Art Every Day Month – Catch Up

I have gotten a little behind on posting, so I am just going to show you what I have been working on for the past 5 days without a lot of commentary. It has been a week of experimentation and trying new techniques, and I am having fun with all of it.

I spent a couple of days creating some ATC’s (Artist Trading Cards), which are the same as ACEO’s (Art Cards, Editions, and Originals) basically in that they are all 2.5 inches by 3.5 inches – the same size as other trading cards. The difference is that ATC’s are traded rather than sold. I had joined a local “Meet-Up” group called Pittsburgh Artist Trading Card group, and we were getting together this week for a “Craft Along”, so I wanted to have a few more to bring with me. It was a lot of fun, and we traded cards at the beginning our our afternoon, and again after we had made some new ones. These are the ones I made before the meeting, some of which I have already traded. I made 3 more on Sunday, and I will show you two of them the next time I post, as I forgot to photograph them today. The third one has already been traded and I didn’t get a chance to photograph it before it was gone. Of course I also received some wonderful ones in exchange!

       

Above and below are journal pages I prepared in the past few days after watching some fascinating videos made by Teesha Moore on her blog, showing how she makes her wonderful mixed media artwork and books. I loved the process and am creating some pages for myself following her techniques. We’ll see what they turn out like. I love the spontaneous, intuitive manner in which they are made! The photos on the left show just the background painted with either watercolor or a wash of acrylic paint, mixed with a thin layer of gesso to give the pages some body, since I am not using a watercolor paper journal. The right photos show the pages after I have added borders made from collaged strips of paper from magazines that had interesting patterns and colors.

I am working on 3 sets of pages at once – the ones above and these pages below:

     

    

Who knows how they will end up eventually? It will be interesting to see how they develop!

Today I played with a new set of wax pastels that are water soluble. When you brush over them on paper with water, they begin to look like watercolor. I didn’t have much time, but I wanted to capture some fall leaves with them and this was the result:

So, now I am caught up and hopefully can continue with 1 picture posted a day from now on.

Until tomorrow -

Arlene

Technorati Tags: acrylic paints,mixed media art,Art Every Day Month,art journaling,collage,intuitive painting,nature,paintings,autumn leaves,ATC,ACEO,watercolor

Art Every Day Month – Days 11 and 12

I procrastinated all day yesterday and never got down to my studio.  I was busy doing other things and couldn’t decide what I wanted to paint.  Then, in the evening, after I thought it would just be a day without creating anything, I got a sudden burst of creative energy. I didn’t want to paint.  In fact, I have been feeling lately that I want to learn more in another medium.  Call it artistic curiosity or my Gemini temperament.  Whatever you want to call it, I have been feeling it.  It’s not that I want to give up painting, I definitely don’t.  I love painting.  It’s just that sometimes, I want some variety.

My burst of energy last night resulted in my practicing some wire-wrapping techniques that I found in some tutorials on JewelryLessons.com.   I am not an expert yet – far from it! However, as you can see in the photos, I did manage to create a couple of sterling silver wire rings that I am wearing now and am happy with, for my first efforts. On the left is a “rosette” ring made from one length of sterling silver wire.  Next I tried another, simpler ring shown to the left.  At first I tried to make it by wrapping the wire several times around the ring mandrel, but I didn’t have the skill yet to make that work.  I re-did it just using the simpler form of the design.  It was a practice ring anyway, and it looks kind of cute.  I feel good that I did create something, and now have ideas on how I can perhaps add some beads to the designs. 

 

Then today I had the urge to work some more on my painting of the house and tree that I shared previously, and added in some more detail and shadows.  The changes are subtle, but noticeable, and it feels like it is done for now at least.  Here is the image of it now:

So that is about it for now.  Who knows what I will do tomorrow?  I don’t even know.  Until the next time!

Arlene

Technorati Tags: watercolor paintings,Art Every Day Month,creativity,Creative Every Day,jewelry,sterling silver,house,tree,green,leaves

Art Every Day Month – Day 10

This painting is almost finished, though when I stopped for the day last night, I saw that it needs a bit more shading in the leaves of the trees – some more dark areas to make the front leaves pop a little. I also don’t like that the window on the far right is so much darker than the other windows.  Once I added the first color and it was already too dark, it was too late to change it.  I do like the front windows on the left though.  That’s the challenge of painting in watercolors.  If an area is too dark, sometimes there is only so much you can do to lighten it. I have tried re-wetting it and lifting the color, but it just doesn’t get any lighter.

