Sketchbook as Playground with Amarilys Henderson

[00:00:00] diane: Hey everybody. Welcome to another episode of Creatives Ignite. And today we are here with one of my favorite teachers. Um, she’s taught me a ton about watercolor, made it not so scary for me, but also she’s a great designer. She’s taught me a lot about service pattern design, and I love how she uses her sketchbook.

[00:00:23] So I’ve been following Amar Ellis Henderson. I looked up when Skillshare started, and it was back [00:00:30] in 2010. I don’t know if I had a subscription in 2010. Do you know what year you were on the first, do you remember? 

[00:00:36] Amarilys Henderson: I do. August of 2016. 

[00:00:39] diane: 20. Okay. So probably since about then I have been, I started consuming your stuff on Skillshare.

[00:00:47] You had a lot of energy and I loved your colorful watercolors, and you just made it so that it wasn’t so. There are a lot of teachers out there that with watercolor, I felt like, oh, I can’t do it. I’m [00:01:00] just gonna mess stuff up. And sometimes, you know, watercolor’s sort of easy to mess up. Um, and I was really frustrated with watercolors, but I love the way you teach, and this is one of the reasons that we’ve had you on lots of times.

[00:01:15] Um, we had you on last year and it was kind of like, where are they now? So I will link that, um, in the show notes, but in the other episodes I’ll link down. But this episode is really about how you use [00:01:30] sketchbooks. I’m in your group, so you have a group and you’ve taught me, um, about the pro method of, uh, I can’t remember what all the PRO stands for, but anyway, go ahead.

[00:01:43] Amarilys Henderson: No, that’s okay. But basically taking your art and putting it through Photoshop to polish it up, right? 

[00:01:50] diane: Yeah. And so that it could be on. Like prints over here, right? Maybe if I misspelled something, it’s not the end of the world, right? I can put it on [00:02:00] there in Photoshop or, um, maybe putting something like that on a sketchbook.

[00:02:04] Or you do a lot of surface pattern in textiles. So you have fabric companies that you work with a lot and. I always worry, oh, if I mess up, you know, I mean, some of it’s just Photoshop, but some of it is making it repeat patterns. And I just love the way you teach. But one of the things I love by being in your group, I get to, um, there’s this thing at the end of every month, the last Thursday of every month, if you [00:02:30] join, you can be in there too.

[00:02:31] It’s awesome. We get to, she goes over the camera, has the camera, and we all draw something. She has something for us to paint and, and draw and we get to see, and there are times when Amarillo, I’m like, I don’t know how she’s gonna save this one. And I love that because she never gets her panties in the, she’s never anxious like I would be and give up.

[00:02:54] And maybe it’s just that you’ve done it for so many years, but I love that you just keep going and [00:03:00] there is like, now I see, oh Diane, you just need to keep going. So Amarillo is, I probably didn’t do a great job of introducing you. But could you give every, it’s great 

[00:03:12] Amarilys Henderson: to be on here because you always take so much time to say nice things that I’m just sitting back and going, thanks Diane.

[00:03:20] That’s so nice. 

[00:03:22] diane: Well, there are times where I have been, um, when I’ve been frustrated as an artist, I just go back. You [00:03:30] have a whole bunch of videos with the community that I’m a part of, and the courses that I’ve taken that I just go and I have spent weeks with you without you even knowing. Right. I just draw and I do all these exercises and sometimes for me, that’s what I need to kind of come back to basics of being more exploratory or even just feeling like, um.

[00:03:53] Let’s just get back to basics. Let’s see how this brush works and let’s see how, what other things, how I can push it. And I [00:04:00] think you are such an explorer. You have a Skillshare class called Watercolor Playgrounds, which you’ve actually created a whole series line of, um, fabrics, I think that are your playgrounds, right?

[00:04:12] But we are gonna talk about today is your, uh, sketchbooks and how you play. ’cause some people use their sketchbooks just to take notes and scum. Some people use their sketchbooks, you know, just as idea. And then they’ll make, pull a real piece of paper, fancy arches, you [00:04:30] know, high hard watercolor paper, not hard, you know what I mean?

[00:04:34] Thicker watercolor paper. And it’ll have to be then to do the final piece. But you, you don’t do that. You use things that are in your sketchbook. So give them a little bit, a better intro than what I did. Who are you and where are you and what do you do? 

[00:04:48] Amarilys Henderson: Well, I don’t think I could, but, uh, you did. Ask me to bring out my sketchbooks and I, I got out a few as we were talking [00:05:00] before, it was like, I don’t even know what’s in ’em half the time when I open ’em up, but I’m willing to show you.

[00:05:06] So yes, I do use my sketchbooks for just about everything. Every morning I get up and I plot myself here in my pink robe. Sometimes you’ll see that bathrobe in my Instagram videos ’cause this is my life. And then I just go for it. Sometimes I work on something specific. Sometimes I’m doodling and then I put that sketchbook in my [00:05:30] purse.

[00:05:30] I take off for my day chase after my kids and do the things that I needed to do. Uh, of course I still have client work and I’ll do that on either within there or on some other paper that’s, you know, a little more profesh that scans easier on the flat scanner bed. But my process has been, I want to make, I must make creativity my priority because everything I [00:06:00] do comes out of that.

[00:06:01] What I so often see artists turn designers do, or you know, that’s an interchangeable term I think in, in this group, is that I’ll hear them say, it’s been such a long time since I’ve painted. It’s been such a long time since I did something that I just wanted to do. And I’m thinking, what are you doing?

[00:06:21] Like that is where everything comes out of. That’s what made you wanna get into this. And so the further you get away from your [00:06:30] creative practice, the closer you’re getting to some form of burnout or at least compromise in your spark, like what you bring to the table. So making that my priority and then also having projects that are more, you know, parameters are given.

[00:06:49] Cool, let’s go. I’ll do that. But I always have this stack. I feel like I, like I’m in one of those photos where you can like hold something or look like you hold [00:07:00] the moon. I always have a stack of, of work that I wanna be able to just pull out, and I will often then see it become a thing, which is just full circle.

[00:07:12] So exciting because without meaning to, I’ve created a body of work that’s actually useful. Uh, but I don’t start with that intention. 

[00:07:23] diane: You’re playing, you’re, you’re coming and you’re doing it as regular practice now. So [00:07:30] sometimes you are, you’ve. Done. You’ve authored a bunch of books, so sometimes there’s a specific thing that you’re working on, building a body of work around the faces or the animals or other things.

[00:07:43] But then there, and there’s things for clients, which I still think maybe the books are also sort of client as well. But, um, I, I don’t, I don’t know. So do you have different sketchbooks for different things? Do you keep different sketchbooks for different clients [00:08:00] or are you just using this sketchbook until you’re, you finished and keep moving on to the next one?

[00:08:07] You 

[00:08:08] Amarilys Henderson: know, since I can look back and look further and further and further back, and I’ve been one of those girls that always wanted to draw or liked drawing. I don’t think I have been very structured with this. Is this the catch book And this is that I. I’ve had my moments of trying it. And, and I’ll [00:08:30] tell you that most of the time I have three sketchbooks kind of in play.

[00:08:34] Mm-Hmm. And so it’s not, it could be that that one’s in my purse and right now I’m here and that’s just not gonna happen. Or it could also be that, um, I just like the different sizes of paper, you know, I need something bigger, whip out a different one. So even when I look at my sketchbooks, it’s like, well, let’s just from this range to that range, but it’s not entirely chronological.

[00:08:58] ’cause there might be one [00:09:00] working in tandem. Uh, the closest I got to being organized in my sketchbook and having those kinda categories was one that had, um, four signatures. So if you’re familiar with book binding, uh, usually a book has one bunch of pages and in the middle you can see how it was folded.

