Keeping busy

Spent an entire morning last week gel plate printing at the dining room table so the dogs would calm down

Dog Mom - this is how I grocery shop

The inside of a new junk journal

Spine shows stitching. It's super easy

I covered the inside covers with scrapbook paper

How to stay healthy. EAT healthy.

Made a tie for the journal and glued the fabric down

Start of a 2nd journal, used bookbinding tape and scrapbook paper for reinforcements. 

I so need to keep better track of when I post. Had no idea it was almost a week. No reason for that, except I do lose track of what day of the week it is. I am old. That is my excuse.

Cathy turned me onto the free workshops at Sketchbook Revival with Karen Abend. They are only accessible until April 26th, so go today and sign up. You have immediate access to 17 workshops. I have not watched all of the videos. There are some artists that are very talented, but the personalities that come with that talent make me want to run out of the house screaming. Not a good look right now. Anyhoooo, the first workshop is how to make an altered book junk journal.  Fast and very easy, and I am off and running. I am not using any new papers in these, and will stop (I think) at two, but just wanted something to do with my hands and mind that wasn't drawing for a day or two. It helps me to refocus and start fresh.  Caylee Grey is the artist showing us how to make these, and she is a delight to watch.

There is also a workshop from Karen Stamper, who I have followed on Instagram for over a year, and I am so doing this project today or tomorrow. It involves making a huge mess. Can we say yes, please? Yes, we can! Charcoal, and crayons, and ink and oh, my!

Moving on, Julie Fei Fan Balzer has a two week journaling class up for free, that includes how to make a mini journal. I don't know if there is a time limit on access. Go to balzerdesigns.com to sign up. Warning, her website is slow. At times, really slow.

Kellee Wynne Studios has a ton of free stuff on YouTube and Facebook. She does product reviews, painting projects, whatever on Fridays in a livestream at 5pm Eastern Time Zone.

Gulfsprite - Christy Sobolewski - is doing at least one free video a week on YouTube. Search either Gulfsprite or her name to find them. The list is in chronological order. She has also uploaded all of her workshops on YouTube, for free.

I love to watch journal flips. If you want to be inspired, search for Jill Faust on YouTube, and there are at least 3 older videos of journal flips. Jill is an amazing artist who works mostly in pen and watercolors.

There are no words to express my gratitude to all of the artists now posting free content in this time of stress and anxiety. If I didn't have my art, I would be in such a deep depression. We are all in this together, and we will survive it together.  OH, one more word. Eat healthy. Seriously. I have been roasting most of my vegetables. Had fresh asparagus the other night. This is what I do: one pound of asparagus, with bottoms cut off about an inch to get rid of the stringy tough parts. Toss in about 2 tablespoons of good quality olive oil. I season with garlic powder and greek seasoning in the yellow container. Spread on a cookie sheet in a single layer, and bake at 400 degrees for about 20 to 30 minutes. I let mine go until the tips are brown, because they are then crunchy and taste fried. To die for, folks! Enjoy.
Linda

Well. Another adventure

See the marks?

I want paints in all of these colors. Now.

This was another interesting lesson. I did it twice. The first attempt I tore out of the journal and it is now sitting in my handmade papers container. I will cut it up and use it in parts.  Let me explain: we were to draw a face, a tree, whatever we wanted, in pencil but first we journaled all over the page. The instructions were to not use your normal pencil, which for me is an .05 mechanical. I used a Stabilo graphite, which like all Stabilos, smears when wet. After I drew my girl and started to paint the yellow background in watercolor, the pencil added to the mix giving me grey mud. Not attractive mud, just yuck. I covered that with gouache, but the entire project kind of went downhill from there.

For this attempt, I pulled out some Folk Art cool white craft paint, and put down a basecoat. THEN I drew my girl. Then pulled out a few text stamps and stamped around the face of the girl for texture. This is a combination of Prisma Colored pencils, (the circles and marks all over the head), Daniel Smith watercolor, and Caran D'Arche gouache (grey hair, yellow background).

