Quirky Doodle Sketches-Woman w Bun and Sad Rabbit

And my painting muse has apparently left me again, for the time being, so I am doing a few sketches to get my mojo working again.

I'm loving the rabbit! Looking forward to painting him at some point!

I love harlequin patterns, so I added one to both backgrounds, just for interest!

Happy Creating, whatever your passion is! :)

Altered Feather Book Journal pages-Scars Quote

A new spread in my altered book, which I call my Feather Journal, because I painted feathers on the cover. It has no certain theme, as it's a first attempt at an altered book, and I work in it sporadically. The original title of the book is "Never Good Enough", which accounts for the text that shows through the sketches and paintings. I didn't think about a theme to go with my art at the time. The book and the art are just random projects.

Beginning pages for this spread (after a coat of clear gesso): Left is a coat of open acrylic shimmering gold and right is a  photo copied from magazine and transferred with gel medium to the book page, and left to dry.

This is after I rubbed most of the transfer paper, and part of the ink (because my printer is an ink jet) off the back of the photo.

I rubbed more of the paper, and ink, off the photo,  drew guide lines and wrote quote in charcoal, then  wrote over with a red Posca paint pen and added marks with gold leaf paint pen. I also collaged a circle from an original gel print, collaged a printed off owl, and extended the line with charcoal, then painted nails and eyelids gold leaf pen. I sprayed fixative over all, then added gloss med over right page face and a layer of cold wax over both pages. The dry wax was then buffed.

The original photo had much more of the reds in it, which is why I loved it so much. I wish the ink hadn't rubbed off as much and that the photo was better, but I'm still okay with it. Who knows? I may use her in another project! :)

Keep creating whatever you love! Don't give up! :)

Quirky Doodles-A Girl, a Heart-Tear, and Two Birds

Thursday's quirky sketches in my mixed-media journal with a Lyra water-soluble crayon, except for the heart/tear, and it's charcoal pencil and sanguine pastel pencil...

I am usually surprised at the images that emerge from my blind random marks on the page, but it's always fun to bring them into being, and when I look back, I can usually tell what was going on with me at the time.

I can't remember the name of the artist that I learned this technique from, but I am so grateful to her for sharing it. My images look nothing like hers, and I have adapted it for myself over time, and once I get started doing them, it's hard to stop. They often get me jumpstarted back on to my painting projects, and my feelings often are poured out through them in some way. Good for my soul and my sanity! :)

So thankful God gave me the desire to do art. It has saved me many times over!

Tiny Bags of Love-Class exercise with toned backgrounds

Recycled Green tea bag 2 1/2" x2 3/4"-mixed media=Tiny Bags of Love with Jeanne Marie Webb (link on sidebar)- Toned bag with red ochre acrylic and sketched with stabilo pencil after sealing with clear gesso-Don't like the clear gesso texture- Mixed media, with acrylics, pencil, gel pens, pan pastel, liner bottle

These 3 bags were one of the class exercises where we painted a colored background for tone, then sketched and painted our faces. I, however, forgot to make pix of that part with the first two

toned with red ochre, gold leaf pen and metallic gold on stars...

indigo toned background...

mixed media...

toned background with ink sketch...

colored pencils...

I didn't like the way it was looking, so I painted over the figure with open acrylics and used a black gel pen for emphasis. Experimenting...

Now on to the next exercise, which is to paint the 10 teabags, which I have already prepped and drawn off, in the same session with a time limit. I may have to re-watch the video, as it's been a while!

I'm also working gradually on projects for other classes, plus some fabric projects. So, stay tuned!

The light glared on the first two some. I don't have the best lighting, or room, to take the pictures. :/

Keep doing what you love! :)

Q Doodle Sketch Sanguine-Woman Reading to Birds

A quick little warm-up quirky doodle sketch with a Conte Sanguine pastel pencil in my mixed media sketchbook, done before painting some on a couple of works in progress!

New Quirky Doodle Sketches-People, Animals, and Fruit, Oh My!

I've had a rough couple or three days with teeth problems, among other stuff going on, and felt really low in spirit. These little quirky doodles always lift my spirits during the process, and I'm so thankful that God gave me a desire for art! It has saved me more times than I can count!

I got up early this morning and did this one. It took several minutes and pulling my glasses off to see the cat emerge, then the egg, nest, and bird followed intuitively. I love the sketch and will paint it at some point. Lyra non-soluble graphite crayon and Stablio marks all pencil in mixed media sketchbook. The first title was "That's What Friends Do!" , but I changed it to "Egg Sitting!" when I shared it on my FB art page. This little sketch makes me happy. Hope it makes you smile, as well!

I started this one several days ago. I couldn't see an image emerging, even after I went over it with a water brush pen, so I left it to simmer. Day before yesterday, I felt really low and picked it up again. Right away, the marks where her eyes are jumped out to me as eyes, then everything else kind of fell intuitively into place and she expressed my feelings perfectly at the time. Titled "She's Had Enough!" Lyra water-soluble graphite crayon in mixed media sketchbook.

This one was done a few weeks ago, but I left it as a line drawing. This week I practiced shading, which is REALLY a challenge to me on them with the Lyra water-soluble graphite crayon and added a rouge filter with photo editing, giving it a pinkish tint. No title yet! I like the simplicity of this.

Just some Gel pen sketching from imagination while I watched TV the other night. We had the closed captioning on, and the song lyric from the show, 100 Code, caught my attention. In case you can't read my "quirky" writing, it says, "Hard to forgive, Even harder to forget, Before you do something  you might regret, friend". True words! The heart is just some doodling marks.

When life and my thoughts conspire together to overwhelm and get me down, a while in my work space, as cluttered as it is, resets and renews my mind and my world, and that and God helps me to keep putting one foot in front of the other to carry on the best I can. I am thankful and blessed!

Keep doing what you love, and I hope something in this post made you smile! :D

Class 17 PYH&S 2018-Intuitive Faces

Inspired by Sara Burch in her class in Paint Your Heart and Soul (link on sidebar)-Mixed Media in my medium sized mixed-media paper journal...

Forgot to photo first sketch in my journal, so I did this one in ink on plain paper, after, as first step...

Layers of paint and marks, putting on, taking off, scraping, rolling

Evolving with more layers of adding and subtracting paint and marks...

She's supposed to be abstract, and I have trouble painting very loose, so this is another stage she went through before she evolved into...

this, after a lot more rolling, scraping, adding and subtracting more layers and adjusting. The paper kind of wrinkled, so her inky tears ran sideways, but that's ok. She is what she is and was good practice and a lot of fun. I like her! Can't wait to do another one on a wood panel or canvas!

This is the last class I've completed, so far, although I have two more almost done, if my muse ever returns. I'm about ten classes behind now, because life and other things are vying for my attention. Not even going to try to catch up, but I'll pick and choose which classes to do when, and in the meantime I'll enjoy the awesome work of all my classmates on the Facebook page!