Happy Halloween!!

Art Journal Page 10/22/14 - She Went Out To Tea

I've been hanging onto this Amy Butler paper for quite a while and it fit perfectly with the Tiffany blue and pink theme I wanted for this page. It made a fancy frock for this little gal to match her giant hair flower and lovely jeweled necklace.

I've been trying out several different face styles lately (stay tuned for more fun projects). I find that some look good in the drawing stages, but not so good once painted. Others, like the one above, look sort of dull and unattractive in the drawing phase, but once the ink lines are added and color put in, they really start to pop.

Here's a peek at some of the faces I worked on today. On the bottom left you can see my Tiffany girl take shape...

Outlining with a Papermate Flair Pen

 Generally I paint the skin tones first.

 Then I go in and add all the rest of the color. 

 The last step is my favorite. I go back in with Micron Pens and Prisma Colored Pencils and give each girl a little more detail and personality. 

Art Journal Page 10/22/14 - Framed Girl

This little face has been one of my favorites so far so I knew I wanted her to have a page that really put her on display. How to do that? Put her in a frame. The giant flower was an afterthought, but I think it's a fun touch.

Here she is with her page-mate.

I brought a little of the orange paper strips and purple stars over so the pages had some continuity. I kind of like that the little witch seems to be eyeing this blondie warily.

Art Journal Page 10/22/14 - Trick or Treat Girl

When I painted this face a few weeks ago, I knew she was headed for a Halloween page. Her orange hair and purple eyes are perfectly suited for Halloween, don't you think?

Because I used faces I'd painted before, I was able to complete two pages today. Stay tuned for her neighbor.

Newest Knitting Project - Hedgehogs

These are off to my little nieces for their birthdays. There's just something fun about hedgehogs!

Yarn: unidentified scratchy wool (body), Sugar n' Cream (face and nose)
Needles: US 2, US 4
Pattern: Little Oddment Hedgehog from Little Cotton Rabbits

Newest Name Signs

These first 3 were ordered by a returning buyer for her kids' teachers for Christmas this year. This sweet buyer lets me choose the color scheme and design for the signs. So for these three I based my color scheme on the ribbon I would use on the side. See if you can spot my inspiration ribbon on each one. 

 And this is one of my faux chalkboard signs.

Oh What To Do With All Those Doodles??

I'm a list maker. Lotta lists. To Do lists, grocery lists, Things I Don't Want To Forget lists.  Inevitably I end up doodling on those lists.

This was my To Do List for yesterday

I also doodle on meeting agendas (basketball booster club meetings can get really boring), church programs, my kids' school notebooks...if there's paper around, I'll probably doodle on it--with a ball point pen.

Sometimes the doodle is something I want to keep for later reference. Who knows? It may end up a painting or an Art Journal page someday. (The girl with the balloon in my To Do list above became the inspiration for my Art Journal page yesterday).

I've had these loose pages lying around EVERYWHERE for quite a while. But today I decided to consolidate. (This is only part of them!)

Notice 99.9% of the time it's people. People are my favorite things to draw.

I cut around all the little characters and lettering I had lying around and some edge designs I tried out and I glued them into My Idea Sketchbook. This is where I turn when I need inspiration. I got three pages out of all my little doodles. 

I kind of love seeing them all together. Now the next time I'm feeling artist's block, I'll just flip to one of these pages and let the ideas flow.

Art Journal Page 10/01/14 - Holding On By a Thread

This page was fun and frustrating. It had it's moments where I didn't think it would make it.

The first thing I did was draw my little face...which originally looked like this. (More on that in a minute). This pictures also shows you the difference between the finished face (bottom) and one that still needs the details added (top). The details--strands of hair, shading on the face, cleaning up the lines--really make it pop.

I then cut out her dress. I painted clouds on a book page and then outlined them with a Micron pen. And then I cut them out.

Okay, so now I had all the elements ready for the page. Now to prepare the page. I squirted out some blue and white acrylic paints onto the page and smeared them around with an old credit card and with my fingers.

Once that was dry, I placed things where they would go and marked where I needed to paint the hands and legs. This image makes me laugh. I love the floating, dismembered body parts.

Then I put it all together and it looked like this...for about 15 minutes. And then I decided that I just didn't love the face. It wasn't working for me at all.

The little quote on the side says "She was holding on by a thread." It seemed quite perfect to me.

SOOOO....I cut out a new face and had to get it to fit just right. It felt weird gluing it right on top of the first face, but there was no other way. And so now I have about 3 other little faces that didn't fit but may be used somewhere else later. And in the end I'm really glad I simplified the face. It just seems to fit better with everything else going on on the page.

And here she is with her neighbor in my Art Journal--Little Princess