Round Robin Journal Project, Round 5

Hello again creative souls!

Here is the next round, round 5 of the Round Robin Journal Project.
These pages were done last December! I'm definitely playing catch up on posts!

Round 5:

For my own journal, I documented my four day holiday to Disney with my friend Luke. Done in ink, watercolor, colored pencil and stickers for the word Epcot.

Nichole did a wonderful page in her journal inspired by the beloved Nancy Drew, who we all grew up reading. The Waiting Detective uses book pages and Nichole's own writing to bring a story to life.

Phoebe did her pages based on how she was feeling at the time. Phoebe loves winter, and loves when it snows. Here, her cutout paper flakes dangle from bakers string. Active visualization! I'm sure it worked!

And round the journal goes:

In my journal, Nichole did this beautiful winter scene, crafted from paper. With an Alfred Lord Tennyson quote: "Hope smiles from the threshold of the year to come...". The little cardinal is a nice touch!

For Nichole's journal, Phoebe made a map (she's great at map-making!) of a make believe drive in the country, real life places in a fictional setting. What a lovely drive...dear, geese, and a barnyard full of animals! Done with ink and marker and her wonderful imagination!

For Phoebe's journal, I created this page of ornaments on Christmas Day! A permanent Christmas card to Phoebe from me. ;-) Done in ink and colored pencil.

And round the journal goes:

For my journal, Phoebe did a wonderful "Chasing a dream" doodle using only ink. She is our doodle and Zentangle queen!

For Nichole's journal pages, I did an old Rocket typewriter with a page of prompts for 2014 that I created by pulling words out of my word box. Done in ink, paper, colored pencil and metallic markers.

For Phoebe's journal, Nichole used lined paper and ephemera to create a timeless page titled "Fickle Winter Taunts". Final touches included a short poem, corners and framing done with Washi tape.

Next up, Round 6!  Stay tuned...

Round and Round the Art Journal Goes...

Howdy everyone!
It's been a busy last few weeks of art journal fun! I started an Art Journal Round Robin with Nichole and Phoebe. I chose the Moleskine for us due to it's sturdy, pretty, cream-colored pages that can take pretty much any medium. We each began by doing a two-page spread. Then, our books were sent out...mine to Nichole, Nichole's to Phoebe and Phoebe's to me. We then did a two-page spread in that book before mailing it out again for the next round. Every third week, we'll have our own journals back to work on them! And to see what treasures lay inside! We aren't sharing any pages with social media until each round is complete so that we are all surprised by our pages. That is definitely part of the fun!

It's fascinating to see what each of us create in our own style. And to say it's inspired me is an understatement! While waiting for the journals to arrive, I've been busy working in my other Moleskines (several lay around half-full), trying out different techniques and ideas to possibly use in Nichole and Phoebe's books, practicing my sketching and even writing a nightly summary of my day. Heck, I even sketched in it while waiting for my doctors appointment! I've fallen back in love with the art journal and the process of creating in it and I suspect Phoebe and Nichole feel the same way. ;-)

The Round Robin Journal Project, Week 1

Round Robin by Laura

An introduction to the project and of course, it gave me a good excuse to practice drawing a bird. The quote on the stem reads:

Each drawing one makes, each study one paints, is a step forward. ~Vincent Van Gogh

Defining my Creative Self by Nichole

Nichole's first pages show her love for art, photography and writing. I love how she turned her selfie into a cartoon like retro girl! Very cute and clever!

Introduced by Phoebe

Phoebe's pages were so fun to read! It's all about introductions and how she would be introduced as a character in a movie. Who knew she didn't like potato salad? I promise not to make it next time she visits. ;-)

Now our journals rotated...we sent them off with a bit of trepidation but that was soon replaced by the excitement of inspiration!

An Hour with her Sketchpad by Nichole

I thought Nichole's entry in my journal was so clever! The turned-down page revealing the prior sketch, the quote and the little figure sketches...She wanted to show her progression from hesitation to confidence with the pencil and she achieved that quite nicely! And, if I do say so myself, that quote is exactly how I feel!

She Remembered All Those Happy Times by Phoebe

Phoebe wanted her pages in Nichole's journal to resemble an old, vintage scrapbook and she totally achieved her objective! Vintage photographs, yellowing tape, quotes all about time gone by and remembering the younger days. There was so much to look at and to read, which I did many times over!

Paris is Always a Good Idea by Laura

While waiting for Phoebe's journal to arrive in the mail, I had done a travel-themed spread in another Moleskine, testing out whether my idea would work and how it would look as a travel-related spread in Phoebe's journal. When her journal arrived and her first pages were about the French film Amelie, well then, I just had to make it all about Paris! A city we have both been to and love!

Round the journals go again...this time with less trepidation and more anticipation of what we all had done!

