What was I up to today? 29 Faces in May

So, as you may or may not know (I posted about it a couple days ago), I have joined the 29 Faces in May challenge in which I challenge myself to create and share 29 faces within the 31 days of May! I am so excited for this challenge, already on the Facebook group I am seeing AWESOME faces being posted!

I asked my oldest child last night when he thought my first face should be and he said "Alice". Ah, Alice. I LOVE Alice! For my picture, I used American Mcgee's Alice as inspiration. I actually started drawing before I looked at any images and realized after I had the face painted and background started that I had done her hair wrong, eh, that's ok. She was just inspiration.

So, she was supposed to be a little bit mad, sadistic and dark with a hint of innocence. Well, I am still working on getting those emotions across in facial expressions and painting. But I am pretty pleased with my outcome, for me.

This is the sketch this AM.

I got about half way through and HATED her! I am telling you, I was so frustrated with how the background was coming out and I still had hair and clothing to paint, I wasn't happy with how her face was painted, and I knew it would be forever before I was done. My inner critic almost had me convinced to toss Alice out and was in the middle of telling me that it would just be easier to draw a marker girl in my Book Of Days and just forget about this piece, when I realized, all the hard work was done! Sure, it might be a while before I was finished depending on how much I "fixed" her, but I should at least give her and myself a chance! So on I trudged...

I am sorry, none of my other "process" pictures came out very well so I am not going to worry about sharing them, we will jump right to the finished piece.

The finished page.

Close up of Alice's face and some graphite shading.

My favorite quote from the movie.

So, there you have it! Face number 1 completed! Join me tomorrow to see how face #2 turns out!

Lifebook Lesson 14 - Honoring your (my) Past

This is our week 14 lesson in Lifebook.
I have been an unruly student and have jumped around a bunch in the Lifebook course so you will often see the weeks out of order. Here I just picked the most recent lesson that Tam had posted and ran with it!

I started this page last week, and as you can see below, she went through many processes.


This is how she started out, I was most proud of this drawing because I didn't have to refer to my drawing notebook to be able to complete the face.
Not once did I refer to my learning materials! I am getting it!


Then I watercolored her face and worked on some shading. Shading is always difficult for me but, practice makes perfect right?!? Have to keep after it.
I got her roughly where I wanted her without too much fuss but then she sat for several days, I had lost interest and I didn't know where I was going with her.
Last night I sat down and re-watched Tam's videos and worked along with her and this is where it took me...


It was around here that her hair had changed. I had lost the outline of the short "do" that I had penciled in but it didn't seem to fit anymore. I don't know why she turned out this way but I was lead to it and it feels right.





Voila!
Well, it is missing a fold out piece but I have yet to come up with something creative to do that will not cover my picture.

I am really enjoying the Lifebook course, many of the lessons are really fun and interesting!

Last Week's BOD Spread

For the first time in over a month I finished a Book of Days spread and it felt soooo good!
It FEELS good to get back to art. I have been arting a lot in the past week. About half way through the week I was starting to get discouraged, specifically in my Lifebook page. I had hoped to sit down and art it out! One day, done! Alas, that's not my life, there are little interruptions, BIG interruptions, bad days, busy-ness, and plain old laziness. But, I belong to a group on Facebook for the Book of Days and it has evolved into the most wonderful of support systems! When I am feeling down it's what I surf around on for a while and I always come away with a smile for I have found art posted by my sisters to inspire me or I have witnessed someone post with honesty about how they may need positive energy/prayers sent their way and I have seen a group of women swoop in to the rescue to offer prayers, love, support, and kind words. It leaves one with the most wonderful feeling that there are indeed still wonderful people in this world and this is just a sampling of such good hearts.
Effy Wild's blog post really says it all. <3

And so, onto the art...

I have been loosely following along with Julie Fei-Fan Balzer's 30 Days in your Art Journal.
Well, I bought and paid for the class and finished week one with no problems in March.
But then, in week two she does this awesome spread where she uses tags to journal on and I kept putting it off, meaning to buy the tags but never getting around to it. Weeks slipped on by and I started looking around my house for things to use instead, don't get me wrong, Julie offered up several awesome substitutions but I REALLY just wanted tags.
Finally the 1st of April rolled around and I knew I had been art-less for too long.


This is the background as it sat for over a month, untouched.

Painted with wet craft acrylics, I did the base in apple green over a non-gessoed page, then smeared a corner with another craft acrylic in a shimmery red which just turned out to be pink.
Stamped the circles with a toilet tissue roll and black acrylic paint.
Then I took my most favorite shimmery purple craft acrylic and colored some circles in and then painted some clear glitter acrylic paint over them because there just wasn't enough sparkle.
Yum, loving glitter.