[00:09:22] And they are. Clapping on each other into eternity. Right. Or how many pages you have. Well, in this one [00:09:30] there were four of those. Mm-Hmm. And I thought, Ooh, this is so cool. ’cause then I can go to this page and do this kind of stuff, and I can go to the other section and do that. Kind of like a three subject or four subject, five subject kind of notebook.

[00:09:44] Mm-Hmm. Um, that didn’t stick either because of the whole, uh, page size and, and just, I don’t know. I, I wanna be able to jump around. But the, the point [00:10:00] isn’t to have a, a diary. It certainly has that sort of a, an end result a lot of the time. But it’s not chronicling what I’ve done. It’s me exploring, it’s me saying, you know what, what I’m creating right now, nobody has to see.

[00:10:20] I think a lot of the time when we start creating. We think of what other people will say when they see what we’re doing right now. [00:10:30] And when you’re creating, that is just not the time for an audience. Like, you don’t even like to do it in front of people, so why are you bringing them into your head? Right.

[00:10:38] I, I make sure that I tell myself like, nobody’s gonna see this. And guess what? You don’t have to show it. You only have to show what you wanna show. And I think that for whatever reason, we think that it’s dishonest to not show everything. You know, like, oh no, I don’t wanna be the highlight reel person.

[00:10:56] Well, you know, you can show your bad work and like [00:11:00] one Instagram reel on all the bad work and call it a day and you’ve done your part of being authentic. But I, I need to know that this is private. And then I can decide when it’s, once it’s done, if it’ll go in the portfolio or if it’ll just be another page that I slipped.

[00:11:20] So, uh, it’s. Really important that I come to it with that feeling of exploration where I’m trying to make [00:11:30] a letter with the square brush and using shapes like triangles and squares to make up the letter a rather than doing it in a more like hand lettering, calligraphy kind of style. So that’s where I get all my ideas out.

[00:11:47] I get a lot of feelings out too. So, uh, that’s another reason that I want to keep it private if I want to. Mm-Hmm. Yeah. And, and share when I’m ready. [00:12:00] I don’t think, I think there’s just no room for pressure in the art room. And you can give yourself pressure later. Like think when you start thinking like a designer, which is part of my process too.

[00:12:14] Then I’m starting to edit, then I’m starting to think more critically and I do need to put my artist, you know. I had a chair for a second. I’m like, okay, thank you for your time. I’m gonna take it from here. And, and, and you need to be able [00:12:30] to just, you know, literally cut and paste at that point. 

[00:12:34] diane: Well, and go ahead.

[00:12:36] Well, one thing I was gonna say, so in that shocked me, I think I, when I saw that you were, I think it was one of the times this summer, maybe in the spring when you were looking, um, we were looking at your sketchbook on one of those Thursday nights as part of the community, and you were just flipping through and there was just so much [00:13:00] good stuff, but it was so different.

[00:13:01] Some of it was very different than what I had seen you do. Or it was, it did have, like, wow, you were really exploring. But the other thing was, oh, this is a real piece that it’s somewhere else like. You, did you not remake this before you made that card or, oh no. I don’t have a patience for that, but I think that other people might not know that.

[00:13:24] Like, wow, you’re actually, even if there’s a mistake, [00:13:30] which I love that you do your type on another layer in an, you’re not gonna put your type straight on the, ’cause what if you misspelled something, you can draw it again, then the whole thing’s not ruined. Right? Yeah. But I love, I don’t know if you know what sketchbook I’m talking about, but like you are one of the only people I know that has so many spiral bound, like you are like, you should be on the cover of those spiral bounds because your artwork should, because you do use those a lot.

[00:13:59] And I think, [00:14:00] okay, well they lay flat and they um, I don’t even know how you’re going to, don’t worry, I’m not gonna go 

[00:14:08] Amarilys Henderson: through all of these, but you do use different sizes. Before you started talking, I was like, you know, maybe we just need to open some up. We won’t go with the small ones. The small ones are really like, those are just ideas.

[00:14:23] They’re like thumbnails, you know? Mm-Hmm. Um, I don’t that much anymore. 

[00:14:29] diane: Do you, do [00:14:30] you use those in pencil or would you take, would those be watercolor still? 

[00:14:35] Amarilys Henderson: Uh, when I do a thumbnail, I use a like thin sharpie, that type of a marker. Mm-Hmm. Just because if I use pencil, I will erase. Mm-Hmm. And, you know, I just want to work out the idea and it’s more so for composition that I’m doing it.

[00:14:54] Uh, especially if I’m thinking of doing like a greeting card where the text and the art need to kind of play [00:15:00] together a little bit. Keeping it small. I mean, that’s the whole point of doing a thumbnail sketch. You keep it small so you can do it fast and you’re not tinkering with anything. But I think I wanna, I wanna see about what year this was.

[00:15:18] So you’ve brought up watercolor playgrounds before, and just kind of a, a quick overview of What I mean by that is around, [00:15:30] I think it was 2017 or 2018, I grabbed a sketchbook and I had a preschooler. Uh, we were in the process of adopting our second kiddo. And so anyways, we were on the go and I found it not super convenient to have watercolors with me all the time.

[00:15:49] You won’t hear me say that again because I do, and I’m a big proponent of like, get a travel thing. Like if you, if you like to paint, just bring your paints, it’s [00:16:00] gonna be fun. Um, but what I was doing is I would prepare the page with a blob. A circle, which I think you’re familiar with too. Mm-Hmm. That way.

[00:16:11] I could take dry media with media, with me, markers, pencil, whatever, mostly markers and I could make something out of it later. And so that was start with a shape. And then that became a little more fluid than, than that where I [00:16:30] would create what I came to call watercolor playgrounds because they were just places for me to play with watercolor.

[00:16:38] It’s not that complicated, but I’d often have to stop and look at it and just kind of imagine what this could be. And often too, I would do client work and have one of these pieces on the side where while I’m waiting for something to dry, then I just like do whatever I wanted to do over here and come [00:17:00] back to business.

[00:17:01] Uh, over there. I’m gonna change my camera real quick here. Love it. We can see it. Uh, this sketchbook, I think it’s, this is when I discovered posca markers and was really trying to get the hang of them. Everyone made ’em look so cool and I wasn’t real sure that I loved them. Uh, you can see that I, I use my sketchbook a lot for taking notes.

[00:17:27] Uh, this paper is 60 to 70 pound, [00:17:30] but here’s some of the playground kind of idea. Honestly, I look at other people’s work that would do these non-objective or abstract kind of landscapes or chunks of pattern. I’ve always been into combining things and kind of the word eclectic. But, um, what I was trying to do was that like, how, how can I loosen up?

[00:17:55] And I just thought, well, I’m gonna have to start with a lot of blobs. [00:18:00] I feel like I need to pre look at some of these. But that’s part of the fun. I’m wrapping, but that’s what I, so 

[00:18:09] diane: I love that you’re taking notes, but then you’re putting, um, and I don’t know if you’re listening to things or if you’re listening to music or you’re watching a Ted talk or listening to a book.

[00:18:21] Mm-Hmm. But sometimes it does feel like you’re listening to something and like this one, I love this one. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen this one, but I [00:18:30] love like, the explor exploration of that tree on the other page. And then Mm-Hmm. You do layer a lot. And I think that sometimes, um, it can be hard and sometimes, like I can see some of those letters in that the, I know this is Jerry’s art Orama, ’cause it said reflections, um, uh, on this, that’s the type of sketchbook.

[00:18:50] ’cause I’m a sketchbook nerd, but I love how you layer. And to me that’s one of those things like, [00:19:00] oh, I’ve already ruined it. And if I was watching you, you’d be like. You would never say that we’re not done yet, right? We’re done. We’re not done yet. Done. 

