HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

"She is Free..."

I am enjoying drawing and painting faces again in the Moleskine. They are looking a bit younger I think which is how I always wanted them to look.  It has helped me seeing Tam from Willowing paint hers  and watching her fiddling until it works with layers upon layers. I used acrylics and Caran d' Ache and a Stabilo black Aquarelle and various other stamps and stuff. This page was already painted in my journal with the stencil outline of the bird already there so I just added the girl.

She Knows Who She Is

I haven't painted a face in a while in this Moleskine journal. I just did the first lesson of Willowing's, Art, Heart and Healing FREE workshop which started on the 18th.

I have never taken a class from her but I love her wonderful accent and the sweet faces she draws.

 She shows you how to draw and paint a face in the first week. If you have ever wanted to draw a face this is the place to start. I am really enjoying it so far.

Join up--you have nothing to lose but lots to gain.

"Organic Girl"

Yep, that me! All organic and no hives for going on 4 weeks now. I really don't think it was Bucky but still--it might be--but I really think I was poisoning myself with processed foods. This is my new credo: I won't eat it if my grandmother wouldn't recognize it and if it has too many unpronounceable ingredients. Anyway, this is what I have figured out at least so far that was causing these awful hives off and on for 6 months or so. I had a comprehensive and complete check of all autoimmune, heart, celiacs and many more and nothing was out of order there (yay!)---so it is something I am eating or  it's environmental.

So, yep. that's me--organic girl. This is from an actual photo I took of my organic fruits sitting on my counter. Actually, the tall green thing is something I got at the farmer's market and I don't plan to eat it---but it made for a good composition. And again, Dr. PH Concentrated watercolors with a little regular watercolor, some Hydrus and a little bit of Copic spray. 

Trust

Proverbs 3:5

These are drawn Neuland letterforms with Dr. Martin's Ph. Concentrated watercolors.
Love these colors. I am in a colorful mood these days.

Italian Night

YUM!

A Gaggle of Pears

  I used my favorite watercolors Dr. Ph. Martin Concentrated watercolors (which I love!) because they are so bright and pleasing to my eye. I have collected many colors now and I would even like more but they mix beautifully also so if I would just take the time to experiment with my colors then I wouldn't need any more.
There is something about these colors that make my heart flutter--really. It's a cheap thrill--well not so cheap depending on how many colors I indulge myself in.
I will be leaving tomorrow to drive up to Greenville to stay with Macaulay and Baby Marc will Daddy Marc goes on a business trip.
See y'all next week!

Dreaming of Poppies

Oh, what a comfort zone...POPPIES!

I have missed my Poppies. I was just checking what this paper was. It looked like some sort of watercolor paper so I decided to add a little red to see how it took the paint---and Poppies emerged!

Digging deep...

While I am taking a break from the acrylics and watercolor for a while I have decided to dig down into my overflowing art drawers pull out something that has the potential of improvement. Believe me, this could take a while! I vaguely remember that these poppies were almost a throw away but now with some copic spray (non-toxic I am told!) and punchanella I think it is better now. I also used some Pan Pastels.  As I grow as an artist I see that depth and contrast is very important and with this one, it just needed a little depth and fancy-ing up a bit. I love my copic air compressor sprayer. I think that it is the best way for me to punch up the color to any piece that needs it--like this one. This one is a watercolor.

Practicing...

I have had to relearn this Engrosser's Script, or just learn it because I have never really used it. I mostly use Italic or a funky variation. This hand is soothing for me to write and as I see improvement then it makes it enjoyable.  I am not criticizing my progress at all but my eye sees that I am not quite there yet. I have spacing issues between the letters and between the words. For me the spacing of calligraphy has been the hardest part. It doesn't matter how beautiful your letterform might be, if it is not spaced properly it all falls apart. I am not a meticulous person at all and I have often wondered why I have loved learning calligraphy because it is the epitome of meticulous. I think I like the rules because I always feel safe within the rules. I am off to see if I can make a green smoothie. Sounds yuck but I'm gonna try.

