Walking Stick

I recently discovered the imaginative art of Stefan G Bucher.

Stefan drew a daily monster for years. If you’d like to see some of his art, he has a couple of YouTube videos. Google his name to find them. His art is also on Instagram.

His method of creating monsters with ink and a compressed can of air inspired my Walking Stick:

Did you know that Walking Stick insects are also known as stick insects, stick bugs or bug sticks?

My insect is a little on the strange side but that makes it all the more interesting to me!

Happy Creating!

Cheers! 🙂

Whoa! Who Turned Up The Freezer?

Yesterday, it was unusually cold in the Pacific Northwest where I live…19 degrees Fahrenheit! Brrr!

It inspired me to create this silly weird bird drawing in my sketchbook:

I added color with Tombow and Copic markers:

Whoa! Who turned up the freezer? I sure wish Mother Nature would turn up the thermostat!

Happy Weird Bird Wednesday!

Cheers! 🙂

Meet Linda and Bob

Remember my Journal Prompts post last month? I had so much fun completing my journal page that I decided to continue this challenge for myself in the new year. If you don’t remember my post, you can see it here, Art Journal Prompts – Part 2

Meet Linda and Bob:

I know they have a story to tell! If you missed it, they were part of my most recent post.

Perhaps you want to write your own story about Linda and Bob and share it with me next week?

I will be revealing my completed journal page and story next Monday, January 6.

I hope you join me!

Cheers! 🙂

Santa Claws…

The gifts are all wrapped

And under the tree,

We’re hoping Santa Claws

Let’s each of them be…

The twitch of his tail

And gleam in his eyes,

Means he’s been in the catnip,

This is no surprise!

His message to you,

This Christmas Eve night…

Never leave a catniped “Claws”

Out of your sight!

Meowy Christmas my friends!

May your day be filled with happy surprises!

Cheers! 🙂

A “Bug” In My Bonnet

I enjoyed my blogging break for the last two weeks… Although I couldn’t stay away from reading so many of your creative blogs! 😃

I am looking forward to a new month… December is here! And Christmas is just around the corner… Hoorah!

Someone put a “bug” in my bonnet in the last couple of weeks and I have been drawing these bugs from my imagination:

I started with their imaginary “hats” from my Gelli-printed papers or copies of my own artwork.

I drew my imaginary bug in pencil before adding permanent pen.

There is something wonderful about creating from your imagination. It is so freeing!

Lastly, I added color pencils to give these bugs a little pizzazz…

Which bug(s) do you like?

Cheers! 🙂

A Weird Bug?

I interrupt this blogging break…

To show you this strange bug that appeared in my art journal:

Wednesday’s can be about weird birds…

And weird bugs!

One never knows what creative bug will land in my sketchbook next…

Happy Weird “Bug” Wednesday!

Cheers! 🙂

A Bird Shape?

I tried to paint a Hummingbird in watercolor for today’s post but it ended up in the trash! Oh, don’t worry, this happens sometimes. 😉

So I went back to the basics – painting patterns in watercolor and getting comfortable with my brushes and trying different color combinations:

And look! A bird shape showed up!

When I haven’t painted in watercolor for awhile, I have to slow down and just PAINT without thinking about outcome.

I added pen on top of my watercolor in black Micron pen with a little white and gold gel pens. I like how the ink gives it some pizzazz!

I now have a page of patterns I can color copy and use in my collages.

What do YOU do when your art takes a different turn than you envisioned?

Happy Friday!

Cheers! 🙂

October Square-A-Day Project

As I wait for the doorbell to ring and costume-clothed kiddos arrive with pillow cases or plastic buckets to be filled with sweet treats, I review my October square-a-day project.

This month I tried to stick to a theme. Nature was my inspiration. Simple squares. Gelli-plate printed backgrounds. What do you think of having a nature theme?

I left my 5×7 inch Gelli-plate out on my art table for the entire month of October. This led to some wonderful explorations with acrylic ink and fluid acrylics. I also enjoyed printing on old book pages.

Below are some of my favorite squares:

I believe I am now supplied with as many prints as the kids whose buckets were overflowing with Halloween candy! 😉 Sweet!!

I look forward to hearing which squares you like!

Happy November! Cheers! 🙂

More Fun With Fungus!

After my exploration of collage and drawing a pair of Rosy Bonnet mushrooms on Monday, I decided to try an ink doodle with Micron pens:

Next, I made a stencil of the mushroom from my pencil drawing. I wanted to use it in my Gelli-plate printing.

I decided to make a stencil of each shape with card stock and a plastic material (it is made for creating quilt patterns but I thought it might work):

Both worked for these fungus prints but I liked the results with the card stock the best. It was less slippery on the Gelli-plate and left less lines around the stencil on the prints:

It was fun trying both positive and negative shapes on deli paper and vellum paper:

I can even use the leftover card stock stencil in my art journal…

But that is fun with fungus for another day!

I hope I inspired you to explore mixed media in a subject you enjoy.

Cheers! 🙂

Reproduce Print

I am very excited about a new discovery I made on my Gelli-plate recently.

It was a happy surprise to reproduce print from a dictionary page onto smooth, vellum paper that I can use for collage.

I applied a mixture of Golden fluid acrylics, colored india ink and acrylic glazing medium for my prints.

The color of the paint is what color the words print. Once the paint dries, other colors can be layered on top of it of the first print. For the example below, I printed the dictionary words in red and then layered a light yellow on top when I made a second print.

It seems that words with dark ink reproduce the best print. I am using pages from an old children’s dictionary:

Here is another example of gold paint for the words and turquoise and pink layers on top:

I am very excited about the possibilities of using these prints in my art making! I like how the words are obscured so that it gives a little mystery.

Below are some other Gelli-plate prints I made on old book pages and vellum:

I hope you have fun discovering new possibilities in your art making!

Cheers! 🙂