Journal Pages, Zendoodles, Sketches, and Beads--Oh, My!

Hey there! It's been a while! I haven't been as creative lately as I was for a while, but I have been doing a little dabbling. Below is a smattering of some of the stuff I'm working on. I also have several canvases in progress. I'll share them later. I didn't get the best scans of these but you get the idea. Okay, here goes...

"Love": This is a double journal page in my "Book of Me" Moleskine sketchbook. I was playing with fluid acrylics, making different textures and patterns when the red hair and face shape appeared, so I gave her eyes and a nose. The centers of the flowers are my fingertip with black paint, so they are essentially my fingerprints. The Chinese character is a stamp, and I think it may be upside down, that means LOVE. I'm thinking it needs a little something else on the right hand page, maybe a word or too...

"Depression": Also a double page spread in the "Book of Me." I was having kind of a bad day. Can you tell? I drew the face on top of the dark colors and textures. The little face on the right is a stamp in a light spot. Maybe she stands for hope? There are words hidden in the paint, but I'm thinking I need a couple of words stamped in maybe white ink...

Also from the "Book of Me" journal. I really like the dark side and light side of the face and the fluid acrylic colors and textures. What I am not happy with are the two prominant white spots in the center, which were entirely unintentional. The pages stuck together and this is what I get for forgetting to put wax paper between them before I closed the book. I have some more work to do on this one before I can live with it...

"Life Goes On": Double page from a different journal. The background was colored in with watercolor pencils, sprayed with water, and smushed around with a paper towel and let dry. The coffee pots and some of the flowers and butterflies were on a paper towel that I seperated and tore apart, then using acrylic medium I glued them to the pages. The dragonflies and bees were torn from a different paper towel and glued down and left to dry. I added more color on top with the wc pencils, then decided it needed a face peeking out from behind the pots. I have a friend who practically lives for coffee. My cousin made the statement that no matter what is happening to you at the moment, Life Goes On. It seemed to fit...

Another double journal entry, which came about when I noticed the face peeking out on a paper towel that I had used to blot up the red paint off another project. There were lots of red splotches on the paper, but the face just jumped out, so I tore that section out and glued the top layer to my pages with acrylic medium and let dry. Then with fluid acrylics and a dry brush she grew hair, a dress, and additional background. The dark yellow background was brushed on and combed through to make the stripes. I'm waiting for the right words to come to me to add, but I like her...

"Regrets": Another journal page. This one is a doodle drawing, where I drew a lot of irrelevent shapes and lines, then pulled the image out with a pencil and went over with a black zig marker pen. The expression on her face looked like she was thinking about what might have been...

"Harp?": A Zendoodle attempt in the journal with a black Zig marker. The background is not really gray. For some reason the scanner picked it up that way.  It kind of took on the shape of a harp by the time I quit on it...

"Birdie": Another Zendoodle attempt. Gread meditation tool. I love this little guy that emerged out of the doodles...

"Girlfriends Matter": A journal page about girlfriends. The stamp is one that hubby got me for Christmas a couple of years ago. I colored the page with watercolor pencils, sprayed slightly with water, then smudged it around with a paper towel and let dry. I added a little irridescent pastel color and sprayed with sealer, after I stamped it. The color swatches are scraps of unruyu paper (I LOVE this paper) left over from another project that I glued randomly around the page with acrylic medium. I sprinkled copper glitter onto the page while the medium was still tacky, let dry, then sprayed with a sealer. I wish you could see the glitter better, because girlfriends DO matter...

Attempted beaded bookmarks: These look remarkably simple, don't they? I'm probably the only person in the world that could have turned a simple project into something as complicated as I did, mainly because I was using what I had on hand and most of my beads had TINY holes. Anyway, it was fun, and these are my four trial (learning) bookmarks. Two on ribbon, one on copper wire, and one on bookbinding thread. The ribbon ones are my favorite, and I'm itching to go to Michael's or Hobby Lobby to get some beads with holes big enough for them to go through...

