Update on my Colored Pencil WIP

Here are the final steps of my project from Friday. I'm so happy I was able to wrap it up over the weekend as I want to frame & mat it so I can submit it for that Women's Day project I mentioned about a week or so ago (the red dress painting is still drying as I decided to do it in oils, will show progress on that at a later date)

Anyhow, here are the final stages of this portrait:

4. I started to work in the left (or right depending on how you look at it) side of her jacket. I was hoping to achieve a 'fuzzy' feel to it to represent the warm texture of it, I think I was able to accomplish that...


5. With the jacket finished I decided to concentrate on the lacing for her hat (details, details...)



6. Hat /hair close-up to show fine details...



7. Finished piece after adding a bit more color & details all around and a fixative spray, it will still need a coat of sealer. I then took it outside to snap a pic to try and portray the colors as true and clear as possible...



I hope you enjoyed seeing my process, it was great fun and very relaxing for me - I've missed my pencils since taking up paint. As much as I love my finished paintings, acrylics sometimes frustrate me because I just can't get the paint to do what I want and brushes don't give me the detail that I crave. I've heard that painting is a lifelong process and to just keep at it....rinse, repeat, rinse, repeat :> Gotta love those learning curves!

Have a great week....

ATC Project for February

pitt pen, watercolor, colored pencils

It's been awhile since I've created any ATCs so I decided to pull out some supplies and play a bit. I'm hoping it will help me get ready for my upcoming month long ATC project. I will be creating an ATC a day for each of the 29 days in February.

This is a project close to my heart (and hearts will find their way on many of them I'm sure). As some of you may know, my hubby left before Christmas to pursue a new career which requires him to be away from our home for about 5 months total. The holidays went quite well, lots of family and friends to be with. However as February approaches I've been feeling a bit down knowing that my hubby won't be here for Valentine's Day. It's always been a very special day for us as he proposed to me on that day and we've never been apart for any of them since being married!

A recent visit to this artist's blog was just the inspiration & spark that I needed - thanks so much Jeannine! She's involved in a year-long project of ATCs to mark each day while her hubby is away in the military.

Please be sure to visit and folllow along with my project:
Pieces of My Heart {29 Days of Love & Devotion}

I am so looking forward to sharing this with you all!

Daydreams

colored pencil, moleskine

Do you daydream? Do you find yourself daydreaming much lately? I find that I tend to daydream more when I'm introspective & need to sort things out. However, lately it seems to stem from all the ideas and sparks of inspiration I've been experiencing!

Almost everyone does it naturally and psychologists estimate that we daydream 1/3 to 1/2 of our waking hours, although a single daydream lasts only a few minutes. Because our society today tends to focus on 'getting things done', daydreaming is viewed in a somewhat negative light. To some it may seem frivolous, indulgent or that of someone who is unproductive, but it's actually quite beneficial.

It's been known to help you:
1. Relax
2. Manage conflict
3. Maintain relationships
4. Boost productivity
5. Cement your beliefs and values
6. Boost creativity and achieve goals
7. Relieve boredom

(Source: Article -'Why Does Daydreaming Get Such a Bad Rap?') http://www.webmd.com

So remember to indulge in daydreams - you just never know where they can take you!

Postcard Exchange - My trade

Finished my postcard for the art exchange I set up with one of my favorite artists, Emila Yusof, so thought I'd share it with you. Emila had sent hers to me a few weeks ago and I only had a general idea of what I was going to create for mine. However, after sketching out my entry for IF's 'Alphabets' last week I was inspired to create this card with the letters H and I (hi) with different greetings from around the world - so fun! I've been totally inspired with these whimsical flower illos and want to thank you all so much for your wonderful feedback and support - and yes I am considering your suggestions to make this into an alphabet book or card collection!! :)

I used a few techniques on this for the watercolor - wet into wet, salt resist, stippling etc. then when dry I detailed it out w/ prismacolor pencils. Finally I sealed it w/ a fine matte finishing spray.

This started out as a sketch in my moleskine, I then cut the page out (eeek! I'm sure if there's any moleskine purists out there, they'd shudder hearing that - however I've learned that if I don't take my supplies too seriously I have the most fun and the BEST results so no problem here 'wrecking this journal' hehe!). To give it more stability for going through the mail and to write my greeting to Emila, I glued another moleskine page to the back, weighted it until flat and then for a nice clean finish, rounded the corners.

Muse Monday / Inspire Me Thursday: Watercolor

Muse Monday is taking a short intermission - not much going on in the way of progress re: my new space and next Monday is Labor Day so it will return the following Monday - hopefully I'll have some great news to report that we're finally making headway. I do have a how-to organizational project that I'm working on - a great solution to having all my tools displayed neatly and within easy reach, hint: involves pegboard but not in the traditional sense. What I have in mind is way more cooler and decorative than the sheet the guys hang up in the garage!! :) Stay tuned!

Busy week coming up so I wanted to get some quick journal entries done in my moleskine with watercolors and colored pencils. I like using watercolors in my moleskine because the wonderfully creamy paper (I love my moleskines!) resists them initially so you have time to work them before they settle in.

I find myself lingering over the last bits of summer before it fades away and have been savoring my garden's final offerings - flower designs have been on my mind and showing up in my doodles and sketches. I generally don't write a lot in my journals (I'm working on that, it's hard for me to do) but I did write all over the background very subtley in white ink on the single flower pages, a bit of a breakthrough for me :)

Have a great week and wherever you are, I hope the sun is shining on you.

"Be like the flower, turn your face to the sun." -- Kahlil Gibran

'Muse Monday' - coming soon

My studio will be in transition mode the next 4-6 weeks as I downsize into a smaller (but brand new!) space so to help me stay focused, I've decided to try and find creative ways to use all the little bits of stuff that I'm finding as I wade through 5 years of stationery, art and craft supplies (!)

I'll be posting my finds and what I did with them, before and after, that sort of thing on Mondays, soon to be known as 'Muse Monday' - title of which I've already shortened to keep things simplified!!















A hint at things to come: I started in on a corner of the studio this morning and found a bag of paint chip swatches from like 3 years ago, I collect those things what can I say *smile*, lots of yummy colors and textures. This little swatch above (2x2) in particular though had an amazing texture as well, sandpaper-ish, and I've been wanting to try a technique that I came across recently using colored pencils on sandpaper - so there was the connection :) I spent about 10 minutes on this and loved the results.

I'm also very much into remodelling pics, how-to's, storage & display ideas so I'll be sharing that with everyone as well as I go along. It's gonna get messy and it might not be pretty at times, lol, but I'm hoping to make this fun and productive. It's an exciting project but I also know that some parts of it won't be, so I'm looking forward to Muse Monday to help me get through the not-so-exciting parts. Would love for you to join me here!