Happy New Year!

This year we end with a blue moon. Since I am not going to rush out early in the morning, this is the picture I am starting out the new year with. It was a tough year for many but things are beginning to look up a bit. I think ending with something special like a blue moon is a good sign of things to come. At least I am taking it that way. Hope everyone has a wonderful new year with good things to come.

I know this blog is set for my drawing but I just didn't have time tonight and I wanted to wish everyone a happy new year so I posted my own photo instead.

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.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone! Hope you all have a very good new year.

This is a picture I took last December intending to use it for my Christmas card this year (and I did). It was the biggest snowstorm we've had since we moved to Arizona. It isn't much for any of you in the east but we enjoyed it.

Pages from Kate's Class

I am taking Kate Johnson's newest class. It's An Artist's Journal. It's really been terrific and better than I had even hoped. These are a few of the pages I have done during the class.

The brown pages are colored pencil work. My Sarah was a blue pen sketch on a tablet which I tore out and glued into my journal. The other is a watercolor attempt.

If she offers the class again I highly recommend it. It's not only been informative but it's been a lot of fun.

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.

Gouache Teacup

I ordered some gouache after seeing what Roz Stendahl does with it. Oh, I know I can't do anything like she does but I like the look of the paint and I like the idea of something that won't wreck my brush like acrylics should I leave it set too long. I bought mostly what she recommended and added a couple. I just got them two days ago.

Last night I was listening to Kaizen Muse 's free audio sessions and I drew the teacup in a spiral notebook that was sitting handy. I should have grabbed my sketchbook but I was just thinking I was doodling so no big deal. Then I ended up liking my teacup so I pulled out the paints I'd set in a palette to dry and painted it. I had fun with the whole thing as I was just playing and not intending to do anything.

Today, still liking my little painting, I put it on a prepainted page in my composition book journal. I didn't realize I got it so crooked till I scanned it in to my computer. Ah well, it's glued in tight and there's no changing it.

Thanks Roz for your inspiration and your list of colors to start off with.