Fun art Projects

I am so disappointed that I missed the deadline for the free art project over at  the sketchbook project.com

I thought it was March 22 (today) and it turns out it was yesterday.  Regardless, I didn't have it finished so I would not have been able to submit it anyway.  The project was called the "infinite scroll" - patterns.  Basically I did a zentangle to fit the parameters that they supplied.

I found a really wide Coptic marker and made some squiggly lines on the page marking the fixed parameters and then I started doodling.  It isn't a favourite with me but I am happy enough with the results that I might try it again.  I like working the white pen on the black ink.  Still bummed that I missed the deadline though!

I have another postcard swap that I am doing and I have to get it in the mail tomorrow as it needs to arrive in Oregon by April 5th.  I was also involved in another music playlist swap and I need to get it wrapped up for mailing.

I am retired, but not really.  Still working way too many hours but there is still snow on the ground so I might as well make some money!

Happy Canada Day!!

I have been a bit negligent with this blog so I will endevour to keep up as much as I can this month!!

We were busy at work last night but not really as busy as I had anticipated!  Regardless, I am glad that I am not working overtime again tonight!

I was able to complete a mixed media "doodle" of sorts especially for the occasion!  This is certainly not my favourite doodles for Canada Day but it is the one that I did this year ..... so be it, here it is!!!

 I had fun doing this doodle because it kept me awake during the slow times.  I had some cheap dollar store tape with me and so I used it as a border.  The stuff is so awful that it is hard to remove it from the roll in one piece.....so, I just "went with it"!!!! 

Then when I came home this morning, I was resting in my car after working all night and glanced out the window.  This is what I am calling my Canada Day bunny!!!!  Very cute, almost as cute as my grand-daughter!

2nd Postcard swap #1

OMG! I haven't blogged for over a month! Wo what the heck have I been doing??? First, I went on holidays in the Thousand Islands with some old time friends (lots of fun!), then I was recruited by my union to get back on the Executive to assist with bargaining our next contract with our employer (hard times are a'comin"!)  Now...I'm working night shift and there has been lots of overtime in the mix - past, present and future!

I think that this is one of my favourite pictures from the Thousand Islands and it is all about the juxtaposition of the people and objects - the very large objects, those ocean going ships.

I had to laugh when I saw that I had taken the above!  When I took it I was only actually "seeing" the ocean freighter; when I saw the snap on my computer I then saw the couple fishing on their little boat and the people on the white speed boat almost overtaking the ship.    As it turns out, there was much more going on than I had initially realized!  Love when that happens, when the composition of a photograph makes itself!


Below is a snap of some "artist tape" that I made.  I do have purchased washi tape but it is expensive and I live in the boondocks and it is not always available!  I have to drive an hour to find some and that just doesn't happen very often. I used "paper tape" that you find in the bandage isle in your drugstore, dollar store or department store.

I painted them up with acrylic and used some glitter paint on some of them as well.

I tried to set up a n appealing design prior to glueing everything down with gel medium.

I have to admit it!  I am a recycler, re-user and a repurpose type of gal!  I still think that you can make lovely creative things regardless of the tools that you use.




I used some found lacey ribbon, a strip of a page from an old unwanted book, paint chips, painted dryer sheets, left over netting from another project, around the house mark making stamps!!  I used a corrugated cardboard from a hot coffee sleeve, the not-so-pointy end of an old paint brush (from my university days) to make dots and a cap from a soda pop bottle to make the circles.

This postcard for the postcard swap really was fun to make!  I do enjoy experimentation.  Each postcard I make I like but then when I make the next one; I like it better.

This and That

I'm home alone!  I love having the house to myself!  My old guy is off fishing with the boys and I am on holidays.  Sweet!

I woke up at 0300 hrs this morning and I tried to lie down again but I got up to see who had sent me a text message.  It was from my daughter of course!  We had a good chat and a plan was made for me to go south to see the family on Tuesday.

I wanted to take this time to do some art.  It was my intention to get quite a bit done on the postcards for the next postcard challenge that is about to begin.  I don't really have much to show for myself yet but these to pictures.

The first is a drawing of a male face that I found in a recycled art journal that I started some time ago.  I just liked the green and blue colour and finally after looking at it for a time; I saw what looked like a face. I just followed the lines and this face formed.  Fun!  Not a lot of effort but fun nevertheless!

