Faces in Techicolor

Sharon Tomlinson of All Norah's Art is one of my favorite artists and this class is challenging but really fun. The painting below was the first one I painted with the colors and I was a bit shy to add color. It's hard to add blues and greens and purples to the face! Yikes. Then on the painting above I kinda over did it. She is drawn from a model as a reference and she looks very mad. This girl looked like a vampire at first...a beautiful one... and I almost left her all washed out but decided to go ahead and add some color. I tried to think of a scenario but all I could think of was that she was concerned for the land. Oh well, whatever...

Want to crack up??? Paint an egg!

Well, as I said yesterday, I would post the egg. This was very hard to paint and actually it's not even finished but ...for me...it's finished. Diane, the teacher with the magic paint brush, helped me with the light logic of this. Actually, at least for me at this point, you have to know the light logic to help you paint something like this as a value study because you can't really see the subtle changes in values as a newbie painter. I won't be able to continue any more oil classes for now but maybe in the fall I might start back up. I really enjoyed the 5 other wonderful students there and I really like Diane, the teacher. She is amazing.

A little Sunflower

I have had paint withdrawal so I had to run and paint a flower. I actually painted this one in acrylic because although the oil paint is so absolutely wonderful--it is a bit of an ordeal for a quick painting. I am not sure if I have the patience for oil paint although I love it. I am done with my 6 week class and enjoyed it so much. I learned a lot and learned that I have a long way to go if I want to learn to paint realistically. The $64,000 question is...do I really want to do that...paint realistically?? Well, I will have to think on that one. I will post my black and white egg on the next post. It is the other value study that I did--by the hardest.

Morning ride and a Journal!

Well, goodness, I have managed to come up for air to take a picture. We have successfully completed day 4 of babysitting. One more day. ;( I will miss him when we go. We have certainly fed him too many waffle fries and chicken nuggets from Chic-Fil-A (our favorite place) but he has enjoyed every bite. He enjoys the little play area too. His mama said that is all ok,.."just keep him alive until we get home." So far so good! I must admit that I am extremely tired but it's a good tired. This is a pic of our morning ride on the golf cart around the neighborhood. You see Bucky enjoys the ride also. Don't look too hard but Marc still has on his mismatched PJs. (Maybe his mama won't see this picture.)

And below: OMGOODNESS

Look at the journal Lori has made. We have collaborated on some journals and I am so excited about it. She just emailed me the Etsy site.

http://www.etsy.com/listing/50135884/stencil-happiness-blank-coptic-writing

I will need a rest when I get home but hopefully I can do some art. I am missing my paint--I am having paint withdrawal.

Bye!

PS Thanks for all your well wishes and comments.

oxox to all!

I'll be back soon!

More stuff before we leave to babysit!

We are driving up to Greenville today to keep baby Marc while his mama and daddy go on a business trip for a week! I am really very very excited to keep him and I am glad Papa Chaunce is taking a week off so he can be there with me because I know it will be tiring.... but oh, in a good way! We love being at their house because you can see the mountains and it's like being on vacation. Baby Marc is growing so much and toddling everywhere and starting to say a few words. All that being said, I seriously doubt that I can get any art done even during his nap time so.... farewell, my bonnie blogger buddies, I will see you after the 27th. But I might start having blogger withdrawal and have to post a photo or something. Y'all have a wonderful and creative week. I will surely be checking in to see what you are doing. I've GOT to do that!!!!

BYE!

Catching up with my journal pages

Here are two more. I really love this small size. It makes for a quicker page. Window is a freebie image manipulated in Photobucket from the wonderful Roben Marie and the bottom

is one of my girls done the same way.

New Handmade Journal

Oh, man, did I ever have fun making this one. I had this idea to cut some little tags out with the left over cover and I had such fun writing and embossing the little tags and adding little charms that have been hanging around for ever. This is a great place to use all these little do- dads that I have and never knew what to do with. Anyway, here is a little video about it.

