Works
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.renonpaper.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Make-Memories.png?resize=640%2C637&ssl=1)
This piece started on paper and ended up digital. I started with the following pen and ink drawing on paper. As an experiment, I took a photo of the drawing with my cell phone. I imported the image into Procreate, on my iPad. Using my Apple pencil, I added some color to the image.
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.renonpaper.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/cottage-for-ren-website.png?resize=480%2C480&ssl=1)
I bought the iPad Pro several years ago, because the add said it was perfect for artists. I found out that Procreate is the number one art app.
With Procreate, I could take photos of art projects I’d done on paper (like the above drawing) and import them into Procreate. My first experiments were erasing the middle part and adding a different middle. I could draw with an Apple pencil and make anything I wanted. It was so much fun, I found myself giggling and bouncing up and down in my chair. The images of the little teardrop trailers were also painted on paper and imported. I drew the trees and the characters in the foreground digitally though. As a last second change, I wrote around the outside of the image. So its a combination of paper and digital. How fun is that!
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.renonpaper.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Make-Memories.png?resize=640%2C637&ssl=1)
The painting below is a watercolor and took me two years to complete. I was in my fifties when I did it. The reason it took me so long was because it was the largest painting I’ve done with watercolor. I don’t use black or white. The black you see is a combination of a blue and a brown. I didn’t mix the paint on my palette. Rather I mixed it on the paper, letting the two colors show rather than just being a black color. The white you see is the paper. I had to be very careful not to paint where it should be white.
Towards the end of the project, I would dip my brush into the paint, take a deep breath, and paint a couple of strokes. I was working on the details of the hands and face. I suppose I saved that for last, because it was, to me, the hardest part. After a couple of paint strokes, I would exhale in a explosion of breath and jump away from my drafting table. “Whoa!” I’d exclaim. “Whew, that was hard!” because I was afraid, after two years of work, I’d mess the thing up and it would break my heart to have to begin again. “But I’ll never finish if I don’t keep working,” I’d tell myself. So I’d try again, but again…”Whoa!” and I would stop for the day. And so it took me two full years. But it did get finished.
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.renonpaper.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/William-Gates.png?resize=484%2C720&ssl=1)
The title of this piece is “Mending the Sails”. The man in the painting is William Gates, captain of the Dove, a tall ship in Saint Mary’s City, Maryland.
When it was finished I carried it downstairs and leaned it against the wall. If, when I passed by it over the course of the day, my eye caught sight of it and it took my breath away, I would know it was good. I put it in the empty chair at the dining table. While eating, I would accidentally glance over and there it would be. “Whoa!” I would say to myself. “It’s VERY good!”
Why paint, if not for the money?
Back then, I thought the point of doing art was to earn money. Now? I think I’m more interested in telling the story. A couple of years ago I discovered art journaling. I make my journal entries on paper most of the time, but I also do some with a mix of paper and digital, as I explained earlier.
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.renonpaper.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/IMG_1947.png?resize=640%2C513&ssl=1)
The drawings aren’t masterpieces, but they tell the story better than a masterpiece. Even in their imperfect-ness, they declare their tale.
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.renonpaper.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/art-journal-table-dream.png?resize=640%2C502&ssl=1)
So. My works include art and once in a while, they include actual words.
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.renonpaper.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Art-Journal-Oct-5-2020.png?resize=576%2C432&ssl=1)
So what about you? What does creativity look like for you?