Ernie Was All Ears…

I hope you have earmarked my post today from Monday…

I completed my journal page and story yesterday:

Earnie was all ears whenever someone said, “Chocolate!” His large elf-like ears elevated his hearing to an extraordinary level of expertise. Everyone attributed Ernie’s extra large feet (size 11) to his enormous nose. Ernie was Eve’s son and she was extremely proud of Ernie’s ability to play the piano by ear, while riding a unicycle. A remarkable talent “earmarked” by many of Eve’s peers at an early age… as an exceptional child. Eve on the other hand was more reserved and preferred to express herself with wearing expensive and elegant clothes and shoes… And unusual hats!

I hope you enjoyed my silly story… I earmarked it to give you a smile!

Cheers! 🙂

Earmarked

I finished my beetle doodle that I started recently. I enjoyed working on it in the evenings.

I enjoyed adding gold ink in addition to black ink:

I started another story in my art journal. Perhaps you remember; Meet Linda and Bob – Part 2

This one is earmarked for more word play! I am using a thesaurus for my story prompts this time.

I plan to show my completed journal page this Friday… I hope you will earmark this post!

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 – Part 2

Below is the beginning of my art journal page from my last post:

And the completed page, focusing on using words with the letter “P”!

First, I drew a body for Linda and Bob, coloring them with color pencils.

I wanted to find an unusual last name for my characters, starting with the letter, “P” so I consulted this old book, “Cyclopedia of Names,” from 1911.

Here I found the name, “Pumbelchook.” The name’s description fit well into this section of my journal. (A bonus was many words starting with the letter, P!):

The part about mathematical problems, led me to a graph from an old book on Engineering Drawings to collage to my page. I liked the “patterns” and colored them with color pencils. I also created a few patterns of my own in ink.

Next, I gave myself some word prompts starting with the letter, “P” to generate ideas. I will share how I did this in a future post.

The title from an old paperback book, “Trouble in the Park” gave me a subject idea. It was a bit challenging to fit my story into the space provided so I printed it on my computer.

I changed the spelling of the last name slightly to “Pumblechook” for Linda and Bob:

I cut out the square drawing of the dog (Paprika) from December’s square-a-day project and glued it into the space under the story. I found the words, “peach pie” in an old cookbook. I created my pie slice image from a Gelli-print.

I really enjoyed the challenge of creating this way… What story would you give Linda and Bob?

I encourage you to add a story from your imagination to your art journal!

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! 🙂

September Square-A-Day Project

Hello Friends,

I hope you are enjoying my daily art squares as much as I’m having fun creating them!

I tried to tell a story in each art square with watercolor or Copic markers and a touch of collage. Sometimes I added a little Micron black pen too.

My stories for September’s square-a-day project are simple, something I did or saw or felt for that day.

I was inspired by the artwork in this book by Roxanne Evans Stout:

I hope you share favorite squares that may inspire you in your own stories…

Cheers! 🙂

P.S. In case you are wondering, square #17, the words say, “Ferris Wheel.” It was the name of a paint sample. I thought it looked like a child’s name. Our local fair occurs in September. 😉

“Berry” Quirky…

We were challenged to make a quirky character on any surface using any material from my online class, Drawing Quirky Characters…

This assignment was just what I needed to get my creative juices flowing again!

I started with a previous drawing and folded the paper in half vertically.  Using the white gel pen sketch as my guide, I cut out my quirky gal with scissors:

I don’t think I could have invented this hat without my scissors… (It reminds me of a hat that Wilma from the Flintstones might wear!) 😉

Lucy Cooke suggested I use it as a stencil so I did in my sketchbook with fluid acrylic paint:

Next, I drew details with pencil, added watercolor pencils, pan pastels to soften her features, black pen, white gel pen and color pencils:

I think she is “berry” quirky!  How about you?!

Note:  This was a fun way to create my own stencil.  I look forward to using this idea with other subjects too.

Cheers! 🙂

Mistake Or Possibility?

I recently purchased  this children’s book, “The Book of Mistakes,” by Corinna Luyken on Amazon:

I must admit, the book TITLE grabbed my attention!  And I wasn’t disappointed! 🙂  This is an excellent book for everyone at any age in my opinion.

We all make mistakes – I know I do, especially in art!  Yet, I have learned that how I perceive a mistake in art making can make a difference…

Do I give up and throw away the art project or see it as an opportunity to learn something new?

Do I figure out how to make a mistake part of my design?

Or do I take a step away and later return to see possibilities instead of failure?

I hope you will google this author – Corinna Luyken.com and look up her Q and A for writing this book.  Her drawings are wonderful too in her Portfolio!

What do you do when you make a mistake in art?  I’d love to hear from you!

Cheers! 🙂

P.S. In tomorrow’s post I will show you how I changed a mistake into a possibility!

Jakob Cats

Introducing Jakob Cats – A Dutch Poet for today’s Whimsical Wednesday story:

 

Who is the REAL Jakob Cats?  And why is this his favorite dish?

 

Here is my story…

Jakob Cats was known as “Father Cats” because of his love of cats.  Jakob took in many stray cats during his lifetime that kept him company while he wrote his poetry.  At one time, Mr. Cats owned over 30 cats at once!  :-0

Having owned so many cats, Mr. Cats started to look like a cat himself.  He grew several face whiskers extra long and painted the end of his nose a light pink color.

Mr. Cats recently purchased a new “calico” coat with a matching hat that looked like cat ears.  He wore it to his mother’s home when she made him his favorite birthday dinner, “Veal Stew with Prunes.”  He was the cat’s meow in his mother’s eyes.

Now it is your turn to tell a story!  I hope that you have fun giving it your own creative spin!  I’d love if you shared it with me!

Happy tales to you!  🙂

A Sample Story

As I was giving out candy to children in Halloween costumes this evening, I started “painting” a short story with names of paint samples (highlighted in the text) and my imaginary faces:

Mrs. Pine Nut was considered a bit odd as a middle school teacher.  She liked to wear a small vial of Toasted Pine Nuts around her neck.  They were a reminder of her family tree.

She enjoyed teaching children how to cook and her favorite subject was Spun Sugar:

Mrs. Pine Nut would often keep a little Baggie of the crystallized candy in her desk drawer to nibble throughout her day which tended to make her look strung out…

One day while teaching her class about how to prepare Persimmon pudding –

Mrs. Pine Nut got a little Egg White on her face:

The children in her class all snickered and Mrs. Pine Nut thought she was being as cool as a Cucumber in her green pants suit:

Later when she stepped out of her classroom for some Open Air –

She discovered to her dismay that she had egg on her face!

She immediately turned a Fabulous shade of Red!

Mrs. Pine Nut went home that evening and relaxed with a Berry Red glass of wine –

While watching the Goldfinches in her yard:

She suddenly burst out in laughter at her Humorous Green appearance!

“Nonsense wakes up the brain cells.  And it helps develop a sense of humor, which is awfully important in this day and age!”  – Dr.  Seuss

Happy Storytelling!  😄