this week

I finally managed to finish two more drawings for my Joey story. I painted these two at the same time so I could make the colors match on the desks and the walls.

Even though I make notes about colors I mix, they don’t always come out the same.

Browns are hard. Most times I mix Sap Green and Alizarin Crimson. Then I throw in some Quin Gold or maybe a touch of blue. A little of this and that. Pretty soon, I have the perfect shade of brown but I forgot how I made it!

Of course, I could just buy “brown” paint!! But I like to do things the hard way ☺


These two photos are from an assignment we did at Year of the Spark. They are called Threaded Thoughts. I made a list of “things” I do in my studio.

The example we were shown in class was machine stitched together. I have two sewing machines but neither is in good working condition. Every time I sew anything, there is lots of swearing involved!

So I found a different solution to piece them together.

painting BIG, thinking small

This was my latest assignment in Carla Sonheim’s Year of the Spark class.

It’s a BIG painting in that it measures 11x17. Thinking small refers to thinking/painting as your inner child.

I painted a picture of me. My birthday is in May. Every year on my birthday, I would get a new swimsuit for summer. We always called it my Birthday Suit!!

I still don’t know if I like acrylics. They never work the way I want them to. I think it’s the brushes I’m using.

Yeah, I’m going to blame the brushes!

storybooks

Last month, our assignment at Year of the Spark was to write stories. Then make small “books” and illustrate them.

I made mine on watercolor paper, which turned out to be too hard to fold. So I scanned and printed it on regular paper to make my books.

I did two stories.

One was called “Life Lessons.”

The second one, I called “Just Doodle.”

As always, another enjoyable lesson from Carla Sonheim.

my color palette

Our latest assignment for Year of the Spark, was to Define Your Color Palette. I’ve been using the same color palette for a few years now. I tend to gravitate towards spring colors.

They just make me happy!

The hard part of the assignment was to choose no more than 5 colors. Hmmm…that was hard!

Step 1: I was able to narrow it down to three: yellow, fuchsia and turquoise. Out of these three colors, I can make a lovely orange, purple and bright green, too!

Step 2: Make a self-portrait. So here I am, wearing my best spring colors!

gesso cats

I finished the final step last night.

I lightly buff each painting to remove some of the watercolor.

It pulls out some of the white again and you can really see the texture now.

I just LOVE this technique!! Be sure to check out Step 1 and Step 2 for a Before and After look.

Happy Paint Party Friday.

step 2

Watercolor added … check!

Nearly done.

One more step to go…

work in progress

All I have to share today are some WIP pieces. This is using a technique I learned in Year of the Spark.

This first part can take days. Well, for me anyway.

You add some gesso. Mark it up with texture. Then dry.

Since I only have spare time in the evenings, it can drag out for a few days.

Next comes watercolor!! Stay tuned!!

new spark assignment

This assignment for Year of the Spark was so much fun.

• Gesso texture on wood panels.
• Watercolor paint in layers.
• Then rub them to expose some of the gesso texture underneath.

The only part I didn’t like was that it took me several days. I worked on these every evening for about a week. Each step has to dry before you can more on.

But it was worth the wait. I’ve purchased more boards so I can make more of these.

one-liners

One of our lessons at Year of the Spark was to draw one-liner faces. Slowly. Trying to get most of the details of the face.

I did several. Here are three that I like the best.

Her eyes are wonky … but I still like her.

This was a chubby cheeked child. I couldn’t resist giving it a try.

Hippo before and after

Another short break from painting flowers to show you what I made for Year of the Spark.

A few weeks ago, we got an assignment to do “wrapped animals.” You could either start from scratch using wire only, make a shape, and then wrap it.

Or, start with a stuffed animal, wrap it with wire to give it more shape, and then wrap it with cloth, etc.

I started with a stuffed hippo I got at the Goodwill for 50 cents. And, of course, I forgot to take a photo BEFORE I started … so … here is a little doodle of what it sort of looked like.

Orange, stubby legs, long black yarn tail. You know, just like a real hippo!

Here’s what I came out with in the end. This was hard! You should have heard the swearing early on!!

Then I left it out on my work table and the dog got hold of it. Most of the stuffed toys in the house are HERS so I can understand the confusion.

I had to start over again with the wrapping and the swearing. But then it got easier.

I gave the hippo longer legs and some antlers.

Yesterday, I finished it off with extra yarn embellishment. I had some old paper “beads” that I made years ago. I used them for a project and now they just sit in the drawer. So I added beads for a headdress and some more on the tail.

I like how it turned out but probably won’t be doing this again. I like working in 2D art, not 3D. Just not my thing.

face #24 and some doodles

I can’t say that I’ve ever seen a movie with Theda Bara but I do know who she is. I always picture her with the heavy eye makeup.

So here is my one-liner for today. I can’t believe it’s the last week of the 29 Faces challenge!! Doing a face a day makes the month just fly by!

And I have to show you one more thing I did yesterday. This was an exercise for Year of the Spark!

The assignment was to:

• Make some marks on four index cards.
• Cut them into 4 pieces.
• Then choose one piece of each card and complete a doodle.

I had a piece of scrap graph paper so I used that instead of index cards.

Using some alphabet stamps, I stamped on my papers. Overlapping the letters just to make marks.

Then I cut up my papers. Here are my “before” and “after” images.

It was so fun because each drawing just sort of emerged! I let my pencil fill in the blanks!

assignment for spark!

We had an interesting assignment at Year of the Spark. The end product was to create 3 collage cards (birthday, valentine, whatever).

Now anyone who is familiar with Lynn Whipple knows she has a very distinct style. It’s so playful and well, just wonderful, I think.

This is the hard part of taking workshops and classes for me … to do an assignment LIKE someone else but to MAKE IT MY OWN. It’s really tough.

I don’t have a stash of black and white photos. Or so I thought. Then I remembered a book I had purchased a while back called “Grandma’s Scrapbook of Silent Movie Stars.” I thought they were really great poses to practice face drawing someday. All the old movie stars were so glamorous!

So here are my three cards. All very different. Not as classy as Lynn’s. But I had fun playing around with scissors and a glue stick!

Bird Walker

Skipping

My Valentine

one-liner

I had grand dreams of doing hundreds of drawings as I recuperated from knee surgery. Yeah. Just resting on the couch with pen and sketchpad in hand. Filling up sketchpad after sketchpad with my brilliant doodles.

What happens is I doze off.

A lot.

I did accomplish this one-liner … an assignment for Year of the Spark course. One-liners are fun because they never turn out like you expect them to. I like how his eyes are sort of wonky. Makes him look quite sinister, don’t you think?

Today’s list:

• I am feeling a little better. At least I am sleeping better at night.
• Down to taking only one pain pill a day.
• I start physical therapy tomorrow and am hoping that helps.
• I’ve noticed that my other knee is starting to hurt. Probably because it is overworked??
• My husband is a saint. He’s done all the cooking and cleaning lately.
• And he did my laundry. His mother raised him right!