This and That Thursday

I just got out of bed - it is a wonder the hubster wasn't holding a mirror under my nose to see if I was alive. I am usually out of bed by 7, but I did stay up until 2 am.

I had the girls yesterday and boy was it a busy day. My daughter just called to ask me if I could take them again today. Of course, I would never say no if I was going to be home.

The girls did a lot of art yesterday, but I didn't have my camera at the ready. Today I will take some pix so that I have memories long after I start to lose my physical memory.

All I have for you today is a quick sketch I did for little Miss 3. She brought in some absolutely gorgeous leaves and asked me to draw them. She wanted me to hold them down and trace around them and I did so on her paper. But then I wanted to see if I could do a quick sketch for myself. I am planning to try to add color later today if I get the chance. I am going to try colored pencils and try Nancy's idea of using a colorless blender.

Here is what I have so far:

It is now 2:22 pm and I am trying to finish this before my Algebra student comes at 3 and then Miss 7 gets here on the bus at 4:15.

My goal is to spend some time coloring these leaves after their Mom picks them up around 6:30.

I think I will try to put some color on my bird drawing also. I really need to practice adding color without getting so frustrated that I trash them.

Better go get ready for my tutoring session.

I'll try to have more to offer tomorrow.

Just have to tell you about David Kassan - you probably already know of him, but I just found out about him yesterday and I am totally captivated. Boy can he draw!

See you tomorrow...

xoxo

Ack!

So, I attempted to add some flowers and butterflies, dragonflies, you know garden things to the upper left side and made quite a mess. Instead of getting out the gesso and "mending" it, I decided to write a simple (and trust me, it is simple) haiku in a pretty frame to put there. I've gotta admit I cheated, I typed it in Photoshop and added pretty things with brushes and then printed it out. I say I cheated because I am in a creative lettering class and really should have hand printed something or doodled.
At any rate, it is what it is.

Here is what she looked like when I started yesterday:

In retrospect, I think I could have just stopped here.

Here is my finished page.

Here is a close up of the haiku.

Meanwhile, some time ago I bought a Strathmore 14" x 17", 60 lb. sketchbook spiral bound. It was on sale for just over $5 because it had a fold on the front cover and many of the initial pages. I've decided to use it to make large pieces of art to be cut up either to use as backgrounds in smaller pieces or to be used as smaller collage pieces.

So far I've gessoed it, added a bit of random bits of paint in 3 different shades of blue and weighted it down overnight because it was curling like crazy. Then just before retiring last evening, I went through some of my stash and an old magazine and tore out things that looked interesting either in color or texture or just happened to catch my eye.

I think I am going to randomly glue down bits and pieces and then maybe use the toothbrush trick I've seen others use (I've never tried it) to spatter bits of a contrasting color around a bit to unify it before cutting it up. I will decide what kind of cutting I am going to do when I see how it comes together.

I'll share my progress tomorrow.

No specific plans for today except to make art. I think I am going to use up the leftover ham by making scalloped potatoes for dinner; that is if I can get the hubster to make a run to the store to get some lactose free milk.

xoxo