Still Playing in the Australian Piano Hinge Book...

 After multiple trips to the eye doctor and one to our regular doctor hubby is okay now from his eye injury, food poisoning, and shingles, and my visit to my retina specialist this week went well also. So thankful for both!

So, after completing my last Winsor Newton sketchbook, I've been doing a bit of sketching and a couple of collages, still in my handmade Australian Piano Hinge Book. For some reason I'm still sketching boudoir (bed) dolls. I love these dolls, and was gifted one from a Facebook friend a few years ago. 

These doll sketches are all inspired by Pinterest photos, and I'm having so much fun with them. They are sketched with various graphite, stablio, LYRA water-soluble pencils/stick, with a bit of India ink thrown in.

This one is a collage that started with an old brown paper bag with mixed media marks  and stenciling on it, a bit of newsprint with words circled, a piece of spattered teabag, a LOVE stamp, a printed photo of my grandpa's old homeplace, also where I live, just in a different house, a printed photo of my maternal grandparents when they were young, and some India ink applied with a stick. I wrote their initials on the brown paper beside them. I like it, and I miss them very much!

This one is just kind of random pieces glued around a brown stablio pencil sketch from my imagination, plus one of my favorite quotes/poems. The LOVE paper was the cover of a book of stamps several years ago that I couldn't throw away. The little envelope contained some spare buttons for a garment I had purchased, and it now contains a mini print of one of Toni Burt's drawing/collages. I love her work, and this print was a free gift from a class I took from her. The affirmation quote is from a free page of affirmations from Tamara Laporte. I have added a strip of black and white striped washi tape down the left side of the page since this picture was scanned in, which added a lot to it. Just a fun random page!

Just a work in progress that I may, or may not, ever finish. I made a selfie that I liked, which is rare. I'm not good at selfies, but I decided to try sketching from it. I don't have much of a likeness, but it's good practice. I used a couple of different graphite pencils, so far.

That's it for this post! It's almost 5:00 a.m., and I've been awake since before 3:00 a.m. It's one of those nights where I wake up with stuff on my mind that won't let me sleep, so I get up, fix me a cup of chamomile tea, turn the music video channel on without sound, and try to relax enough to go back to bed. This morning I decided to finish this blog post, so I accomplished something while I am up anyway. Plus, I'm enjoying the quiet and stillness, but I'm feeling a little drowsy, so I'm going to sign off and try to get some more sleep in before hubby gets up and brings the house to life. Ha!

Take care of you and make something you enjoy making!  

Latest Sketches in My Australian Piano Hinge Sketchbook

 I finished my last W/N sketchbook a couple of weeks ago with the acrylic sketch in my last post, and life's been happening, so I hadn't sketched much until the last few days, and these are all in my handmade sketchbook. They got a little messy, because I can't remember to put a paper under my hand when I'm sketching. Therefore, I smudge what I've already sketched, plus the clean sheet of paper on the opposite side. Also, because the paper is thin, sometimes when I sketch on the back of a page the other side shows through some. Oh, well! They aren't meant to be masterpieces, and every one teaches me something!

This one is from some paper that I had painted black acrylic onto and cut out some shapes for something else. Days later I picked the paper with the holes in it up and saw a vase and leaf shapes, so I glued it into my book and added some details with a micron ink pen and a white gel pen. The vase shape and leaves are actually the book page. The black part is where I scrubbed the black paint onto the paper that I glued onto the page. I thought it was interesting...

This was a paper that I cleaned the paint off my palette/brush while I was painting in acrylics. It resembled a tree with fall leaves to me, so I gave it a black trunk and a frame and glued it into my book. I like it!

I saw this photo on Pinterest and found her interesting, so I tried to sketch her using a large  LYRA water-soluble graphite stick, although I didn't use any water with it. It did help loosen up my sketching some though.

I experimented with different media and elements on a large sheet of paper while I was making pages for my Magpie's Nest Journal, then tore it into smaller pieces. Some I used in the Magpie's Nest, but I liked this one as is, so I glued it into this book. The quote is from Ivy Newport. For some reason I couldn't get this paragraph to align left. Sorry!

Another sketch from a Pinterest photo that I found interesting, also with the large LYRA graphite stick.

Also from a Pinterest photo reference with the large LYRA graphite stick...

And another interesting face from Pinterest with the LYRA graphite stick...

I switched gears and, since I love the old boudoir (bedroom) dolls, I decided to try a group sketch with the LYRA graphite stick. I've had these sticks for years, but have rarely tried to sketch with them. They do force you to sketch looser and not fiddle with the details!

I've discovered that spraying them with matte sealer gives them a softer fuzzier look, which I'm not crazy about, but my clear sealer wasn't handy.

There are also some pages in between these that I'm still working on, so I didn't include them in this post. Maybe they'll be finished by the next post! 

Thanks for visiting!

Glenkirk Landing/Bluff

 A sketch from memory of the scene down the river, as you come out of our local town. It's also home, as I happen to live a little further back on top of that bluff. When I was very little my dad worked at the rock crusher that made those caves to drive trucks back through. The red dot is the house roof of a neighbor that lives between us and the river. We can walk to the river in just a few minutes, but can't see it from our house. There are some mistakes that I didn't notice until it was done, but since it's just a sketch in my book, I decided to quit fiddling with it and maybe do one for real later!

7" x 10" 135 lb mixed media paper in W/N sketchbook from memory- I never get tired of this scene and the river.

Can't Decide Which Abstract I Like Best!

