2 more Art Journal Pages

I know, I should be packing boxes for the move, but I am still lagging behind schedule, and just can't bring myself to not create.
One of these pages I did a week or so ago, but just haven't made the time to put it up. The other one I just finished, and am waiting to send it to make sure it is completely dry.

First is a page for Marion, her topic was School. I went a bit of a different way by going with Education and Knowledge. It is a little quirky, but that is a style that I know Marion loves, so I hope that she likes them.


Second is for Sharron, her topic was Italian Affair. When I think of Italy, I think of stone buildings, and dreamy fields of grapes. I cut out the window of the right page, and added a picture of a castle like building, and then added groups of grapes, which I then covered in Crystal Lacquer to give them that shiny plumpness.
The quote: "A hundred years can not repair a moment lost" is an old Italian Proverb, which to me tied in the dreamy aspect of the piece.

Getting in some art.

I have squeezed in a little art amongst the chaos, here and there, when I can. I am still WAY behind schedule, but I am trying to catch up.
Here are just some of the things I have accomplished over the last several months.

(remember you can click on the images to see them larger~enjoy)


This is my art journal Lighthouse page. I made a very simple how-to YouTube video if you want to check it out the address is : Lighthouse Art Journal Page

Here are some art journal pages I made just for personal growth:

(a new woman~made with parts and pieces from different magazine clippings of women)


Kindred Spirits~ Letters are found from items in nature.


Growth~ Altered Photo


The following are Round Robin Art Journal book pages and Tip-In pages that I made, that are traveling the world.

Love Letter~for Jenene


Wings~for Barbara


Earth Specimen~for Keron


Birds~for Hermine
(second picture shows left page with bird houses open)


"Out with the Old" Doors & Windows~for Diana


"Jeweled Mandala" India~ for Lorna

Whew~ I guess I have done more than I thought, I have been trying to do some 5-15 minute sketch prompts also. The key is to just sketch. Don't think about it. Just look at the image and try to repeat it. Don't erase.... just keep going. When the timer goes off~ STOP. Accept the results, and move on.
I think the 'accept the results' part is the hardest part, but it is taking my art to all new places and I LIKE IT!!!!!

Hopefully it won't be Christmas before I pop in again, but if it is, remember I blog without obligation. ;)
~ Letha

Feast or Famine

Well,
I know I don't blog out of obligation, but I feel like I have left you all hanging for quite awhile. I just haven't been doing much with my blog, yet I have been creating. I have just felt rather overwhelmed, and just didn't feel like I could catch my breath much less take the time to post regularly. So here is going to be a huge long post with tons of pictures of what I have been doing. Down at the bottom will be some sketches in progress, and ones that I have done just for fun, that I have been doing to practice my face structure and placement. I WELCOME any critique or suggestion, as I have only been sketching for a few months, and am picking this up on my own, and am by no means a seasoned artist. Many of these are in progress, and I feel I am "stuck" as to where to go next. I think you will see what I mean as you view them.

Here at the top is my first comfort doll- created for a Paper Traders swap, it is going to a special lady, who has been through many trials this past year, and was completely done by hand. Not one machine stitch! I purchase hand-dyed batiks for the materials, and hand-beaded the body of the doll. Then stamped the face, and beaded around it with two different tones of purple beads. (hard to see the different colors in the picture) Once I got all that done, I was able to sew the body shape together and stuff her. I then beaded her arms, and added a teapot for her to hold. I sewed some cream and gold ribbon around the seam where the front and back meet, to give it a sparkly edge, and to cover the stitching, and then gave her some keys for legs. Added a filigree heart for a pocket, and a special little poem inside.
It sounds quite simple, but I worked on it for 2 weeks straight. (I know I am kind of slow)
The next project is a Tip-In Round Robin page that I did for a friend (also a Paper Traders swap) the topic was the Romance of Train Travel. I have to say this was not an easy topic for me and the first couple of cracks at it Did Not turn out well at all, so I was way behind at getting this done! I am lucky that she was patient, and kind enough to wait for me to get my act together. I decided to go a totally different route, and I was so glad I followed my muse, because I am so happy with the results. I ended up using a really mucky painted background, but I think it really added to the aged look of the pages.
The sign in was to be a train ticket, so there is a picture of that as well. It ended up being a fun project once I got my head around it.


Ok~
Here are my sketchings. (click on the pictures to see the details) If you have any comments please feel free to express them. I welcome any help, as I am learning, and need so much guidance right now, so that I can progress and grow. Thanks so much!!!
~Letha

Here Kitty Kitty

These are the Tip-in Pages I made for Teri.

They are little quilties.

Her topic was anything with a cat or kitten on it somewhere, so I decided that I would design a pattern, and incorporate fabric into my pages. I ended up making the whole thing with fabric.

