characters in movement, and explored a variety of facial expressions. 

 

Great Crested Flycatcher, Running Carrot and Apple, Pink Trillium, Blue-Purple Iris

For my June daily art project, I decided to dedicate three days each to one colour. I started with objects that were mostly white. 

 

Peony, Dove, Teddy Bear

I continued with predominantly yellow ones. I could have drawn flowers the whole time but wanted to change it up. Therefore, I drew a garden snail with a yellow shell I saw on a walk in Germany after some heavy rain. The teapot is from my yellow phase, when I loved surrounding myself with yellow objects. It is part of a tableware set. 

 

Peony, Garden Snail, Teapot, Comic

Inspired by the Saturday Cartooning and Comics courses, I created my own mini comic. Even if you don't speak German, you probably can understand the sequence. 

  
Here is the translation:
Image 1: Yummy!
Image 2: Oh no. My ice cream... 

 

Hibiscus, Dog Toy, Carrot

Looking for different objects to draw, I picked up our dog's favourite toy, a ball with round dentations and a hole for treats. A friend gave it to our previous dog. However, he didn't like it. We only found out when we adopted Shadow that you can fill it with food that will fall out when the dog rolls the ball around. No wonder Alex didn't care for the ball.
 

While I was already in the kitchen, I checked  the fridge and found carrots, Shadow's and my favourite lunchtime vegetable.

Before I started drawing red objects, I asked my Facebook followers for suggestions. They chose a gerbera, a peacock butterfly and an Adirondack chair. The gerbera and the butterfly were pleasant to capture. However, the Muskoka chair was very demanding, which I knew from the moment someone mentioned it. Nevertheless, I accepted the challenge. As I always struggle with perspective, I measured a lot, using a pencil. I was lucky that a felted cushion covered part of the seat. It made drawing the chair a bit easier. It is still a bit flawed, but it was the best I could achieve.

 

Red Gerbera, Peacock Butterfly, Muskoka Chair

 
Instead of continuing with purple, the next secondary colour on the colour wheel, I picked magenta. It is one of my favourite colours and impossible to mix. Therefore, I always pick up a tube of paint or, in this case, a magenta-coloured watercolour pencil. 

Pink Peony, Cosmos, Magenta Bear

I started with the blossoming peony from our yard. The following day, I was short on time and picked the simpler cosmos bloom.  The last subject of my art was a bear I created about ten years ago.

 

Continuing with purple, I painted an iris from our garden. Then, I drew lupins that always remind me of a spring trip to Prince Edward Island.  The delicious haskaps are from our garden. When I bought the two bushes a couple of years ago, I didn't even know that you could eat the delicious fruits.

 

Iris, Lupins, Haskaps

I will continue the colour series after my return from Vancouver, where I plan to capture sights of each day.

 

If my images give you ideas that you would like to transform into a needle-felted painting, I invite you to my upcoming two-part workshop, Bring Your Inspiration to Life in Wool.
 

Bring an image of your choice (a pet, flower, landscape, or any subject that inspires you) and I'll help you transform it into a needle-felted painting.

📅 August 10 & 17, 2026
🕕 6:00–9:00 PM (EDT)

👉 Register now!
🐦 Early Bird Price: $140 CAD ($150 CAD after July 1)

There Is Always Time for Art

 

Blog 4

 

I already wrote this blog before I left for Germany on April 11, 2026. Therefore, this blog is shorter than usual. 

First, I share the last four March images, which I created after publishing my March blog.

 

 

The first image was influenced by my final Cartooning and Comics class of the winter semester at François Dupuis Recreation Centre in Orleans. I created an image of Patrick from SpongeBob. I don't recall my kids watching the show. However, they often talked about the characters. Therefore, it is a bit like a trip to the past.

If your child loves to draw, the spring semester runs from May 23 to June 13, 2026. This four-week session is a great opportunity to explore drawing and storytelling while creating their own unique comic.

For the last three days of March, I picked a tea cup from a recent café outing with my daughter. The cup and saucer were challenging to draw due to the perspective and ornate decorations. I almost wanted to switch subjects after the second day, but I persevered.
 

