Thursday, July 31, 2014

Derwent Art Lessons



Derwent Academy has a series of
art lessons on-line. (click on the top Tool Bar
on the Derwent site to create an account)
 This is Lesson 4, Color and Tone-
Blending Colored Pencil.
Some friends recommended the class
because when you've completed the
six lessons, Derwent will send you a
 small set of their colored pencils!

Since I don't have any of the 
Derwent colored pencils, I used
Crayola brand colored pencils, and 
various brands that have accumulated 
over the years. They are not as 
intense in color, and the scan is a bit light.

Quote from this lesson:
"It's all about describing what's in
front of you by using different marks."
--Dee Cowell, Derwent Academy instructor

I was rather pleased with the outcome
of the sketch of the cockerel,
considering the image on the computer
screen was a bit difficult to see.
The border around the video obscured
the feet so I just had to 'wing-it!'
And the instructor shows how to 
layer color over each other for
more depth and variation. (not sure
if you can tell, but there are blue and
purple beneath the black)
A fun exercise!






Tuesday, July 29, 2014

ArT Journal Pages on T Tuesday



Make your page 'Smash Book style.'
I added bits and pieces of my week
into the collage, and scraps
of painted papers.




What do you do for fun?
I draw, paint, cut and paste in my journals!
I find it Therapeutic...

















Joining Elizabeth of Altered Book Lover blog
for her T Tuesday link party.  Above, a detail
of a larger collage that incorporates  a green
tea package and a little sketch of a tea bag.

What do you do for summer fun?




•  ♦  •




Tuesday, July 22, 2014

Documenting Life with Art



Week 29 of the 
Make a wish list. Draw or use
magazine cut-outs.

This tip-in page was a piece of
scrapbook paper in a bright yellow, 
and I decided to leave it 'as-is.'
I added magazine words, fabric,
Washi tape, assorted papers, 
doodling, and the quote
from a magazine...

It's not really a 'list' but that
may still happen on the spread
beneath the tip-in.  It's been
a busy week, so I kept the
page relatively simple.
Messy paint might happen later!




Linking up with Elizabeth
for the T Tuesday link party...




and sharing 'coffee art'
instead of 'tea art!'
I do enjoy a nice cup of tea,
but coffee is my daily 
Wake-Up beverage. This page
was completed at a Starbucks,
Barnes & Noble bookstore,
Mansfield, Ohio.




Yellow lily, Wauseon, Ohio.
The coffee travel mug and the lily
are all in a black hardbound journal 
with 8 1/2" x 11" pages.
Notes, drawings, collages, and
whatever else I can think of
may go into it. 
What do you put in your journal?



•  ♦  •



Monday, July 14, 2014

Re-Posting a Favorite: T is for Tuesday, Q is for Quilt



Elizabeth invited us to look for 'buried treasure'
within our T Tuesday posts of the past, so I
am sharing an old favorite about the quilt I
made for my daughter and son-in-law.
I began working on this quilt in the summer of 2012...



A gift for the newlyweds, which they'll be lucky to receive
by their first anniversary in 2013!  (They did)



When I'm working on a quilt, I am careful to keep my
coffee cup (or any beverage) far away from the quilt!



The pattern is called Merry-Go-Round,
which I completely hand-pieced, and
 also hand-quilted..



It has bright happy colors, and includes many fabrics 
from the bride's past:  vintage fabrics from the bride's
great-grandmothers' stashes, fabrics from clothes 
that I sewed for her when she was little, and many
fabrics from the numerous baby quilts I've made.



I set the quilting frame up in my parents' home, as 
they have a bit more room, and it gave me an excuse
to go visit them and quilt!



My quilting stitches aren't exactly perfect,
or even tiny, but I tell myself that it's
 part of the 'charm of hand-made.'
I do attempt to keep them uniform in size.
In the block above, the red gingham was a dress that
I made for my daughter when she was in grade school.
A couple of the fabrics are from my maternal grandmother's
scraps, and one is even from a guitar case that I 
made in high school.  Yes, a quilted fabric guitar case.
Weird, I know. But I liked it much better than the
black 'cardboard' ones that you buy.  (I used
pre-quilted fabric on part of that guitar case, wasn't up to
hand-quilting in high school! and no, I don't
 really play guitar any more)



The cable quilting designs are marked in pencil and
then stitched.  The triangle and rectangle shapes are
just 'eyeballed.'  So they aren't always perfect...



It's challenging to get your shoulders, arms and hands
to 'turn' in the right direction to follow the quilting design.
I find I have to pace myself so as not to get sore muscles.
Many quilters have their quilt tops machine-quilted these
days, but I really enjoy hand quilting.  I don't exactly know
how many hours I have in this quilt. At least 500 hours, 
at a guess.  If I kept an accurate track of how long it takes,
I might never make another!

Here's how I have my morning 'mocha' coffee...
to your coffee cup add 1 heaping teaspoon of cocoa powder,
a pinch of salt, a teaspoon of vanilla, sweetener to taste,
(I use any Stevia sweetener)
and a splash of fat-free milk.  Yum!

Visit Bluebeard and Elizabeth at
to see what others are doing on Tuesday!
Perhaps they are having Tea on Tuesday,
instead of coffee, like me...




•  ♦  •


Monday, July 7, 2014

Art Journal Pages: Turtle on T Tuesday


We had lunch at a Mexican restaurant on the 
Fourth of July.  I brought along my art journal
to sketch while we waited for our food.  In 
theory, drawing would keep me from eating
 too many tortilla chips while we waited!  
Our food came so quickly, however,
that I had to finish my pen sketch after we finished
our meal, and my hubby had to wait on me.
When I started sketching the planter, I didn't
realize it was a Turtle, until we were leaving, and
I walked over to see the other side.  The people
at the nearest table thought I was crazy, I think...
The sombrero was black velvet decorated with
silver and white sequins.  I added the
drawing of the turtle's head from memory when 
I got home, as well as the Watercolors. 
So my Turtle is the T for T Tuesday this week...


We also went to a concert in a local park,
presented by our community band.  The musical
selections were all patriotic and we quite enjoyed
it!  It is almost as much fun watching the people
as it is enjoying the music...I think the attendance
of my nephews brought down the median age
of the audience ~ most of us were seniors!

After doing a web search, I believe the 
distinctive bark on the tree I drew is
a Shagbark Hickory tree.  There were a
few hickory nuts being blown down by the
wind that evening, but there were no
casualties, that I know of...



Above, this week's Documented Life Project
challenge #27: add a Crossword, Sudoku,  
or Word-Find puzzle to your page. Another
opportunity to go with a black and white 
composition that I enjoy! Collage includes
scrapbook papers (music & crossword)
magazine clippings, and my own drawings.



In keeping with T Tuesday, I should include
a photo or drawing of my beverage of choice,
even if it isn't tea.  Joining Elizabeth for
T Tuesday, and sharing a drawing of
my pink travel mug, in progress...
not sure what else to include on the page.
Something will come to me...



Wednesday, July 2, 2014

Patriotic Index Cards~ A Reprise


 Wishing everyone in the U. S.


a safe and happy Independence Day!


Reprise of Index Card art from previous years...