This Week's Creative Endeavors

Life is happening right now, big time, but I managed to get in a little creative stuff last week. This week, not so much. You can go to http://creativeeveryday.com/creativeeveryday/2012/07/creative-every-day-check-in-july-23-29.html and click on the links to see a lot of wonderful inspiring work from other much more creative people than me. :)

Sunday: I blogged and posted on my blog and was inspired by other peoples' blogs.

Monday: I wrote down a list of words that spoke to me, wrote them on a seperate paper, then cut them apart and rearranged them into a poem. The words on the right are the ones I had left over. I put them in a box with other word blocks for future use.

I decided to glue the words down to the left page, then wrote it out below in gelly roll pen. The page still needs some work, but here it is for now. I also used some spray inks and a doiley stencil on the right page after writing the beginning line to a story, but I forgot to take a picture. :/

Tuesday: I gessoed two pages and added some fluid acrylic paints before taking my father-in-law to the doctor out of town.

Wednesday: I added handmade and found stamps with fluid acrylics to the  above pages, before taking my mama out of town to pick up her new glasses, and I got a haircut. The word Hope is written in green and needs a little more work to make it show up better. Anyway, I like the pages.

Thursday: I gessoed two more pages, using gesso mixed with fluid acrylic paint smooshed together by closing the pages together to add texture and pattern, added some homemade stamps, some rubbing plate/ink images, some spray ink, and some pencil accents and writing, and gessoed two more pages before taking my Mama out of town for a scan to check her arteries. This one is a reminder to myself. Not sure it's done either!

Friday: The above pages are a note to myself, and you can tell I was a bit frustrated. I wrote and doodled on the pages with water soluable crayons, pastels, and pencils, then rubbed them into the gessoed pages with my fingers, then I went over the pencil writing again to sharpen it back up and sprayed a sealer over them.

Saturday:  I know I've already posted this one, but I used an water soluable oil pastel over the whole thing, then rubbed it in with my fingers. Some of it came off the dried acrylics, some didn't. I like it better than the white background. It doesn't look so stark. I still need to bring out the images, so it is still a wip. I also gessoed two more pages.

I also experienced Chinese food for the first time. I loved stir fries already, but the restaurant was a whole new experience, and I loved what I ate. No raw fish though! :)

Hope you are all having a wonderful creative week, and thanks so much for stopping by my little corner of the internet! :)

What I've Worked on This Week-Mixed Media

Another busy week has flown by! I'm not having as much time to post as I would like, or to create either, but I try to do a little bit of art/writing every day despite what else is going on. I still can't seem to actually finish anything, so this week I've practiced some of the wonderful techniques for mixed media and art journaling that I've learned from Connie Hozvicka, Misty Mawn, Leah Piladas, Katie Kendrick, the many teachers in the 21 Secrets workshops, and many others.

I thought I would share each day's endeavor for the week in one post instead of several smaller posts. These are all very much works in progress. Here goes! :)

Sunday, we had company, but I managed to fashion Lolly (paper clay doll person) a hat before they arrived. I left it to dry and enjoyed the company, then watched a movie (don't remember what) and took a creative nap. :)

Monday we had to take hubby's dad to the Dr. He's been very sick. I managed to take a doodle sketch that I had previously done on a book page and transfer it to a gesso prepped 9x12" page before we left. I don't know why it transferred so pale a gray (it was drawn in black marker), but it will have paint layered over it anyway, so it's ok. I also collaged pieces of rubbings that I had previously done onto the background and left it to dry. PawPaw had a long Dr visit and hubby went in with him, leaving me in a quiet waiting room. I read 4 more chapters of "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" on my Kindle while I waited in one of the most uncomfortable chairs I ever sat in. By the way, I've seen this movie 3 times, so far. :)

Tuesday I slept really late, then had to take mama to a neighboring town to pick out her new glasses. The most creative thing I did all day was help her pick them out and decide what I wanted to eat. Sorry, no pictures!

Wednesday I painted Lolly's hat and evened out the skin tones a bit,

collaged a previously sketched on book page onto a gesso prepped 9x12 journal page, spritzed it with Dylusions ink sprays, and left it to dry,

wrote on gesso prepped page with black marker, added water-soluable crayons, and brushed gesso into and over it, then dripped water on the page and let it run,

decided I didn't like it, so I added fluid acrylics and ink, letting some run, then wrote on it with a red marker, liked it better,

added a plastic doily stncil on the sponge stamped page with Dylusions spray ink, and made pictures of the pages.

Thursday I tore pictures and text out of a Vanity Fair magazine that spoke to me and collaged them with gel medium onto a 9x12 gessoed page and left to dry, prepped 4 more pages with gesso,

added blue tinted gesso with an old credit cart for texture to 2 of the prepped pages,

brushed quinacridone burnt orange tinted gesso onto the other two prepped pages, left to dry, then dribbled titan buff paint on one page, closed the facing page on top of it and rubbed them together, then pulled them apart and let dry. I see all sorts of images!

I also tried dripping and drizzling 3 different color fluid acrylics on a gesso prepped page and rubbed the facing page over. There are all sorts of images in these that I can enhance and bring out.

Plus I took an Anne Rice book page, wrote down words that jumped out at me, cut them apart, and arranged them into a poem, which I then collaged to the bluish journal page above, and I made pictures. It was a fun morning!

Saturday I took 2 previously sketched on book pages and transferred them to 9x12 gesso prepped pages, wrote text with pencil, and added water soluable crayons, then brushed water over, and added more on top.

So there you have my fun for the week. I may have left something out, like movie watching, but this is the jist of it. Hope you enjoyed my journey of practice! :)

Background Pages to Wake My Sleeping Muse

When I can't seem to focus creatively, as has been the case for several days now, I make background pages for my art journal. They don't take long, they're fun, and they help get me back in the creative flow when I'm stuck, and I'm stuck on several projects right now. I have them half done and can't decide where to take them next, so I'm having fun just making a couple of pages every morning until my muse quits napping. :)

Below are some I've made in the last few days, using a 9 x 12 inch Strathmore mixed-media visual art journal. I used a variety of media, actually whatever was within arm's reach around the table. They included spray inks/dyes, acrylic paints, gold leaf pen, black marker, water soluable crayons and pencil, torn fast food bag, plastic and paper doily stencils, and emotion.

I also used a variety of techniques learned from various teachers online, both free instructions and not, to which I'm eternally grateful. They include stenciling, bubble wrap, stamping, lettering,  spattering, runs, lifting, mixing media, water dripping on wet paint, drawing, painting fearlessly, not trying to be perfect, saying what if, spraying, brushing, a bit of collage, doodling, left over paint, abstract, etc., and emotion.

The lighting was not so good, and I'm sorry about that. :(
 

I call them background pages, but truth is, sometimes I love the page just the way it is and will only add some writing when the right words come to me. Others will have more elements or paint/collage added to them before the words are added. Either way, I love doing these, and I learn a lot from just playing without fear, and each one of them comes from whatever I'm feeling or going through at the time, so they are all a diary of me, the good, the bad, and the downright ugly.

Hope you saw something on here that made you smile. :)