Non-Art Daily projects 1-3

I've made peace with the contrast in my skills at drawing and painting, and my desire to use art supplies. Who cares about my skill level, I'm going to have fun with paints and conte crayons and pastels and coloured pencils and graphite sticks and what-have-you! This will also be a good opportunity to learn more about how colour works.
I have a set of business-card-sized particle boards, and I have decided to produce one piece of not-art per day, and blog about it.
My first piece was inspired by a visit to a local art exhibition featuring bright colours, childlike shapes and a cheery feel. Here is a postcard of the exhibition:


Here is my first piece of non-art, done in acrylic paint, photographed on a piece of blank particle board. I wasn't sure what to do with paintbrushes (dip them in water to keep them clean?) so I just used my fingers and a makeshift palette instead. I used a lime green background, with dots of white like in the postcard, but went my own way the rest of the way. I put a red blotch in the lower left corner, an orange squiggle above it, and added some dark, low-value aubergine dots.

The second Non-Art piece was inspired by a magazine ad for FusionBeads company, using a lot of black, gray, white and oranges.

Here is what I made. Using what I think are conte crayons, I started with the same graceful lines and circles, but inevitably  branched out, using intense blues to complement the orange tones.

Yesterday's Non-Art Daily is representative, or tries to be. :D I had a few hours to spend in Old Town, so I walked about the streets, exploring little shops: some filled with Christmas things, some with art, crafts and accessories from exotic lands, and some with good solid food--just my kind of afternoon. One such shop had a side door opening onto a little alleyway with tables, and yellow lights strung overhead (the yellow didn't show up very well), and it's that alleyway I attempted to draw, again in conte crayon. I sat down at one of the tables (I could only fit one into the drawing) and made notes of the colours I saw, and an even more primitive sketch of the approximate layout.

Nobody try to make me feel better about my abilities; I already feel fine. :) It's very freeing to let go of the pressure to 'be good'. This Non-Art project isn't about being good or even halfway-decent. It's about having fun, and I'm doing just that!