AEDM (Day 30) - Painted Leaf

 "Your worth consists in what you are and not in what you have." - Thomas Edison

Today is the last day of Art Every Day Month and I managed to post something everyday except one - whoo hoo!  A big thanks to Leah for sponsoring such a great challenge that brings together so many like-minded creative people!

 I was inspired by a leaf by Alisa Burke and added some whitewashing to tone the colors down just a bit. 

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Linking to Paint Party Friday, Artists in Blogland and Art Journal Every Day.

AEDM (Day 29) - Drippy girl

This poor girl is a hot mess of splats, drips and scribbles using markers, crayons, paint, ink, sprays, etc.

Obviously, there is truth to the old adage, "Less is More" - I'll try to remember that for the future. . .

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AEDM (Day 28) - Shavonne

 Corey has named this girl, "Shavonne" - I, however, think she looks like a "Roxanne".  Either way she is a woman of great confidence to sport this fabulous blue hair!!

Her hair wasn't even dry when I took the picture.  I like that the paint isn't smooth and I had fun with all the scribbled lines.

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AEDM (Day 27) - Girl with long neck in red shirt. . .

Julie Fei-Fan Balzer has been posting faces on her blog that were inspired by the book 100 Girls on Cheap Paper.  I've got that book too and Tina Berning is a genius in the way she can just loosely paint a gorgeous girl.  This is my attempt at this style that I painted tonight. . .

What I particularly love is the fact that I only used 3 items - Stabilo pencil, Neocolor crayon and Sharpie white paint pen.  

 She has a l-o-n-g neck but I think that it suits her and her cute hair!  Here's a link to another face I did in this style a couple months back. . .

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AEDM (Day 26) - Necklace

Last night I got a wild hair and decided that I wanted to do some beading - so I got all my stuff out and looked at my beautiful bead collection, gazed with love upon my charms and findings and then ended up making a very simple necklace - without any beading. . .

Ended up only using a couple of tools to fashion the leather cord for my pendant to hang from. TIP - layering two different elements (like a piece of shell and a metal flower embellishment) together can give a "bigger" profile to a pendant while still staying simple and clean. 

Here I am sporting my new creation before toddling off to work this AM.  Look how happy I am in the mornings?!! 

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AEDM (Day 25) - Whiskers

The Illustration Friday topic this week is WHISKERS and I at first thought of drawing a little critter with whiskers but then had the idea to carve a stamp with a whiskery greeting. . .

 Sketched my little dude out on vellum and transferred to my stamp medium for carving. 

Stamped him in mustard ink first and then reinked the beard/hair parts and used a stamp positioner to line him up for a cool contrast.

 Made a set of cards while I was at it - you never know when someone will need a whiskery "hi".

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AEDM (Day 24) - Work in Progress

All I have to share today is a sneak peek at a work in progress that just got started - might end up really cool - might end up really bad!  Only time will tell . . .

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AEDM (Day 23) - Girl with Teal Hair

I am sleepy and the girl I drew this evening appears to be a bit sleepy herself.  While proud that I created another girl directly in my art journal - it wasn't until it dried and I turned the page that I realized that the India ink dots leaked through the paper - guess I will be using gesso on the next few pages!

 Quote is from Eugenio Montale.

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Linking to Paint Party Friday and Art Journal Every Day

AEDM (Day 22) - Stalwart Girl

"Be sure you put your feet in the right place, then stand firm." - Abraham Lincoln

stal·wart/ˈstôlwərt/

Adjective:

Loyal, reliable, and hardworking: "he remained a stalwart supporter of the cause".

  She dyed a streak of purple in her hair to shake up her stalwart reputation. . .

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AEDM (Day 21) - Post-it Doodle

Some days there is nothing but a doodle on a post-it at work to represent your creativity.  A doodle makes it onto your blog when it is Art Every Day Month and a girl is desperate!  Something is better than nothing. . .

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AEDM (Day 20) - Conte Girl

Do you read the Artist Daily newsletter?  Not only is it informative but from time to time they feature free offers from their Trusted Partners.  Today I received two of the new Conte pastel pencils that will be released in 2013.

Please note that I am ALWAYS a sucker for a letter that starts with "Dear Artist" - 

Anyhoo - I decided to play with them within about 30 minutes of opening the envelope and ended up with a girl that looks, according to Caleb, as if "she spent too long in the taffy pulling machine".  Yes, her head is long and narrow -  

but look what happens if you  take a picture from another angle- just right!!  I'm not familiar with Conte pencil and it is pretty chalky but was fun to work with and seems to be pretty secure with a spray or two of Workable Fixative. . . 

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AEDM (Day 19) - Leger Girl

"Sometimes she wished his favorite mode on the camera wasn't always ZOOM. . ."

 A Fernand Leger painting inspired this colorful girl - 

 who was painted directly into my art journal with acrylic paints and India ink.  

She turned out even better than I had envisioned.  I realize that this type of look isn't for everyone but the clean, graphic lines and bold colors are really making me happy!!

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Linked to Illustration Friday - ZOOM

AEDM (Day 18) - Stencil girl

I asked Connor what words he'd use to describe this girl and he said, "Confused. . .thinking. . . staring. . . ambivalence"

I was just thinking about how she had a really long thin nose and rather sad eyes - cute hair though. . .

The background was fun - a few random stencils and Inkadinkado spray ink (I still had some purple on my fingers this morning - strong stuff!)

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Linked to Artists in Blogland

AEDM (Day 17) - Red/Green Beetle

Mom has requested six insects and this is number four!  Two more to go. . .

I spent most of the afternoon "blaking" - which is my word for raking the leaves with a blower (blow + rake = blake).  Now the leaves in the back yard are in HUGE piles waiting to get magically transported to the curb at the front of the house - Guess I'll be spending most of tomorrow afternoon moving the HUGE piles of leaves.  It is nice to see green in the backyard again instead of only leaves!

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AEDM (Day 16) - Pinterest inspired page

Thought I'd interrupt the regularly schedule program of girl faces and beetles with a Pinterest inspired art journal page.  Do you love Pinterest?!  I do - although it can definitely be a time waster if you aren't careful and I waste enough time looking around in blog world as it is. . . 

Broke up the white with some random bits of Washi tape (A Muse Studio) on the borders and some ink splats.  Currently I feel that all things are improved with ink spots (including my computer screen - I have got to be more careful with that ink!!)

Colors are courtesy of the current Play Date Cafe Challenge.  Word stickers are from Tim Holtz idea-ology.

Linking to Art Journal Every Day and Paint Party Friday.

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