That's it for now. See why I call myself a "dabbler." :) I know it's been a lot at once, but thanks for visiting and I hope something on here made you smile. :)

Blog Hop

I meant to post this days ago, but got caught up in life. It's a great way to find others' blogs and let others know about yours.

If you would like to add your blog link to a blog hop, just add your link at the bottom. Copy and Paste the script link at the top into the html gadget on your blog layout for it to show up on your blog sidebar. New links will be added to your blog as they are added to the blog hop. Here is the link http://lapsedsketcher.blogspot.com/2010/06/artist-blog-hop.html or you can go to my sidebar to Blog Hop. Can't wait to go blog hopping!

Thanks for the link Kelly Watts!  :)

Miko-Horse Sketch

This is actually NOT the first time I ever tried to sketch a horse. It WAS the first time I ever tried to draw a goat, a donkey, and a pony (see previous posts). I used to try to draw horses all the time when I was young and in school. My best friend and I were crazy about them. I was never good at it though. I'm still not, but this is about the best attempt I've ever made. I meant to try another one before I posted, but can't seem to get focused enough. This sketch is again with a Zig pen in the Moleskine book.

This is "Miko"-the horse. The 4th Musketeer (or Horseketeer). Miko looked almost like a skeleton with skin stretched over it when he came to live with us. His ribs and hipbones were very visible, and he was infested with worms. He has never been broken to ride, and he was very antisocial to begin with. He would take carrots out of our hands, but didn't allow us to touch him. He would lay his ears back and try to bite us or run away if we tried. It took a while, and much patience, to get him to let us pet him. Miko is a beautiful horse, and the only member that will put Boxey-Tail in her place. They don't really fight though. They are like siblings squabbling at the dinner table.

Miko has come a long way. They all have. With plenty of pasture and water and attention, he has gained weight and filled out. His coat is slick and shiny, and he let's us pet him without trying to bite us now. He won't push himself on us though, and is still a little standoffish. They have come a long way, but we're still VERY careful around them. I guess we're still learning to trust each other.

The thing that I love is seeing them all four coming toward me, side by side, different heights, sizes, colors, species, fur textures and patterns, personalities, voices and lauguages, and backgrounds. As different as they are from one another, they still move as a unit of friends. They sleep together, eat together, communicate, cool off together in the barn, receive attention from us together, and play together, and except when they scuffle a little over treats, they get along together really well. People could learn a lesson here. :)

They have a hundred acres to ramble around on with the small herd of cows, which they also get along with, but seem to prefer being segragated from. The cows are usually at one end of the farm and the Horseketeers at the other. There is shelter, plenty of food and water, woods, and fields for them to explore, and they seem happy. They provide me with lots of photo ops, and the happiness they've given us far exceeds what we paid for them.

I had to use two photos below to show you the 4 Horseketeers (sometimes Cooter thinks he's one too), and I was further away in one. It's hard to get them all four in one up close. Anyway, from left to right, it's Miko, Doris, Boxey-Tail, who is actually a little shorter than Doris, and Cooter.

I know my sketches don't do them justice, and this one concludes the introductions, but I'm sure there will be more sketches and tales to come...:)

Hope you enjoyed meeting them. I sure enjoyed introducing them to you! :)

"BoxieTail" X3-First Pony Sketches

The theme for June at Creative Every Day is Bliss. The time spent bonding with or sketching our animals is blissful to me, so I thought I'd share these. There is nothing like being with animals (the furry kind) to lift your mood. :)

I'm also sharing with my drawing group Everyday Matters. I find so much encouragement, inspiration, and joy there. I also find it blissful to have time to look at everyone's art and enjoy it, so I guess this could fit in with CED's them too. :)  They also have an active Facebook group.

Anyway...

I wasn't going to post my first two attempts at sketching BoxieTail, the pony, because they are the bad and the not so good. But then I thought, why not? I can share my progress and growth with you. There are lots of mistakes in all three, but I also learned from all three. I never did get a fair likeness though. I think I was trying too hard.

Anyway here is sketch 1, the bad. The thing I hate most is the left eye. I got carried away trying to shade with a zig pen and the eyeball and the shading ran together. I couldn't figure out how to fix it since the paper in the Moleskine is an off white color. I learned from it though.

