Sacred Landscape- Color Scheme/abstraction Practice

I signed up for the Sacred Landscape with Ivy Newport (see sidebar for link) class before Thanksgiving, but am just now getting a chance to start it. I love the work I've seen coming out of it on the Facebook group. So inspiring!

I am working on several different classes/workshops, so I will be jumping back and forth on them, as well as my posts. This is my first class with Ivy, and this is my first color scheme/abstraction practice on a magazine page. Sorry about the photography. It really does look better in reality!

This is the way I finished it, but seemed like it needed something else, so I added the stripes, both acrylic and metallic, below.

This is how it is now. I like both versions though. I used indigo and turquoise blue with naples reddish yellow acrylics, white gesso, copper acrylic ink and copper metallic gel pen on the shawl, and pencil. When it dried, I sprayed it with a clear sealer, unfortunately causing kind of a glare when I took the picture.

I have another magazine page coated with clear gesso and drying, which I'm going to practice on, before I move on to the next video and an original painting on canvas (I think).

Anyway, this was fun! Looking forward to the next one!

Rabbit Hop School Journal Page and Wren Sketch

I finally finished this page in my Paint Your Town Journal, at least, I think it's finished. It actually looks darker than this in the journal, giving it kind of a creepy vibe, which I didn't mean at all. Anyway, this is how it is for now!

The old Rabbit Hop School, which was a couple of houses over from where I live, in the early 1900s, with a group of school children for that year, all ages and grades. My Grandpa Stricklin and his siblings are among these children. The old school was gone way before I was born, but the Rabbit Hop Community was a thriving family orientated place when I was growing up. It is a few miles outside of Clifton, near the Tennessee River and Glenkirk Landing. Most of the people and buildings are gone now, except my mother, my husband, and me, plus one couple that has a weekend/vacation house.

I painted the whole page, photo transfer and all, a transparent red, for what reason, I'm not sure. I didn't like the red children, so I did another photo transfer exactly like the first one of just the children and used gel medium to collage them over the first one, which left a bit of red behind them. Also, there is a bit of red peeking through the sky of collaged and painted papers.

This is a mixed-media piece, in which, I used photo transfer, collage, acrylic paints, watercolor pencils, gel pen, stabilo pencil, fingers, brush, and probably some other things I'm forgetting. I painted over a b/w photo transfer for the building, and I started to for the children, but decided to leave them as they are, at least, for now.

This is my quick contour sketch for yesterday! I LOVE little fiesty wrens, and thought I'd try sketching some from Pinterest reference photos. This one is done with a Stabilo black pencil, on mixed media paper. I plan to do some more sketches of birds, and I may eventually go back and add a little color to some of the sketches. I'm amazed at how well they turned out, to be so quick, using a continuous line. I love drawing this way! You can't be too fussy about it while you're sketching, which I tend to be when doing regular sketching.

Anyway, this is it for today! Hope, if anybody is seeing my post, that you enjoyed your visit!

Today's Quick Contour Sketch

I used a photo of me off my Kindle today. Looks nothing like me, but then I wasn't trying for that, just a fast sketch! I like it though!

I was going to sketch house wrens, because they are my favorite little birds, but I couldn't get into Pinterest on my Kindle at the time, so I just made a picture, or 3, of myself and went from there.

Such fun!

I get up every morning planning on doing some painting, but then the day gets away without me doing any. Thankful I'm getting sketches in though! I've also done several of the inspirational challenges in the workbook journal I got for Christmas, which were interesting, and I've been feeding my creative well from Pinterest and various art blogs, so I'm hanging in there!

Don't give up or stop! Five minutes a day doing what you love really can make a difference!

More Quick Contour Sketches 2

I'm having a slow start in painting or journaling so far this year, but I have been trying to keep sketching. Below are a few of the quick contour sketches I've done in my sketchbook over the last few days. Not trying for a likeness on the selfies! :)

If the selfie isn't wearing glasses in the sketch, then I wasn't wearing them in reality, and I was seeing double lines a lot of the time. Sitting on the bed looking in the closet door mirror, so the blank lines in my arms are where the mirror frames came down.

Another selfie in the mirror, sitting on the bed listening to music while sketching. Happy!

Sketch of my pink hat laying on folded fabrics that I wove myself in front of a large Asian picture of a crane behind it.

Sketch of a figurine I bought at a flea market years ago, but I still love it. Pierrot clown and ballerina. It's more elongated and elegant in reality.

Another selfie in the mirror quick sketch, and I wasn't angry, just focused! Plus a quickie of a crockery bowl that someone gave mama when she got married 68 years ago that I have balls of yarn in. She was going to get rid of it, and I've always loved it, so I confiscated it! I love the color and designs on it.

I notice that I look much thinner when I sketch without my glasses than I do when I wear them. I like this effect! The purple and pink pens, not so sure about!

All were done in gel ink pens on mixed media paper in a limited time frame. Imperfect, but I like them. I think they all have character.

Hopefully, I will start getting up early enough again to get some painting in soon. I NEED creative time like I need breathing and God, whether it's good or not!

Keep doing what makes you happy! 💖

New Year New Challenge!

Happy New Year to you all!

Today is the beginning of a brand new year, and I got this interesting little workbook from our niece's family for Christmas, so I'm going to try to fill it by the end of  2017. It's one of my favorite gifts this year!

It has 365 little creative projects and a lot of quotes, one for each day of the year. Each page has a project with enough space to do the project, and it's not just about art. Although art is included, there are also writing, fashion, architecture, quilting, music, dance, sculpture, design, and other creative projects to make you think.

I've looked though it a couple of times, and some of the projects are simple and will only take a few minutes, while some will take a little more creative thought.

The idea is that if you do one a day, at the end of the year you will have a book full of creative ideas to inspire you that you can look back on and be re-inspired by.

I don't know where our niece found the creative journal, but it looks very interesting and thought provoking, and the day one project is to write an epitaph for the journal to start it off. Looking forward to playing in it, and hoping I have time to work in it each day for the next year!

Here's a sample of a couple of the inside pages, and I hope I don't get in trouble for sharing them! 😰

Have a wonderful and creative 2017!