PPF: Using a Reference to Draw and Paint (+LSNED)

I'm taking an online class from Dina Wakley on drawing and painting a particular style of face. One thing she recommends is drawing from a reference. I didn't follow that advice for my first few faces, but I did for the two faces I'm posting today.  On the whole, I like these better.  The face up top is based on this drawing by Fabio Mingarelli.

It really helped me get the shading right (or at least better) and gave me some idea about what to do about hair. I also created this art journal page:

I based it on this wonderful print from Ellen Heck's Forty Fridas collection. 

Although I find it really helpful with my drawing and painting (and I'm not planning to sell or display these beyond my blog), it still feels a little wrong to me somehow to "copy" someone else's art. Do you know what I mean? Does anyone else have similar qualms?
Posting these to Paint Party Friday and 29 Faces.  These are also pages in my Learn Something New Everyday art journal.  The lesson for the top page is "Using a reference photo really is a good idea." My lesson for the second drawing is "Don't be afraid to take a chance. Sometimes you get lucky!"  I'll blog more about those lessons this weekend.

PPF: My Life Long Journey (Passport to Art altered book)

This weekend is a long weekend here in the United States, and I'm committing to grabbing some creative time. First up: finish the Passport to Art altered book I've been working on. The spread up top commemorates a kayak/camping trip to Baja California.   The entire trip was fantastic, but the highlight was the night we got up and discovered bioluminescence in the water. We splashed and kicked and watched the water come to life with twinkling lights. To recreate the feeling, I painted black gesso onto a seascape page and then flicked gold and silver metallic paint on top. I added a piece of map from the region and a little sea nymph.

The other spread that I have completed talks about my life-long journey. The journaling reads "During my lifetime, I have traveled all over the world, but for "home," I traveled only 400 miles from Southern to Northern California. I lived in the same house in La Habra for 16 years and have been in our current home for almost 23 years." I was lucky to find a page in my book which actually had the small town where I grew up (La Habra) on one page and the San Francisco bay area on the facing page. I gesso'd and painted out the other areas, added some art dolls and other embellishments. I'm really happy to include this aspect of "travel" in my Passport to Art book. I think it's interesting that, although I am a world traveler, my tendency has been to find a Home and stay put.  It makes me wonder how far you have traveled geographically on your life-long journey? And do you move house often or tend to stay in one house for the majority of your life?
This weekend, besides finishing up my Passport to Art book, I will prepare a Faces Art Journal to use for Shimelle's Learn Something New Everyday class in September. 
Here on the blog, I'll  be hosting a linky for the 2013 Summertime Scavenger Hunt, so please stop by if you are participating.
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Linking up with Paint Party Friday! Click on this link to see other painterly goodness.

PPF: Faces in the World

I just finished participating in a really terrific art round robin, hosted by Martha of Ayala Art called "Faces in the World." She arranged those of us who signed up into groups of three. We each started a face on a 4x6 piece of paper and then sent it to another member of the group, who added to the face and then sent it to the third member, who completed the face and sent it home!  The face above is the one I completed and which started out looking like this:

And which arrived to me looking like this:

As for my face, I sent this water color blob face out:

And she transformed:

Finally, the third face in the group started with this:

I added this:

And she eventually became this:

By the way, this face had a sister, who started out as a mirror image of the pencil sketch, and she ended up looking like this:

Thanks Martha for hosting this really fun swap. And thanks to Beth and Joy, my very talented team mates!
I'm sharing all this loveliness with Paint Party Friday! Go check out more painterly goodness at this link.

PPF: Passport to Art (Traveling Unencumbered)

I've been working on an altered book in conjunction with the Passport to Art online class run by Bernice Hopper. The class offered one prompt every day during the month of July. I haven't kept up completely, but I have really enjoyed making my book, and I will continue until I finish.  The prompt for Day 14 asked about the responsibilities which prevent you from enjoying your travels and also had a quote about walking side by side with your best friend. This led me to create a multipage spread entitled "Traveling unencumbered by children or teaching." It covers a trip my husband and I took in 1988 to Spain and Paris.  This was back in the days before we had kids and before we started planning our trips abroad around teaching opportunities. The first page (above) features photographs of Paris from a collage sheet I made, as well as a few quotes and pictures from other collage sheets. When you open the page, you see journaling about the week we spent in Paris as part of our trip:

