Sally's "new" trick. . .

Unfortunately for Sally no one was interested in her "new" trick as she had performed it unsuccessfully multiple times in the past. . . 

While I was at work yesterday there were two major happenings at home - one was the fact that my MIL's suitcase was lost at the airport on the way to our house and the second was the fact that our bearded dragon made a break for it and ran under the shed.  I am happy to report that both situations resolved themselves in a good way but the drama of the Lizard/Luggage Caper will live in infamy in these parts for some time(the best part is how my husband captured the lizard in a space that is approximately 6" more narrow than his body and then proceeded to get stuck for a bit - LOL!!)

Linking to Art Journal Every Day,

Paint Party Friday and 

Paper Saturday

Margaux and her shoes. . .

Margaux was tired of unsolicited advice regarding her choice in footwear.

I know lots of girls that are "shoe people" - I am not one of those people.  My mom is pretty firmly in the "shoe people" camp.  She likes it there.  I have several pairs of black shoes - I usually wear some black every single day - that way I have shoes for all occasions without having to think too much about it. 

This girl looked très French to me and was envisioned with pointy black shoes with high heels.  I have pointy black shoes too but with kitten heels - I don't wear high heels any more - I am a disappointment to my "shoe people" friends and family. . .

Are you one of the "shoe people"? 

Linking to Paper Saturdays,

Sunday Sketches and

Creative Every Day

Fawn and her freckles. . .

When I was young I always wished that I had freckles.  In fact, in 5th grade there was a boy named John in my class that had about a million freckles and I thought he was the cutest thing ever.  His mom volunteered in our classroom from time to time and John had obviously inherited his freckles from her - I thought she was beautiful.  

Do you LOVE the background of this girl as much as I do??  It is my new Crafters Workshop ECHOES stencil designed by Julie Fei-Fan Balzer.  I can't tell you how happy this stencil makes me!!  Just a couple quick squirts with Dylusions ink spray in Fresh Lime and the background is done!! 

Forgot to take any pictures after this first one - too enamored with painting freckles I guess. . .

Linking to Art Journal Every Day,

Paint Party Friday,

Show and Tell Saturday

Illustration Friday - LIQUID

Let the rain kiss you.

Let the rain beat upon your head with liquid silver drops.

Let the rain sing you a lullaby.

- Langston Hughes.

This week's topic on Illustration Friday is LIQUID. 

Pencil sketch. . . 

First layer of acrylic paint. . . 

Handcut raindrops from pretty junk papers. . . 

Sprayed some sparkly spray on the raindrops for some subtle shimmer.

Linking to Artsyville's Glue It Tuesday,

Mandarin Orange Monday

Jemma and her jammies. . .

Since so many exciting things seemed to happening at bedtime Jemma began the habit of getting ready to retire earlier and earlier.  Tonight she had her jammies on at 6:45PM.

I've had so much fun with my brown ink girls - gonna have to draw some more.

Book quotes from Lemony Snicket. 

Linking to Creative Every Day

The shy tennis player. . .

She found meeting new people to be nerve-wracking but keeping her favorite picture of an Orchard Oriole nearby allowed her to have a conversation starter that she was comfortable with. . .

Linking to Sunday Sketches

The Cookie Queen

The Queen felt that her rules were simple - Immediately bring a cookie and pasteurized chocolate drink when requested and nobody would be banished.  So far, no one has had to go. . .

Hee hee - brown ink girl #2 - would you be surprised to find out that there is a #3 and a #4? 

Another flash card courtesy of Kim who also gifted me the milk jug "stopper"(?).  When I was a kid we used to have a milkman who delivered milk, butter, eggs, etc. to the backdoor.  I can't tell you how convenient that would be now.  Do you run out of milk as often as we do??

Linking to Paper Saturdays

Maria and her fabulous mane. . .

"Funny how people always seem to remember me for my fabulous mane rather than my fabulous brain", sighed Maria wistfully.

This silly girl was inspired by the Teesha Moore fun drawing lesson that Kristin Dudish is featuring for her next Tutorial Try-out.  Brown is my favorite color (yup, I'm weird that way) and when I found a brown pen at my mom's house one day, I compulsively swiped it for my own nefarious plans!!  

LOOK - the peonies are starting to bloom in the yard - my favorite time of the year!! 

Linking to Art Journal Every Day and

Paint Party Friday

Illustration Friday - FUTURE

"There is nothing like a dream to create the future." - Victor Hugo

 

The topic for Illustration Friday this week is FUTURE.  An old ledger has been serving as my art journal for a few months now and made me ponder what the future held for people living in the 1950's. 

Space travel was a big theme so I decided to sketch and paint a rocket boy headed to the moon.

Look closely by the moon. . . This ledger page was written in 1956 - 13 years before man landed on the moon.  An event that seems so long ago to us was still in the future to the previous owners of this ledger.

Linking to Paper Saturdays,

Sunday Sketches, and

Creative Every Day

"Shaytards"

This page was inspired by a series of videos by Raeart on Youtube.  They are called The Shaytards Painting so Caleb refers to these guys as Shaytards - as in, "Mom, would you like to draw and paint some Shaytards with me?"  I tried to explain that Shaytards is probably the name of the family that was going to receive the finished painting but he remains unconvinced. 

It was really fun drawing these faces all together in a bunch like that - even added a mini dinosaur in there.  Quote is from Lemony Snicket. 

I know that I took a preliminary picture of both of our "Shaytards" when they were still pencil drawings but I seem to have misplaced it, so here is a picture with the first layer of paint. 

Added Neocolor for shading and fun dots from the handy dandy Sharpie paint pen.  I had some issues with the black ink though - I can't seem to find a pen that puts down BLACK ink and can write over the Neocolor crayons.  Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!   Caleb is still working on his "Shaytard" - like most 11 year old boys he has more stamina for video games than he does for painting.

Fun how the finished page looks like some weird trophy or statuary!

Linking to Glue It Tuesday - Artsyville,

Paint Party Friday,

Show and Tell Saturday,

Art Journal Every Day

Illustration Friday - TRIBUTE

This week's Illustration Friday topic is TRIBUTE which inspired this art nouveau tribute to Charles Rennie Mackintosh.  Doing a Google Image search under his name will show an abundance of gorgeous stained glass and furniture that he designed.

This particular piece of his matches the colors for the current Play Date Cafe Challenge of Black/White and a Splash of Pink.   

India ink applied directly through the dropper allowed the thick lines.  My first attempt was with Tulip Black Dimensional Paint which was a spectacular failure! Wondering if the problem is the bottle of paint I have - it keeps coming out in tiny streams and then HUGE globs - the tip doesn't seem to be blocked though.  Would have made really cool faux leading more like a stained glass window had it worked.

Colored the pink with a Neocolor crayon and a waterpen. 

Linking to Sunday Sketches,

Play Date Cafe Challenge,

Artist's Playroom #56,

Paper Saturdays and Creative Every Day

Ephemera Girl -

Used some vintage ephemera on this girl to change things up a bit. 

Vintage wallpaper, page from Gregg's shorthand book and an old book quote mix in with some stenciled and sprayed papers.

Started with a pencil sketch - 

First layer of paint - I need to work on making girls that look a bit more happy - 

Lots of shading and background color from Panpastels -they are so fast and easy to work with!

Linking to Glue it Tuesday - Artsyville,

Art Journal Every Day, and

Paint Party Friday