Sketchbook #19 put to bed

No picture to post.  I tried a couple of watercolor experiments, then covered up the learning curve  with collage.  Nothing exciting.  On the 2012 list, it was listed as the Strathmore Watermedia sketchbook.   I'm not using up my acrylics but I'm still knocking out the sketchbooks.  Yay!

Sketchbook #18 put to bed

On the 2012 art goals list it was called 6x8 inch Strathmore Drawing #2 (because I started two of these at the same time).  I'm almost done with #19, too. which may be the 9x12 inch Wet Media sketchbook.

Grumpy Cat

I'm a new fan.  Acrylic in the Smash journal.  The other is a study in colored pencils in the 6x8 inch sketchbook.

Rainy, boring weekend

Something "soft" for this week's scavenger hunt.  Acrylics on 4x6 inch cardboard.  A little birthday present I got this year, first chance I've had to sketch it.

More Mola

This week's WDE references were from Panama.  I wish I could explore a country more in-depth but a superficial peek is getting to be more than my "travel companion" can handle.  I interpreted a couple WDE references to the Mola style.  The long weekend was exhausting, so these were relaxing.  Acrylic paints in the 9x12 inch wetmedia sketchbook.

How I spent my Thanksgiving Day

I didn't have to cook or serve or host.  Just hung around to help with honey-do's and I got some painting done.  Feels good!

Acrylic sketches on 4x6 inch cardboard for scavenger hunt 292.  There was more!  I also did a wooden elephant and a panda.

Weekend art

 Donkey & Friend - or maybe it's a mule, I can't tell the difference.  From this week's WDE invitation.  Acrylics in the Smash.

The Smash journal has really fired up my creativity.  Since I got the journal, I've been painting/sketching again in my other sketchbooks.  I had three other paintings this weekend!  I don't show them all, that's not the point.  I feel good when the art flows, good or not.  Oh, this is conte pastels in the 6x8 inch drawing sketchbook (one of the 2011 goals)

Abstract

Struggled all Sunday put paint down, any paint.  Then an hour before I go to bed it comes out in a rush.  Felt good, now I can sleep.  This is acrylic paint in the wet media sketchbook 9x12 inch.  I think this could develop into something.  I find it too dark but I was playing with balance & colors in GIMP and surprised me it's pretty well balanced.

Then had a bad Monday.   First I found these paint colors on the arms of my computer chair.  No biggie, it's an old chair and actually tonight I was able to clean it up with just alcohol.  But I get to work and I see a spot of white gesso on my green jacket.  I'll just scrape it off.  Then one spot leads to another and on the bottom side of the arm, ARRRGGGGHHHHH!!!!!  I'm stuck with it.  I was able to get in to see the dentist today because I was eating mini tacos for dinner and there must have been a stone in the taco shell.  One of my porcelain crowns broke, AAARRRRGGGGGHHH!!!!  The tooth was still good, it's just cosmetic.  Whew, dodged a bullet and a huge dental bill. That would have made it the worst Monday I ever had.  Traffic was bad for a Monday and a federal holiday. 

Above my monitors at work I have my 2007 Oil Pastel copy of The Scream.  Whenever I want to scream I just look up and it makes me smile.  When I first hung it, one of my coworkers commented that it was wierd & creepy to him.  Soon after, one of the originals sold for $120 million.  One of the foreign girls told her husband, "Hey that's Julie's painting!"  He had a laugh.

Carabao

This was last week's WDE, acrylics in the 6x8 inch sketchbook.  I struggled with it and the elephant reference.  It shows. 

I went to the Philippines in 1987 and my uncle arranged a side trip to see the Banaui rice terraces.  Incredible manmade feat!  The brightest green I'd ever seen, even greener than Ireland.  So I was hiking down one of the mountains to see the terraces up close and there was a tribal village down at the bottom of the valley.  Halfway down as I was coming down to another terrace, I smelled this awful stench that wasn't toilet but definately fertilizer.  I turned around and it was a huge water buffalo staring at me.  It was knee deep in the water-filled rice paddy and munching on a mouth full of long grass.  They say smell is one of the greatest memories we have.  Just seeing this reference brought back that stinky memory.

San Diego Fishies

Acrylic in a new (uh oh) "Smash" art journal from Michaels.  I was trying to use a 50% off coupon but since this was already discounted, it wasn't discounted more.  I've finally learned the difference between an art journal and a scrapbook.  Art journal is definately the direction I want to go but sometimes I pick up the paint brush and end up filling the page with a painting.  The fishes are inspired by a sculpture at the San Diego Botanic Garden I visited a couple years ago.

Follow the butterflies

A new cover for my (homemade) non-archival 12x12 inch crispy-crunchy-yellowed-pages sketchbook.  The flowers are store bought stick-on card stock.  I painted the butterflies & caterpillar.  That was fun.  Makes me feel creative today, plus I used up some acrylic paint.  I bought a few of these scrapbook-size stick-on things I bought cheap when I was unemployed in 2009 and looking for things to do.

Mola #3

I was on a roll last night. Acrylic on 9x12 inch cardboard off one of the pads of paper I actually finished last year.
Edit: picture update to make it look less like a yellow brick road.
Edit2: picture disappeared!

Happy New Year 2012

I had time! I used it to paint another mola attempt. Not yet true to the style but it's getting there. I do like how the panda turned out. 8x10 inch acrylic on watercolor paper mounted on--I think it was a book cover in a previous life.

Almost forgot, 2012new years resolution: Very simply, use up as much acrylic paint as possible. The goal post is actually to get to a point where I have only Golden Opens and Golden Fluid acrylics.

As for last year's goals, I only finished one sketchbook. I closed out several writing journals, but I only count one sketchbook. So if I use up as much acrylic paint as I can, the sketchbooks and paper accumulation will take care of themselves.