a little of this, a little of that

More catch up on what I've been doing with my 365 project lately......

#230 - a journal page ala Dina Wakley.  I got her book Art Journal Freedom from the library.  Though I follow her blog and would recognize her style anywhere, I found her book intriguing and inspiring and a good reminder on the use of color and white space.

#231 - working on a couple of canvases and waiting for the modeling paste to dry.

#232 - I've done a few pages in my art journal lately - still influenced by Dina - I added a photo that I used as the inspiration for the canvas above with the modeling circles.

#233 - another journal page where I scraped white over the scribbly, messy background (cuz I hated it!)

#234 - another random, unappealing pair of pages.....I'll probably go back and paint over these too - once I get inspired.....

#235 & #236 - more lettering play on my index cards

#237 -  Inspired by Dina Wakley's book, I spent some time mindlessly cutting shapes from some of my gelli prints.  Then I spent a half hour at the sewing machine til I ran out of black thread....... You'll be seeing these little puppies showing up here, there, and everywhere!

On this American holiday Monday, hope you're having some quality time with your family OR with your art room!  :)  Make your week a creative one!

major catch up

Aug 11-17
Oh my - when I opened this to edit and saw this date......well - I'm a little behind.  Somehow I haven't been motivated to blog, but I have been puttering at staying creative and working on my 365 days of creativity.....It'll take a few posts to catch up, but there's no better place to start than where I left off:

#223 - worked on a bit of my fanciful lettering to send off my gelli print swap pieces.....obscured her address but it was a bit artsy too. It's on a manila envelope, consequently the yellow background.

#224 - worked some doodles in my documented life journal so I could try out all the new Inktense colors I got.  I do love those pencils!

Played a bit with blending the colors and will definitely do that more - loved the results.....

#225 - spent time updating my Documented Life journal - week 32; use a fortune cookie.  I made up a couple cookie fortunes for myself.....

Detail of journal page

#226 - DLP week 33: use some of your under-painting-paper (I have lots!)

#227 - DLP week 34: use numbers from your week - I wanted to use my calligraphy pen and that ink bleeds through so I added this yellow hand made paper and stenciled over it

#228 - DLP week 35: add a pocket - my pocket of hope has a tag with my biggest hopes for this year written on the back.  I didn't notice the circle quote has a scrap laying on it, obscuring part of the quote - it says:  Put your troubles in a bubble and blow them away. Dharma & Greg

#229 - DLP week 36:  draw, doodle, alter a face  - oh my, my doodled face makes me look a bit devilish!  :)

And that catches me up to the current week of DLP.......more artsy endeavors coming soon.

pinterest love: figures

Continuing to share some of my favorite art inspiration pieces that I've pinned over at Pinterest.  Today I'm sharing some of the many ways faces and figures can be depicted.  Where I can I've linked to the actual artist page, not my Pinterest board.

Camilla Olsson - mixed media

Jeanne Bessette - mixed media - she uses so many delicious layers!

Pier Toffoletti art

Sandhi Schimmel Gold: he takes any paper waste he can find (junk mail, calendars, postcards, photos, old greeting cards, etc) and then assembles its pieces to create a portrait. "Absolutely no technology, programs or dies are used to create my art," he says. "It is hand-painted, hand-cut, hand-applied, hand-embellished, and hand-finished."  

The ultimate in junk-mail art!

April Cole

Jylian Gustlin  - this is a great series to check out on her website

The Wright Stuff

The "eye" project - pretty cool idea.  Student work, on flickr.

And finally:

Valentino Quijano

I hope you find some inspiration here to further your art journaling, or just as eye candy.  Find time to be creative this week - in whatever form it takes!

week 32 for 365/2 (part 1 &2)

Aug 4-10 - by the way, I'm well over half the year into my 2nd consecutive 365 project and going strong. Hope you're still enjoying following along.

#216 - a couple months ago I participated in a journal page "round robin" adaptation where each participant picked a theme and then we made and sent a standardized size of folio off to each person. My theme was flowers and I received some wonderful pages, which I shared at the time.  As I've been considering how to bind it, I realized I wanted to add my own page to tie it all together.

The folios are made on watercolor paper, so I always used my watercolors on at least the center section - here I just played with splats and smooshes of watercolor then searched out the flower shapes hidden in the splats.  I'm pleased with the results here......

#217 - front and back pages:

The front fold and what will be the front of my book has the word flowers (it's punch-out letters from scrapbooking), stamps, patterned paper and my artistamp from the MMSA swap.  On the back page, keeping with the grid idea from the front, I just sketched some random flowers, added a poppy washi, and gave the details of the swap.  Now I just have to bind all the pieces together - I'll show you the result when I get that done.

#218 - I ordered 12 new colors of Inktense pencils from Dick Blick and they just arrived - I'm in heaven!  I just love doodling/drawing with a pen, coloring with Inktense, and painting with my water pen.  (drawn in my documented life journal)

#219, 220 - some gelli print play for a swap.

I made lots so I could pick 10 different, hopefully interesting, prints to send to my swap partner.....

#221, 222 - a couple more lettering "art" pieces on index cards - playing, playing......

All sorts of fun playing, experimenting, trying all sorts of things.  This is sure fun!  Take time to play!

photography: spotted - animals

Hanna has a great idea (one of many good ideas! - sorry I forgot to link to you earlier!) - periodically she trolls back through her photos and "spots", notices themes or similarities in style in her photos.  Over the next few months she's encouraging us to do the same - follow her monthly theme and see what's lurking in your photo stacks.  I keep, sort, and tag my photos in PSE so here are a few of my favorite animal photos.  Thanks for the encouragement excuse to share some of my pics!

Taken in St. Augustine, FL, this peacock is going all out to impress the lady - wonder if it worked?

Hiking along a river in Oregon we managed pictures of a number of critters and birds......

 Dan feeding deer that came right up to our condo deck while vacationing in Oregon.

Our cat, Tigger.

And to wrap up my animal round up, here's one I took of my mother-in-law with her horse a few years ago.

Take a minute and scour through your images......what are some of your favorite animal pics?

Oh, had to share just one more; it is summertime after all!