Here are the images from April 1 to 10. I am proud that I continued drawing daily, despite the visit of a friend from Germany and our week-long stay at the cottage, which included our Easter celebration with my family. Luckily, my friend Bob, who has been creating daily art for years, advised me to create my art either before everyone else got up or after everyone else was in bed. I chose the second option because I prefer to work until late at night, when everything is quiet around me.


After a delicious waffle breakfast on April 1, I drew the dish that evening. It was a complicated composition with many fruits.

 

  

Inspired by the Easter holidays, I chose a bunny sculpture for my practice. During the five days, I drew the bunny from different views. I created the first two images in 45 minutes, but needed an additional 30 minutes for the last three drawings. The easiest was the back view. The bunny looking to the left side felt the most challenging, maybe because I am right-handed. 

When I researched my theory, however, I found that many right-handed artists feel that drawing subjects looking to the left is easier. 

Here are some reasons I found online: 

• Right-handed people move their hand more comfortably towards the left across the page, away from their body, allowing for smoother, more controlled strokes. 
• Drawing a face looking left means the dominant hand doesn’t cover what has already been drawn, making proportions and details more clearly visible.
• Many right-handers find that drawing curves feels more fluid towards the left. 

Do you have a preference? 

 

On April 7, we went to the Wilno Tavern in Wilno, Ontario. Not only was the food delicious, but I loved the fresh carnations on each table. While we waited for our food, I sketched one in the sketchbook I always carry in my purse.

After we returned to the cottage, I created a coloured carnation with my watercolour pencils and a water brush. It's much darker than the ones on our table, but I got my shadows too dark, so I had to adjust the light pink of the flower to keep the balance.

Thinking about the last three days before my trip to Germany, I wondered what I could draw, considering that I would not have much time. We travelled home from the cottage on Friday and left for Germany on Saturday. I decided to reverse the order of my previous three-day projects, starting with a one-hour drawing. As the subject, I picked a landscape from our week at the cottage.

 

 

I will post the drawings from my trip and the additional May ones in my blog on May 29, 2026. 

Have a wonderful May and enjoy nature's blooming miracles!

Finding The Best Creative Routine

 

February Blog


At the end of last month, I asked you how your creative year has been going so far. While many people have high expectations of themselves and often state New Year’s resolutions that are so ambitious that they discard them already after a couple of days or weeks, it takes repetition to create a new routine. I like drawing while listening to an audiobook or music as a break before my afternoon projects or in the evening when I have finished work and household tasks. Do you have a time when you feel most creative?


As expected, after returning to my post-vacation routine, I found it more challenging to create a new drawing or painting daily. While I created art every day for at least 30 minutes, sometimes the progress did not show, especially when on my needle felting projects. I usually didn’t count course preparations as part of my private creative time. However, when I especially enjoyed the characters, I drew them again in my sketchbook.


As I wanted to capture things I appreciated or saw daily, I was sometimes too ambitious in my drawing project to finish in a day. I still work on adjusting the complexity of my daily drawing to the time I have available during a specific day.


I have realized I pay more attention to little things I appreciate and capture on paper, especially on days when nothing special happened. It is easy to keep looking for the big, breathtaking scene while you miss the beautiful subjects for your art all around you.


Here is collages of my drawings:

 

I created most images with watercolour pencils or pencils on regular paper in a new blank notebook I bought in December because I loved the art on the cover. I have not posted any of the portraits I created during Zoom meetings because I didn’t have a chance to ask the people for permission to share the images.

I will publish my next blog on March 29, 2024.


In the meantime, check out the following events:

- March 4 to March 15, 2024: check out my Facebook page or Instagram page for March Break activities you can do with the whole family

- Felting Experience – Bunny Workshop, March 17, 2 PM to 5 PM, virtual or in-person

- March 23, 2024, at 3 PM: virtual Art Café. The meeting is complimentary. Please bring your beverage and some drawing materials of your choice, and let’s get to know each other. RSVP here.

Daily Art

 

Blog 10


I started my daily art with preparations for my two Cartooning and Comics courses at the François Dupuis Recreation Centre in Orleans, where I instruct two groups of children. At the end of this semester, they will create a comic with two characters they picked.

