Most of May's Art Journal Pages

It seems way too long since I posted my pages, and with us leaving next week for our big trip to Florida, I thought it best to at least post what I do have finished.
The funny thing is...I think I got so behind, because I tend to want to work in Chronological order, and the Week 17 prompt threw me for a loop.
Not that is was all that hard to decide what helps me Refresh, or renew, but how I was going to portray that on paper in a book - Harder than you would think!!
I REALLY struggle with drawing realistic things- characterized, I can do, but to make something look more real- HARD FOR ME!!
I chose to incorporate Pedicures into my Refresh pages, because, I have never had a salon pedicure since we practiced on each other in beauty school, and let me tell you- we were not good at it- LOL!
Last fall, Quincy really wanted to go for pedicures, so we went, and it was a blast. So relaxing, refreshing and rejuvenating. Here is the kicker- I couldn't find an image of a pedicure on the internet, that I liked, and I think it is clear, I don't draw well, so it took me FOREVER to get the feet sort of close to the idea I was after. Now, I know they are not "pretty" feet. I wasn't going for your stereotypical super model feet, I was going for your 40 year old, stay at home mom who has never taken great care of her feet- like ever.  Quincy laughed, and said they look like old feet, and I retorted- "Good, that's what I was after". Don't get me wrong- if I had the skills to draw a great set of feet, that look all beautiful and natural, then I would have been all for "pretty feet", but it isn't happening.
I have added journalling since this photo was taken, but you get the main idea here.

Week 17 - Refresh 

Week 18- Creative Hands

This one was not so hard- I knew I wanted to trace my own hands, and use them in the page. I have seen lots of times where people use their hands to make a heart, so I thought I would give that a try.

I wanted to do the technique where you make a linear pattern across the page, and it makes it look like the images are popping off the page. Not a technique I have ever done before, and it did not turn out as I had envisioned, but hey- that is what an art journal is for- trying new ideas, techniques, styles, with lots of failures, some successes, and a few acceptables. This is one of those. 

Week 19- Photography

This page is still in the works, I have ideas, but have not fully wrapped my head around how I am going to put it together, so we will see later what develops.

Week 20- Inspired by a Book

AH! I love this idea, and I have the perfect book. One of my all time favorite reads is The Help. I am usually not much of a reader, because I have severe dyslexia, so usually by the time I am a few paragraphs in, I have forgotten what I have read, or I am so confused, because I have read it over at least 3 times, that I tend to get lost and not be able to follow the story line.  Not with this book! The Help was such a pleasure to read, and I enjoyed the personalities of each of the characters. Celia, I think is one of my favorites. I think I can really relate to her, and the troubles she had with staying pregnant. Out of 12 pregnancies, we were blessed with 2 beautiful daughters, but also had many, many years of heartache, and the toll it took on my body was immense. I would have loved having a large family, but it was not God's plan for me here on Earth, and I am OK with that. I cherish the moments I have had with raising my daughters. It was definitely not easy to have two kids with special needs, but it makes us stronger, and I think more empathetic to others that may be struggling in their lives as well. I love how that struggle played out in the book, and how Minny and Aibileen had such a good friendship, and stood by each other- through thick and thin. 

I love how Hilly, got a taste of her own medicine- literally! She was so determined to make the help use outside toilets, that sassy, Miss. Minny made her a special pie all her own! LOL

I love how Hilly's mom, just laughed and gave it right back to Hilly, and I love how Miss Celia put Hilly in her place by writing her a check to "TWO-SLICE HILLY" that was epic! 

It is a great read, if you haven't already, I highly recommend it, and the movie was great too!!!

Week 21 - Making a Mandala

When this prompt came up, I thought to myself- "EASY"! Boy was I ever wrong!! I get the whole idea of making a circle with repetitive patterns, and even adding Zentangles or something similar to it. That all sounds super simple, but wow, it is not! It was hard enough just dividing the circle into segments, and then just when you think- "I can do this" you get a mind block, or your eyes wig out and you can't tell which lines are your drawing lines, and which lines are your guidelines. I have an all new respect for those people that must spend hours, days, weeks, making intricate designs in their mandalas. My mandala took me 2 days, and now that it is complete it looks so simple. It was a good stretch for my brain though, and I am happy with the Bohemian look it took on after I colored it. I played with my Derwent Inktense Pencils- I LOVE THEM! They go on just like a colored pencil, but then when you wet them, they are the most vibrant colors. The best part is after they have been activated with water, and they dry, the ink is Permanent! Who doesn't love that- no need to seal the page, which in this book is a benefit, because it is getting REALLY thick, and we are only mid year. I am trying so hard to work flat, but if you know me, I love texture, and it takes a lot of conscience effort to not add big bulky stuff to my pages. Again, it is a good exercise for me, to step out of my norm.

June starts with the prompt- TRAVEL, since I am behind, I will most likely wait til we return from Florida, and journal all about our prize winning trip! 

That is all for tonight, I will come back soon with more fun stuff- summer is busy, so hopefully I will fit the time in to update you all on our goings on!

Derwent Art Academy

Well, I am back posting on my blog, and it hasn't been 6 months yet- LOL!
I am just checking in to document the last two classes of my online art/drawing course.

This is my submission for the fifth class which was watercolors. I have dabbled in a lot of different mediums, but watercolor always stumps me- many people comment that it is so easy, but I find that I rework it too much- it is kind of one of those that you have to just put it down on paper, and then walk away from it. 

The sixth class was oil pastels- I have used these even less than watercolors! It was fun, to have an assignment, that forced me to work with these mediums, and not be scared of them- I think that has been the biggest thing I have learned from these courses.

