Round Robin Journal Project, Round 2

I had wanted to post this weeks ago, in fact, we are already on round five! Alas, I kept forgetting to scan the pages so I'm a little behind on posting the rounds! I hope to catch up with several blog posts over the next week. Click here to read about this project and see the pages for round one. Without further ado, here are our Moleskine pages from round 2 of the Round Robin Art Journal Project:

My page in my own journal for Round 2 was inspired by the day I spent with Luke roaming the back roads in Kansas. It was a fun day, with lots of interesting moments which I tried to capture in these pages.

Nichole's spread in her journal showcased both her voice and her story, but done in a way that still kept it private, while letting the viewer know, through her photography, that the mood was a bit more solemn.

Phoebe's pages included her photography of ethereal dreaminess coupled with a feeling of ephemeral moments with the inclusion of dried flowers. A few quotes and a vintage strip of tape tie it all together.

And round the journal goes...

Nichole's pages in my journal were so super cute! Sisters in Creativity indeed we are! I just love the little figures of us she did in colored pencil. It really matches us! Nice doodling too!

Phoebe's pages in Nichole's journal pay homage to the end of summer, with an excellent playlist and some delicate dried flowers. I love the idea of a playlist!

I did mixed media in Phoebe's journal which I titled "A Whole Century of Ordinary Life" and it included this found poem I created: "With a film of dust upon my memory, poring over forbidden pages, old and stained by process of time. A whole century of ordinary life; all through the years, an exchange of reminiscence and of dearest worth, a kiss of lovers." I included a pocket with a little secret stashed away.

And round it goes again:

I was very excited to see Phoebe also did a playlist in my journal! That meant I got to listen to more new songs on iTunes and add to my own playlist! She also does such great doodle backgrounds and of course, she added a touch of nature for me...a feather and some helicopter seeds! Soar!

My pages in Nichole's journal were inspired by her Facebook status about her son's homework which included rectangles, sight words and the letter M. You never know where inspiration will come from!

Nichole's pages in Phoebe's journal included a great quote by Jack Kerouac, other of On The Road. A deep blue, starry night sky for the background and a great page to remind us all to "just keep on rolling under the stars".

I hope you enjoyed this post of round 2 of the Round Robin! Stay tuned for Round 3 which will NOT take me as long to get posted. ;-)

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!

Here We Go Again!

Ah! It's here! Another year, another chance to keep a creative train on track.

Are we ready out there? Have you made your dream/visualization board? Or perhaps your a list maker, using pretty gel pens to write out all the goals that have been whispering into your ear this past year. Is your camera ready to capture all the magic that unfolds each and everyday right before your eyes? Are your journals ready? A blank, white page begging to be messed up with pencil, ink, watercolor, paper and glue? Or maybe your creative goals are with music, dance, programming or any other endeavor that gets you into the flow of creation. Whatever they may be, it's a new beginning, a chance to dream big, a reminder that life is worth living because we have so much we want to do!

I spent today getting ready, preparing my art room, my camera, my journals, my lists:

I love a new journal!

My hubby and I will be dropping a little snippet about the best part of our day into this jar throughout 2013. At the end of the year, we will read them and be reminded of what a wonderful year it was!

My dream/visualization board for 2013, with room for additions!

What does one do when there are many interests, hobbies and creative pursuits? Well, roll a die of course!

This is just one way to keep creativity kickin'!

Of course, there are always non-creative goals as well (eat healthy and exercise, the old standards) and blogging more consistently is one of those goals. Sharing more of my photos, art and of myself.  I'm ready! Bring on 2013!

Posted with Blogsy

Back to Creativity!

Finally! The pool and patio renovations are finished for the most part. I'm still having a custom potting table with sink built for the patio and furniture has yet to arrive. Oh, and the pool is green right now. But let's not dwell on the negative and instead focus on the positive! I finally got a chance to enjoy a weekend at home with no workers. I processed images from my archives:

This one is from a trip to Charleston in 2009! Yes, that is how far back my unprocessed images go. :(

And one from a trip home during Christmas 2010:

My mom's cat Bozo, a tuckered out Tom who is quite the scrapper as you can tell by his poor ears.