The cat and the mouse are quilted down, and then the "meow" is written in stitches. The mouse's tail is a little pink ribbon. The kitty's wiskers are made with threads, the eyes are jewels that I made to look like cat eyes.

I had this really strange bead, that looked like a ball of yarn, that has been "rolling" around my house for a year or more. When I got to thinking about making my pattern, I remembered that bead and wanted to incorporate it into the piece, so I made the cat batting at it.

Gypsy Women

Well, Finally I finished these Tip-In pages for Susan. I hope she will forgive me for my tardiness. She is such a lovely artist. With having been sick, and then the holidays, I just could not bring myself to throwing something together just to get it done. In all of this, every time I tried to do the transfers, they would not work out correctly. I can not count the number of times that I tried and failed, but I was determined to make this work.
There are times when the vision you have in your head is what is going to come out on paper no matter how you have to get it there. This was one of those times!

I have hand beaded the outfit on the gypsy on the right page, and added copper punchinella to the left side and red punchinella to the right side. The words are also transfers, and then painted with white pen. I have also added a plethora of luscious fibers. My favorite. The whole things is distressed with walnut stain- along with my hands, and clothes. (oops-perks of the job)

Funky Birds

I have finally gotten a bit of my muse back. I have had a bunch of things that I have been needing to get finished, and I just couldn't get my head around them. I think I just had to keep at it until I got through the slump.

I created these two pages for Pam- she is in the Tip-In Round Robin project with Paper Traders. Her theme is Birds, Nests and Eggs. I did not include any nests or eggs, but I did the birds instead.

These birds are made with a real feather coming out the top of their head, and flourish stamps for the tails and decoration on the wings. They have little black brads for eyes. The background is done on heavyweight watercolor paper with watercolor crayons. I have not done a lot with watercolor crayons yet, but am really learning to like them, and the look that they create. Inspired by Claudine Hellmuth, the background is highlighted with penning.

First try at Zetti

Sorry I haven't posted for awhile. I actually wrote something on the 16th, but I just couldn't post it. I just figured noone wanted to hear me rant and rave about my mundane life crap, so I deleted it before I posted it, and yes, everything worked itself out like it normally does, and I am over it for now.

Anywho-
Here are the pages that I have made for Marion's Tip-In Round Robin Journal. I will be mailing them out to her today, so I thought I should post them for you all to see. This is the first time I have ever done anything with Zetti. It was interesting to say the least, but was really fun. At first I planned everything out, and decided basically how I wanted everything to look, then as I started to put it all together, I started changing things. Now that is how I think Zetti is supposed to work. At least that is how I think it will work for me, because I had so much fun letting it just take it's own shape, and boy did it come out weird, and in a good way I think.























I love the way the rock/egg eye with the face turned out- that was probably the hardest part. It took several trys to get that right, but the final result is exactly what I was after. I wanted that eye to look like it was coming right out of her lips, and the rock/egg eye, is cut out of cardstock and adhered to the background paper, but the stamp of the face with the ribbon hair is over the top of the rock/egg eye, and onto the background. Then another partial image (just the face part) is cut out of another piece of cardstock and adhered on top of the original stamped image, so it would be a perfectly clear image with none of the rock image showing through. It was pretty involved, for as simple of a look as you get, but when you see it in person, you can see that it is not just a simple process. The background is done with watercolor crayons and a wet paper towel, and the border is a Zetti stamp block of eyes. I stamped it several times and cut each image out, so that I could place all the faces with the noses pointing in wrapping around the pages.























One of the things that Marion asked was that we include a number somewhere on the pages, so I used 7 and 13. They are my two favorite numbers. So these pages are titled appropriately 7 & 13!
This was so fun! I can see how this can be addicting- I will definitely be making more Zetti art.

Fairy Tip In Pages

Finally Finished! Well, I guess stewing over things seems to be a regular for me lately. I guess my muse is on VACATION!
I am so frustrated that I can't get things together like I have planned. I have a picture in my head, but I go to get it out on the paper and it turns out like crap. I can tell you I have printed the base image at least 6 times, because when I went to paint the wings, I messed them up so many times I couldn't fix it, I had to start over, then I got the wings right, and messed up the leaves on the tree! What a nightmare!
That is just the way things have been going for me lately. I just can't seem to get my art to come together the way I want it to.
Now that it is finished I am happy with it, but getting there was rediculous.

Anyway, the wings are painted with shimmer paint, VERY thin! I won't go into detail- LOL.
The leaves are individually painted with metalic green watercolor, and then I streaked metalic copper watercolor into the water, to give it that dimmensional shimmer that you see when the sun hits water as it is going down. (if you know what I mean)
The quote and the flourishes are printed on transparency and layered over the top of everything else. I think the transparency makes it hard to see the sparkle of the metalic paint, but it is there, and I think Linda will really like it. (I hope so anyway) ;0)