Face 4

Got my 4th done early today during a bit of downtime and a very strange conversation with an unknown in World of Warcraft. :/

Face 4 is the little cat girl at the bottom, in case you haven't been following along. They are all rather whimsical but that's the mood I have been in lately. I haven't felt like putting forth the effort for realism. I feel like drawing something that will make me smile, or drawing what I feel inside perhaps.

I plan on coloring the piece when I get as many little faces on there as I can, with what media stands to be decided. Check back!

Faces 2 & 3

I know, Face 2 (on the left) looks a lot like Face 1. I had to re-draw it but it is different. I went to paint Face 1 and the paper in my sketch journal did not stand up well, plus I had already over shaded with graphite so it is a muddy mess at the moment, completely destroyed. I am going to try to salvage it, but not tonight and probably not tomorrow.

So, these two ladies are on a watercolor block and once I get a few more faces in there I am going to color and embellish.

They were very therapeutic to draw today and didn't take me long at all I drew them while cooking dinner.

Face #1

I'm off to a fair start. I got my face done today. 28 left to go!
And this is how she evolved.

The shading is off, I'm not happy with it but I got really tired and I think I will let her rest and finish the shading at a later time. I am going to try and fit 29 faces (or as many as I can) on a two page spread in my journal. Wish me luck!

29 Faces in September

And here I go again! At some point in my future I WILL finish this challenge. Will it be this time? Well, I guess we'll just have to wait and see, huh? I think I'm ready, prepared. But it is in my nature to always feel ready for a challenge. I will, however, keep joining as long as she keeps hosting. Rain or shine. Win, lose, or fail!

A quitter never wins, right?

Quote Love #1

I love quotes! I love songs with lyrics that mean something to me! I have scraps upon scraps of paper in my ephemera drawer with quotes and lyrics on them. The problem with that? I can never find anything when I WANT it. EVER!

I am truly a disorganized mess when it comes to "micro-organizing". Sure, all my art supplies have a place and I am pretty good at keeping everything in its place, mostly. But it's the little things that get me, the words, letters, and pictures cut from magazines that I want to work with. My scraps of quotes in a drawer.

So, this is my attempt at organizing my favorite quotes. I am adding a few here and there to this post until it gets big enough and then I will make more. Once I see what I have, perhaps I can move onto organizing them by topic, but... baby steps.

So, my first quote...

Life is not about learning to survive the storm, but rather, learning to dance in the rain.

-Author Unknown

To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.
-Ralph Waldo Emerson

My Time Away

I know I have spent some time away from my blog. Life sorta piled it on. There was a family reunion, a passing of a dearly loved one, the anniversary of my own father's illness, hospitalization and ultimate passing, and there was a smattering of other familial issues and ongoings.

I was around but not "art blogging" I was also making an honest attempt at getting my business blogs off the ground and organized. Sill working on that, actually. But I expect to have a little more creative time now, well, hope. I HOPE to have a little more creative time to myself now. One of my two littles started school this year and I only have one more left at home, she is a handful though! But I hope to be starting school next week. Should I get he money to pay for school then I will become a (hopefully full time) student for a few  semesters and get my degree in creative media! I plan on focusing on web page design (which I already largely know how to do, but my knowledge is, admittedly, a little dated) and photography.

So, that's where I have been. I hope to get back to arting for myself really soon (as in this afternoon!)

Arting My Heart Out!

I have been keeping myself busy trying to catch up on a couple projects I have taken on. Yesterday was a particularly bad day that put me in a real low place, since I have been trying to stay away from drama of any and all sorts. I have taken my muses advice and spent more time disconnected from the awesomeness of the interwebz and cell phones.

What have I done with my time you ask? Well lemme tell you!

I took on the ICAD (index card a day) challenge for myself and I decided that I would make my official start date the 1st of July. That means I need 8 cards as of tomorrow! From there I will do one a day, unless I fall behind or something, which would never happen. Riiight.

These are what I have so far...

Tangles used in the double Zendala on ICAD #2 are Echoism, Cracked, Trentwith, Bales, Nipa, Strircles, and Eke.

