Thursday, January 12, 2012

Book of Days Journal Page - What Challenges Me?

Been keeping myself busy lately and making a great effort to stay creative everyday!
I have been working on my Book of Days, trying to catch up because I found the group about a week into the month.
Having a lot of fun with it!

This is my page for this week, the prompt was what challenges me and that would be procrastination and motivation and those are two of the things that I am trying to change about myself this year. I am such a bad procrastinator.
And the quote, I picked that up out my book of favorite quotes. It reminds me that I should not waste time by wasting time.

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

What's on your Workdesk Wednesday 136

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Off to a rockin' start this Wednesday, feeling good, got a baby that is in an awesome mood, good coffee and an arty to-do list.
I do so love being a stay at home mom on a day like this, now let's just hope that I don't get pooped or thrown up on!

So, this morning I am working on my Book of Days.

Effy's prompt this week is "Things that Challenge You" and the technique is Mosaic. And that is what I am working on here, plus some mail art.
I am still working out what challenges me, I think it will be motivation as I do have trouble with getting motivated to do certain things sometimes. I am not sure yet though.

I am really sticking close to what Effy showed us in her video as I really liked how hers came out. I had considered doing a torn mosaic, like on the cover of my first art journal. But it would be a really heavy layer, heavier than even this, so I may try it after I have gotten the few supplies I need to reinforce the book a little more.

You should have seen my desk yesterday, well... you couldn't even see it, it was buried! :D

Yesterday's projects were my journal spread for this weeks journaling in my Book of Days (pictures of that coming at the end of the week when i am done journaling on the spread) and a thank you card I Zentangled for my son's teacher.

And this is the string I started with on simple folded card stock.


And this is it once I was finished. I am not super original with my patterns right now as I am still learning them and there are sooooooo many to learn. So I used my favorites, Zedbra, Cracked, Strircles, Networking, and one that, honestly I can never remember the name for, but it is one of my most favorites and it is the one behind the "lie" in the name.


And lastly, is the one I drew on the inside before I wrote the thank you note, and it is called Ribbon Bow.


So, happy Wednesday everyone!

Monday, January 9, 2012

2012's word is CHERISH

Because this year I celebrate and cherish everything that I was, that made me who I am, I cherish ME!
I cherish art, my art journal, other's art journals, and I cherish sharing with these wonderful arty people with good hearts.
And above all else I cherish my family and friends because life is really, really short.

One of my goals this year is to learn as much as I can about art/art journaling by immersing myself in it and being cretaive everyday, so I joined in on Effy Wild's Book of Days.
I found it and I am already making an honest effort to journal for at least 5 minutes everyday even if it is about stupid things.
So, I thought this would be a great addition to my year of art! And so far I have had so much fun with it!

I started by going shopping for a new journal as my current journal doesn't have enough room in it for 52 new spreads plus any "special day" pages. And of course, I couldn't find anything here in town. So, I took some advice and started looking at my old books for one to alter.
I found one!

Not that I want to see this book destroyed.
No, I find this book very dear to me and I decided it would become my Book of Days for 2012!


A photo from inside my book, these are flowers I pressed years ago on my last trip to Louisiana, when I bought the book.

And, on to the project at hand...



These are the pages I started with.



And after some paint, post-its, watercolor crayons, printed words and numbers, and more paint, this is what the layout looks like.

The words, close-up. I took them off some scrapbook paper I was going to use but the design was just too big to fit in my book.

And finally...

Yeah. I think I over grunged the word Cherish and the numbers. But eh, I am still happy with it!
It was fun and tomorrow I will work on the layout for this week.

I avoided dishes and laundry to complete this today, so I guess if I want a place to sleep tonight and bottles to feed the baby out of, I guess I had better get to washing.
Please excuse me!
:D

Sunday, January 8, 2012

It's not all about the pretty and likable...

I have been working for two days on my week 3 project for Tam's Fabulous Faces class and I can honestly say that I am less than pleased with the results, yet they deserve to be posted because it is not all about what my inner critic thinks is pretty and likeable.

The first picture is stylized more or less after Tam's lesson, except, I couldn't get the ears right so I turned them into pointy elf ears.

Her skin was also supposed to have a blue tint to it but I had some serious issues with painting and shading this picture.
My portraits never come out smooth, polished, and pretty like some of those that I see on the forums. So, obviously I haven't mastered the art of coloring with what ever media I am attempting with.
I tried acrylics, and watercolor crayons & pencils. This mish-mash of media really took a toll on the picture itself and left me burnt out and tired. I went to bed really unhappy with the project but knowing that I could start over today!

And so, I started over today. I wouldn't say that I love this finish picture either.
But I will say that I think watercolor pencils might be the media for me, at least right now.
I had a much easier time with them, I enjoyed the coloring and diluting process much more with less give of myself and painting takes, takes, takes.
I am really only unhappy with some of the dimensions and that it does not meet my expectations. Little bubble head here doesn't match what was in my head when I started drawing this picture.
But, it is close! For that I am thankful because I am still yet a beginner.
So I will take what I can get and move on to finishing this as a journal spread tomorrow maybe.

I am seriously considering copics at this point. Or looking into some watercolor marker of some sort...

Oh! And I am joining in on Effy Wild's Book of Days project and I can't wait to do a spread for last week. I have already been working on recording something in my day planner everyday, would be a great chance to incorporate this into a journal spread!
_______________________________________
Updated: 1/11/12 9:28pm
Ah I realized tonight where I had seen a bubble head picture before, I was pretty sure it was one of Tam's pictures I had seen somewhere along the way, and it very well may be that she has bubble headed girls as well but I couldn't find them when I started looking again.
However, tonight it dawned on me!
My good friend Mika over at Motley Soul has done something very similar but by far much more beautiful! I remember seeing it as one of the very first things I found when i started searching for information on art journaling. I would like the exact picture but I think she may be attaching it to one of her future classes, so I will refrain but you can find it on Motley Soul!
Just wanna give credit where credit is due!

