Fun Christmas Presents

I got a few fun Christmas presents that were art related.  I got a set of Tropical Gelatos from Faber Castell.  These are similar to oil pastels, but water-soluble, which means you can spread them with water.  They are creamy and have vivid colors.  I have a bunch of these in different shades.

I have some of the Gelli printing plates at school and I wanted to have a small one to use in my art journal. I got the 3"x5" Gel Printing Plate, which is great for doing small prints.

Lynda Barry has some really interesting books with writing and drawing exercises, comics and collage.  I gifted this book to my sister-in-law and also received it off of my Amazon wishlist!  Here are some peeks inside the book Syllabus: Notes from an Accidental Professor.

Now it's your turn!  Did you get any fun new presents?

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A Year in Review Mosaic

Happy New Year!  I didn't get a chance to make as much art as I wanted, but here is a mosaic of most of the artwork I made this year.  Thanks for reading my blog and following along with my adventures.  Here's to a great 2015!

1. Truth, 2. watercolor backgrounds, 3. Wisp, 4. Organic Configuration, 5. art journal page grid format, 6. Magic, 7. starlight girl, 8. watercolor doodle, 9. Time is Limited, 10. kids with animals, 11. Count the Stars Journal Page, 12. Whatever is True, 13. Flower doodles, 14. Puppy in the Sky 2, 15. Shooting Star Tonight, 16. Flower Doodling, 17. you are a firecracker detail, 18. Spring Flowers in Ink, 19. vintage Valentine collage, 20. happiness, 21. butterfly journal full, 22. Still Life, 23. Watercolor Creatures, 24. All Creatures Great and Small, 25. Watercolor Patterns, 26. Flower Journal Page, 27. Decorative Detail, 28. Abyss, 29. Move Forward, 30. Dot Day, 31. colorful bird painting, 32. Rumi Quote, 33. Imagine, 34. Listen to Your Art, 35. You Are Awesome, 36. Wish watercolor collage

From the Archives

Since I have some new followers I thought I would share some old artwork from several years ago.  I remember when Daria was first born.  I did not have much time to make art.  As she got a bit older and was able to play on her own for a little bit at a time, I was able to steal some moments to do some quick art.  I loved when she got even older and was able to paint and draw and glue things next to me.  When Desmond gets a little older, I am looking forward to being able to do some art with him.  He's at that "everything goes in the mouth" stage now and he gets in to EVERYTHING.  He is able to pull himself up to standing now and as he moves around the room he manages to find everything that is not a toy to put in his mouth. 

Since I don't have anything new to show you, here are some artworks from the archives that I thought were interesting enough to revisit.   These are all from 2011.

With this one, I was experimenting with masking from contact paper and watercolor paints. 

A mixed media collage in progress...  I didn't like how the final version turned out, but I liked this in progress photo.

One of the beginning artworks in my "watercolor doodling" series.

An art journal spread

Next time I post on here it will be to show you some new artwork, ok?

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Art journaling and Quotes Illustrated

One of my artworks is in the Inspirational Quotes Illustrated: Art and Words to Motivate book which recently was re-released under a new publisher.  The book is available here on Amazon.

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A Hodge Podge of Art Pages

Just a hodge podge of art journal pages. 
Not a lot to say...
I played with some papers.
Scribbled some marks.
Laid down a lot of paint.

This next one was made from a hot glue stencil on a Gelli plate. 
Then I added watercolor paint on top and line work with white pen.

It reminds me of an island.
Or a map.

I donated a piece of art to the Artists Give Back online auction.  You can bid on my artwork starting at $15.  The artwork in the auction is this one:

The auction starts on December 8 and ends December 12.  There's a lot of awesome artwork already donated.  Check it out!

"Imagine Rites of Passage that end in pledges to educate African girls and empower them, rather than cutting them. Artists around the world have donated work AND shipping to raise awareness about Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and the importance of creating Alternative Rites of Passage (ARP) for girls and to highlight the dangers girls face as a result of FGM."

