Off prompt- here is my version of Marc Chagall's The Celestial Violinist.  He donated the original to the little municipal museum in the old walled city.  Yesterday we did the climb up to the walled city and it was not too laborious but I found the ancient cobbles a bit hard on my feet to get to get there. 

However it was all worth it!!! To think of the millions of feet who have passed by since the 15th century!!

Wow! He was almost a hundred years old! 

I finally had a chance to photograph my sketchbooks this afternoon.  It was fun to see my life in pictures.  Many of these pages are from our travels and holidays away, some urban sketching and collaborations!  I started this creative art journey when Sketchbook Skool first opened its "doors" and it has been absolutely a most wonderful experience.  I am always thankful that I clicked on the button to sign up for klass!!  Thanks to Tammy for posting here about it s few years ago. 

I have met some wonderful people here! I can barely describe how much fun I have had creating art almost every day! 

Oh dear, I just realized I had two others out to get some notes I had jotted down in them! So all in all, I have 21 sketchbooks!!! Amazing! 

Off prompt- I finally have my travel kit figured out! Love my lightweight "business card size" palettes.  I was shifting around and clearly made some errors on the reassemble... Oh well, I have my "chart" done so it is what it is!! 

I just wanted to post this and I want to be clear than none of the art was made by me! 

Some of you may have tried to paint a self portrait so you probably know how difficult that it actually is. I usually detest my own work but I am so loving the portraits created by others! 

Artists are: top left↖️ Amanda, top right↗️ Colleen, bottom left↙️ Jane (I don't know if it is clear here but she drew me on s Post-It note) and our own Opal↘️

My conclusion that there will always be many faces of me or many possibilities of me (and for everyone for that matter).  I just never realized how freeing it is to have so many versions of me created do that when I do one of my own I can "let it go" and get over myself. 

I love each and every one of these unique creative expressions.  It is just plain fun to see these together.

we went to the Scarborough Bluffs (along Lake Ontario)today since it was such s warm spring day! I gook the opportunity to get a drawing in too.  Pilot fineliner....I like how it reacts with the water! I added some watercolour too in my sketchbook!

This is my fave one from yesterday and I did it on dry paper.  Just swooshed the brush around in the paint and on the page, no plan.  Then I spritzed, wasn't pleased so I smooshed the two pages together. When I opened them back up there was a ton of pooling in the gutter so when I added the glad wrap I picked up some of the painted water and squeezed what I could into the folds of the wrap to move it out. I did each side separately with the wrap and then immediately after soaked up the gutter with a tissue by moving the wrap a bit to gain access. I quite like the results. 

I am in the last signature of my Strathmore MM 500 so I thought I would try the "close the book" technique again! Poured the paint on the page direct from the mixing jar cad yellow light and Phathlo blue green shade.  I saw some pigment on the bottom of the mixing jar and added it too. Much to my dismay I realized that I had done "the nasty" once again and unwittingly contaminated my paint yesterday. Too bad for it....moving on... There is just a hint of purple on the right upper quarter. Spritzed with water to loosen up the pigment even more. Then I closed my book and smooshed my hand over the back (rubbing gently); opened my book up again to see the results.  I used the brush to move some of the paint over to the edges and up the gutter and finally sopped up the gutter with the tissue.  I like it as is so I let it dry. 

 I found a small package along the side of the road on my walk today and it had some foil in it so I used it here  - on a gridded Post-it note and a bit of an envie glued down! Blue Flair marker and brushed in India ink.

This image is from my Strathmore sketchbook 500 and I pre-spritzed the paper before the drops of red, blue and yellow ink. I applied the yellow first and then randomly added the red and blue and then stuck down the wrap and squished it around. I like how the red seems to separate away and stay in the folds of the wrap!

My plan was to give my Bertha (okay so I named my car); on my way, I drove by this restaurant that is now closed! Oh no! This restaurant was two blocks away from my parents home, my father loved a  hot dog from there.  My hubby and I use to have breakfast there and chat with the owners.  The death of another family owned business.....so sad! Can you feel how bummed I am??!! 

Argh!!! When mishaps happen follow up with glitter! 

I had a pad of Fluid watercolour paper 6X6" given to me; I've been making postcards with it.  I'm using Dr Ph Martin radiant concentrated watercolour.  I decided to add more water on my drips before I blew on them threw a straw to spread the colour around.  The frisket I used was given to me too and it would seem that less is more for the hot press paper. Ugh, some of the paper come off when I removed the frisket. 

Gel pen was used in the centre to add more interest. 

I hope the recipient won't mind!! 

No prompt- this is my watercolour painting using the ever technical method of dripping colour and blowing it around with a straw!!

I used concentrated watercolour by Dr Ph Martin  -Radiant- don't get this if you want lightfast paintings!!! As far as I know the Hydrus concentrate is!!! 

I tried to mimic a geographic contour map to add interest.  I added the primaries blue, yellow and red so I got waaaay too much darks. To remedy that....out came the Florescent the gel pen.