Saturday, January 7, 2012

What have I been up to?

Well, for starters, I missed What's on your Workdesk Wednesday, AGAIN!
But I did take a picture for it, I just forgot to post and link it.
This was my desk on Wednesday.

Sorry for the slim pic there, due to living conditions at the moment my desk is situated between my bed and the wall in my bedroom and my bedroom was a wreck!
That's what I get for drawing and painting all day!

Anyhow, what you see here is my art journal and what I had set out preparing to finish the outside flap of my first page for my Life Book 2012 class.
And here it is, all finished!

Can't say I am SUPER pleased with it, I feel if I re-did it I would do better.
But we aren't doing that.

Then I retouched a picture I had drawn for practice on the above project and had started painting. I figured it would be a good opportunity to practice more instead of letting her just sit in my journal, unloved and incomplete.


And lastly I have my finished portrait for my Fabulous Faces Class, week 2.
It is a front view of a face with color.
I had quite a bit of trouble with painting her. I took some advice off the forums and gesso-ed my journal (a simple hardbound sketchbook) page with a credit card and let it dry before I started drawing her. I LOVED the surface for drawing and I think it will be great for painting, it was just something I wasn't used to and it really showed.
I found that too much water removed color from my picture so it went back and forth for a long while, color, apply too much water, wipe all color away, start over.
Sigh.
Eventually I got tired of painting her and let her be, then moved on to shading. I really wanted her to be turning away from the light so that's what I was shooting for.
Shading is difficult for me still.


And lastly, I have been taking my time with my Draw Happy class by Jane Davenport.
It's really a cute class and I have been having fun with it. Right now my homework is to create a tool page, which I am excited about but haven't had time to set up.

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Life Book Week 1 - Intimidation and Battling the Inner Critic, and yet...

I am almost finished with my page for week 1 of Life Book!
All that is left is to finish the outside flap with a picture of myself and some doodling. And I have to wait to print the picture because I am out of ink in my printer and I am dreading venturing out to Walmart to get more because I hate Walmart.
: /

Really, I am pleased with my progress, and yet I still feel like it is far from good.

So, from start to finish, here is my process...


This is my list of my happy-making-positive-qualities-that-make-me-me.
Doodled in my art journal opposite my first graphite portrait
(yeah, that's not need to know information but I am in a rambly mood)
I wrote the list and then re-worked it several times over the course of a day.


This is the beginning of my girl.


Here it is almost finished but I forgot a couple small things.


This side is complete now, I think.
Like I said, I still have the flap to do but that waits for a picture.

Posting my work on the Life Book forums is really daunting, everyone's work is so awesome, and my mistakes SCREAM at me. I considered starting over and tossing this one, but I came to my senses and decided that this page and all others will be fun to look back on in a year when I have hopefully improved.

I, for one, can NOT wait for the week where we work on our inner critic. Mine is schizophrenic, it bounces between "Heyyyyy, you can draw!" to "But that's far from good enough to share with anyone!"

Today is turning out to be not such a great day for me, but I suspected that it wouldn't be this morning when I was still awake at 4am due to leg pain. I will just work through it, maybe draw a new girl or two for practice and wait for miss Jane Davenport to contact me regarding my Draw Happy class that my mom got for me for my birthday. Yes, I get to play with it now! :PLink

Sunday, January 1, 2012

Fabulous Faces Week 1


The graphite portrait...
scares me.

I don't know if it is that I bought the cheapest pencils I could, not wanting to invest to much in case I was an epic failure. Or if this is just what happens, but I found shading to be ridiculously tough to understand and accomplish.
And yet...
I am pleased with this picture!!


She has got two eyes, a nose, a mouth all where they should be, roughly.
For my second face, I am pretty darned happy with how it turned out and now I want to do another in color!

I am off to get some watercolor paper shortly to work on my Life Book page.
I am meeting some insanely great people in this class already and I haven't even spent much time on the introductory thread blog hopping!

Happy New Year!

Yesterday I acquired my most prized possessions thus far in my art making journey, Watercolor Crayons and Watercolor Pencils!
I know I didn't need both, but I got both and I am sooo happy I did.
The pencils were very inexpensive but came in a larger color choice than my crayons and both are just so fun to play with!
And this is what happens when I played on a previously Zentangled page with crayons...

This piece is not finished, I am going to do another Zentangle on the left in the shape of an A and an M, you can see them if you look close! But, before Christmas I was waiting for my new pens and my book to help me finish this. Now, I am waiting for the mood to take me.

And then, I just HAD to share a lil bit!
I joined Tamara Laporte's Life Book for 2012 and today it opened up!
We are working on our first project and since my hubby just signed me up the day before yesterday and I didn't realize I was going to need watercolor paper. I have been watercoloring with my watercolor paints in my journal and thought I would just put our projects in my journal... nope!
Gonna make my own book!
So I have to go get watercolor paper tomorrow or the next day.
Anyhow, so I was practicing the 3/4 face in my journal and this was my first attempt at drawing a face!

Yeah, she isn't perfect, far from, in fact.
But, I am pretty happy with my very first attempt, I didn't think I could do it!
And I can't wait to give the project a go tomorrow after I hunt down watercolor paper because watercoloring in a sketch journal is a baaaaaad idea!!

I also have the class Fabulous Faces to work on still, I spent very litter time on it yesterday and will probably not spend much time on it today either, but I will get to it I'm sure!