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

A Little More on my Painting....

This past week has been like a series of unfortunate events from our refrigerator going out (we've been waiting for it's parts for a week now!), to our main bathroom (an impending redo that's been on hold forever) spitting tiles, sprouting leaks and dropping doorknobs and culminating with my daughter signing up for Google+ and accidentally deleting me from Google (!) this included my blog, plus Picasa, as well as lots of other places I didn't even know were Google dependent!  Needless to say, my guru husband managed to restore my blog, but it's still connected to my daughter!

Any ideas on how to "unconnect" our accounts without deleting either one?

So, I've been around, just not around as much, trying to deal with these occurrences!  I painted in the lettering on my new traveling journal, and I'm almost happy with it ;) just a little more tweaking.....I think I want the words "A Magical" to be the same color as "Journal Journey" and the word "Purple" to be stripey.  I didn't get a snap of the back cover, but it's the same purple with a dragonfly swooping off the page....

 and I did a little more on my new painting.  Just made the background richer and defined her arm a bit more.  I think I have to start on the peacock feathers for her hair soon...

and maybe even give her an ear!

 

For those of you who were wondering which painting I went over; it was this one:

And the winner of my giveaway is Thistle Cove Farm!  I've sent her an email letting her know ;) thank you all who entered!

Have a great day!

xx

Stephanie

New Beginnings....

Along with getting caught up on getting back to my routine; I started two new projects.  We're getting ready to start a new Round Robin project in March.  And this time, each of us has chosen a color or combination of colors for the other artists to use as guidlines.  My problem: I love ALL colors, so how to choose?  I started with my all time favorites; purple and green.  They are still my favorites, but I don't especially like them together...so I changed it to Purple (AL shades) and chartruese....getting closer, but still not sure.  Finally I went with all shades of purple plus black and gold (which I changed to metallics) and splashes of blue green.  And while I'm still questioning my decision, I'm leaving it where it is!  Enough waffling around already!
The next step was to prep my book.  I like to rescue unloved, broken books and use them to make something new.  So I cut my book down to size and wrapped the covers with canvas paper.  And painted in a base using many shades of purple.

I painted in abstract-y blocks to frame the edge and drew in my lettering. In case you're curious, the words read "A Magical ART Journal Journey.....celebrating the color PURPLE with touches of BLACK, METALLICS and BLUE GREENS"  Next order of agony is deciding how to do my sign in page....it's lucky I have a month right?

The other thing I started was a new painting....when I started sketching out my new book, I wanted to include a small painting of a woman with peacock feathers in her hair.  But she REFUSED to be small.  SO, I skipped using her for the book and started putting her on canvas.  This is a VERY rough stage of my painting.  And I usually sketch it out on the canvas before painting, but I didn't have any gesso to cover the painting underneath, so I "paint-sketched" right over the old piece!  In fact, you can still see it in places....look for the green (or don't- it's not very attractive here ;))

This was actually a very freeing way to paint- I also painted most of it without my reading glasses so I couldn't get too nit picky with anything.  There is MUCH left to be done, but for the moment, I'm just relishing having a new WIP!  A VERY good feeling indeed!
I'm linking with Paint Party Friday a little early.  Be sure to stop by the party- always so much beautiful work to see there!
See you at the party!
xx
Stephanie