The younger group (5 to 7-year-olds) selected the Minecraft characters Ender Dragon and Wither Storm.

The older group (8 to 12-year-olds) chose Tanjiro Kamado from Demon Slayer and eyeballs.

I drew the first image of the comics, which forced me out of my comfort zone. All subjects are not anything I would choose. Everyone will start with the first image and then develop their own stories. I always enjoy the challenge and learn something from the kids while I teach them.

 

For my own projects, I picked various subjects and spent some minutes to about an hour creating the art. I used pencils, coloured pencils, watercolour pencils and watercolours.

I drew the rooster and the faucet for my German students to demonstrate how you can easily visualize new words to anchor them to your memory. Both words mean Hahn in German, which makes it important to figure out the context. After all, you don't want to get a rooster for bathroom. 😊

What have you learned this week?

Does Creativity Require Curiosity?

Blog 5


Last week, I wrote about Creativity (read blog here). Its close cousin is Curiosity.


Talking about curiosity, you might immediately think of the proverb, Curiosity Killed the Cat. It gives the word a negative meaning by warning of nosily poking into other people’s business, looking for weaknesses.


There is also a positive side to being curious. I associate it with a desire to discover and explore the world, to learn and grow by trying new things and asking questions.


We are born curious but sometimes, we push this curiosity aside when we grow up because we assume that asking questions makes us seem stupid. Or, we get so overwhelmed by the everyday routine that we do not make space for curiosity. However, questions and experimentation lead to new discoveries and developments.


If we lose our curiosity, we stagnate. The world around us keeps evolving, and we feel no longer connected to society due to our lack of understanding of new trends, developments and discoveries. We lose our sources of inspiration and become outdated because we stop learning about the world and ourselves.


Curiosity and creativity make our lives more exciting. Our curiousness can lead to new knowledge, experiences and adventures.


Creativity uses our memories and knowledge to transform them into something that creates an emotional reaction, a connection to others we touch with our works.


Did you know that there is a second part to the proverb? I only learned about it when I looked for a German proverb expressing the lesson. There is none, even though some book translations from English to German made it into some dictionaries.


The complete proverb is: Curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back. It suggests that looking for answers is sometimes frustrating until a discovery excites you to embrace the next steps.


My Cartooning and Comic courses for children at François Dupuis Recreation Complex have started. I am curious about the interests and requests of my students that I would never consider drawing on my own. With every course, I learn something new and widen my horizon.

This Week's Daily Art - watercolour painting from a Michael Solovyev demonstration

As creativity and curiosity can enhance each other, stay open to change. Try new things to stretch your limits, grow and keep life interesting.

Creativity Challenge

Blog 3

Looking back at the second half of January, I am happy with the time spent on creative projects. Due to a change in my teaching schedule, I dedicated more time to painting and felting. I created something on five days of the week spending between one hour and almost four hours on a certain artwork at one stretch.

During a weekend at the cottage, I created a drawing of snow-covered trees (see above). I also spent some time preparing drawings for my Cartooning and Comics classes, one of them was a drawing of the cute Sonic the Hedgehog.

Of Flowers and Butterflies, acrylic, 16" x 20"

I finally finished a painting that was a challenge for me. At last year's Navan Fine Arts Exhibition and Sale, we were asked to paint to the pianist's live music. It was a very different experience to let myself be inspired by music instead of painting something that was in front of me. Before the event, I was sure that I would create an abstract piece, but when the pianist started playing, nothing came to my mind. I was very aware of the visitors looking over my shoulder and felt panicked. Finally, I started painting flowers and butterflies, but I was very frustrated with my composition when my time was up. I could have considered the painting as a write-off, but I wanted to prove to myself that I could save it. I increased the size and texture of the flowers and added some additional butterflies. "Of Flowers and Butterflies" is not my style at all, but I am happy with the result.

Real or Not, mixed media, 16" x 20"

I also finished the playful 16” x 20” painting "Real or Not" from my outing to Du Moulin Park with friends last September. My mixed media piece contains real and painted leaves. It was a lot of fun to create this collage of leaves.

