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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!

The Trip of a LIFETIME!

First I want to tell you all who watch my blog, that I am sorry it is almost mid June, and I still have not posted my art journal pages for May yet. Honestly with end of school year wrap up and all the stuff that comes with summer on it's way, I have been having a hard time working creative time into my schedule. *frown*
I have ideas running wild in my head, but my family comes first, so I have gotten a bit behind on what I wanted to do just for me. I am still working on my pages, actually I will probably just photograph the pages that are done, and then post the catch up ones later.
This week has been MAD CRAZY!
(the back story:)
A few weeks ago, my daughter Quincy came across a contest on MuggleNet.com. She wanted to sign up, but didn't have all the different criteria to submit an entry, so she asked me to sign up- I was all for it!
The prize? An all expense paid trip to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios, Orlando, for a VIP tour of the new theme park DIAGON ALLEY, the HOGWART'S EXPRESS, and also HOGSMEADE that opened a few year ago.
I could have signed up a total of 15 times, but honestly, I kind of forgot all about it, so only entered once.
On Monday mid morning, I got a phone call from a gal named Kat, and a fellow named Keith.  They asked me if I could verify who I was, and that I had entered the contest, etc... at first I was pretty calm, I actually was a bit stand-off-ish, because I get spam calls all the time, for things like having some long lost relative that had money in another country, and all I needed is pay the transfer fees, and the money would be mine, yada, yada... anyway, I thought it really strange, because they sounded like they were in a radio studio- I know what that sounds like, as my husband was a radio personality for more than 10 years. So, they were all done asking me all these questions and verifying my identity, and then they said I had won the trip for 4 to Orlando! I was totally in disbelief! They both had asked if I had checked my email and I said I had not checked it yet today, and they laughed, and said "we know- that is why we called you!" because I had not replied to the announcement of the notification that I won.
I got off the phone with both of them, and I think after a few minutes I picked my jaw off the floor, and my family was looking at me, and begging me to tell them what just happened. I told them we had won the trip, and both my girls were screaming! I made them promise not to say anything, until we got the legal paperwork. It was a long day and a half!!! When the release forms started flowing in, it all started to get REAL! Yesterday we signed all the releases, so they can take our pictures, use our names in their promotions, etc, etc... and then today I got the call from Universal- the travel plans are set, and we are GOING!!!! I don't know if I will stop pinching myself until we get home again, because this is such a dream come true. I have wanted to take my girls to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, since we heard preliminary ideas of them thinking of making a theme park. Both Quincy & Abby have grown up with the stories, movies and lives of the characters. It is a part of our family, a part of our lives. That sounds silly, because it is just "a story" but I really think we have all kind of hoped that we could be in that world at times in our life, and now we get the opportunity to do that!
We honestly would never have been able to afford to take our family on this kind of a vacation. We have only ever had little family vacations to visit other family or "stay"cations and while these are wonderful memorable times, I deep down always wanted to be able to take a family vacation that was just FUN, unadulterated FUN!!!
So, I count my many blessings today and ALWAYS, thank Heavenly Father for allowing us this opportunity, and a great big Thank You to MuggleNet and Universal Studios for choosing our family for this CHANCE OF A LIFETIME DREAM COME TRUE!!!!!
Links below will be of what we will experience-- YIPPEEE, HOORRAAYYY!!!!!
Check out what we get to see here: Wizarding World of Harry Potter
We also get to see The Blue Man Group Concert!

April Showers- SNOW showers!

I was hoping to get one more Journal 52 page done before I make the April wrap up of pages, but I have stewed over how/what I want to do, and have had lots of appointments, and little art time, so it didn't happen. It was a REALLY hard topic for me, but I will go into that next month.
So, I have only 4 pages in April, but here they are:

Week 13 - How Does Your Garden Grow

I have been working on another large project, that I am considering showing progress photos of instead of the completed project, because it is become quite involved. But back to this page-- I have been doing a lot with flowers and fairies, and I was just in the mode to make flower fairy gardens, so here I have created yet another jam packed page with bunches of fairies in among the many flowers. 

Can you find them all?  (there are 21 fairies on this spread) 

Week 14 - Rain or Shine

Well, this is not a very up beat page, but it felt like we were never going to see Spring here in Northwest Wyoming. We are used to Spring storms, but usually sometime in March we start to have a few warm days. Here it was heading into the latter part of April, and still no warm days. The poor flower boxes and pots still have the dried up leftovers from last fall. A few tiny specks of green coming up at the very bottom of the old dried stumps is good news, but I don't see having a beautiful pot of blooming flowers for Mother's Day like I do most years. :( 

If you look closely you will see those darn snow flakes in the sky on my pages, and I think the words speak for themselves. 