Cracked & Strircles being some of my very favorites. First attempts at Trentwith & Nipa.
This is not my first try at Eke, but it isn't one of my favorites, it never looks right to me.

ICAD #1

I started my ICAD (index card a day) Challenge today and had a ton of fun with it. I combined my ICAD with 31 Hearts, and tossed in some Zentangle and this was the result:

The Zentangles used here are Cockles -N- Mussels, Cracked, Jax, Munchin, Sanibelle, and Ving. I had room for more, but I really felt it was done and looked nice once I had gotten this far. Cracked is one of my all time favorites, so is Jax. This was my first ever attempt at Cockles -N- Mussels, Sanibelle, and Ving.

You can find a whole database of Zentangles at TanglePatterns.com, if you're interested in learning how to Zentangle on your own, or you can look up a Certified Zentangle Teacher in your area at Zentangle.com!

Unfortunately this ICAD, a couple backgrounds in my Gratitude Journal, a Tea with the Muse entry, and an entry into my BoD was all I got done today.

31 Hearts Challenge

Ok, let's try this again...

In May I attempted the 29 Faces in May Challenge put up by Ayala Art. The challenge came at a bad time, I had some bad comments come at me regarding my art and it really unlocked the inner critic and let her run rampant through my head for weeks, throwing up blocks here and there, willy nilly. It also brought out some of my most despised flaws about myself and I let myself fail at it. I thought I was prepared for it, I wasn't. But hearts, I can handle hearts. THIS, I can do!

So, with that I am joining the Ayala Art 31 Hearts Challenge! I would take it a step further and say that I would film my daily heart making, but I have yet to get a good tripod for my phone.
: /

Soon.

I am also challenging myself to an Index Card A Day (ICAD)! I don't know for how long. Maybe 1, perhaps 10, or possibly 30! I know in the Art Geeks FB group they started it a while ago, many ladies are already on 35ish. I didn't start with them, but I have been contemplating ICADs for a while! And with the hubby back at work I have a little more art time to myself, I am definitely going to use that time to my advantage!

Man, I sure wished I had that tripod...
It is on my list of first things to buy once my art budget returns!

MDS in a Day Planner?

I haven't finished my Book of Days, volume 1 yet. It's actually sitting in the kitchen about 1/3 filled. But I kept missing weeks so I decided to try something a little different  and I have moved on, for now. I have moved my Book of Days, my main Art Journal into a daily planner. I did this because I have gotten pretty good at keeping a daily journal, even if it's just a word to describe my day. But I am BAD at keeping up with my book of days. I really don't know why this is, and I really don't have time to sit down and figure it out. Wisest advise my Muse imparted to me is - Just to do what feels right and good! And so, I did!

Below are the pictures of the evolution of my Multi Day Spread (MDS) for this week, week 1 in a day planner!

 I started with the idea to just do something everyday and also keep up with my normal daily journaling.

 No sparks, no ideas, no plans. I just do what I feel like when I feel like it.

At this point in the week I am not sure this "do what you feel like when you feel like it" is going to work as this page just looks like I bled all over it. : /

And this is week 1 finished. Now, I wouldn't say I have a theme, or that it represents anything. It's just what I felt like. I am not... pleased... No, my inner critic is not pleased with this page. Inner critic says it is a hot mess! But my muse says "It is what it is meant to be. Moving on!"

Ah, and P.S. the "lonely" on the neck of the girl on the right, doesn't really pertain to me actually being lonely. The daily entry reads something like (without quoting) - Hubby is going back to work and I have become used to his presence around the house on a daily basis and his help with the baby, so I expect there is going to be a little lonliness showing up in the future.

So, that's last week. I started this weeks MDS yesterday and normally I wouldn't share as I like to save it for a cohesive blog post once it's finished, but hey! I enjoyed creating this page so much yesterday, the act of laying down the bright colors of paint and coming across the girl in my magazine clippings was just pure therapy, joy, and peace!

So here is what this weeks spread started out like!

Creative Spark

There wasn't much art to be had around here yesterday as it was a day filled with preparation for my husband to return to work. He's been off work for over almost 5 months due to an injury that he got while working. He's had surgery and  was ready to get back to work. Unfortunately it's his birthday, what a day to return to work, huh? But he has tomorrow off for the 4th of July Holiday, so that counts for something, I hope. PLus, we have ice cream cake in the freezer, that's enough right there to make anyone's day!