[00:19:07] Amarilys Henderson: Yes. This is one of those pages I skipped over my kids doodles.

[00:19:12] ’cause you know, sometimes I just give it to them too, to keep ’em quiet. But yeah, this is, this is just me creating shapes and then figuring out what it’s gonna be. I didn’t know what it was gonna be when I started out, but I do know the principles of watercolor. You start right light [00:19:30] to dark, big shapes down to little shapes, and so that’s what I’m doing.

[00:19:35] I know that right now all I need to do is big, colorful blocks and not make them too dark because then I need to be able to work on top of them in order to layer. 

[00:19:44] diane: So are you listening to things when you’re doing these? 

[00:19:48] Amarilys Henderson: Uh, yes. Many of these are on the go while at church or, I don’t know, this was at a conference, but yeah.

[00:19:58] diane: I love that one too. [00:20:00] And, and so color palette wise, so that one, um, you know, some might be sometimes you’re using different color palettes that I don’t normally think of you using. Right. Sometimes it’s like, I mean, I don’t really see, you use a ton of black maybe, I guess. Mm-Hmm. And the one on the left, like the one on the right totally seems like Amarillo.

[00:20:22] Mm-Hmm. But then if there was something that, like, there was something on this piece, [00:20:30] this is what I love about you, you would be like, okay, I’m gonna take this one thing on the left and this thing on the right and the thing on the top right. Not I’m gonna use, I’m gonna scan that in and use those. Me. I’d be like, the whole thing’s ruined.

[00:20:41] I’m gonna have to just start over. But you would take a piece of this and put it in something else, or you might just, there’s only one little part that’s, that’s wrong or that you don’t like, then you would just fix it in Photoshop or something like that. Correct. Right. 

[00:20:57] Amarilys Henderson: Right. And what I find interesting about hearing [00:21:00] you talk about this is that, you know, these design programs, you know what’s possible.

[00:21:06] So yeah, if you don’t like one of these butterflies, we don’t have to use it. But the whole thing hasn’t gone to waste that, that purple spread that we were just looking at, not butterflies going on here. Uh, I, I did make patterns from both of these. And what I liked about using similar colors is this could be two patterns or I can [00:21:30] use both to make one more interesting one.

[00:21:34] And I remember I had to cut out this one, this part because this is like a butterfly that kind of becomes nothing, but it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense on its own, um, or hanging over in a pattern. So I cut that out and then, you know, well now we gotta make this black just a, a slick edge and make this round edge.

[00:21:55] Not have that turquoise, but that’s pretty much a deal [00:22:00] for that pattern. Uh, so it’s kind of a scrappy way of working, but it’s, it starts with just kind of your DNA, whatever it is that you’re already creating, rather than sitting and asking yourself, what kind of artwork do I wanna create and what kind of, what is it gonna be used for?

[00:22:19] And what kind of products do I wanna do? How do I like all these smart business practices? You know, that’s so great if that’s you. [00:22:30] But I think that if your priority is to get better at your craft, uh, which it is for me, then I’m willing to experiment and do things that man, maybe don’t go with me a hundred percent, but I’ll just keep working and sift out what isn’t working 

[00:22:50] diane: well.

[00:22:50] I think that that’s the. If you weren’t making, there’s no sifting, you have to use whatever you’ve made. But because you’re making regularly, you [00:23:00] can say, I like this. So one of the questions I’ve asked a lot of other people, um, during the segment of sketchbooks is, how often are you going through your sketchbooks, your old sketchbooks?

[00:23:12] Hmm. 

[00:23:14] Amarilys Henderson: How often am I going through them? Yeah. Like for if, if for the purpose of pulling out work that Mm-Hmm. Good. Mm-Hmm. Uh, pretty often because I lose track of what I’ve scanned and what I haven’t. So I have found that I, I’ve [00:23:30] gotta scan most of it and, uh, I’ll just have these scans as, you know, digital files and then I’ll sift through that.

[00:23:39] So maybe that’s what I need to, what I would sift through. Mm-Hmm. But like this 

[00:23:44] diane: page, I remember seeing this during that, uh, Thursday night thing and I was like, wow, this is very different. It was for you, but it’s awesome. Like it’s, for me, it’s really impressive or [00:24:00] encouraging, inspiring to know that you’re trying to do different things all the time too.

[00:24:06] And Yeah. And I, you know, there, there’s just lots of things that are different. You’re kind of inside of a color, you’re doing kind of a pattern, but to me it was like, wow, these are really playful and instead of thinking the whole thing’s messed up because you made the cat have six legs or something, you know?

[00:24:26] Mm-Hmm. Um, just when, but like, you [00:24:30] don’t ever do that. You are like, oh, I can always make him smaller. I can, you know, take a leg off or whatever, which, yeah, there’s hope. I think, 

[00:24:39] Amarilys Henderson: I don’t even know if this will go with the, my body of work, but I, the reason I did this spread is because. I love the artist Mary Blair, and she would typically do like kind of rooftops.

[00:24:57] She did Peter Pan. Um, she did [00:25:00] kind of these moody things and so I thought, I don’t really feel comfortable with that, but let’s think about it. These are just polygons, right? These little trapezoidal shapes and I don’t know, some sort of castle like stuff in the background. And I wanted to just get through the intimidation by putting washes down and then taking my black marker, which is very committal and having to go with it.

[00:25:27] So even if I thought that the cat’s head was [00:25:30] big or I didn’t really like that, I put text on it, oh well, like it’s there. We’re done. And that’s half the reason why I like to work with traditional media, because when I have that undo button, I just won’t get done. And so it also affects my problem solving.

[00:25:49] If I can just undo what I just did, then I can’t fix it. I can’t learn how to work with it, and I wanna learn how to [00:26:00] work with the work that’s already coming out of me. 

[00:26:03] diane: Yeah. Do you remember there, and I, this is where I spent a lot of time with you in a recording, and I can’t remember if this was in real, this was on a Thursday thing, or this was recording line, right?

[00:26:17] So there was a, um, it was like a house. It was like a scary house in the background. And then you made a river and you were like, I guess it was gonna be a road. And then you’re like, why did I make it blue? [00:26:30] Well, like a river. Do you remember, do you know what I’m talking about? 

[00:26:33] Amarilys Henderson: Uh, I can hear myself saying that.

[00:26:37] I can’t think of the piece right now. 

[00:26:39] diane: Okay. Well it doesn’t matter. Uh, but like, that wasn’t necessarily something I had seen you draw, but then I watched you. It come to life and it, I love these, those two mm two of my favorites. Love those. But again, your music, you know, if I should Go ahead. Keep 

[00:26:57] Amarilys Henderson: flipping, like, yeah, keep flipping.

[00:26:59] So why [00:27:00] do you think, while you’re talking, I don’t mean to interrupt you talking by flipping, 

[00:27:03] diane: please. So why, so this is different again for me as I’m looking at thinking about your stuff, this is mixed media. Um, do you wanna, like, one of the questions was how do you use, you know, in what ways do you use your sketchbooks?

[00:27:21] And then I didn’t ask about medium, but you don’t just use watercolor. 

[00:27:26] Amarilys Henderson: So you’re, you’re familiar with my, [00:27:30] how I usually work. So I feel like I need to show a little bit of that, like, you know, sounds good. You might see on, you know, my Christmas stuff, of course that it passed by the points as earlier, like not.

[00:27:45] Anything wild, right? I thought I was being so risque by doing paint. But, uh, with these, I just created blobs that then I would need to figure out how to make. I decided to do flowers in a couple [00:28:00] of different ways. This is a continuous line in a way, and this is a little more gestural, where I would pick up the marker and let the lines not necessarily connect.

