Thursday, June 28, 2012

Soothing the Soul


Yesterday I worked on something that completely soothes my soul when I do work on it, but something that I don't work on nearly enough!

My Gratitude Journal.

I have not worked in the Gratitude Journal for some time, since April, in fact! I haven't even added to my list since around that time! You can see the last time I worked in my Gratitude Journal here, in my old blog.

Wow! That was a while ago. I always spend a few moments a day thinking of my blessings and what I am thankful for and I always think to myself that I should write some of this down. I don't, of course. I always say I will remember it later, I never do. But there is never a shortage of things I am grateful for, so I guess I had better get to work!

So this is what I completed yesterday...

Lukas' page. I used layers of red and blue acrylic paints and masking tape. This was a really fun background to do work on. Cut the letters from a magazine and used Opaque markers for the lettering. The red bleed a little into the sun and it doesn't want to cover very well but that's ok.

Lukas is my middle child, but he is my sunshine. He is the sweetest and most well behaved boy I know, always an angel. He was born 8 weeks early after a particularly rough pregnancy and didn't get to come home to me for 2 weeks. I am blessed to have him in my life.

 Arianna's page. The baby of the family and totally the trouble child. At 18 months she is my mischief maker. Always into everything she shouldn't be in, but I love her. The purple paper in the bottom left with scribbles on it is her "art". She loves to have her own paper and pens when I am sketching or painting and after writing all over herself she usually gets to the paper eventually! If there is going to be an actual artist in the family, my money is on her!

And lastly, I plopped down with my sketchbook last night while watching TV and this came out. I am particularly proud of it because I am really working on shading and I think it is a pretty good attempt. Maybe I will paint it tomorrow. Maybe not. I may leave it like it is and just do something fun with hair, I have a couple good ideas.

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Doodling doodles for fun


Yesterday was doodle day, apparently!

It was Day 6 of Shiloh Sophia McCloud's Tea with the Muse, in which I let my Muse choose a music station on Pandora, then I just listen and doodle, filling a whole page. Afterwards I am to try and decipher what it is that she is trying to tell me. (P.S. Tea with the Muse, or the Divine Spark 90 Day Practice is another free program and TOTALLY awesome!)

I coupled this challenge with one from Motley Soul. Mika's been posting weekly mixed media challenges in her free challenge group. I haven't had time to participate since it started, about three - four weeks ago. So, yesterday I started with number one! To find your doodle! Mika advises that the white page is the ENEMY of creativity! I agree, so I mixed some acrylics with water and went to work in my Muse Book. Once it had dried out, my muse chose a New Age station that had some AWESOME new age/oriental style music (it was TOTALLY relaxing) and I grabbed my trusty Micron 08 to commence the doodling!

And this was the result:




Upon looking back over my page and thinking about what my Muse said to me these were my revelations regarding my Muse:

  • My Muse said the squiggly line is my doodle and I should use it and turn it into other things, like the flower, and the butterfly. She says it has SO many uses.
  • My Muse is happy! Happy with the page, happy with being used (for lack of a better term).
  • She says I need to disconnect from media and look inside for inspiration more often during this time of growth and learning. And you know what?! It works! It's really there!
  • My Muse has made it clear that she is happy with my new Book of Days idea, for now and says we have to see how the book stands up to what we are going to do to it since it is simply a daily planner.


And I come away from yesterday's challenge feeling full of creativity but not like I have to use it OR lose it. It's a content fullness, it says it isn't going anywhere. IT? Is there another muse in there?
Please tell me your name(s)?

And to close, here is a photo of my current art journals. I call them the Fabulous Five!