ffyrebird

A Return to Art

Well we returned home, but I didn't return to trying my hand at making art for what seems like ages.  Once I got out of the habit of daily drawings during the trip it was murder starting up again.  To be fair, life has been a little more insane than usual around here.  We returned from our vacation only to find our upstairs AC was dead, in the middle of a heat wave!  Cut to a string of folks coming out to give us estimates then us deciding to replace both units since we basically killed the downstairs unit running it alone in triple digit temps while they came over.  Finally, over a month since we left on vacation we got to sleep in our own beds again.  During this whole fiasco I couldn't find the time, energy, or even desire to make art.  I'm just rebooting now with assignments from Laure Ferlita's Imaginary Trip to Italy class........

Z is for Zebra

Zebra in technicolor!!!

AJE Lesson 2

A fun little buny for the second lesson in Art Journaling Explorations.

AJF Finale

I had sooo much fun in theis class, Artful Journaling Foundations by Laure Ferlita!! It was amazing!!

Monkeying Around

One of the stuffed animals hanging around my desk...

Dewdrops Lesson

From Laure Ferlita's Imaginary Virtual Trip to the Garden...

Dewdrop Practice

Practice for Laure Ferlita's class, Imaginary Virtual Trip to the Garden...

AJF 11

Another late night, early morning, uggg!!  Catching up in Laure's class..

Art Journaling Foundations #10

Every Day in May is obviously over, so now I'm back to doing my homework from Laure Ferlita's Art Journaling Foundations class...  I didn't get the 'puter back from R1 till late so I'm posting early in the morning on the 2nd, but since I'm still up it is officially still the first, LOL!!

IVTG and AJF Homework

I haven't been keeping up with posting my homework from the Imaginary Trip to the Garden and the Artful Journaling foundation classes, so here it is now....

 

 

and the revised versions of:

 

Fortune Cookie

Once again my day (and my drawing) has gone past midnight so I'm magically rolling back the time to keep it on 'my' sleep deprived mind's day.  My official line is -- the day isn't reeeeaaallllllly over until I go to bed, LOL.  I really need to start getting to bed earlier!!

 

 

Lemonade

Another late night, early morning and since I haven't gone to bed yet- it is still officially Wednesday in my brain.  Hence, rolling back the time stamp to 11:59.

A fun lesson from Laure Ferlita's Artful Journaling Foundations Class.

Flower Box

It is after 3 am and I am finally finished and posting my drawing/painting for today.  I'm rolling back the time stamp for the post to just before midnight so it posts on Tuesday, 'cause in my feeble brain Tuesday isn't really over until I go to bed!!

A lesson from Laure Ferlita's class- An Imaginary Visit to the Garden.

Violet Wood Sorrel- Imaginary Trip to the Garden

The first assignment for the Imaginary Trip to the Garden class by Laure Ferlita-- violet wood sorrels.

Ducks at Bass Pro and R2 Surfing

For the last lesson in Jane Lafazio's Watercolor on Location class we had to draw moving animals.  Our house is pet-less since we all have major allergies and it is till way too cold to go to the zoo, so I was stumped trying to figure out what to draw.  Luckily there is a nearby Bass Pro that has an indoors pool with fish and ducks.  I went at night and the lighting indoors was dimmer than I would have liked by the pool and I had trouble really seeing the details in the ducks' plumage.  That was probably a blessing in disguise since it forced me to keep the sketch really simple.  The ducks were in constant motion so this was a really challenging assignment-- but a lot of fun!!

 

When we came back home I wanted to get in my ink drawing for the day and was at a loss for what to draw.  R2 was surfing the web and I really need work on drawing people, soooooo he was my victim/model for today.  The smear on his elbow is where my fountain pen 'burped' on the page.  Vintage pens are nice and have flexible nibs the newer pens can't even begin to compare with, but they are unpredictable........

Historic City Square, Headphones

For Jane Lafazio's Sketchbook and Watercolor on Location class this week, it was sketching outdoors.  It has warmed up here a lot so this was great timing.  I packed up the kiddos and drove to a town south of us with an historic city square complete with a bell tower on top of the old courthouse.  They all sat in the van doing homework while I sketched and painted using the steering wheel easel method,LOL!  We were parked in front of the new city hall anex, I wonder what folks coming in and out thought of the crazy lady drawing away??

For an ink drawing a grabbed a pair of the kiddos headphones.  I stopped buying them the in-the-ear models after reading how that was the worse type for causing hearing damage and started buying them ones that sat outside their ears.  We've been through almost every version, the ones that hook over the ears like Bluetooths do, the behind the head,  then over the head types.  The kiddos actually like this old school, earmuff type the best.  It's comfy on their ears (they even sleep in them) and they say that they can hear more of the music this way, especially complicated pieces like classical piano.  Yes, they do like classical music and listen to it voluntarily along with just about every other flavor of music there is (barring dark, discordant music like death metal).  They are an eclectic bunch.