[00:28:11] But this is an example of something in my sketchbook that might be a little more me. Mm-Hmm. Um, this is client artwork. Uh, or something that at least while I’m painting it, I’m thinking of it being marketable. [00:28:30] So you can see the difference of how I might work a little differently, you know, where I’m thinking.

[00:28:38] This is me exploring, this is me taking blobs and going with it, but I’m still using some colors that span throughout, like turquoise is still, is in all three of these. And then this is a little more like, let’s just be loose. And so I do have kind of this, I don’t know this, this [00:29:00] feel that I’m going for when I’m painting.

[00:29:02] And these are obviously a lot more tight, easy to scan, easy to cut out and and use as isolated elements and designs. So yeah, they are, they are different. And I think that there’s this fear apprehension that, oh no, I’m going to create artwork in different styles. And then mm-hmm, it’s gonna be a mess. Or it’s not marketable if I can’t describe it all in the same way.

[00:29:29] [00:29:30] But I mean, when it comes to words. Words are really limited in describing your style. We’re talking colorful, whimsical, and I mean, really that could be, that could be, like I was saying, Mary Blair, Beatrix Potter, like just very different, um, artists. But I like to bring in graphic elements and I’m not gonna know what these markers of my style are until I stretch it.

[00:29:57] Mm-Hmm. Right. Until I, I [00:30:00] try to still use bright colors with just an ink line and see where that takes me. And does that still feel like me? And if not, why not? I think it does, because I got these jots and dots that I tend to throw in on things 

[00:30:13] diane: you do. So if, so as you’re, you’re exploring, you finish this, then you come back to this page maybe Mm-Hmm.

[00:30:19] Would you say, Hey, I think I can make, um, a fabric design from this. Would you, like, how does something get [00:30:30] to being a product? Um, these are all exploring. You’re not starting with, I’m gonna make a flower pattern. Mm-Hmm. Product. 

[00:30:39] Amarilys Henderson: Well, we can look at some of my fabrics, uh, just to switch it up a little bit, because when I look at this, I, I think that this would be just fine with this, even though they have [00:31:00] different looks.

[00:31:00] This is, these are much tighter and this is a lot looser. But part of the strength is the color tie and understanding that when you do a collection, you, especially since I’m thinking of fabric, you’re gonna need some that are a little more boring. Mm-Hmm. Or monotone. And you’re gonna need some showstoppers.

[00:31:20] So I need both. Mm-Hmm. I need, you know, something that is kind of wild. I need something that is, um, [00:31:30] a little easier to manipulate digitally and just create what we call, you know, a coordinate repeat pattern. Like stripes are lovely, but you know what? Watercolor stripes are way better, a hundred percent better, and they’re pretty easy to create.

[00:31:47] And once you have that and you start creating like different color varieties of it, you’ve got, you got a lot of work on your hands. So, um, to show you what [00:32:00] some of these became, lemme see if I can find more of these. It’s always fun to compare the original art with, um, just what it became to me. Like. I don’t think I’ll ever not be fascinated by that.

[00:32:14] So these are some of the pieces. These are on, uh, loose papers because I knew I wanted to do some big, bold flowers. And if I do this in a sketchbook, I might stop at page one or two, but if I have a great big sheet of paper, I will keep [00:32:30] going. So, uh, that’s part of the reason why I took these out. And then this is a small cut of it, but this is the, uh, repeat fabric that fun.

[00:32:43] Um, that’s, and so, yeah, this has, this has both, this has some of that little bit of mm-hmm, whatever, this is like an ivy kind of leafy thing. But look here, it’s like a darker blue. I have full range of color, [00:33:00] you know, adjustment in Photoshop. I don’t need to worry that my watercolor bled and these colors are looking slightly different because my brush wasn’t clean and I can come back and fix that.

[00:33:11] The only thing that I need to worry about is during the art time. It needs to be fun. Creative and I need to be in flow. Like that is the top priority. The top priority is not design cohesion. That’ll come later. 

[00:33:25] diane: So one of the, 

[00:33:26] Amarilys Henderson: go ahead. Sorry. To prioritize those is really important I think. [00:33:30] 

[00:33:30] diane: Well, and the other thing in, just as somebody who’s in the beginning stages of service pattern for me, Mm-Hmm.

[00:33:37] Um, you are making these solid shapes. I didn’t have to, I’m like circling it on my screen. I know you can’t see it, but there’s like these little yellow flowers on the bottom left hand near your thing. But go over to, yep. Now go up. There’s a flower on top of that, that not the yellow one. Well, the yellow one is too, but that pink one is also on top.

[00:33:57] No, it’s that one where your finger was on my [00:34:00] now Yeah. The, anyway. This one? No, the one, uh, to the upper left, that little pink flower. That’s the big flower. Yeah. That one right there. Little. Yes ma’am. That one. It probably wasn’t, I can’t remember the original, but that one wasn’t maybe on top of it in the in, in the, um, the original, and this is what I love.

[00:34:24] This is what was hopeful to me is that you took, and I, now I see all [00:34:30] these layering, but you just did this in Photoshop, you started playing. So it’s kind of like, I use cut paper a lot. So it kind of works in the same way. You have these elements and now you can layer on top. My composition didn’t have to be what you had on the left.

[00:34:46] And so then there’s so much, um, flexibility I think, and you would never know it, like the way your patterns end up, they look like that’s how they were drawn originally. [00:35:00] 

[00:35:00] Amarilys Henderson: Well, thank you. But I mean, this is, as long as I have these as puzzle pieces, I can play with them over here. And it’s really important when it comes to pattern design.

[00:35:11] Because you might, uh, see the repetition too easily if you, you know, coordinate things in a certain way. But if you have the flexibility to just move this leaf over just a little bit, uh, then that will help your [00:35:30] design process. And just to make the repeat not look super predictable. 

[00:35:34] diane: Um, so one, go ahead.

[00:35:35] One other question. So to me, when you have these backgrounds, so yours are very layered, and I think that’s why your fabrics or your sketchbooks or whatever they have such a fun feel is that you are comfortable being bold with color. Mm-Hmm. Um, but you also have, like in the background of the top one, there is a tone on tone kind of blue.

[00:35:58] Mm-Hmm. But it doesn’t go across [00:36:00] the whole background. There’s some yellow background and green, and I, to me, again, this is permission that it doesn’t all have to be. Super tight. And, but I think that’s why you stand out as, uh, an artist who does it. I just, these are things that I love about what is in your sketchbook and how it ends up.

[00:36:23] It could be a completely different composition. 

[00:36:26] Amarilys Henderson: Yeah. So these little blue and [00:36:30] white flowers I can show you was in that sketchbook I was just showing you. And it’s this much more complex than what you see here. But, um, I found that, uh, these guys, I liked them, but they weren’t really going. And that’s something that at first blush, it looks like they would work just fine.

[00:36:53] But I realized, you know what? But I still, I can’t use them, but I still want [00:37:00] to still wanna use ’em, uh, but in a simpler way. And then I just made it one tone here. And was able to use it in the background. This pattern that’s, yeah. Not going across the whole thing. Could be its own fabric. Mm-Hmm. It could be a coordinate fabric of this shebang.

[00:37:16] Uh, and then I wanted to show you that this was a different colorway of the same design. So the, they look similar, [00:37:30] but are quite different. Uh, actually they’re not the same design. I think what I did Yes. That’s what I did. I used the same background. So look, they’re, I know. Yeah, there they are. Yeah. Uh, different way background again with different big flowers on top.

[00:37:49] diane: And so some was in your sketchbook, some was on pieces of paper. You’re combining them in Photoshop. You’re, yes. You don’t, you’re not coming to your sketchbook thinking, I have to have a [00:38:00] purpose. But one thing I hope everybody hears is she’s coming to her sketchbook on a regular basis. Are you touching your sketchbook every day?

