Within the Stars

She was a long process in coming forth also. I don't want to say she was trouble but maybe it's just a matter of no paint no gain. I am beginning to think that this is just what I have to go through to paint these bigger pieces. I like her face but I really need to work on those arms just a little bit more before I seal her. This is why I don't do body parts but I an determined to stick with it. I might even do hands sometimes. ( I think I  hear my art devil laughing at me right now saying, "Hands? Sure you are...!") Do any of you have an art devil? He tries to tell you that everything you do is terrible. 
Her face and the face of the girl yesterday are painted with Shiva oil sticks. They never fail me when I need to add some blush to the cheeks.

I have one more of these canvases prepared and ready but I think I need a little rest. They wore me out!

She is holding the beginning of Psalm 91 within the heart. I am planning to put a few more phrases from that Psalm from the torn up Bible along the bottom. She has a heart with a handle on the back too! :)

Strangers and Angels

Well, I just can't tell you what trouble this girl was. Good trouble...but trouble all the same. This is an 8x24 canvas and it is my attempt to include the whole body. Usually my heads of girls are vastly too large for the shoulders and torso I have have included so I tried to make her the appropriate size which  is 8 heads high (some say seven). After I looked at her I really thought her head was too small although she was in proportion. So what to do? Collage a new head on... no, paint a new one... no, leave it as it is---no--so I decided to widen her head, neck and hair.  I think she is better now. I also had some wings on her which didn't work but you can see a faint image after I pulled them off. I added a little bit of Golden Interference Blue to her wings so in some angles you don't see them and from others you do. I am having difficulty with her arms so I will work on them a little more and as you see I decided not to try fingers this time. Well, I guess her heart just has a handle on the back! The Scripture on the bottom is:
Hebrews 13:2: "Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares." I printed it on tissue paper (yay!) so when you glue it on it disappers into the canvas. 
There is also Scripture around the sides.

Fixin' things...

Well, as you know the studio is on the tour of homes and I have been looking around at all the art sitting and hanging around and I have been noticing that some things just don't look that good at all. One such piece was this little coffee cup with the apple. That was when I was just learning to use acrylics way back when and well, it was pretty bad. So I decided that maybe I could spruce it up a bit with the new skills I have learned over the few years doing mixed media so I grundged it up and bit, tried to add some deeper shadows and of course the magic camouflager - the script stamp (my best friend!) It looks better now. The poppies weren't bad but I decided to add the script stamp to that one also and I do like it better now. I am also looking at the noses of my girls hanging around and all of them need a nose job. My plan is to help them out a little bit and hopefully I don't mess them up. There are about 4 of them that are scheduled for surgery soon. I will show you before and after if I complete this task.

Now, when you look below you will see a little "Mini Martha" made by a sweet blog friend, Katie Purcell. This is a stone and she is very heavy. This is just one of the wonderful things about a blog. You get to meet wonderful people who are just so sweet and giving and it makes you want to take a road trip and go meet them in person. Katie is one of those sweet people. So, here is the little mini me she sent me. She included all the things that I love: art,  the word hope, inspire, create and of course, Bucky. I had to take a close up so you all could see him. I think she captured him!
Thank you, Katie!

Angel Wings

I got this hankering yesterday that I wanted to use this panel I got on sale at Hobby Lobby because I liked the brass flower hangy thing. It said welcome--and something else I don't remember. So I scrounged up my little screw driver and successfully removed the hangy thing and started the piece. I was concerned that the collage paper edges lined her face too much so I decided to smooth it out with Wood Icing (my new favorite thing for texture.) It didn't smooth the face but added texture which actually I didn't mind after I finished painting the piece. But I did have a few minutes of angst over it. I liked the quote because I imagined our guardian angel's wings get stronger when our thorns and stings from life get too much for us.

More flowers...

I am enjoying painting these color drop flowers. It's very relaxing to paint them and even when they look pretty bad the black outline always helps. The leaves are really fun to paint too. I use a soft oriental brush. The weather here is just so beautiful. Bucky and I really should walk around and take some pictures of all these blooming flowers around the neighborhood. 