More from the Arabia

I did a few sketches at the Steamboat Arabia Museum into the Fabriano Venezia Journal.  The last one was done in pencil then lightly gone over with pen and ink and watercolor.  I like the control and feel of sketching with a pencil, but the tombow was fast to sketch with. Since it doesn't fit completely on my scanner bed, the scan turned out pretty bad, I really have to speed up the search for a large format scanner.

Steamboat Arabia Museum Pen Sketches

Our assignment in Jane LaFazio's Watercolor on Location class was to go sketching in a museum or shop and skip the pencil, instead sketching directly with a Tombow pen.  After church today, I drove up to the Steamboat Arabia Museum to get in some sketches.  I'd never been to the museum before and it was very nice.  Our guide was wonderful, and I would have enjoyed the museum even without sketching.  I'm one of those people who can focus and tune everthing else out (just ask DH, he hates trying to get my attention when I'm reading!!) so I really wasn't bothered by folks peaking over my shoulder while I was sketching.  I did get a laugh when I was roughing in a sketch of a gunpowder flask.  The gift shop lady stopped by and said, "My, you are intent.  Are you sketching the flask or a lightbulb?"  What a hoot!!! Things like that definitely keep you humble!

 

Tombow Testdrive

For the watercolor sketching on location class, this week we are to go to a museum and do some pencil-free ink drawings using a watersoluble pen, the Tombow brush pen.  I decided to give mine a test drive at home. It was dinner time when I got home from buying the pens, so I wedged in a couple of super-quicky sketches of Da Bear.   I'm sure glad I did. The Tombow pen handles much differently than watersoluble ink in a fountain pen.  It lays down a lot more ink and when water is added the wash is more intense and harder to control.

Starbucks

I managed to make it to Starbucks before the incoming blizzard.  This sketch is a two-for:  the last daily drawing in my journal for January and a coffee shop watercolor for Jane LaFazio's Joggles class.  I did this with Noodlers ink in an old Esterbrook pen. On this paper it wasn't permanent and smeared with the addition of watercolor, maybe because it is a book of watercolor paper and the sizing kept it from bonding with the paper.  Any way, I like playing with pen and watersoluble ink so it wasn't that big of a problem.....

Watercolor on Location Class- Week 2

For Jane LaFazio's Joggles class this week we were supposed to sketch in a cafe or coffee shop.  I'm a tea drinker and was starving after a night shopping, so I decided to go to Panera instead.  I got my food right off the bat and settled into a booth to sketch it.  I wasn't even finished drawing when one of the employees, came up to me to say they were closing.  Ackkk!!  (The server was really very nice and said I could stay until I was finished, but I didn't want to be impolite and keep the staff from closing.) I slopped some paint on and gulped down my dinner.  The lettering and story were added at home.

Sketchbook & Watercolor: On Location Online Class

This is the first day of The Sketchbook and Watercolor: On Location Online Class by Jane LaFazio over on Joggles.  Her last class was so much fun, I couldn't resist this one!!

 

Joggles class lesson 6

Yes, I know I'm horribly late in posting this but that is just how the holidays get around our house.  From Thanksgiving to New Years is just one giant frenzy.  The last Joggles lesson was to draw something man made.  I painted a mug the kiddos got for me on a trip to Yellowstone.  at the time I was really into colecting tea things. I have a lot of cool tea stuff china cups from all over, Russian tea glasses, jade guiwans- but this is the mug I reach for when I feel sick and want a hot cuppa.  It makes me happy.

Joggles class lesson 5

Shoe week!!  I drew a pair of Birkies I bought to wear with socks that I knit from my handspun yarns.  Handspun makes toasty warm socks that feel like a cloud. The only problem is mine are a tad thicker than store bought socks and make shoes fit a bit snug.   And why do all that Fair Isle knitting just to hide it in a shoe?  The answer to those problems-- Birkies!!

 

 

Joggles class lesson 4

While doing lesson four, I learned a very inportant lesson-- if you are going to draw and paint while holding your subject, have everything ready before you start.  To get the flower at the angle I wanted for the drawing I had to hold it in my left hand.  I forgot to get my paints out so I had to put the flower down to get them.  When I picked up the flower again to paint it, everthing was wonky!  I turned it round and round and never really captured the same view so I just improvised.

Sketchbook and Watercolor: Journal Style Class

I recently joined a wonderful class at Joggles led by Jane LaFazio called Sketchbook and Watercolor: Journal Style.  I joined up around week two of the six week class and have rushed to catch up.  The class is so much fun and Instructive.  I highly recommend it to everyone!!!!

There is a public Flickr group for this class, so I think it is ok to post my work from the class here on my blog also. I'll just put up the finished results and not go into the lesson part---ya gotta take the class to get the goodies.

Lesson 1

 

Lesson 2

 

Lesson 3