healing hands

 With love and appreciation for my hands.

This year my hands have had many challenges. Swelling, arthritic

changes, and pain to name a few.

They have served every  request and I am so grateful.

Things I have been learning

I am learning Inkscape and Gimp, and hope to be
more proficient in both next year. 

The banner classes are fun. I really like applying 

what I have learned from other classes.

Sticker class

Inkscape fabric repeat class 1st lesson

Sketch notes / journal

One of my favorite artist's dates is taking classes. 

I put aside a little time to acquire new skills 

and to improve the ones I have.

My favorite platform for this is Skillshare

type in banners and see the classes that pop up. 

Using this link will earn points or classes 

for me, but you can just type in .com if that is better for you.

      I embellished the banners and created sheets to 

journal on. I like to write with I Ching prompts, 

dream journal entries, or goal brainstorming.

I am going to start my 100-day challenge over, using ideas I learned from this class: The-Perfect-100-Day-Project

Best artist date ever!

my mood

I am in the mood for flowers.
My zinnias have been inspiring me to see how many ways I can draw them.

I'm thinking of many projects these would be good for.

I would love to have them as stickers or affirmation cards

More butterfly fairies

I mentioned these a while back. 

It took some time to create all the samples.

These are based on my everyday angels paper-dolls 

that was published here.

Paper doll play

Some paper dolls I've been doing for fun.

These were tricky because I used paper doll scraps, 

arms and legs, and heads  I had around. 

When I make paper dolls I often cut extra arms and legs. 

I sometimes end up cutting and adjusting them to 

articulate the doll more.

inner mermaid

Inner Mermaid

working with the shadow.
observing and participating in the part of that loves chaos and drama.

taking this apart and loving it.

very hard.

heart thumping wildly.

obviously, my goals and intentions are too low, not insane enough to produce the kind of joy I need to create.

Inspired by:

Tiny house

and

Denise Jacobs

I Ching hexagram #5 and #43

can't explain the nuance

cut paper perfume svg files

Perfume bottles

Inspired by the old cobalt bottles that turn blue over time.

 

I sketched out some bottle shapes, scanned into

Inkscape.  I turned the into .svg files 

for my cutting machine

 

Using a heavy printer paper, I painted several sheets with acrylic

paint. Some of the papers I painted marks, 

fat crosses, dashes, lines, etc.

I hand cut smaller shapes and created doodles and marks 

with a gel pen. I like shading the edges 

with an old, dry stamp pad. 

sepia

collection of vases

collection of sepia things

how they are made:
strips of coffee dyed paper painted with sumptuous sepia watercolor.

embellished with a white gel pen.

I made some vase shapes a while back,

and created cutting files which in turn became the sepia vases

digital fun

I took this drawing and played with it in Inkscape.

 Played with colors and muted background.

I used bridges and isolated features with transparent and gradient fill

21 imagination

I am not trying to mislead, that I am chasing after joy. My relationship with the word is paying attention and noticing when it wells up, as I like to call it. It exists within and is independent of outside influences. My favorite part of Joy is the interaction of experiencing it as a subtle emotion.

Joy is an emotion I feel that can come alongside other emotions that are not even in the same family.

Its fun to examine it in relation to my creative activities, the up and down processes of feeling in life/ and to my creative process.

I made this collage a while back, and without even knowing or intending it It really describes my creative process and activity.

30 artist date: taking classes

For this artist date: Online classes with Skillshare.

This is an affiliate link. I am trying to win a free month of classes. 

The classes are great. One month I took 20 + classes. 

I started in watercolor, improved computer skills, 

renewed my passion for developing my own style, 

and learning modern fresh techniques.

What I like the most is you learn in small bites from your 

peers and professionals. The techniques colors and 

career advice is up to date and the price is reasonable.

This is a mixture of an Inkscape class, odd bodies, 

and color theory class.

33 sketching before bed

One thing I like to do before I go to bed is to draw with a pilot pen for 20 min. If I get to bed early, I have a notebook by my bed. Sometimes I am reading a book about sketching Like drawing for Joy), or I am inspired by the I Ching, or other books I am reading.

I may not have told you but I am having an affair with my creativity. Sometimes, we slip in a meet, just before bed. She likes to dictate notes in a spiral bound lined notebook, or sometimes on loose printer paper. She likes tracing paper too.

I look longingly at the beautiful moleskines, handmade sketchbooks and she says to me, "if we are going to keep meeting like this, you need to be ready."

I say "but the sepia paint..." and she says, "inspiring wasn't it?" I laugh and continue to write on my college ruled spiral notebook.

28 artist date: rock hunting

Purpose: gathering rocks from the yard to outline a path
from the center yard.

Behind me: painted lady butterflies dancing in the rosemary.

Another different kind of artist date:

I am creating a rock path around the unwieldy plants on 

the way to my studio.

during the date, I scavenge the property for rocks of a certain size, 

and gather a few here and there, 

then place them on my rock table.

I sketch lines where the rocks are going to go, and when I have 

the time or feel up to it I arrange them around the plants.

Note to self: Maybe this should go under "Joy"?

Sorry for the quick posts, the weather is amazing,
and the studio is calling!

29 watercolor trinkets

cut out and ready to play

Before cutting and trimming

I'm thinking of sewing them to a substrate.

I tried using iron-transfer paper,(wating to create felt charms) which I have used in the past but the same fabric, same iron, same felt doesn't work.

Oh well, I have another idea.

26 on my desk/worktable

Folk art shapes, and Matisse shapes cut from watercolor paper, 140lb.

A mixture of Matisse inspired cutouts and my folk art cutting files.

See the sepia post

I was trying out the Vicki Boutin watercolors. Rich saturated colors, and very smooth paint. The tubes are very small and don't match the labels. Very good to replace empty pans, nice bright colors without being fluorescent.

I am slowly upgrading to better watercolors. Even if you are using cheap brushes, which are my next upgrade, bright colors, and creamy consistency, that rewets easily are my top priority.