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!

Paint Your Town: Updated Journal Pages

A couple of pages that I've shared before in the early stages, that have been added to and called done!

Mixed media on brown paper bag page, which I first shared...

I thought it needed something, so I added this little paper owl that I made from a circle punch...

Then I got carried away with the pens, markers, and pencils! I like it much better! People in my town have a lot of faith!...

Original mixed media page with a b/w photo transfer onto a rust transferred cloth page of our old theatre...

Added some color and pencil marking, aged and collaged a ticket, and wrote some info...

Added more pencil, brightened up the name, and sealed! I like this version, but I think I like the first version, with its ghostly quality, better, actually!

When I was very little, Daddy loved to go the movies to watch the double feature westerns on Saturday nights. Bluegrass artists, Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs, once played here. The theatre was closed before I became a teenager and was torn down in the seventies, I think. 

Our town was a thriving, bustling, riverside town when I was growing up in the fifties and sixties. Now it's dying a slow death, as many small towns are. I miss so many of the old buildings/houses that have been torn down in the name of progress.  😢

I still love her and the people are awesome!

Paint Your Town: Charcoal Contour Sketches

Practicing quick contour sketches in the Paint Your Town classes! Good for sketching people and other things out in public in a hurry. The three human faces were all sketched from the same photograph, NOT trying to get a likeness. The first two are in my 4" x 6" town journal, and may be layered over. The other two are in my Moleskine journal, which is larger. Too bad I didn't start in the Moleskine and end in the little journal. I think I was getting more confident toward the end!

#1  Charcoal pencil on a journal page made from the inside of an envelope...

#2  Tried one in watercolor pencil on a collaged page, then went over it with water; forgot that I had sealed the page :/...

#3  Charcoal pencil on Moleskine journal page...I need LOTS MORE practice!

Mr. Moose! Stuffed animal, quick sketched with charcoal pencil on Moleskine journal, from life...I like him! :)

I like that I can quick sketch in the moment, then go back and add to them later if I want to, or cover them up. Fun stuff! :)

Next project is quick contour sketching with ink! Can't wait to try that!

Paint Your Town: Pages Updated and A New Page

Still from Jeanne Oliver's class "Paint Your Town: Mixed Media Urban Landscape" (see sidebar for link.

Glenkirk Landing and Towhead Island value sketch in Paynes Grey acrylic on a light tan paper. I used a reversed photo, so, in reality, the bluff is to the right. This is a scene within a short walking distance to my home.

Rabbit Hop School House from the turn of the 20th century (around 1900), where my grandpa Stricklin and several of his siblings went to school. It was located a couple of houses over from where I live, in the Rabbit Hop community, but gone way before I was born. I did a photo transfer on a red paint sample. Why, I don't know, but this is just the beginning. We'll see where it goes from here!

I did a little bit more to the pages I shared in the previous post. The left page on this spread is dull, due to weak photography (mine). The colors are much brighter than this! See the previous posts...

I also added a little owl, made from a paper punched circle, to this page, which, I think, helped it...

I added some writing, an aged ticket, and some pencil and paint markings to this photo transfer to rust transferred fabric...LOVED this old theatre from my childhood! It's been torn down for many years now...

Doing a journal using my home town and surrounding areas is fun! I've always wanted to do this, but didn't quite know how to go about it. Jeanne Oliver is showing me unique ways to do it, and I'm learning so much. My pages may not be professional looking, but I'm learning while I'm having fun, and that's the important part!

Keep doing what you love! It feeds your soul! :)

Paint Your Town: Town palette, value studies, and a couple of journal pages

 
Colors in my home town of Clifton: watercolors and watercolor pencils with home town names...

Value studies in pencils and watercolors

Collage, using an old Horseshoe Riverbend Festival flyer with a picture of Clifton over the bridge overlooking the river, a city map, and a list of places of interest, and a leaf painted copper and added to a watery background for fall on the river and the fall festival. Inside cover and first page.

This one is kind of an abstraction in faith on brown craft paper. People in my town are full of faith and love and always ready to lend a helping hand to anyone in need.

Loving this class! More pages in progress!

Keep on creating! :D

Paint Your Town Photo Transfers

Learning to print and transfer photos in the Paint Your Town class (see sidebar for link) in my journal! I love using photos and sketches from my home town and surrounding area in my art and for my journal. I don't have the technique down just right yet, but I can live with these

This page is one of my rust transfer fabrics, which I transferred a vintage photo of the old Riverside Theatre in town when I was growing up. The photo was in color, but I copied it in B/W, and even though I knew the ink wasn't dark enough I went ahead and transferred it. Since it was torn down years ago, I kind of like the ghostly images it projects. There happened to be a Christmas parade going on the day this photo was taken in 1969. I may do a little touching up on it, and I have some theatre tickets that I'm going to age and add to it, as well as some other stuff, which will hopefully make it pop.

I made this photo a couple of Sundays ago on a field trip, which we were supposed to do for the class. It's on a copy of music paper, and it's at Glenkirk Landing, a very short walk from my house. The angle is toward the bluff caves and the Beachview community. I wish I'd paid more attention and made the music bars horizontal with the picture, but it's ok. I'll add more stuff to the page as I go along, maybe even some of my own artwork!

I have so many ideas that it's going to be hard to choose which ones to put in this book! And I haven't even watched all the videos yet, or done some of the projects from the videos I have watched!

It's beautiful fall weather here in Rabbit Hop, and I long to be out roaming around with my camera, but at the same time I want to be in my little rabbit nest playing in my journal and with other half done projects, while my conscious is making me feel guilty about what I "should" be doing. It's a never ending tug of war! :)

Happy Creating!

Paint your Town Journal

The beginning of the 4"x 6" handmade journal for the Paint Your Town: Mixed-Media Urban Landscape class with Jeanne Oliver (see sidebar). I'm using watercolor board (I think) for the covers and a piece of canvas for the spine. I'm also using various papers and some cloth for the pages.

My journal after the pages are glued in and dry...

Journal open with pages ready to work on!

My journal after I used gel medium to attach a print of a vintage photo of The old Russ Hotel that used to grace the end of Main Street overlooking the TN River when I was growing up. I added a strip of my rust transferred fabric to the spine for a little color and to hold the leather lace in place. I'm not sure whether to leave it as it is or do a little touching up on it. The back is still blank for now. But it is ready to work in now! Can't wait!

Next project is waiting! :D

Rust Fabric Transfers

I'm learning to do rust transfers (rusty objects on to fabric), in this case on flour sack drying cloths I got at Walmart. I'm learning this in a class from www.jeanneoliverdesigns.com in a class called "Paint Your Town: Mixed-Media Urban Landscapes". I should have made a picture of the rusty objects, but I didn't. Anyway, above are my first attempts drying. Once dry, the fabric can be used for different projects. Some of this is to be used in my journal for this class!

These are the transfers on to my fabric after drying. I think I wet them too much or something. Some of them didn't come out like I wanted, like the one above, where I used a large rusty hook.

I like parts of this one...

Love this one!

My second attempt at using the rusty hook and less wetness. This is half the design. I folded the cloth in half up over the hook.

The whole design, and I love it, although, I love it too much! Now I don't want to cut it up or use it for anything else. I learned a lot about what NOT to do on this project!  :)

This is my first project in this class, and I haven't watched all the videos yet. I've been working on the small handmade journal project to keep the mixed-media projects, sketches, etc. of my home town in too. This is a fun class!

See ya on the next project! Keep creating! It's good for your soul!