Painted Ladies - unfinished . . .

The ol' blog has been pretty quiet lately - this has been a busy month with vacation thrown in for good measure.  I have been playing some and this unfinished canvas is my proof - I've been watching videos from Mystele of Little Glimpses Studio (Thanks, Janet for pointing me her direction) and trying to learn how to create faces with layers and layers of paint -

These ladies started out as random paint strokes on cardstock -

Some very rudimentary drawing was added with Payne's Gray (which is totally navy) - I would never have believed that you could ever start a face this way . . .

Next layer was a thin coating of Titan Buff . . .

Then I started adding several layers of paint - Titan Buff with Burnt Sienna and Burnt Umber Light.

I ended up with these ladies - I was actually quite pleased with them although they seemed to be rather unhappy - I was tempted to finish the canvas with the name - "A Study in Angst" but then I decided that they really needed finished lips and eyes.

They make me happy now - if only I had time to finish them up - maybe this weekend I can work on it - - -
Linking up to - Art Journal Every Day and Paint Party Friday
BTW - I have been checking out ebooks from the library and reading them on the Kindle App on my cell phone.  I LOVE this so much!!  I was a person that swore to never own a Nook/Kindle - I like the feel of paper and the heft of a book but seriously - how amazing is it to carry a 800 page book in my back pocket?!!

PDCC128, CFC49, Moxie Fab Tuesday Trigger: Watercolor Butterflies

Time for a Moxie Fab World Tuesday Trigger Challenge - I haven't done one of these challenges in what seems like forever.  At first I was definitely stumped with the trigger image - while I love the loose water colored look it was a little too loose for me.

I splish-splashed some orange and pink watercolors and then used the Tim Holtz Tattered Flowers die to cut out some blooms.   This way I could enjoy the watercolor look in a more graphic, contained way.

This card also fits the requirements for the Play Date Cafe Challenge and loosely matches the sketch challenge from CAS-ual Fridays.

Sentiment, embossing plate and pearls from A Muse Studios.

Second Floor Challenge #2 - Use Something New

The Second Floor Challenge #2 is -
The challenge this time around is to use something from your art stash that you've never used before.  Whatever that means to you or however it inspires you.  The prompt is simply meant to get you started.  The level of challenge you aim for is entirely internal and up to you.
For me the something new is a white charcoal pencil.  LOVE the look against kraft paper (I love the look of anything against kraft paper!!)

Soon I am going to branch out from only sketching faces with pencil onto paper to trying to do some painting - I've hesitated because opening myself to the next step makes me nervous but that's what "she was open to possibilities" is all about, right?

Linking to The Sketchbook Challenge - April Theme:  Open.

CFC48, LIM63, OLW85 - Silhouette

Did I wake you up with the bright colors??  This is a very vibrant card for me but the colors were dictated by the current CAS-ual Fridays challenge to choose two colors from the opposite sides of the color spectrum.  Apparently brown, taupe, black, white and grey aren't on their color spectrum even though they figure prominently in mine.

This card also meets the requirements for the April Paper Crafts Connection Gallery challenge of Silhouettes, the One Layer Wednesday challenge to use no sentiment and the Less is More challenge of doodling.  At least I thought it met the Less is More challenge until I looked again and realized that it was a One Layer Challenge -

Never fear!  This card was quickly replicated as one layer.  I particularly enjoy her doodled shoes. . . The turquoise cardstock is cut with the Quickutz Trellis Die and the silhouette stamps are from Stampendous.

Happy Anniversary, Dave and Roni!!!  Hope you had a great weekend!

Humanimals and "Why my mom is great"!

A couple more pictures that were sketched while in the car on our recent journey to/from Florida.  Not quite sure why but I decided to sketch some girls with animal bodies.  Seemed like a good idea at the time but nobody seems to "get them" or even appreciate them like I do.

They mostly seem to weird people out.  I started with the bird girl - she started as a pencil drawing but I needed some color and the flimsy sketch paper I drew her on would never hold up to watercolors I had packed - that is until Corey pulled over and let me run into a Wal-Mart at the next exit and pick up some crayons.

When is the last time you colored with crayons?  It had been ages for me.  Not since the kiddos were little.  They were so cheap too - I got two boxes (two different brands) for a whopping total of $4.32.  Now I have so many crayons that I am thinking about doing one of those art projects where you melt them with a blowdryer.  (I will admit that I was a bit crabby when I drew snake girl but I felt much better afterwards - maybe I need to do that the next time someone aggravates me)

Now - Have you ever seen a more beautiful picture of a dessert in all your born days?  My mom hosts "family night" every Thursday at their house and my brother/I attend with our families.  It is a highlight of our week for us all to be together and mom never disappoints with her culinary creations.  A couple weeks back I commented that it would be so cool to eat a dessert like what was pictured on the Southern Living magazine and LOOK - Mom made one even more beautiful and it was as delicious as it looks!!  Jealous?
Linking to - Art Journal Every Day 

JOURNEY - Watercoloring in the car -

April's theme at Artists In Blogland is JOURNEY and my little watercolored bird is not only on his own personal journey but he was painted while we were literally on a journey - to Florida.  It is easier to paint in the car than I had ever imagined - I tried it back in December and I doubt that I will ever travel again without a few art supplies.  Makes a long car journey fly by. . .

While on vacation we enjoyed the ocean . . .

a trip to Disney World (we stayed until after midnight and didn't make it back to the house until past 1:30 AM - Caleb LOVED Space Mountain and Stella LOVED meeting princesses), visited Grandma Helen, played with our niece and nephew visiting from Seattle and spent lots of time

in the pool at Papa and Oma's house!  So much time was spent in water that Caleb has been battling Swimmer's Ear - thankfully it seems to be on the mend!

It is a treat to ride with us because you can choose from three genres for your listening pleasure:  Adele (me), Weird Al (the boys) and assorted baseball/sports games (Corey).  Diversity is good, right?  It is a good thing that I can distract myself with sketching since Weird Al and baseball/sports games make me crazy!  Linking to Art Journal Every Day - Julie Fei-Fan Balzer.