Love Those Grandkids!

My husband took us back to California just a few weeks after we'd come back from there. He wanted to fix up some of the family computers. While there I got my 13 year-old granddaughter signed up for Laure Ferlita's Autumn Class which just started (there is still room. Go here ). I helped her sign up in blogger and showed her what she'd need to participate fully. She wanted to try out the new watercolors I'd gotten her which would be used in the class so she and one of the other granddaughters sat down to paint. They didn't know what to paint though! So I put down my coffee mug and had them choose between it and a pink goblet that was already on the table. One chose the mug and the other the goblet. Then I showed them how to paint them and they did a great job. You can see for yourself they did a great job. Now let me tell you, these girls are 11 and 13 and this was their first try at using watercolors in a real way. If they can do it, so can you! So scoot on over and join in on one of Laure's classes. You won't regret it.

My New Bed

I did this a few days ago but am finally posting it. My sister had an extra bed set given to her and didn't need it so gave it to me. It's from IKEA she says and I love it. I didn't have one so am happy to get it. What better reason to make a journal page?

I did this straight with the pen, no pencil so the angles are a bit off but I knew if I putsied around it would never get done. I'm happy with how it turned out.

Two notes: The lamp was a cheap one I had and painted to go with my room's furniture and it is always wonky so I drew it that way. Second, the white stand next to my bed holds a lot of my smaller papers and is there instead of a regular nightstand because I've run out of room for supply storage. Something had to go and it was not going to be my art supplies!

Art Everyday

During Laure Ferlita's Foundation To Journaling class I made a calendar page. Everyday during July I put a red circle around the date if I did anything artwise. I also wrote down the main thing I did. I managed to do something everyday! It feels good to see every day marked off.

Mostly I beaded flowers and worked on paintings for my son's birthday. I'll be posting about both of those but since he hasn't received his gift yet I don't want to take the chance of him seeing what I did yet. Stay tuned. Today is his birthday so I'll be posting in a couple of days about it.

This month I probably won't be able to do art every single day since I'll be visiting family and doing lots of things they want to do but I will try to do as much as I can.

If you want to take her Foundations class you'll find a new one starting up tomorrow. Hurry over and sign up. It was a super class.

Continuing With Fake Journal

I know the Fake Journal month is long past but when I get an idea I am going to continue to add to my journal.

I was looking through my newest book I bought Drawing Lab For Mixed-media Artists by Carla Sonheim and I realized I bought it because I enjoy her fanciful, fake animals. Then I picked up my papers I was using for my fake journal and saw a bird on the top piece. So, I picked up a pen and doodled it out. It's a fake for sure so I decided to add it to my fake journal as an official entry.

Cherry Time

I was inspired by some cherries painted by another blogger at Maoma3 blogwho posted about her cherries and included the nicest little cherry painting on her journal page. I am always wondering what to draw and I just happened to have some cherries too. So, I put them in a little bowl, drew them with a Pitt pen and then decided to use colored pencils to color in the picture as my paper wasn't really suitable for anything wet. I'm happy with the way my page turned out. Hope you are enjoying cherry season too.

Organic Fruit

I finally drew the fruit my son sent me for Mother's Day. I had a little oops moment. Perfection just seems to shout out against me, lol. The rest of it came out okay and I now have a record of the fruit besides a photo. I used Caran 'd Ache crayons for the color and Pitt pens for the ink.

Fake Journal - Page Seven

I know Fake Journal Month is gone (and I only did six pages for it) but I've decided to keep it going and when I see or think of something fake I will add it to my collection. This drawing shows something so very fake it is hideous.

Now mind you, I am not slamming all TV dinners. I love the Marie Callender meals and both are made by Con Agra but some like this Bangquet are simply trash. Reading the ingredients the chicken patties are made of chicken, soy and lots of other stuff. I don't mind soy. I eat it in my Jack-in-the-Box tacos I think but here it does not taste good and if you look at what you get nutritionally you'll find it quite dismal. Many of the calories come from fat. By the way, the veggies they show on the cover are MORE than what I found in the dinner. I tasted it and threw it away. Really. Marie Callender dinners have lots of real potatoes/rice and vegetables with a small amount of real meat. They are very different items and I was shocked to see they were both made by the same company. Worse, I go to the store and see some old men (they are older than me so they are OLD) buying huge stacks of the Banquet dinners when they go on sale. Can't beat 88 cents can you? Well maybe if you want some food....

This time I used a dark brown Pitt pen and watercolors to paint in my drawing. I didn't think the watercolor would work so well on the inked background but it turned out fine.

Now if you would like to start journaling especially in watercolor and want to not be overwhelmed then try this class I posted about here.

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all you mothers. It's a quiet day for me with my husband still recovering from surgery. I spent the morning drawing this sketch, then baking a Burnt Sugar Cake which I will have to eat all by myself since my husband doesn't like it and there is no one else around. Aw, poor me, lol. Then I went back to my sketch and added gouache. Now, what to have for dinner is the question. It seems today is mostly art and food for me! My son called to say happy mother's day and I am waiting for my daughter to call later. Life is pretty good.

Tucson VA Hospital

My husband is having surgery soon at the Tucson VA hospital so we had to go down for some pre-ops which ended up including a stay overnight for a cardio-catheterization. I took the opportunity to do a couple of sketches from his 3rd floor room window. It is a beautiful old place and they are keeping it up quite well (the room wasn't so great and the food was inedible but the hospital is lovely).

One sketch is on watercolor paper using watercolor and the other is on some Canson MiTientes brown paper so I used gouache on that one.

