Into the Deep

I love it when I see something that mesmerizes me so much that I have to create something based off it.

I was watching a video about different sea creatures that were discovered deep in the ocean and became mesmerized by their wavy bodies.

I remember quickly grabbing my sketchbook and drawing them as I saw them. The more I looked at those quick sketches, my pages quickly filled up with those curves. Eventually, it was this piece that came about.

Zen Pathways

I love how random things just come together. Pathways have been on my mind a lot lately. The path I chose to live has taken me to many unexpected twists and turns, but I continue to take each step towards what I want in life.

As I wandered the local library one day, I picked up a random book about Japanese gardens. Flipping through the pages, I fell in love with the gardens in the book. But what really took my breath away were the pathways through the gardens.

Taking the book home with me (and grabbing a couple of other random Japanese garden books), I absorbed as much as I could and then took the books back. They still stuck with me. The images and my thoughts/feelings about the paths I had chosen had to put down on paper.

I ended up making a series of four pathways and fell in love with each one. They surprisingly left me feeling complete at peace.

A Break from the Abstract

As much as I am loving playing around with abstract art work, I still need to make time for what I normally like to work on.

Just because I like to work on something, doesn't mean that I can't push my boundaries a little.  This is a little different than what I am used to.  Normally I like to work with watercolor and micron pens straight on to watercolor or mixed media paper.

This time around, I layered patterned paper on Bristol board and then placed a light layer of gesso over the whole thing.  The bird was drawn/painted with inktense pencils and highlights were added with gouache.  The whole time I was trying to ignore the itch to use micron pens.

A lot more materials were used than what I'm usually comfortable with, but overall I loved the outcome.  And I think that it still felt a like it was mine.  Definitely a process I would love to try again!

3 by 3, part 3

My final piece for the 3 by 3 project.  Yes, the colors did actually come out looking that washed out.  But that's okay!  I think it made the word "shine" appear brighter.

May your day shine brightly!

3 by 3, part 2

On a whim, I decided to make three pieces instead of one for Rose Wong's 3 by 3 project.  This was just a quick play with watercolor and India ink.  The "love" was then written in using white acrylic ink.

I'll share the final one with you on Wednesday.

Last I checked, she received a little over 200 pieces and was hoping for 400-500 pieces.  Did anyone else here decide to take part?

Making It Mine

Last week, I came across a tutorial by Jill Berry to make geo-papers.  I am a sucker for maps and map-like things, so I had to give it a try.

I ended up only using what I had on hand: watercolor paper, watercolors, India ink, and a spray bottle with water inside.  My final outcome was with the image below.  I tried to keep with more natural looking colors to make it seem more map-like.

I really liked both the process and the outcome.  The problem with the outcome was that it didn't feel like it was my work.  So I decided to play with the process a little more and make it mine.  I used colors that I normally enjoy using and included my love of hearts and arrays.  The song, "All you need is love," popped into my head as I was finishing this off.  I like the use of we instead of you, so I wrote in "All we need is love."

It definitely felt more like me and I wanted to continue.  This time I knew I wanted to play with blue and orange.  Rays of sunshine felt so appropriate and I immediately had "I Can See Clearly Now" stuck in my head.  I had to go with it!

This one was so much fun!  The only issue I had was that I made all the lines uniformly thick.  Oh well, lesson learned!  Next time I just need to reach for something that would vary the line thickness.  On to another one!

Now we're getting somewhere!

What have you done to make something you have learned into something that is yours?

I chose to giveaway the heart and first sunshiny ones for a couple of mail art swaps, but the final one is now in my shop.

L'ours Grizzly

I had recently gone to visit the Natural History Museum and I've been eager to paint some of the fossils that I had seen.

This was done on day 9 of AEDM.

My first attempt on the fossils was to work on the skull of a grizzly bear.  This was primarily done with watercolor and then the skull was finished off with ink.

Today Was Good

I've been going through the backgrounds that I made in a previous post.  Determined to get myself out of my comfort zone and push myself to make something with them.

The picture below was what the background looked like before.

I ended up coloring in the stamped image with watercolor pencil, using only yellows, blues, and greens.  Not feeling like it was complete, I took and ink pad and inked the edges of the paper.  On a whim, I inked the middle of the paper to bring the whole thing together.

Despite the bright colors getting muted by the ink pad, I still felt like it was a fun piece and that I needed something fun to finish it off.  What could be better than a little Dr. Seuss?

"Today was good.  Today was fun.  Tomorrow is another one."

Those words were stamped on and then outlined with a white gel pen.

That's it and I'm off to work on more fun stuff!

Thanks for coming by!

The Layered Pear

This one was bolder than usual for me.  Not only did I collage on some patterned papers, I also used acrylic paint.  If you didn't know me by now, I really don't like using the stuff.  For some reason I keep going back to it, just to see if I end up doing something that would make me like it.

