The Last Few Days Art Melange'

 I'm a bit behind on my posting, but these are some "just for fun" pieces that I did before, and during the beginning, of doing the Mastering Mixed Media Challenge with Tamara Laporte during the first two weeks of May. Class photos of work and more about that in a later post. 

All but the girls' faces at the end are in my Winsor Newton 7"x10" 135 lb mixed media sketchbook. The girls are on some random drawing and mixed media papers.

I saw a gorgeous OLD oak tree on a television show that had branches similar to these, and I remarked to hubby how we would have loved to have had one of those in the yard when we were growing up, to climb and play among the branches. The next day I took a brush with sumi ink and tried to re-create it from memory. I liked it in black and white, but decided to add a watercolor background, which I should have done first. Anyway, it was way too bright, so I tried to tone it down by taking some off and adding colored pencils. I also took some of the ink off of the tree to make it more three dimensional, and added more colored pencil marks to it. I should have planned it out better before I started, but it's more fun to just go for it! I'm ok with it...

This abstract is very loosely based on a couple of classes in the Mastering Mixed Media Challenge classes. I collaged three or four pieces from some of my gelli plate prints onto the page, painted some black acrylic paint onto my mini gelli plate and stamped it onto the page randomly, then scribbled on it with a stick and sumi ink (because I couldn't find my India ink). The center stamp reminds me of an old dark barn stable, and I'm just now noticing an eye in the bottom corner one...

This is the second one I did inspired by Toni Burt's class in the MMM classes, only instead of a face drawing in her style, I used one of mine from a Sketchbook Revival class before, and added pieces of paper torn from my gelli plate prints and more stamping with black acrylic paint on my mini gelli plate. I finished it off with a stick and sumi ink frame. I call her "Poker Face". I love her!

Experiments with watercolors, regular and sea salt on damp paper...

More experimenting with watercolor and salt...

Another experiment with sumi ink, watercolor, and regular and sea salts...

I really had fun with this one! I printed out some of my old squiggle girl, and cat, sketches to use in this mixed media page. I started off with a paper that I had cleaned my brushes off on, added some newspaper that I had printed off my photo of trees with a bird nest, a piece of tracing paper, another piece of newsprint, the tag from a teabag, some extensions of branches with my Zig marker, sumi ink, and Micron pens, a bit of colored pencil, and probably something else that I've forgotten...

These are just faces that I practiced in Toni Burt's style, from her class in MMM challenge, on random sheets of scrap paper. I used a Stabilo pencil with a bit of water on the top two and a regular pencil on the bottom three. They might show up in some later projects! My class project is coming up in a later post.

I'm only doing a handful of the many classes in the MMM challenge, and I've done two of the projects twice now, but I have about four other projects, that I've watched the videos and took notes on, to do, so I'm saving them to share in one post later. It may be a few days!

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed looking at my art trials. Thank you for visiting, and I hope to see you in the next post! Keep making things. It's good for you!

Playing With My Imagination

 It's been a few days, but I've been tied up with almost two weeks of free Sketchbook Revival 2026 classes, tax and prescription puzzles, and a bad storm at the beginning of the week, besides the usual stuff and unexpected trips out of town, so it's been busy on Rabbit Hop. I have the pictures uploaded on a couple more posts. Hopefully, I'll get those posted by the weekend...

The few days before Sketchbook Revival 2026 started I was playing in my sketchbooks with my imagination, ink, and paint, just having fun! The two ink ones are in my 11"x14" Canson mixed media book, and the other two are in my 7"x10" Winsor Newton MM book, which has thicker paper than the Canson.

This one was kind of inspired by a Helen Wells sketchbook class that I took, but I just started doodling with my large black and white Posca paint markers, then added some fine curlicues with a Micron pen. The black is actually much darker and richer than it showed up in the photo.

This one started off as an abstract landscape attempt of our fields, from memory, but I couldn't leave it alone. I kept playing with my watercolors until this is where I left it. I kind of like it...

I played with gouache and my Zig marker pen and a ruler over my wonky lines on this one, then added some travel stickers and collage. Not sure I'm through with it...