As for my latest felted artworks, the first one was inspired by my painting “Hidden in the Fog”, the second is a landscape with trees, this time during the colourful fall season. Both pieces are still unfinished.

While I will not continue with the Creativity Challenge in February, I hope that my new schedule will help me to create more art. Being absorbed in the world of art is a wonderful way to forget about stressors, to re-energize, and to have fun. I feel so much more balanced when I regularly take the time to create something. My next goal is to use new materials or techniques to playfully explore new possibilities. I will keep you posted.

If you are looking for ways to bring more creativity and fun into your life, please check out my winter and spring programmes at https://www.kerstinpeters.ca/product-category/registration/.

My June Art Projects

Blog 22, June 28, 2019

After a week at the cottage with two friends, I feel energized and refreshed. As the friends who stayed with me this time were not painters, I created only some watercolour and pencil sketches and focused on my felting projects instead.

I also created a paper mosaic greeting card of a sunflower for my August 4, 2019, Art Cafe. Please check the information on my website at https://www.kerstinpeters.ca/product/art-cafe-paper-mosaic.

For the final weeks of my "Cartooning & Comics" classes at François Dupuis Recreation Centre, I created Detective Pikachu and the first scene for another comic. The next courses will start in September. Aside from “Cartooning & Comics” courses, I will also offer a mixed media course for children.

Before my vacation week, I used my time at the Ottawa Little to create some sketches during the play of “Mending Fences”. As we had to switch days again, I was sitting in row G instead of row A, and I could hardly see my sketchbook. Therefore, I reworked the sketches of the characters a little bit at home.

During the Gauguin Portrait Exhibition at the National Gallery in Ottawa, visitors were encouraged to create their own self-portrait with oil pastels and coloured pencils. I was certainly up for the challenge and had a great time creating my little self-portrait that is featured at the top of this blog.

It took me much longer than I expected to finish my 11'' x 8.5" felted yellow and pink tulips artwork, and I picked up a larger felted piece of lilies again that I had started two years ago. They are not finished yet, but I made great progress.

I also created two felted balls with colours that I enjoyed. The make lovely decorations. I will create a corresponding workshop for the fall that will be perfect for all levels.

For the for my painting demonstration at the 10th Anniversary Block Party on June 14, 2019, at the Shenkman Arts Centre I had prepared the block-in of colours for a painting that is based on a photo from the trip from Toronto to Vancouver that my husband and I took in the spring of 1995. During the event, I managed to progress well with the painting, but it still needs some work. It was a lot of fun working alongside the other artists and interacting with the public. I am so glad that I was able to participate. Thank you to those of you who stopped for a chat.

I am looking forward to finally having some time to go plein air painting. As most of my painting buddies are retired, they are also very busy. It is getting hard to get together for painting outings. However, I am part of the Ottawa Plein Air Adventurers, and their first plein air outing is planned for July 4 to the lovely Mer Bleue Bog. I am looking forward to it and hope the weather will cooperate.

If you would like to bring some more art into your life, please check out my website www.KerstinPeters.ca for my summer workshops and new artwork.

Happy Canada Day to all my Canadian readers! Have a wonderful long weekend!

 

My May Projects

Blog 20

It is the end of the month again and therefore time for a look at my May projects. As I have had visitors from Germany, I was not as creative but spent lots of time being a visitor in the town that has been my home for the past 24 years. I Iove to rediscover the local sights. We went to the Tulip Festival, the fireworks at Dow’s Lake, downtown, Pink Lake at Gatineau Park, the Mer Bleue boardwalk, and the Humanics Institute Sculpture Park. I got so much inspiration and can hardly wait for my vacation at the end of the month to spend more time painting. 

As for my May projects, I created two scenes for the first comic of my Cartooning and Comics classes as well as drawings of a scorpion spider, Raven from “Teen Titans”, and Detective Pikachu. 
 

