Collage with Fox

I can't believe it's been since July since I last posted!  I really haven't been too active with my own art making. I have been making collages here and there in my art journal.  I have also been focusing my extra time into my teaching blog and online shop, which is Art is Basic.  I have a few collages to post and I will do so over the next couple of blog posts.

Here is the first one.  I call it Fox on Top.

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Multi-Layered Art Journal Page

I hope you have a very happy holidays!  While this is not holiday themed, it is a recent art journal page.  The right side page is not quite finished.

Watercolor Bird Painting

 

This is a recent watercolor painting I completed.  #5 in my series of watercolor birds.  Read more to see detail shots.

Beautiful Things Art Journal Collage

 

Here is a recent art journal page.  

Summer of Color: Orange, Orange, Blue

 

I made this scrappy collage for the Summer of Color Week 6 Challenge.  The colors were one orange + one orange + one blue.  This is the first week of the challenge that I've had time to do.   I don't think I've ever used a color scheme like this in my artwork.   

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Drawing a Girl in my Sketchbook

I picked up the book Drawing and Painting Beautiful Faces by Jane Davenport and practiced drawing and painting some faces.  I like the technique that she shares for drawing eyes.  Looking forward to drawing more!

Create magic in your art journal!

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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

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?

Art Journaling with a Quote

This summer is going by in a blur of playdates, outings to museums or parks, water fun and meals at restaurants.  We've had lots of occasions, visitors and special events where we end up out somewhere.  I think we cram all of our social life for the year into the months of nice weather.  In the winter, we tend to hibernate.

The top art journal page is in progress.  I found it while looking through some old art journals and I never finished it.  I like the tie-dyed colors a lot in this picture, which were made by painting watercolor on paper towels.  

The bottom journal page I made by spraying inks through stencils.  After it was dry, I took it with me on a long car trip (I was not driving!) and added the collage pieces and doodles with pen.  

The quote spoke to me.  I find it hard sometimes especially with Facebook and blogs to not compare myself to other people.   Lately I've been having a hard time seeing everyone's awesome vacation photos.  But yet, I still go online far too much.

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Somerset Studio Gallery Magazine

I was super thrilled to receive an email that I was going to have an art journal published in the Somerset Studio Gallery magazine (Summer 2014 issue).  I had submitted this book over 2 years ago and I had pretty much forgotten all about it.  You can see all the pages in a video here.

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Art Journal Flip-Through

Here is a flip-through video of my most recent art journal!  I hope you enjoy it.  All of the pages can be seen on this blog or on my Flickr account.


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Butterfly Art Journal Page

Keep in touch with me!

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Art Journal Page with Magazine Images

National Geographic has some interesting photos to use in art journals.  In college, I did a whole series of paintings based on octopi.

• Don't forget if you would like to join us at Artists in Blogland for a Scavenger Hunt challenge, the current theme is Doors and Windows.

• I recently bought Mindy Lacefield's sweet book of art.  It is chock full of her lovely paintings and poetry. It is like getting a personal look inside her art journal.  If you enjoy her artwork, I think you would really like this book.

 

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Background for My Art Journal

Playing with a background in blocks of color..

book page
gelli prints
tissue paper
acrylic paints

These are two examples for an art journal project I'm doing with my 3rd graders.  We used large vinyl letter stickers (that were donated to the art room) and cut them into shapes and lines.

After the shapes are stuck to the page, color in the negative spaces with watercolor paints.

Gel pen designs can be added to the top of the stickers.

I have a few fun links around the internet to share with you.

• My Modern Metropolis has a lot of intriguing modern art posts, including this one of amazing photos of animals congregating. 

•  These rainbow-tastic paintings by Saddo Jaddero

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I Needed to Make This

Well, not necessarily THIS, but I needed to make SOMETHING.  I've been worn out from the day-to-day routine of teaching and from things going on in my life... not in a bad way, but just tired.   I've been falling asleep by 8 or 9 pm every night, which is fine because it is what my body needs.  Sleep is a priority for me!  Without getting a solid 8-9 hours a day I will be crabby and not able to enjoy the day. 

Some of the supplies I used are:
a variety of acrylic paints,
paper scraps,

Shiva Oil Paint Stiks

the pink Sharpie poster paint marker from this set:

Watercolor paints:

At school, we are building an addition to double the physical size of our school.  The construction is right outside my window, which has been really fun to watch. We will have another art room when the construction is done, which is super exciting.

In order to connect the buildings, they will be knocking out our wall and making a hallway through our storage and kiln room.  (A new storage area will be built between the two art rooms.)  That will happen at the end of October or November.  At that time, the kiln will be out of service for the rest of the year.  So I am doing clay with all of my classes now.  That is 11 classes doing clay all at once in our small space.  There are clay projects everywhere!  It is crazy. 

Linking to Paint Party Friday and Art Journal Every Day
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Color this Quote: May Art Journal Page

This art journal page was made for the Artists in Blogland Color this Quote challenge.

Thanks for reading!  Best wishes, Marcia
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Art Journaling Exposed 2

I am very honored to share with you that I have an article in the Art Journaling Exposed 2 downloadable E-magazine from Cloth Paper Scissors.  I browsed through the issue last night and it has a lot of interesting articles and videos.  My article is titled "13 Great Layers for Art Journal Pages"

These are some of the pages in the article.

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