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.

Weather Abstraction

Surprisingly, I still love playing with abstracts. It has opened me up to becoming more open to mixing up what mediums I use, though I'm still trying to not go overboard on supplies.

The artwork above was created with watercolor pencils and acrylic paints. I seem to like using acrylics in bits and pieces. It is definitely growing on me.

I'm not happy with the way parts of this artwork turned out, but I loved the process and was surprised where I went with this.  I think that I am heading in the right direction with this, incorporating a looser style and eventually mixing my more detailed work with some abstract.

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!

Building a Rainbow

Daisy Yellow thought of a great idea to build a rainbow.  Each day we were to pick a color of the rainbow and make some art with it.  We could do any or all of the colors, no big rules to follow.

Here is what I came up with this past week:

Pink/Red

Yellow/Orange

Green

Blue

I wanted to play with watercolor pencils and make use of the white of the paper in each of these.  Each were done fairly quick and a little on the simple side.  Though I enjoy them as is, I may go in and add more to them at a later time.

Just an FYI, I'll have to make due with my iphone photos until I can get my scanner up and running again.

The Final Days of AEDM

This past week has been pretty quiet for AEDM, considering that I didn't feel like showing redundant pictures of a very slow going knitting project.  By Day 29 I ended up feeling like I had enough knitting out of my system and was ready to start drawing again.

The problem was that I didn't know what I wanted to draw.  So I ended up grabbing my favorite drawing book, Drawing Lab, and picked the first lab that I opened up to (which happened to be Lab 36: Machines and Inventions).  I have the holidays on my mind!

AEDM Day 29 - watercolor pencils, ink, gel pens

On Day 30, I knew that I really wanted to draw the little rhino statue I have had sitting on my desk.

AEDM Day 30 - watercolor pencils, poster paint pen

And with that - we're done with Art Every Day Month!

Rowing Through

This was for days 15 and 16 of AEDM.

I started working on this on Tuesday, when my husband decided to buy Saints Row the Third, and finished it off on Wednesday.  I liked the symbols and colors of the game cover, so I thought I would like to throw it all together on a journal page.  It was a quick sketch with watercolor pencils and then outlined with a prismacolor marker.

This could have easily been done in a day -- Though video games may be fun to play, they can be REALLY boring to watch others play. I ended up falling asleep while working on this Tuesday night.  Oops!

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!

Cut It Out

My favorite pair of scissors.

AEDM #6 & #7

Below are what I did on Saturday and Sunday for AEDM.

On Saturday there was more play with watercolor pencils and a micron pen.  I was planning on going one direction (I don't even remember what the direction was anymore), but for some reason it just felt like a funky tree belonged there and so I just went with it.

For Sunday it was just using watercolor pencils.  I'm actually thinking of going back to this one and working on it a little more with a micron pen or something.  Maybe . . .

I'm finding that watercolor pencils and a water brush are so convenient when I don't feel like dealing with my watercolors, but I can't seem to get rid of the some of the visible marks that pencils make.  Any artists that use them have any suggestions on how to fix this?

Thanks for visiting!

Pen Pal Art Swap

I recently took part in a the Small Art Pen Pal Swap that was hosted by Kira Harding (Journal Girl).  I was to make one small piece of art and write a letter to a person that I was assigned to.  My pen pal should have received it last week, so I thought that now would be a good time to share what I ended up making.

I ended up first making the picture above, but I was on such a roll after Peace, Love, and Joy that I ended up making the one below as well.

Peace, Love, and Joy were all outlined with black colored pencil.  For Enjoy Life I decided that I wanted to try using black watercolor and a small brush instead for the outline.  That one small change seemed to unify the picture a lot more than the colored pencil did. 

I wanted to play around some more and see what an outline using micron pens would look like, which led to the Sara painting.  Unfortunately I completely killed two perfectly good micron pens in making it.  Whenever I use microns or pitt pens on top of watercolors, it seems to quickly kill off the pens.  I really need to find a similar fine line pen that won't do that.  Or maybe it's time to go back to my quill pens and bottled inks.  To bring the name out more, I also took a watercolor pencil about the same shade as the blue background and darkened around the name.

I hope that Sara enjoyed her small piece of art and much as I enjoyed making it!

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!

Hands On

This is a portion of a journal page that I've been working on.

I've slowly been letting this one evolve, adding to it as I see fit. As a matter of fact, I don't think it's done yet. That outline of the hand has been sitting on the page for a long time now. One day I decided to make the background shapes and everything just fell into place after that. Added the eye the next day, added color the day after, and ending with the details on the hand.

I'm thinking of adding more to it, but haven't figured out what that more is just yet . . . so it sits for now as I work on other pages. Just don't be surprised if you see me revisit this piece later.

Thanks for looking!

Why Not?

As I mentioned on a previous post, I've been creating in front of my husband despite my uneasiness of working in front of other people. One day he complimented me on my artwork and jokingly makes a request. He wanted a dragon . . . with wheels for feet . . . wearing a bib . . . and pulling a train.

I know he was joking, but the wheels were spinning and I decided to surprise him with this:



Dragon on Wheels was inspired by this doodle and made with watercolor and fine line markers.

Thanks for looking!

Do You Believe?

For week three of 52Q, this the the front of the ATC that I made.


This was inspired by one of the fairies made by Linda Ravenscroft in her book called "How to Draw and Paint Fairies."

Thanks for looking!

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!

Work In Progress

Things are finally starting to return to some semblance of a routine. C has been back to school since last week and my husband is back to work after a 3-week vacation. Everything before today has been just spontaneous activities. So fitting in some creativity time for myself somehow got pushed aside. I did however get a chance to do some drawing and coloring here and here.


The most important thing was that I did something -- anything -- for me each day. The above is a work in progress that I've slowly been chipping away at since last week. The flower outlines one day, flower details the next, drawing in the leaves on day three, coloring some stuff in on day four, and so on.

I've made it a point to always have my sketchbook and a pouch of pens & markers with me where ever it is I go. That way I can always add one more thing when I have a spare couple of minutes. It has definitely made me feel like I am accomplishing something, rather than waiting for when I have more time. Sure, I seem to have several things that are works in progress and nothing in particular finished but at least it's getting there rather than going nowhere.

Day By Day

Resolutions, goals . . . whatever you want to call them. I tend to not make them during the new year because I generally find myself not following them. This year I have a few goals in mind, but I took a different approach. I chose things that I have already been doing but building upon them. My main one:


Do something creative every day. Last year, I slowly grew into the habit. First it started out here and there but in recent months I've made an effort to do something at least once every few days. So for the new year, I know I won't have the time to do something every day . . . but I'm so close, I can't say that I won't try.

And in that same light, if you are unfamiliar with Ali Edwards, each year she chooses one little word to help her focus. So my one little word for 2009 is:


Focus. I have so many interests that keep me going, that sometimes I can't decide what to do. I end up freezing and not doing anything at all. This year I choose focus to keep my list of activities narrowed down and can concentrate on just them. I can't just say only one activity because that would bore me, but having a few choices I can avoid boredom but still keep. . . you guessed it. . . focused.

So hello 2009, I'm ready to take you on day by day.