I'm Just A Girl...

Just a simple journal page in watercolor, but I like her...

It's how I felt the day I painted her.

You'd never know that I love the Pierrot and Cirque De Soleil faces and costumes would you? Not a fan of the regular circus clowns though. :)

I'm still working on getting my Etsy shop started and any day now I'm going to finish painting the rest of my dog portrait in oils. I'm going to have to stop starting stuff and take some time to finish some things.

I have been doing some linoleum block printing in my journal and I have 3 small acrylic paintings in progress. Acrylic is not my best medium, and doing a whole painting is not easy for me.

Anyway, hope the girl made you smile. :) (Sorry, the paragraphs are seperated on my post, but won't seperate when I publish them)

EDM #1-Draw a Shoe

A sketch of Jim's old brown work boots, which I'm not too pleased with. I didn't have a good light source, the back boot was mostly in dark shadow and needs some more work. They both need more work, but I decided to share them on Every Day Matters anyway. Maybe I'll retry them at another time, or maybe I'll paint them with a stronger light source. They were fun to sketch.

EDM #242- Favorite Figurine

This is a sketch of a Snowbaby Christmas tree ornament that one of my friends, Lennie, gave me several years ago. She gave me two. The other one is sitting on a sled. It's been probably 10 years and I've never told her this kind of funny story.

I didn't put up a tree the year she gave them to me, and I thought they were so cute, plus they were a gift from a dear friend, that I wanted to be sure and put them where they would be safe and I wouldn't lose them, which I did.

They hadn't been seen since, until the other day I was cleaning out some boxes. I had looked for them numerous times over the years, in the Christmas decorations, the cedar chest, and other places I keep sentimental stuff, to no avail.

I had told my other best friend about putting them where I would know where they were, and we laughed about it. I knew they were here somewhere, but I had hidden them from myself. I know none of you have ever done that. LOL

Anyway, the other day, hubby and I decided to do some decluttering. The spare bedroom has been uninhabital for years, because it has turned into a storage/junk room. It's also where my Christmas tree and decorations are in boxes under the bed and bags of clothes that I've "outgrown" but might wear again "someday" are littering the floor.

I decided to start in there, having to set stuff out in the hall to have room to maneuver around. Inside the door sat three large boxes on top of one another with a stack of clothes that I had outgrown piled on top of them. I sorted through the clothes, laying aside what Mama might wear. I sorted through the top two boxes, which had all kinds of bric-a-brac, albums, pictures, clothes, etc in them.

Among other things, in the bottom of the third box, were two brand new fleece robes that I had forgotten about. I lifted the top robe up, and there was something wrapped in a paper towel snuggled between them. I knew immediately what it was. I opened the paper and there were the two little snowbabies grinning at me, still all new and sparkley.

I yelled and told hubby that I had finally found the snowbaby ornaments that I hadn't seen since the day Lennie gave them to me years ago. I didn't care if they were Christmasy. I brought them to the dining room amidst my art stuff and sat them where I could enjoy them finally.

The EDM challenge 242 was to draw a favorite figurine. I have many, but I decided to sketch this one, because he makes me smile.

Lennie would be the first to laugh about me hiding them from myself all these years, and this year they will be hanging on my little Christmas tree with all my other "special" tiny ornaments.

Three large boxes are all that I got decluttered that day, but it made a small dent, I found a lost treasure and two new robes, and who knows what other treasures, that I've hidden from myself, I'll find when I resume.

Ah! The joys of getting older. Hope I made you smile! :)

Crazy Quilt-Crazy Cat

Yep! Another doodle cat! Hope he makes you smile! :)

CED-Ducks, Experiments, & Inspiration

Ducky Blue Napping was an experiment in finger painting. I used watercolor and inktense pencils to color the doodle drawing in my Moleskine watercolor book. You know I like darker, more intense, colors, don't you? Anyway, then I dipped my finger in water and made little swirls all over the background, merging the colors together. I also used my finger to paint the duck. His feathers are fingerprints. I used a black pencil to emphasize some of the feathers. I like him!



I hadn't carved a linoleum block in a while, but I was INSPIRED by Dandelion 's block prints on her blog to get mine out and start carving. I had some small pieces of linoleum already cut, so the swan is atc sized and the hat lady is just a little larger. I drew with a pencil directly on the tan linoleum, then carved the lines out. I usually carved everything out but the lines, but Dandelion's pieces were so delicate and pretty I decided to try it that way. This is a trial run on an old envelope, and they need tweeking a bit more, but I decided to share them anyway. I had fun doing them!

Walking the Peace Duck is a drawing born of doodle marks and imagination in the Moleskine sketchbook. It is drawn in regular pencil, and I digitally enhanced it make it darker. You can see some of the doodle lines remaining that I pulled the image out of. I will probably eventually color it in, but right now I love it as is.

I also have a blog post for Every Day Matters of a pencil drawing of a pear from five different angels if you'd like to see.

I seem to have gotten a jumpstart on CED's September theme of Inspiration. I have been inspired all week to try different things. I even took the plunge and opened an Etsy shop. Now I need to get inspired further and get it all set up and something in it for sale.

Hope one of these made you smile! :)

EDM-#24 Piece of Fruit

I decided to get my feet wet with this drawing challenge of a piece of fruit. This is the same pear drawn from five different angles. It's drawn in my Moleskine sketchbook with a regular pencil and an overhead flourescent light. I usually do doodle drawings and was surprised at how much I enjoyed drawing this pear from life.

Three Muses Challenge-Wings On Things

I don't know if this is exactly what The Three Muses Challenge had in mind when they picked " Wings on Things" for this week's challenge, but my black swan doodle has wings. I'm just saying...

Hope he made you smile! :)