Artful Journal Update and Watercolor WIP

I tried to get some interesting photos of barns and Fall color as the hubster drove yesterday for our lunch meeting with my sister and her husband, but was unable to get anything worth showing. We talked about walking around Shipshewana after lunch and taking pix, but it was pouring rain by then and we just headed for home.  We had a lovely lunch and a good visit before transferring a 4-drawer file cabinet and some lovely garden rocks from their vehicle to ours. But the ride home was less than lovely. It poured all the way and there were more large trucks on the road than I've seen since the dreadful semi parade of the far north.


Nevertheless, we made it home by 5:30 or so and the hubster made chili for dinner. We ate in the living room while watching the game shows. I won a ton of money, including the bonus round on Wheel of Fortune and didn't do too badly on Jeopardy either.


I then spent a bit of time working on the watercolor that is in progress. I added the water to it and am puzzled by the spots in it. I haven't had something like this happen before. Could it be pigment that wasn't well mixed? Is it something from the brush? Is it dirt? I did brush off the paper before I began.
I am planning to put more color into the water so am hoping it will not be noticeable when all is said and done. Have you ever had anything like this happen to you?

I also decided it was time to sketch the pear in my Artful Journal and thought it would be fun to draw it as a letter in the word pear. I rather like how the word turned out - I used an alphabet I found in The Speedball Textbook as a model and I don't think the spacing of the letters is too bad. However, when it came time to put in the striped dish towel/tablecloth, I was at a loss. I found a red Pitt brush pen and began to put in the stripes. At about stripe number three the brush failed, so I switched to a Sharpie marker. Unfortunately, the color closest to red was a mauvy purple and I am not so sure I like how it turned out at all. I can't remove the color so I will accept it as a creative accident and share it anyway. I thought about adding shadows to the letters too, but really wanted the pear to be the star of this page, so left the letters flat.

Except for the "striped cloth" I am really pleased with how this turned out.

Imagine my surprise when I'd photographed the "pear" page and was preparing to upload it to the Artful Journaling blog, I was distracted by the arrival of an email from Laure Ferlita with the next assignment for this class. Would you believe the next assignment is "word art"? Does this situation fit the definition of serendipitous? I have no idea what I am going to do for the word art assignment, but may have to do something with Zentangle doodles. 

The Tigers are playing the Yankees this evening in the first game of the playoffs on the way to the World Series. We are playing there and I am looking forward to seeing Curtis Granderson, but have to hope he doesn't have his usual spectacular game against us. With Verlander on the mound, I am hoping we can beat the Yankees soundly. I do like a close game much better than a runaway, and hope I will not be disappointed with this one.

Tomorrow I have my son's Miss 8 and she is staying overnight. I am planning to make time to do some art and maybe a bit of cooking. I haven't made any monkey muffins in a long time. I have some hot Italian sausage and some chicken thighs thawing in the refrigerator and am planning to make some gumbo today. It is a perfect day for it - gray and wet.

I hope you are having a fine day and that the sun is shining where you are. If your weather is like mine, try to get lost in art, cooking, a hot cup of tea and a good book and really enjoy yourself. A day like this is a great one for losing yourself in some kind of project. I just hope the rain doesn't prematurely knock the leaves off the trees. I am anxious for Mother Nature's Fall show.

xoxo

Pear Practice and More WC WIP

I had the day to myself yesterday and expected that I would spend it in the art room, but found myself cleaning the laundry room, replacing the contents of the master bathroom closet (purging as I progressed), cleaning up my art room, and finishing a novel I was partway through.


I then heated up the homemade chicken soup from the day before and watched the Tigers with the hubster before finally spending a little bit of time doing art.


I finally tried the method of putting salt on wet watercolor and then brushing it off when the paint dried. The photo I shared yesterday had the salt on it, but it hadn't dried yet and now that it has and I've brushed off the salt, I have quite a different look. I am still planning to add some very dark color and then scrape much of it off to reveal the color underneath, but haven't had the courage to do that yet.

Can you see the texture in the hills? I think I like it.

I also have a new assignment for the Artful Journaling class. It is to sketch a pear or slice of melon in ink and then add color. I have always liked drawing with ink, but decided to practice this in my everyday journal first. I found that I just couldn't get the roundness of the pear just right and think it looks more liked a chicken ready for a bit of salt and pepper before being roasted.

As you can see I did a couple of practice ones on the left.

Sometime this afternoon I will try the real thing in my Artful Journaling sketchbook. In the picture provided there is also a red striped cloth under the pear and it has lots of shadows and folds. It should be quite a challenge to draw it - and in ink....

