The Eavesdropper. . .

Quote from Lemony Snicket. . .

This girl cracks me up because she is trying to look innocent when we all know that she is a first class snoop.  You can tell by the way she won't meet your eyes with her eyes. . . Kinda shifty.

Linking to Art Journal Every Day,

Paint Party Friday, and

Mandarin Orange Monday

Illustration Friday - SWIM

"Dead fish do not SWIM around in jealous tides" - Scott Weiland

Watching videos from the Misty Mawn Portrait class - Face to Face with Mixed Media sparked some oil pastel play.  The theme SWIM comes from Illustration Friday and the cool fish came from The Graphics Fairy.  The great thing about the oils is that you can wipe off something if you don't like it - try that with acrylics - they don't budge.  However, when you are done you have quite a sticky page.  

The background is pretty junk paper that has been painted with Carla Sonheim's Abstracted Flowers Tutorial for Kristin Dudish's Tutorial Tryouts.  

Linking to Creative Every Day, 

Glue It Tuesday, and 

Mandarin Orange Monday (LoriK Art)

Timely advice for the gym. . .

For those of you that spend time working out at the gym this gal has some timely advice for you - my particular favorite is the on the left about the water fountain. . . 

She is layered on some of my pretty junk papers and glued down in my ledger art journal. 

Linking to Art Journal Every Day,

Paint Party Friday, and

Artists in Blogland

DORA and her glasses . . .

"THEODORA"

Theodora (known as Dora to her friends) found no comfort in the fact that her namesake and former President also suffered from myopia. 

Is it obnoxious to admit that I totally crack myself up sometimes??!!  This girl has been making me laugh all night - LOVE that mouth.  The topic at IF is eyeglasses and since I had no idea how to draw them I decided to make them from wire.

Linking to Illustration Friday - EYEGLASSES,

Sunday Sketches, and

Creative Every Day

Pretty junk papers. . .

Today I decided to make some pretty papers to work with in my art journals.  I've been fighting a bad cold all week and wasn't in the mood for drawing but wanted to do something.

Have you ever taken any of Carla Sonheim's classes?  The idea of using junk mail came from her class JUNK MAIL Artist's Book.  Basically, without giving anything away you use mail that you would normally throw away.

These sheets are brayered with gesso and then watercolored.  Normally, you would proceed with the class at this point but I decided to get out my stencils and spray inks and do a bit more.

This is the inside of a security envelope.  I peeled the plastic window out and plan to use each piece in a different project. 

The only problem is that now I have fingers as inky as my papers and they won't come clean - even tried fingernail polish remover to no avail.  Any hints on how to clean up other than to wear gloves - I NEVER remember to wear gloves!

GLORIA with the large orange lips. . .

"GLORIA"

This gal has rather large lips that may be a bit too emphasized with that bright orange lipstick!  The piece of paper I started drawing her on was obviously a bit too small.  Usually I start with a oval for a face and fill in the features but on this one I drew the mouth first and went from there - running out of room was not on my mind at the time.  OOPS!  Hope I don't make that mistake again. . . 

Linking to Art Journal Every Day

Paint Party Friday

Illustration Friday - YESTERDAY

 

"Never let yesterday use up too much of today. . ."

                          - Will Rogers 

Tried a new technique where you paint over a picture from a magazine.  This lovely lady is an ad from Estee Lauder and is covered in clear gesso.  Have you ever used clear gesso?  That stuff is SUPER gritty - not sure if I like it or not.

Decided that the hands were unnecessary so I painted over them!  In this pic I've also painted over her dress and lips.

Painting over her face erased the rest of the fingers. This technique is fun to try and would be especially great when you are starting with faces and are nervous about drawing them.  

Kristin Dudish is starting Tutorial Try-outs on Tuesdays.  Read this post to find out more - I cheated since I didn't do any collaging first but I don't think she'll send the paint police after me.

Linking to Creative Every Day and

Illustration Friday

COOL BRACELETS

Guess what?  I am the Guest Poster on Art Journal Every Day today - Go check it out!!

"COOL BRACELETS"

Another girl started with a graphite sketch.

I was going for a "Vogue" sophisticated 'do but ended up with a Dutch Boy haircut!  Do you remember that paint and logo?  Years ago my SIL had her hair cut in a cute blonde bob and all three of her brothers (including my husband) kept calling her Dutch Boy.  Boys are stupid!!

Here is how she was first finished off - added some ink that I thought was going to be turquoise and ended up being a sickly color of green - blech!  Plus the white background was just adding to her ghastly grey complexion and her neck was too wide for me so . . . 

I fixed it by cutting her out of the picture, trimming down that football player neck and collaging her onto some warm toned patterned paper.  I think she looks much happier here and the green ink is kinda cool in small doses.

Linking to Paint Party Friday,

Art Journal Every Day,

Artists in Blogland and

Artists Playroom #48

BROCADE and TERMITES. . .

"BROCADE and TERMITES"

While she realized that she may have sounded extreme, the chances of finding another brocade dress the exact green shades of her hair was extremely dicey at best. . .

Started with a pencil sketch on a 6" square gesso primed paper.   BTW - Do you find that priming with gesso can be a big mess?  Why not try gesso spray?  I LOVE it!!  So quick and easy - I use Krylon Gesso Spray (like spray paint). . .

First layer is acrylic paint and then definition/shading is added with NeoColor crayons, pencil, marker and Sharpie paint pen.

No picture is complete without a quirky book quote, patterned paper and a bit of washi tape.

Look - My Splash of Green Girl made it onto Julie Fei-Fan Balzer's Flickr Post!

Warrior Princess

After drawing and posting girls every single day for the past month you'd think the well would dry up but there was another girl left in there.  She is definitely kinda weird looking with her intense gaze, lots of spots and super chiseled cheeks. 

Linking to Art Journal Every Day and 

Paint Party Friday