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!

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!

First Post and First Art of 2026!

 I hope your New Year is off to a good start! I've been busy getting end of year things taken care of and haven't done any creative stuff much since around Thanksgiving. I've been trying to get back in the sketching/creative groove the last few days by doing a little bit every day again. My mood has not been that great, and when you don't do something for a while you get rusty, and it takes a while to get back in the flow. So, I am trying. and making a bit of progress, I think. 😊

I just finished putting together and ordering my printed blog book for 2025 a few minutes ago. I used Pixiebook last year, and it was ok, but this year I'm trying "Into Real Pages", because I like the layout better. I chose the hardcover because I only had half as many pages as they allow, and the price, with a discount, was reasonable. It looked good on the computer screen. Fingers crossed I like it when it gets here!

This is a doodle that I actually started at the first of December, just trying to get motivated. It didn't work. I got this down and couldn't figure out what to do to make it better. Still trying to figure it out! I'm thinking about collaging something on it? I'm going to see what I can find...

The top of this page has color charts of the colored pencil and marker sets that I got for Christmas from our nephew's family. 

The old saying that whatever you do on New Year's Day is what you'll be doing all year made me do a street scene with pencils and markers, just as a doodle, in the hopes that I will be sketching/creating all year. I didn't like it, so I took a Stablio pencil and went over the lines and sky, then brushed over it with a water brush. I like it much better! It's kind of moody looking.

The second day I did a one-line sketch of a candle warmer lamp with a candle, also a Christmas gift, that happened to be sitting on the table in front of me. I already had the other two candles, so I added them too. Love the candle warmer, by the way!

This collaged page is dated Jan 4, but I've actually gone back and added stuff to it several times since then, right up until yesterday. I think I can live with it now.

I'm still mark making, trying to work the rustiness out. I love Karen Stampers mini lessons in Sketchbook Revival and decided to do another "wild garden" from imagination. Most of what I would love to use on these is still buried in boxes from when I started "organizing" my dining room/work place, so I've added marks with things within reach right up until this morning. I think I'm stopping on it now. I kind of like it. I'm thinking about taking one of Karen's larger courses on her website. Haven't decided yet, but I think I would love it.

Anyway, that's my feeble art attempts, so far, this year. My diabetes count is too high, and I haven't been feeling too well, or energetic. We got four cakes and a large box of expensive assorted chocolate cookies for Christmas, plus the holiday meals, all of which we enjoyed immensely, but it's reeked havoc on my health. So hard to resist, but I definitely need to do better!

I am also trying to work up the courage to call a new dentist, because the last one didn't work out, to have a cavity in a front tooth filled, but I've been having light pains in some of my teeth, so I may wind up having to have them all extracted. They are all held together with fillings and caps anyway. I don't have dental insurance, and it is so expensive to have anything done, but I'd like to keep them as long as I can.

And that's it for the beginning of the year! Hope it's a good year for all of us, creatively and otherwise! Take care and keep making making stuff! It's good for us!

More Wax Crayon Play and Character Sketch

 It's been a good day, as I have played with my art all day! I did the wax crayon painting in my sketchbook right after I got up this morning, the character sketch soon after, typed up and printed a found word poem that I wrote a couple of days ago (still a wip), watched a class video on sketchbook play, worked a bit on a wip oil painting with oil pastels, and wrote and posted two blog posts. Fun stuff!

Imaginary vase with crayons and a bit of white Posca paint pen-Not real happy with it, but I was going to try using an iron over parchment paper to melt the wax (hoping for a dreamy effect) when I realized that I had put it on the back of the previous vase of flowers, which would also melt if it worked. So I will have to color another one on a single paper to try the iron.

I have a set of never used encaustic paints that I bought for a class I haven't taken yet that I could use, but I don't currently have room to set up to heat them for use. I will though at some point! I have played with melted beeswax before to layer over mixed media and enjoyed it. These crayons were bought for mark making in mixed media pieces, but I just want to play with them a bit with heat. Definitely going to get a mini craft iron!

I was inspired to sketch this character study from an online photo with a black gel pen, because it was handy. She turned out better than expected!

Anyway, that's been my creative adventure for today. Can't wait to see what I do next!

A Couple More Zendoodle Girls

 Still doing zendoodles to take my mind off my up coming surgery for skin cancer. It's touching the corner of my eye, which is very worrisome to me. That eye has been bothering me a lot since the biopsy. Not getting much else done, but these are helping a lot. That and prayer.

Again, I didn't copy, but did get inspiration from Pinterest. So many amazing tangles on there! I loved doing these girls, especially the middle one! Zig, Posca, and Calligraphy brush pens on smooth and textured paper in my sketchbook...

