Bits And Pieces

I used to love to draw faces in sketchbooks when I was in my teens.  I quit because I let the ideas of others influence me.

Well, I am happy to say, I’m back at it!  And this time, I’m adding bits and pieces of collage:

She looks to me like a young girl who loves the outdoors!  Perhaps she enjoys running on the beach with her dog, Sam or reading books of mystery on the sofa.  Would love to know her story, how about you?

I started her face with watercolor pencils:

Then added water to soften my lines:

I added some details with  Prismacolor Dark Umber color pencil:

And finished with torn pieces of collage from Gelli prints that I made previously with deli paper:

The colors blend a little better in better light.

Happy Creating!  😊

I’m A Fan!

I completed this doodle in my sketchbook today:

I started it last Sunday, when I was keeping cool with the ceiling fan and air conditioner.  We are having extremely high temperatures in the 90’s to 100.  This is about 20 degrees above normal in the Pacific Northwest.

It has a ceiling fan look to it, don’t you think?

I then added warm colors with watercolor pencils:

The color starts to give it shape!

I finished it with a few cool colors:

According to Wikipedia, “The cool fan was invented in 1882 by Schuyler Skaats Wheeler. A few years later, Philip Diehl mounted a fan blade on a sewing machine motor and attached it to the ceiling, inventing the ceiling fan, which he patented in 1887.  Later, he added a light fixture to the ceiling fan. In 1904, his Diehl and Co. added a split-ball joint, allowing it to be redirected; three years later, this developed into the first oscillating fan.”

Hope you are staying cool!

Happy Creating!  🙂

Sketchings of Nature

A friend at the lake brought me a wonderful nest she found on the ground.  It is a cup-shaped nest made out of green moss, pine needles, shredded birch bark or paper, tree lichen, feathers and dog hair.

I’m not sure yet the kind of bird that created this soft home-tweet-home.  Any guesses?  I had fun photographing it in a variety of settings like on a tree branch.

This prompted me to sketch it in my art journal:

With a few other wild plants such as:

Pink Forget-Me-Nots…

White Trillium flowers and unfurling ferns.

And wild roses that are in bloom!

I hope to paint these subjects individually.  It was fun to draw them in my sketchbook so I will remember to do so!

Doing these sketches reminded me of one of my favorite artists, Marjolein Bastin, who draws and paints nature beautifully.  Do you have a favorite nature artist?  I’d love to hear about it!

Happy Creating!

Spitting Seeds And Splitting Hairs

My mom would always buy a watermelon on Memorial Day and the Fourth of July.  Whenever I see a the red flesh of this fruit, I think of my mom trying to “sell” it to her family.

After a really big meal of BBQ ribs, corn-on-the-cob and coleslaw, mom would bring out a plate loaded with half slices of red, ripe and  juicy melons.   Back then, the stores didn’t have the seedless variety so we would have to spit out the black seeds.  Mom would never take “no” for an answer so I ate a lot of it.

In memory of mom, I purchased a watermelon last weekend – the seedless variety and one of those mini ones.  Just the right size in my view.  I found its refreshing flesh to be enjoyable.  So I bought another one today.  Who knows, I may become a fan!  Watermelon anyone?!

When I was creating my watermelon with Gelli-prints, I learned a valuable lesson.  Glue sticks and watercolor pencils don’t mix.  The one on the right shows what happens when you try to blend water with the pencils.  The glue on the paper left over from the glue stick, makes a mess of it!

So I “sliced” off the side I liked – no use splitting hairs over it.

Mark Twain says, “When one has tasted watermelon, he knows what angels eat.”   

I wonder what he would think of the seedless variety.

Happy Creating!  🙂

Color Thy Nest

I was experimenting in my art journal last evening by painting 6 small nests in different colors of watercolor over a black pen:

Do you have a favorite color combo you like?

This playful experiment led me to create this nest:

I used watercolor, pan pastels, watercolor pencils and a black fine point sharpie.

I like this quote from Oliver Wendell Holmes:

“Where we love is home.  Home that our feet may leave but not our hearts.” 

I also created this nest:

And here is a quote from Emily Dickinson:

“Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul – and sings the tune without the words – and never stops at all.”

Happy Creating!

A Tropical Paradise

I completed my Gelli Deli Bird Collage from yesterday.  It looks like a tropical paradise to me!

I started my project by gluing random book pages to a canvas board:

Next, I added stencils with acrylic paint and rubber stamps using Royal Purple StazOn ink.

Then I glued torn bits of my own patterned paper:

I created my own stencils and cut out circles, leaves and birds from my gelli-printed deli paper and glued it down:

Repeat with more torn paper – this time I used pages from an old Shorthand book; added a little more acrylic paint and rubber stamps:

I added another layer of gelli-printed deli paper and a few more dabs of paint:

Then to finish my piece, I outlined the deli printed shapes with a black watercolor pencil, wetting it with a brush and smearing it with my finger:

And it’s complete!

I learned some of these techniques by taking an online class with Lynn Whipple, called “The Joy of Collage.”

http://www.carlasonheim.com/the-joy-of-collage-with-lynn-whipple/

Word and Bird Jumbles

I like to do the word jumble in the newspaper.  It looks like this:

Jumble means to mix together in a disorderly heap or mass, a confused mixture; a medley.

I kind of think my one-liner bird stacks are a jumble of birds:

Using a black micron pen, I start my drawing at the bottom of the page.  Without lifting my pen from the paper, I draw a bird or a branch and then draw the next bird on top and so on.  The goal is not lifting your pen off the paper and to draw quickly without much thought.

Then I like to color them.  I used color pencils for the one above.

On the above medley, I used watercolor pencils to color my birds.

These are fun to do in front of the TV because they require little thought.

It is fun to see what turns up in my stack!  I colored the above with Copic markers and color pencils.

I like to use my bird jumbles as bookmarkers.  They are a fun way to use up scraps of paper.

Enjoy your day!

C is for Cat and Canary

Here is a new tongue twister for you!

I used the Capital “C” for the head of the canary and the cat.  The lower case “c” is used on the canary’s breast and the cat’s license on it’s collar.

Have a CREATIVE day!

The Brolly Bird

Under your umbrella,                                                                                                             Is a handsome bird fella,                                                                                                       Come rain or shine,                                                                                                                 He’s there to cover your behind!

Word of the day is Brolly which is a British name for umbrella.

There actually is an Umbrella Bird!  To see it go here:

Blue Birds and Blue Skies

I am amazed how the color of the sky affects my mood.  On gray days, I have difficulty getting motivated.  But when the sun shines and the sky is blue, I have a skip in my step and a smile on my face.  Today the sun is shining – Hoorah!

This reminds me of the song written in 1926 by Irvin Berlin:

Blue skies smilin’ at me,                                                                                            Nothin’ but blue skies do I see,                                                                                   Bluebirds singin’ a song,                                                                                          Nothin’ but bluebirds all day long…

May you have a blue sky kind of day!