ARTIST
Me in my happy place: My Art Studio!
Welcome to my ART Side of things!
Allow me to give you a bit of my artsy history of having FUN building a creative practice:
I’ve been an Artist from childhood.
Contour Drawing was a hobby for many years, from fashion to faces mostly.
I discovered watercolor painting in 2011 and created a body of work that pleases me.
I discovered art journaling at the same time. It has changed and morphed over the years, but right now, my main focus is working with gouache, inks, oil and water soluble pastel crayon. My favorite textures I work with are fabric, collage, embellishments and stamping.
I like to keep it simple and yet complex: a true paradox!
The easier the better, yet I love a challenge at the same time.
I like to PLAY and get in the zone. It makes me very happy.
Allow me to give you a bit of my artsy history of having FUN building a creative practice:
I’ve been an Artist from childhood.
Contour Drawing was a hobby for many years, from fashion to faces mostly.
I discovered watercolor painting in 2011 and created a body of work that pleases me.
I discovered art journaling at the same time. It has changed and morphed over the years, but right now, my main focus is working with gouache, inks, oil and water soluble pastel crayon. My favorite textures I work with are fabric, collage, embellishments and stamping.
I like to keep it simple and yet complex: a true paradox!
The easier the better, yet I love a challenge at the same time.
I like to PLAY and get in the zone. It makes me very happy.
Some of my favorite illustrating tools: Caran'Dache Supracolor II Soft water soluable pencils and NeoColor II pastels!
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And my Prismacolor Premiere pencils!
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Love me some art supplies, NeoColor 1's (added in 2024), Strathmore Mixed Media Art pad plus my current bullet journal.
My closeline of happy fabrics!
For as long as I can remember, I have always been fascinated with illustration.
I used to look for fashion examples in the newspaper when I was a kid.
Now, I love combining abstract word art and illustrating my daily wardrobe choice which I do daily in my sketchbook journal.
Back in 2019, I learned how to create a cartoon from the ground up. This was a deeply satisfying adventure for me. I incorporated that cartoon approach as an illustration of my experience daily, which included drawing what I wore from my wardrobe each day. So FUN!
I continue to enjoy illustrating my daily fashion choices and the main activities of my day.
I used to look for fashion examples in the newspaper when I was a kid.
Now, I love combining abstract word art and illustrating my daily wardrobe choice which I do daily in my sketchbook journal.
Back in 2019, I learned how to create a cartoon from the ground up. This was a deeply satisfying adventure for me. I incorporated that cartoon approach as an illustration of my experience daily, which included drawing what I wore from my wardrobe each day. So FUN!
I continue to enjoy illustrating my daily fashion choices and the main activities of my day.
This is my fun daily illustration practice of drawing items I wore from my wardrobe with as much detail as possible. Copyright 2025 Dawn Herring
Here is an example of the fashion focused pen sketching I came back to. This one is from 2023. Copyright 2025 Dawn Herring
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Here is an example of my abstract word art that I create in my evening journal entry. This one, WAVE, is to remember my 8 month old grandson waving back to me! Copyright 2025 Dawn Herring
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Once I learned how to draw myself in cartoon form, I decided to try my hand at combining fashion illustration and cartoon together in 2021. Then in 2022, I decided to get Back to the Basics with Black and White and started to do just pen sketching which has been fun, starting with shape and shadow rather than contour.
My main tools of my cartooning and illustrating trade started with watercolor markers and India ink pens, but in 2022 I decided to change things up and work with colored pencil and pastel crayons, both water-soluable and non water-soluable. And also back to just black pen sketching. In 2024 I added NeoColor 1 Pastel crayons to my art supplies and have enjoyed adding even more definitive detail to my illustrations. I love the solid coverage they provide. Also in 2024, I switched from drawing myself as a cartoon with my fashion illustration and decided to simply illustrate what I wear each day without a figure. This provides me with a way of incorporating much more detail.
One of things I love the most about my ART Life is being able to express myself in a myriad of ways. I just find it so satisfying since it gives me space to experiment and just have FUN. It really is all about PLAYFUL self care. What have you done today to PLAY today?
My main tools of my cartooning and illustrating trade started with watercolor markers and India ink pens, but in 2022 I decided to change things up and work with colored pencil and pastel crayons, both water-soluable and non water-soluable. And also back to just black pen sketching. In 2024 I added NeoColor 1 Pastel crayons to my art supplies and have enjoyed adding even more definitive detail to my illustrations. I love the solid coverage they provide. Also in 2024, I switched from drawing myself as a cartoon with my fashion illustration and decided to simply illustrate what I wear each day without a figure. This provides me with a way of incorporating much more detail.
One of things I love the most about my ART Life is being able to express myself in a myriad of ways. I just find it so satisfying since it gives me space to experiment and just have FUN. It really is all about PLAYFUL self care. What have you done today to PLAY today?