At the Navan Fine Art Exhibition and Sale, I created a painting to the music of pianist Bev McKiver. I was the second one scheduled and had assumed that I would paint an abstract piece. Instead, I felt inspired to paint flowers and butterflies. I found the experience quite unsettling. Usually, when I go into my studio, I know exactly what I want to paint. I might struggle with the composition or the process, but I know where I want to go. This time, I did not know what to expect. I did not know the music, or how I would react to it. I also was aware that people were watching me and talked to spectators during the process. The result is a flower painting that does not talk to me at all at this point. It will be interesting to see whether I can transform it.

 

During the Agatha Christie play “A Murder is Announced” at the Ottawa Little Theatre, I managed to create some sketches even though we were not sitting in our usual first row seats.

 

I finished the 16” x 20” acrylic painting “For the love of van Gogh’s Irises” from my “Celebrate Spring with Flowers” workshop. You can definitely see that van Gogh's painting "Irises" was an inspiration for the painting, but I also used my own photos from the lovely irises at the Ottawa ornamental gardens, as well as of the rather beautiful flowers of the dandelions in our neighbourhood.

For my June painting party, I created a 16” x 20” acrylic painting of the apple blossoms in our garden. If you would like to join me for the event, please go to https://www.kerstinpeters.ca/product/apple-blossom-painting-party/ for more information and to buy your ticket.
 

The felted 8.5” x 11” “Orange Lily” was inspired by my painting with the same title. I also started a new felted flower after I visited the Tulip Festival. This yellow and pink tulip reminded my friends and me of vanilla pudding with raspberry sauce. This artwork is only in its first stage. The nice thing about working with wool is that I can decide while I am felting how big the final piece will be. I will keep you posted on my progress.

How are you doing with your own projects? I would love to hear about your creative adventures. Does the season influence you in your choice of projects?

If you enjoy my blogs, please share them with family and friends. Thank you for helping me to reach a bigger audience.

My April Art Projects

Blog 17

I hope you had a lovely Easter weekend. For my family and I, it was very busy as we were cleaning out our vacation home that was mainly used by our visitors from Germany. Even though it was a small house, it was a lot of work. It is amazing how much stuff was accumulated over the years. On the other hand, we created many beautiful memories in this house. I also started a new contract as a German instructor and I am again teaching two Cartooning and Comics courses at François Dupuis Recreation Centre in Orleans. As April was also tax month, I did not have a lot of time for painting.

During the two “Felted Easter Egg” workshops, I had the pleasure of sharing the craft of felting with a group of people. Everyone left at least with one beautiful and unique Easter egg. I created four eggs.

I got my sketch out of my purse during a networking event, on the bus, and before the KISS concert, when I sketched the members of the group from a poster on a big screen. I sketched a lady on the bus on my way to the National Art Centre, and during the intermission of the Giselle ballet, I created a sketch a ballet dancer from memory.

"Bouquet of Joy", unfinished

I continued my work on the 20” x 16” acrylic painting of the tulip bouquet “Bouquet of Joy”.

For my Cartooning and Comics classes, I created drawings of a realistic and cartoon bunny, followed by a drawing of Bugs Bunny. Inspired by the children’s suggestion, I also attempted to create a cartoon version of myself. We also drew Batman from “The Lego Movie 2” and Toothless from the movie “How to Train a Dragon”.

still lots to colour

We were a small group for the very first Art Cafe, but we had a great time doodling flowers. If you would like to read more about the event, please go to my blog post “Making Art More Accessible”: https://kerstinpeterspaintingblog.blogspot.com/2019/04/making-art-more-accessible.html. If you would like to be part of the next Art Cafe, please join me on June 9, 2019.

unfinished

 

 During the Celebrating Spring with Flowers workshop, I demonstrated painting flowers after studying Vincent van Gogh’s painting “Irises”. During the demonstration, it is not my intention to concentrate on my painting. Therefore, I still need to finish the painting that is a mixture of van Gogh’s and the Irises that I photographed last spring at the Ornamental Gardens in Ottawa.

This weekend, April 27 and 28, 2019, I will be participating in the Navan Fine Arts Exhibition and Sale in the Navan Memorial Centre Arena, ​1295 Colonial Road, Navan. For more information about the show and the participating artists and artisans please go to www.navanarts.com. We would love to see you and talk to you about our art.