I could have done this in the reverse, where I scratched the black off of the negative space, but I thought I would give this look a go to start- I think it is pretty cool looking.

Back at it again

I think I took a bit of hiatus from art over the holidays, but really I didn't- I just didn't produce anything spectacular. I made some paper ornaments, and did some sketching, I made a few handmade journals, and started on a new art Journal for the 2014 year, which I started working in a few weeks ago. I seem to find it easier to post to Facebook than I do here on my blog, so if you want to check out what I am up to on a regular basis, that would be the place to visit me.
So what has happened since my last post here on the blog?

In September, my washing machine blew a gasket- well, not really a gasket, but the pump sprung a leak, and I am WAY too cheap to pay a repairman $75 an hour, so I got on the internet, and learned how to fix it myself. Ordered the part, and $28 and a few hours later- it wouldn't have taken most people that long, but whatever- I got it fixed, and we were back in service. Well, for a few days, then we discovered that we had a major backup in our waste water pipes, and that the City's main drain had a major blockage from roots at the joint to the main drain where our waste water is supposed to exit our pipes.  It took the repair man 2 full days to grind through the build-up of roots, but then he was able to get us back in service. Luckily, he was good and cleaned up after himself, and we didn't have any damage from the back-up. Just a puddle of water on the bathroom and laundry room floors, but they have linoleum, so so worries- easily cleaned. :)

We actually had a quite rainy fall, which is a nice change from our usual desert in the mountains. We even were graced with some beautiful lightening storms, and our grass was greener than it has been in all the years we have lived in this house! (4+) My flowers even bloomed later than usual, which is awesome!

At the end of September, my mom, daughter Quincy, friend Amanda and I all went for a girls' day, and had pedicures! It is the first professional pedicure I have had. I was practiced on a few times in Beauty school, but that doesn't count- it was also Quincy's first, and my mom's first pedicure- can you believe my mom had never had a professional pedicure in all her years? She loved it, and it was so fun to see her enjoy having someone take care of her for a change. She is always making sure everyone else is taken care of, and this time it was her turn, I hope she will be able to take that time for herself more often.

In October we got our first big storm of the season- I had to go over to Powell to take Quincy the car so she could get to and from her CNA Clinicals, and on the way home, it was a major blizzard. We took it slow, and braved it, but it was a long trip home at the speed we were going. I noticed that we were the lead car too, and wondered if we might get passed because we were going so slow, but I think the drivers behind me were just grateful to not be the one trying to make a path for everyone else. I am grateful that the Highway crews put those cuts in the road on the right side, so if you "fall asleep at the wheel" it will wake you up. It made it quite easy to know right where I was on the road, when I couldn't see a car length in front of me.
I also did quite a bit of baking- not a big variety, but several loaves of both banana bread and zucchini bread. We filled the freezer, and have had homemade treats all winter.  :)

November brought some challenges for our family. Quincy seemed to have some trouble emotionally, and so I spent almost the whole month driving back and forth from Powell to get her to and from her classes. She just needed that break from the "real world" and have her family wrap their arms around her and know that she can always count on us to help when things get hard. She is doing great now- she did awesome in her classes first semester at college, and is very excited to get going in her new classes this semester. She loves college, and I know she will continue to succeed.

The end of November and all of December has brought us lots of snow- I love to see it fall, but really don't enjoy driving in it. We have had several big snows, where we normally get little snows. I am hoping we will not have a dry summer next year, as I just don't like worrying about wild fires. It looks to me like the mountains have quite a bit of snow pack, so maybe we will be in good shape for the summer months. We had a big stretch of frigid temps. Several days in a row of way below zero. We are not used to getting -14 degrees F for days on end. (When we lived in Glasgow, Montana, it was the norm, but not here)
We survived it, and are no worse for the wear. We just stay in and bundle up :)

So onto the new year--- January has been good so far... I am back into the swing of getting artsy more often, which is so good for my psyche. I really usually get extreme holiday blues, and have trouble getting out of the funk, but I feel refreshed this year, and have actually spent the last 2 weeks organizing- DEEP ORGANIZING, all, I mean ALL of my scrapbooking/art/craft supplies, and purging the things I know I will never use, and finding a proper place for the things I want to keep and use. It is a slow process. I have spent the last more than 20 years making a huge unorganized mess, it is not going to get fixed over night, but I am diligently working on it, and am actually starting to get past the point where is gets way worse before you start to see progress, so there is hope!  You can already start to see the progress :) YEAH!!!

I am still trying to have a good balance, several good strong hours of work, then a reward of me time for art. I am attempting to do the Journal 52 art journal prompts and also taking a Derwent Art Academy class... I thought it would be pretty quick, but there is more to learn than I had initially thought, so I am enjoying the slower pace, and am really trying to learn something from the course. Here are the sketches so far:
Class 1: 3D objects

Sorry the picture is so grainy and dark- it was taken at night with my webcam- not ideal for picking up the details of artwork.

Class 2: Perspective

I had a little trouble thinking ahead with where the perspective was going to land, and ended up squeezing it in at the top, but at least I understood the instructions. Perspective is not my strong spot.

Class 3: Basic Sketching

This sketch was supposed to be done using only dots. That is so not easy- I found myself trying to make little lines, but I think I understand the point, in that the closer together they are the darker the area, the farther apart, the lighter the area.

Class 4: Color and Tone

I started with the rooster sketch, and it turned out nothing like the instructors example, but then she said we could try the bluebird, and that was much more successful.

So now I wait for the instructor to evaluate my drawing before I get access to class 5. Hopefully I will remember to post here on the blog before July! LOL

Whew- got through that update of my life... see you soon, hopefully :)

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