This morning, I woke up and felt that spark. That need to fling paint. No specific ideas, just wanting to work. It was a super productive day all around, I got quite a bit of chores done around the house and I got all kinds of arting done therefore I have stuff to blog about! I am one happy girl!

I started off with working in my Gratitude Journal. I am really making some headway at getting it caught up!

I had gotten as far as a couple layers into the background late last night as I was washing after dinner dishes.  And this morning I finished my mom's page!

 

Moving out of the family part of my list I am moving on to more things that I am thankful for. Back in February our hot water heater died for a day. My husband was crafty enough that he got it working again (and it is STILL working *knocks on wood*) but not having something you use every day and take for granted really makes you notice how important it has become. I am DEFINITELY thankful for hot water!

 

I know, I am using the punchinella  on EVERYTHING! I don't have any stencils right now as my craft budget went out the window while hubby has been off work. So, I was lucky enough to receive some punchinella in Happy Mail a few months ago and I use it on almost everything!! Ah well. : /

Next I took a sketch I had done last week (seen below).

I knew what I wanted to do with it but I don't have the drawing skills for it. I tried drawing flowers for her hair and that went to the dogs in about 3 minutes! So, then I had another idea...

I looked up some beautiful flowers and printed out pictures, cut them out, and voila!
This is one of my most favorite pages ever!! I don't even think it needs words on it! I thought briefly about painting her, but I really liked her like she was. And now I love the flowers because they give it a 3-D effect because they aren't glues flat, most of the edges are lifted some so it just comes off the page.

My muse really came through for me today and is pretty happy with all we did!

I also finished off last weeks MDS (Multi Day Spread) in my Book of Days, and started this weeks. I will blog that tomorrow!

With that I am going to go watch Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World with my babygirl. 18 months old and she watches that movie like she knows what's going on, she LOVES it! :)

Soothing the Soul

Yesterday I worked on something that completely soothes my soul when I do work on it, but something that I don't work on nearly enough!

My Gratitude Journal.

I have not worked in the Gratitude Journal for some time, since April, in fact! I haven't even added to my list since around that time! You can see the last time I worked in my Gratitude Journal here, in my old blog.

Wow! That was a while ago. I always spend a few moments a day thinking of my blessings and what I am thankful for and I always think to myself that I should write some of this down. I don't, of course. I always say I will remember it later, I never do. But there is never a shortage of things I am grateful for, so I guess I had better get to work!

So this is what I completed yesterday...

Lukas' page. I used layers of red and blue acrylic paints and masking tape. This was a really fun background to do work on. Cut the letters from a magazine and used Opaque markers for the lettering. The red bleed a little into the sun and it doesn't want to cover very well but that's ok.

Lukas is my middle child, but he is my sunshine. He is the sweetest and most well behaved boy I know, always an angel. He was born 8 weeks early after a particularly rough pregnancy and didn't get to come home to me for 2 weeks. I am blessed to have him in my life.

 Arianna's page. The baby of the family and totally the trouble child. At 18 months she is my mischief maker. Always into everything she shouldn't be in, but I love her. The purple paper in the bottom left with scribbles on it is her "art". She loves to have her own paper and pens when I am sketching or painting and after writing all over herself she usually gets to the paper eventually! If there is going to be an actual artist in the family, my money is on her!

And lastly, I plopped down with my sketchbook last night while watching TV and this came out. I am particularly proud of it because I am really working on shading and I think it is a pretty good attempt. Maybe I will paint it tomorrow. Maybe not. I may leave it like it is and just do something fun with hair, I have a couple good ideas.

Doodling doodles for fun

Yesterday was doodle day, apparently!

It was Day 6 of Shiloh Sophia McCloud's Tea with the Muse, in which I let my Muse choose a music station on Pandora, then I just listen and doodle, filling a whole page. Afterwards I am to try and decipher what it is that she is trying to tell me. (P.S. Tea with the Muse, or the Divine Spark 90 Day Practice is another free program and TOTALLY awesome!)

