Illustrated Recipes

I’m enjoying the assignments for Carla Sonheim’s year-long class, Words and Pictures.

This assignment was especially fun because I enjoy cooking. 🙂

My hubby helped me make this recipe in the crock pot last week since I get tired standing fairly quickly with my hip. I cooked it on low for 8 hours.

We made it without the wine and just added more broth. It was really delish!

For the second recipe, I experimented with tissue paper and gelli-printed papers. Plus, a few other scraps of purchased paper:

I look forward to Spring and fresh rhubarb in my yard so I can make this recipe.

Do you have a favorite recipe you like to make in the Spring? I’d love to hear about it!

Cheers! 🙂

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! 🙂

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! 🙂

Happy New Year!

No Time For Art?

Some days (or weekends) life gets busy and it feels like there is no time for art.

This happened to me over the weekend… I’m not exactly sure where the time went! 😉

Instead of worrying about it, I did some brainstorming in my art journal about what nature is to me:

Brainstorming is a fun exercise. I like to write quickly without judgment. These ideas I can use in my art making when I have a little more time.

Plus it gives me some ideas to think about for my next project.

How do you use brainstorming in your art making?

Cheers! 🙂

Expressionist Scribble

Yesterday, I tried my hand at asemic writing.  According to Wikipedia, “It is a wordless open semantic form of writing…”

Watercolor 

“It may flow as an abstract expressionist scribble which resembles writing but avoids words.”

Watercolor, Purple India Ink, Acrylic Bronze Paint

”The key to asemic writing is that even though it is traditionally “unreadable” it still maintains a strong attractive appeal to the reader’s eye.”

Watercolor And Elegant Writer Pen

”It seeks to make the reader hover between reading and looking.  All of this is similar to the way one would deduce meaning from an abstract work of art.”

I didn’t actually write words with meaning until this last one:

Watercolor And Elegant Writer Pen

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Cheers! 🙂

I Don’t Know…

Sometimes, I don’t know what to blog about…

Does this ever happen to you?

Or do you find yourself not knowing what to create?

I had another busy weekend with not much time to create art.

The new fridge was delivered on Saturday so we spent a greater part of the day cleaning inside and under the old fridge… before the new one could be installed.  (We moved the old fridge to the garage.)

One has to wonder why they have so many bottles of half used condiments just sitting around on a shelf, taking up space in the refrigerator.  😉

There was also those unexpected surprises, like the moldy cheese in an ugly shade of blue hiding in the corner or the lime that is no longer green.  (Oh, that’s what that was!)

The new fridge did get installed but the water hose leaked to the ice maker.  Luckily, my hubby was able to buy a part and fix it himself.  Fingers crossed that it is fixed! :-0

So back to creating art, I realize I got a bit off track…

I spent my evenings finishing this doodle of squares and circles with pencil shading:

I don’t know what month I will use it for my project… I’m finding planning ahead does have its advantages!  Like cleaning out under the fridge more than every 20 years…

Happy Monday!

Cheers! 🙂

 

Sonnet 43

How do I love thee?  Let me count the ways…

Today’s weird bird was inspired by Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnet 43:

In the book, Finding The Gift by Angela Howell, she writes; “Be the love you wish to receive…  Love you!  Love your life exactly as it is right now.  Happiness is an inside job!”

How do you love YOU?

Happy Valentine’s Day to someone special – YOU!

Cheers! 🙂

Your Handwriting As Art – Part 2

In yesterday’s post, I showed you some examples of using your handwriting to create collage papers.

Today, I’d like to show you an example of using your handwriting to create a completed piece of art.  (I did my art piece in my journal).

I  was inspired by a poem by Mary Oliver, titled; “Freshen The Flowers, She Said…” to create my handwriting as art from her book; Why I Wake Early:

I wrote her poem on paper in several directions with different pens and colors on watercolor paper that had previous drips of paint to create the collage paper for the vase.

For the table top, I wrote directly on the background paper.

I used scrap paper from the paint scrape technique for the flowers…  You can read more about that technique here: Scraping Paint…

I added some details with a permanent black Sharpie pen and a grey Tombow pen to create shadows.  I added highlights with a yellow Tombow marker.

Additional details were added with  a yellow Posca pen, pencil and Micron black .01 pen for foliage between the flowers.

I really like how this one turned out!  What do you think?

Cheers!  🙂

P.S. I will show you other ideas for handwriting inspiration in future posts.

Your Handwriting As Art – Part 1

Last weekend, I had fun using my handwriting to create collage papers.  I learned this technique from Carla Sonheim in her online class:  365 Daily Creative Practice.  

I enjoyed taking the lesson a step further and make it my own.  I started by using watercolor paper that I had previously painted.  The colors reminded me of the beach so I started writing about my memories of the ocean and the lake:

I used a black Micron .01 pen, a Uniball white and blue gel pen and a pencil.  I like the texture it created.

Next, I started with a white piece of 140 lb hot press watercolor paper.  I started writing my thoughts with an orange and blue gel pen, added watercolor on top in stripes, added more writing with a black Pentel pen, added Tombow markers, more watercolor, then a blue and a green Posca pen.  I just love how the layers give it a pattern:

My next one, I used a similar process as above, except I added a gold metallic pen and I started writing messier… Super fun to write MESSY!!

In both of these, I kept turning my paper a quarter turn as I wrote.

My last experiment, I used an old advertisement in a magazine for a girdle and wrote over it with a white gel pen and a Sharpie fine black pen:

For the above piece, I wrote about my memories of girdles… thank goodness we don’t wear these anymore!! 😉

I discovered that part of the fun in creating these papers for collage is the writing.

Tomorrow, in Part 2, I will show you ideas that may inspire you to use your own handwriting in your art.

Cheers! 🙂