[00:38:10] Just about like, how much time are you spending making, like do you have certain days where you paint more? 

[00:38:21] Amarilys Henderson: Oh, Thursdays tend to be a great day to paint longer. I think that there’s something about like having to be on your [00:38:30] computer so much Tuesday and Wednesday, ’cause everyone leads up to email that then, uh, you feel Friday coming and you just, you just wanna carve out some time to create.

[00:38:41] That’s at least my experience just about every week. Yeah. And um, I enjoy like showing the variety of designs within a single collection. And in these terms, we’re talking about a fabric [00:39:00] collection. The same goes for many others, but in the fabric collections I create, not every company is this way, but there’s 25 to 30 designs.

[00:39:09] Um, prints, 25 to 30 prints, maybe one design is used several times. So that’s why I stopped myself there. But you can see the difference in a little different in style. Like these flowers are different from those flowers, like they’re not, um, they’re distant relatives, but [00:39:30] they’re still family. So that’s one thing.

[00:39:32] And then also considering like the simplicity or complexity of the art itself, these are more complex. Obviously the simplest is the polka dots. And then the size, the scale of your art. So these flowers, when you’re asking how long I spend, uh, in my art practice, this, this art would be created over a couple of hours.

[00:39:59] Me really [00:40:00] jamming out, um, this 1 25 minutes, right? And so I’m just, ’cause I’m just, I didn’t paint all of these flowers. I painted like five of them, right? And, and then I repeated them. So this one, you know, this is the same, they’re half a dozen flowers I painted, but they’re overlaid on each other. Change up the color, really shake it up.

[00:40:27] So we have just this [00:40:30] multiplying of the artwork that you just created. And I think that part of what’s coming out is like my. Relentless desire to not waste my creative energy. And so I feel like, okay, fine. You know, I, I remember when I painted these and I created mockups and I pitched ’em to a company or two and it didn’t, it didn’t take, but you know what, it sat in my files and then when this opportunity came up, I thought, oh, I have some [00:41:00] art that might be able to go with this.

[00:41:03] And I had the design ready. Um, and apparently they really liked that one. ’cause we got a lot of different colors. 

[00:41:10] diane: They are, they’re awesome. Okay, so, so these are more patterns, but then you also in your sketchbook, like you’ll have, um, cards. I think you did some, yes. I can’t remember, was it Trader Joe’s or Hallmark or something?

[00:41:25] Amarilys Henderson: Uh, yeah. Or American creation. I don’t, they don’t have 

[00:41:27] diane: papyrus, 

[00:41:28] Amarilys Henderson: so bigger [00:41:30] 

[00:41:30] diane: clients, but those sometimes are a more composed. Piece less of like, here’s these random things that I’m putting together into the composition, because I’ve seen you do this in some of the Thursday things, or some of the videos that I’ve watched, is that you actually are, you are composing something.

[00:41:51] Maybe it wasn’t as like you had a tight little sketch that you were working from. Mm-Hmm. But how do you, how do you use your [00:42:00] sketchbook to do a composition? I’m 

[00:42:01] Amarilys Henderson: vacillating if I should go get the art or do you wanna see the beauty cards show? Yeah, show me the cards. 

[00:42:06] diane: I love She went there and if you follow her on Instagram, she went and bought all her of her cards, which I thought it was so funny.

[00:42:15] Amarilys Henderson: Uh, yeah. This is, this is fun. ’cause it was like. It’s a cut out. Yes. It come out this way. There we go. Uh, Papyrus does a really nice job of all the details. So there’s always an envelope liner and there’s art on the [00:42:30] inside, and these are things that, oh, it is be jeweled. So, uh, these are things that we as designers, like geek out on.

[00:42:36] There’s some, uh, foil accents too. 

[00:42:38] diane: Did you get to pick the foil where the foil accent was, or did they do that? And what about the Be juing? 

[00:42:45] Amarilys Henderson: Uh, I did none of that. Okay. Which I would’ve been happy to contribute to. Mm-Hmm. Because I’m like, oh, but I, I might have done the lines a little differently. Right. But nobody cares.

[00:42:56] I have to tell myself that all the time. Amaral is, nobody cares. [00:43:00] It’s great. It’s done. It’s lovely. It’s lovely. The designer did a great job. I need to shut up. So, uh, these, these are, I mean, these are client work, so, um, while I will say though. They find me because of the art that I create for fun. Hmm. So this, this sunshine, uh, I could run and get it, but I, I painted it myself.

[00:43:29] Of [00:43:30] course I painted it myself, but I painted it for myself and they saw it and it was a completely different design, but they had an idea. Mm-Hmm. They saw what I did. The art directors, there’s so many of them there. Uh, then they come up with some ideas that then they pitch their superiors, and then those art directors say, let’s go with that one, that one, that one.

[00:43:54] See if we can get the artist to make the art and the text that you want. [00:44:00] Uh, and so another, because that’s your handwriting, isn’t it? It’s, um, so they, they told me the text they wanted, I did this writing in on the iPad in pro grade. Mm-Hmm. 

[00:44:14] diane: These are so cool. Those flowers, how 3D they are, they’re just gorgeous.

[00:44:20] Amarilys Henderson: They’re, they’re on puffy, puffy stickers, so you know, they’re really in and out. Uh, but what I was saying about [00:44:30] having that artwork, even though it wasn’t exactly the artwork that they chose, having it out there, like creating the artwork that you want to do in the future is so important. If you’re always thinking about creating art and designs that you think they want, you will always be doing the art and designs that other people may want.

[00:44:49] ’cause honestly, how do you know? So I find it so much better to create the kind of work that I want to get later on. 

[00:44:58] diane: And I know that at some [00:45:00] work, ’cause you, you started your website is watercolored vivo ’cause you were doing watercolor as you were doing your devotional. Yeah. So you are a Christian and you do a lot of faith-based, your art has a lot of faith-based stuff.

[00:45:13] And then that’s how some people have been able to find you, some companies that also align with you in that they’ve, um, they, again, it’s about what you’re liking to do if you’d like to hike a lot and then you have a lot of hiking pictures. The more you share, the [00:45:30] more people will find you that are wanting the hiking stuff for whatever.

[00:45:34] Yeah. 

[00:45:34] Amarilys Henderson: Right. So you put out there the kind of art that you want to have done, like, that you wanna create in the future. I, I remember painting this for a Chinese New Year day at our, um, kitchen table. And I remember thinking, I don’t know if anybody’s ever gonna want this, but I. About a year later, I got tired of pitching it and not seeing it go anywhere.

[00:45:58] So I created my [00:46:00] own, um, little note cards that I sold, but years later, uh, it was picked up by Papyrus. And what I wanted to show you is you were looking at the Bejo stuff, but this one’s got a spring on it. 

[00:46:13] diane: Whoa. Oh, I see. That is fancy. 

[00:46:19] Amarilys Henderson: And of course these, these little puffy pompoms. Pompoms. There you go.

[00:46:23] Yeah. Pompoms. And our director kind of said a similar thing where she’s like, I’m not sure where I’ll place [00:46:30] this one, but I’m gonna figure it out. And she did. So, so 

[00:46:34] diane: that’s good to know that sometimes you had, uh, an idea it, you shouldn’t just throw it away. ’cause nobody bit, sometimes you just have to wait for the another time and just, it’s a long 

[00:46:48] Amarilys Henderson: game.

[00:46:48] For 

[00:46:48] diane: sure. Yeah. We’re having a bunch of construction. I don’t know if you can hear that thing beating down. It’s like, I can’t, I 

[00:46:55] Amarilys Henderson: turned on my face cam. Oh, I see. Okay. 