Oh well, lesson learned:  start out way lighter, even though you know you probably will darken it later!

Today, I hope to start something new.  Watch for the next post!

Arlene

Technorati Tags: Art Every Day Month,watercolor paintings,paintings,Creative Every Day,spirit essence art,house,landscape painting,trees,green

Art Every Day Month – Days 6 Through 9

I know it has been a few days since I posted here.  However, weekends are always a little bit more difficult for me to maintain a schedule of create art and at the end of the day post in the blog.  I want to share that I have been creating each day though, and I started another new watercolor painting.  This was of a photograph of a lovely Bed and Breakfast house we stayed in while having a weekend getaway near Lake Erie.  Here is what it looked like after the first day of painting it.

As you can see, it is sketched in and only part of the page has been filled with paint.  I spent quite a bit of time on Saturday painting on this and also today.  Unfortunately, I didn’t take a photograph after Saturday’s work.  Sunday (yesterday), I didn’t paint but did do some pencil sketches while waiting at the mall and Starbucks until it was time to meet my hubby and my daughter-in-law and grand-daughter for the movies. 

Today I worked on it some more and here is how it looks at the moment.

You can see I have started to develop the colors and shading of the house and windows, the leaves on the trees, and some of the grass and stones in the foreground.  I have more to do, obviously.  It is approximately 8 1/2 x 11 1/2 inches in size.

I have discovered that painting structures, such as houses, is challenging because the angles and perspective has to be pretty perfect!  No wiggly lines either or it looks very odd and unbalanced. I may be able to finish it tomorrow, or at least come very close.

On another happy note, the painting I completed on Day 5 has been sold!!  I was so excited!  I shared it on Plurk, which for those who do not know, is another social network similar to Twitter, and one of my friends there messaged me to say that she just HAD to have it! I hadn’t even listed it on my Artfire site yet!  That was very gratifying.  I am glad I know her a bit because selling one of your creations is a little like giving away one of your “babies”.  I am glad to know that it is going to a good home, to someone who will appreciate and love it when she receives it.

That’s about all for now until the next time.

Arlene

Technorati Tags: watercolor painting,house,trees,green,creastivity,perspective,Plurk,Twitter,Art Every Day Month,Creative Every Day,drawing,sketching,Artfire

Art Every Day Month – Day 5

Today’s efforts and persistence paid off in that I have completed the watercolor I had started at the beginning of this AEDM challenge. At least I think it is finished. What is interesting to me is that yesterday I had my doubts about the progress of the painting, and yet today I am happy with the results. It is further evidence that usually in the process of creating the painting, I like the beginning, usually HATE the middle stages, and if I keep going with adding in the details, I end up loving the final painting.

I wasn’t sure about how it was going at all, even at the beginning of today’s session, so I took a break and walked away from it to have a snack. Then I went back to it and somehow, miraculously, I knew what I had to do to finish the painting. It was almost instinctive, and really, if I had allowed my left-brain, analytical side to determine what I should do next, I would have quit and torn it up. I am glad I didn’t do that and I learned something from the experience.

What do you think? I haven’t named it yet. Any ideas?

Creatively Yours In Spirit,

Arlene

Technorati Tags: watercolor painting,Art Every Day Month,artist,landscape painting,nature,trees,autumn,waterfall,river,Spirit Essence Art,creativity

Art Every Day Month – Days 3 and 4

Yesterday was a busy day for me, since Tuesday is the day I teach my beginning stained glass class at the community college, especially since this was to be the last class for the semester, and the class decided to have a pot-luck feast of nibbles.  I had to get to the grocery store, prepare mine, and then get ready for teaching.  It didn’t leave a lot of time for any creative pursuits.

However, I had committed to this challenge, so I bravely went down to my studio even though I only had a half an hour or so to spend there.  I decided it would be a good time to work on an art journal page, and though it is far from finished, here is what it looks like now. 

I started off by journaling on the page how I was feeling pressured for time and other “worry thoughts” that were running through my head and needed to express rather than keep bottled up.  Then, I wanted to bury those words, because I do my best to keep my thoughts positive as much as I can, so I mixed some white gesso with some acrylic paint and covered them up.  If you click on the image to enlarge it, you can just see some remnants of words even if you cannot read them.  Next, I chose some random images and ephemera that struck my fancy and just glued them on the page, along with stamping a couple of wings and hearts.  Finally I used some more paint on the page and an inkpad to “grunge” up the edges.  (I’m not an expert in art journaling – is that the correct terminology?)  I am not sure where this is heading but I know that eventually, the direction will reveal itself.

