Saturday, January 29, 2011

HIGHLY PRIZED


My Stuffed Snake

This is the stuffed snake my favorite uncle won for me at Adventure Land in Addison, IL, some 45 years ago. I still have the snake but it has seen better days. My uncle was only 21 when he passed away. This always reminds me of him.
Below is a picture of the snake today.  He is missing his tongue, but I thought my sketchbook should have one!  I could never part with it.

This is the actual stuffed snake.

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Create! 2010 - Medium.m4v



If you look close you'll see me in my class at CREATE! 2010.  This was such a great time.  I can't wait until CREATE! 2011.

Friday, January 14, 2011

AAA Rescue


Here's my journal page titled AAA Rescue.  After a fabulous day creating my first journal page at CREATE 2010, I went to start my car and my battery was dead!  I had left the lights on for 10 hours.  I ended up calling AAA to give me a jump.  Brad came to the rescue and got the car going.

I painted the background with opaque watercolor and glued on a picture of the car and used the tracing paper technique for the tow truck.  Then using more watercolor, grounded the car and tow truck.  I also did some stamping.  That little thing to the left of the car is my rendering of a car battery.  LOL!

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

First Ever Journal Page




My First Art Journal Page
 
I saw something about Art Journaling in Cloth Paper Scissors magazine and I was intrigued.  I wasn't sure how to start or what it was really about so when I saw that there was a class at CREATE,  I jumped at the chance to learn more.  In August 2010 I signed up for a class called Inspired Journaling Every Single Day with Melanie Testa.  She had us start out by writing down our fears, then we proceeded to cover the page with our favorite color.  We used all kinds of techniques.  It was a great way to try a little of everything. 

The top bird, butterfly and the flowers in the lower right-hand corner are ripped from napkins.  The main bird was traced onto tracing paper then glued on with a glue stick and then painted to add some color.  I added glue-on crystals to the crown for some glitz.  I wanted to try everything Melly showed us, so there is alot going on with this page.  I was satisfied with the results!

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Sketchbook Challenge - In The Beginning...

My sketchbook for The Sketchbook Challenge

I decided to participate in the challenge so I would do more art journaling.  My goal is to do at least one page for each monthly challenge.  January's theme is "Highly Prized".  Well, now that I have memorialized my goal in writing,  I'll just have to make sure I do it! 

My friend Kelly Hoernig is also participating in the challenge and posting her work to her blog.  To go to Kelly's blog, click here.  To go to Kelly's website click here.

To learn more about The Sketchbook Challenge, click on the badge in the left column.

Sunday, January 2, 2011

SUNFLOWER


SUNFLOWER
This is a watercolor from my Wednesday class at Vogt Visual Arts Center.  It is painted on a piece of 12" x 12" Arches 140 lb cold pressed paper.  I cannot draw a stick figure if my life depended on it so I traced the image from the photo and transferred it to the paper with wax free graphite.  Almost all of my paintings are done in this manner.