Grandma Duty

I have finished two postcards for the mixed media swap but I will have to wait until I get home to post them here. I am using my iPad and I haven't worked out which app to use to make the snaps I took of them look good on blogger. I thought I would get more postcards finished but life has interfered with my art making! My daughter had wanted me to help her out by going with her to the "well baby group" appointment. My grand-daughter is two months old now and that means it is time for some inoculations. That means that there is a possibility that my little angel will not be a very happy child after the appointment. I have had to put off picking up my new car now! I had hoped to have it a few days before deriving it to work for the first time. In addition, I still have to clear out my Dad's old Hyundai (sorry dad, but I really hate that car!). It is my intention to get as much done on my postcard project on my long change over day - Sunday. I want to post three or four postcards by next week.

Best intentions and a new ride!

I'm justing finishing four days off, four fabulous days off.

I had laid out all of my ephemera and other postcard making materials when my hubby called to say that his vehicle needed more unexpected work done and was being kept in the shop overnight.  Oh, and by the way, there is a car here in the lot that you might like.  It is a 2007 Toyota Camry with all of the bells and whistles!  Oh joy, it has heated seats, total luxury!!

So I had good intentions but I ended up making the deal and buying the vehicle.  I will pick it up next week on my days off.  So, that means that I did not get the work on my project completed.  Ten postcards....I hope to not let it lag on too long.  I want them completed within a reasonable amount of time.  I think that I will mail out to the woman in Australia first because it will likely take much longer than the other names on my list.  I was really getting into my project (I had laid out what I needed to complete two postcards) when my hubby called.  Life has zigs and zags so that is okay.  I will do what I can, when I can.

I'm pretty excited about the new ride though!!  This new car is just so sweet with leather seats and a moon roof.

Yesterday, we went to Toronto to see our daughter and grand-daughter and visited the Royal Ontario Museum to see the Mayan exhibit.

This is a quick snap of my hubby and my daughter pushing the snazzy stroller/carriage thingie going into the museum.  I'm glad we were able to go because my hubby really wanted to see it.  We took our grand-daughter too; this was her first trip to the ROM but without a doubt it will not be the last.  Truthfully, although she was awake the whole time she likely didn't enjoy it as much as her grandma and grand-dad!  

Picture taking was prohibited in the exhibit itself so this is a snap that I took of a promotional picture in the elevator of the ROM. 

Bummer, but off to work tomorrow... another day, another fifty cents!

Try, try, try again!

I remembered the old adage so I thought I would take heart and try it on for size.

I wasn't happy with the way my last pencil drawing looked so I spent a little bit of time last night attempting to clean it up with the end result of improving the drawing.  I dragged out my pencil box that my hubby bought for me many years ago and grabbed the 6B.  On my way to work night shift last night, I picked up a package of Primacolor Ebony pencils as well.  I have used those two new pencils to darken up my drawing.  Using constructive criticism, I think these modifications are certainly a move in the right direction, especially the shadow cast.  At least now they actually look like a shadow and not part of the cutlery.  

I see one glaring mistake now that I have it on my screen before me (that is the beauty of technology and iPhoto).  However, I can still fix that without any problem.  This is a good start but I still think that it needs some more work, somehow I think that it is not dark enough yet.  It is just does not look "metal" enough for me.  Having said that, I will give this drawing a final spray and put it away for now.  It will be alright if I move on and try my hand at another drawing of something metal. 

That is it for today as I am trying to get all the bits and bobs together in preparation for putting them together to make ten mixed media postcards!  I will be getting my mailing list by January 27th so I would have liked to have many of the cards made by now but I just haven't had the time.  I am working overtime tomorrow and then the next day my hubby and I are heading south to the big city to see our grandchild.  It has been a week and a half since we have seen her and I expect she will have changed much already.  I miss her!

Play Day

My hubby had to go to town today so I thought that it was the perfect opportunity for some "play".  It has been awhile since I have brought out the paints and my mark making tools.