PS. I am working on this script for the wedding invitations I will be doing for my best friend's
daughter.  It's not until May but I have to start now because it's like getting ready for a marathon. If you don't condition yourself the hand, arm and back will cramp up.

I'm still alive...

Well, I think that Art du jour has turned into "rare art du jour". I have missed creating and posting but I have a block now I think. I have been on a pretty good roll for several years now so maybe I needed a break. My hives are better and have been for several days now. I have de-danderized eveything and if it's Bucky then the de-danderizing is helping. It could be a chemical sensitivity to processed foods and I want to say thank you to Diane for mentioning to me that it could be a Ribo Rash from an MSG-like food enhancer. These are nasty chemicals that are hidden in our tasty processed foods that seem to be causing all sorts of problems. Ok, I admit it, that Pop Tart that I have eaten every day for breakfast for 20 years  has probably poisoned me. I am eating all organic now and we will see if that helps. Now I have to cook rather than creating art. So, now you know my secret, I never cooked. Well, I can't say never, but when I did, I hated every minute of it. I better change my tune. Maybe I will grow to love it. So much for me. I love you all and thank you for your concerns and suggestions. I consider each and every one!

PS. I have been practicing my Copperplate letterforms for wedding invitations for a May wedding of my best friend's daughter. So actually, I have been doing something. I have pages and pages of practice. Maybe I will post one. It's looking better.

More quick art--and the unresolved problem...

This is on the back of the scrap paper from my last post. I am still playing with laying down some color and making quick paintings. I have this thing about instant gratification. This is why I don't think I could ever be an oil painter although I do love the oils. It's just too slow for me.  I need instant bursts of color and maybe even a place to write. It's--- Quick Art for the Slightly Neurotic and Impatient Artist! Maybe I will write a book for all of us impatient artists who need an instant fix. I will be your pusher. hee hee
 And since this is a scrap---no pressure and--> instant gratification.
 There is an art induced high in all that.
Thank you all for your sweet comments about my mystery hives. I have my game plan as how to try and live with Bucky. I woke up clear today and everyday I am symptom free it is a good day. I have to make several safe zones where he is not allowed in---mostly the bedroom and office. He will be groomed once a week and I ordered several items from National Allergy: spray that lowers dander,  anti allergy clothes detergent, bath cloths for in between baths, an air purifier that I carry around with me right now because they are quite expensive. I think there were a few more things also. It's a shot in the dark but I am bound and determined to try and live with him---that is IF he is the problem. I am going to take some days off of  creating art and blogging to tackle this problem and clean the studio (de-danderize that is.) I might have to see if it is anything at my studio---paints??? Now wouldn't that be bad?! So I do need to stay away from all the art materials for a while. :(
I will be back hopefully really soon but I will certainly visit you all and see what you are doing. I am doing a class with LK Ludwig which I love so maybe I can blog some of those journal pages--that is when I get around to doing it.
I love you all and thanks for your prayers and best wishes. I need it now.
Oh, and here is a little cutie:
I could just eat him up with a spoon!

And one more cutie below chillin' out after his bath and shave:

It's a scrap....

First of all I want to say hello to everyone and apologize for my absence in responding to all your wonderful comments. I have really been struggling with a condition called Chronic Urticaria which is chronic hives where my eyes, lips and face swells with hives with itches terribly. I have been to 4 doctors and finally my internist has ruled out everything under the sun and I have surrendered many viles of blood to find out what this might be. It cycles about every two weeks or so and ...well...so much for those details. All tests have come back negative (that a good thing) except for one....pet dander.  Unfortunately, do do fear it is Bucky but with chronic hives you never really know the cause. All you can do is take a shot in the dark. I might have to find Bucky a loving home but that would bread our hearts.  Long story short, I have been able to create a little quick art so again I apologize for not returning comments. 

So, now to the art du jour.

