Friday Flip

Happy Friday!  Here's a quick flip through my art journal.

It's really just a border that I cut off of one of my journal pages.  It was lying on my table to I just started doodling on it.  Playing with some alcohol markers, watercolors, a fun little roller stamp and some india ink that I put into a water brush. There was not much time for play this week so I grabbed a few minutes before we were off to the next thing.  I hope to have some time this weekend to really get messy.  Wish me luck!

Thanks for stopping by.  Have a wonderful weekend and I'll talk to you again soon.

Friday Flip

First week of school is now behind us.  Whew! it was busy, but so fun to see the excitement of the new kindergarteners and the apprehension of returning students, finding out who their teacher will be and which of their friends are in their class.  Visits to the library for their first book of the new school year.  Giving my "how we take care of our books" speech to almost 900 students. I'm glad it's Friday.  I just had time for a little doodling and playing with colored pencils this week.  I have several shape templates left over from my scrapbooking days so I decided to use them as a jumping off point for my drawings. I traced the big open shaped into my art journal and then drew in side their borders.  It was almost like making my own coloring book.

Once I finished the drawing I used my colored pencils and played with shading and blending.

It was fun and kind of relaxing to sit and color for no other reason than I wanted to.

I hope you get to do something that you want to do this weekend.  I hope it's great!  I'll talk to you again soon.

Friday Flip

Here we are at another Friday.  The weeks seem to be flying by.  The students start back full time on Monday.  I've been busy getting ready for them and haven't had much time in my creative space.  Here is a quick flip into one of my art journals. A work in progress.

It started out as a basic journal entry on top of a randomly painted page.   I wasn't satisfied with it so I decided to paint over most of it and started a sketch of a face.  I hope to get back to finish it one of these days.  Sometimes I get a little stuck with what to do next or I think "is this how I want something to look"?  It has helped to give myself permission to paint over a piece I'm not sure about and start over.  There are times I do, more than once and that's ok.  I'm not going for perfect and the process is what is most important.

Thanks for stopping by today, hope it's a great one!

Friday Flip

Ahhh, the last Friday of summer break.  The teachers start back next week and the kiddos will be here the week after.  I am looking forward to seeing them but, this summer has been a restful and creative respite.  I've been able to work in my art journals almost daily and that has been delightful!!! Here is a flip through my journal to a couple of quick sketches. I will doodle or sketch while my family watches tv.  I have a hard time just sitting there, so this way I am in the same room but I'm still "doing" something.

Some times  it's a phrase from a song that keeps running through my head and I will sketch an image that helps me visualize my personal meaning.

Sometimes it is part of a verse from the bible.  It is fun to capture those random thoughts in a quick sketch.  I may go back and add color or just leave them.  Right now I'm not sure.

Thanks for stopping by, I'll talk to you again soon.

Friday Flip

It's the first Friday in August. My summer break is over and in just a couple of short days I will be back in the library preparing for another school year.  This summer has been filled with fun "arting" activities and I've been able to do a little something everyday.  I hope I can keep it up once the busyness of the school year starts.  Here is a quick flip through my art journal.

Some doodles with colored pencils and black pen.

A page from an online workshop that I did for most of the summer.

More practice, next focus... lettering I've got to work on those crazy lines.  Does your writing tend of creep up at a slant?  Mine does, gotta work on that:o)

Thanks for being here.  I'll talk to you again soon.

Friday Flip

It's another Friday flip through my art journal.  Some random pages filled with doodles and snippets of phrases, songs and musings.

Can you find the bird house????

 Pages that remind me what a blessed life I have.

Playing with my travel water color set and fine tip black sharpie. Thanks for stopping by.  I'll talk to you again soon.

Friday Flip

Here we are flipping through my art journals again.  This time I'm sharing a page I did using small boxes randomly drawn on a page.  Instead of using the whole page in one sitting I used the smaller boxes at different times.  I this case over the course of several days, I kept coming back and adding details.  Having a smaller space didn't seem so intimidating, I could do a quick sketch in one of the boxes that seemed to fit the situation at the time.

I used a water soluble graphite pencil to do the initial sketches and then outlined some of them with a black ink pen, journaling around and in little areas of the boxes.  I had a red ink pen in my purse on another day and went in and added a little color to the page and then playing with a waterbrush I smudged the outlines of the boxes.

Thanks for stopping by.  I'll talk to you again soon.

Friday Flip

Friday again! Hope your week was great.  Here's another peek into my art journals.  This time I was playing around with water colors trying to get comfortable with different kinds of media.

Now my mom tells me that when I was little my first word was not momma or daddy it was "uh oh" and I said it for everything.  Then the big day came when I added a second word to my vocabulary my choice, "bird".  So I guess it's not that surprising I like to draw birds and bird related images and collect pictures of them as well.  I also like to photograph them, but I'm still working on getting good at that.

Birdhouses are a particular favorite and I have several scattered around my studio just waiting for the day when I have a tree to hang them on.  I used a photograph that I took at a bio-park for this picture. I just keep practicing.

At least you can sort of tell what they are:o)  Thanks for stopping by, I'll talk to you again soon.

Friday Flip

Hi, another Friday and another chance to flip through my art journals to share some of my work, the good, the bad and the happy accidents.  I've been trying to get myself comfortable with doing quick sketches in my little journal with just a pencil and whatever happens to be lying around on my desk or floating through my brain at the time.  I feel really self-conscience sitting in a public place sketching, so I've been pushing my self a little at a time.

And my newest leap into my personal scary place... faces! I took a quick little  downloaded workshop by Jane Davenport (here). She is really fun to watch and makes you feel like you can do art.  

I think they are getting better.  Their expressions are not as "scary" as my first attempts.

Thanks for stopping by, Happy 4th of July!!! I'll talk to you again soon.

A different focus

 

A selection of some of my current journals

For a number of years I was joyfully involved in rubber stamping as an independent demonstrator and personal stamper. It was a way for me to be creative and share my positive wishes with my friends and loved ones through cards and handmade gifts. Over the past couple of years my focus has shifted.  I still love sharing my art and positive wishes with everyone but, I started to feel a little restricted using other peoples designs and artwork. I really wanted to branch out and begin using my own ideas from my own hand. I am not trained to be an artist, I am a work in progress. So, with a little trial and a lot of error I started doodling and trying this and that and keeping art journals to try my ideas in. I looked all around the internet and saw so much lovely work and at first and still, I have trouble identifying my own style but each new attempt brings me closer. 

There are several artists that I have drawn a lot of inspiration from.  Jane Davenport, Jane Lafazio, Alisa Burke, Claudia Nice, and Joann Sharpe to name just a few.  

So I am going to start a new little adventure called Friday Flips, a chance to flip through my art journal to share my baby steps toward...who knows what?!

small journal page, playing with paints and pitt pens and white gel pen.

Talk to you again soon.