Switching gears a bit, for now! I finished this bottom one yesterday, and I sketched off what I meant to be a feather, but it looks more like a fern frond, so I guess that's what it will be, but I'm going to try again for a feather. Fun stuff!

Take care and stay creative! :)

Random Sketchbook Zen Doodles

 So, I got some scary news health wise last week, and, needless to say, I'm freaking out a bit. I'm to have surgery in April. So I have until then to keep waking up in the middle of the night full of what ifs. I do ok during the day. I can keep my mind busy. Trying to sleep at night is another matter. Praying I'll be ok. 

I haven't worked any more on my mini junk journal, but I keep collecting papers and stuff. I also collected a few more paper bags for the paper bag journal I plan to make for one of the last two Jeanne Oliver courses (The Magpies Nest or Storytellers and Mavericks) I bought and haven't started/finished yet. I love to make journals, and I have several started that I need to finish. I have a tendency to get half way through one, see something else interesting, and off I go down another rabbit hole. From what I see and read online though, I'm not the only one with a fascination with rabbit holes...:)

Anyway, I spend too much time looking at everyone else's beautiful, and interesting, art than working on my own, and sometimes I think I love the gathering up things to use in projects more than actually using them. I do love looking through my little collections of various things, collected over many years, for my many projects and interests.

I have been picking up my sketchbook, Zig, Posca, and Calligraphy pens and markers, and occasionally a gel pen, to make these sort of zentangle doodles while I watched TV over the last few days. Not perfect like you see on Pinterest (I have cataracts and shaky hands), but they are mine, and they were fun to do! Hope you enjoy looking at them! :)

I wasn't aware when I crossed off the groups of five, until just now, that I made eleven of them, which is the age I was when my dad died in 2004. I love how you can look back over sketches you did mindlessly at the time and see the meaning in them later! I also just noticed that I did this page March 4 after they called me from the clinic with my biopsy results. Now I can see the feelings that I was trying to wrap my head around subconsciously while my pen moved.

My large Zig pen nib was about out of ink on the one above, which accounts for the gray lines. I saw an old leaded glass window on TV, similar to this, and tried to sketch it from memory. It's out of proportion, but the idea is here.

I used a water brush pen full of India ink, also nearly empty, to sketch this one from my imagination. She looks like she sees something suspicious...

This one looks sort of disconnected, which wasn't intentional, and it didn't start out that way. The two halves were connected at the beginning, but when I drew the dark line across the center, it made a "two halves of a whole" page. I'm feeling kind of disconnected right now.

I sketched this one off of the TV. Nowhere near a likeness, but good practice!

Now that I look at these after a couple of days, I can see areas where I could add more marks, and I might, at some point. But, right now, I'm about to start a new one. New sketch! New adventure!

Take care, be grateful, and keep making beautiful things, because the world can never have too much beauty! Thank you for visiting! :)

Mixed Media Town Painting-"Forgotten"

 Well, it's been a minute since I posted, but I'm still here! Still at a stalemate with my creativity and most every thing else. Feeling frustrated and overwhelmed with little desire to do anything. I know many people are feeling the same way. Hoping I get back on track at some point!

I have read some more books on my Kindle and have been playing a lot of Mahjong, so I'm not just sitting idle. Currently reading "The Last of the Moon Girls" by Barbara Davis and am a few chapters in. So far, so good! 

I did do this little mixed media painting in my sketchbook on September 8, just trying to give my creative juices a nudge. From my imagination, I sketched and colored in everything with Tombow water soluble markers. It was too bright, so I went over the colored parts with Prismacolor pencils to tone it down some, and added a bit of detail with a white Stablio pencil, and black and white gel pens. I was ok with it, but something kept bugging me about it, so I left it until September 27, when I picked up a bottle of water vinegar mix, that I use to transfer rust to paper, and gave the painting a few spritzes. 

The areas where the colored pencils were used were unaffected, but the black Tombow marker areas ran and some areas bleached out. I think it gave it a cool look of uninhabitable decay. I like it now!

'

This is how the original page looked after scanning, which still looks a little bright. It's actually a little darker/duller in reality.

I applied a vintage filter over it, which helped some.

The same with a sepia filter, and

again with a black and white filter. 

They all lost something in translation between the photo edit and the blog post, but I tried. The buildings show up better and not as smushed together in a bigger size. I kind of like all of them for different reasons. They look kind of like I'm feeling these days. :/

Anyway, that's it for now creative wise. I don't think I have done enough this year to even warrant my annual blog post book or the yearly calendar that I've been gifting family and friends for the last few years, but we'll see.

Hope you are all doing well creatively and with life in general. Prayers for all of us!

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!