Each day that comes and goes I never know which way the muse will lead me... and depending on how much my face might be itching. Today I am still in a watercolor mood.  I do think that my first love is watercolor. But I love acrylics too. My very favorite watercolorist is Shirley Trevena. I am mesmerized by her paintings andI have been looking at her DVD again and drooling all over again. This is on a scrap and I was just laying some color down. It's very quick and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.  This one was fairly appealing (maybe a 61/2 out of 10) to me so therefore...

l'art de la journée est terminée.

In the studio today...

I have been doing a couple of things today. I made some backgrounds for a journal that I am thinking about putting together and also I am playing around with some abstract watercolor. I was mainly trying this Stonehenge paper that is good for the background techniques but I don't like it for the watercolor. I am trying to make random marks on the paper (this is hard for me for some reason) then lay down some watercolor. The "listen to the whisper.." one has pleasing colors but the quote and style of letterforms do not go with the bold marks and the colors. I don't really know why I wrote that one but I just grabbed the calligraphy marker and wrote something. Sometimes I really just need to slow down, take a breath and think for a minute. As a calligrapher, the best layout is one where the quote and letterforms have the same feel as the background. But, it's all about trying and learning from our less fortunate choices.

Doodle Marc

Have any of you seen Rebecca at Daisy Dolls Gypsy Caravan?  I just can't get over her fabulous doodle portraits so I decided to try one. It really took me quite a while to figure it all out and actually this one is just in pencil then I darkened it in Photoshop. I love to doodle so this might be really fun to do. Rebecca is fabulous at doodling on faces and it's certainly worth a look see!!

Miss Eclectic "E"

Let's give a big hello to Miss Eclectic E. As you can see she is quite Ebullient but very Eccentric. She is quite an Extraordinary letter because she is very open minded and accepting of the other letters in the alphabet who are not as Expressive as she is. She and her neighbor, Miss Dottie Doodle D, are best friends. She actually was the one who taught Doodle Dottie to say, "Daaa-ling".

Yes, we are having fun!

We are having fun here in beautiful Greenville, SC, and Papa Chaunce flew in today but we have to drive home tomorrow. Bucky is so sweet to Baby Marc and we had a good laugh with the ride in the wagon today.

More color!

I am still living these punches of color.  It's Dr. Martins concentrated WC again. The top image of the birdhouse is a sketch from my previous drawing class and the bottom one is a photo of a still life at the studio when I took the oil painting class.
I printed them on watercolor paper and they are really fun to paint.
 I am leaving today to go see Baby Marc so I will be traveling 6 hours. I have me a book to listen to so I will be just fine. I will be there until Monday so I will see you all next week! 

One more-one shot at an invitation

Ok, I decided to try it again on the next invitation. This is my first cousin's son and I really wanted to make them something special. I thought it was a precious invitation with only the writing and the birds at the corner. Just perfect for some painting except.....blotter paper and bleeding ink!!!! Now, why was I so dumb as to think the ink wouldn't run!? So, I sprayed it with Blair Mat Fixative which gave me an instant headache even in my well ventilated area. Then it wouldn't take the watercolor so I stressed a bit and pulled out some hair. I watered down some acrylic and that helped but I didn't want to cover up the letters. Finally I think it worked out.  I hope they like it. It was a labor of love and every painting is a learning experience even if you are left with a little less hair and only have blotter paper to work on. This one is a 6x6. Ok, two down, one more to go. But the third invitation can't be painted. Dang!
Here I come Bed Beth and Beyond.

So, here are the two invitations all finished.  I added paper for backgrounds and glued them to a Jack Richeson panel which is about 8x 1/2 inch or so. They can hang them on the wall of put it on a bookshelf.

Ready for UPS! 

YAY! 

One shot at painting on the invitation-

I have to say that I held my breath and fought with this blotter-like paper but I was bound and determined to make it work. The original doesn't look quite as cartoonish as how it shows on the screen. It is a 7x7 card so I had plenty of room but it was still quite small and tedious. Thank goodness for my new, tiny and much to expensive brush I bought after attending the IAMPETH conference. I say now, it was worth it. Anyway, I did it and hopefully they will like it. It also has gold dots all around which unfortunately the scanner doesn't pick up. I think that the dots actually make the piece work so I am sorry you can't see it.
 So,who really wants a 5 piece place setting anyway?
 Well, thinking back, I did!