This is Day 5. I am still working on Day 4. I am being challenged, learning new techniques, and that is what I want.
Linda

Learning Curve

Collage and paint. The lesson was color blocking and mark making

We were to combine a face with collage and a scene, some design

Thought I was done

But then added some shading and highlights. Now it's done.

Gracie growling at Jake that he can't have the new green frog mom just purchased

Day 2 of the 30 Days with Gulfsprite was cutting out shapes and colors from magazines, creating a collage, then filling in with paint and markers. I am not a fan of using magazines for collage. I don't care for the glossy finish to the paper, or the way it looks once glued to a page. So I almost passed on this lesson. Then decided I needed to do it. It does make you consider color selection and placement, and I do feel I got a flow going on this page. Do I like it? Nope. Will I do it again? Highly unlikely, but it's all about learning something new.

Day 3 was a combination. We were to draw a face with typical Gulfsprite hair, and add collage to the hair. I pulled out some Tim Holtz tissue and a piece of vintage music paper.  The goal was not to leave any naked journal paper showing, by filling every space with design and one of them with a scene. I chose a barn from Pinterest. Again, this is completely foreign to me, but I did enjoy it and will probably try this again.

Just starting Day 4. Kind of one day behind, but that's okay. I am not rushing this. By the way, the girl was painted with the Mira gouache. It is a challenge. I am so used to how Daniel Smith water colors react to papers, and what I can do with them. This gouache is completely different. It dries very fast, so you don't have a lot of time to blend or move it. In fact, there is no moving it. I love the colors, the mixed colors you can get with very little paint, but I need to adjust how I paint when using this product. Very opaque, very matte. But the final shading I did on that page was done with Tombow brush markers. And even those have a tendency to lift what is underneath.

It's all a learning experience. Have a good one.
Linda

Free Class! Just what we need!!!

Base coats

Finished I guess

There is a whimsical artist who has been around for quite a few years named Juliette Crane. You can find her here. Cathy has been drooling (well, almost) over a few of her whimsical animal classes for 2 years. This week she found on Instagram that Juliette was giving a free 35 minute class on an owl painting. To receive the link, you have to sign up for her newsletter. No problem.  If you are interested in learning more about layers in mixed media, this is a great tutorial, and I do recommend it.

One of the supplies I have had for over a year and never used is bleeding tissue paper. Cathy purchased a pack and split it with me. Juliette uses it in this class, so I pulled mine out. Love how vibrant the colors are and that it does indeed bleed out when wet. The  brightest colors in the first photo are that tissue.

Not happy with the owl, so of course I must try another one. I do like the background. A lot. Going to try that on a journal page. This is a 9x12 canvas panel from Hobby Lobby, with a coat of gesso under the paint.

Have a great day.
Linda

What? A Dry Day? What?

Gracie, look at mom

Where is Meranda?

11x15 watercolor paper, scored in half 

This is where I stopped last night

The above is the Familiar lesson in the PAINT IN THE DARK class from Gulfsprite. She provided a download of the cat, which I then traced. Found it interesting that Christy also traced her cat, using what appears to be an identical light box as mine. I decided to change the girl's hair at the last minute, so she has some green shading in her pinkish hair. No worries

The background is layers upon layers of colors, as is the girl although I have not put any flesh tone mix on her face. Yet. Don't think I will. This is not realistic, and I am liking where she is at right now. Today, after mowing and cleaning and walking the dogs, I will work on the cat. All of the paint on this piece are Daniel Smith watercolors. I need more. I really do. Sigh.
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!

Floods

He made a nest next to me

Explanation below

After several applications of ink and paint

My hand prints

Trying to get the red paint off of my hands

And still trying....

Then I went to the bathroom to scrub

It rained. And then it rained hard. Then softly. Then hard. Straight down, slanted in from the south, the rain had an agenda. That was to flood the streets, overflow the rivers and creeks. We received so much rain that by early evening roads were closed in multiple areas. Roads inside towns in residential areas. No idea what the countryside looks like, but I bet it is a mess.

It is now a drizzle, but no where near to being done. It was also quite chilly inside the house. So if one were to start a water soluble project, one had a hard time getting that project to dry. Yes one did. This one then got bored, and went through looking at old classes online that I had never touched. Oh, look. PAINT IN THE DARK with Gulfsprite. Huh. Let's plunge into that before the electric goes out.