There's an art doll and another picture of the Eiffel Tower. I feature a funny story about our arrival in Paris; a description of the wonderful food we ate; and a list of the museums we enjoyed visiting. It talks about how we fell in love with Paris and waited almost 20 years before we returned with the kids but hope to get back there sooner next time. 
If you flip the page, you come to the pages for the Spain part of our trip:

You can click on each picture to see the pages in more detail (and maybe even read the journaling, which focuses upon what we enjoyed most in each of the cities we visited during our three week trek through Andalusia). It was fun to reminisce about those carefree traveling days.  Traveling with our kids has been a fantastic experience, but these pages make me remember how much fun we had when it was just the two of us as well.  
Do you prefer traveling with your kids (if you have them) or with just your significant other? I'm working on a page about solo travel as well, which also has advantages and disadvantages (but it is definitely not my favorite way to travel).
I'm linking up to Paint Party Friday because I used paint here and there to cover up the background in my altered book!
Edited to Add: Bernice just posted her completed altered book (click here to see it), and it is really wonderful. It's very different than mine and well worth checking out.

PPF/SOC: A Bonus Combo

I so loved playing in the Summer of Color challenge, sponsored by Twinkle, Twinkle that I decided to do an extra color combination. I settled on sky blue and red/orange (although my card looks more red and not very orange). Earlier this summer I found this quote from Edna St. Vincent Millay and finally created a card for which I thought it fit: "I know I am but summer to your heart, and not the full four seasons of the year."
Here are my other postcards from Summer of Color this year:

I've really enjoyed making these and having them all together as a set. My prior posts can be found at this link.
I'm posting this to Paint Party Friday and inviting anyone else who created a bonus card to join in the linkie below!
Speaking of linkies, I'll be hosting a linkie on July 31 for people who are participating in the 2013 Summertime Photography Scavenger Hunt.

PPF/SOC: A Summer Afternoon

The color pair for the last week of Summer of Color, hosted by Kristin at Twinkle, Twinkle is sepia and sage. I loved this combination and had picked out a quote to use, but once I finished creating my postcard with acrylic paint and stencils, this Henry James quote seemed to be a better fit: "Summer afternoon - summer afternoon, to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language." 
I've really enjoyed the Summer of Color, and I have one extra post card left. So, I'm going to continue to play for one more week.  If anyone wants to join in, feel free to come back here next Friday and I'll set up a linky. The color palette will be red/orange and sky blue!
Let me know in comments if you want to play along.

PPF/SOC #3: Marvelous Nature

This week's color palette for the Summer of Color was lime green and purple.  I really struggled with this color combination (as did my printer apparently, since the lime green  scanned as yellow, and the titan buff distressing is not nearly that pronounced in real life).  I thought and struggled and visited other people's sites.  Finally, this wonderful post by Cheri inspired me to create a postcard with a lime green background and purple animals. I added some distressing in titan buff to unify everything. The quote from Aristotle reads "In all things of nature, there is something of the marvelous." 
I'm even thinking of creating another collage with this color scheme to illustrate the Ogden Nash Gelett Burgess poem: "I never saw a purple cow. I never hope to see one. But I can tell you, anyhow, I'd rather see than be one."
So, thanks Cheri for inspiring me! And thanks to Paint Party Friday for keeping a brush in my hands. To see what everyone is painting this week, click here.
Finally, if you're participating in the 2013 Summertime Photography Scavenger Hunt (or are considering joining in), come by this weekend and join the linky.

PPF/SOC: Remembering Pink and Orange

For the Summer of Color challenge, I am using acrylic paint and texture to create postcards with summery quotes. The week 2 colors are hot pink and orange, and I found them easier to work with than the pair from last week . . . I simply used Golden brand transparent pyrrole orange and light magenta. I used gesso to attach textured papers and shapes to my postcard as a base, then added a wash of the pink. I used bubble wrap, a stencil and stamp to add the orange, as well as an orange edge.  Because hot pink and orange remind me of my childhood (as a kid born in the early 1960's, I had flowers in these colors in my room), I used the quote "The things we remember from childhood, we remember forever."
Linking up to Paint Party Friday and Summer of Color Challenge.
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p.s. Today is the first day of summer, the "traditional" start date for the Summertime Photography Scavenger Hunt, so it's definitely not too late to join in! For details check out this post. You have three months to find 21 items. The more the merrier!

