X, Y, Z And…

I made it through the alphabet for my art journal!  WHOOT!

And I completed 31 days of watercolor in July for World Watercolor Month!!

I thought you might enjoy seeing my finished alphabet pages…

An X-ray Tetra Fish for “X”:

“Y” is for Yellow:

“Z” for Zentangled zoodles… Which are zucchini noodles!

I still want to add paper collage and a few extra details to complete these pages… so stay tuned! 🙂

And I completed 5 additional watercolor pages to finish my 31 days – I will post them later this week…

I am happy to be done so I can focus on some other art projects.  Yet, I had so much fun!

I enjoyed my extra time at the lake last week... I think my highlights were swimming in the lake – three times a day, reading a super good book, painting outside daily, making paper butterflies with a friend, daily naps and cool evenings.

Wishing you a happy day doing what you love!

Cheers! 🙂

M, N, O, P

My continuation of my Alphabet Journal…

Mushrooms from my imagination for the letter, “M”:

I did reference wild mushrooms online before I drew and painted these colorful ones.  It was very fun to paint these mushrooms in watercolor.  Adding salt while the paint was wet gave the perfect texture to them.  I am sure I will be painting more in my future!

Letter “N” is for handwritten notes:

This one took me a little more time to complete.  It was fun to add old postage stamps for the collage part.  Letter writing seems to be becoming a lost form of communication.

”O” is for the color, orange so why not an orange sunset:

I was playing with color, shapes and balance for the collage part.

Purple petunias from a planter were a perfect subject for the letter, “P”:

I cut strips of handpainted paper for the collage part.  I thought the colors accented the purples I used for the petunias.

I hope you are enjoying my alphabet series… I’m having so much fun!

Cheers! 🙂

Kites, Lilies And…

I am finding that working on more than one letter of the alphabet at a time is helping me stay on track for the daily watercolor and collage series challenge I have given myself for the month of July.

Working ahead also takes the pressure off…

After all, this is supposed to be FUN, right?!

I like how these kites turned out for the letter, “K”…

          I can remember kite flying when I was a child, how about you?

This is one of the parts that I am enjoying about this challenge for myself, experimenting with different ideas to achieve the end results…

Like using my gelli-printed collage papers for the clouds! 🙂

Can you guess what letter, “L” stands for?

You got it!  Lilies!

And a Ladybug!

Did you see the Green Metalic Bee on the Lily?

I discovered this bee really exists!  I probably would not have discovered it IF I hadn’t been photographing it!

Isn’t NATURE grand?! It opens the mind to all sorts of new things…

Happy Exploring!

Cheers! 🙂

A Daily Creative Practice

As many of you know, I enjoy taking online art classes – especially from CarlaSonheim.com

I started taking her first year-long class in 2013 with the Year of the Giraffe.  This year will be my 6th year.  I don’t always get to every assignment yet I enjoy the community and creative connections I make through her classes on Facebook.

I also enjoy the assignments as it helps me to think-outside-the-box and explore art in new ways.  Like this lesson:

I used thread dipped in watercolor and a brayer to create the abstract above.  Below is another one I did with India ink:

This year’s class is similar to last year’s – 365 days of creating daily.  The class started on Friday, January 5 so you can still sign-up and join in if you’d like. 🙂

Below is what I titled, Low Tide, where I used another piece of paper over the thread instead of a brayer to create my abstract:

You have the option this year to get the assignments daily or weekly.  I currently signed up for daily but may change to weekly later on.

Yesterday, our assignment was to draw a piece of fruit blindfolded – the fruit, not me! Hehe 😉 I did an apple:

I hope you join in the fun!!  Go to http://www.carlasonheim.com for more information.

Cheers to creating daily! 🙂

A Rosy Review

Continuing with my “R’s” in my Alphabet Journal yesterday, I decided to experiment drawing ROSES using the instruction from this RECENT book I purchased on Amazon:

I really like how the author, Peggy Dean simplifies flowers and leaves into basic shapes such as how to draw this rose:

I believe this book will give me some excellent ideas for future doodles like these roses I drew with an ink pen and colored with Prismacolor pencils:

Happy Drawing!

Cheers! 🙂

100 Days Of Drawing Faces

I posted my 100th face on Instagram yesterday!  WHOOT!  😊 I accomplished my goal of drawing 100 faces in a little over 100 days… Phew!!

Maybe some of you recall my first face I posted on April 4th – it was a quick sketch in one continuous line:

100 days is A LOT especially when I am working full-time… (What was I thinking?!) and yet having limited time helped me to accomplish my goal because I didn’t have time to fuss over it.

I didn’t post everything I did like this one:

I would have liked to have more time to do more like this one, where I mixed collage and acrylics:

But I enjoyed trying a variety of art mediums:

Sprinkled with a little humor:

I think this one is one of my favorites – Picasso style:

And this one I did in watercolor with drips for hair:

I found I could draw more realistic looking faces and even my own – or at least my better half!  Lol! 🙂

I think the greatest lesson I learned is that it isn’t perfection that matters but PRACTICE!!  Daily practice does make a difference….

Especially in finding ones “style” in art!  I found I really liked creating “characters” rather than REAL people:

And yet, drawing a variety really is the best teacher!  Here is my 100th face:

I’m sure it won’t be my last…

Yet, let’s FACE it, I need a little break from drawing faces!

Cheers! 🙂

A Letter Day

Yesterday, I finished doodling my letters in my World Watercolor Month sketchbook that I posted recently:

This inspired me to use the letters, “WBW” for today’s Weird Bird Wednesday:

I knew if I moved my paper around, I could find a weird bird in the letters… Can you find one?

This one flew off the page at me – so I added a few more details with watercolors:

Next, I decided to doodle my letters with an ink pen to finish it:

Happy Weird Bird Wednesday!!

Cheers! 🙂

Once Upon A Time…

I’m sure there is a story here… Somewhere!

Well, at least a “colorful” character or two…

Or six!  🙂

Technique:

I cut two pieces of 9×12 inch hot-pressed watercolor paper into 4 pieces.  Next, I painted  positive and negative shapes in watercolor in a variety of colors, randomly adding a few splatters at the end.

When I had a few minutes, I drew faces from magazines, old photos and/or my imagination. Some of my faces are simple and others have more detail.  I used a 2B pencil, Tombow markers, PrismaColor pencils and a Micron .01 black pen.

It was great fun to create these people!  I hope you give it a try!

Happy Creating!  Cheers! 🙂

More FUNny Faces

I have been creating more FUNny faces from Lynn Whipple’s online class, “Making Faces.”

I find these silly, colorful faces very FUN to make!

Almost as wonderful as savoring dark chocolate with almonds:

Or soaking in the sun on a beautiful summer day:

Or eating a delicious meal at a favorite restaurant:

Or snuggling with my kitty:

Or laughing so hard that tears come to my eyes:

What makes you smile?!  🙂

I hope you share it with me!

Cheers!  🙂

P.S.  Thursday, I will show you how I cut up these faces and combine them together to create NEW faces.  I hope you will join me! 😊

The Professor And Maryann

The professor could be a drip sometimes…

So Maryann would come to his rescue!

OK, not really but the title sounded FUN!  Remember Gilligan’s Island?  If you lived in the United States the 1960’s and ’70’s… (I’m probably dating myself here a little…)  😮 Lol!

I created these paintings with watercolor paint drips and added shading and details with color pencils.

My hubby has the theme song memorized for Gilligan’s Island…Lol!  Do you think he watched this show wayyyy too much?

Cheers and HAPPY memories!  🙂