Week 15 - Party Animals

These two pages are completely digital except the piece of teal washi tape down the center of the binding, because the edges of the papers were trying to pull up. I wanted to incorporate the lively little bunch of poochies we have here at our house, for this weeks prompt, but by the time I was able to find all the photos, I realized it would be just as easy to put the whole page together in My Memories digital scrapbooking program, then it would to find a coordinating paper in my stash, and print the photos. I think I found just the right pictures of these little buggers!

Week 16 - Recycled Art

I thoroughly enjoyed putting this page together- I had an advertisement for the craft store, that was going to expire before I could use it, so I started the page with all the coupons from the advertisement. Then I stole some wrappers from the girls' Easter candy, and part of the packaging from some Goldfish crackers, the hang tag from my beautiful Hydrangea plant, some stamps and part of the envelope from Canada from a swap I participated in not long ago, a card I got with the plant from my Birthday in March, and then I added some brightly colored washi tape to fill in the empty spaces. I am not sure if I will leave it like this, or add some journaling, but I will decide that later.

Thanks for following my April journey through my art journal pages. I am working on May pages, as well as a few other projects I plan to share, when I find time. That's all for now~

Into the City for a long day with the girls

Had to go to Billings to take the girls to the Dr. but we were able to get a few supplies for our art projects! Yeah!!!

Free photo slideshow made with Smilebox

March Madness -well, Mad for Art, not basketball

As the title suggests, I don't enjoy the March basketball tournament. It did give me extra time to do some art, but I found myself being really "stuck" several times, as I tried to complete certain art journal pages. I don't know if I was stuck, because I was preoccupied with "life" events, and maybe I was suffering from some worry, or if it was just a busy month for me, and I couldn't fully wrap my head around the art I was trying to create, or if it was something totally different that I don't fully understand, but all I know, was that I struggled this past month to create.
Here are the next four weeks of pages in my Journal 52 art journal year long project. I hope you enjoy seeing them, and my thoughts behind creating them.

Week 9- Color Swatch

This week I had taken the Abstract class from Claudia Rossi, on Udemy. It was so fun! I loved her technique, and by just tweaking a few things, you can achieve some really different results. Because the prompt for this week was color swatch, I really wanted to stick with the same color family, so I used 3 different purple paints, and then blended with white, and outlined in black. The photos I took of my finished page, don't show all the movement and streaks that are in each segment. I tried rephotographing, and I still could not get a good picture of the details, so you just have to trust me that it is way more fabulous in person!

I apologize for the clips on the upper corners- I was trying to get a good picture and the breeze was blowing my pages shut.

Week 10 - Art For A Cause

Oh, I struggled with this prompt!!!!! I really wanted to create something that people who don't know anyone, or have never experienced mental illness, would be able to "feel" what it is like for someone with these illnesses, who deals with this on a regular basis. 

PLEASE NOTE: I do suffer from these illnesses, but I am doing well right now, so please don't call the authorities and tell them to watch me, because I am OK! 

I started this page with a collage paper background, then I added several kinds of washi tape, and created a bit of a grunge look to the page, then heavily distressed the page with inks. The girl is quickly sketched on a piece of old dictionary text, and I very faintly added a bit of color to her features, but I tried really hard to keep everything translucent, because I wanted her to have the feeling of invisibility. lastly I cut the words from dictionary pages, and pasted the phrase onto the page. I used a charcoal pencil to add shadowing around each word, and then the page was sealed with Mod Podge.

The words read: Please God, It's easier on everybody if I stay invisible. 

My causes: Anxiety, BiPolar, Depression

Again, please know that I am well regulated, and am sharing this as a way to bring awareness to those that may not fully understand.

Week 11 - Stars

I wanted to do this with a bit of a two-meaning page. I wanted to use actual stars in my page, but also wanted to include a "star" or celebrity, who I quoted with a saying that had some meaning to me. When I started my research on quotes, I had no idea who I would be featuring on my page, but found this great quote by Marilyn Monroe- "We are all of us stars, and we deserve to twinkle".

It was a great quote, because we all have worth, and we all deserve to shine in our own way!

I started my page by heat embossing 3 different size star stamps that I have from Art Impressions, I have had them for years, and really enjoy that sketchy look. I used an antique gold glitter embossing powder. I then did a wash with my Bienfang Watercolor Brush Pens, in these colors: primary yellow, new gamboge, orange, vermilion and cadmium red hue. I used a bit of paper towel to take some of the wet and stark colors off, and achieve that blended look from one color to another. The image is an altered photo I found on Google images, and printed out on presentation paper, then I cut her out, outlined in black poster paint- adhered down with gel medium, then when dry, I added the hazy shadow with charcoal pencil, Added the quote with poster paint marker and then sealed with a final layer of gel medium.