Trust revisited---again and again...

As you know, I do love this Scripture, and as I said before it's one of the few that I have memorized. Sometimes when the calligraphy bug is biting and I sit down to practice I just start writing this verse. There are others too..."the joy of the LORD is your strength","create in me a clean heart..." And if it works then I scan it, save it, and use it.  This is actually a background that I did many months ago in Julie Prichard's Layer Love class and decided to pull it out and add something to it. It was rather plain before but had some neat textures.
So another...
"Art du jour complet"

Colorful--Trust

Same backgrounds and lettering-used and cropped in different ways.

Just playing around with backgrounds and lettering. I love these bright colors.

Miss Dottie Doodle "D"

This is Miss Dottie Doodle D. As you see she loves dots and doodles and calls everyone "Daa-ling." This is her motto, "If anything is worth doodling, it's worth over-doodling."

In the cheap journal

I am liking COLOR these days..(actually I like color everyday). I sketched this out in the crummy journal and used Dr. Ph Martin Hydrus watercolors. They are bright and easy to use. I slipped in the lettering in Photoshop. Oh, Mr. Photoshop, how I do love you!

Baby Marc in Technicolor

I was just playing around with some filters in Photoshop and decided to use the filter>sketch>stamp filter and see what happened. I used the Dr. Martin Hydrus watercolors to paint him.

And I just want to say hello to Susan, a sweet blog follower, who just happened to ask Diane if she knew me just out of the blue while Diane was at the art fair. It is so nice to hear that someone has be inspired by our blogs. I think that is the purpose, actually, to inspire others as we ourselves are inspired!

Bright just makes me happy

I don't know if any of you follow Kelly Nina Perkins but everytime I see a new post on my blog roll her colors always catch my eye. I love her video Stitch Imagery and I decided to pull out one of my sketches from a previous drawing class and paint it. I used Dr. Ph. Martin's transparent concentrated watercolors which I have has for about 25 years--really, I have!  I love them so much I would like to get a few other colors. I love painting these paintings because all you really have to think about is what colors to use because watercolor techniques are not necessary. But what colors to use--that can be daunting sometimes actually. Know what I mean!!??
Oh, and I sewed around the images.

Miss Compliment "C"

This is "Miss Compliment C".  She is always very sheik and fashion forward and receives many compliments because of her savvy colors that she wears. Below she has on her orange and blue to cheer for the Gators and she can't wait to wear her red and green for Christmas. And her fashion tip of the day...always add a touch of black!

GO GATORS!!!

Just a few more stars

  I love stars. They are happy and hopeful and fun.

Speaking of stars, this is dedicated to all of the STARS of the attack on the World Trade Towers nine years ago today... the heroes who survived and the heroes who didn't.

A little ditty for the Red Door

Joshua 24:15

This is a blank banner that I bought months ago and, again, didn't know what to put on it but I know something would come up. I have several of them and they are pretty nice. They come with the wooden dowel and knobs. Og course now that I have Bernie I could make them but I didn't have the sewing machine when I ordered them.  I wrote the lettering with a calligraphy marker and the towers are paper. 

It was fun.
Sorry if this posted in your blog roll and didn't show up. I posted it by mistake yesterday when I scheduling it for today---but here it is. 

I made a Tower and Turret!

This 24 x 4 inch white melamine  board I got at Hobby Lobby 50% off and really didn't know what I would use it for but I knew something would come up. Perfect for a Tower and Turret. It was really fun to do. The found letters say.."beneath the winking skies"....."and by sparkling eyes"..."And at home they are making merry."

More fall yummy colors

 I love spraying these papers. It's therapeutic, for sure!

