A Game Changer

I am very excited about Carla Sonheim’s year-long online class for 2020!

It is called, “Words and Pictures.”

For the first assignment, I used the phrase, “This might be impossible to read but it was fun to make,” using a game theme:

I am hoping this class will be a game changer for me and help me write a children’s book!

If you are interested in Carla’s class, you can watch a 3 minute intro video at CarlaSonheim.com

Cheers! 🙂

New Year Inspiration

Happy New Year Friends!!

Have YOU put on a your creative thinking cap(s) for 2019?

 

I purchased this art book a few years ago…

It is just the daily inspiration I need in the new year!

I made a book-marker for it… You can see I have a square as part of my design (see yesterday’s post).

What inspiration will YOU use in your creativity in the new year?  I hope you share it with me!

Cheers to new creative discoveries! 🙂

Learning Color Pencil

I am taking an online class from Kelly Hoernig called, “Art and Nature in Color Pencil,” at JeanneOliver.com

I purchased Kelly’s book a few years ago.  I liked her idea of combining this art medium with collage:

Yet, learning color pencil seemed like a difficult subject to me.  It reminded me of watercolor in that you start light and add layers to get deeper values.

Taking an online class is helping me get more comfortable with color pencil:

(YES, I realize it is CRABapple not CRAPapple…) Lol! 😉

It helps me to get feedback from my teacher, Kelly and learn from my classmates.

Writing down the colors I use in my sketchbook creates a guide for future subjects I study further.

I am learning color pencil slowly and hope to add collage soon!

What subject would YOU like to learn more about?  I encourage you to take a class!

Cheers! 🙂

 

Drawing Quirky Characters…

I discovered this online class over the weekend at JeanneOliver.com – Quirky Characters with Lucy Cooke…

And I haven’t been able to stop drawing… a very good thing! 🙂

Here are my beginning drawings in my sketchbook on Friday:

I wanted to loosen up and create more quirkiness in my drawings…

So I decided to start my faces with something familiar…a little paper collage:

Experimenting with different drawing materials helped me relax too.  I also like how Lucy gives different ways to start a drawing of a face:

I started the ones above with watercolor hair and then used water soluble Faber Castell graphite pencils to add the details.

It was super fun to give little “stories” to my characters as I did with my collage ones.

I did the sketches below with a .7mm pencil, blending stump and a little color pencil where mentioned:

I think I have come a long way in my pencil sketches in just 3 days!  I think that Lucy Cooke is such a good teacher.

This class is teaching me so much and I’d highly recommend it if you’d always dreamed of drawing faces that are playful and fun!  It is one of the more reasonable online classes I’ve taken in price yet it doesn’t disappoint in content either.

Cheers to quirky drawing! 🙂

A Little Art

Hello friends,

I am feeling much better and happy to be blogging again! YAY! 😃

I couldn’t stay away from creating in my art journal for too long…

And discovered this sketchbook to be the perfect size for a little art!  

Sometimes I think I have to make something BIG for it to be considered as ART…

Yet, this is not true!  After all, flowers come in all shapes, color and sizes so why not art?

And art journaling isn’t about a MASTERPIECE…

But EXPLORING and creating…

And experimenting with different art mediums!

Who knows what discoveries I will make by creating a little art in my journal…

I encourage you to give it a try!

Plant a little art today…

Cheers! 🙂

Oregano And Chives…

Bet you thought I was going to say, Oregano and Thyme! 😉

I used to have “Thyme” but the Oregano kind of took over… haha 🙂

Oregano and Chives are “perennial herbs” meaning they come back each year.  (Thyme is too but more temperamental where I live).

I decided to try painting them in watercolor on Arches 300 lb cold-press watercolor paper.  I went with the wet-on-wet technique at first:

Painting from my memory, I realized afterwards that I didn’t have the colors quite right!

So I added more watercolor paint… and less water.

More paint made it worse, so I let it rest for a day.

Since I didn’t really like it, I added Posca paint pens:

It still needs more pink but decided to call it a day.

I learned that painting from memory is not as accurate as painting from the real life or a photo.

Do you like to grow Oregano and Chives?  I would love to hear how you cook with them!

Cheers!  🙂

A May Day Basket

I remember as a young child making paper baskets and filling them with a simple bouquet of flowers from our yard.

Next, I would hang them on an unexpecting neighbor’s door handle, ring the doorbell and run!  It was so fun to give a gift of kindness…

My watercolor reminded me of those simple times as I worked on it yesterday:

Perhaps the swirls of color could be ribbons on a May Pole?

Happy May Day!

Cheers! 🙂

A First Layer

I was able to get a first layer of collage images glued to my canvas on Saturday for the online art class I’m taking from Anne Marie Grgich, that I shared with you in my last post.

The canvas is 18 x 24 inches:

This is the first of MANY layers glued with liquid matte gel medium.

I used an old credit card to smooth my papers down but still got several air bubbles…

So I decided to try a second collage on cradled wood board, this one is 11 x 14 inches:

The air bubbles still showed up but drying overnight helped many of them to disappear.  The rest of the bubbles I will need to pop with an exacto knife and add more glue and smooth with my fingers.  

I learned that the first layer of glue needs to be completely dry BEFORE adding the gel medium on top of my papers.

I did like working on the surface of the cradled wood board better than the canvas as  the surface was more even.

Someone in the class recommended “Yes” glue as it has less water in it than the gel medium.  I think I will try this in the future.

I will show you my collages as they progress…

Hope your Monday has very few wrinkles or crinkles (as in crinkly foreheads…)

Cheers! 🙂

P.S. Thank you all for your concern about my right eye.  It has almost completely healed, yay! 👀

 

 

A Poke In The Eye

Somehow I irritated my right eye…

I don’t know if I got something in it or if I scratched my eyeball.  I’m going to an eye doctor this morning to find out.

It just reminds me how wonderful it is to SEE colors and EVERYTHING!  I am so blessed.

I’m very excited about this new online class I just started, hosted by Carla Sonheim – go to CarlaSonheim.com to learn more about the online art classes she offers.

The name of this class is The College Techniques of Anne Marie Grgich.

Check out Anne Marie’s art on Pinterest  if you’d like to see her AMAZING detailed collages!

I found a few more books at a different thrift store yesterday to add to my collection and I got the Senior Discount!  Yes, there is a plus to being 55 years old and older! Lol! 🤣

I figure what images I don’t use in collage, I could use as references to paint! ☺️

Sorry to report, I did not see any Nancy Drew mystery books at this store but I did find a great book on container gardening for only $1.00 – YAY!

Anne Marie Grgich’s collages are very detailed with MANY layers of images.  One of the things that inspired me to take this class was to learn how to create more transparent layers in my own collages.  Plus, what a bonus to watch videos of another artist’s process!  I’m learning so much and the class has just started!

So back to the process of cutting and sorting images by color for this class…

It is much more fun than a poke in the eye!

Cheers! 🙂

Letter “C” Is For…

Letter “C” is for color!  Like this continuous still life I did over the weekend:

Each week, I’m inspired by many creative blogging friends!

This week, I’d like to share a COUPLE of them with you… CAN you CHECK out their blogs?

Sharon, is currently creating an alphabet journal – colorful, captivating and clever…  You CAN find Sharon’s cheerful blog:  Make Art Magic Happens

Cheers! 🙂