Today was also good for traditional art. I started a painting of a dragonfly (to be shared later this week!) and completed a watercolor for Catherine Constance. We are swapping art pieces across the pond. She is sending me a little French girl drawing and I'm sending her a watercolor of my wildflower thicket. I wanted to create something that was very me and as you all know, my garden is just that! :) The hand-lettering freaked me out a bit as I was afraid I would mess up and spell something wrong and I was doing it all in ink the first time out.
But it turned out a-okay and will now be on it's way to Catherine. Catherine lives in France and is such a talented artist. Check out her blog.

"The Wildflower Thicket". Watercolor and ink on 8x8 watercolor paper. 

It felt good to be creative again. I'm not good with distractions and renovations are a big one. The only thing I managed to do while the patio was being torn up was go to the mall and Butterfly World (thus all the pictures of butterflies I've been posting on Flickr and Facebook) and I did one little sketch in my Moleskine that had a nod to Cubism and I practiced drawing hands:

Sorry for the blurry photo but I took it with the iPhone at night. :)

In the Moleskine: practicing stylized hands.

Other than that, the last few weeks have not been motivating or kind to my creative brain but I'm ready to ratchet up the creativity and go full steam ahead...at least until the driveway/walkway renovations begin in August. I do have a plan to escape somewhere fabulous when that happens. A place where I can still be creative with the camera. For now though it's back to processing photos with breaks to the art room to play with pencils and paint!

Rain, Rain Go Away...

It's been raining for two weeks now. It's not even the start of rainy season yet. The sun has hardly made an appearance this month. Don't get me wrong, I love the rain. A good rainy day can wash all the gunk off, make you slow down and take a breather. When I can't go out and take pictures, I stay in and do art. I'm still working mostly in my art journals and have been kicking up my technical drawing skills. It's been fun, but I miss getting out with the camera. Hopefully, this week, I'll get to greet the sun again and head out for some picture-taking. Until then, here is what I've worked on this week and I hope it inspires you all to keep learning and practicing your art, in whatever medium you love. :)

Apple & Pear

Moleskine Watercolor

Watercolor Mixing Chart

My First Barbie

Mixed Media, Moleskine Art Journal

Draping Practice

Draping Practice 2

Watercolor, Gouche and Colored Pencils

Technical Drawing vs. Sketching

You can see the difference on body shape and proportion. 

Here are three nature drawings where I practiced my mark making with pen in anticipation of adding watercolor at a later time. Once I started the mark-making process, I found I couldn't stop...it was so fun!

As the start of summer approaches, the time for creativity begins to shrink for me as guests start arriving for vacations, I start making my own travel plans and we tackle some remodeling projects. I'm hoping to continue this creative flow I've found lately and keep squeezing in art whenever I have a free day. What have you all been working on this month? Do share! :)

Art Journal Fun!

The last couple of weeks I've been having some fun in my various art journals! Sometimes these pages turn into works of art but most of the time, the pages are an excuse to play and experiment with different mediums and colors. I'm currently enjoying two workshops with Jane Davenport who I just adore! She gave us some advice and I quote "Be more attached to experimenting than you are to your drawing." It's advice to play, to be messy, to be creative and just let go! Yea, that's really hard for that little perfectionist that lives inside of me but I'm definitely learning to mix things up a bit. I still could get a bit more wild and free with the paint but I was really happy with the pages that showed up in my art journal this week and I'd like to share a few of them with you! (okay, it's more than a few so be prepared!)
I'm including a list of supplies that I used to create each page so you can tackle your own pages!

