A Successful Tuesday

February 24th, 2010

Last night went pretty well at my art league meeting… I actually got some painting done! It was pretty quiet in the room, I think we all were concentrating very hard for once! Not sure if this is finished or not yet, but I like it! I may have to work more on his body; I couldn’t imagine what a real skeleton looked like! lol But I do like him without arms and jaw. Sorry, the photo has a bit of glare.

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Today, I had some time to update Rags-n-Tags. I’ve added quite a few more supplies to the supplies section, as well as some Easter goodies on my Originals and Made To Order pages. I’m in a Spring mood, I just can’t wait for the warm air to blow in, and the flowers to start blooming!

Going Punk…

February 10th, 2010

My husband is planning on doing a collaborative art show in Hartford this fall – something he’s been doing every year for a while now… and something that I’ve always wished I could be a part of. I never really had the time or inspiration to create anything worthy of hanging on a wall… but this time I’m going to dip in and give it a try!

BUT…. the theme is going to be PUNK! Oh my! I’ve never been much of a punk person, although I’ve listened to my share of the Clash, Rancid, the Ramones, and a few others… and some may even have seen me with jelly bracelets, 6g earrings, a tongue ring, and metal spikes on my backpack during high school years… but going into full punk mode and trying to create art that is inspired by punk may be a bit challenging to say the least.

I’ve known about this show for months now; and have been struggling to find inspiration. Could it be because I’m in mommy mode for 95% of my day? lol Last night at my art league workshop I decided to just jump right in with no real plan. I ended up making more of a mess than any real art… too bad I didn’t have someone take my photo! I was covered in paint (good thing I wore my apron!), and it took forever for my canvas to dry because of the tons of layers I kept applying to it! No way am I brave enough to post a photo of it now… perhaps when I start to see something become of it. Go ahead, call me “scardy pants”! ’cause I am! ;0) he he

But, I will share with you some photos of my sketch book. A few weeks back, I was trying to get into punk mode and play around with some ideas in my book. These were just some playful sketches to help me get in the mood…


Here I used a page from a phone book, watered down acrylic, and marker.


This one I had a real hard time photographing… the colors are a more deep red and black, with much more detail than you can see in the photo. I had fun playing with a technique I read about in a collage book; using petroleum jelly to resist the paint. It was so much fun!

I love these characters! I used watercolor and charcoal pencil.

Well, this will be a challenging project (on top of everything else)… have you ever tried to create something outside of your “comfort box”? Is it possible to succeed? lol

Back to Basics…

February 3rd, 2010

Last night at my Tuesday art league meeting we decided to take it back to basics and practice some watercolor washes. Boy is it harder than it looks! lol I have successfully finished two watercolor bird paintings in the past… {in which I suppose I avoided doing washes without even thinking}… because I just couldn’t get the hang of it! One and a half hours and ten sheets of paper later, I finally decided to call it quits. But, we all enjoyed ourselves experimenting, giggling, and complaining! I guess I need more practice… or perhaps I could blame it on the supplies. ;0)

After I gave up on the watercolor washes, I whipped out my journal and started doing some sketches. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m working on creating a new design for my blog which involves creating a cartoon of myself; so I needed to figure out a cartoon style that I liked. I came up with a couple cute ideas… now to decide on a direction and finalize one. The only problem is that I think the wider faces look cuter; but unfortunately I was born with a tall face! lol

The Elephants are Hung!

July 8th, 2009

Last night I finally finished up my elephant collage for my daughter’s room. Yay! I love the way it came out, it looks great in her room… but now that its hung it looks so small! lol

Elephants

Josie's Room

I’m happy that its finished… I was starting to get sick of working on it! Now I can start with some experimenting in my art journal. I’m excited to start on something new.

I started playing with eyes a few days ago; and was happy to find that I at least still have some talent to work with! he he

sketch-eyes

I think I’ll be playing around with faces some more… I really need to practice on the nose. I’ve been watching some videos on you-tube; and I also can’t wait to try out some of the technique’s I’ve watched people do in their art journals. It feels so great to be getting back in drawing and painting again!!

Getting Artsy!

June 26th, 2009

My mother in law invited me to join the town’s art league on Tuesday nights… of course I readily agreed! I haven’t done much drawing or painting since college, so I am so excited to have a set time to do some art. Over the past couple years I’ve been researching and enjoying collage art on the internet; I’ve even collected my share of books. But, I’ve never really had the time, patience, or motivation to actually dip myself into the world of collage. I’ve taken this opportunity to get myself into it and just do it! 

 My first project… although now that I’m into it, I think I should have started out with a more experimental piece… is a collage piece of elephants to go in my baby’s room. I’ve been wanting to do a piece for her room since she was born, but never had the time for it. I’m glad at least now I know it will be finished before she graduates from her crib! lol It was so great to just work on it for hours at a time with no distractions. I meant to take photos along the way, but kep forgetting; sorry! But here’s a photo how it looks now… this is with four hours of work. It’s taking me a lot longer than I imagined it would!

 elephant collage

I think next time, I will just do the whole background, then put my image on top. It’s hard to work around the elephant shapes! I can’t wait until its finished… I can’t wait even more to see what else I can come up with when I’m just playing around with no set ideas in my head! ;0)