Week 12 - A Day in the Life

Can I hate this page any more than I already do? I am letting go- that is the nature of art journaling- sometimes you get good ones and sometimes you don't! I started out with a tissue paper collage background- it was bright and fun and cheerful- so I doodled a bit with a black pen, to give it another layer of interest. I didn't hate it at this point, but then I got the grand idea to add a bunch of paper flowers. I was kind of going with the Donna Downey inspiration Wednesday where she added flowers all over the background, and then painted over them, creating a very chunky "mess". Well, it worked for her, but no- not for me. I didn't want to paint over my fun bright background, but adding all those bright flowers on top, just makes it look a little crazy- psychedelic even, and that is not what I had in mind. I then just took some tags and adhered them between the smaller flowers, and wrote down some of the things I do during the day. 

Here is the page. I don't like it at all anymore, but I am leaving it alone, because it was an experience, and that is OK with me.

Thanks for coming along with me on my recap of March journal pages. I am giving myself a pat on the back for sticking with this so long already. I am 12 weeks into this project, and it is only the beginning of April! I feel I have gotten to a milestone, because I have done year long projects before, but only a once a month requirement, and as of this week, I will have done a typical whole year project already and we are just starting on the month of April. Yeah! Hope to see you back here next month with my April offerings.

I welcome comments and suggestions, so if you can think of any great ideas to do something with this week 12 page, I am open to ideas!

Journal 52 - February Wrap Up

Well, we are 8 plus weeks in and I am still going strong on my Journal 52 art journal project. One page a week is working great at this point- it is still winter, and boy a winter it has been here in the Mountains of Wyoming. We have had snow, snow and more SNOW, and several bouts of below zero F temps. I have not been overly ready for Spring til about this week, when I realized it is only 2 weeks til my birthday, and we still have well over a foot of snow on the ground- not just in spots, but EVERYWHERE. That is very uncommon for our area, but I am hoping with the amount of snow pack we have, that maybe our summer wild fire scares will be diminished greatly.
Well- onto the project, and my last 4 weeks of pages:

Week 5 Prompt : Abstract Art

I haven't worked much with abstract art, but I started the page with just some random line squiggles, then zentangled inside the sections of the random doodling. I then added some color with markers, then put down a floral stencil and covered it with black gesso. I used the gesso, because it gives great coverage, and I did not want anything but what was under the stencil to show. When I removed the stencil, you could almost make out the floral shape. I decided it was kind of one dimensional, so I added an outline with a white paint marker. It made it really busy, but gave it lots of motion. 

Week 6 : The Lost Art of Love Letters

I did not want to dig out all the little messages my sweetie has given me over the years, but still wanted to incorporate the fact that we are together 20 years and going strong. He asked me to marry him on Valentine's Day, so this prompt being the week of Valentine's, seemed very fitting. The photos were taken by my mom, in City Park in Cody, Wyoming where we still live. We have moved around a few times, but have come back to Cody. It is home, and where we want to stay. I look forward to the next 20 years with my sweetheart. 

Week 7 : When I Grow Up

I loved the way this page turned out. It was just a random stick of stuff on the paper. I started playing with the new washi tapes I picked up on sale, and then it just kind of evolved into hair, so I added the face shape, and the shirt, and then I thought she needed to have a face that looked as if she were pondering the question: "When I grow up, I want to be..." 

I took a class from Claudia Rossi, which really changed the way I do a face structure. It is so important to get those proportions right, and it is amazing how much better my faces are turning out. I will definitely be able to come into my own style with this newly gained knowledge. Best class I have taken to date! 

This page is mostly washi tape, a little acrylic paint and a few alphabet stickers. 

Week 8 : Found Poetry

This was so hard for me-- I stewed over it all week. I am not great with taking a page of text, and circling a few words in succession, and making it read anything understandable. It just isn't something I can do well, or at all for that matter. I envy those that can, because it really is cool when people do that. So I started flipping through junk magazines, for cool "key words" that caught my attention. The first awesome word I found was "cosmic". I knew I had to use it somehow, because it is such a great word, and to find that in a magazine snip-it is pretty rare. Then a few pages later I saw the word "attract", well, I had to use it too. So the phrase I came up with is: "Your Love sends me into a state of Cosmic attraction." Yeah, I don't know that it means anything, but it was funny, and fun all at the same time, so I made a galactic background using my Inktense pencils that my sweet hubby bought me for Valentine's Day, and then  after I activated them with water, and then let them dry completely, I covered them with a very watery layer of black gesso- it is hard to see in the photos, but you can see the different haze of color shine through the black. Then I sprayed the page with some ink sprays, in both metallic shades and just white and black. That gave it the forward and backward layers of "stars" shining in the night sky. When that was all dry, I then used a wet paint brush and tapped on it with some white paint to make splatters- these are the closest stars you see. I then put the photo of my husband down, and then used water soluble oil pastels to smudge a halo effect around all the words and the photo. I feel like there is still an element missing, but I can't put my finger on it yet, so i am going to leave this page as it is for now, and move forward- I may come back to it at a later date. 