Today I am getting my teeth cleaned mid morning and then the hubster and I are taking a day trip to meet my sister and her husband for a late lunch. They are bringing me a four drawer file cabinet they no longer want and I am planning to use it for art storage. I have it all planned out - acrylics in the top drawer, adhesives in the second, pastels in the third and paper in the bottom. I think my room will be so much more organized and I should have more counter and shelf space once I've moved these items into the file cabinet.

If you haven't yet entered the giveaway for My Memories Suite 2 digital scrapbooking software, you have until Monday, October 3, to do so. Find out more here.

xoxo

Watercolor WIP, Girl Tribe Art, Art in the Mail

It is a gray, rainy morning and I think my current work in progress reflects that fact. This morning I added the underpainting of the mountains. I am planning to go over the ones in the foreground with a very dark paint and then scrape most of it off to reveal bits of the underlying color. Here is what I have so far:

I'd love some input - ideas, suggestions.....

While the girls were staying with me, Miss 8 spent some time in my art room making a painting for me. I so love these gifts. She really liked the yellow and reddish skies I had painted as backgrounds on the last few papers I had prepped for her that she decided to try it herself.

I am so fortunate to have such arty girls.

I forgot to show you what I received in the mail the other day from my friend Suzanne in Luxembourg. She sent me a watercolor painting of mushrooms along with a card and a small picture of The Grund. You know I want to draw that scene.

If you haven't already entered the giveaway, go to the previous post and get your name in the drawing for the My Memories Suite 2 scrapbooking software. Here is a quick two page spread that I made this morning with photos of my Mom and Dad and a photo of the whole family circa 1963. I used one of the included designer templates. The whole process took about 3 minutes. Besides adding the photos, I changed the text on the right hand page from "Never Forget" to "Remember When".

The hubster just left for the dentist, my coffee has gotten cold and I need to do some housework (ugh!). I hope to see you tomorrow.

xoxo

My Memories Suite Giveaway

It is Monday and as promised I am having a giveaway of the My Memories Suite 2 digital scrapbooking software. I was given a copy to try (It is very easy to make wonderful pages and there are lot of tutorials for those who would like some extra help) and a copy to offer as a giveaway.

I must tell you this is the easiest scrapbooking software I've ever used. I've tried Photoshop Elements and Photoshop and they had a pretty steep learning curve, especially the full blown Photoshop program. With My Memories Suite I was able to make a page quickly and easily and was impressed by the sizes that I could default to and by the amount of free background papers, embellishments, word art generator and more. You can even make a picture an embellishment; you can wrap text; you can make embellishments from background papers and so much more.


Here is what you need to do in order to be in the drawing that will be held on Monday, October 3.

1.   Go to the My Memories website and decide which Kit you like the best and leave a comment    telling me what you've chosen. You don't have to buy anything - just go look around. This gets you one entry.

2.  If you have a blog, blog about this giveaway with a link back to this post and leave another comment with a link back to your blog. This gets you a second entry.


3.  If you are a member of Facebook, leave a status update telling about the giveaway and leave another comment with a link to your Facebook update here. This gets you a third entry.


That's all there is to it.


Don't wait enter now!!


xoxo

Artful Journaling and A New Beginning

I have finally finished the lemons page in my artful journaling class and have also finished the fortune cookie page. I am having fun with this class, but feel dreadfully inadequate. I am hoping to see some improvement over time and am trying to squash the inner critic - she is such a spoiler of fun and creativity!


Here is the lemons page:

And here is the fortune cookie page:

I have a new assignment to start today and am looking forward to having some uninterrupted art time to work on it and to do more on my new watercolor landscape. I finally scrapped the other landscape I was working on - can you say "overworked"? and have begun another. This one will be essentially a redo of the other, but I am determined to use a minimum of brush strokes on this one so I can keep it fresh and avoid another overwork. Here is just the sky that I did last night:

I am hoping to add the mountains today and will try to use a variety of colors with a minimum of brush strokes. I will share that next part tomorrow.

Meanwhile, I finally attempted to sketch a picture of Alex, and chose to use a Staedtler pen - scary!! I used the drawing Dan Kent posted as my model, but didn't get the likeness that Dan did. I may try it again in the sketch book where I originally sketched both Raena and Dan in pencil to see if I can get a better likeness. For now, here it is:

I think this is the next sketch I need to attempt:

Today I need to recycle (the bins are threatening to overflow into my parking spot in the garage) and pick up a few groceries. I think it is a good day to make some soup, too.

I hope you are having a good day wherever you are. It is sunny and beautiful here and I predict it will be a very good and very productive day.

xoxo