A Whole New World

I recently purchased two synthetic “Dagger” watercolor brushes from Dick Blick.

I learned about these brushes from my blogging friend and talented artist, Patty Anne. Please check out her beautiful watercolors on her blog:  Patty Anne Art

I had never heard of this brush and loved the results that Patty Anne got with her roses.

I started by just experimenting with the 3/8 brush by “testing the waters” so to speak…

I found it extremely relaxing not painting anything specific and just experiment with the brush and color.  I created this on 300 lb watercolor paper:

Afterwards, I outlined the shapes in a black Micron pen and added a few houses.  It looks like a whole new world to me!

This last weekend, I created this abstract in my small watercolor sketchbook:

It was super fun to add details with a black Micron pen and gel pens in different colors. What do you see?

I encourage you to experiment with different materials in your art!  You may discover a whole new world to explore!!

Cheers! 🙂

A Little Art

Hello friends,

I am feeling much better and happy to be blogging again! YAY! 😃

I couldn’t stay away from creating in my art journal for too long…

And discovered this sketchbook to be the perfect size for a little art!  

Sometimes I think I have to make something BIG for it to be considered as ART…

Yet, this is not true!  After all, flowers come in all shapes, color and sizes so why not art?

And art journaling isn’t about a MASTERPIECE…

But EXPLORING and creating…

And experimenting with different art mediums!

Who knows what discoveries I will make by creating a little art in my journal…

I encourage you to give it a try!

Plant a little art today…

Cheers! 🙂

Finally, It’s Friday!

It has been a crazy week for me.  How about you?

I came down with a bad case of food poisoning or the stomach flu on Tuesday.  I’m still trying to get back to normal!  Ugh!

I drew and painted this silly monster in my sketchbook yesterday evening.

It made me smile and I hope it gives you a grin too!

Cheers!  🙂

P.S.  I’ve decided to take a short blogging break.  I will be back in a week or two… stay well!

YOU Can Be…

Just think of the possibilities…

If you started your day,

Being AWESOME!!  🙂

When Charlie at Doodlewash.com had an art prompt to create patterns in watercolor on March 3rd, I couldn’t resist!

So I got out my Ecoline Watercolor markers – which Charlie was giving away last summer on his blog (I won a few to try, pretty awesome I must say!) and I just started drawing:

 

Drawing colorful patterns, just makes me FEEL awesome, how about you?

Yesterday, I decided to cut out letters on the back side of my paper:

I forgot that I had to reverse the “S” but no big deal, I just cut out another one!

After I cut the letters out, I glued them into my journal and added some flowers with my hand painted papers.  Note:  You can’t see the cut into the center of the flowers or letters when you cut one continuous line into the center.

I had some text on my collage table and found this text, which made a perfect flower center:

 

I was thinking this would make a fun card for a friend by adding a special message inside a flower!

I outlined my letters and flowers with a black Micron pen and a little pencil shading to make them pop, as you can see with my photo on the right below:

 

Part of my inspiration for my lettering was the cover of Uppercase Magazine:

Be AWESOME today!

Cheers! 🙂

A Value Study

I’m taking an online art class with Karine Swenson, hosted by Carla Sonheim…  (Yes, I know I’m addicted to online art classes!)  This one is a little different for me as it is learning to slow down, observe and draw a subject of my choosing.

I chose a pear.  Sounds PEAR-fectly easy, doesn’t it?

I have done several sketches of this golden fruit and it is not as easy as it apPEARS!

These are some scribbly pencil studies I did yesterday:

The one with the added shadows is my pick of the crop!

Onto a value study with Conte crayons.  The first one looks a little like a leaning tower of PEARZA! Lol!  🙂

It really helps to look at a photo of what you are trying to draw – as I could SEE where I needed to make some corrections:

A little more balanced now… I still need to draw it MANY more times, PEARhaps!

The value study is to help me understand my subject better before I paint it.  I think I will try to paint in watercolors and acrylic next week.

Karine said that one of her teachers told her, “the subject doesn’t have to be perfect, just believable.”  Good advice.

Happy Monday!

Cheers! 🙂

A Favorite Art Supply

Do you have a favorite ART supply?  I love my Prismacolor Pencils!

I created this page in my art journal that I showed you in yesterday’s post.

Dick Blick was offering a fabulous sale on the Prismacolor Pencils so I splurged! 🙂

I have MANY art supplies that I like but these color pencils are something I use often in combination with other art mediums such as watercolor.

I think they are one of my favorites because of their creamy, soft leads and they come in MANY colors! ❤️

Do you have a favorite art supply?  I hope you tell me about it!

Cheers! 🙂

The Art Of Noticing

I recently started a new online class with Lynn Whipple called, “Joy Stuff – The Art of Noticing.”  The class is hosted by CarlaSonheim.com

This class is about creating art in a journal or sketchbook:

I liked that we would be using monoprints from the Gelli Plate (what I call gelli-prints) and inspiration from nature:

I also liked the idea of making pages in advance like the ones I did here:

And then writing in them later or adding more art.  I know that I can always cover up what I don’t like with gesso! 😉

It is a new way of creating a journal for me – creating pages ahead of time so I am experimenting with new ideas:

Like adding a pocket as you can see on the left page above.  I also discovered that the washi tape adheres better with a little matte medium (glue) on top.

I will be posting more of my journal as I work on it.

And I’d love to hear your ideas!  I hope you share them with me.

Make today awesome!

Cheers! 🙂

And The “Sweepstake” Winner Is…

For today’s FUNny Fish Fry-Day we have a riddle…

What kind of fish is a sweeping success?

The Broom Fish!

Can you imagine ALL that sweeping that needs to be done on the ocean floor?!  Phew! 😉

I hope your day sweeps you into a FINtastic weekend!

Cheers! 🙂

Carnivals, Clouds And Cats

My blog title sounds like it could be part of the lyrics from Joni Mitchell’s song, “Both Sides Now.”  😉

However, my post today does involve some illusions… and imaginary fish!

The Carnival Fish was created by making copies of my “Bearded Hat Fish,” that you can find here:  What Rhymes With Weird?!   My copier was about out of ink so the fish is more yellow in color than my original.

I made two copies of my fish and lined up the images together in one stack.  I then cut 1/2 inch strips being careful to keep my images in the order of my design.  Next, I glued the two exact image strips next to each other on a piece of heavier paper with a glue stick.  This gives it the affect that reminds me of the mirrors in a carnival thus the name.

The Cloud Fish reminded me of the lazy days of summer and seeing shapes in the clouds…  My haiku says, “Lazy Cloud fish swim, Above the sea in blue skies, Slowly passing by.”

I created it with color pencils and Copic markers.  What other images do you see in the clouds beside the fish?

My Jack Fish is a drawing of my cat, Jack – you can see a photo of him here: Why A Cat Needs An Umbrella    My cat loves to eat canned cat food – especially FISH!  (No, he doesn’t actually eat the whole fish but it makes for a good drawing.) Lol!

There actually is a REAL fish called a Jack fish!  Did you know that?!

I hope you enjoyed my imaginary fish!  Maybe they will inspire you to create with your imagination.

Cheers! 🙂

FUNny Fish Fry-day

I decided to add a new series to my blog with funny fish!

Fridays or as I will call them, Fry-day will be a great day to have FUN with some weird fish… and end your week with a smile! 🙂  (I hope!)

Today’s fish is the name of a REAL fish that I found on Wikipedia’s common list of fish from A to Z – The Bigeye Square Tail…  I added my own artistic touch to it of course!

I hope this fish “lures” you into a FUNtastic weekend!

Cheers! 🙂