Art Journal Fun

I managed to spend a bit of time this past weekend working in my art journal. The first page was started with a watercolor background and then I tried to use up lots of scraps that were in my scrapbooking stash.  I really like this ink doodle with organic shapes.  Do you ever do that?  Limit yourself to just using the scraps you have in a pile.  See what happens when you try to just use up what you already have without cutting in to new pieces of paper.

An InLinkz Link-up

Portrait drawing with collage

This was a sketch I had started based off of a photograph I found online.  I was using this as a demonstration for teaching the grid method with one of my 5th/6th grade classes.  The girl already had some interesting decorations in her hair, so I decided to add some collage elements.


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Watercolor lettering collage

I used that Molotow masking fluid pen for the white parts of this image.  I did several layers of watercolor doodling and then used Sharpies and glued a few other collage elements on top.  I cut out two of the images from this previous page to include on this picture.

Gah!  I'm in such a creative rut.  I rarely have time to make my own art and when I do I feel like I don't know where to start so I just do something else.  Anyone else feel that way? 

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Molotow Masking Fluid Pen = Awesome!

I discovered the Molotow Masking Fluid Pen after reading about it on iHanna's blog.  I couldn't find it in too many American stores, but I did find it at Art Primo online.  This pen works just like regular masking fluid, but it comes out from a pen so it's much easier to control.


First, I drew the word "Imagine" using the masking fluid pen.  The fluid comes out blue, as you can see in the next picture.  After I drew my words, I used watercolor paint to doodle on top of the letters and around them.

Here's the final picture!  I can't wait to use the Molotow masking fluid pen more!

Scan of Fall Leaves Printable

Aren't the colors of the fall leaves breathtaking?  I scanned some of the leaves that I found on the trees here in Wisconsin.  Feel free to print these out, color designs on them with permanent or paint markers, make a collage or just draw from the pictures.  They would also look good on a bulletin board.

Download the higher resolution version here at TPT for free!

An Interview with William Wegman and International Dot Day

Hi!

I have TWO very cool things to share with you.

1.   I had the opportunity to talk to one of my favorite artists ON THE PHONE.  William Wegman, who is known for dressing his dogs in costumes and photographing them, was so gracious to talk to me on the phone for an interview.  I posted it on my other blog, Art is Basic.  Hop over there to listen to the recording!!

2.  You know how I shared my dot paintings in the last post?  Well, we celebrated International Dot Day at school and I made a blog post about my students' artworks, also on Art is Basic.

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Dot Paintings

This school year is so, so busy.  And I am so exhausted.  Keeping up with 2 kids plus teaching full-time is really tiring. 

I have been going to sleep most nights around 8 or 8:30 pm.

I seriously have not made my own art in at least 3 weeks. 

International Dot Day was Sept. 15th and we celebrated in my art classroom.  I did make a couple dot painting examples that I really like and thought I would share with you here.

My students made a TON of dots and I have them posted on our school Artsonia gallery.  I will make a few photocollages to show you later.


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Move Forward

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My Art Classroom

School started this week!  Wow, what an adjustment going back.  My feet and back are aching!  I've had to get both kids ready for daycare in the morning, since my husband is on the morning shift for a few weeks, so I've been having to wake up so early!  I've spent so much time on my art classroom this summer.  We had an addition built to our school and they built ANOTHER ART ROOM!  So exciting!  I have the old room, but now I do not have to share a room anymore, so we have so much MORE SPACE to spread out into.  I thought I would show you some of the fun parts of my room.  If you want to see more pictures in my classroom, you can visit my art teaching blog Art is Basic.  

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Colorful Watercolor Bird Painting

I managed to paint a bird this week quickly during nap time.  Birds are one of my favorite things to draw and paint.  Like flowers, they are very forgiving if they are not exact.   

Five more days until school starts!  Yesterday my little guy turned 4 months old.  Isn't he the happiest little guy?