A Couple of Sketches and Quirky Doodles

 A few sketches from over the last week.

Inspired by a Vintage Pinterest photo-Charcoal Pencil

Quirky Doodle Sketch in pencil

Quick Sketch with a Frixion Erasable Pen inspired by an Amanda Blake painting

Quirky Doodle Sketch in pencil with acrylic paint and black Zig marker

I haven't been fooling with my art as much lately. I've been doing some writing for the memory book from Storyworth that I was gifted for Christmas by our niece. They send me one question/prompt a week to write a memory about. I was so rusty with my writing that it's taken me a while to get back into the frame of mind to write. So far I've written four memory/stories and emailed them back to them. Our niece also gets a copy each week to read.

I was a little overwhelmed for a few days. I really enjoy writing, but I also wanted to work on a few art projects. Since the writing prompts take some thought, typing, revising, etc., I've been working on those first. I haven't decided yet if I want to post my stories to my blog.

Anyway, that's what I've been up to for the last few days. So many ideas swirling around in my head and so little time left! Hope your creative juices are flowing freely in whatever your passion is!

Come Clay with Me-Section 1-I Tried

 So, I have started the classes in Come Clay With Me with Jeanne Marie Webb !!! Not easy, but fun! 

Got my little desk set up in front of my recliner and the TV, watched and downloaded the first videos, and made my first little character. Our niece got me the little table for Christmas, and it is so handy! 

This little guy is my first attempt, and I almost had his/her face done when I remembered that the face was supposed to be a 3/4 pose. Whoops! I didn't want to tear up what I had to change it though, so I just finished it like it was and made another one from scratch. It was good practice! This one is about 3" tall. I know, it looks like some kind of weird baby here. 

I've created five characters, so far, out of four lessons, and they are busy drying, which is taking forever because of the thickness of the clay and the air conditioning. I may have to put them outside in the heat to get them to dry and hope the cats leave them alone. They range in size from three to four and a half inches.

The second character from the left is a re-make of the first one. It looks more like the lesson was supposed to, with the 3/4 face. The mama bear in the middle grew a little bigger than I meant for her to, but I like her. The fourth one has little hand made roses, not too bad, but hands are hard! And I would have sworn the last one had a straight mouth when I left her to dry. The next morning she was smirking at me! Going to leave her like that! Don't they look like a mischievous bunch? :)

They have pretty much dried since I took the photo. Now I need to do some patching, mostly on the backs, where the clay cracked a little as it dried. Then they'll be ready to sand a little and paint, which are separate lessons for each one. Can't wait to give them eyes and finish their stories!

I tend to watch the class videos, then do things from memory unless I run into a snag, in which case I'll re-watch the video. My memory isn't all that great, unfortunately. When I looked back at the characters Jeanne Marie had made in the videos, most of the heads were tilted to the side, but that's ok if mine aren't. Practice makes me better! I'm getting a little more comfortable with the clay, I think.

Meanwhile, while these are drying, I've watched a couple of videos from the next section, which is on making tiny masks and figures with masks, and I've practiced making four little venetian masks with the beaks like birds. They are dry and ready to sand and paint too, but I'm going to try making some better ones first. 

I may also make a few more faces to be drying while I paint the first ones, and I am thinking I may put bodies and heads on them instead of just faces. I don't really know what to use these for, other than as ornaments, but there is a class on making pendants with them. We'll see! It's an adventure waiting to happen!

Listening to country artists Midland's new cd "The Last Resort: Greetings From", which is AWESOME! I've also been listening to Taylor Swift on our Echo, while I work, and I have the new John Mayer cd "Sob Rock", which I haven't listened to yet, except for sampling. Good music helps me in more ways than one, including creativity, except when writing. For that I need quiet and stillness, which is why I haven't done much of it in a while. :)

Have a blessed and creative day!

On My Desk Today

 On my desk: Mixed media and sketches in sketchbooks, collage ephemera

and I'm trying to find just the right jewelry and accessories, and make crowns, for these two cage dolls. The bottom doll also has her cage skirt on, but I haven't made her picture yet.

Anyway, I have these projects going, along with my Wandering Muse journal and a couple of new classes. I'm gathering brown paper bags to use to make a journal for the Storytellers and Mavericks class, and I just signed up for Time Traveler on Ivy Newport's site, which is a course on 1920s fashion illustration, which starts Nov. 4. Oh, and I'm working on a large oil painted portrait of my little Pekingese dog again. Too many irons in the fire at once, I know, but it keeps me from getting bored, and it makes me happy!  And the holidays are fast approaching, and I haven't come up with an idea for calendars, cards, or gifts yet. Yikes!