 Another abstract created by spritzing the paper in my sketchbook with water, then adding Pebeo India ink, Marine blue and metallic copper acrylic inks, more spritzed water, paper towel dabbing, and salt. I wound up getting too much water, and some of the ink didn't want to dissolve without more spritzing. Also, the metallic copper isn't showing up in the photos, but there is a copper shimmer over most of the piece, which is gorgeous in the light. I don't know how to get the metallics to show up on here. :(

Anyway, this is the format that I painted it in, and I like it...

but I also like it flipped upside down, where the dark spots resemble people...

but I also like it horizontal like this, where it reminds me of water and rocks...

but I also like it flipped over horizontally to remind me of sky and land. 

I don't know which is my favorite, but I'm thinking that all four of them would be great as a set of greeting cards with a message. I just might try that!

This experimental thing is fun, plus it's in my sketchbook, so I don't have to worry about it being right or wrong, which makes it double fun! Try it! You'll like it! :)

Experiments with Alcohol and a Buffalo

 I have practiced my art sporadically over the last two, or three, weeks. Hubby nearly put his eye out while weed eating, then got food poisoning on top of it, then the shingles jumped on his head and face around the injured eye. The shingles have almost dried up, the stomach is better, and, hopefully, the eye is almost well. At least, it looks much better than a couple of weeks ago. He's on steroid drops for the eye now and has to go back to the eye Dr. September 1.

During multiple trips to doctors with him, I had to go to the dermatologist to get some places on my face checked out. The one that was most concerning to me, they said is ok, but they froze fourteen possible skin cancer cells off my face and hairline. They are almost healed now. All but one doctor was out of town by several miles, so they weren't quick trips. 

I hadn't driven in over a year, so I found out I can still drive, although I'm not that comfortable in our current car. We've had it almost six years, but hubby does the driving most of the time, so I haven't driven it enough for it to be second nature to me. Thankful I can still drive though!

These are what I've managed to do between trips, all in my 7 x 10" W/N 135 lb sketchbook...

This one is a watercolor from an original photo I took on our road trip out west in 2019, with just a touch of a colored pencil.

This one is acrylic inks (darker and more vibrant in reality). I spritzed alcohol on the paper, dropped the inks, spritzed alcohol again, and tilted the paper in different directions, then let dry. I added a micron pen and Pebeo India ink with a stick on top of the inks.

These two are on the same page, and are also acrylic inks dropped onto alcohol damp paper then spritzed with alcohol again and tilted around, salts added, and left to dry. The metallic copper is not showing up as pretty as it really is. 

The same two as above, but separated...

A page of experiments with alcohol, acrylic paint, ink, and watercolor.

This one is an experiment with gouache and water, which didn't work very well. I didn't like it, so I added parchment colored acrylic paint strokes for sort of an impressionistic effect (below). I'm still not happy with it, but I'm leaving it for now. I can't say that gouache has won me over yet.

Anyway, that's it for this post! Some days I didn't get to paint at all, but when I did, my soul sung, and I felt at peace! I hope you have something that makes your soul sing.

Some Experiments-Abstracts

 I've been relaxing with some experimental paintings the last few days, in between having to go somewhere and company. These are all in my 7 x 10 W/N sketchbook, 135 lb paper, which has a slight tooth to it. They are all acrylic paints or inks, except the red and blue one, which is gouache, and I made them by lightly spraying the paper with water, adding paint with my finger, then lightly spraying with water again and tilting the page in different directions, letting the paint/ink/gouache run and merge however it wanted to. I added sea salt and table salt on most of them. It took on some, but not on others, according to the dampness of the paper at the time. I like how most of them turned out, but a couple of them will, for sure, have more work done on them...

I can see all sorts of critters/characters/images in each one! I love it!

The gouache didn't work as well for some reason, but I can always paint or collage over, or with, it!

An art friend told me that she had had some amazing results with spray alcohol and water based paints, so guess what I'll be trying soon! Ha!

Also, I'm still adding to my Magpie's Nest journal pages as I find interesting things/ideas to use.

Anyway, for now, I'm off to make a doctor's appointment, have breakfast, start a watercolor painting that I sketched off earlier, and I'm expecting company around noon, so it's a busy Monday following a busy weekend.

Hope you all have a blessed and creative week!

A Face, A Wild Garden n Color, and an Abstract Landscape?

 Part of my art practice the last few days, besides my Magpie Nest and Piano Hinge journals, was in my W/N MM sketchbook.

A girl character from my imagination, sketched with a stablio pencil and water.

I tried a "wild" garden in color, in a variety of media and techniques. It wound up kind of busy, dense, and chaotic, but I had a total blast with it. Notice the little stamped cat at the bottom of the left side! Isn't he cute? He's actually the middle cat of a trio of cats stamp that I got in a supply swap years ago. I love the stamp!

This one started out with a dark grayish image across the bottom where some ink bled over from another page, leaving a couple of blobs and some stripes. I could see a dog's head image in the top blob, so I thought I could somehow turn it into a long dog across the end. I turned the book horizontally and sprayed the page lightly with water, added burnt sienna acrylic paint, then sprayed with water again and held the page up so that it ran down the page. I added a few grains of sea salt just before it dried, but I think it was a bit too dry already, because it didn't affect it much.

When it was good and dry I used India ink to make a striped dog with a tail, but it didn't look right, so I thought I would take some turquoise paint and turn it into a dog wrapped in a black and turquoise blanket and see how that went. I could always cut that end off and do something else with the rest of it. 

But when I turned it around to check it from different angles, I saw all these little silhouetted figures trudging across the page end, with a hill behind them and a bigger hill in front of them. Some had large bags on their backs and some had on head rags, and they all looked exhausted. I liked it, so I tweaked the hills a bit with ink and added a bit of turquoise colored pencil and left it alone. I didn't do anything else to the sky, because I really like all the little things going on in it at sunset. Who knew? I love it! 

Sometimes, if you pay attention, the painting creates itself and surprises you! Nobody else may like it, but I do, so it's perfectly fine!