Explore by Phoebe

A lot of times Phoebe and I are on the same wave-length and in this round we both did travel-themed pages in each other's journals! Using her own photography, quotes and travel tips, and even an actual ticket, she created a mini travel scrapbook for me!

How Fragile We Are by Laura

For Nichole's pages I was inspired by silhouetted trees. Trees always inspire me. I love them! And I had so much fun creating this that I decided to do a whole Moleskine just on trees and flowers. The more you do art, the more you find inspiration! The title came from listening to Jason Castro's version of "Fragile" while creating this. It seemed fitting. Life is fragile and doesn't last long. Like a leaf on a tree.

Traveler by Nichole

Nichole also created a travel-themed page for Phoebe's journal, making Phoebe's Moleskine the most consistent in terms of overall theme. No theme intended, but it just worked out that way!I love her little traveling jester with pup!

Round 1 was a success and has made waiting for the mail a whole lot of fun! Stay tuned for Round 2! In the meantime, enjoy these additional works of journal art I created over the last couple of weeks:

Poppies

Trees I

Trees II

Fields of Joy

The Journey Awakens the Soul

Vases

And finally, one not done in a Moleskine but on the iPad with Paper 53:

Nature, I love you.

Until the next round, stay creative and in the light! 

It's Mixed Media Month!

Hello again my friends!
The month of February is Mixed Media month for my online course with Carla Sonheim, The Year of the Giraffe. The goal is to use at least two different mediums together and hopefully incorporate some of those supplies that we all have sitting around. And maybe even throw some different things at it all together!
I've done two pieces so far:

 Wading Giraffe with Kitty Paw Print

Mixed Media on Canvas

Supplies used: acrylic paint, airbrush ink, watercolor, gesso and paper. Sookie helped me add to it by walking all over the freshly painted canvas and then tracking blue prints all over the art room. 

Giraffe Portrait

Mixed Media on Watercolor Paper

This one is more simple, just using watercolor, ink and colored pencil. I was very proud of myself on this one because for once my colors weren't a muddled mess! More mixed media to come this month! Stay tuned!

For the sixth week in a row, I took sunrise shots, although I missed both weekend days as I was out with Lita birding. It was totally worth it though as I added 7 new birds to my life list and Lita added 8. The La Sagra's Flycatcher that everyone has been spotting up at the Green Cay Wetlands, well, that one is still eluding us. I'm going to try again this weekend to spot and snap the little shyling.

Black-hooded Parakeet

Sunrises 2013, Week 6

May the sun continue to rise for you all!

Week 2 in Creativity

This week I began my Year of the Giraffe online class with Carla Sonheim. This month it's all about drawing the giraffe. Giraffes are so cute! I dug through my pile of unused journals and found a nice handmade one with a cover that seems suited for all the giraffes that will live inside of it. Eventually, I can go back and add watercolor to all of the drawings but for now, I'm just doing various drawing exercises and my goal this month is to draw as many different giraffes as I can. Here are some practice pages I've done this week, in a collage form because I'm currently obsessed with making collages:

Drawing the Giraffe

This week I worked on blind contour drawings, drawing with the wrong hand and gesture drawings. Next week will be all about realistic drawing of the giraffe!

I'm still recovering from the flu with a lingering cough and some plugged sinuses but I was able to have a Creative Saturday with my friend Cynde who had the flu over Christmas. We figured she was safe to hang out with me in my art room. We worked on making our own Spirit Cards...these are cards that have words to encourage the spirit such as Healing, Dreams, Hope, Faith, Learning, Love etc...My cards are going to be themed with birds and the words are based on the myths and legends that each bird is associated with. I worked on The Blackbird first, which is a bird of Prophecy, so my word for the card is DREAMS. Just like a regular deck of cards, the backs are all the same. That is going to be time consuming because I chose to design this as my back:

Birdy Love

Here is the front of the Blackbird card:

i giorni della merla means The Blackbird Days which are the last two

days of January and the first few days of February. I put the saying on the card because I loved it, but I depicted the Blackbird at night since it is associated with prophecy and dreams. :-)

Here is an artistic shot taken with the Hipstamatic using my newest lens/film obsession:, the Tinto 1884 lens and the C-type Plate film:

Dreams

Cynde worked on a teacup design Spirit Card with the word "healing". After working for a few hours in the morning, we had some healing comfort food trying a new restaurant in town that has grilled cheese as it's main theme...yum, grilled cheese!

Adam Good Bar & Grill'd restaurant. The menus were attached to old album covers! How cool is that as a way to reuse and recycle? Pretty darn cool! And the food was damn good too! :-)

Some damn good grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch!