Life moves very fast! Stay creative! :) 

Studio 2021 Still a Chaotic Mess

How I left my tiny dining room studio almost two years ago when I started trying to organize by clearing everything off into baskets/boxes to sort through. Life happened and I never got back to the sorting and organizing part, although I've tried to keep creating along, despite not being able to find anything. 

My "desk" now consists of a large sketch board balanced on top of a pile of sorted stuff covering the dining table. 

I know it looks like an episode of Hoarders, and I am ashamed. Honestly, I am. But it is just overwhelming to try to tackle it, and I had much rather be creating than cleaning. Creating makes my soul soar. Cleaning not so much, although I do like things to be clean and neat.

I have all of these wonderful things to organize things into that are sitting empty among the chaos. I need a plan...Like baby steps...

Do you think my muse would come back big time if I finished what I started? I think she might!

This is what happens when you have multiple creative interests and their supplies and a tiny space!

I can't count the times I've been on fire to work on something and didn't because I didn't want to dig through boxes to find what I needed to work with. I can't help but grieve over the large studio I have upstairs that I can't use for various reasons. What a waste!

Will post "after" pictures as soon as I get things together!

Current Bulletin/Inspiration Board

 So, I bought one of the perforated metal bulletin boards, which allows me to use thumb tacks or magnets, either, or both! I love it! However, I bought it and stood it on a table easel to use for making photos of my creative stuff, and it has quickly turned into an inspiration/bulletin board, which is not a bad thing, but it defeats the purpose I intended it for. 

Currently, to inspire me, it has a Blessed magnet, a photo of our beloved little dog, Kibbles, whom we lost in 1997 and still miss every day, a bookmark about writers and words (I love the swirl and swing of words, as they tangle with human emotions"), given to me by a dear friend, who enjoys my writing, a printout of journal pages, also the header photo for this blog, with cat stamps on it (love these stamps!), a printout of some practice portraits with charcoal, stabilo pencil, and water, from a free class called Petit Portraits, a sticky note about changing your life by changing one thing that you do every day, a printout of a journal page painting where you pull the images out, from a class called She Tribe, picture of old timey peonies (I love peonies, especially white ones!), a page torn from an old almanac, a page of little Christmas stickers torn out of some book, because I love some of the little characters on it, and a black and white card with a touching inside note sent from the same dear friend. Oh yeah, extra magnets and thumbtacks, two of which have clips for holding other stuff! 

The longer it sits there, the more stuff will accumulate on it. I took down a lot of stuff when I moved from the old cork board to this one. Inspiration boards are good. Sometimes, they inspire you in ways you wouldn't have thought of otherwise!

Wrapped Rock Experiment

 I only brought back one rock and a small tumbleweed, besides a couple of tee shirts and a cap, as souvenirs from our month long road trip out west last Sept. 2019. And, of course, tons of pictures! The tumbleweed is gone, but the rock has been laying on the table by my recliner for a year. 

We stopped in New Mexico (LOVE NM!) on the side of the road to switch drivers, and on my way around, I noticed this rock sparkling in the sunlight, picked it up, and tossed it in the car. It made the trip all the way up to North Dakota and back down to Tennessee with us.

It's about fist sized, so it barely took up any room, and I wrote the place and date on the back. While researching wrapped wire for beads, came across some photos of rocks wrapped, as well, so I decided to try my hand on my rock.

I am strictly an amateur, and the rock was slicker than fabric, so it took me a few tries to get it wrapped tight enough to stay. At least, I hope it stays! Anyway, I wrapped it in antique copper 18 gauge wire and added a blue enamel charm with a cat looking at the moon. I'm sorry it's not a better photo! 

It looks much prettier sitting on my table now, and it makes a great paperweight with a lot of awesome memories!

What's on My Stitching and Wire Wrapping Desk?

 On my "in front of the TV" table: A box lid containing wire wrapped projects (fabric buttons, wire beads, a wire cross, and a couple of pendents), which I am learning on, a rock, and blank fabric beads ready for embellishments, an example page for a new fabric journal idea that I got from sewselvaged on Instagram, and a new box of brighter colored perle cotton (Eleganza), and an updated stitch meditation.

Not shown: Needle book and stitching stuff, spools of wire, wire tools, packages of charms and jewelry findings, and a bag of meditations pinned together, ready to stitch, and a couple of meditation pieces in progress. I should have just made a picture of the whole table! :)

Another one of my happy places!

This is stitch meditation #36, which I posted a couple of posts back, before the buttons. It kept nagging at me until I used another session to give it some buttons. I like much better. The pieces will tell you what they need if you just pay attention! :)

What's on My Art DesK?

