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!

Characters, Horses, & Collage

 Just some random sketches and stuff that I did in June and have been holding off sharing until I finish the horse abstract.

A page in my Winsor Newton sketchbook where I cleaned off my acrylic paint palette. When it dried, four, possibly five, horse head images appeared to me. They are more visible in reality than the scanner picked up here. Anyway, I decided to bring them forth, but didn't quite know how, since previous horses I tried to sketch still look like the ones I tried to sketch in grade school. So I searched Pinterest for ideas and finally found one that mixes reality and abstract that I liked. I didn't copy it. I couldn't even if I wanted to, but it gave me a jumping off place.

The first phase in acrylic paint...

Next phase, I used the same colors applied with a paint knife...

I worked on it a bit more with a brush, then life happened...

It has gone through several layers and phases to get where it is now, and looks much different, so it's waiting for finishing touches...

I decided to go ahead and post this, because I don't know when, if ever, I will finish this one, but if I do, I'll share it. I'll have to work up the nerve to tackle it first. :)

I applied a different filter over the first abstract page above, and this came out. It could be one large horse head, or a cow head, or some other animal close up! I've saved a copy, just in case...

A fun collage, also in my sketchbook, made of original papers created by me, except for the washi tape strip across the bottom. Some are gelli plate prints, some I painted on tracing paper with acrylics and ink, some I stamped with bubble wrap, there's a newspaper clipping with a tree photo printed over it, some stenciling and stamping, some freehand sketching and mark making, and some found words torn out that say "Progress not Perfection". It's a bit busy, but I like it!

Another collage with some of my handmade gelli printed papers, text pages from an Anne Rice book with found words circled, a newspaper clipping with a tree photo printed over it, a window torn from a magazine, an abstract bird and nest painted in acrylics on tracing paper, a piece of scrapbooking paper, and a bit of sketching and mark making in ink. This one is a bit more calm and peaceful to me.

Just some face practice on these two girls. The top one is with a Stabilo pencil, a bit of water, and a bit of white acrylic paint. The bottom one is a 2B pencil. I need much more shading practice! Sometimes I just want to give up and quit trying, but something won't let me, so I just keep on keeping on...

Ok, this one got a lot chaotic on me. I think it has everything but the kitchen sink in it, but it also has a lot of meaning for me. I used some translucent wrapping paper, a napkin, a piece of pink collagraph image I did way back, a copy of handwriting from two of my best friends that they had written in my Senior year school annual, a bit of colored pencil, a one line ink sketch of a vase and flowers, and some other mark making. Chaotic fun!
                                                                                      

 

This character came out of my imagination one day. I sketched her off with a Stabilo pencil, then went over with a bit of water and brush. A couple of days later, I added some white acrylic paint. I couldn't get the light on the right cheek right, and it looked a bit like war paint to me, so I added the two dots under it and called her "Warrior". I wish I could remember to allow enough space that they don't run off the page. Someday...

Same girl with a background filter added, using Microsoft photo editing. Just playing around!

Same girl, face cut out...

Same girl, face cut out with glass effect filter over half her face...

Another character from my imagination. Again, I didn't allow enough room, and her hair ran off the page. At least, she doesn't have the typical long face that most of my girls have!

We are having really hot temperatures. So thankful for air conditioning, and I'm not outside much, but hubby is an outdoor person, and I do worry about him getting overheated out mowing, weed eating, etc. 

I'm staying indoors as much as possible. I can't take the heat anymore, so after these sketches, I've made a woven journal for a class called "The Magpies Nest" on Jeanne Oliver's website. The cover is woven, and I've made pages, sewn the signatures in, and I'm adding embellishments inside and out now, plus I took another Toni Burt class in another group of sample classes, which I'll post soon. And the dust is still piling up...

I'm having a number of health problems also. Not fun, but could be a lot worse. I am so thankful for art and creativity to take my mind off it. The only problem with it is it causes me to sit way too much. :o

Thanks for visiting! Hope to see you next post! Keep creating! Even when it doesn't turn out pretty, it's still therapeutic! 

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! 

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!