The concept of PAINT IN THE DARK is that another artist is telling a spooky story, and Christie then paints a journal page depicting that story. She is giving us downloads for references or, in the case above, to print out and use. This was the Shadow Walkers story, and was to be creepy. Christie didn't give us a watercolor paper size, so the first pic I had too large of a piece. Left out the one set of people, and fit the images on 11x15 Strathmore 300 paper. I used water downed acrylic inks. After that was dry, did a wash of Matte Medium and black gesso to tone down the colors, before adding the solid black images and the red handprints. This is not done. There is highlights to be added with Neocolor II crayons, but holy rainfall, this thing would not dry last night. I must say that the Strathmore paper held up beautifully to layers of wet, but I was afraid to push my luck while the red paint was tacky.

Stay tuned. I will finish this today. Because, hey, it's raining! The entire weekend has been hug a dog or both dogs, cut out paper. Repeat, but add paint or ink. Gracie does not like thunderstorms. Lots of time right next to mom.
Linda

Booklet Bundles of Joy Class

This is 4 pieces of Tru Ray construction paper taped together underneath, so 16x22 ish

Close up. The white and black marks are deli paper over the collage

Used a ton of old gel plate prints on card stock

LOTS of paper is involved in this class. Have yet to use these!

Finished booklet is 3x5 ish

inside the front cover

inside the back cover, showing the little pocket (torn tag!)

I cut a heart from an old tag and attached the sentiment. Cathy's present at the Mother's Day Brunch

Jake wanting to know why he couldn't go to the brunch

Gracie wanting my phone to call Meranda

If you want to learn about collage and the layering process involved in mixed media art, I highly recommend the Robin Marie Smith online class, Booklet Bundles of Joy. Please google Robin-Marie Smith. I tried several times to put in a link, but her website refused to connect from this blog.

There are multiple steps in making the bundles, and I did a fast shortcut yesterday morning so one of these could be a Mother's Day Present for Cathy. I tore a page out of a drawing prompt book I purchased from a discount table, cut the sheets, then grabbed some ordinary graph paper. I only put 4 papers inside because they are sewn to the cover. So that part is mine. I have yet to watch the final video on how to assemble the inside pages.

I have gone into my stash and pulled out a few gel plate prints to tear up, as well as several tags. I did use some scrapbook paper, book pages, and vintage sheet music. I had previously used gel prints for the junk journals I made from a Julie Fei Fan Balzer class. This current class has me once again thinking of collage as a finished piece of art. Ideas are percolating.

Robin Marie has a short video on her website about the class, if you are interested.
Linda

SQUIRRELS!

Yes, there is a story

Pull my finger

Jake at the dog park yesterday

Stuff smells better at the dog park, mom. Always.

It was 81 degrees here yesterday afternoon, late. We spent about 90 minutes at the park, wandering in all 3 parts, sniffing, marking our territory. Well, the dogs marked. I don't do that.

Robin Marie Smith is an artist I have followed for years. She sent me an email (bless her heart) about a new class, Booklet Bundles of Joy, that started this week. It is self paced, my favorite kind, and I like Robin Marie. The art she creates is wonky, and true mixed media, and has always appealed to me. So I bought the class. I know. I know. Sigh. SQUIRRELS....like I don't have classes lined up, right?

I will post my progress on my own Booklet Bundles, but the above photo is the first step. Water color paint just brushed on all over a piece of Tru Ray white construction paper. I happened to have some on hand from the last Robin Marie class I took. But I also have a brand of lighter weight paper from a teacher's supply store on the north side. Don't know the manufacturer, but I did pages in that paper as well. You don't want a heavy card stock because this class involves collage and sewing. There are layers and layers of papers. I did conclude that the supply company paper I have takes the color better than the Tru Ray.

The finger pic? That is Bree Magenta ink from Hobby Lobby. This was taken on Tuesday. The ink is still evident on my forefinger. Nice. Real nice. Do NOT rub Bree ink around with your finger.....

I must be in a collage state of mind, because right now it is making me happy. Glue sticks are flying! Stay tuned.
Linda