Summer of Color 1: Summery Postcard in Citron Green and Turquoise

 

This summer, I'm playing along with Kristin's Summer of Color Challenge. Each week, for six weeks, a color combination is chosen by a poll of the participants and then people create artwork, in whatever format they choose, based around those colors.  I decided that I wanted to work with acrylic paint since it has been soooo long since I've played with them. I considered creating six canvases, as I have at least that many sitting in my stash but decided they would bee too difficult to store. Then I decided to work on pieces of plaster wrap because I knew I had a large 16x16 piece that I could cut into six 8x5 pieces. But, try as I might, I could not find that piece of plaster wrap. It's big; it's hard for it to hide. I looked in all the places I remember seeing it or storing it.  But, no luck; no plaster wrap. Sigh. I guess it's a sign of how much stuff I have that something that big can remain hidden. As I was cleaning and searching, I did find a package of watercolor paper postcards that I decided would be just fine for the project.  And, in the end, I'm glad I went in this direction because I found that my painting skills are really rusty. It would have been very frustrating to work on a bigger canvas. Also, plaster really changes colors, and it was hard enough to get the right colors on the watercolor paper.  For my postcards, I decided to try to focus on abstract painting, color and texture. In the end, I decided I would also find a summery quote to use on each one.  I think this will lead to a nice, coherent collection by the end of the challenge. 
The colors for Week 1 were citron green and turquoise. I looked through my Golden acrylic paints and decided to go primarily with manganese blue hue and green gold. I eventually supplemented with some other blues and greens, as well as metallic gold. I started with a rough coat of gesso on the card and then added a layer of blue in washes and glazes. Next, I used a stencil and other texture tools to add more gesso and some soft modeling paste. I painted those areas with layers of green paint. I went back in with a bit more turquoise to unify everything a bit; wrote in my quote; and then hit the high points in the texture and a bit of the background with metallic gold as my final top layer. I'm really glad I'm participating in this challenge because I don't want to lose my acrylic painting skills, and I definitely felt rusty. I think this will also push me to make some acrylic canvases this summer, as well as do some plaster wrap work (once I find the damn thing!). 
Thanks for the challenge Kristin!  Thanks also to the folks at Paint Party Friday, where I'm posting this, for the reminder to pick up your brushes and paint - they're the main reason I did any painting at all this last year. 
The quote reads "Don't grow up too quickly, lest you forget how much you love the beach."

PPF: Sketching During a Budget Meeting

While at work the other day, I found myself sitting in a Budget Committee meeting. Lots of numbers; news somewhat discouraging. I started sketching on my notepad and came up with this simple pencil drawing. I liked it so much that I tore it out and took it home. I water-colored it and stuck in my sketchbook. I went back to this bookmarked post from The Skinny Artists (filled with tons of great quotes) and grabbed a quote that I thought went well. It says, "Weeds are flowers, too, once you get to know them." And that's my offering for Paint Party Friday.
To see other works of painterly goodness, check out this link.

PPF: Simple Spirals

A simple painting to share with Paint Party Friday today.  But, it still calls to me and it may be my favorite creation this week. I usually have trouble learning to love white space but not today. It was inspired by the this month's prompt at the Sketchbook Challenge (spirals). What do you think? Is it too simple?
To see other artists participating in Paint Party Friday, click here.

PPF: A Peek Inside my Sketchbook and Art Journal

It's been a long time since I've pulled out my sketchbook and art journal, but there's something about spring which pushed my muse in that direction. So, I'm linking up with Paint Party Friday to share this water color painting in my art journal.

And a few sketches in my sketchbook, featuring "Things I See on a Run."  The second deer is kindof goofy, but I like the first deer pretty well. And I enjoyed trying to figure out how best to paint those awesome flowers ("Pride of Madeira") that are everywhere on the coast side these days.  Where is your spring time muse pushing you?
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Thanks to Kristin and Eva for hosting Paint Party Friday.  To see more painterly goodness, click on this link.