Maybe we will do that tomorrow. 

Yellow Color Drop

Spring is definitely here in Jacksonville and Chauncey and I have been planting flowers in the yard of the Red Door Art Studio.  I am enjoying seeing the flowers all planted although it was back breaking work. The studio is on the tour of homes here in the Riverside area of Jacksonville on April 16-17. They are featuring several bungalows.

 These flowers below look like some that I planted in the yard. You can see that the top image has the fine black outline and the bottom image is before image the. I was looking at that same coloring book as my inspiration for the flower shapes. 

I actually didn't mean to post this until tomorrow so make sure you scroll down for that post too.

Journal Page...

I wasn't going to let the tissue paper thing defeat me. I just can't put matte medium on the top of it. I am sure I could have sprayed it several times with a matte finish but I was too impatient to go out to the shed to do that.  So here is a recent page with some CalligraFUN letters, color drop flowers and versa doodles. Spring is making me want to paint flowers!

Color Drop Irises

These are more color drop flowers where I start with a basic shape with water (lightly tinted yellow so I can see it) and drop in the color. You are pretty much at the mercy of the watercolor but you can move it around to help form the shape. The green Iris did much better than the purple one. I added a thin black outline to further form the shape. For my inspiration I was looking at a black and white outline of Irises that I had in a Dover coloring book of flowers. It helped me with the shapes although the purple one really didn't want to cooperate quite as well. As you know purple and I don't really gee and haw too well.

Mixed Media Girls

This was a very unplanned mixed media piece today. I haven't done one of these in a long time since I have been mostly working in my journal. I started off with other plans for this 8 x 10 board. I had plans to print on some tissue paper and put it on this board but that was a bust (even after I spent a long time researching it on youtube) so I scrapped off the gunk left by the tissue paper and started this one. I couldn't let this poor little board end in a failure. I was going to put a quote but I couldn't find the one that I liked.  I think that they are sisters, maybe even twins. I have always secretly wished I had a twin.  I enjoyed painting them and bringing them to life.

...with abandon

Usually I show the two page spread of these large journals but this time the left page just wasn't up blog snuff so I just posted the right side. Sometimes I actually do create art with abandon and other times it's like pulling teeth. I wonder why that is? I have no idea. But the flowers are happy and this page came together with abandon. I lost a few teeth on the other side.

Uncommon Calligraphy

I recently ate at the most wonderful restaurant and there were interesting paintings and signs and all sorts of neat stuff on the walls and this quote was written on one of the walls. The place mat was white paper and I just happened to have a calligraphy marker in my pocketbook... so I held my breath and wrote it very quickly, trying to quell those screams in my head from the calligraphy police yelling,"YOU HAVE NO LINES, YOU HAVE NO LAYOUT, YOU WILL NEVER KEEP A CONSISTENT ANGLE!!! 

But the quote itself was just so good that I decided to post it. 

It really was a wonderful lunch. It was the first time in 7 months that I have eaten in a restaurant and not worried if everything was organic or not.

 I had Sweet Potato Cake! YUM!

 So far so good---no hives!

Celebrate

I was working with some borders and some CalligraFun letterforms in my journal. The girl is collaged on (you might remember her from a few weeks back). And I love using a pointed pen. All those wedding envelopes got me addicted again. Anyway, I should celebrate the little things I take for granted so often. Oh, I forgot one..Angel food cake from Whole Foods.
I will be gone for a few days but I will see you next week!

Versal Doodles

I have been having fun doing some versal doodling. These letters are fun to draw and paint. Some are better than others but they are all addicting one you learn to draw the letterforms. I used Dr. Ph Martin's concentrated watercolors which makes the colors really pop.  I will work on through the alphabet. It's going to be a beautiful weekend here in FL and I hope all of you have a great one!