I coupled this challenge with one from Motley Soul. Mika's been posting weekly mixed media challenges in her free challenge group. I haven't had time to participate since it started, about three - four weeks ago. So, yesterday I started with number one! To find your doodle! Mika advises that the white page is the ENEMY of creativity! I agree, so I mixed some acrylics with water and went to work in my Muse Book. Once it had dried out, my muse chose a New Age station that had some AWESOME new age/oriental style music (it was TOTALLY relaxing) and I grabbed my trusty Micron 08 to commence the doodling!

And this was the result:

Upon looking back over my page and thinking about what my Muse said to me these were my revelations regarding my Muse:

• My Muse said the squiggly line is my doodle and I should use it and turn it into other things, like the flower, and the butterfly. She says it has SO many uses.
• My Muse is happy! Happy with the page, happy with being used (for lack of a better term).
• She says I need to disconnect from media and look inside for inspiration more often during this time of growth and learning. And you know what?! It works! It's really there!
• My Muse has made it clear that she is happy with my new Book of Days idea, for now and says we have to see how the book stands up to what we are going to do to it since it is simply a daily planner.

And I come away from yesterday's challenge feeling full of creativity but not like I have to use it OR lose it. It's a content fullness, it says it isn't going anywhere. IT? Is there another muse in there?

Please tell me your name(s)?

And to close, here is a photo of my current art journals. I call them the Fabulous Five!

What was I up to today? 29 Faces in May

So, as you may or may not know (I posted about it a couple days ago), I have joined the 29 Faces in May challenge in which I challenge myself to create and share 29 faces within the 31 days of May! I am so excited for this challenge, already on the Facebook group I am seeing AWESOME faces being posted!

I asked my oldest child last night when he thought my first face should be and he said "Alice". Ah, Alice. I LOVE Alice! For my picture, I used American Mcgee's Alice as inspiration. I actually started drawing before I looked at any images and realized after I had the face painted and background started that I had done her hair wrong, eh, that's ok. She was just inspiration.

So, she was supposed to be a little bit mad, sadistic and dark with a hint of innocence. Well, I am still working on getting those emotions across in facial expressions and painting. But I am pretty pleased with my outcome, for me.

This is the sketch this AM.

I got about half way through and HATED her! I am telling you, I was so frustrated with how the background was coming out and I still had hair and clothing to paint, I wasn't happy with how her face was painted, and I knew it would be forever before I was done. My inner critic almost had me convinced to toss Alice out and was in the middle of telling me that it would just be easier to draw a marker girl in my Book Of Days and just forget about this piece, when I realized, all the hard work was done! Sure, it might be a while before I was finished depending on how much I "fixed" her, but I should at least give her and myself a chance! So on I trudged...

I am sorry, none of my other "process" pictures came out very well so I am not going to worry about sharing them, we will jump right to the finished piece.

The finished page.

Close up of Alice's face and some graphite shading.

My favorite quote from the movie.

So, there you have it! Face number 1 completed! Join me tomorrow to see how face #2 turns out!

Portraits 123 Giveaway!

Rhomany is giving away a spot in her new set of portraits classes!
Check out her post HERE to find out more about it!

29 Faces

I am joining the 29 Faces in May challenge!

I'll have 31 days to make 29 faces!

I can't wait!

I am hoping it will help me to improve my drawing skills and quality of work and maybe even form a couple new habits for daily arting and blogging.

You can find out more about the challenge here.

Oh! And you can also help Ayala Art celebrate!!
"Almost 500" blog giveaway!
Win this handsome guy here!

See you again on May 1st!

Gratitude in the Kitchen Studio

I haven't been as active in my art as I have promised myself, as I always plan to be and because of this my art supplies have migrated yet again in search of the perfect place for me to "art". This time, it's the kitchen! Yesterday I posted to my sisters in the Book of Days facebook group that I was having problems finding time with chores and my little ones around to get projects underway, completed, and even just holding onto good ideas for my art! Well they inspired me with their advice, ideas, and input on how they do things to move into the room I spend most of my time in! Thank you ladies, you have done my heart good!