[00:46:59] diane: [00:47:00] Because what? Clear. Oh, okay. So let me ask you a couple questions then, while you’re getting out new things or putting the, the, um, cards back in your little things, which I think the cards are really fun.

[00:47:13] Um, oh, it was about composition. So like I think about that piece that, uh, that I bought. Oh, there, that one, this little Amarillo piece that’s right here. It may have been a amalgamation of bunch of things from your sketchbook, [00:47:30] but do you, I don’t even know if you remember what it is, but it’s like a succulent I think, and it says something about Jesus or God or something.

[00:47:39] So I have it out there and, but like compositionally, I have seen you work compositionally instead of just. Like your sketchbook. Guess we’ve seen where there’s some like just, uh, flowers that are not touching other flowers. We’ve also seen flowers touching other flowers, [00:48:00] but sometimes I think you come at it as a composition.

[00:48:03] Um, when do you, when do you do that? Is it always, I don’t think it’s always for a client thing. So when, what is just a different day you start? 

[00:48:15] Amarilys Henderson: That’s a fair question. Is it just a different day? And that might be the answer. Uh, it’s also that I am, I’m a designer and I do think that way. And so I can paint like [00:48:30] crazy, but I wanna see some order.

[00:48:32] And so either the order’s gonna come later in Photoshop editing, or I need to challenge myself to make sure that I’m not losing it. Uh, in terms of design composition. Like I was saying before, with certain products, it matters a lot more than with others. So let’s say, uh, something that’s a surface surface design, you know, like a, a container, [00:49:00] it’s the composition needs to be very horizontal to go to wrap around a mug or a jar in this case.

[00:49:09] But really beyond that, it’s, it’s just there to look pretty and be easy on the eyes. But when I’m doing a greeting card, a poster, or sometimes a journal cover, if it’s not a pattern, you know, at certain times it matters. Like the, that print, it does, it does matter. You wanna have the text, uh, [00:49:30] be legible and work around the succulent, but then not look like they’re like trying to not touch each other.

[00:49:35] Mm-Hmm. Um, so it really depends on. Today, but more importantly, what it boils down to is what’s more important, the art or the message on this one. And so that hierarchy in, in how you approach what you’re creating, kinda, it kind of works its way through, right? Because you, you want [00:50:00] something to come out of this and is it what you’re gonna say on it?

[00:50:04] Or is it going to be the art? 

[00:50:07] diane: So you’re making work every day. Um, you’re making work that you love every day. And definitely things that are, you’re making things that are for clients that they’ve come back to you and you have to adjust. And thank goodness for Photoshop. ’cause we can make things. But could you show us anything that, I don’t know if you have anything that you’ve done on a Thursday that I’m like, [00:50:30] Ooh, I don’t know, Amarillo, how are you gonna save this one?

[00:50:32] Have you, do you. Because I think that it’s just a point that you’ve done so much watercolor or so much art that you’re like, I can save anything. You know, I feel like sometimes that’s like, uh, there are some seamstresses that are like, oh, that’s not totally lost. We can save it here. We just, instead of it being a dress, it’s now gonna be a shirt or it’s gonna be a, a hanky or something, you know?

[00:50:57] And I feel like you have that [00:51:00] ability, and I wish you could, I could download some of that into me, but that is one of those things that I just need to keep going. But it’s knowing that. 

[00:51:12] Amarilys Henderson: Yeah. Um, are you asking for me to show something that looked terrible in real life and ended up looking good? No. No.

[00:51:20] That that 

[00:51:21] diane: was, no, it ends up in your sketchbook looking great, but Oh, okay. Because you kept [00:51:30] going. It could be everything. Maybe. Um. Sometimes there’s places where you, not just you, but like we get to, we start, maybe it’s an in-between like, I need to finish this one, this one’s not done, and this one’s pretty yucky.

[00:51:48] Or, um, you know, but if I keep going, I mean, I just think about some of those flowers that you did a couple, I don’t know when, maybe it was around in April and [00:52:00] I really was like, I do not know how you’re gonna save this one. But you did and it looked amazing. I, this is from one of the videos that I spent a week with you on that one, something I, something like that where you’re just making these weird shapes and you’re, um, but it’s, it’s that you’re working on top of it after and you’re, you know, like, Mm-Hmm.

[00:52:21] I think we give up. I give up too easy. And I think our sketchbook is a place, a great place to maybe overwork. Do you ever overwork [00:52:30] anything? 

[00:52:31] Amarilys Henderson: I’m sure I do. I just, I have a very loose, uh, understanding of what overworking means. I think, um, you know, the, the disadvantage of looking at even the sketchbook pages is you don’t see the progression, right?

[00:52:49] I can’t like, peel off the layers and make you see what it looked like at one point. ’cause there will always be a point where it’s just like, what is happening? [00:53:00] And something that I realized is that, you know, I actually, I do this with a lot of things. I ask myself, what’s the worst case scenario? Mm. You know, worst case scenario, this sucks.

[00:53:12] Like, worst case scenario, I make a bad painting. And I think that what, you know, whatever I wanna call that. But I think that isn’t that kind of just such a little schoolgirl kind of complaint? Yeah. I messed it up. And that’s what we’re so afraid of. Like that is not. [00:53:30] That’s not that big a deal. I suppose what we’re really hoping won’t happen is we won’t get really discouraged and then, um, be disillusioned from creating.

[00:53:41] diane: Well, I think sometimes we need to push it. We need to see how far we need to push because then we know where that line is. And if you never try, then you’re never getting, like I have seen you come up with the most beautiful things that I could not have imagined. I, if it [00:54:00] was my work, I would’ve stopped and I would’ve said, oh, well, it’s just one sheet of paper.

[00:54:05] But because you had a vision or because you’ve played and you’ve pushed 

[00:54:10] Amarilys Henderson: Mm-Hmm. 

[00:54:10] diane: That’s what you teach me the most is that I just, who cares? It’s just a piece of paper if I mess up. But you’ll never know what it’ll look like if you don’t put these extra dots. Or what would it be like if I tried this thing?

[00:54:23] And I think that, that to me is such a. Um, what a great thing you’ve been able [00:54:30] to teach me at least. And it’s that it feels like freedom. It feels like, um, it, it’s, but I would never know, and I’m holding myself back from flying because I’m so afraid to spread my wings. 

[00:54:47] Amarilys Henderson: Well, thank you. And I’ve seen you spread your wings, right?

[00:54:50] I’ve, I’ve actually seen you, uh, go from, I don’t know. I don’t know if I’m a, I don’t know if I’m an artist. I feel like you started painting and [00:55:00] you, you were starting painting for years. Like, I’m very new to this, you know, I’m, I’m just, just getting my feet wet. I’m just getting used to it now. And, and then I think at one point you just kind of, throwing in the towel isn’t the right metaphor.

[00:55:17] It’s just throwing caution to the wind where you were like, I’m just gonna make myself do this. The end. That’s where that magic happened. But I think that as a [00:55:30] teacher, in any capacity, the the best thing that you can impart to anyone is beliefs. And if you can believe that this will go somewhere, then that’ll keep you, it’ll keep you doing it.

[00:55:47] It’ll keep you doing it until it does. And I, that’s what I try to do, especially when I’m live and I’m not crazy about what’s happening here. You know, 30 minutes in is [00:56:00] we’re just gonna keep going, see where it leads, because I believe that it can turn a corner. And when you see that happen consistently enough with me, then with yourself, hopefully then you really start to understand, like, or have that faith.

[00:56:19] To attack the page quicker instead of like having or hollering about, I don’t know if I have enough, I dunno if I have the right colors. Nah. And it’ll also just propel you to [00:56:30] finish, uh, whatever that might look like. That’s another common question. How do you know when you’re done? Mm-Hmm. And if you’re not comfortable, you’re not done.

