No Excuse

The Patreon lesson was collage and drawing, so I used what I cut out as a template

This is how it ended, and I don't like it but tired of messing with it

Came out of nowhere

Another Patreon lesson about connecting images that have a common theme. Love this.

The day I knocked over a large container of water on the desk and soaked this journal. Put the fan on it for 2 hours

Patreon lesson where we started with an abstract background

If you look closely you can see my background peeking thru the sky and veggies

This spread took me over 5 hours and I loved the process

Used colored pencils for finishing touches

After spending 2 days painting a pineapple, I tore it up and did this collage

Then taped off borders and did abstracts

Part of my garden in the morning sun

Freebies - see below

More abstracts because I didn't like any of the girls I was drawing

Yep. Abstracts

 It's been awhile. I apologize. Either I had too much information swimming around in my brain that I could not put on the net, or I was just not in the mood for art journaling. 

The freebies: Google "DesignCuts". It is a company that sells graphic packages, but if you register for their emails, you get weekly freebies. The files aren't huge, but for anyone into mixed media and/or art journaling, there are some very interesting images, for free. You also receive the license to use them, in case you decide to sell your art. I have downloaded about 6 decorative fonts, and various birds and floral graphics. Lots of leaves. One never knows when you might need something. The link is here. The emails are almost daily, and you are offered several free packages per week. I stumbled across it when looking for additional fonts to use with my Cricut. 

Hope everyone is enjoying the summer. Either blazing hot, or you need a jacket at night....just saying. Linda

In-between rain storms

This bee couldn't wait for me to plant the Foxglove.

Collage pieces from Klara, Gulfsprite, and some of my own

Gulfsprite sent me the magazine images, girl done in water color

acrylic paint in the background, then drew in ink, then pastel pencils

 My days are now revolving around the weather forecast. We have sun now, so I will get the dogs to the park before noon. Rain is moving in yet again. The grass is growing at top speed, so mowing is also in my future. Ah, springtime. Love it.

I am back to experimenting with products, which is a good thing. If I am buying all of this, I should be using it. The pastel pencils are by Stabilio, and color is intense. I didn't spray this page yet. Closed the journal and waiting to see if it smudges. I know next to nothing about chalk pastels, so will learn as I use them.

The water color girl was done with just one color, Neutral by Daniel Smith. I did use a Titanium Grey for her eyes, and a white Posca pen for highlights. I like this a lot, so more will be showing up. Create something today. You will feel better. Linda

A Busy Week

Last completed spread in the large Dina journal

Painted jewelry boxes

without embellishments

using pop up adhesive squares for dimension

No idea what I am going to do with these, but having fun creating cute stuff

My Siberian Iris are in bloom

I have worked on art and/or crafts every day. Maybe for only 15 minutes, maybe an hour, and then just walk out of the room. Not a lot is being completed and I'm not totally sure why. I think it's the old stress complex again. But I keep thinking how bad it could be if I didn't have dogs or art. Life is good.
Linda

Technical Difficulties

a walk in the park yesterday

White witch

White witch complete

reference photo

flowers in a friend's backyard

hmmmmm

Better but still no

The above are from the PAINT IN THE DARK class with Gulfsprite. There are a total of 15 lessons, and I undoubtedly will fall out somewhere along the line, but right now I am being challenged and frustrated. This is a good thing.

I used the light box to trace the face and hair of the White Witch from a stock photo provided in class. I made up her body, and again used a reference photo for the star within the circle. This is all watercolor, all Daniel Smith, except for the metallic white in her hair, star, and the edge of the cape. That is Prima. I folded a piece of 11x15 Strathmore 300 paper in half, scoring it for a perfect fold, so I can turn this into a journal insert.

The little girl (ha ha ha) I drew freehand from the reference photos provided in class. I am happy with the drawing, but damn it! her face looks like a grown woman midget holding a doll. After taking the first photo and sending it to Cathy, we decided that I had made her face too long, and she needed rosy cheeks. So she is somewhat fixed.  But I am not happy. Going to add some shading around the girl, and call it quits on her, move on.