I watched the Doodles Unleashed workshop on the web a few days ago and today I got busy.  I didn't do a "follow along" with the video so my page is not turning out like the instructors - Traci Bautista at Strathmore Artist Papers.

http://www.strathmoreartiststudio.com/

It was fun and I used some acrylic inks with some mini misting bottle, water colour paints, acrylic paints and fluid acrylic paints, oil sticks and oil pastels.  In the beginning of the process, I used stuff from around the house to lay on the 140 lb watercolour paper (it is what I already had on hand, same with the paints and inks) to start misting the ink around on the page.  I'm glad that I had most of the materials already.  Since I didn't have enough mist bottles or fluid watercolours I used the acrylic inks that I had and just added water to the misting bottle.

 Now that I take a look at it again, I think I should have attached the key to the key fob.  What do you think?  Does it really matter since this is only stage one in the process?  In some ways, I like the picture just the way it is; I like its minimalist simplicity. 

Then I added more colour. I'm not done yet because now that I look the snaps I took, I can see that I need more "light" to contrast all of the dark.  This is much more defined in the purple, pink and blue doodle page

My red, green and blue page has some light yellow but again it is way too dark and I need to add acrylic ink to it as well as part of my doodling process. 

It has been a fun day!! I am looking forward to the next time that I have a few hours to spare so that I can complete these.  I did a couple more pages too; for something to do while the wet paint was drying (I should have gotten my hair dryer out I suppose).  Those pages are not even as far along in the process as these above so I have not taken any snaps of them.

All in all, I had a lot of fun on a very dreary, rainy, foggy day!  If I must spend a lot of time indoors then I am happy that I could spend my time making art.

I look forward to seeing how these will morph once again as I spend some quality time with them and apply the final marks on them!!

Metal spoons!

It never ceases to amaze my how time can speed up so.  It has been almost two weeks since I last posted.  I wasn't sure I could post today because I could not get my browser to load.  I'm using Firefox because it seems that Safari will not work for me today.  I was on the phone with the technician and was hoping it isn't my computer.  I don't really want to spend a bunch of money just yet.  It would be great if I could gimp along until I get my income tax return (well, I anticipate that I should get a return that is).

I really hate having things not work well when it is my first day off.  I went right to bed this morning and woke up just before 2 p.m.  I had to get up anyway because a friend of my old boy wanted to go cross country skiing with him.  Sweet!  I get to have my java in peace and quiet.

I'm now going to see if I can load the pencil drawing that I did last night.  I don't like the drawing as much on the screen as I do the original.  I can see that there is not enough definition between the spoons to see them clearly.  I had to manipulate the image somewhat to correct that and even then it isn't the best.

I like the idea of drawing metal though.  I saw this idea while I was surfing the net and if I can find the blog name I will come back and edit this post.  I think that hers were much better than mine but I can't complain too much since I did the drawing on nightshift and it was a hard nightshift.  We were busy and I didn't have as much time as I would have like to complete it.  My most favourite part is the reflected image of me in one of the spoons.  It made me chuckle when I drew it in.

Yup!  Firefox is a new experience when using Blogger but I think I am getting the hang of it!

Welcome 2012!

Thankfully I'm not one for resolutions!  That said I have hopes:  I hope to make more art this year than last.  I hope to read more books (real and digital) in the new year.  I hope that a fairy will appear this year and clean my house for me.  Hmmm! That is certainly a dream come true and I am doubtful that will happen in this millennium!

Since I can't have everything I want, I did my first doodle for the new year.  What I like about mimicking the zentangle doodle is its simplicity. Usually it is just black and white and for this special occasion I colourized it!  I don't think I like the effect really.  I will try it again but use a different set of coloured felt markers.  These were a large set that I got in the sale bin at the local craft store but not all felt markers are created equal.  This set is meant for children and although they have been good for other simple projects I don't like them here.  But a doodle is a doodle....it is meant to be fun, so here it is..... Welcome 2012!!