Today, I worked some more on the watercolor I started on Monday, though it is still not finished.  I stopped when I ran out of ideas and energy.  Usually, the day after my class is a low energy day, and I have come to know this.  I also wanted to post this blog entry before it got too late in the day.

This first image has the reference photo to show you again, and the 2nd one is just the image I am painting. 

 

I can’t say I am terribly happy with my results yet, though I know from previous experience that I am at the “middle stage” on the painting, and often I dislike what it looks like at this stage.  So, I am choosing not to judge it until I have worked on it some more, because I have seen that the final few layers of paint are what really make the difference.

Until tomorrow -

Creatively Yours in Spirit,

Arlene

Technorati Tags: art journaling,watercolor painting,Art Every Day Month,collage,creativity,nature,landscape painting,paintings,spirit essence art

Art Every Day Month – Day 2

It was a great day!  Because of committing to doing art every day this month in Creative Every Day’s challenge for the month of November (the Art Every Day Month ), I had a focus today and a purpose.  I knew I had to get down to the studio to paint or do something creative, so setting my priorities was easy.  Yesterday I had selected what I was going to start painting today, so there was no delay.

I did do a big reorganize on Sunday, and today I spent the first half hour in my studio, finishing putting away a few things and then vacuuming the carpet. It feels so different now that I have consistent storage units and it feels like the room is so much bigger.  Amazing really.  Here is what it looks like now:

Overall view of room

 Close-up of my desk

New storage units

I will say that I am sure that I will continue to refine where things go, and the corner in the upper right of the first photo will change when my husband has time to build an “L” extension of the left-hand side of the desk to the corner of the room.  The storage shelf that is there now will be moved out to the area where I will eventually begin to do some fused glass again.  Hooray!

I did actually start a new painting, which I will continue tomorrow.  It was from a photo I took when I spent the day with a friend of mine from a small town north of Pittsburgh.  She showed me around to all the beautiful places near her, and though it was a rainy day, I got to take some lovely photos at least.

Below you can see in the first image, the photo of what I am using as a guide to this watercolor painting.  As you can see, the painting itself is only just a beginning, but the tree trunk is starting to actually look like a tree trunk!  Click on the image and it will enlarge so you can see it more clearly.

The second image above shows the painting with my messy watercolor paint palette next to it, and my jar of paintbrushes behind it.

That’s about all today – it is time to get dinner started, so I’ll end here.  Tomorrow you will see some progress on the painting, though my blog post may be kind of late, since I teach my last stained glass class for the semester tomorrow evening, and I won’t get home until after 10 pm.

If you do any kind of creative activities, why don’t you consider joining me in this lovely challenge?  I’d love to share it with you!

Creatively Yours In Spirit,

Arlene

Technorati Tags: Art Every Day Month,artist,Creative Every Day,paintings,watercolor,spirit essence art,paint palette,creativity

Create Art Every Day!

Hi, everyone!  Just a quick post today.  I just wanted to let everyone know I have decided to join in on a new challenge for the month of November.  It is Leah Piken Kolidas’ (from Creative Every Day ) once a year challenge called Art Every Day Month, which is always run during the month of November. The idea is to work on some creative project, even if it is not finished in a day, every day during this month, and to report on it daily or once a week, or as often as you can or want to do it.  It can be anything like painting, collage, mixed media, drawing, art journaling, making jewelry, working with clay, cooking, doing glass art - whatever is creative that you do!

I encourage you to join in with me and either sign up on Leah’s website and/or join me here in my blog and report your fun experiences by commenting and providing a link to your post on your blog or flickr photo.  I will commit to posting each day with a picture of whatever I am working on, either a completed work or a WIP (work-in-progress) photo.  If you want to participate also here in my blog, I will put a link to your blog or studio right here in my sidebar.  Just let me know by commenting here.

Today, though it is the 1st of November, I spent quite a bit of time re-organizing my studio space with the wonderful new storage shelves my husband made for me, so I am ready to start creating tomorrow and every other day this month!  This is going to be fun!!  Look for photos of my newly organized studio space tomorrow!

Let’s really be productive and creative this month!  It will be fun to do this with so many creative people!  I have already inspired a few other of my Plurk friends, so why not you too?

Thanks – Creatively Yours in Spirit,

Arlene

Technorati Tags: art journaling,artist,Creative Every Day,creativity,glass artwork,painting,spirit essence art,Art Every Day Month,drawing,collage,studio,flickr