Alma Mater

When we were up in Greenville, SC, babysitting for baby Marc, we decided we would drive about 45 minutes to Spartanburg to see Converse College, the college I attended. I loved this college because this is where I learned to study, party (a skill I have thankfully lost!), make great friends and shag. Anyone know how to do the South Carolina shag? There is nothing more fun than that! I also met my husband there because he attended the neighboring mens' college, Wofford College. We had such a good time and the memories just go on and on. But back to my story. The three of us were toodling down the road in our daughter's van as happy as clams with my camera in tow to take some pictures for sketching when all of a sudden a box springs mattress flew out of nowhere and landed right in front of us on the road and there was nothing we could do but hit it. Long story made short, after the wrecker lifted the car up to pull out the mangled- up box springs, (thank the Lord for the DVD player in the car!) the car was thankfully drivable and ok except for a fender guard that kept falling down and dragging. So we just went home...  no pictures but so thankful we were all ok. This is from their website that I sketched and painted today.

Spring is blooming!

I think that I enjoy putting these pages together from my big grid journal the best. As I have said before, there is just something comforting about a grid. I have many journals and each one has different paper so that will determine what I can put on them. This paper is thin so watercolor is definitely not great although I do use it and blot quickly. I actually held the Azaleas Calligra-Fun letters. And that's Sunny looking in. Have a great day y'all! It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood!

Color Drop Flowers

One thing that I love to do that is easy and mindless are these little "color drop flowers" as I call them. They are really easy and quick and are actually shaped by the tiny black outline. I lay the water in with a pointed oriental brush first in the shape of pedals then I drop the water in. You can use any brush but the oriental brush get a nicer point and spreads out really nicely. It takes a little practice and a little knowledge about using colors and their neighbors on the color wheel (can't think of that color theory word) to have better success with blending the colors. Love to write with my pointed pen also. The paper was cold press so it was rather bumpy for a pointed pen. This is on a 12 x 12 sheet of watercolor paper.

 I was looking back at my big journal and when I finished this page I forgot to post it.  At least I think I did, so if you have seen it maybe you will see something new this time on it.

Today's excuses...

Ok, Ok it's really not all that bad after I added the paint but how can a simple spoon be so hard to draw? Good grief! I am finding out that the simple objects are deceptively hard to draw. Now that's just me. Every time I draw something it is a learning experience for me and a lesson for me to remember that.. wonkie is ok--so it's all good!

The Lamp in the Kitchen

I enjoy drawing these wonkie things. I think that the pressure is finally off to draw it perfectly. This is a great breakthrough for me--just to draw it wonkie and all and at the end of the day, say, it all good! I didn't mean to post this until tomorrow but look below at the Poppies too!

Poppy Invitation

I finally did finish up all of the envelopes for the wedding of my friend's daughter. I had skipped a whole page so I recently had to do 25 more. I think I really am finished now. This is the actual invitation and I decided to paint some poppies on it. Cranes paper takes watercolor very nicely. Oh, and by the way, the calligrapher who did Chelsea Clinton's invitations did the calligraphy for this invitation.

Little Quilted Pillows Journal

 I have to say that this one was a little difficult to make but if I make any more I am sure they will be easier. I have to work out all the kinks on the first one and this one had lots of kinks! I tied some of the cloth onto the spine and I used Fabriano note paper for the signatures. I think I might make another one because the little pillows were just the right prescription for my restless hands syndrome. :)
More pictures here.

Do not adjust your sets...

Oh that's right you are on a computer...
 I have been very very delinquent on a workshop from one of my favorite watercolor artists, Michelle Brown, where she teaches how to paint faces with watercolor. Of course it's not just watercolor, it's her way of flooding in the color and blotting out the light areas.  I just love the effect she gets. So today my guilt got the best of me and I attempted to paint a face. She had us do a blue face first. It wasn't as scary as I thought it would be but you have to know (or pretend) where the light source is and where the lights and shadows are on the face. I had to make it up with her but I will try it again using a model from a magazine that Michelle provided so I can do it like Michelle says to do it. She was printed on Arches Text Wove paper (love this paper!).