PPF: Inspired by Nature

I just finished up my art journal for the Kelly Kilmer "Dry Art Journaling" class, and I thought I would share this one last page with PPF, since it's been a while since I've stopped by. It's just about how much I'm inspired by nature. Layered patterned paper, wrapping paper, butterfly images from Stampington, stickers, washi tape, focal image and postage stamps from my stash.  Hope you enjoy looking at the page as much as I enjoyed making it. I'll be posting a class review tomorrow if you want to stop by.  
To visit others participating in Paint Party Friday, click on this link.

PPF: Dualities

Happy Paint Party Friday! I'm offering up an art journal page today titled "my dualities." I started with a green and black painted ink-blot I created a long time ago and built the page from there. I'm really pleased with how it came out. I love all the little paired embellishments and images throughout. It's art for art's sake.  A concept which I like, but which I don't practice often enough. This recent post from Michael DeMeng, titled "The Importance of Being Artist" reminded me once again of the importance of art in my life. Check it out; I think you'll enjoy it!  And, to see others engaged in painterly art, check out this link.

PPF: Back to My Paintless Pages

It's been a while since I worked in my paintless art journal (paper and pens only). I pulled it out and made a few pages.  This one reads "Somedays I feel like I can take on the whole world!"  Nice to have an optimistic page. The vintage image is my mother. I used a transparency and did most of the collage work on top of it.

The lighting and white balance in this one is a little off, but it was fun. It's about how I need to let go of my need to stay on schedule in order to focus on what is paramount.

This page features one of my favorite quotes, "When love comes to ask, 'What do you know?', I will reply, 'This girl, this boy.'" Used stamping and pen work to create the patterned paper. Plus some yellow washi tape to make everything come together.

Finally, a page about how much I miss taking a trip up to the snow. Although we are not the biggest (or best) skiers, we usually make one to two trips up to the mountains for a ski weekend each winter. We missed it this year (and last, I think). I like the combination of patterned papers and handmade papers on this one quite a bit.
Do you have any favorites today?
I'm posting this to Paint Party Friday! If you want to see more painterly goodness, check out this link.
P.S. To my PPF friends who haven't visited in a while, please check out this post to learn about the commitment I've made to join Team In Training (or click on my photo to the left).

PPF: Faces 4, 5 and 6

Ayala is sponsoring her 29 Faces Challenge this month, so I thought I would post Faces 4, 5 and 6 today as part of Paint Party Friday. All of them are made on my ipad, using the Paper 53 app.  Each one is a distinct character, I think.

My first face today is Maura. She tries to hide her age but worries that she isn't succeeding. 
Next, meet Charlie.  You can tell what his story is just by looking at him!

Finally, here's Sybil. She's a bit of a free spirit, but mainly innocent.
You can check out other faces at this link and painterly fun at Paint Party Friday (here).

PPF: A Crowning Achievement

Finally - a painted art journal page for Paint Party Friday!  The last few weeks I've been posting paintlesss art journal pages from an online class I've been taking. The process of creating those paintless pages has been really helpful in setting my muse free to create in a larger format that incorporates collage of paper, images that are photographs which I took, my drawing and paint.   I created this page for the January "crown" challenge over at the Art Journal Journey Challenge Blog.  The journaling reads "She misplaced her crown in a foreign country, and her world went sideways."    I feel like I am moving into a new phase in my style.
This page is in my road atlas art journal.  I thought I'd share a couple of pages in progress, so that you could get a sense of the backgrounds I'm creating on.

What do you think?  Do you see a progression in my style in these pages?
You can see more painted pages by visiting Paint Party Friday at this link.

PPF: More Paintless Pages

Last week for Paint Party Friday, I posted some "paintless" pages and wondered if it was okay. A HUGE thank-you to everyone who visited and said that it was just fine (or even better than fine) to post them because PPF is all about the art.  I so love the PPF community! My goal this week is to do a better job of getting around to visit and comment on the other posts.  If you want to see this week's posts, check out this link.  Today, I'm posting a few more "dry" or paintless art journal pages.  The one up top is about how much I rely on the ocean as a calming influence in my life and why I choose to live near the sea.  This next page is about how my head is often full of so many different thoughts that I sometimes feel a little crazy:
I had a little trouble with the white balance on these next two - one about what a big role international travel has played in our lives and one about how I miss being able to have the ability/freedom to be able to make plans to spend time with friends.  They aren't really this blue in real life.

Thanks for visiting and for commenting - I love to hear what you say.  I'm particularly curious about whether you have any favorites in this batch of pages. Happy PPF everyone!