I can't find my India ink right now, so I played with an old bottle of Sumi ink and a brush on some mark making on this page. I added a sample of asemic writing vertically to mimic asian writing and some dots and white posca paint pen. I collaged on a paper where I had cleaned my watercolor brushes off and added some corner pieces that I had cut off some scrapbooking paper.

It's amazing what can show up during a doodling session, sometimes good, sometimes not, but it's all good fun! Try it! Nobody else has to see it, and it's good for your soul!

Acrylic Inks n Abstract Play

 Been playing with my acrylic inks, water, and salt in my W/N mixed media sketchbook/journal the last couple of days. I haven't done any art today yet, because I'm feeling nervous about an appointment for a checkup with the retina specialist tomorrow, among other things, and all I want to do is sleep and eat. Not a good thing with diabetes...

Anyway, my inks have gotten old and the dropper tops have deteriorated enough that they won't pick up the ink, so I had to use some of them like dip pens, which accounts for the lines. The paper was wet, but the ink didn't spread like I thought it would, but it was still fun and exciting to see what evolved as each one dried.

Paynes Grey, Raw Umber Transparent, and Marine Blue acrylic ink on wet paper

Transparent Ray Umber, Marine Blue, Paynes Grey inks on wet paper

Yellow Ochre, Antelope Brown, Quin Magenta, Pearlescent Pink inks on wet paper

Marine Blue, Pearlescent Pink, Pearlescent Silver Moss inks on wet paper

Just a fun little project while listening to hubby talk in the mornings, because I hate talking when I first get up! Art goes well with morning coffee, preferably in silence, but I wouldn't want to live without him. Love him to pieces! 

Scribbles, Doodles, Gardens, and Junk

 Well, I completed my "Jots and Tittles" handmade sketchbook/journal a few days ago. Some I did in one sitting, others in two or three, a little at a time, as they showed me what else they needed. I'm just having fun doing whatever calls to me each day!

I sketched these three "besties" from imagination, but based on me and my two besties. Of course, they look nothing like us...

A "wild garden" double spread, created from leftover watercolor paints on my palette with marks from several other pens, pencils, ink, etc. I like it!

Another "wild garden" single spread with various pens, pencils, markers, charcoal, ink with bubble wrap, etc. I'm so glad I took the class in Sketchbook Revival from Karen Stamper last year. These are so much fun to do! She does most of hers in folded accordion books, which can stand alone and gives them a totally different look. I want to try one on a large scale when I get a chance...

Another square where I cleaned off my paint brush and saw the figure on a windy spring day, so I sketched her in and glued her into my book with my glue stick, added a piece of paper I had written on, a strip of dotted washi tape, a blue jay feather that my husband found in the yard and brought me that day, and some dots made from bubble wrap and ink. I added the word "blue jay" when I edited the photo, because the feather looked almost black in the photo. It looks more recognizable here, but I still like the words.

This day, I was in the mood for charcoal, so I found my soft charcoal pencil and this lady emerged from it, an eraser, and my imagination. 

Another day with the charcoal pencil and eraser and these trees emerged, partly from imagination and partly from memory of a scene I had seen on TV a few days before, only the tree in back was much taller than the one in front. As usual, I ran out of room, but they were great practice.

A collage with a hometown newspaper clipping and some more papers where I cleaned off my brush. I added some bird washi tape and a bit more paint and marks. Since the clipping is about the upcoming festival, with live music, I added a couple of music notes to make it more fun, I think.

I sketched the containers from imagination with a soft charcoal pencil, then added leftover watercolor from my palette, then added the lines on the wall and table with charcoal. I know, I need to add some white highlights and maybe something else, but this is how it is for now. It's a little muted for me...

This is the last page, and it's just random junk that got put there. The blue paint is where I tried out a stencil I cut from paper, and I glued the cut out part down. The top corner is a note from when we stayed with our brother-in-law in the hospital overnight in Nashville, and I wrote down directions to get back to our car in the underground parking garage, maybe 2018. There's a post it note about the tall mixed media lady in a previous post and the artist who inspired her, two random banana stickers, because I can not throw them away, some fun washi tape, and a peacock with flowers from the bottom of a notepad sheet. It's junk, but it's fun stuff!