 On my desk: journal pages in progress in my Wandering Muse/Jeanne Oliver journal, paints, brushes, stencils, small un-stretched canvas, ephemera, water, and dominoes prepped with clear gesso for painting! Fun stuff!

Studio/Dining Room Table

I know I said that the next few posts would be catching up my drafts, but I just thought I'd share the reason I can't use my workspace/dining room table right now, and am having to do whatever creative stuff I do in my lap in my recliner. The floor is also full of boxes of stuff. It was in bad shape before, but I pulled everything out to clean under and around last spring, and to re-organize. Believe it, or not, I've cleared this table at least twice, maybe three times, but it gets covered back up when I'm looking for something. Very frustrating, but apparently not enough to do anything about it. I am not lazy. I'd just rather be stitching, painting, or writing!

Maybe I'll finish the job in the spring if I'm still able! I'll be sure to post a photo when it's cleared off! 😊

Playing Around With A New Blog Design

I can't seem to come up with a design that I'm happy with.  I'm trying to get a header picture sized to where it doesn't take a long time to download for you guys. Still not happy with the design, but I need to stop and catch up on some other stuff for now. 👵

I'm in a bit of a painting/creating slump again, I'm afraid. I have three class project paintings in progress, plus some non-painting projects that need finishing. I need to finish going through my mom's things, and so many other things that need doing, and I can't want to do them. Plus, my work space is so piled up again that I have no room to work, and I dread trying to clean it up and re-organize. It's necessary though, as soon as I get some energy from somewhere. 💪

See! I'm not even joking! This is too cluttered to work, even for me! YIKES!!!

Hope we all have a wonderfully creative weekend! 💖

My Desk Right Now

I literally have no room to paint! Both sides and behind me are piled up the same way. I barely have room for a chair. There are numerous paintings started in the journal, which is hanging halfway off the desk, plus other works in progress and materials stacked all around me. Also, I can not find anything anymore! Even Mr. Moose has no room to sit down. 😲

Looks like I'm going to be forced to clean out and do some organizing to have room to paint anything, no matter how small the painting is!

The Fun On My Desk Right Now

I'm still having a hard time getting back into the swing of things since the holidays, but here are three of the current projects I'm working on! Still very much works in progress...

The beginning of the first two pages in my first attempt at a Shabby Chic album each have a pocket to hold treasures. Now for some lace and bling!

The first exercise in making marks with different tools in the Tracy Verdugo Mini Mojo: Pattern, Texture, Color online class. Hoping to turn it into something good as I go along! Can you see the blue seahorse that's peeking through?

A project from Tracy's class Animalitos mini course that's maybe half done. Waiting for it to tell me how it wants to be finished!

I just seem to get farther behind on everything all the time! I will probably never be caught up again, but that's okay. I have much to be thankful for!

Gelli Prints with Inks and a Very Quick Character Sketch

I've missed my creative play for the last few days, because I've been sleeping in. I'm going to have to stop that! It causes me to have withdrawals! :)

Anyway, I got up in time to play some before the day starts today. I wanted to try acrylic inks on the Gelli plate to see what the effects would be, and they are way different to paint. These are 5" x 7" on Speedball printmaking paper, and a few of them have irridescent inks mixed in. I don't know how well they'll show up on here, but they are beautiful in person.

Where the paint pretty much stays where you put it on the plate, the acrylic inks tend to  run and ball up, so you have to get the paper down quickly. In fact, I had to have it in my hand when I lifted the brayer up and get it laid down before the ink disappeared into little balls scattered all over the plate, although that could also make an interesting print. I love the blue one on the bottom; it looks like little flowers trailing up the page.

I tried alcohol inks on the print with the yellow in it in the top right corner. It reacts differently to the acrylic ink, in that it tends to spread and create halos. I didn't have to lay the paper as fast. The colorss are more vibrant, but they did stain the gelli a little. I love these effects though, and will use inks again, definitely.

I hadn't sketched any in a while, so before I got up from my desk, I did a very quick sketch, from my imagination, in the Feather Journal (altered book) with a gel pen. Just for practice, but I like her quirkiness!

This is what my work space has come down to. The only empty space in the room. This is the 5" x 7" plate, and there is just barely enough room to use the 8" x 10" plate. I'm not going to show the rest of the room, but looks like I'm going to have to bite the bullet and do some cleaning and actually organize and put stuff in to all those empty containers I have stacked up. Not looking forward to it, but I'll have to look at it like a treasure hunt, because I know I'll find stuff I forgot I had. :)

I'm also researching and doing the ground work for a mixed-media piece that I hope turns out awesome!

Anyway, that's what I'm up to today, and I can't believe I got a post done without getting interrupted! Thanks for visiting and have an awesomely creative day! :)