GPP Crusade 28: Portion Control Part 2

It was our favorite night of television, but the circle was calling me! So I sat in front of the tv with some art supplies and started drawing. I used a Pitt calligraphy marker to trace a small circle. My thoughts went to a string of pearls. (Yes, I am that simple.) Well, that's how the queen of O's was started. After drawing the necklace, I sketched the rest with a pencil. I can't tell you very much about what was on tv, since I headed for the art table so I could apply paint to paper. I've been using up paint on my palette that is left over from my bird of paradise painting. I just used sequin waste and a stipple brush to stencil in the background. I layered it for depth and to break up the circles a bit.
Now my engine was fired up and I was ready for more. What else could I do with the same tools - sequin waste and circle templates. By placing the sequin waste down first and laying the circle template on top of it, I came up with some pretty nifty circles. I used the same stipple brush and acrylic paint. The paint was a little wetter than I would use for a clean edge. I purposely smudged the edges a bit after removing the template. I saw a group of topiaries, so I just filled in with simple shapes.
This technique could really be expanded on and I think I'll be playing with it a bit more. I did one more page that night, but I'll save it for my next post.

GPP Crusade 28: Portion Control

I jumped on the GPP Crusade wagon last month using circles for my shape. I decided to follow through on this month's crusade using the same shape. After all, I'd invested in some circle punches last fall and I thought this would be a good time to play with them. I also have a Fiskar circle cutter that I got out last month when working on some cards. It's not my favorite tool. I'm just not very proficient with it. But I saved some of my practice pieces and they ended up being used as masks. I had some scrapbook paper with circles that caught my eye, so I built a page based on it.So far this month I've been spending more of my creative time on a large painting, but I must be thinking about this crusade a lot. I even woke up with a circle idea in the middle of the night! Temporarily forgotten, a conversation later the next day jogged my memory, so I wrote down my idea. Now... to have some time to play with it.
I did this earlier in the month. I took a couple wine corks and carved lines into them. Then I stamped the circles with ink. The rest of the design was done with gel pens and a circle template. There's not much portion control here. I think I did that before Michelle announced the details of this crusade.

This is just a quickie I did at the beginning of the month. I just used highlighters and ink and the waste from a page of stickers. I used the sticker waste like a stencil and filled in the colors somewhat randomly, but with a plan. Then I moved the waste and traced the circles with a pen. Last night I did more and I'll be posting them soon.

WIP - Bird Of Paradise

A few months ago I posted this painting when it still had a white background. I used Photoshop Elements to preview possible backgrounds. In the past couple weeks I started putting paint on the canvas again. It was scary. That seems so dumb because it's just a canvas with paint on it. But I was more tired of it not being done than I was scared of messing it up.
I think I'm just about done now. I'm keeping it in a prominent spot so I can spy anything that might bother me.

Journal Prompt - I Am ...

This prompt was so open-ended and my focus has shifted from my journal to working on completing a painting that I started a couple years ago. But I found the regular journaling to be a helpful exercise, so I opened up to a blank page last night and used some of the paint that had accumulated on my palette to fill in the page. After it dried I picked up the first writing instrument I saw which happened to be a black china marker. Why that was on my art table I do not know. I don't even know when I bought it or why. But I liked the bold lines it made. I decided to make abstract tulips. Then I played with the colors on my palette to paint the image in an unexpected scheme. I turned off the narrative that told me what wouldn't work. In the end, it's not my favorite page. But it turned out better than I thought it would at one point. The light wasn't good today, so this image looks pretty drab.
So - I'm not being very open about myself with the prompt "I Am". I like getting prompts for journaling, but they can be difficult to follow when I have my own agenda.

Remember - "He Knows My Name"

Misty Mawn prompted us to journal/make art inspired by a song. For some time I have wanted to do something in response to Tommy Walker's song "He Knows My Name". I first heard the song while my Dad was still alive, but Alzheimer's Disease had stolen our names from his memory. The song was and is a comfort to me and reminds me of the promises of God, our Father & Maker, who will ALWAYS know my name. He knows me. He knew my Dad.

So I sketched a woman who is feeling sad, but she is not desolate because she remembers these words when she hears these words.
I collaged some scrapbook & found papers onto a gessoed illustration board. Some of the paper bubbled & so I distressed the surface by sanding off the bubbles. There are arms reaching down and you can see part of one of the hands if you look closely. I sketched the woman with watersoluble graphite & painted her with a combination of acrylic & gesso. Stenciled motifs were also done with acrylic paint. Chalk pastel was used for accents. I stamped the word remember with chalk ink on paper I had distressed.
Here's Tommy Walker's song.

Need some Inspiration - Google Themes

iGoogle is my home page and I love all the ways it can be customized. One of my favorites is the variety of themes you can choose. Fractals has been my theme for the past few weeks since I put Christmas to rest. The fractals changes every so often and they are astoundingly beautiful.
I suppose I could have captured this better, but I just used my camera because I forgot how to do a screen shot at the time this one was up.

Art Journal Day 31 - Playful

A little tidying up produced a small stack of tags I'd saved because I found them interesting in one way or another. I saw this "Playful" tag and knew it would be my next journal page's theme.
I'm interested in exploring various versions of this scroll tree that I developed after being inspired by Pam Carriker's video using Pitt Pens earlier in the month.
The base is one that was prepped with left over paint from my palette. You may have noticed there's a lot of blue in my work this week. Instead of using white paint, I've been using gesso. It makes the page toothier for this mixed media work. First I stamped the flock of birds with pigment ink. I added some colored pencil to beef up the color.
I decided to try colored pencils for the tree. In this case I used Col-erase pencils and I really liked how they went down on this surface.
The tag was altered with distress inks and applied to the page. Lastly I used graphite to write a few verbs along the tree that describe where this month long journaling journey has taken me.

A couple nights ago I painted the cover of my journal. This is a standard 5.5 x 8.5 Strathmore sketch book. At the beginning of the month I prepped the cover with gesso and a layer of rice paper. More gesso was added. When we did our pink page, I added a bit to the cover. But I just didn't know what to put on it yet. Sometime in this past week or so I realized what a wonderful journey this has been for me. The consistent practice has led me to developing some themes. I've found new ways to express myself. I surprised myself a few times. I've made new friends for which I'm grateful.
So my journal is titled "Journey" and I chose a motif that I'm having fun with trying out in different media. I may add more words to the cover, but I'm not sure.Sometimes I forget what a treat traditional watercolor is. Sure, it can be very challenging and it takes patience. I enjoy the quietness of the process as compared to how I work in traditional acrylic.
So, before I close - how about a little give-away? To celebrate the end of January Art Journal month, I will give away a postcard sized original.
Here's what you need to do leave a comment stating what you think my "playful" tag came from. If you are correct, I'll put your name in the hat twice.
Comments for the give-away will be open until midnight CST on Wed. Feb. 4th. NOW CLOSED. I WILL BE IN TOUCH. The Playful label came off a Cacique bra. Now you know.