Another box

So the first box was Mom's birthday present, only about 6 weeks late.  This is her mother's day present, only a couple weeks late, LOL.  She really loved the other one.  She said she likes this one too, but I told her she has to say that because she's my mother. This is looser than I intended but I was limited by my brushes.  My finest brush was still too thick for this scale  (the box is 9in X 3.5IN x 3.5in). 

I painted a box

Not the finest art, more like crafty art.  So I've been busy reorganizing my office/art space.  I put my monitors up on a dual stand to get all the cables off my desk and make room to do stuff.  I was trying to clear under my desk...that didn't work out so well, I've just got different stuff under my desk now and the art supplies that were under my desk is now up on new wire shelves.  What the reorganization did was 1) clear my desk top for projects and 2) clear the French doors behind my desk so that I can swing them open now.  I've got to wait til Sunday night to throw out more empty boxes or else they'll find their way back into the house.

Then Mom was sitting at my desk, snooping around, and she found these wooden pencil boxes I'd bought with the intention to color with oil pencils and she wanted them.  I lost interest in the oil pencils after one flower.  But they weren't empty!  Oh yea, I found my first set of printmaking paints and the linocut tool.  I totally lost them, so I'd bought another tool and more paints.  And I found my Dremel Tool bits, DOH!

I was almost ready to donate my old acrylic paints because I haven't touched them in over a year.  A couple of them (browns) are like gel now, but they were going that way years ago.  But this was fun.  I still have peacock feathers on my brain, so I'm going to do some kind of abstract peacock pattern on the other box before giving it to Mom.  And I'm going to keep my paints, they're still fun. 

Painting again, finally

Acrylics in the 6x8 inch Strathmore #2.  Hoping this will be sketchbook #17.  I've put together a 6-compartment acrylic palette of 5 colors.  Maybe having it in easy reach will encourage little quickies like these.

Inspired

I've been busy with lots of work, wanted to do something loose.  I found inspiration at Ross (store).  Acrylics in the Smash journal.

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.

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.

DandyLion Roars

Acrylic in the self-made sketchbook.  I'm really happy with my acrylics lately.  Only 3 pages left.  Reference from this week's WDE.  I tried to upload there but WC login seems to be disabled.  Ahhh, that explains why nobody else has uploaded their WDE and why there's no new list in the Scavenger Hunt.

WDE ACEOs

Double page spread in the SMASH journal. I got the Smash journal because it had ready to go backgrounds.  I'm not liking collage (media) because of all the stuff you have to accumulate.  I've got the skills to paint little icons & sticker-sized graphics. However, you can't do watercolor or gouache or inktense directly on the page.  It just beads up.  For the acrylic, I thought about painting squares of gesso but then I can't use the other media if I feel like it.  So I cut up some ATC size blank watercolor paper.  No, I won't be trading these, they're already glued (Mod Podge) to the pages.

That's another thing, not all glue is good.  I had rubber cement, but it was over 4 years old and had reduced to a tough rubber snot-like substance.  I had stick glue.  It had dried up, too.  The SMASH glue is stick glue--it'll probably fall off in a couple years.  Mod Podge is the way to go!  Ooo, I just saw my hot glue gun hanging from my art table.  That'll be good for heavier attachments.

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!

Dizzy Lizzy

I was supposed to be working on a lesson plan. I'd rather paint. 24 hours later, I'd still rather do art, no progress on that lesson plan. Acrylic paint on 11x14 hardboard. This is only as much as fit in the scanner. Reference from gourdburner on wetcanvas.

Art Finally!

"Poison" 4x4 inch acrylic on canvas. No reference photo. I had a good morning yesterday as life gradually returns to how I like it. I had a morning ride in my truck and I ended up at DuPar's Restaurant. Had a relaxing breakfast and thought "I feel like painting a snake. A really colorful poisonous snake." LOL! This probably isn't the first art of the year, but it sure feels like it--It's been so long. I've got another snake in my head...

English Rose

Another acrylic 4x4 from the WDE hosted by Lin (oldrockchick). I think it looks better from a distance so I'm putting it high up on my wall. I don't think I've ever successfully painted a rose before. I sketched a nice ink pen quickie once, while waiting for my turn at a mammogram. TMI?

Crowned Crane

This is acrylic paint on 4x4 inch canvas from this week's WDE hosted by the forum team, I think.
Before I moved my sketch blog, at the beginning of the year, I had a goal to do one small finished painting a week, with allowances for more time to do bigger finished work. If I couldn't do that, I was going to take an art class at the college because that always seems to get my paint flowing. Well, I haven't been painting since my plein air frustration in Maui and I can't, under my current circumstances, commit to a class for the whole semester but I've got permission to drop into the Life Painting class (figure painting). It's already getting me thinking about painting alot.

Also on my 2009 art goals: Finish my 100 OP sketch challenge by the end of the year and continue on my 100 acrylic sketches. Hopefully I'm back on track with the one small painting a week and I've got 6 more OP's to go.