Coffee Cup--Creative Tuesday

Here is a painting I made with water mixable oil paints.  It's more of a painted sketch...  I suppose I could cut the painting into two, since it is divided in the middle.

I had started it awhile ago and then Hot Toast and Jam had coffee as a theme for their Creative Tuesdays this week.  So here is the finished painting.

Also, this is linked to Dina and Samantha's Out of the Journal challenge.
These are the water mixable oils I used:

Backgrounds

Backgrounds for art journaling....  words can be added later or pictures collaged on top.

Are you an artist in blogland? Directory of Artists

Many of my blog friends were a part of Artsee Bloggers which is now closing down.  I decided to open up a similar place where everyone can link their art blogs.  It does not have the category separations like Artsee Bloggers had, but I figured you could stop by the blogs and spend a minute or two to decide if it is a blog you are interested in.  Many people work in multiple forms of art.  I plan to do a weekly weekend check-in, where you will link directly to a post from the week about what you have created.  For the weekly check in, there will not be restrictions on the type of art or themes, it will just be sharing what you have done!  I hope to also compile a list of favorite art resources and books for your perusal.  So, join the blog directory, grab a button and spread the word!

Mosaic Monday

Mosaic Monday is a mosaic of inspiration for you.  These were found on flickr through my contacts and groups.  This is not my own art.  Click through the links below to see their original sources.  Hopefully they will inspire you as they have inspired me!

1. Seattle Souvenir Journal: Full, 2. Fabulous - greeting card, 3. poster for a series of events at the oakland museum of california, 4. adjectives, block letters, 5. Untitled, 6. the touch of summer, 7. ideal vacation spots 'in the sun class', 8. Magna Doodle, 9. Let'n Loose!, 10. center of circulation, 11. doble vision, 12. Effloresce, 13. Caldas watercolour, 14. song for autumn, 15. my playground

Sunflowers

Sunflowers were the theme for Inspiration Avenue this week.  Sunflowers are also my favorite flower. 

I did two sunflower artworks for this challenge.
First, I painted a sunflower on watercolor paper.  Then, I made a couple of photocopies of the sunflower I painted in order to use them again.  I made an art journal page first, which I wasn't entirely pleased with, which you can see here at this previous blog post.    So here is the canvas I came up with, which I like a bit better.  I used that photocopy of the sunflower, and layered it on top of another photocopy of one of my watercolor paintings, this one.   I added some acrylic paint and oil pastels to integrate the two together.  I used some of the cute red Japanese tape on the sides of the canvas.  I also used oil pastels on the border and then smeared them with baby wipes.  I love the soft effect.  I will make a little tutorial at some point to show you how fun and easy it is.

And since I love sunflowers so much I'm going to share with you some really fun pictures I have.

First, here are the sunflowers from my garden from last year:

You can see how ginormous these are.  They were so beautiful, but they shadowed the rest of the garden and we didn't get a lot of good vegetables that year.  So, we scaled back the sunflowers this year and put them in the back row instead of the front.  I haven't taken a picture of them yet.  And my hair is super red there!

Here are some photos from my school garden.  I do Student Council at school, and with the kindergartners we planted sunflower seeds.  Each of them also planted a few sunflower seeds in a flower pot to take home.  They decorated the pot in my art class.  Here are some of our beautiful flowers.

Also linked to Paint Party Friday , Out of the Journal, and the Butterfly Effect.

Sunflower

Sunflower journal page--- cut outs of watercolor paintings, painted sunflower, magazine images, acrylic inks

What's on my desk

 

 I bought a couple magazines from the Japanese marketplace that I went to in Chicago this week.  They were on clearance for only a couple dollars.  They have some really cool pictures for collage making... like THESE:

 

I also bought some white out pens.  Good for writing in white on colored pages.  

Don't buy the Bic kind, they are blobby.

Colorful tape I ordered off Ebay.  These were a pretty decent deal, as far as tape goes.  

They are all so colorful and fun!   Now I'm done buying any more art supplies for a long time.

Working on painted backgrounds:

Watercolor sunflower.. More to be done with this later!

What's on your Workdesk Wednesdays

Mixed Media Collage

 Flowers at the Botanical Gardens

turned into a collage

 Old photo of a girl taking a photo

turned into a collage

These are two sides to one collage...  they might work better as individual pages.. to add writing or not?

Inscribed Workshop

Two more pages from the inscribed workshop. This exercise was using patterns found in photographs. Linked to the Butterfly Effect.

watercolor painting

Playing around with shapes and colors.... 9 x 12"

Have you joined the Out of the Journal challenge? 

Messy Journal Pages

Messy Pages

I guess this is what they call "raw art journaling".... not neat, a jumble of thoughts, clippings and so forth...
 cut ups of paintings, lettering with a skinny brush....

Paintings from my watercolor class

I have been taking a watercolor painting class this summer and Wednesday was our last day.  Here are two of the paintings I made.

Happy Paint Party Friday!

black and white photos

Black and white photos for use in my art journal....  playing with contrast..

from Traci Bautista's Inscribed workshop.

Hearts on Fire

Heart on Fire Watercolor...  Maybe I will add lettering or more designs to this.  Maybe not.  We'll see...

Interview on Scat n Style

Hey!  I have an interview on Scat n Style blog.  Check it out!

The Beauty at Your Feet

How have I never noticed leaves like this before?  I have never observed such leaves that are left with only the veins.  Now they are everywhere.  I see them all around the neighborhood.  Maybe I have never noticed them before.

Lettering Tutorial

Lettering Tutorial

What I like to do sometimes to spice up my writing is to find some interesting fonts online and copy them in my journal.

Rendering the letters of the font will never be exactly like printing them off the computer because you add your own artistic touch to each of them.

For this letter, I searched "The Letter B" on google.com (using the images tab).  I liked this letter:

So I used my marker and dove right in to copy the lines how I wanted to.  No pencil first.  Whatever happens, happens.   I changed it up a bit as I went and did not feel the need to copy it exactly as shown.  The letter above gave me guidelines for the extra flourishes and design.  Here is what I drew.  See, it's not exactly the same, but it looks interesting.

So I did the same thing with the rest of the alphabet and looked up many other fonts.  Search for "fonts" under google images. 

Here is my alphabet sampler.  

Now I want to see what you do with letters..  Comment here and share your lettering.

I'm biased.

I know I'm biased but I think my daughter has amazing artistic sense.  :)  It's so wonderful to watch her drawing.  She is so focused and intense.  Her little book is almost totally full of her colorful drawings. 

First pages from the Inscribed Workshop

I am taking an online workshop that I won through a giveaway with Traci Bautista.  It is called Inscribed and it just started, so you could probably still sign up if you want to.  School starts soon and since I am a teacher I will be busy in the next couple weeks so I don't know if I'm going to be able to keep up with every lesson.  The first lesson included exercises about using found color swatches. 

Everyday Object

Drawing everyday objects for the Sketchbook Challenge....  this is what I see around my house.

I used tombow markers and water for this.

Art Journal Every Day

Well, not every day, but it would be nice.  I try to do something artistic every day, even if it's something small.

New cover for art journal.. not my usually crazy bright colors

Earth Journal Page--- Evolution of Pages

Earth prompt from In the Sun
Here's the before and after of the evolution of these pages.

Phase ONE

Phase TWO

Pages FINISHED!