Even though the dining room is only a room away from the kitchen, in fact, it's practically the SAME room, I can't seem to get in there and BE creative. I guess, maybe, I don't like the room. I don't like it's set up, or perhaps its lighting options. The over head light gets so hot when it is turned on and up, and with summer right around the corner I know that this is going to cause trouble. The overhead light also provides light with just a hint of an orange tint, only slightly annoying and off-putting, especially since the room is usually so dark that you need the light even in the daytime!

But in the kitchen, there is a big window that catches morning light so wonderfully (in fact, that's going on my gratitude list today, that window in the morning), it doesn't have the most spectacular view, the backyard and our dog that desperately needs to be groomed, our neighbors house, some power lines, and the tops of the trees at the park, but it is such a wonderful window to open up in the morning, and morning is usually when I feel the best so I HAVE to enjoy it!

I didn't move everything. I figured most things could stay in their storage places in the dining room, I use our hutch for art supply storage. I just moved in the things that I love to play with the most, things that inspire me when I have them near at hand. My gesso and paints in a plastic tote, watercolor crayons, pens and markers, brushes, and a trash bowl. Simple!

 My new workspace!

So, I went straight to play after moving my things around and a few more things joined me in the kitchen, a tub of scrap paper and ephemera and a stack of magazines I have had sitting around for a couple months now. First I started cutting apart one of the magazines and while I was doing that I realized that I hated the first spread in my Gratitude Journal, so I decided to change it! I don't think I still have a photo of what it was before, but below is what I did with it.

 I collaged some colorful scrapbook paper I had laying around.

 Covered it with some gesso, stamping, and paint.

Cut the lettering and heart from a magazine, and added some other touches to the background including the circles of purple paint with the cap to my empty water bottle!

And the end result...

Yeah, I am pretty happy with it. In all honestly I do feel like it needs something more, but I also feel like I will know it when I see it! Maybe when I am cutting pictures and words from magazines, or maybe next time I go to the store.

My Gratitude Journal is a small moleskine knock off with lines. I have taken two pages at a time and glued them together to make them sturdy enough to withstand some art, and so far, it's working pretty well, at least it didn't disintegrate like the larger one that I had and glued 4-5 pages together at a time (too much stress on the binding, I learned). 

So, that's my gratitude in the kitchen studio thus far today. I am happy and arty. And, every time I go into the kitchen for something I splash some paint on something or glue something down, I have pages going in both my Gratitude Journal and my Book of Days at the moment.

I think I will make much progress in this room because it is where I spend most of my time cooking and washing dishes (the perpetual and hated chore), this will also probably help me keep the kitchen substantially cleaner as I wash dishes and do other chores while waiting for paint, glue and gesso to dry. The only downfall of this room so far, no seat! I can see now that I am going to have to invest in a stool and fast!!

 My baby girl sat in her highchair while I got my art on!

Lifebook Lesson 14 - Honoring your (my) Past

This is our week 14 lesson in Lifebook.
I have been an unruly student and have jumped around a bunch in the Lifebook course so you will often see the weeks out of order. Here I just picked the most recent lesson that Tam had posted and ran with it!

I started this page last week, and as you can see below, she went through many processes.


This is how she started out, I was most proud of this drawing because I didn't have to refer to my drawing notebook to be able to complete the face.
Not once did I refer to my learning materials! I am getting it!


Then I watercolored her face and worked on some shading. Shading is always difficult for me but, practice makes perfect right?!? Have to keep after it.
I got her roughly where I wanted her without too much fuss but then she sat for several days, I had lost interest and I didn't know where I was going with her.
Last night I sat down and re-watched Tam's videos and worked along with her and this is where it took me...


It was around here that her hair had changed. I had lost the outline of the short "do" that I had penciled in but it didn't seem to fit anymore. I don't know why she turned out this way but I was lead to it and it feels right.





Voila!
Well, it is missing a fold out piece but I have yet to come up with something creative to do that will not cover my picture.

I am really enjoying the Lifebook course, many of the lessons are really fun and interesting!

