Proportionally-Challenged Contour Drawing

Ha! The proportions are WAY off on the quickly-drawn contour at the top.  The next day I tried a sketchier version. 

Wobbly Silverware

Really fast sketch of my silverware, with a fun, wobbly look, backed by a grid inspired by a stained-glass divider in Marie Calendars.

On another day, taking a little more time with a carrot.

Fitting in some drawing practice

"Our pet" ground squirrel, Suzy, was being hounded by a Falcon, so she decided to move her babies to a safer place. Dennis heard squeaking and went out to investigate. A little later, the falcon was sitting next to her trail, so he went down to escort Suzy up the path. After that, I decided to sit and keep an eye out for her safety, passing the time by practicing my drawing. I picked up a camelia that had dropped from the bush next to my bench.
    Suzy ended up moving seven (!) precious packages--we don't know if she had already moved some before we, and the falcon, took notice.
    Later, I added a little color to the image. I need to take more of these sketch breaks!

A Rose and a Haiku for Altered Book Exchange

I'm using this project as a place to try new materials and techniques. This page was coated with Daniel Smith Watercolor Ground.
I didn't have a lot of time, since the gathering for the exchange is tomorrow--it's been a crazy month (what's new?)--so I transfered the outlines from a reference photo.  Then, I watercolored and added additional contrast with watercolor pencil.  I think I was happier before I added the pencil--I'll go back and blend some of the pencil marks a little more.

The ground wasn't working well with the pointed pen, so, I switched to a fiber-tipped LePen while inscribing my haiku.

Contour Tomatoes on the Vine

 

This is my first entry in Margarets Celebration of a Garden-themed altered book. It's also the first time I've used a watercolor ground--the pages of the book were slick.  For this experiment, I coated the pages with Golden gesso (probably not necessary), the added several coats of Golden Absorbent Ground. I allowed a lot of drying time between each coat, which slowed this project down considerably, but it was well worth it. Upon painting, I found that the ground bleeds somewhat when juicy watercolor is applied, but so did the Daniel Smith brand.
 This spread has three continuous line contours based on the same bunch of tomatoes, using three different tools: red colored pencil, black tombow marker, and a pencil.   The tomatoes were gone by the time I painted the shadows on the last bunch, so I faked it and it shows--that's the problem with using a prop that my husband wants to eat!  This is in the Color-Texture-Pattern section of Margaret's book, so I wrote a haiku to follow the color aspect:
Luscious tomatoes
bright color in the garden
even the green worms!

 

Acrylic Painting in Large Nujabi Journal

Here's another spread that I started in the fantastic Working with Layers workshop with Randall Hasson this past weekend, hosted by the Society for Calligraphy. (I would study with Randy again and again--he teaches new techniques every time!).This was my first time for painting images with acrylic.  A great learning experience--this paint is thinned with matt medium and glazing liquid. In the future, I'll also add considerable water--I prefer a more transparent look.
   Not only was I influenced by Randy, but I had been doing lots of contour drawing since last month's Illustrated Journals workshop with Brenda Swenson.  I had also just seen a picture that the oh-so-talented Sharon Zeugin had posted on Facebook, incorporating three contour drawings on one page. That inspired me to use my own contour drawings with the acrylic background.  The first drawing uses sepia-toned watercolor pencil.  The second, Tombo water-soluable pen.  The third is drawn in pencil, then painted.  I'll be doing another of these this week in a friend's journal, using more juicy paint.

Round Robin Exchange - First entry

A group of six friends--most of them members of the Society of Calligraphy--have joined together for a Round Robin altered book exchange.  We each chose a theme--mine is "Fashion Sewing, Hearts and Other Pretties".  We meet over lunch tomorrow to exchange books.  It's been an extremely busy six weeks for me, so I only completed this one page.  I have LOTS of ideas, though, so I'll do more when the book comes back.
   I'm happy with this watercolored sketch. To compliment the "now" dress, I added some funky pointed pen lettering.
   Now,I'm looking forward to working in the next book.  For today, though, I'm getting the house ready for our gathering and baking bread, an old hobby that I'm "dusting" off.

Month of Letters

 

And here's my November 2012 ATC.  A blatant copy of the design from my very first ATC, done in 2005.  I was so busy with holiday tasks, that I seemed to have no new inspiration for this card.

This month's contribution to the January 2013 Art Sparklers ATC exchange.  I'm on a sewing-themed kick, right now.  I suppose I somehow think creating art about it will motivate me to get back to that and, hopefully, I will--eventually.  This was fun, anyway