Well I am rambling quite a bit tonight, but there are my 4 pages for the weeks of February. Yay, I have completed two full months of the project, and I even remembered to share them with you here on my blog! Great big high five! Toodles :)

Hot Glue Stencils- A How-to Tutorial

I was quite fascinated by the videos and posts I have seen lately on homemade Hot Glue Stencils, and after doing a little research have discovered the original idea was from Traci Bautista, and she has a walk through on her blog, if you want to check it out, just click on her name. :)
So, I shared my discovery with my sister and art friend, Beckie and she asked if I would try out the technique and write up a little tutorial on how I was able to make this technique work.
Well, it was a piece of cake!!! I really thought there would be a pretty big margin of error, and I would likely fall into that error section, but NOPE! Even I was able to do this and make it work. :)
Below is the YouTube video I created on how to make the actual stencils, and then below that I will post the pictures and info on how I used the stencils, in a couple of ways.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZAFRxkoQqY

Ok- and here is how I used my homemade Hot Glue Stencils:

First I put some newsprint down on my table, and then put two 8 1/2 X 11 inch pieces of white cardstock on top of the newsprint, and then arranged my stencils.

Then I gathered a few spray inks- the brand I have are Color Mists by www.OutsideTheMargins.com, I have had these for several years- I mean like at least 6 years, and they are still good, and have only had a minor clog, that took very little to fix. I have been quite happy with them. :)

Then I sprayed the paper with the stencils sitting on top, I wanted to use several colors, so just as a helpful hint - If you don't want brown or muddy colors, use colors that are next to each other on the color wheel, and not opposite on the color wheel - So on one side I used, green, blue and purple, and the other side I used yellow and bright pink, as seen below.

After I sprayed the ink, I removed the stencils and dropped the stencils up-side-down onto another sheet of newsprint to allow the excess spray ink to drip off.

 

While I waited to let my sprays dry, I cleaned up the stencils with a baby wipe:

Next, I wanted to add some more texture and layers, so I dug out some acrylic paint- I have many brands and kinds, it doesn't matter if it is fancy paint, or cheap paint- anything will work.

When you apply paint, you want to put it on the bottom part of the stencil. The FLAT side. Especially when using letter or word stencils, because if you don't the image will not transfer well, or your letters will be backwards. 

When you have the paint on the stencil, then press it to the paper, and make sure you get the stencil to make full contact with your paper. You may want to use a rubber brayer or a cover sheet to press down on the stencil.

Then carefully peel the stencil off your paper to reveal the painty texture.

Take your stencils to the sink, and wash them with mild soap and water to remove the paint from your stencil..

Here is a close-up of how the paper looks:

Thanks for taking the time to watch my video and read my tutorial, and give it a try for yourself! It is super easy, and the patterns are endless, just use your imagination!!! :)

Journal 52 (January in the bag)

I started this art journal "class" at the start of the new year. I am not sure it is a real class, as I am not really "learning" much, but more of something to look forward to accomplishing each week. It is basically a group of individuals who come together to bounce off one another, and we are able to then share our pages by posting a photo on the Facebook group page. The gal in charge posts a "prompt" at the beginning of the week, and then we can use that as a jumping off point, to creating our journal page. We will have one page for each week of the year, so if I am able to follow through for the whole year, I will have a very full art journal.  I have done year long projects before, but they usually consisted of one page a month, and then I pass the book on to the next person, and so forth, or one page a day in my art journal for a period of 30 days. I have not been "committed" weekly for a whole year before, so we will see how this goes- I am doing this along side my college daughter, so maybe she will keep me on top of it.
I started by folding watercolor paper and making signatures, and sewing them together with the Coptic stitch. Then I dug out my real leather pieces, and cut a cover for my stitched signatures. I glued the chipboard "covers" to the leather, and then wrapped it around and made a flap for the front. I used an elastic headband for a stretchy closure- I set a grommet in the leather, and then stuck the headband through the hole, and tied a tight knot in the head band, so it wouldn't pull through the hole in the grommet. Then I just stretch the loop around the journal, and it holds the flap shut. I made the flap rather big, because as I work in the book, it is going to get quite fat, and I still want the flap to overlap the front cover some.