Gratuitous glitter close-ups!

So after a month of ignoring my BOD I decided it was time to move forward and put this pretty background to use! I had considered using those subscribe postcards that fall out of magazines
(I started collecting them from all over), but they were a little too busy for my liking,
I considered card stock cut in the shape of tags or just in funky shapes but it seemed to plain.
And one day I was cleaning and re-organizing all my supplies and I found a stack of
multi-colored post its and that was IT!
They were bright and colorful but still a little plain for my liking, so I took a total of 12 of them and painted them all different with my watercolor crayons and then sprayed them with a spray I made from my shimmery red acrylic paint and water
(Again, it turned out pink, not red! Oh well!)

Shiiiiiiimmmmmmmmerrrrrrrrr!


Stacked in sets of 2 for journaling in a possible layout plan.

So, then the work started! This was one of the easiest journal layouts to keep up with!
I just tucked the sets of 2 glued together post its in my book and everyday I would pull a set out and journal on it and glue it down!
The layout was pretty much complete, I just had to journal!


Half finished!

My layout ran from Wednesday, April 11th to Monday, the 16th.
Somewhere in there I had decided that I needed something more and I cut some post its into three equal pieces and watercolored them and glued them in thinking I would write important words or something on them or something that would pertain to each day but I was undecided so they stayed blank for a day or two.
On Sunday, I realized that I should just incorporate my daily prayer journal into my BOD because I have been a bad panda and haven't been keeping up with it at all!
I belong to a 30 Day Prayer Journal group on Motley Soul, and Mika is usually so good about posting a scripture daily and thus far I glued and clipped all the ones from March into a composition notebook, but I hadn't done anything in April.
So, why not put those in my BOD!?!
I mean, I joined the group wanting to make scripture and prayer a bigger part of my life!
Well that's what I did!


The finished page!

On Monday I got Happy Mail from on of my BOD Sisters and in the envelope was my very first row house, some awesome napkins and papers, paper doilies and PUNCHINELLA!
I have been wanting some but found none in my small, small town, and I never get to go to the city anymore, so I was SO thankful that my sister H. Crump sent some to me!
To commemorate my first bit of punchinella, I used it!
As a stencil first with orange paint and I also cut off a small bit and glued it onto the corner!


Had to take a picture with the light hitting the shimmer paint.


And finally, showing most of the glued in scriptures!

And that's it for Tuesday's blog!
I finished two other projects yesterday/last night as well but I am going to blog about them one at a time and will schedule them to post the next two days so check back I am trying to make blogging a more regular thing!

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

Raise Your Glass and the process

Today's A Year in the Life of an Art Journal prompt was Pink's "Raise Your Glass" which is hilarious to me because I had just been sitting here listening to music on Pandora this morning before I looked to see what the prompt was that was posted and this song came on. It's always been one of my favorites, I identify a lot with some of Pink's best music.
So, I was moved to go find the video on YouTube.
I decided then I would make a journal page to go with it!

THE PROMPT: Lighten Up
THE SONG: Raise Your Glass by Pink
Written Lyrics HERE
PRODUCT/TECHNIQUE: Confetti

Step one, pick the song. MOST of the songs I pick have some meaning to me. Though I have been known to use a song just because I like the beat, lyrics, group(singer), or video.
Step two, of pretty much any one of my lyric pages is writing the lyrics on notebook paper and picking out what is important/useable/needed.


Next I figured out where I was going to put the lyrics on the page. Usually I use a lot less of the song than this one. I used the whole song, almost.


Then I painted! I knew I wanted bright colors for fun and I even used some of my shimmer acrylics.


Then I wrote all the lyrics on the page again in Sharpies.
And lastly I covered the page in a layer of silver glitter acrylic paint because I don't have confetti and my hole puncher died when I tried to punch a bunch of confetti for this page.


And there you have it!
I had a TON of fun with this page!

Raise your glass with me!

Jar of Hearts

Backdating a challenge for A Year in the Life of an Art Journal
because I found the blog and art journaling late in the year.
And because I find their challenges to be SO inpsiring and right on my wavelength.

The PROMPT: Scars
THE SONG: Jar of Hearts by Christina Perri
Written Lyrics HERE
PRODUCT/TECHNIQUE: rips and tearing

You can expect to see a few more pages from their past challenges.

I just adore this song.

I love this background...

I had to share the background I created last night while we watched TV!

Craft acrylic paint, and oil pastels.
This page just makes me smile and feel all warm.
I can't wait to think of something else to do with it.

