November Square-A-Day – Landscapes

I created landscapes from my imagination for my November Square-A-Day project.

Using a variety of art supplies, I explored simplicity with Copic markers, color pencils, watercolor, Gelli-plate prints and Pan Pastels.

“The real voyage of discovery consists, not in seeking new landscapes, but having new eyes.” Marcel Proust

I thought this quote summed up this month’s project perfectly!

Cheers! 🙂

Professor Smudge

Today’s weird bird was inspired by an online class called, “Creating Simple Characters.” The class is taught by Nelleke Verhoeff from the Netherlands and hosted by Carla Sonheim. Nelleke is known by her illustrations, “Red Cheek Factory,” and likes to give her characters red cheeks!

One of the assignments was to create faces with expression by smudging charcoal on your paper and then erasing it with a soft, rubber eraser. These faces appeared for me, I used Pan Pastels to give my characters red cheeks:

Of course I had to try a bird!

Professor Smudge teaching Family Life Etiquette…

Happy Weird Bird Wednesday!

Cheers! 🙂

Connect The Dots

Remember connecting the dots with a pencil to form a picture as a child?  Well, this exercise was a little like that for me.

The exception was starting with watercolor circles and splatters like this example:

And then drawing a face on top of the dots!

I used a photo in a magazine as my reference and this “Queen of Imagination” appeared… almost magically, like connecting the dots as a child!

Perhaps you remember my earlier experiments with this idea.  If not, you can find them here.

Wishing you the JOY of creating art with childlike discovery!

Cheers! 🙂

Painter’s Tape?

Many of you know how much I enjoy experimenting in art.  Sometimes I just need an idea that sparks my creativity.

Blue tape, recently sparked my imagination.  The tape is also called “Painters Tape” as it’s used to cover up baseboards and such when painting your house.

Carla Sonheim has demonstrated this method in several of her online classes but I decided to take it a step further last weekend.  I thought you might enjoy seeing my steps of exploration!!  Maybe it will spark a creative experiment of your own!  🙂

My first step was to tear the tape into uneven pieces and place them on my paper – I used 140 lb hot press watercolor paper (good quality paper helps to remove the tape without tearing the paper).

I created my face from my imagination.  I had drawn 29 faces for 29 days (Actually I have drawn MANY more faces but I only posted that many on Instagram at the time).

Next, I added oil pastels and some pan pastels:

I removed the tape to reveal my face:

It reminded me of a mask so I decided to add a few doodles to fill in the spaces:

I added watercolor over the doodles because it just seemed like it needed a little something!

Here is a beginning and end photo next to each other:

Super fun to play with negative and positive shapes!

Cheers! 🙂

Terrific Trees

I was experimenting yesterday with different art mediums to create these trees:

I masked off the background with masking tape and then used salt over Dr. Ph Martin’s India ink.  I also used Pan Pastels on them.

Not all my experiments turned out.  Like the above one on the left where I used glass bead gel and India ink.  It didn’t want to dry.  But I still kind of like it.

The one next to it, I used matte medium, masked it off and used watercolor then salt.  And finished it with the pan pastels after I rubbed off the salt.  I like its softer feel.

Speaking of trees, I am amazed how much my Red Maple tree has changed color since I posted a photo of it here, last Sunday:

Red Maple a blaze,

Dazzling like a sunset

Fall’s color display.

Wishing you a Sunny Sunday, Friends!  🙂

3 Cheers!

There are several reasons to celebrate today!  So I created a painting in anticipation of the weekend.

Here is my beginning or what I’m calling the “appetizer stage” of my painting:

I started with a simple sketch using a black micron pen and added watercolor pencils.

For the “main course,” I softened the watercolor pencils with water:

And for “dessert,” I added some pan pastels to the background with a stencil:

I found an all natural and odor free fixative at Dick Blick called Spectra Fix that worked well to set the pan pastels.  I’d highly recommend it!

Here are some of the reasons I am celebrating today:

It’s FRIDAY!  Wahoo!!!  And the beginning of a 3-day weekend

World Watercolor Month starts today!  3 Cheers to Charlie at Doodlewash.com for organizing this event!!

The weather is cooling down!  It has been in the 90’s and it will be in the 70’s at the lake!

More time to paint in watercolor – like these Friday Flowers

We will be celebrating our freedom with friends, good food and fireworks !!

How will you be celebrating today?!  I’d love to hear from you!

Enjoy your day!  🙂

Wine And Flowers

I added more color and pattern to this collage I posted on December 21st:

It is kind of fun to see the two side by side:

The first time I took the image on the left, my lighting was bad.  Good lighting really does make a difference!

I recently completed another collage:

I had fun adding patterns with color pencils to the background on this one.

I found this quote on the internet:

They are not long, the days of wine and roses.  Out of a misty dream, our path emerges for awhile, then closes, within a dream.  – Ernest Dowson

Cheers!  🙂

 

Creating = Happiness

I know that I don’t have to create EVERY day or blog about it.  And some days I don’t get it all done like I envisioned.

Yet for me, creating equals happiness!  On those days when I’m too pooped to party so to speak, I create something anyway.  It brings me JOY!  I hope that my creations bring a little happiness into your world too.  🙂

I wanted to show you how I added to my collage from New Year’s:

At first, I thought it was too busy…  Here is a comparison of the two:

But the more I added, the more I liked!  Go figure!  LOL!

I added the extra details with markers and color pencils and softened the background with pan pastels.

I would love to know what you think!

Cheers to creating happiness!  🙂

A Cup of Good Cheer!

Thank you friends for all your encouragement, support and friendship for my first year of blogging in 2015.  I had almost 350 posts!  WOWZA!

I had so much fun blogging and creating almost daily – And learning from all of you!  I have some new goals for my blog in the new year so stay tuned!

May 2016 stack up to be an AWESOME and creative year for you!

Cheers!  🙂

Yellow!

As many of you know, I enjoy taking online classes from Carla Sonheim.  These are the past year long classes I have taken from her:

2013 – My very first online class – The Year of the Giraffe:

2014 – The Year of the Fairytale – here is the Frog Princess:

2015 – The Year of the Spark – and my first year of blogging:

2016 – Y is for Yellow!  Why don’t you join me?!

The new class for 2016 is going to be about completing a body of artwork.  If you’d like to find out more about it, Carla has posted a short video:

http://www.carlasonheim.com/2016-y-is-for-yellow/

Happy Creating!  🙂