As part of the prepping of the book, most people decorated their front covers, but because I chose to use real leather, I did not want to alter it in any way, so I did a title page instead, which worked out great, because I had figured it out to have enough double page spreads for each week in the book, so I didn't want to have just a blank first page.

Week one prompt: Up Up and Away

There were so many different takes on this prompt, and seeing them all pop up on the Facebook page was really cool. Mine turned out a little subtle, but I wanted to draw a full body figure, which I have never done before, and to make it look like she had movement was really hard. I suppose the more I draw the better I will get, but for now this is where I am at. 

She was done with only colored pencil.

Week 2 prompt: Somewhere, Some Place Simple

I was so impressed with all the fun places people used as their place to feel inspired. The first thing that came to my mind when I read the prompt was my bed. I know that sounds silly, but I am a severe insomniac, and I usually just lay in my bed while my mind races until I finally get to sleep. Those hours of trying to wind down, usually bring lots of creative ideas. This looks nothing like my actual bed, but oh, well. :)

Week 3 prompt: What Makes Me Smile

This prompt was really very self explanatory- Journal the thing that make you happy or smile. My original idea for this page never materialized- I tried 4 or 5 times to make it work, and it was really a flop... I ended up Gesso-ing over it all and starting from scratch with a totally different idea. It is not what I envisioned, but it is on paper, and I am OK with just letting go of this one.

Week 4 prompt: Building Character

This was fun- self portraits! OK- Not even close to a self portrait, but I am free to journal how ever I want. I was really trying to work with watercolors for this face, but I learned that it is nearly impossible to "build" on watercolors- I am not sure how to shade a face without building colors on top of each other. I would get a good base, let it dry, and then go to add more layers, and when I would try to blend, it would just release the color underneath-- so frustrating. So, I tried mixing with Gesso, to give it more of an opaque nature, but when I would add the wet medium on top, it would reactivate the watercolor below, and I would have a mess again. I set it aside for a day or so, thinking a solution would come to me, but the only solution I could come up with was to Gesso the face again, and start with another medium. When I added the Gesso, it made for a really muddy mess, but I just went with it.  I then used lots of layers of colored pencil, and blender pencils, to achieve some kind of shadowing. It is not the best, but I think I am going to have to walk away from this one too. I am trying to remember that this art journal is for trying new things, for practice- not for masterpieces, but for lots of creative play and lots of failures.

I will try to post monthly with the pages I have done for the previous month- we will see how that all pans out in time. 

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 :)

A Work in Progress

I have been spending the last few weeks on a canvas for a special someone, I hope it turns out as I plan, because if it doesn't- I won't be giving it to her. I know- I shouldn't be so critical of my art, but I am, and that is just part of the perfectionist in me. Not that my art is perfect, by any means, but if I can't find peace with a piece of my art, then I don't feel it is finished.
Anywho- enough rambling- I will post some photos, and would love to have a little feedback on where to take this next. My ideas may not be materializing as I hoped, so could use some honest critique, on what is pleasing and what might look out of place. I "tampered" with the face some, and have come to a "happy place" with it, no- it is not intended to look like a real person, it is a character painting of an angel, so yes, it does take on some whimsical features. I tried to make her look like a more mature being, instead of a younger girl, which is where most of my girl faces end up, which was rather challenging to me, but I hope I have achieved that more mature look with her. Your thoughts?

These are the first two photos I took of her. Her chin/cheeks were a bit lopsided, so I rounded that out, her hair was a bit flat, so I added some shadowing for dimension. Her eyes were way too dark- so I lightened them up a bit, her nose- well, it looks like it was broken at some point- I think I have that fixed. LOL 

Here are the new photos:

Full view of the canvas, I think I fixed all the wonky features, and her orange neck- LOL 

Close-up of the face and neck- I know her neck looks long and lanky, but I kind of like that look.

Just a necklace? I will pierce the canvas, and run the chain in to the back, and secure it there. Just not sure if it is too much, or not?

Just earrings? Not sure if they look right or not. I don't want them to look like two pearls just stuck to the side of her head. 

Extreme closeup of the dimension of the earrings. This is where I worry they may be too much, but I do love texture, so maybe they are ok?

Necklace and earrings? Overkill, or OK? Again, I love the added texture to go with the texture of the wings, but I don't want to over do it. Would love to hear your thought! 

Thanks for checking out my blog :)