I started off with taking strips of patterned paper and gluing them side-by-side on bristol, then painted on an off-white color to bring all of it together.  I stenciled over it to bring it together even more.  Feeling like the stencil was too bold, I lightly brushed on more of the off-white color.

I've got to admit, I've been craving pears a lot lately.  During one particular craving, I looked at the background I had done so far and thought that a pear would be a perfect subject.  So I quickly drew in a pear, painted the silhouette of the pear white and then inked it in.

I loved the outcome and was going to leave it there, but the more I looked at it I felt like something was missing.  A quick mix of watercolors onto the pear ended up sealing the deal.

I'm glad I pushed it a little more and added color, it made a big difference.  And to tell you the truth, acrylic paints grew on me a little with this one as well.

Disappearing Acts

For the GPP Street Team Crusade No. 55, it is about blending two colors in a background and then stamping a large image with those two blended colors.  The interesting part is that this is supposed to make the images drop-out of certain places.

I don't have a lot of stamps.  As a matter of fact, I don't have any large stamps.  So I decided to work with the closest thing I had - stencils.  Already excited about fall colors, I went with a wet-on-wet watercolor background of purple and orange.  While it was still wet, I placed a stencil over it and sponged on more purple and orange watercolor.  It blended really well and because it was still wet, the stencil actually pulled some of the watercolor away, leaving light outlines around the stenciled parts.  I like how subtle the images were, but I wasn't sure that I was going in the right direction.

I started to pull out what stamps I did have and found a stamp that looked like it was sort of big enough to work.  Again I worked wet-on-wet painting in a big rose-colored heart and random shapes, then pushing in some purple around those shapes.  While the background was still wet, I stamped "all my love" with some rose and purple watercolor.  The words are still visible but slightly blended in with the background.

Although I liked how the stamp blended with the background, I thought I would try painting in the background wet-on-dry and then waiting until the background was dry before I stamped over it with more watercolor.  I think it would have looked better if I had done a wet-on-wet background, letting it dry and then stamped - something to try later!

One last try for now - I decided to try this process out with ink.  I mixed a 50-50 mix of water and ink of yellow and blue, then quickly brushed on some yellow ink.  While the yellow ink was still wet, I quickly brushed on some blue ink.  The ink seemed to dry pretty fast, so by the time I placed ink on the stamp the background was dry.  I noticed that the yellow didn't seem to show up on the stamped image.  Either I didn't put enough yellow or it mostly merged with the blue.  Either way, it made the stamped image stand out more than I thought it would.

Now I'm off to figure out what I want to do with these backgrounds!

AEDM #8 & #9

For Monday and Tuesday I got a chance to play around with some colored india ink that I watered down.  I had heard that it was different from using watercolor and wanted to give it a try.  So far the differences seemed very slight, but I do want to play around more.  One thing I did like was that it was a lot easier on my micron pens to draw on top of the ink.  Watercolor seems to dry them out really fast.

I'm also having fun playing around with different lettering and just loosening up.  Not the greatest looking outcomes but definitely a learning experience!

That's all I have scanned in for now; more to come soon enough!

Birthday Dragon

The above drawing was the final outcome (after MANY trials and errors) and was done with a dip pen and india ink.

Monday was the big day - a project I've been working on and off since the beginning of this year was received by my husband for his birthday. He loves dragons, so I though it appropriate to draw my own version for him. I was a nervous wreck since I don't usually draw for other people, but I think he enjoyed receiving it.

I think I may play around with a copy of the original and see how it might look with color . . .

Thanks for looking!

Finally Done!

My project that I've been working on daily during AEDM is finally done. I didn't realize it would take so long but I was determined to get it done! And here it is:

It was based off of the photo that I found here and done for a class project and as a present for my husband. The Buddha was actually done within a week, the stippled background was the real doozy.

I've learned to like pen and ink and have a better appreciation for those that work in that medium. I think I'm going to give myself a little break from it, but it is definitely something I want more practice in.

Thanks for looking and all of the support!

Works in Progress

So far, I've been taking Art Every Day Month as a time to work on projects rather the the route of finishing one piece of art every day - which is absolutely fine by me.

It's slow going, but here are a few things that I have been working on:

Pen and colored pencils.

The above was inspired by the Barron Storey journals (specifically this one). It's a little hard to see but there are very light shapes blending into the background, like ghosts surrounding the figure. I don't know if it's done yet, but for some reason it keeps calling me back to look at it in my journal.

Pen & Ink.

Above is just a sneak peek at the pen and ink project that I mentioned in my previous post. I'm about a quarter of the way through, but hoping to have it done and ready to share in about a week or two.

Graphite pencil.

And last is just some practice in perspective that I did today of my front door and the view out of it.

I'm loving AEDM and hopes that it gets me in the habit of doing something daily by the end of the month! Thanks for looking!

So far . . .

I've been playing with pen nibs and india ink these past few days; mostly just trying to get the hang of it. Honestly, I'm not sure that I'm liking it.

