Playing with Barbie again

Acrylic in the SMASH

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.

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.

Venice

This is as close to Venice in almost 30 years.  A telephoto view from the stateroom balcony.  Acrylic paint in the crispy crunchy paper homemade sketchbook.

Just passing--couple photos taken from the bus & combined.  Acrylics, same sketchbook.

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.

Holyland sketches



I'm back from the other side of the world. I needed a couple weeks to catch up with my life, so I'm just starting to scan my sketches and make new ones from my photos.

Acrylic ink in the self-made 6x8 in sketchbook. This is the mosque of Mohammed Ali the Great in Cairo. This was painted from one of my photos. So hot that day, so hot inside the mosque.  Mom wasn't doing well with the heat, so I spent alot of time encouraging her to walk, besides photos were allowed.



Oil pastels on dark gray pastel paper (same self-made sketchbook) of The Grotto of Revelation.  It's where St. John was exiled to this little Greek island.  It was really dim in there, I really couldn't see much.  Photos were not allowed, so this is kind of from memory and kind of from a dim picture I took of the tour guide's picture.  The grotto is a cave where St. John went to pray and meditate.  There's a relatively new (considering Jesus died over 2000 years ago) facade in front of the cave which is now maintained by the Greek Orthodox church  (hence the cabinetry.)  God talked to St. John (the deciple, not the baptist) from that point where 3 cracks come together in the ceiling, which is real life was actually at face level.  St. John wore out a spot on the ground where he used to pray and a spot on the wall where he helped himself stand, he was in his 80's & 90's.

Thai statue

Inktense, about 6x8 inch in the sketchbook I now travel with:  Pentallic Leather Journal.  It's got thick watercolor paper but there's not much sizing on it;  I wasn't scrubbing but I was trying to blend the colors in the background and the paper started pilling so I switched to a softer brush.

Westlake (China) 2004

Micron pen in the 6x8-in drawing sketchbook.  I think I've drawn this before in another medium.  I know it didn't come out as well as this.

Had just one page left.  This was in my head.  Amazing what I'll find in there when I'm not overworked or under pressure.  That Inktense is really intense IRL.  So, YAY!!  Sketchbook #13 is finally done (#6 art goal in 2011).

Inktense Blocks & GIMP

My truck passed CA smog yesterday.  That's an enormous monkey off my back.  I celebrated with a drive to my "closest" brick 'n mortar art store (30 miles) and unintentionally came home with $100 of art supplies, including a set of Inktense blocks.  I really haven't been thrilled with the Inktense pencils I've had for quite a while. I find them clumsy to sketch with outside the house BUT I've really "clicked" with these sticks with & without wash.  Going down, they feel like I wanted the Prismacolor art stix to feel like.  Right before this sketch, I put down the first line with the art stix -- I got a clear wax line, bleh.  I'm seriously considering taking this set on my trip.

The sketch is Basilica di San Vitale in Ravenna, Italy.  I (finally) downloaded GIMP last week (been meaning to for 2 years).  I tried some smudging in the blue sky to get rid of strokes that the wash didn't smooth enough.

Buddha 2004

Charcoal in the 6x8 drawing sketchbook.  I took the reference photo in 2004 near Shanghai where monks have carved like a hundred Buddhas into the mountainside.  I didn't see the belly button in the reference but I thought he needed one.

Dang it, I'm actually doing better on the 2011 art goal (use up sketchbooks) than on the 2012 goal (use up acrylic paint.)

Stonehenge 1985

I got my first camera just before my first overseas business trip.  I had a long layover in London so I had time to take local tours before the tour of Western Europe.  I lost alot of pictures because I didn't load the camera properly and I didn't recognize the clues that it wasn't operating properly.  I learned all that in a photography class I took a year AFTER the trip.    Compared to today, I hardly took any pictures!  Just a couple at each site but I got the important tourist shots.  I lost the few pictures I took in Scotland, London, Holland, Germany, and Venice, though I did get to go back and retake my London pics. 

I got to see Stonehenge before they put an ugly fence around it.  That day, that grass was soggy from rain before we got there and the rain clouds weren't that far away.  This sketch is part oil pastel (the green) and part hard pastels.

Another travel sketch

Bought some hard pastels to play with because I liked the earth tones.  This is Tallinn, Estonia from a picture I took in 2006.