Shanghai Orchid

Mixed Media

For the background texture I used bits of paper with Japanese writing, tinfoil (yes! tinfoil! Be sure if you use it to crunch it up first as it sticks much better!), masking tape and tissue paper. All applied with Gesso. I then wiped the Gesso off parts of the paper so the characters would show through. Color was added with Neocolor II water-soluble wax pastels. I then added my drawing on top when dried. Her hair and kimono are 100% watercolor where as her face is a mixture of watercolor, pen, colored pencil and pan pastels. The flower in her hair was done in acrylic and applied using a sea sponge. Finally, the title was stamped in and the birds were added in Photoshop. Truly mixed media!

Dream

Mixed Media

I did this piece during a rained-out Creative Saturday with Lita. We had made plans to go to the zoo but a big storm system put the kibosh on photography, so we stayed in and did art! The colors and the spring theme was inspired by a Mood Board I did for Jane's workshop. The background was created using paper doilies, masking tape and tissue paper all applied with Gesso (a few coats to cover the doilies). The background color was once again made using the Neocolor II. It's an easy way to get color in..just crayon up your page, take a wet brush and move the color around! So easy! I then added additional tissue paper that was patterned with birds and the word "dream" using Matte Medium (Gesso is opaque, Matte Medium is translucent) and a paper flower using Gesso and wiping part of it off. I drew the girl and did her face in colored pencil and pan pastels. Her hair was done with watercolor.

Follow Your Heart

Mixed Media

These pages are done in my Moleskine sketchbook. I've been practicing faces (see below for my practice page) and I started a new Moleskine just for that (one can never have enough journals!). The girl was done with watercolor over ink & colored pencil. The background is watercolor and gouache, the hearts and words done with markers and pens. Another tip from Jane...decorative tape is put down over the binding to stop paint from leaking through to other pages. Brilliant idea!
Here is another page from my Moleskine:

I Dream of birds and butterflies, faeries and wanderings.

The girl is done in colored pencil and the background in watercolor and gouche. Rub-on transfers added the final touch. The night I finished this I had a horrible nightmare about zombies! 

Time Marches On

Mixed media on canvas board

The background was a piece I had done during the Art & Soul that I wasn't happy with. I decided to use it to practice my faces and when I drew a face upon the work, it suddenly transformed into a piece I loved. It was inspired by my friend Nichole, who reminded me of those fun days I had in high school during band class. She is done in ink and watercolor.

Faces, faces, faces!

Practicing my proportions! Everytime you draw a face, it's never the same...a new little person emerges to greet you every time! Such fun! I also practiced figure drawing in a couple of my journals, incorporating the sketches into mixed media pages:

The Fashion Figure

Mixed Media

The background on this one was done by using Gesso and Matte Medium to layer in vintage patterns and tissue paper. Neocolor II was once again used to lay in the color. The figures were drawn on top in pencil and colored in with watercolor pencil and ink. A stamp was used at the top to add a design element.

Here's one I did for my creative soul sisters Phoebe and Nichole:

I've also been participating in the 21 Secrets Art Journal Playground and these pages were results of some of the fun challenges:

 Arabesque 

Mixed Media

Lost on top of Great Gable

Colored pencil and watercolor

That House

Watercolor

And finally, I finished up two projects for Arthouse Coop, The Note Swap and The Map Project.

For the Note Swap, I did another image of my "Lost on Great Gable" and wrote the note about being lost on top. Some stranger, somewhere in the world will get this little bit of nostalgia from me! How cool is that?

I'm not very good at drawing maps, but I decided to do my Butterfly Garden for The Map Project. What made it even more difficult is that it could only be 4x6. I did it on a watercolor postcard:

I also managed to find the time to get all my colored pencils into a reference journal so I could see how each brand reacts to different types of paper and mediums such as Gesso. It's time-consuming to do this with your art supplies but so worth it in the end as it's a great reference tool!

And continuing with that idea, I prepared my Lukas watercolor set in anticipation of Gina Rossi Armfield's upcoming watercolor workshop Creativity in Flight: 

And there you have it! Two weeks of art journaling fun! I've not caught you all up with what's been going on. This week I will be hosting my own art challenge so be sure to check back mid-week for details! Now, have a fabulous weekend and remember to take time for Creativity!