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!

Q Doodle Sketches-Mother-Child

A couple of sketches that I did a couple of weeks ago in my small mixed media journal.

Both are sketched with a Lyra water-soluble crayon, and these are the intuitive characters that emerged from my random marks.

I will attempt to correct mistakes when I paint them, or not. Mistakes are often what gives them character!

Quirky Doodle Sketches-Fruit and Faces

Last week's sketches! Stabilo pencil in my small mixed media journal...

From week before last! Lyra water-soluble graphite crayon and a little charcoal in the same journal

I haven't  painted in 2-3 weeks now, and have barely sketched. I think my muse went on an extended vacation, or I burned myself out. Not sure which! I have been catching up on my blog posts and looking at a lot of art online to fill and inspire my creative well though, so I'm not completely artless!

So much awesome art and so many talented artists willing to share what they've learned! I am so thankful for all of them. They inspire and teach me every day!

Groundhog Visitor

We live in the country, surrounded by woods, fields, and the river is only a short walk from us, so we never know what we'll see when we look out or go out the door. Husband started out the kitchen door a few evenings ago, and we heard a chirping noise, which sounded like a bird really close by.

Our back porch is really more of a stoop, very small, and he stepped out to find this little groundhog drinking from the cat's water bowl. Startled, it ran behind our garbage can next to the porch for safety.

It would chirp at husband, but when I would go out, it would make grunting noises at me. My friend came by with her twin grandbabies, and when she stepped on the porch it hissed at them, giving her a good scare! She informed us that there was something behind our garbage can that wasn't a cat, and she didn't know what it was, but it scared her. It didn't run away though, even when they left, and through all of our going in and out.

Husband loves animals and feeds everything, and he took up with it, going out every little bit to talk to it. The cats were very curious, but cautious, about it.

Bloomer cat came on the porch and was very slowly inching toward the groundhog with her face getting very close to it. I didn't want her to scare it, so I lightly touched her side with the broom, causing her to jump about three feet, right straight up, and take off across the yard like a jet. I didn't mean to scare her so bad, but couldn't help laughing either.

Whistler groundhog stayed in his hiding spot and was still whistling periodically when we went to bed that night. He was gone the next morning. We kind of missed him. He was so cute and he made for an amusing evening in downtown Rabbit Hop!

Not too many dull moments at Rabbit Hop. Always an adventure of some kind going on. 😁

Class 13 PYH&S 2018-Intuitive Flowers

These posts are no longer in order, because I've have fallen so far behind in the classes and my posts, due to life circumstances, that I have skipped some (to come back to later), done partial post drafts, and forgotten when I did what, and, in some cases, what I did.

This is my class 13 painting, inspired by Ursula Wollenberg in Paint Your Heart and Soul 2018 (link on sidebar), Intuitive Flowers, using acrylic paints and plaster (I used flexible modeling clay).

Two colors for base on a page in my medium sized mixed-media journal, and flexible modeling paste through a stencil and let dry. The teacher used plaster and vintage looking stencils. I didn't have plaster. I did have clay, left over from another project. I also didn't have vintage stencils handy, so I used the edge of a paper doily placemat and a grape leaf stencil.

I sketched in the vase, flowers, and eggs with a stabile water soluble pencil, without following the teachers design much, because I don't like copying the teacher's work exactly and try to make it my own.

Layering acrylic paint, with drips and runs over the background and raised clay design.

Not liking the all red flowers, even if they were different shades, so added mixes of pink to some of them and more layers to the background.

Continued adding layers of acrylic and adjusting everything, but still not happy with it. Flowers too bunched up and the same, and the composition is off.

I turned one tulip into a purple hyacinth, adjusted and added a few daises and leaves, some spattering on the eggs, and added white open acrylic to the curtain, flowers, vase, and table cloth with a palette knife. Still not the best job, but I like it, and I learned a lot from Ursula!

I have a couple of other classes, that I have finished, to post, and I have two classes almost finished, but I am now about 6 classes behind and frustrated that I can't keep up with the other students, so, for now, I am blocked. Hopefully, that will change soon! In the meantime, I'm doing some quirky doodle sketches to keep in practice, but even those aren't going too well at this point.

We can't give up! Gotta' keep trying! It will pay off eventually! :)

Quirky Doodle Sketch-Floral/Landscape

A quirky doodle sketch with a Stabilo water soluble pencil in my small mixed media book. I first saw it as a landscape with lots of luscious layers, minus the small circle  at the left upper corner.

Then I rotated it to a vertical position and it reminded me of flowers, maybe calla lilies, at which point I added the small circle/stamen. Not sure which I'll use when I start painting it, but I saved a photo both ways, so I can print off one and paint it both ways if I want to.

Either way, they will be done in rich luscious colors and I will have fun! 😃

Will post again when they're painted! Keep practicing, and I will try to do the same!

Altered Book Pages in Feather Journal

I finally finished these two pages in my altered book journal that I started last year!

                                                                                             

The face was sketched off with only simple lines, then I started collaging over it with whatever scrap papers I could find around my work space, and I painted in the background with acrylic paint, I think. The figure was sketched in using a bamboo sketch tool, and the page was done in mixed media following the techniques of a teacher, but I'm sorry, I can't remember which one. It stayed like this for a while.

Then I added white gesso with a palette knife and some collage to the figure page, and left it almost a year.

I came back to it the other day, and added more collage papers to the face and hair, but didn't like the way it was looking. I also cut out the pink circles with a paper punch and collaged them onto the figure page to add interest.

 

Added acrylic paint and acrylic ink over the collaged face and some details and called her done. Her eyebrows say "Beautifully Imperfect".  I added some detail work with a black gel pen,  a stabilo pencil, and the pink circles to the figure page and also called it done. 

They look much better in reality. Sorry about the photography! I like them!

Also, sorry about the underlining! I've had a heck of a time writing this post. Everytime I capitalized a letter the whole post, pictures and all, would disappear, then it happened every time I even started typing. I shut my blog down and re-opened it, which helped that part, but then it wouldn't stop underlining and the text kept changing color on me. I'm guessing that all those updates Windows 10 downloaded onto my laptop yesterday evening had something to do with it. :/

Anyway, maybe it will be straightened out when I write the next post. See you then! Keep creating! :)