Layers of Color workshop

Thanks everyone who sent me messages of congratulations on our new baby, Desmond!  He is doing very well, sleeping a LOT and I am steadily healing. 

I still have a LONG way to go to get my strength back up.  A simple trip to Target just completely exhausted me yesterday.

I have not had time to make art since Desmond was born, but I have been watching some of the videos in Stephanie Corfee's online workshop.  She is so talented!  The workshop is jam packed with so many ideas it will take me all year to work through them I'm sure.  And, each one, I just want to create multiple artworks based on the lesson. 

The artworks in this blog post were made based on one of her watercolor lessons.  When I photograph my watercolor pictures I have a hard time making the pinks not look washed out and strange.  Any suggestions? 

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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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Waiting

Still no baby!  Just waiting...  It feels like the baby should be here now, although I am only about 37 1/2 weeks.  The last ultrasound had the baby measuring about 8 lbs 12 oz already.  This is going to be a big boy!

Last night I made some of these watercolor backgrounds.  I started watching Stephanie Corfee's workshop videos and she starts out very similar to how I do my watercolor paintings.  I'm looking forward to the rest of the videos.

NEW FAVORITE CHEAP PAPER!

I picked up a watercolor sketchpad called Kid Made Modern from Target for under $3.  The paper is 7.5" x 9" which is perfect size for sketching and art journaling.  I was SO impressed with the quality of this watercolor paper.  For kid's watercolor paper, it is pretty darn good.  My plan is to buy a few of these pads and bind them to make my own art journal.  The three smaller paintings in the background were painted on this paper.

Vintage Valentine Collage

Guess what?  I actually managed to finish an artwork and blog about it!

Someone locally contacted me about participating in art show about LOVE and I thought this would be the perfect motivation for me to use some of the vintage Valentines cards in my stash.  Since that initial couple of emails I haven't heard anything else about the show, so who knows if it's going to happen or if that opportunity is gone.  Either way, it was a little kick in the pants to do something creative!

I used scrapbook paper cut into shapes, outlined in black doodles and white dots added.  Strips of tissue paper and paints were added as well.

These flowers on the right side were from an Instagram photo of a bouquet of flowers my husband sent me one year on our anniversary. 

 

A clown riding a pig?  I had to use this in my collage!

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Ink and flowers

Hi!  You might have wondered about my lack of posts lately.. I went on medical leave from work a couple of weeks ago.  My pregnancy is complicated and I could not work anymore.  The baby is healthy, but physically I need to lay down as much as possible and it is really hard to sit or stand without a lot of pain.  I have only about 3-4 weeks left to go and I'm ready!  I haven’t felt much like doing anything except sleeping and mindless activity, so I haven’t kept up on blogging. 

Image via Buntis

You know how people say art heals and art journaling is what they do when they don't feel well or whatever?  Well, that is not true with me!  It takes a lot of effort to do anything when I'm not feeling well and I feel like doing anything substantial is overwhelming.

This page is from several weeks ago.

I have some good art-related news though!  I LOVE Stephanie Corfee's artwork and splurged on an online course she was offering.  It's open all year so I will be able to catch up on it after the baby is born and throughout the school year.  I needed something to cheer me up after feeling horrible so much!

So, then, after deciding to sign up for Stephanie's class, I received notice that I had won a giveaway on Alisa Burke's blog for a SEASON PASS to her online art classes for the Spring/Summer.  It pays to subscribe to lots of blogs!  These also are open for a year after the launch date so I will have plenty of time to work through them..

So, yay!  I'm looking forward to watching their videos to get some creative ideas.  


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Butterfly Art Journal Page

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Fruit and Flowers, a Mouse and Me!

Fruit and Flowers:
I colored in the sketch that I showed you here.  I mostly used colored pencils, watercolor pencils and watercolor paints. 

A Mouse:
My 5th/6th graders are painting animals and my go-to demo is always a mouse or hamster.  I love cute rodents.  The kids are always astounded when I show them how to make furry texture with a fan brush!  So fun.

Me: 
Here I am at 33 weeks pregnant!  Time is ticking away.  Hopefully the sooner the better!

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Day 5 & 9 from One Drawing a Day

 **I joined an artsy book club on Facebook.  It was started by another elementary art teacher but there are other artsy people in the group who are not teachers.  You should come join us!  We are just starting to work through the book One Drawing A Day: A 6-Week Course Exploring Creativity with Illustration and Mixed Media.**

Day 5's assignment was to create washes with diluted ink and pen on top.  The subjects were people or animals.  Here is what I came up with.

Happiness is...

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One Drawing a Day

I joined an artsy book club on Facebook.  It was started by another elementary art teacher but there are other artsy people in the group who are not teachers.  You should come join us!  We are just starting to work through the book One Drawing A Day: A 6-Week Course Exploring Creativity with Illustration and Mixed Media.

The 2nd assignment was to draw with pen and dip ink.  The lines were supposed to be more loose and free, but I was having fun drawing the detailed butterfly.

** If you haven't already voted, please help me out!!  Many of you know that I have another blog, called Art is Basic, which is all about my teaching in the elementary art classroom.

I’m happy to announce I’m in the running for the top 10 art ed blogs of the year over at The Art of Ed.   I would be so honored to have your vote for Art is Basic. ****


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One Drawing a Day Book Club

I joined an artsy book club on Facebook.  It was started by another elementary art teacher but there are other artsy people in the group who are not teachers.  You should come join us!  We are just starting to work through the book One Drawing A Day: A 6-Week Course Exploring Creativity with Illustration and Mixed Media.

 

It seems to be work-at-your-own-pace, at least I know I won't be able to keep up every single day.  The first assignment was a pen drawing of a still life set up of stuff you find around you.

Drawing right with pen is harder than it seems.  I was so worried about drawing a line wrong it was hard to loosen up.  I pretty much always use a pencil first when drawing, so I feel a bit more free with my lines, knowing that I can erase.


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Vote for My Art Ed. Blog!

Hi friends!

Many of you know that I have another blog, called Art is Basic, which is all about my teaching in the elementary art classroom.

I’m happy to announce I’m in the running for the top 10 art ed blogs of the year over at The Art of Ed.   I would be so honored to have your vote for Art is Basic. You can vote for multiple blogs and I think you can vote every day this week..  

All of the other blogs are great ones too and I'm happy just to be nominated.


http://www.theartofed.com/2014/02/03/finalists-announced-and-voting-open-2013-art-ed-blog-of-the-year/


Thanks for your support!

Ready Steady Go Art Journaling

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Whimsical Girl Drawing

From my Instagram... a sketch of a girl.  I got a few DVDs from Interweave (there was a really good sale close to Christmas) which I looked at over my winter break. 



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Organic Shapes, Dots and Doodles

What is your definition of an art journal page?  Do you consider mixed media collages (even without words) to be art journal pages?  

My students at school saw me making this and they were so excited.  "Wow!  Can we make something like this?"

The Molotow Paint Marker in white is my new favorite marker!  It wrote over all these paint layers really well.  When I ordered it through that link above, I received a box of 6 markers (I think).  I don't know if that was a mistake and if it was only supposed to be one, but I was only expecting one marker. 

Linking to Paint Party Friday and Art Journal Every Day.

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