Some of the pen & ink practice.

As soon as I thought I was comfortable with the pen and ink, I started on a few drawings and was frustrated through the whole experience.

Pen & ink done with Speedball sketching nibs and Winsor & Newton India Ink.

I felt like I had no control of the pen and wasn't sure how to handle showing shadows and shading (hence all of the weird lines). For now I'm going to keep trying - at least until a certain project is done. Crossing my fingers that I at least learn how to handle the pen and ink properly by the time I'm done. Any tips would be most welcome!

Daily

School, drawing practice, chauffeuring, cooking, cleaning, volunteering, card-making - just some of the things that I have been up to. And there is so much more brewing in my head that I can only wish I could add to the list!

November 1st marks the beginning of Art Every Day Month and I can't wait to take part! This past month I have been really pushing myself to do something creative or art related every day and most days it actually happens. I'm hoping November is the shove I need to make it more of a daily habit. And maybe give me something more to share with you!

Until then, have a happy and safe Halloween!

I Am

This is a fairly new site called On The Wing, that is a place for all things art related. There was a recent journaling challenge that I decided to try. This challenge was to write a poem (just filling in blanks) then make a mini book and collage about the poem inside it; also, we were to make a watercolor background using salt.

This is my interpretation of that challenge:

The poem was actually harder than I thought. I got stuck on many lines but pushed myself through it. When I was finally done, I was actually surprised at many of my answers. I loved how this challenge pushed me out of my comfort zone and inspired me to try new things. You'll see the poem is typed out and placed on the shipping tag.

Above is the first inside page of my minibook. It was simply acrylic on graph paper. The words were stamped on white cardstock and then ripped and added to the book. They were words taken from part of the poem. The flower was outlined in charcoal.

This is the second (and final) page of my mini book. I'm not a religious person, but the mention and imagery of prayer flags has been popping into my life a lot lately. So I ended up finding a picture and plopping it into my book. After reading my poem, it was actually sounding like I was praying for something and thought it appropriate to paint the words "I pray" over the picture in acrylic.

And that's it for now! Thanks for looking and have a good weekend!

Wreck This Journal - Part 3

The weather is so nice and my days have been so busy with school out, I haven't had much time to even think of WTJ. Fortunately, I did remember to at least get a few things done!

burn this page

I started looking around for a lighter . . . and couldn't find one. Matches? Don't have any in the house. No fireplace. My stove is electric, so couldn't produce a flame. I was standing in my kitchen with my journal while cooking dinner and trying to figure out how to burn this thing. An AHA moment finally arrived! Who says I need to have a flame? I quickly and awkwardly lifted up the skillet I was cooking on and laid my page on time of the hot stove. I had to move it around a bit to get more burns in, then promptly replaced it with the skillet again.

I was really scared at first, but then I remembered that the sink was right behind me if the burn turned into something more. Though I think I should have been more concerned that I was balancing a hot skillet in one hand while burning my journal in another!

I was going to do more with the page, but thought that the burn looked great on it's own (and whenever I think of touching the burned parts it cracks or falls off).

tear this page out.

(put it in your pocket. put it through the wash. put it back in.)

I crumpled it into a ball and threw it into a pocket of one of my pants I was about to put in the wash. Though the paper is a bit on the thinner side, I was expecting it to make it back in one piece. Wrong!

I wanted to at least attempt to put the page back together. It was separated into little bits and still crumpled up. I had to slowly pull them apart just to see what was on the page without it breaking even more in my hands. Of course, I couldn't just leave it at that! I ended up taking some distress ink and lightly rubbing it along the top and edges of the page. When all was done, I took a glue stick and placed back in.

do some rubbings with a pencil.

If you haven't figured it out yet, I love having color! I grabbed a #2 pencil, ready to do some rubbings when I thought, "No way! It's going to look so dull!" It was quickly followed by, "Who says it has to be a #2 pencil?" Colored pencils to the rescue!

I grabbed my four-sided cheese grater (using only three sides) and used a different color for each side. I love the funky layered look that came out of it!

I see more fun times ahead with all of you and this journal! Happy wrecking everyone!

So Lucky

Here is a quick journal page I started yesterday and finished up today. Being St. Patrick's day, I thought about luck and how lucky I am to be where I am in life.


I'm lucky to have a loving family, caring friends, food on my table, a roof over my head, opportunities for friendship, and a chance to dive into what I'm passionate about. Some days it can be easy to forget that and so much more, so I quickly made this in my journal as a reminder.

Wishes & Change

Okay, a bit later than I thought I would get them done. But here they are. . . .

Below was for the first week's question at 52Q (What do I wish for this year to bring?)


I used patterned paper, watercolors, fine line markers, and ink pads.

And this was for week 2 (Am I afraid of change?). Journaling is in the back.

Made with fine line markers, watercolor pencils, ink pads, and alpha stamps.

Thanks for looking! Have a great weekend!