Fun with Watercolors

Jane Davenport has a whole new mixed media series.  Specifically I really wanted her "Mermaid" markers, but they are nowhere to be found.  Not on her website though they are really expensive on her website - $89 and on Michaels - $39 Her product line is in Michaels but they don't have a lot of the line in stock either in the stores or online.  Guess I have to wait.

Meantime, I'm playing with DerWent pencils and my little Windsor and Newton portable watercolor pan.

Unfortunately these subtle pale washes don't show up so well online.

I call these next two my flower girls.  Since I seem to have a challenge getting both eyes to look as I want, I sometimes cover one with something.  In this instance I cut flowers out of magazines.

 

Welcome 2017

I welcome the new year.  The past four months have been waaaay too occupied with selling our property in Southern California and moving to the Phoenix area in Arizona.  It's hard to believe

we did it, but for many reasons it was the right decision for us.
So far, we love it. Of course we have yet to live through one of their famous summers here.  We may lock ourselves in the house with the A/C for those months. We are in a very active 55+ community and are taking advantage of some of the amenities like their gorgeous gym and fitness center.   Everyone is very friendly in our community and I suspect it's because we are all transplants from somewhere else.  They do fireworks here for New Years Eve as well as July 4.  I was so concerned about the dogs but we barely heard anything - dual paned windows really helped!  People in our little community didn't do fireworks.  We're past that stage in life.  So, it was an enjoyable evening for us.....and the dogs.

I don't know if artists are even blogging anymore except for my friend Jacki.  

My first piece of "art" for the new year is a piece of mail art which I'm sending to her.  Sorry, Jacki, you'll get the hard copy in a few days .

Glue stick is my friend these days and you know what they say about it.......

Long Way to Go

Finally here is face #15

You may recall some time ago I started my "100 Faces" project.  I certainly got sidetracked.  Nothing new about that.  Happens all the time.  This is only #15!  I wasn't going to post her because…..guess why?  She's not good enough?  How am I ever going to be good if I don't practice?  So, I'm forcing myself to post the not so good with what I consider good.  Her eyes are a bit wonky, but my eyes are a bit wonky too!  In fact I bet everyone's eyes are a little wonky.  Don't we all have one foot that's just a tad larger than the other?  The great thing about the way Dina Wakley does her faces….she always uses Gesso on her pages….for more than one reason.  It's a great foundation for acrylic paint.  But it also is great for drawing with the Stabilo All #8046 pencil.   I usually just scribble over lines if they're not in the right place, 

but I can use a baby wipe to remove the pencil.  No gesso, no 

"erase".  I promise to try another face today or tomorrow.  And if I remember, I'll tell a funny on myself in relation to my word for the year - give.

~ Give ~

Cardboard Journal Workshop

Yesterday was my day to host the workshop for our Eastside Art Group.  There are eight of us, each with differing artistic talents.  Eight beautiful souls participating in a monthly project.  I can't remember how we met individually.  I do know I met Jacki first.  I think she invited me to come to Linda's annual holiday boutique where she was selling some of her art.  The others were there.  Linda suggested that we get a group together and do 
monthly art projects.  The rest is history.  
A few months ago I was searching for some inspiration for my project.  I didn't have to go very far.  I found it on Michelle Ward's blog.  I was so excited to do this project as I knew each and every lady in our group would make journals in their own style.  I knew Erin's journal would be flowers and rain boots…..

and

I knew Jacki's would have a paper collage face in it…..and here's the beginning of a face.

I knew she would use interesting papers because that's what she does.  She's a paper collage artist and collects anything paper.  She has quite a stash.  She had to leave early today so this will not give you the "finished product", but you get the idea….

I expected Linda's to be eclectic and unique.

Libby's would be free and easy just so like her!

Diane's would be really colorful and fun!

Norma's was a surprise.  Usually she does projects as a gift for her granddaughter.  But hers ended up a representation of a "getaway" for her.

and mine (still unfinished) - I loved Michelle's black and kraft theme, so I went with that.  It was fun collecting stuff that fit that theme.

A big thank you to Michelle for the idea and instructions.

~Give ~

Three Hearts

Art journal play is the best form of therapy I can think of.  When I am playing in my journal or even when I'm creating something in Photoshop, I am truly in the moment.  It's a wonderful form of meditation.  I admire the way dogs, and all animals for that matter, live in the "now".  They seem to be perennially happy.  They just takes what comes.  I could use a lesson from my dogs.  I can just hear them saying to me "Don't sweat the small stuff….or any stuff!"

~ calm ~

Back to Faces

Yes, I'm back to faces.  Since this one is in my journal, I prepped the page with gesso and a wash of acrylics…..added a little doodling and a stencil.  I drew "Pretty Woman" with a Stabilo MarksAll pencil.  

In the coming days I will be doing more faces.  

Someday soon, I'll get back to my photography and PS edits.  I seem to flit back and forth and obsess over one or the other for a period of time.  

Bless you all who are following me….you never know what you will find on here.

Oh and look what I got in the mail from Linda at Just Another Volunteer.  Thank you, Linda!!

Do visit her blog.  She is involved in the ICAD project, and this is one of her works. ICAD stands for Index Card a Day.   For more info on this visit Tammy at Daisy Yellow blog.  I believe she is hosting it.  It's not too late to join in the fun.

