Revisiting the Peacock Lady....

So, I am now at the point where I have NO idea if she's done or not.  I did actually go ahead and sign her, but now (as per usual ;)) I'm second guessing myself!  I changed most of the background (which I am happier with) retouched her neck and adjusted her hand. 

 

So I'm asking you all your opinion- finished...or not?  

Feel free to make any (constructive ;)) suggestions...

xx

Stephanie

Magical Journal Journey- Almost Ready to GO!

Once again, I find myself playing "catch up"!  The kids were out on Winter Break last week, and we took our daughter to visit some colleges at the end of the week, so there was no time for arting OR blogging.  But now I'm back and ready to do both!

Some of you might remember that I was working on making a new art journal to send out in another round robin,  The incredibly clever Lisa Wright came up with a wonderful title for our group, "Magical Journal Journey" and I used it for the cover of my book....

I kept the back of the book simple with just my name, title and date 

with a dragonfly swooping through

BTW, I took numerous pictures of this, but never could get the actual color to come through- it's much less like grape juice that it appears!

The only art I played with last week was for my sign in page, and I kind of went at it knowing I wanted to create some "Muse like" figures and took it from there.  I drew them with my right hand (which in my case is the WRONG hand ;)) to keep them loose and free.  And while I am happy with them now, they gave me one heck of a ride!  I painted them in water color and spray sealed them which caused all the colors to bleed and blend in a NOT good manner....so I went back at them with more water color, but the sealed surface didn't want to accept more water colors except for gold.  SO then, I took out my colored pencils and this helped lay down a new surface that I could paint over...BUT, then I wasn't happy with the way the were laid out and had NO idea how I could make them work as a sign in page....

 So, enter the scissors to the rescue!  I cut them up, first into 2 rows and then into individual figures which I glued down in a foldover/pop up manner. 

 And for what it's worth, the page they are glued in on was meant to be the back inside cover for my friends to write on if they chose....
but I was in too much of a hurry to resolve the figures, so it became their background......

Now, I just have to decide if I am still doing a spread for the back inside cover or do I just let the book end with the last entry....decisions, decisions.......

And if you'd like see what everyone else has been doing for this project, click HERE to see the Pinterest page Lisa Wright so generously created! OOOppps, that should be KIM of IM Girl created the Pinterest page- sorry!

That's all for now,

xx

Stephanie

Almost Done with my Peacock Lady and....Paint Party Friday

Woo hoo- it's Paint Party Friday and I am ready!  I had a few more hours to put in to my Peacock Chica (no idea what her name will be when she's done ;))  and for the most part she's done.  She's at that scary place where I have to approach any changes on tip toe so as to not over do things....

 I need to do a bit more on her hand- I wanted it to be kind of "sketchy" and loose, but now that it's up on the monitor, I see it's a little big...so make it smaller for sure

 Her neck has been giving me fits since I started, and each time I've gone to fix it, I've ruined it and had to start over- so while it still bugs me a little, I'm thinking I might leave it as is......

 

I fixed the facial features and had a blast shading the cheek and peacock feather- so no changes there

 So, what do you think?  I'd like to maybe, maybe play with the border a little more, but again, every time I've tweaked it, I've forced myself to start over.....

In the meantime, no painting for me today.  It's cooking for tomorrow's Farmer's Market (assorted Whoopie Pies and Chicken Turnovers ;)) and visiting all my friends at Paint Party Friday.  Hope to see you there!

xx

Stephanie

A little more on my Work in Progress....

I was able to paint on last Thursday but no time for pictures, so I wasn't able to post it.  

  She had been calling to me to be worked on all weekend, but on the weekends, my desk becomes shared space, so she just sat there all weekend- plus it was my anniversary and I had a DATE!

I did get more done yesterday, I was able to fix the conflicting angles of her eye and mouth, and played more with the background.....but again, no time for pictures- and it's too dark outside right now to get a good one.......

who knows, the next time you see her, she may be DONE!

See you all later!
xx
Stephanie

Art Class: Comic Strips and the Art of mixing the color BLACK

Here's what we've been working on in art class.  We ended January with a story board done comic style- since they are always doodling their own comics, I thought why not give it to them as a project!  And what a great opportunity to learn how to mix the color black? 
So, they sketched out their stories, illustrated them and then painted it in.  On this particular day, Leila was playing catch up from being sick, so the pictures of her are of the Radial Names project.....

Blacks and neutrals aren't easy to mix, but SO effective

After painting in black on each panel, I allowed the to use 1-2 primary colors

Nick's comic was inspired by Calvin and Hobbes- led to a great talk about inspiration v/s copying!

Leila is LOVING the metallic colored pencils!

Leila added some creative drawing into her lettering

Always time for free art!

So now you're almost caught up on art class- we are working on a cool feather drawing/painting project right now.  I'll share pictures soon!
TTFN,
Stephanie