Inspired by two pages I have seen so far, one by JournalArtista on Ustream and one by Samara Gugler on YouTube, though, I know the techniques differ I just had to try to replicate it.
Now I have a fun base to do something with!

30 Day Art Journal/Blog Challenge - Day 2

Today's Challenge...
Zentangle!

I present to you, my very first attempt at the Zentangle!

So, last night I went to Zentangle.com and looked over EVERYTHING there including the past newsletters. I just ate it all up!
Then I ended up on tanglepatterns.com where I found instruction on many tangles and had to try a bunch, so I made a page with 2" X 2" grids and tangled my heart out!

I had so much fun with this that I asked my husband for the kit for Christmas!
And BOOKS! I must have books!

I fully expect to Zentangle everyday.
So... relaxing and calming.
It kept my mind occupied.
Ahhhhhhhh!

Now, off to work on the I am the diva challenge and my Motley Soul journal group project, which I may have to sleep on another day to really think about which word I want to use since this prompt is One Word, One Thought.

A secret about me...
I usually wake up with a head full of ideas.
In fact, often, since I have started art journaling, I wake up before the alarm and either lay in bed like a kid on Christmas morning waiting for the proper time to run to the tree!
Or I just give in and hop out of bed and start working!
I actually had to move some of my supplies to my bedroom (especially while being sick, trying to seclude myself and the also sick baby to the back of the house) so that I could hop out of bed and work on something without going to far from the baby, and I had to get an idea book to keep on hand for those late night thoughts that I don't want to lose.

Who else has done that?

For Dad... And my Art Journal Self Challenge

I played last night in my art journal and I didn't want to go to bed, but I wasn't feeling good and I knew the baby would be up early. She was, aaaaaaannnnnnnnnnd she's sick (so am I).

So, the below page was created with inspiration from two places.
The inspiration for heart and the words about the pieces not fitting right came from somewhere... I venture to say from a page I saw by Less Herger at Comfortable Shoes Studio, at the very least someone at ArtJournaling.Ning. Alas, I cannot find the picture or post any more to provide a link and credit.
And the words about taking for granted came from a page I saw on guttergirlz, Becky, I think.

I try not to copy things, especially word for word or picture for picture, and this isn't an exact copy of either page. But both of the pieces really did inspired me, touched me, and they just fit my feeling so exactly. And I thank both people for that inspiration and I hope that neither is offended that I copied sentiments.

It's a personal journal anyhow, and this is a snapshot of how I have felt since July for my daddy.
I miss him.



So, I played with a background in coloring that fit my mood as I thought about Dad, in acrylic craft paints, as usual. It's a yellow and orange background, and I grunged it up with a black acrylic paint color wash. I drew and painted the heart, go me! And I tried the lettering but it just didn't come out the way I wanted, so I covered it up with printed words. Though I haven't given up on practicing faces and lettering, I have a section of my journal for practicing drawing but I am not prepared to share that with anyone yet.

I REALLY like how it came out, I am immensely happy with the finished page.
And I expect you're gonna see A LOT more grunged stuff in the future, so much fun!

Next is a page that, well, I am not sure if I am done with it, in fact I am 99% positive I am not done with. But I wanted to share anyhow. I joined the Motley Soul community recently and Mika has been so very nice to me and super helpful with getting creative juices flowing and some confidence. I confided in her that I could paint backgrounds but beyond that I was blocked. I didn't want to ruin a nicely painted background with junk. She gave me a little challenge, some instructions on a page I should try, a prompt if you will... a sort of billboard for myself where my inner critic didn't get a voice.
The below page is a result of that, but like I said, it's not finished.


Again with the printed fonts... I would have preferred to cut letters and words from magazines but my magazine selection is really small, so I am going to work on collecting magazines, old books and sheet music!
I do like printed fonts though, I found a BUNCH of free, fun fonts on the internet at http://www.1001fonts.com/.

And the next two pictures are of backgrounds that I painted last night. I haven't decided what I will do with them yet, if anything, but I REALLY liked these two.





I think it will be fun to see what they turn into with inspiration in the future.
:D

And so, I have decided to challenge myself. 30 days of art journaling/blogging. I just must do something everyday for the next 30 days AND blog about it, WITH pictures.
I have a bunch of prompts and have found a few websites and blogs with more ideas than I can ever use, so for the next 30 days I challenge myself to do SOMETHING in my art journal and blog about it.
This is mainly to form a habit of blogging and art journaling.
I am so bad about it that I can go months without touching my blogs, but I really think I could benefit from a creative, colorful burst of art in life.