Ya gotta keep trying!
Linda

Edit - this is the final version of Shadow Walkers. Creepy!

Let me do this for you, Jake

Gracie has her nose and tongue inside of Jake's ear

This was the 3rd time she had done this in 10 minutes

Sunday's all day rain made my potted petunias bloom

Dogs are wonderful, strange, loving, loyal, bizarre creatures. A dog's nose is far more sensitive than a humans, and what smells good to them may not be to our liking. I, for one, am not prone to sniffing ears. Gracie, on the other hand, feels it is her responsibility to clean up Jake. She will wash his eyes, get in his ears, but stops at any other body parts.  When we came home from the Playground yesterday, Grace would not leave Jake alone until he let her do this. Such a good boy, sitting there, taking it all in. Maybe he liked it.

For the record, he does not reciprocate. Jake has standards.
Linda

I wonder....

My backyard yesterday, prior to mowing. Those are trees!

100's of maple trees, all over the yard

My neighbor and I dug this up from the side of my house 3 years ago, when it was 2 foot tall

To protect the tree roots, I told her to take the Siberian Iris with her. She has more than I do!

Sketches of body parts

ditto

Brown stabilo pencil on acrylic paint

Caran D'Arche gouache, some pen work

I have been drawing, and painting, and thinking about what I want to create. But most importantly, doing. It may only be for 15 minutes at a time, but I am pulling out supplies and using them. And I feel better about what I create. It is what it is.

Watched a fascinating video on YouTube yesterday from Gulfsprite - Christy Sobelewski. She often doodles on flyers, old book pages, lined paper from a notebook, etc. If she adds color to the drawing and likes it, she will cut it out and paste it into a background in a journal, then finish the piece so it appears to all have been created at the same time. If there is just a part she likes, like an eye, she will cut that out of her drawing and just use it. I am going to try this. Mentally, the pressure is off when you are just doodling. Why not use it? And the art journal is not suppose to be finished ready-to-sell art. It's for whatever you are feeling, want to experiment with, testing new products, whatever!

So go create something. Enjoy.
Linda

Where did the week go?T

The Siberian Iris are done, and the yellow whatever-it-is flower is in bloom. Vibrant!

Variety of die cuts from scrapbook papers, hand painted papers

Based on a YouTube video from Jill Faust, this is what I did with them. Explanation below. I hate her.

Background was multiple gel plate prints

Love this section

Added some text stamping, and a Tim Holtz quote

If it was, I would need a bigger house

Another gel plate spread

Stamped the bird

I am going to stop drawing faces for awhile, because they all look alike and I don't like any of them. So for the short term, I will do pages of eyes, or noses, or mouths. This is a great tool to learn, and quite frankly, I am bored with what I have been drawing. That is also the reason that I tried the technique of using a small gel plate to fill up background on a journal page. It was fast and fun, and really funky. I made a few notes on these pages to remind myself of what I used.

Jill Faust uses water soluble fountain pen ink, in a fountain pen, then moves it with a water color brush on most of her drawings. Before investing in any of that, I pulled out some Bree water color ink I had in Magenta. I first drew the face (with the die cuts) in pencil, then put the ink on and tried to manipulate it. You have to work fast. This doesn't work well in a Dylusions journal, which is what I am working in. I admire Jill's work, but this is not for me. I much prefer Daniel Smith water colors. But it was an opportunity to try something different, and you never know until you do it.

On the blue, pink, and yellow spread, I applied a medium coat of heavy body gesso to create the white area, so I could glue the Tim quote onto the page. This is a technique from Jane Wetz on Instagram.

More rain is in the forecast, so perhaps more studio time. Yard work is a bitch, and I am no where near caught up. Endless this season. Thanks for stopping by.
Linda