It's kind of sad to finish this book, but I've already started working in another Winsor Newton 7" x 10" mixed media book with heavier paper. The first pages with the teabag critters are a couple of posts previous to this post. The last couple of days I've been playing with acrylic ink and have done two abstracts, but I'm wanting to do some more teabag stains, as well. We'll see how that goes!

I haven't done my art yet today, but I  have added a lot of pictures, which I edited yesterday, and saved them to two different files and this blog. I made them last week when we rode around the farm and river checking on damage from the ice storm. Plus, I've written this post, so I guess that counts as creative practice if I don't get any drawing/painting done! 😊

Always lots going on to distract me! We are so excited to have found out yesterday that our great-nephew (the baby of the family) and his wife are expecting their first baby in September, a little boy. We have two little gr-gr-nieces, so now we will have a little gr-gr-nephew to go with them!

The 100 day stitch meditation challenge for this year, with Liz Kettle, started a few days ago, and I am just having to fight myself to keep from joining in again. I enjoyed it so much! But, I have too much else going on, and the days are gone in a blink anymore. I can't keep track of anything, and neither can hubby! 😕

I could write all evening, but I have to go for now, as we have company coming soon. So, thank you for visiting! Keep creating, and I'll see you in the next post, hopefully!

More Experiments and a Very Tall Lady in "Jots and Tittles"

 I'm still playing/experimenting in the Jots and Tittles handmade journal. This is what I've done since my last post.

I worked on this one, off and on, for a few days. She was loosely inspired by Kate Morgan's gorgeous canvas pieces. It's a double spread, and the skirt is much longer than I realized when I cut it and glued it down. It's cut from tissue paper, then I sketched her torso, head, etc. The background is a couple of layers of watercolor, and I sketched the tree in ink. The goat is "Cooter", and was one of our pets years ago. I printed off a photo of him, cut it out, and glued him down. The collar and hat are cut from the scrap tissue paper and collaged on. She was so much fun to do! 6" x 18"

Same piece, but I used a negative filter on the photo in editing. I like it a lot!

Another double spread where I cleaned off part of my palette. The paint was already thin, and I added more water, which made it too light for my taste, but I planned to come back to it when it tells me what else it needs.

The same double spread as above, but yesterday I found a piece of paper that I had wiped the paint off my brush on at different times and saw an image in it. The colors looked good, to me, so I glued the paper down on the background. I still like it, but I may do something else to the background at some point.

Another page where I cleaned off my palette with very watered down watercolor paint, also planning to add more at a later time.

This is the other side of the folded paper (from above) where I had wiped the paint off my brush at various times. I pulled out a couple of images on it, and the colors matched, so I glued it down on the page. I like it too.

Another palette clean-off page, just going where the brush took me. It looks a bit Asian to me. It's wonky, but I love it!

One more page of cleaning off my watercolor palette, and I do love the looseness of it. After a couple of days, I added the stems and leaves with a posca pen and a colored pencil.

I got out my gouache paint for this double spread and, based on the watercolor one above, used a large flat brush to recreate it. I used the paint straight out of the tube, and it's not showing up, but I used a blue posca pen to put dots at the ends of all the yellow lines. When I find my stencil with Asian words, I'm going to add one Sanskrit word to it.

 

Here, I was just doodling with a small marker and my imagination.

This one started off with a very large black Posca paint pen and a loose sketch, loosely inspired by Helen Wells. A couple of days later I got the bright idea to color it in with my Posca paint pens. WAY too bright! I thought it needed something translucent over it to tone it down. I couldn't think of anything, so I painted over it with white Kuretake watercolor, which changed it a lot. I had to redo some of the black lines after the watercolor dried, but I really kind of like it now. 

Another background page where I cleaned my palette off. I had a sheet of tea stained rice paper, so I folded it in two, cut some bottles in various shapes, and glued them to the page, then added some pen lines and a bit of watercolor. The logos are stickers off some shower steamer discs that I was gifted.

These vases are just some imaginary one-line vases and jars that I doodled, just to keep in practice. Fun stuff!

I did another page of sketches this morning, but had company and didn't get them scanned yet, so they'll show up in the next post probably. Hopefully, with more pages!