[00:56:41] Like there is, there is a point for sure where you can say, I’ve done as much as I can. We’re gonna walk away now. And I, I like to say that most often, you’ll come back to tomorrow when you [00:57:00] will realize it’s not awful. You just felt awful after working on it for so long and not getting whatever result you expected.

[00:57:07] But then when you come back to it with fresh eyes, you might know what else to do with it, or you might actually be content with it. But that. That belief is also what makes me come back to painting every day or some sort of creative thing almost every day. I can’t say absolutely every day. Um, I do wanna be [00:57:30] careful to say that and not set like, no, no ridiculous expectations.

[00:57:34] diane: But it’s not like it’s once a month. It’s not like it’s just on Saturdays every second Saturday. It’s that you’ve made time. And even when you had little, little kids, you made time to make, even if it was just blobs and then drawing on top. 

[00:57:52] Amarilys Henderson: Yeah. Yeah. Because you also get hooked on that feeling that you get of, not only did I create something [00:58:00] good, like I know how to fix it.

[00:58:02] I know what to do next time, or now I wanna do this other thing next time because I didn’t get to do it this time. I, I have a, a piece here that, um. Started out it’s, it was a little bit of an exercise before. One of the lessons that I teach in Watercolor Bold, and it was with taking a metallic marker, [00:58:30] alcohol based and drawing, and then filling in with watercolor.

[00:58:34] So the alcohol kind of finish, repels the watercolor. It keeps your lines nice and crisp and it’s kind of an art novo look. That’s what we’re talking about. But this was basically about my morning time, and it was supposed to say before the rush, the quiet, and I did not write quiet correctly. Well, everything is touching everything, [00:59:00] so, you know, you can definitely, even after the drawing, obviously I still painted, so I didn’t give up on it.

[00:59:07] Uh, I, I realized this might not be going anywhere, but I can paint everything else. And I took out a little piece of paper and I cut it out and just tried to match it up and then redrew it. It was like old school. I love that. Before Photoshop days, right? Clip art, literal clip art [00:59:30] going on here. And I drew on top of it so that, yes, then I could fix it digitally.

[00:59:38] Uh, and it, it doesn’t even fit in the sketchbook anymore. ’cause that key really, but that’s, I don’t know, that’s my stubborn, relentless, uh, belief. And also, eh, I don’t wanna draw this whole thing over again, right? What can I do? [01:00:00] What can I do? So I’m doing the same thing with a loaf of sour dough bread that I have downstairs.

[01:00:06] And I’m thinking, what can I make of, okay, we’re gonna make bread pudding, uh, because it, I don’t want it to go bad. Right. You don’t wanna 

[01:00:14] diane: be wasteful. 

[01:00:15] Amarilys Henderson: Right. 

[01:00:16] diane: So I don’t really like pears or I’ve never really been a pear kid. Mm-Hmm. Um, but we had a pear tree that had hundreds of pears this year. So I was like, okay, well I guess I’m making pear sauce.

[01:00:27] That’s what I ate for lunch. Pear sauce. It’s pretty [01:00:30] good. Oh, I’ve never heard of pear sauce. Well, it’s like applesauce, but pears. Oh yeah. Cool. Yeah, I get that. Yeah. So, one other question. I know we’re at the end of our things here. So, um, how many, this will be like lightning round, how many scenes as you keep?

[01:00:51] Um, let me get ready. Okay. I love that little guy, those little cardinals. Um, how many. [01:01:00] Um, there, I’m sorry. How many scenes or patterns or compositions go directly to digital to adjust? Um, meaning, um, maybe it’s like those cardinals. Would you ever say, okay, I need another one or I need another three, or should, would you just take those three and adjust those three?

[01:01:21] Or things like the flower. I love the example of that blue and white where you were like, it’s not working, I’m gonna just fill it all in. But then you [01:01:30] ended up using it for something else. 

[01:01:32] Amarilys Henderson: You’re making me look through my sketchbooks here. ’cause I, like I said, they all look the same. No, least like, it could fall into three different categories.

[01:01:43] Uh, but, 

[01:01:44] diane: and you use big brushes when you paint. This is why you have such small sketchbooks, but you always, she’s always in the, uh, on the community nights. She, or even when she just teaches, she’s. It’s out in this big old brush, [01:02:00] and I’m thinking she would be needing a smaller brush, which I also think yes, is bold.

[01:02:06] But again, watercolor bold. My one inch 

[01:02:08] Amarilys Henderson: flat. 

[01:02:10] diane: Yeah. There’s a lot you can do with bigger brushes. 

[01:02:14] Amarilys Henderson: That’s the reason is because I gotta finish like we gotta, we gotta cover some ground here, so we’re gonna go big. I’m gonna flip my camera again. So you were asking, uh, what, [01:02:30] uh, I, I felt like a big question and then I started looking for past pieces because I felt like I, I think I know what you mean, but, well, I 

[01:02:40] diane: see, I’ll let you.

[01:02:41] How, how many scenes or patterns or compositions, how many things go straight from your sketchbook to, uh, digital to adjust? Or are you ever taking them to another piece of paper? Or I think Mo most of your things go [01:03:00] straight. Like you don’t repaint something like maybe quietly 

[01:03:06] Amarilys Henderson: uhhuh. Yeah. Not often. Not often.

[01:03:09] I don’t often repaint. Um, I will repaint if something is not available anymore. If something is licensed and someone is interested in, Hey, you did this thing, you gotta do more like it. And I’m like, yes, I do. I will. And I, 

[01:03:28] diane: I will [01:03:30] tomorrow. 

[01:03:30] Amarilys Henderson: Yeah, I agree. We create more of that. Let’s go. 

[01:03:33] diane: So you create a lot of prompts for us in the watercolor bold community.

[01:03:37] Mm-Hmm. But I think you would create prompts for yourself, um, just as being an artist and, and again, doing things that you want to be doing. Um, why does creating prompts and challenges help you in your creation of, of, or. Out us. Why does creating prompts and challenges help you in your creation of work? I don’t know why I had.

[01:03:59] Oh, I [01:04:00] love that. That’s so cute. 

[01:04:02] Amarilys Henderson: Um, I’m sorry. I wanna go back to your past question please. Because this isam is missing. Uh, there, we had a cat that went missing. This is, this was done, I don’t know, 2019 or so and recently, and it did become a, a fabric design for, uh, paintbrush Studios. But now I’m with Moda and they wanted something similar.

[01:04:29] And so I [01:04:30] had some cardinals as well. I can’t find those. But then I painted these and it’s fun to see actually how I’ve grown. But that’s what, that was my, that’s why I answered the way I did with, I don’t repaint unless I feel like, you know, I absolutely need to. This is upside down to refill. You know, a need for a collection.

[01:04:54] Mm-Hmm. But I can segue into your collection question or [01:05:00] the, the elements. I, I’m a big fan of just doing whatever you want, and then I just periodically go, nah, I gotta challenge that. I’ve got to push myself. Right. So that’s, I think what being creative means. It means really honing in on who you are, what you do, and then also challenging yourself to experiment [01:05:30] with things that you don’t feel comfortable with because you’re exploring and you’re trying to get better in different ways.

[01:05:39] Um, and so I do both, right? So I’ll paint things that, oh, I always paint, obviously. I think you’ll see a lot of flowers and, and. Lettering just because flowers can be any color and you can basically do anything, have fun with it. Oh, funny. Here’s the card. Oh, yeah. Um, and then, [01:06:00] and then I will kind of, but I wait until I’m inspired oftentimes to create a challenge for myself, uh, for creating like a, a lot of things in a series, but that’s the place of prompts to, to stretch you a little bit.