Miss Gypsy A

I thought I would paint the A again. And She has a story.
This is "Miss A" and she lives in a gypsy van all decorated out with colorful lanterns and beautiful oriental carpets on her floor. Her walls are painted violet and chartreuse and hot pink. She has a black cat named Tarot and she loves halloween. But Miss A is not a bad letter A, she is just very bohemian and care free. I think all my letters might have a story depending on how they turn out, Miss A definitely had a story.

"B" elieve

This "B" was very fun to do yesterday. Ok, I have an A and a B. We'll see how far I get. I hope everyone has a great Labor Day!

Afternoon Serendipity

This was a 9 x 11 Strathmore Watercolor sheet where I was practicing some letterforms for some of the previous star pieces and the collage from a couple of days ago. Sometimes these sheets just get thrown into a bin hoping that they can be collage fodder. I decided to spray it with my Adirondack inks in my favorite fall colors with my stencils and I liked the result. I think I will do more tomorrow because these colors are just yummy to me right now.  I will post them tomorrow. And I will be starting making some towers and turrets soon!

Plan "A"

Just needed a bit of color.

Ok so here is my plan...(you know what they say about the best laid plans)...wait... what DO they say about those plans? I need to Google that. Anyway, what I would like to do is draw and paint a different letter every day. But I know that is ambitious at least for me because I am sure I will get distracted and go off into who knows what. Actually I do know what...Towers and Turrets!  I couldn't resist!
This is just a pencil drawing but actually I have been drawing letters for several days. All my calligraphy blog friends will notice that this is very "Sherri Kiesel-like" and actually I have never taken a class from her but it's on my bucket list. I have seen some examples here and there of different Versal letters so I will try to do several of the same letter in different styles. That is---"if those best laid plans of mice and men don't go awry" ( I googled it.)

The Journey is the Destination

 Sometimes I just keep running into these half done collages that I tried to make work in the distant past and just couldn't make it work. This was one of those collages. It seemed to just keep turning up and turning up so today I decided to either make it work or toss it.  I wish I had scanned the original collage but basically is was just the square in the middle (colored with walnut inks) with the small square underneath with the imagination quote and the vertical green piece. There were some other hap hazard useless pieces that came off easily because I really hadn't glued it down very well. Anyway, this is the result. I used (overused??) stamps, copic spray, walnut ink for doodling and calligraphy and pan pastels. Oh, and that white lacy looking thing is my new paper edge punch I got at Michaels for 50% off. Well, at least I used some of my copious supplies!! This on is 9 x 11. I think I will need to make me a 9 x 11 chunky book for all of these recent 9x11 pieces.

More stars...

This image below is the original with the calligraphy written on the piece. I used black gouache and I added a bit of Pearl-X pigments in gold and you can see it but the letters have some bling. The Stickles are on this one too---but the scanner won't pick it up. I suppose I could have mixed up some gouache and written it in purple but I like the graphic look of the black lettering. They are both on Strathmore 400 Series 9 x 11 watercolor paper from the pad.

This image below is a scan of just the stars without the lettering but I added the lettering in Photoshop from my calligraphy lettering file. Anytime I write something in calligraphy if I like it I will can it for future use. As you might see, if you follow my blog, I use this one quite often. I have one more star piece that I might add some lettering to it with a different quote. I guess my calligraphy comfort zone is image on the left, writing on the right. One of these days maybe I will change that up a bit.

Writing make me extremely happy...extremely...that is when it works. Not always does it work.  Then I am sad--but only for a moment!

Earth has no sorrow...

I like this quote so I decided to play around with my star stencils and see what happened. I kinda like the way it turned out. I have two more similar ones ready for lettering. This is why calligraphy is a nail bitter sometimes because you have the background all ready then you have to take a deep breath, steady the hands and go for it. We'll see how the other two turn out. I'll let you know and post it if it passes the juried stage (me!)  There is also Frosted Lace Stickles swirled around on the stars that you can't see in this photo. It just gives it just a little bit of bling and sparkle.