Fake Journal - Page Five

Today's fake thing is my plastic flower pot I got from Wal-Mart this year. It looks like ceramic but it isn't. I went for it because of the price and the hope that I could move it if necessary once it was full of dirt.

Hopefully my tomato plant will take hold. The first one didn't as the wind bent it in half. I'm going to get a tomato cage for this next time I go to town. I don't think they are fake yet but they have reduced the number of rings to 3 and I seem to remember 4 years ago.

This is ink and gouache. I like how the gouache covers the background mostly. I'm not using it so thick as to hide all the ink or background but it's not totally transparent either. If you haven't tried the gouache I would recommend it for your tool arsenal.

Day 3 of Fake Journal

Well I have a third page done for the idea of fake. What do you think? Is the milk we drink today real? I used Pitt pen and gouache to do this page.

I am working on my first lesson for the virtual trip to England I am taking with Laure Ferlita. I'll post it as soon as I get it done.

Try-out for Fake Journal

Roz Stendahl has a project going in April that she calls Fake Journal Month. I decided to join in and my fake journal is going to be on individual papers. I have them ready. They were made by painting Dr. Martins inks on a sheet of hotpress watercolor paper and then tearing it into 4 1/2" x 6" sheets. I had some extras so I used one to try some things out. I used a nib in a dip pen to try writing with the ink but it was too scratchy and didn't work at all. The gouache worked pretty well although when it's really watery it beads up a bit at first. My Pitt pen worked okay too. So I think these will be my main tools. I might add some collage to the works too.

Now to think of what my fake journal will be about. It's not supposed to be about my life as I put in my real journal so that's something to think about and I only have a few days to do that.

What about you? Do you want to try doing a fake journal? Check out Roz's blog and see.

A Trip to the Beach

Recently I took a class with Laure Ferlita called A Trip to the Beach. It was a virtual trip and it was wonderful. I highly recommend anyone who wants to have a fun time learning to paint with watercolors to take one of her trips. Here is the link to her class descriptions. There will be a trip leaving for the beach in just a few days. You will be very happy if you decide to join her. I am getting ready to go for her trip to England next!

These are the pictures of my completed paintings for the class. If you don't like the beach join me in England. I was really new to watercolor and this is what I did so you can too!

Laure I can't thank you enough for expanding my world. This was a great trip.

Grocery Day

Today was my day for running into town and getting the groceries and everything else we need for the week. After I got most of the stuff put away I drew and painted a few of the items I bought today.

I learned how to do this page from a DVD I got called Beginning Watercolor Journaling by Christina Lopp and Gay Kraeger. I love the DVD even though it's fairly simple what they show. The thing is, they show a few important things to get you going so I am glad I bought it.

Fruit in Bowl

Wow. It's been a long time since I've posted something. I really have been busy. I am taking several classes but have resisted signing up for more as it got to be too much.

I am in Fallbrook, California visiting my sister. She was called in to work today so I had some time to myself. I sat down and painted this pear in a bowl that was sitting on her table. I'm very happy with it. I went for wild and painted the shadowy white interior with purple. I felt like gray would have been boring and blah. This looks colorful and makes me happy. I hope you enjoy it too.

Done in my journal on watercolor paper with gouache paints.

Mandala Done

Well I made my mandala following the direction of that video I posted here. Now I realize they did it a bit differently. Oh boy, that shows how well I follow instructions! They changed pen color as they went along. I'll have to try that on the next one. This one is made with a Pitt pen and watercolor pencil. It was fun. Have you tried one yet?

Pandora

This is a picture of my Pandora. She was sitting still and pretty so I thought I'd have a chance to get a drawing of her. She started turning her head at the end so I didn't do so well on her face. I added some writing I am learning at Creative Workshops in a class called Calligrafun. I am just putting the letters together and haven't learned to decorate them yet. That's the next lesson!

I did find out that not all Pitt brush pens have the same stiffness and when I put a bit of pressure on this blue pen was shocked to see fat lines show up way too easily from what I had been getting with other brushes in the same set. If you use these pens watch out for that.

Some Pages from Christmas

I've been busy as everyone else has been, with Christmas. I travelled to California to be with the grandkids to I made this first page to have ideas to show them for things we could make while I was there. It was done with Pitt pen and watercolor pencil.

The second picture shows the stars and snowflakes we made.

The third picture is a drawing I made before the last of four socks were finished. I drew it lightly in pencil which was really hard to see on the colored background and then moved to colored pencils.

Now to get ready for the new year and everything it will bring.

Note: I just amended this to add that I found that my knitting page fits EDM challenge #253: Draw your socks. Well this one was for my son but while I was knitting it it was still mine technically or close enough, lol.

In a workshop I am in over at A.R.T., a yahoo group, our lesson this week was to make a page using a page out of the book we are using Artist's Journal's and Sketchbooks by Lynn Perrella. I chose page number 26 that had a hand on it. Mine came out quite differently I think but I am glad of that really.

This has acrylic paints for the background with white butterflies embossed with clear powder. I don't know why they turned color. Anyone have an idea? Did it suck up color from the paint with the heat of the gun? I don't know. Anyhow, the rest of the page was done with Pitt pens and watercolor pencils except for a few cutouts from my own photos.

A is for ....

I've finished a spread in my journal for the letter A. I hope to do the whole alphabet. I also hope to find things I like to fit the different letters. Some of them might be rather hard like Q and Z. Maybe I'll just buy some more pets and give them weird names so I have something I will like for every letter! No way! I really wouldn't do that.

I used pencil to draw with and then drew over that with Pitt pens. Then I used watercolor pencils which I wet down with a water brush.