[01:06:20] diane: So that’s really cool. Where you took two things that were separate that we wouldn’t have necessarily seen together, like those flowers with the feel [01:06:30] better soon. Mm-Hmm. And the card. Maybe you did think about those, but like, I don’t know where the background, uh, the place matter, the tablecloth is, but Mm-Hmm.

[01:06:40] I love that. Helps us to see that we’re, the composition is there. But you could use those flowers for something totally different. 

[01:06:49] Amarilys Henderson: Correct. 

[01:06:50] diane: And 

[01:06:51] Amarilys Henderson: it’s, and they’re very important to me. 

[01:06:53] diane: Yeah. And to, to me, this is important of you being a designer. You’re like, okay, I’m gonna keep these things separate so that I [01:07:00] can use them.

[01:07:02] Um, they have more life to them. 

[01:07:05] Amarilys Henderson: Mm-Hmm. And it doesn’t make for a very interesting painting on the paper. It’s, it, it, but it makes for a better design. Yeah. More flexibility, for sure. Yeah. 

[01:07:17] diane: All right. So biggest epiphany that has come, um, as a result of having a regular sketchbook practice

[01:07:29] Amarilys Henderson: that it’s [01:07:30] valid. Uh, that that’s why I, I love to show, I’m not trying to boast and show you, look, look, this became this. It’s because I’m surprised. So that’s been my, my biggest joy to see like, oh, that little dude ad that I just, I had no inkling was useful, became my launch into this [01:08:00] category of stuff like this full industry.

[01:08:03] Uh, I was, I signed up for a trade show in 2019, and maybe it was 2017. It wasn’t my first, but I didn’t, I hadn’t created a lot of artwork since the year before, but it created a lot of personal work and I had a lot of client work, so it was wonderful blessing to be busy, you know, writing a book, but man, does it consume your life.

[01:08:27] And then I hadn’t created [01:08:30] a lot, you know, like, I want to be able to show a lot. And so I started pulling from my personal work. I hadn’t done that before. And that’s, that was those. Watercolor playgrounds. And sure enough, there were a lot of our directors that were like, I don’t know how we could use this, but I like it.

[01:08:47] And some of those said, I know exactly how we can use this. You know? And I, I didn’t know you have so many. The world is so big and you put art on [01:09:00] anything and it’ll sell better. That’s, that’s why we are in business. Yeah. Uh, and so, you know, I didn’t know they’d become candy wrappers or fabric or whatever.

[01:09:11] Uh, it just depended on who I got to meet to envision that. And so I think that’s been the biggest blessing to see things that even I didn’t have a lot of faith in, uh, become a, a big deal. 

[01:09:28] diane: Well, and it’s just about not giving up [01:09:30] and showing people. And I love even about the, um, Chinese New Year card, right?

[01:09:35] Like you knew there was something. People just weren’t ready yet. But you’re gonna keep it. ’cause you know, and it’s, I think sometimes we just have to keep showing and we have to keep making, you have to keep making new things. ’cause you’re always growing. You can tell just from your birds, the cardinals to, from the yellow, whatever those birds are called.

[01:09:58] But I think that, that, that is [01:10:00] helpful. So you have a community, we’re gonna, um, close off so we, everybody can see your stuff at watercolor devo DEV o.com. And then on in Instagram, your watercolor devo. And then you have watercolor bold. You have the pro method, you wanna tell ’em anything else or how, and you have your YouTube channel, which is youtube.com/at watercolor devo.

[01:10:25] It’s very easy. And all these are the first links if you’re listening, that’s where all [01:10:30] these are. But, um, how do people get to, um. Be a part of it. I, I think when I did the Pro Method, it opened like in May or April or March. I don’t remember. 

[01:10:43] Amarilys Henderson: Yeah. That was my, my big Photoshop course that then I’ve also made a membership like Watercolor Bold, but called it Watercolor Build where we’re building a collection of work, a, a body of work, uh, taking the art from bold or from whatever that you’re [01:11:00] creating and creating portfolio work through Photoshop.

[01:11:04] And the reason why I went away from doing the, the course and putting it in this format is because it takes a long time to not just learn, oh, I know how to do this now. Like, that’s the smallest battle. Like that’s why you will find all the how-to videos you ever want on YouTube, but you won’t become.

[01:11:26] This person that has a portfolio, you won’t have the designer [01:11:30] mindset. You won’t know where to reach in that toolbox until you have that continuity where you’re doing it together and you’re learning along the way. So that’s why, uh, I put the pro method into build and then that’s what we do every month.

[01:11:46] We create in bold artwork. And then, uh, if you choose to be in build as well, then uh, I show you how to make it a collection. So we can create seven collections [01:12:00] throughout the year. But everything is on my website. If I’ve done things right, watercolor devo.com and I send out a weekly email called Tip Tuesdays where I just talk about the art life and there’s always something in there that you can take away practically.

[01:12:15] Um, I really try to not make it just a bunch of fluff. I get too many of those emails. 

[01:12:20] diane: It was a great one. I always read yours and it was really good about bunnies and positioning and trying different things. We already talked about it earlier [01:12:30] before y’all all caught here. We were talking about her tip Tuesday.

[01:12:33] So I like that. Amar, thank you so much for just being willing to share your sketchbooks and I think you shared a lot of just, um, helpful business tips about putting your art out there, doing the kind of art you wanna do, and also being willing to show some of the work that was maybe more personal, um, and holding onto things that, you know, had a life that maybe just the world wasn’t ready for it.

[01:12:59] So, [01:13:00] I appreciate you so much and appreciate you as a student of all that you’ve taught me, but I also just love the way you, um, the way you make art. I love having your art, so I just appreciate the joy that you share as you make it. 

[01:13:18] Amarilys Henderson: Well, you’re definitely in your sweet spot talking about it and, and really getting me to talk.

[01:13:24] I think that like, I wanna listen to this again, even though it would be my voice, [01:13:30] which is annoying to me, 

[01:13:31] diane: which I think your voice is great, but, um, I, I know about how I feel about my voice, so I get it next week. Just so y’all know, we are trying to do, um, once every quarter or once every other month, we have my friend who’s a therapist come and we are gonna be talking about creative block and what that is and how to, is it real, how to get through it and if it is real.

[01:13:55] And she’s talked to us about A DHD and other things that I struggle with. So [01:14:00] hopefully a little bit of my struggle will help you as well. And, um, we’ll have Amy on next week. And Amar, thank you so much. I really appreciate it. Can’t wait to see you tomorrow for watercolor. Spill bowl. I do both. So whatever.

[01:14:16] Let’s do that. 

[01:14:17] Amarilys Henderson: Okay. Thank you. This was really fun. And we only opened like two or three of these puppies. I, 

[01:14:22] diane: I know, I, well, I really like also that you said the small ones were your ideas. Mm-Hmm. That’s a really neat, I, that’s a [01:14:30] great thing for me to kind of capture. ’cause I also think about all these ideas and then I don’t put them on the, I don’t put them in a place that I can come back to.

[01:14:39] So I kinda like that you have these smaller ones that you can always go back and, and they’re not huge to carry around. 

[01:14:46] Amarilys Henderson: Yeah, I bet you have one around already. 

[01:14:49] diane: Yeah. But I need them in one place, all the ideas, so I like that idea. And ju he stayed till one 15 in the morning. Oh wow. So I, we really appreciate it.

[01:14:59] Thank [01:15:00] you. I know. Alright. Go to bed. I know. Go to bed for sure. Alright, well we’ll see y’all next week, Amar. Thank you so much. 

[01:15:08] Amarilys Henderson: Thank 

[01:15:08] diane: you.