BoxieTail 2nd attempt...the not so good. I actually like this one a little, despite not leaving room for her nose. Still using the Zig pen in the Moleskine.

BoxieTail 3-the better. I tried again, this time a sketch to participate in World Drawing Day 2010, which was yesterday. They have it one day a year and try to get a million drawings done and uploaded that day http://www.worlddrawingday.org/ . This was my first time to participate, and I enjoyed it a lot. Still not real happy with BoxieTail's likeness. I got her nose a little too wide, and I messed up her back and had to fix it digitally. The crosshatching looks a little like patchwork, but what can I say? I was listening to Aerosmith singing "You Got To Move" on my mp3 while I was sketching. :)

A cropped version of #3, which I considered using for drawing day, but decided to go ahead and upload the double page spread instead. These were also done with the Zig pen in the Moleskine. I will try sketching her again sometime, but for now I'm moving on to the horse, Miko.

BoxieTail is the 3rd member of the Four Musketeers. She was rescued with the other three, and is our little diva. She is very social and loves to be petted. She is pushy and bossy. And very impatient. But lovable. She and Cooter goat were not in as bad a shape as Doris donkey and Miko horse (see previous posts about Doris and Cooter). We didn't know she had white stockings until it rained and washed her off, the mud was so bad in the pen where they were. Someone had cut her mane off, which is why it looks like she has a mohawk. It's growing back out. 

Boxie is very bossy to Cooter and Doris. She doesn't hesitate to turn her back end around and kick at them with both hind legs to make them move. She will put herself between them and us to try to get all the petting and the treats. She doesn't try this with Miko. If you aren't petting or feeding her fast enough, she will stomp her front feet or ram her head through the gate and nibble on your clothes or hands. Or she will back up and then come toward you like she means business. We think she may have belonged to someone with children at some time. She likes children and people, but she does not tolerate Sammidog at all. She will run him out of the lot or pen every time.

The brother-in-law says Boxie is part mule, and I'm beginning to agree with him. She does have some mule trademarks and tendencies. Doesn't matter to us. If we don't pet her, she pets us. I just wish she wasn't so hard on the donkey and the goat about the petting. Otherwise, they all move pretty much as a unit together, and they are all fun.

By the way, hubby named Doris and BoxieTail and I named Cooter and Miko. We have no idea what, or if, they had names before we got them, but they respond to their new names. Doris is beginning to bray some, and we love to hear Cooter baa, which he is beginning to do more. They are all beginning to be more trusting and verbal with us. Love it!

Hope something in my post made you smile!

Three of the four Musketeers, or maybe I should call them Horseketeers, since Cooter seems to think he's a horse too sometimes. :) Watch for the 4th member, Miko, soon!

"Doris"-1st Donkey Sketch

I shared my first attempt at sketching a goat with you, so I thought I'd share my first attempt at sketching a donkey. It's a quick sketch from a photo I took, and I used a Zig marker. I seem to have an aversion to leaving room for feet, and the large ears almost didn't fit, but all in all, I think I did okay on it. And Doris does have woolly bangs. :)

This is Doris. When we answered the ad in the paper for a donkey, the guy told us it was a female. For some reason hubby started calling her Doris as soon as we went and saw her.

Doris is various shades of tans and beiges with a really dark brown stripe down the spine and shoulder blades. He also has a deformed back foot. The hoof turns up like an elf's shoe, but it doesn't hamper him about getting around. We don't know if he was born that way or it's been broken. The halter was so tight that it had grown into the top of his head and made sores under his chin. We finally got it off him though, and it's healed up and he is free of it. He's only a couple of years old and has been through so much. He's loved now though and is a pet.

Doris was in a small pen with a horse and a pony, not a blade of grass, just mud, with a makeshift shelter barely big enough for the three of them, a roll of sagegrass hay, and an empty dishpan for water. They were a sad lot. Cooter goat went in and out of the pen as he pleased, so he was getting plenty of grass and water.