I hope that it isn't similar to the face that was found in the toast.  It isn't meant to be anything serious, it as just kinda cool to actually see something on a gessoed page that was just plastered with leftover paint.

The next picture is a postcard that I am making for a friend who has cancer!  I thought I would do up a "thinking of you" card.  Just because - just because I can!

It is a mixed media piece using a re-cycled mail card that I keep getting in the mail.I gessoed it too and slapped on some paint.  Then I doodled on it with a Sharpie.  Cut out some images from magazine pages along with some text that I hope she takes as a positive message.  There is also one piece of a National Geographic that I had treated with CitraSolv for it didn't really cut through the ink (I must assume that I didn't apply enough liquid to the paper).   I will pop this into a gift wrap envelope that I have cut yet and mail it out on Tuesday before I head to Toronto.

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!!

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!!

Christmas Tree Collage

Here is another "doodle" for want of a better word.  It really is a "doodle" in the sense that I had the felt pens but I wasn't really going anywhere with them at first. Then I cut out the Christmas trees from the wrapping paper roll and applied them to my sketchbook page.  I had to cover up a lot of doodling but that is no matter.  Although this isn't fine art, it was fun to do.  I sometimes think that is more important for me!
I think it keeps me calm and it is good not to think about all the silliness (whatever it happens to be) for a few hours.

I couldn't find my white gel pen so I had to use correction fluid in this multi-media piece.  I love spending time in my sketchbook and feel naked without it.

Home Alone

I have the house to myself for the next week!  I can watch all the television I want and pick my channel.  I can eat what I want, when I want.  I can do exactly what I want to do and when I want to do it.  Wow!  The choice!

So I have been busy trying to paint a picture that I took.  I have made some design changes that I think suit a painting although it will deviate from the original picture that I took last March.  It is actually a sunrise photograph and I love sunrises and sunsets.  I am having some difficulties because I don't really know my brush strokes well enough.  I don't know how to make the water resemble water.  I have done what I can and it looks kinda sorta like water but I'm not always the best judge.

Here are some pictures that I painted in class this week.  They are colour studies, one blue and one burnt sienna.

I ran the study in blue through my iPhone 100 Camera's program and it came out looking like an antique and in many ways greatly enhanced the original picture.

The burnt sienna picture did not fair well through the same program and looks a bit over exposed.  These are just studies so I should not be too hard on myself.

I'm not sure that I like water soluble oil paint as these were still wet and they were painted last Wednesday.  Okay so I know that oil painters (read fine art oil painters) love that very fact.  Me...not so much!   The more that I look at this photograph the more I think that I might have to revert this image to it's original.

I was busy try to reclaim a laminated board and frame as my next project (I firmly believe in recycling - regardless if it is art or not) so I only had a minute to sketch this 2" x 2" thumbnail.  I saw it on the web and I think it is a photograph taken in Scotland.   It is a quick sketch and I can see now that I have not clearly expressed the river bank from the river.

Oil Pastels in sketchbook

I thought that I would try this out using some cheap dollar store oil pastels that I have. I made a zentangle of a flower some time ago and like the motif so I created another coloured zentangle using the oil pastels. Then I smeared odourless mineral spirits on the drawing. It took quite some time for the sketch to dry in my sketchbook but it finally did.

I liked using the mineral spirits on woodless pencil much better as it makes the lay down look much more painterly. I haven't got a picture yet but will take one later and post.

My dad has finally decided to take the morphine so he feels a bit better and I feel a bit better too. It is easier for me to see that he is not in pain when I visit.

Happy Canada Day!!

My dad reminded me yesterday that this use to be "Dominion Day". Happy Dominion/Canada Day to all!

I"m getting excited!

I am oh so looking forward to Christmas! I have to admit it that I love presents! I love the anticipation of it all the most. I love getting together with family - the eating, the drinking and the telling of "stories". Often these stories don't come out until such occasions.

I love making my family squirm when I make them wear their hats from the Christmas crackers except my daughter who refuses to be cajoled. Of course, I will try again this year (you bet!!).

"Tis the season to be listening to Bob Dylan's Christmas album, Christmas in the Heart!

Not sure how this zentangle inspired Christmas doodle will look like on this blog due to it's nature (black and white) but here it is regardless.