Hope, Family and an Anemone

Still making a journal spread in the little Lori Journal. It's small enough to really be able to do it quickly. Below is a watercolor on my Twinrocker 6 x 8 paper with the fabulous deckled edges which you can't see in this picture. I decided that... what the heck...if I mess it up I can Gesso over it and made a mixed media background out of it and do something completely different. Have a happy Wednesday!!!!

Graceful Pear

I am enjoying working in this small journal. Sometimes it takes a bit longer than 15 minutes although I try to keep it to about that. It's very fun but I think I might start with a bigger one too and see how I do. I love to cut and paste. I always did as a child and I do remember some people eating the paste. Do you remember that? It must have been tasty.

Still Life Effects

I was playing around with some photographs (below) that I took at my painting class to see if I could find one that I wanted to oil paint when I decided to put one into Photobucket (it's free) and play around with it. I put it on the cartoon effect them put it over into Photoshop and changed the colors and got rid of the background and this is the final image. I also used a script digital stamp for the background which actually --I probably could have left that out. To get this effect I just put the image into the Edit mode in Photobucket and clicked the Cartoon button. Not all work so well but I think the more simple the shape the better it does.

The coolest charm bracelet ever!

I just had to show you all this fabulous charm bracelet Sherry Ball Schoenfeldt sent me. We did a swap and I sent her a journal and she sent me this fabulous charm bracelet with inspiring words and phrases on the different charms. Oh my goodness, I am definitely doing a happy dance!!! Thank you sweet, Sherry!!!

Save a Pear Day and a journal page

First of all, let me say thank you all so much for your encouragement about the black and white value study. Its one of those things that look great from a distance but close up...not so good. It's kinda like one of the paint by number things that look really great from a distance but up close it ..it's another story. Hence the far away picture..... Anyway, I do see the "value" in doing this. Tee hee...

Ok, so after all of your wonderful comments I got rather cocky and thought to myself , "I'll just sit right down here and paint me a quickie pear just for kicks," and honestly by the minute it just kept getting worse and worse. It is acrylic because I left my oil paints at the studio. So never fear, punchanella is here...and stamps and whatever else I could find to save the pear. I don't know if I saved him but it's a heck of a lot better than it was. So, my thought for the day is, "Don't get cocky, you never know when you will have to save a pear."

Value study

Ok, I did the value study. It is on a 12 x 12 canvas board and I actually drew this vase from a still life! (I now have several bald spots on my head!) Doing a black and white value study is extremely difficult, I thought. I think that the hard thing for me in painting is seeing the slight changes in the values. I think that is why I have leaned more toward whimsical paintings where the values really don't matter all that much. Well, I should correct that statement...values really do matter in every painting but when it's whimsical I guess it less noticeable and less likely to be hokey. What is a hokey painting? I can't really explain it--I just know I don't want to paint hokey paintings.

Muse Flash

The red heart is dried oil paint from my pallet. I like working in this small journal but I haven't put anything on the cover yet. In Kelly Kilmer's journaling class she uses a focal point which is usually a magazine image of a person but I am having trouble finding an image of a person that is this small size. Focal points are so important and sometimes they are the hardest to get right---at least for me. There are rules that can be applied like the rule of thirds which I try to stick to somewhat. But it's all great fun to make journal pages.

Starting from black background

Stamps, punchanella and small grid used in the background.

Actually I should add some stamps or punchanella to this one too. I used a pallet knife and a brush for this one.

I scratched into this one for the veins in the leaves. The original artist did not add this.

These three paintings are inspired from another artist that I am really liking from the Daily Painters website named Jeff Mahorney. It looks rather simple but it's really not that simple I am finding out. I do like starting from a black background because it gives it that folk arty look that I like. Not for sale of course since it is inspired from Jeff Mahorney. His art is fabulous and I love the chunky look. I am actually trying different styles to see what I like the best and so far--I like chunky. Chunky journals, chunky paintings....yep chunky it will probably be.