Finally, Cynde and I headed to Barnes and Noble for some dessert and some inspiration. I ended up getting a cute new journal to record my birdy sightings, as well as Carla's new book "How to Draw Imaginary Creatures". I already have her Drawing Lab book so this will be a perfect companion piece! I also found that one of the blogs I follow Creative Thursday has a book out! So of course, I had to get that too. Throw in my favorite painting magazine from Britain, Leisure Painter as well as a bird magazine and I'm good to go!

Creative Inspirations

I continued to process images from my archives. I feel like I'm making a dent, deleting more than I am processing which is a good thing since I'm almost out of room on my laptop!

I can't wait to be at the beach again...just one more week and then a birding getaway with Lita!

And finally, I continued getting up early enough to take pictures of the sunrise. This week had some pretty dramatic skies so missing out on extra sleep was totally worth it!

Sunrises, Week 2

This week there won't be anytime to be creative as home improvement projects are taking the front seat. I will however finally be on my first birding outing of the new year so I am definitely looking forward to that. I just hope I keep the flu from coming back! 

Have a wonderfully creative week dear friends!

Being Sick in 2013 Was Not On My List of Goals

How is it, living in a nice humid, sub-tropical climate that I ended up with this cold? I am not good at being sick. And, my hubby is home sick too. That dastardly guy brought it home with him from Colorado, that's how I got it. I missed blogging yesterday due to the complete blockage of my sinuses and of aches all though out my body that sent me running to the Aleve and put me into bed by 8pm. Still, I managed to capture the sunrise yesterday and today, making it four days in the row I watched it rise and all four days it was so unique:

Sunrise 1.3.2013

I love that time of the morning. Coffee in my hand and all the birds are active, but the rest of the world is not. Today a flock of Ibis, a Seagull and a Hawk all flew overhead while the grackles sang their dawn song with extreme gusto. And lo and behold, today two neighborhood cats were sitting under a bush watching it rise with me. I could only get a quick snap from far away as the closer I tried to move, they got in their ready-to-bolt stance so I let them be as I enjoyed having company to view the sunrise:

Sunrise 1.4.2013

I have managed to keep up with my daily journal each day so far despite being sick. My goal is to keep it up for as long as I can this year. Here is a snippet containing my new hat again only this time in colored pencil:

Daily Journal

And, I was notified that I won second place ($90!) in a holiday contest I entered! It was this cute image of my elf making gingerbread that won:

Santa's Little Helper

Also, despite being sick yesterday, I grabbed words from my word box (yes, I am a collector of words!) and put them in my mixed media journal:

The Word Box

By the Light of the Moon

Another goal I have stuck to so far this year is cleaning out my archives by processing one photo a day. I have been working on pictures from 2009 and 2010:

Confetti Web

Beachy Selfie

Eat Your Peas!

See, yesterday was not a complete bust! And today, well, I'm blogging and that IS being creative, right? Looking back on the last 24 hours I'm amazed at what I accomplished despite feeling so horribly bad. Of course, there were a couple of goals that went out the window...clean eating and gardening! Sometimes, you just have to have a chocolate frosty from Wendy's. ;-)

Posted with Blogsy

Friends, Flamingos, a Faerie and a Farm

It seems that yesterday's Creative Saturday with Lita was sponsored by the letter F. We decided on a digital art day because we both miss working on that medium so much. With my tendinitis and her wrist pain, it's hard for both of us to work on our Wacom tablets. But, we bound our tendons with braces (hers made with a sea-sickness band...hey, whatever works!) and got down to business. Two friends working on different images side-by-side, a second eye to check for composition and color, to encourage the path and to laugh off the pain. Lita worked on a faerie and I worked on (and finished!!) two images. One was a textural work of an old, run down farm (Nichole, that one is for you!) and the other was born from a dream...a flock of flamingos in the misty morning swamp.

Flamingo Dream
Mixed Media on Watercolor Paper

The flamingos started out as an image in a dream I had which I then started as a watercolor. I scanned the watercolor into Photoshop and painted more flamingos and used brushes and textures to make the dream into reality. This is pretty much what it looked like in my dream, although it was more faded and distant. This is the second piece I've created from a dream I had. The first was this piece:

Patches & Crow

Mixed Media on Canvas

Dreams are a great source of inspiration! Now, If I could only remember more of them!

For my second image, I wanted to create a take on Andrew Wyeth's painting Christina's World but when I started working on it, I didn't want to add any figures to it. I like the scene just as a landscape. So with textures and brushes by Distressed Textures, I went to work creating a painting-like image. I was quite happy with the result and it didn't even take me that long!

Lost Summers of My Youth

Of course we couldn't have a Creative Saturday without stopping by Barnes & Noble for a little inspiration. I picked up this great watercolor book called Watercolor Secrets 200 tips and techniques for painting the easy way by Robin Berry. Her work is amazing. If you like watercolor you won't be disappointed with this book.

Have an awesome weekend everyone and remember to take some time to be creative!