~ Namaste ~

Weeks 16, 18 and 20

I keep trying to catch up and let's face it, things just take me a while.  I realize this is a journal, but I have to please myself.  Seems some pages sit on my workspace far too long,  but it's because I haven't found the sweet spot yet.  I know I could just post something, but I'm sure you all feel as I do…..I don't care if it's not perfect…. I do care if it doesn't please me!

Week 16 involved adding a piece of cardboard from a food box.  

I just really wanted to use this Meyer Lemon Cookie Thins box because I l-o-v-e them so much.  They are dangerous for me.  But I didn't have a spread I felt I wanted to put it on.  I had drawn the face, so I added it as a tip-in to this page that had a dictionary page glued to it.  Since the previous spread below was very colorful and reminded me of crows, I thought I could just sketch some crows.  Ha!  I need a bit more practice.  The page looked boring with not a lot of visual interest so I decided to add my cat stamp as a border, thus fulfilling week 20's theme of using a rubber stamp in an unusual way.  I don't know how unusual this border is, but I loved the cats with the birds.

Now doesn't this look a little like an abstract crow?  Anyway…..this is the other side of the tip-in with an inspirational quote (requested for week 18).  It's a bit hard to read but says "Art is music frozen in time" followed by "Music creates order out of chaos", a quote by Yehudi Menuhin.  I've always liked this quote.

DLP Week 17

This week's prompt was to draw my favorite shoe(s).  Since I'm retired and it's summer in Southern California, my absolute favorite shoes are my flip flops.  I drew one of my flip-flops.

  I then added the acrylic background but did not like it. 

 I pondered for a few days on what to do with the lackluster page in my journal.  Aha….. I decided to collage it.  First the shoe…..

Then the background….. I just had to get rid of the hideous green background!

The most time-consuming part of collage is picking the papers.  And then there's all  the little scraps of paper lying around on the workspace and on the floor….glad nobody came to visit while I was doing this project.  My final reward was getting rid of the glue on my fingers and fingernails.

 I debated whether to add just a bit more red to the background but

 after careful consideration decided to stop where I was.  As my artist friend Jacki says, it's important to know when to stop.  

~ Calm ~

Art Adventures Part 2

I'm taking Jacki's class at Catalyst on Thursdays for the next few weeks.

There are about 15 terrific artists in the class, and we are having a ball.  She first taught us the technique of using a credit card to paint.  You might remember my posts with my "sassy girls" here 

and here. This week we worked with 4 x 4's.  We just tore out

 4"x 4" papers from anything - junk mail, catalogs, newspaper and brought them to class.  We added them to our journals and embellished with more torn papers.

We worked on adding borders to our pages and doing crazy text from a prompt across the page like this.  The border was done with a W I D E black marker.

And finally I did a  credit card face with a border of tissue paper.

I always have so much fun with other artists.  I wish I didn't have to clean my house and do all those mundane chores - I'd rather play with art, wouldn't you?

~ Calm ~

Art Adventures Part 1

OMG, I've had a terrific week - two whole days with like-minded people.  

Linda of our Eastside Art Group was the teacher/host this month.  I've been waiting patiently - no, really impatiently,  for her to teach us this technique…..plaster over various substrates such as wood, cradle boards, masonite, with acrylic wash and then beeswax.  While we were waxing we could add various items.  Actually we could have added these items by embedding in the plaster too.  We used various tools to punch, gouge and otherwise grunge up the surface.  

This second image is a better exposure photo-wise.

I was so preoccupied with my own work, I forgot to take pictures of everyone else's.  There were some fantastic pieces.  You can see Jacki's post here.   She has a couple pics of Libby's work in this post too. I had so much fun, I ordered a beeswax/UTEE melting pot and beeswax beads.  

Thank you, Linda for a really fun workshop!

~ Calm ~

More Credit Card Faces

This credit card face thing is very addictive.  They don't always come out a "work of art" but sometimes it's fun just to see how they do come out.  It's just so difficult to control the marks the credit card makes.

I'm now wondering if I should have switched the captions on

these two…

 

The one below might be a better "Bad Hair Day" but that's what Photoshop is for .

Actually none of their hair looks like a good hair day.

I'm thinking these might be good for a calendar.

~ Calm ~

Documented Life Project - Week 12

I finally finished Week 12 objective - cut up a magazine and use in a spread.

I actually did two halves of a spread.  This half was actually cutting up images from a magazine.  Could not resist making a face from an image of a speckled egg.  The hair was made from an image of some sort of grain.

On the second half of the spread I used only one magazine image but I love it because of the quote from Brian Andreas of Story People.

 For the background I used some of my prints I pulled from a homemade gelatin plate.  I layered stencils over those and attached paper doily paper to the bottom.

~ Calm ~

Sassy Girls

I'm still learning to paint faces with a credit card.  I call this my Sassy Girl Series.

It is not easy for me to paint/draw with a credit card.  I want the results to look like something.  It's a great exercise for loosening up because you have very little control.  I'm all about control so this is a good thing!

My good friend Jacki is a master at this, so I enrolled in her class to spark up my face practice.

She had a box full of papers….tissue papers worked really well.  We were given different substrates….paper of different thicknesses and thin boards.  Some were larger, some were really small like the redhead above….maybe 3"x3".

 We used glue stick and matte medium to affix the torn papers to the substrate and then started painting.  I think I'm better at charging with a credit card than painting, but I'm getting better.  I love my final image below.  She just has a sweet expression.  I did the top image and her in my journal, so I didn't use torn paper….just paint.  

I have promised myself to practice more of these on a regular basis so I can just whip them out.  I think they would make cute cards.