The Draped Pear and a journal page

I am working in a new wonderful little journal that Lori made for me (just cause she is a sweetie pie friend) and she stitched it with a coptic stitch which she said she will teach me to do. YAY! I am trying to spend 15 minutes or less on the journal page but actually I get caught up in it and usually it takes longer but I'm not timing myself. This page has my very favorite painting, "The Girl with the Pearl Earring," by Johannes Vermeer

This painting I did is inspired by Hall Grote ll from Daily Painters and the exercise for me today was to paint draped cloth. Remind me to never do that again! Well, never say never but folds are hard to paint so I think for now maybe I will just avoid them. I do like to put my spin on the paintings with some stamps and punchanella in the background. It is very subtle. This one is my least favorite of all because the folds look a bit contrived and hokey but it was a good exercise and I learned alot---alot about what I don't want to paint!! This is on a 5 x 7 panel and again of course, I will not set these since it is an inspired piece from another artist.

Another Page and a Pear

I am trying to do a quickie journal spread (15 minutes or less) everyday. Actually I think it probably takes longer sometimes but I don't watch the clock... so who knows--it could be an hour. But it is fun. And below is my latest oil pear. This is a 5 x 7 but my goal is--GO BIG! Yikes!!!

This painting is inspired from a reference image from an artist named Toni Grote. Her style is not as chunky but still wonderful. I like to put my spin on these paintings by using some punchanella which works just find with the oils. As you know I love pears!!!

Journal of spray painted pages

This journal probably took me the longest so far to put together. But it's all good because I do love spray painting and sewing and putting all the pages together. I spray on a larger sheet and tear them down. I like to look at the pages and see if I can use my copic sprayer on any of them---which I did. I actually used it to coordinate the back side of the pages to the spray painted pages. Does that make any sense at all? Here are a few more pics.

California Poppies--I think

Again, another painting I did from a Daily Painters reference image of an artist that I like. Again, I can't find the name of this artist but I like the chunky style. From now on I am going to make an effort to write down the names of the artist I am inspired by. Mine are slightly different but still I will name the artist I am inspired by if possible. This one really is really more of a smooshy mess since I had trouble with the pallet knife on this one. But all in all it turned out ok.

A 15 minute journal page...and a little house with some big trees

If you have never really made a collage journal then Kelly Kilmer's class is a good one! I am trying to do a collage journal page in 15 minutes every day and here is the one I did at 11:00 last night. I couldn't let the day go by without slapping some scraps in a book.

And here is the next painting with the oils. I went to my class yesterday and painted my black and while value study. It was hard---very hard. Maybe I will blog it when I get the background

put in properly.

I decided the get some canvas paper so I could practice without using all of my stretched canvases just in my practice. This painting is inspired from an artist I found on Daily Painters but unfortunately I can't find it again so I can give them credit for this reference photo but I will keep looking and add them to this post when I find them. I am not really sure what this artist used to apply the paint but I suspect it was a pallet knife so that is what I used in this painting. Pallet knives give that wonderful chunky look but you have to have a very light touch or you will end up with a smoochy mess. One stroke is about all you get. I won't you all of my smooshy messes. Again NFS--(not that you would want to buy it) but I am just making sure it is clear that these are all reference photos from artists that are an inspiration to me in my oil painting journey and it's all a learning tool for me at this point.

Starting to paint with oils

I am trying to get familiar with the oil paint and find out how it behaves and blends. I think that so far I love working with oils because the brushes clean out so easily and off my hands and clothes too. I like it because you have several days to look at it and see if it needs anything else and actually your pallet says wet too so you can tweak until your heart's content (at least for a few days if necessary). I am using Windsor Newton water soluble oils now because that's what I have. They behave just like regular oils which I will also try and see which I like better although I hear that there is really no difference. I am painting from a reference photograph from a website called Daily Painters. The original image is from an artist named Linda Apple. I love the way she paints. Of course I would not sell any of these that I have painted since it's just practice for me but when I get to a point where I use my own photographs then I will sell them. I am trying to paint everyday so I should have another painting to show every day.

Color Harmonies

I have been working in the red shed doing some spray painting and attempting to just add colors that will go well together. I tend to add colors that look good together in theory but when they are sprayed onto the page it grays out---don't want that! These will probably be book pages or something. These are front and back of

the sheets of 11 x 14 Bristol board.