Monday, September 30, 2013

A Card for Rylan

 
 
My four year old grand nephew participated in the Terry Fox Run this year, and I want him to know that he's the BEST!  I'm happy that his school and parents are encouraging him already to support worthwhile causes.  

Sunday, September 29, 2013

Gelli Plate ATC's

I got out the Gelli Plate recently and made some ATC's for the October Vancouver ATC swap:








I made the silhouettes by applying packing tape to magazine pictures and then cutting them out.  This makes them sturdy enough to use as masks.  That great idea came from Balzer Designs

Saturday, September 28, 2013

Silly Scraps Saturday


This is a simple collage made of scraps, done in my Scrap Journal.  I made my Scrap Journal with my Bind-It-All, especially to hold these "warm-up" collages.  When I want to make something but I'm not inspired to do anything specific, I make one of these.  One usually leads to two (or more).  I got the idea from iHanna's "Every Artist Needs a Scrap Notebook" post.

Every Saturday I post one of these simple collages.  Thanks for visiting my blog and I hope you are enjoying the weekend!

Friday, September 27, 2013

29 Faces Becomes 30

 
 
I've been practising some watercolor techniques lately, and when I graduated from washes to layering and glazing, I was disappointed with my results.  Then I realized that it was the drawing and not the painting that was suspect, so I thought "Well, you can draw faces now, so why not paint one?"  Of course my Inner Critic immediately responded with "Oh no, you can't possibly paint a face.  You're just not good enough."  I shooed him away:  "It's only paper, stupid.  Nothing ventured, nothing gained!"


Thursday, September 26, 2013

Easy Artist Trading Cards

 
Bird Stamp by Inkadinkado

 
Bird Stamp by Prima

These ATC's were inspired by Colette at A Bird in the Hand.  I turned distress stains over and banged them on cardstock to create splotches and then added a stamp.  I loooove all the white space.


Wednesday, September 25, 2013

29 Faces : #29!

 
 
This is the last face for the 29 Faces Challenge.  When I started the challenge it was already September 3 and I didn't know if I would make it to 29, so I'm happy to have completed the challenge. 
 
I drew my first face in May, kept at it over the summer, and I wasn't sure if I wanted to do another 29.  I'll probably take a rest from them for at least a day or two.  LOL  Thanks so much to everyone who visited and left such kind words of encouragement.  You really helped me to continue.
 
This was drawn with watercolor pencil crayons.


Tuesday, September 24, 2013

29 Faces: #26 - #28

 

 
Here's a few more faces drawn with a Sharpie.  These are for my 29 Faces challenge.


Monday, September 23, 2013

Practicing With Pencil Crayons

 
 
I'm still inspired by Dave Brethauer's book Stamp in Color.  His pencil crayon techniques are different than I have seen or read elsewhere, but they are very intuitive to me.  They are like I used to do before I got confused by other people's instructions.  LOL  Go figure.
 
This Artist Trading Card is coloured with Prismacolor pencil crayons.  The stamped image is by Rubbermoon.


Sunday, September 22, 2013

29 Faces: #25 - Another One For Janice

 
 
 
My friend Janice keeps putting my colored drawings on her blog.  So I keep drawing them.  Maybe encouragement is the best form of inspiration? 
 
This poor woman looks a little unsure of herself.   And her nose was definitely not that fat in the photo.


Saturday, September 21, 2013

Silly Scraps Saturday


This is a simple collage made of scraps, done in my Scrap Journal.  I made my Scrap Journal with my Bind-It-All, especially to hold these "warm-up" collages.  When I want to make something but I'm not inspired to do anything specific, I make one of these.  One usually leads to two (or more).  I got the idea from iHanna's "Every Artist Needs a Scrap Notebook" post.

Every Saturday I post one of these simple collages.  Thanks for visiting my blog and I hope you are enjoying the weekend!

Friday, September 20, 2013

29 Faces: #23 & #24....I'm in the Homestretch

One of each this time.  A man and a woman, both drawn with a Sharpie.  The man is much more interesting.
 



I want to thank all of the people who have visited during 29 Faces and left such encouraging comments.  Just 5 more to go.

Have a nice weekend, everyone!



Thursday, September 19, 2013

29 Faces: #17 - #22 and What I've learned

 I've learned a lot of things drawing faces.   Some expected things about line and shading.  Some unexpected things too.  For example, when I was looking in popular magazines for interesting faces to draw, I found the men's faces more interesting than I found the women's faces.  As I drew women, I found I was drawing similar things over and over.  With the men, I found different shapes.
 
I found interesting hats.

 
Some ended up looking like villain characters.


Some were easy to make recognizable - they were so unique.

 
Some were skinny and some were chubby.

 
Some had great big cheesy grins.

 
 
The conclusion I arrived at was that men get their pictures in popular magazines by virtue of their accomplishments.  Women get their pictures in popular magazines because they meet the popular standards for beauty.  Which means they all look similar, particularly when drawn in black and white, without hair, eye, and lipstick colour to differentiate them.  I found this made me sad.


Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Face #16 with Sharpies

 
 
We had a burst of lovely hot weather last week, so I took some paper and a couple of Sharpie pens to the garden for a burst of face drawing.  The next day, when it was still cool upstairs in my attic studio, I "smashed" it in my "slab book".
 


Tuesday, September 17, 2013

29 Faces: #12 - 15

 
I did these thumbnail sketches while talking to my sister, Dianne.  They're my version of a doodle, I guess.  This is the first time I've used pencil crayons to draw a face, and I found they suited the small format perfectly.  I'm halfway there on the 29 Faces challenge!

Monday, September 16, 2013

Soft Breezes

 
The inspiration for this journal page was the Use Every Stamp 2013 challenge.  I'm making my way through some fruit and vegetable stamps, so I first used the pineapple stamp with Versamark and Pan Pastels and then added the palm trees the same way.  This piece of clip art seemed to suit the background perfectly.  A soft breeze was blowing through my window at the time and it all reminded me of lovely days spent in Hawaii.  Ahhhhhhh...

Sunday, September 15, 2013

29 Faces: #10 & 11


 
These faces were done in my old book journal.  I had previously sprayed a stencil with watercolor over the text, and I found that the faces needed a bit more definition so I used white acrylic paint to lay a base over the drawing.  Then I used watercolor pencils to add the drawing details.


Saturday, September 14, 2013

Silly Scraps Saturday


This is a simple collage made of scraps, done in my Scrap Journal.  I made my Scrap Journal with my Bind-It-All, especially to hold these "warm-up" collages.  When I want to make something but I'm not inspired to do anything specific, I make one of these.  One usually leads to two (or more).  I got the idea from iHanna's "Every Artist Needs a Scrap Notebook" post.

Every Saturday I post one of these simple collages.  Thanks for visiting my blog and I hope you are enjoying the weekend!

Friday, September 13, 2013

This One's for You, Janice!


 
Face #9

My friend Janice featured one of my faces on her blog, thereby inspiring me to draw another.  She likes the ones on plain paper.  Thanks, Janice!



Thursday, September 12, 2013

Watercolor Baby Cards


 
It's handy to have all kinds of cards ready to send when you need them.  These baby cards were painted with watercolors.


Wednesday, September 11, 2013

29 Faces: #8

 
The woman in a black striped hat lives in my old book journal.  She was drawn with a black watercolor pencil crayon.


Tuesday, September 10, 2013

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly - Faces 4,5, 6 and 7




 
With 29 Faces to finish in September, I better get crackin'!  Nobody said that they all have to be good. LOL
 
I am reminded, though, of the study done with pottery students.  They were divided into two groups.  The first group was told to make as many pots as they could and that they would be judged (against the second group) by how many they made.  They were told not to worry about quality.  The second group was told to make the highest quality pot that they could.  Their best pot would be judged against the best pot from the first group.
 
Guess which group made the highest quality pot?  The first group.  The large quantity of pots helped them to also make the highest quality pot!
 
Draw on.

Monday, September 9, 2013

Faith, Hope, Love, Joy




 
These four Artist Trading Cards are images by Biblical Impressions.  I used watercolor paints to color them.  They were inspired by Dave Brethauer's book "Stamp in Color".

Sunday, September 8, 2013

Watercolor Cards


 
Dave Brethauer's book "Stamp in Color" has inspired me to get out the stamps and watercolor paints.  This image is from Rubbermoon.


Saturday, September 7, 2013

Silly Scraps Saturday


This is a simple collage made of scraps, done in my Scrap Journal.  I made my Scrap Journal with my Bind-It-All, especially to hold these "warm-up" collages.  When I want to make something but I'm not inspired to do anything specific, I make one of these.  One usually leads to two (or more).  I got the idea from iHanna's "Every Artist Needs a Scrap Notebook" post.

Every Saturday I post one of these simple collages.  Thanks for visiting my blog and I hope you are enjoying the weekend!

Friday, September 6, 2013

29 Faces: #3

 
 
For my 3rd face I've tried a boy at a 3/4 angle.  Just a quick sketch in my old book journal using a black Stabilo pencil.


Thursday, September 5, 2013

I Heart Stationery

 
I borrowed a book called I Heart Stationery from my local library and was inspired to cover a composition notebook.  It was pretty simple to do - I glued on scrapbook paper and stamped a label.  Now I better get back to those 29 Faces!


Wednesday, September 4, 2013

29 Faces: #2

My 2nd face for 29 Faces is a much quicker sketch than my first one was:

 
I'm back in my old book journal, here, on a background made from cleaning off my brayer and some stamps during gelli printing.  In order to get 29 faces done I'm definitely going to have to make some of them quick sketches.  My current plan is to do a few of these sketches from different angles to try and cement them in my brain.