Aaahhhhh.....

I think spring has sprung as it has been wonderful here this week.  While I sit on the porch preparing this blog post this is what I see:

Oh how I LOVE my back yard and the peace and relaxation that it always offers.  Of course, no project worth doing should be done without some special helpers.  And as per their usual, Frodo and Sasha were on the scene to assist.  (And yes, I do so dearly love my Australian Cattle Dog fur babies!)

Here are some drawings of some faces I did during a recent work meeting.  They aren't exactly great but I am improving--really!  Ha!  Hey, it provided some much needed entertainment during prortions of the meeting that didn't really apply to me.  And some entertainment for those sitting around me as well!  The second photo is of people sitting around a table listening.  Not to great at drawing real, live subjects and the proportions are a bit off for some but it was fun and I will keep trying.  One day I'll look back and see how far I've come and I will be so happy....oh that that day would be sooner rather than later!  :-p

play! 2012

I attended play at the end of January this year again.  It was a great, creative, arty time with friends old and new.  I wish I could go every weekend...just disappear and make art in such a great, safe and supportive environment.  No politics.  No emergencies.  No one to take care of.  No grand responsibilities or work.  Just relaxation and creativity.  This is a good thing on occasion...


My Workspace

Our play Room!

It was a wonderful weekend and a good time was had by all.  I will miss everyone terribly until we get a chance to meet again.  In addition to my journaling and personal art creation I learned a lot from Tracy Moore about Lomo cameras and their vast array of qualities.  He knows so much and he seemed to love sharing it all with the group.  We went on a walk around Fort Worden and took photos.  I had a super-wide lens Lomo camera.  He is going to take the film and scan them for me as the photo developer had no clue as to how to print the double-wide exposures.  As soon as he sends them to me I will post some of them here.

Teesha Moore had us to do a collage exercize the first morning to warm us up.  I normally hate collage but the exercize we completed allowed a lot of freedom and no time for judgement.  Here are the QUICK ones that I made during the frenzie.  I plan to finish them out a little more and then take them and bind them together some how (maybe using a Japanese accordian fold spine book format, as suggested by my friend Steve from Arizona who also attended?) as a little memorial from the weekend.

Teesha also encourged us to do a study in values.  A value is a color that has had either black or white added to it.  The strip below is a total of 9 colors that have had either back or white added to them and then painted back into a little square of the same color with yet a different value.  It was a lot of fun and it taught me a lot about color.

It was a great experience.  And until I get a chance to visit Fort Worden and Port Townsend again, I will have a vast pool of wonderful memories upon which to draw and remember...



JournalFest Treasures

While out in Port Townsend for JournalFest, I visited Akamai Art and Glass Supply store.  They are the greatest art supply store and they have everything under the sun.  I heard about the Stabilo Woody 3-in-1 pencils during a class last year with LK Ludwig.  She used them in her journals and thought they were wonderful.  I made a not of them but never went to any lengths to find them.  Well, lo and behold, when I was wondering aimlessly though Akamai, I saw a full set hanging on the wall and I just had to have them.  I can never choose colors so I go ahead and buy the full set when I can and when it makes sense.  A box of 6 or 8 versus a box of 18--it was no contest!  Ha!  They have 1-cm "leads" in them and they go on sort of waxy.  However, like the 3-in-1 pencils, they completely dissolve with the application of enough water.  A very cool tool for the arsenal indeed.

I visited the JournalFest Gallery and found some items that had been submitted by Steve Salik.  The covers are made of polyer clay and the spines are made of leather.  I actually watched him create these at Play a couple of years ago and watched him demo his method of making faux jade and faux ivory.  The handmade books were in my price range so I was fortunate to be able to purchase both of them.  I really like Steve as a person and so that made the purchase that much sweeter.

Always being on the lookout for items I don't find at home much, I saw something I had recently heard about but hadn't had a chance to look for yet:  Inktense Blocks.  These are simply little sticks of the "lead" of Inktense watercolor pencils and allow you to put a lot of color on a page without wearing your pencils out.  I used it to make the background for my little fellow that I posted about a couple of days ago.  Not being an experienced watercolor artist I have a lot of learning to do about watercolor in general but at least I have used them and I will likely use them more in the future.  The other is a box of Derwent Aquatone watercolor pencils.  I have yet to use them enough to comment about them but hopefully I will soon.  Oh, and if you are wondering about the black tape, that is what I use to keep the boxes from popping open in my suitcase when I travel!

During the Vendor Night portion of JournalFest, I purchased this visual journaling class booklet from Juliana Coles.  I'm looking forward to cracking it open and getting started with some of it.

I also made some other vendor purchases from some other artists which I may post about later....if I can ever get some more photos taken.  Time is of a premium these days.

Photo Silly 2!

I am signing up for Photo Silly 2 that is an on-line class offered by Steve Sonheim via his wife's blog, Carla Sonheim.  It is going to be great fun.  I need something to keep me going artistically until I can get back on my feet here at home again and get some arty habits in place.  I love taking photos so I think this could be just the ticket!

You can check it out at:  http://carlasonheim.wordpress.com/2011/10/03/photo-silly-2-next-online-class-starts-oct-31st/

Some JournalFest 2011

Just wanted to drop by again and leave a couple of photos of somethings I did at JournalFest this year.  In Karen O'Brien's class "Pencil Dreams" on Day 3, I took a back and white copy of a head/neck clip art piece and finished out the rest of the portrait.  We were attempting to learn shading with pencils, watercolor and gauche on clear gesso ground.  It turned out pretty good I think:

We also did some fun faces in attempts to make imaginary faces.  Funny how just altering facial shapes and feature placement and sizes will cause a "face" to look comical.  Mine were a little extreme but they made me smile and even laugh at some of them: 

I loved JournalFest and I learned so much this year with Orly Avineri, Roxanne Padgett and Karen O'Brien.  All three are GREAT instructors and masters at what they do.  I can hardly wait for sign-ups for next year!  However, 2011 will be difficult to exceed....