We fell for Doris and Cooter as soon as we saw them, and we felt sorry for the other two. The fellow was selling out to move up north, and hubby got him to make a price for the three of them, plus the goat. So the next morning, on our 40th anniversary, we brought them to live on our small farm with our cows.

We kept them in the barn lots with plenty of feed, water, and shelter for a few weeks. We wormed them, gave them treats, and spent lots of time with them before turning them loose to have the run of the farm. They are still having trust issues with us, but they are getting better. They look like different animals than what we first brought home, and they have already given us much joy. You can no longer see their bones and the lice are gone. They are fat and sleek and have life in their eyes again. I'm thankful we are able to give them a home and love, along with carrots, apples, and they adore caramel cookies.

Doris turned out to be male, but the name had already stuck, so Doris it is. We wanted a donkey to help with the coyote problem with our calves, but Doris likes the barn and Cooter doesn't get too far from him. We've been told that most donkeys are hateful, but Doris has such a sweet personality and spirit that everybody just falls for him. Doesn't matter whether he helps with coyotes or not, he has a home and love now, as do Cooter and the other two.

Two of the Four Musketeers (Doris and Cooter). Stay tuned for the third member, and if I get REAL brave, I may try a sketch of the four together...

"Cooter"--First goat sketch

Yesterday I did a quick sketch of my goat in my sketchbook with a Zig pen from a photo I had made and loaded onto my pc. He was laying in a twist. The proportion is a little off, because I did it in a hurry and wasn't really focusing on every little detail, but I thought I did okay for a first attempt on sketching a goat. Please ignore the "to do" list in the corner. ;)

He is mostly white with black around his face, chest, and legs, and he has yellow eyes with pupils that look like black dashes, and a light pink nose. His beard is long and part white, part black.

We've only had Cooter a few weeks. He was thrown in with a deal for a donkey, a horse, and a pony. The four of them go around together like the 4 musketeers. He hasn't let us pet him yet, but he will eventually. Animals take patience and you have to let them come to you. He loves apples, carrots, and caramel cookies.

I've always liked goats, and I fell for Cooter the first time I saw him. He has so much personality! He makes me laugh every time I see him. His best friend is the donkey, Doris, and together they are hilarious.

I'm sure there will be more sketches of Cooter and the gang, and hopefully they will be better. In the meantime I thought I'd share this quick sketch with you. Hope Cooter and I made you smile! :)

Learning Needlefelting 2-ATC?

Since this month's theme at Creative Every Day is intuition, I guess I can call this an intuitive yarn painting, of sorts.

I wanted to do some needlefeltting this morning, and since I didn't have any backing material handy, I decided to try felting yarn to yarn. I took the black yarn that was left from the kit project I shared before and pulled and tangled it into a flat shape and layed an atc template over it.

I started out to make a landscape atc by felting the blue and green yarns onto the black, but then it called for a pink stripe. I liked it and was going to leave it that way, but then the muse whispered, "If you felt it on the back too, it will lock it together better."

Okay, the black backing had pulled apart some when I pulled it off the foam punching block, because the needle punches the yarn into the foam, so this sounded like a good idea.

Memo to me: Get a bigger and better punching block-the brush type which doesn't hold onto the yarn

So I turned it over and happily punched away. It did lock together better, but now there were lots of black fibers sticking through the pastel colors (the lesson here is not to use a dark backing under light colors). I added more blue, green, and pink yarn to the front, but still could see the black showing through. I kind of liked it like that, except that there was a small black cluster over the pink and down into the green that looked sort of like a swarm of bees, thus the yellow wispy piece diagonally across the front. Ms Muse told me to do it. ;)

Because I desperately need to do some cleaning, I'm calling it finished, for now. If I trim the black edge off it and add a decorative stitch around the edge it's an ATC. I'm kind of liking the black edges, and as I sit here looking at it, I see all sorts of possibilities, like maybe beads or charms or decorative stitching added...

Anyway, just thought I'd share what I'm playing with right now. Thanks to all you who inspire me every day by sharing whats on your work table! :)