Last Week's BOD Spread

For the first time in over a month I finished a Book of Days spread and it felt soooo good!
It FEELS good to get back to art. I have been arting a lot in the past week. About half way through the week I was starting to get discouraged, specifically in my Lifebook page. I had hoped to sit down and art it out! One day, done! Alas, that's not my life, there are little interruptions, BIG interruptions, bad days, busy-ness, and plain old laziness. But, I belong to a group on Facebook for the Book of Days and it has evolved into the most wonderful of support systems! When I am feeling down it's what I surf around on for a while and I always come away with a smile for I have found art posted by my sisters to inspire me or I have witnessed someone post with honesty about how they may need positive energy/prayers sent their way and I have seen a group of women swoop in to the rescue to offer prayers, love, support, and kind words. It leaves one with the most wonderful feeling that there are indeed still wonderful people in this world and this is just a sampling of such good hearts.
Effy Wild's blog post really says it all. <3

And so, onto the art...

I have been loosely following along with Julie Fei-Fan Balzer's 30 Days in your Art Journal.
Well, I bought and paid for the class and finished week one with no problems in March.
But then, in week two she does this awesome spread where she uses tags to journal on and I kept putting it off, meaning to buy the tags but never getting around to it. Weeks slipped on by and I started looking around my house for things to use instead, don't get me wrong, Julie offered up several awesome substitutions but I REALLY just wanted tags.
Finally the 1st of April rolled around and I knew I had been art-less for too long.


This is the background as it sat for over a month, untouched.

Painted with wet craft acrylics, I did the base in apple green over a non-gessoed page, then smeared a corner with another craft acrylic in a shimmery red which just turned out to be pink.
Stamped the circles with a toilet tissue roll and black acrylic paint.
Then I took my most favorite shimmery purple craft acrylic and colored some circles in and then painted some clear glitter acrylic paint over them because there just wasn't enough sparkle.
Yum, loving glitter.


Gratuitous glitter close-ups!

So after a month of ignoring my BOD I decided it was time to move forward and put this pretty background to use! I had considered using those subscribe postcards that fall out of magazines
(I started collecting them from all over), but they were a little too busy for my liking,
I considered card stock cut in the shape of tags or just in funky shapes but it seemed to plain.
And one day I was cleaning and re-organizing all my supplies and I found a stack of
multi-colored post its and that was IT!
They were bright and colorful but still a little plain for my liking, so I took a total of 12 of them and painted them all different with my watercolor crayons and then sprayed them with a spray I made from my shimmery red acrylic paint and water
(Again, it turned out pink, not red! Oh well!)

Shiiiiiiimmmmmmmmerrrrrrrrr!


Stacked in sets of 2 for journaling in a possible layout plan.

So, then the work started! This was one of the easiest journal layouts to keep up with!
I just tucked the sets of 2 glued together post its in my book and everyday I would pull a set out and journal on it and glue it down!
The layout was pretty much complete, I just had to journal!


Half finished!

My layout ran from Wednesday, April 11th to Monday, the 16th.
Somewhere in there I had decided that I needed something more and I cut some post its into three equal pieces and watercolored them and glued them in thinking I would write important words or something on them or something that would pertain to each day but I was undecided so they stayed blank for a day or two.
On Sunday, I realized that I should just incorporate my daily prayer journal into my BOD because I have been a bad panda and haven't been keeping up with it at all!
I belong to a 30 Day Prayer Journal group on Motley Soul, and Mika is usually so good about posting a scripture daily and thus far I glued and clipped all the ones from March into a composition notebook, but I hadn't done anything in April.
So, why not put those in my BOD!?!
I mean, I joined the group wanting to make scripture and prayer a bigger part of my life!
Well that's what I did!


The finished page!

On Monday I got Happy Mail from on of my BOD Sisters and in the envelope was my very first row house, some awesome napkins and papers, paper doilies and PUNCHINELLA!
I have been wanting some but found none in my small, small town, and I never get to go to the city anymore, so I was SO thankful that my sister H. Crump sent some to me!
To commemorate my first bit of punchinella, I used it!
As a stencil first with orange paint and I also cut off a small bit and glued it onto the corner!


Had to take a picture with the light hitting the shimmer paint.


And finally, showing most of the glued in scriptures!

And that's it for Tuesday's blog!
I finished two other projects yesterday/last night as well but I am going to blog about them one at a time and will schedule them to post the next two days so check back I am trying to make blogging a more regular thing!