I have been very tempted to do the 100 Day Project, the 100 Stitch Meditations Challenge, and this year's Sketchbook Revival again, but, so far, I've resisted the temptation. They were a lot of fun last year, and I grew a lot creatively, but it was very challenging to do them all at the same time. So, we'll see!

We're still trying to clean up our yards from the big ice storm. So many trees and limbs down! We had to call the phone company to come unhook the phone line so we could get two big limbs off of it, and we're going to have to call someone to come cut a huge tree limb off my mom's house, which is still attached to the tree trunk, but barely. We barely have any trees left in our yard now. It's sad to see the trees, especially my favorite big cedar, ravaged by Mother Nature, but time changes everything...

Anyway, that's it for this post! Hope to see you in the next one!

Watercolor Experiments in "Jots and Tittles"

 Experimenting continues in my Jots and Tittles handmade journal as I try to get my mojo going again.  It's still really cold here, but the ice is finally gone after two weeks. Some people still don't have electricity, and there is still a massive amount of cleanup and repairs to be done with fallen trees and branches, but things are looking up now. Thankful!

While we've been housed in, I've played with what was within arm's reach of my recliner. I've lost my India ink and have searched among the boxes for it multiple times, as I want to use it on the "Wild Garden" at the end. I get so overwhelmed when I start to organize my art stuff that I sit down and put it off. Been doing that for a long time now.

Anyway, here's what I played with last week, plus I started a long collage lady mixed media piece over the weekend. All are from my imagination, the garden one being inspired by a Karen Stamper class in Sketchbook Revival. The rest, I just went wherever the brush wanted to take me with watercolor already on my palette. Not masterpieces, but fun to do and good practice!

Not too happy with this one, so I added some ink and a crow to kind of balance it out.

The "garden" is mix of various mark making tools in black, brown, off white, and white. If I can ever find my India ink, I will add a bigger branch in front.

These gardens are so much fun to make, and I have done a few, but while I was working on this one over a couple of days, I went back and watched Karen Stamper's class video in Sketchbook Revival 2026, and realized that I've been doing mine all wrong. Mine are much denser and darker than hers, and she leaves spaces for things, where I cover mine and keep layering things over until I can live with it.

Because these are 6" x 18" they are too long for my scanner, so I had to make photos with my camera. This is a large as I could make them, but you get the idea.

Now, I'm working on a very tall collage lady in this same book!

But, right now, I have to do my PT exercises for my hip/back. Because of one thing, or another, we've missed six days now, and I sure don't want to get back in the shape I was in, where I couldn't even get out of a chair without bad pain. 

Anyway, that's it for this post. Thanks for visiting! Keep on keeping on!

Doodling My Way Out of a Slump

 Well, I'm still in kind of a slump, creative wise, but I have done a few doodles over the last few days. Most of them are quirky doodles, where I make a bunch of random marks and swirls, then pull an image out. Three are 1-liner sketches (the dog, cat, and owl). I used Micron, brush, Posca pens, and a pencil. The butterfly is watercolored and spattered. Just fooling around on the last few pages of my current sketchbook. Only a couple of pages left before I can break in a new one!

We're currently getting snow and ice in Tennessee, and they're forecasting it to get really bad today and tomorrow, with possible power outages. Trying to get stuff caught up and saved up, just in case!

I just saw on Facebook today that the new Sketchbook Revival classes for this year start April 11th. I'm anxious to see what's included this session, so I know if I want to take them this time. I also got an email from Ivy Newport about a new mixed media art journal course that looks interesting and isn't too expensive. I'm thinking about it! Of course, I still have a bunch of classes left in the Sketchbook Revival 2025 session that I haven't sampled yet, a couple of courses with Jeanne Oliver that I haven't even started, and I'm wanting to create stuff on my own, not from a class, if I can ever get started again. A bit overwhelming and frustrating! lol

Anyway, it's cloudy and gloomy and snowy and icy, but still a beautiful day today, and who knows, I may do some more doodling before the day is over!

Prayers for all of us in the path of these winter storms! Stay safe and warm, and make a little creative magic while you're housed in!