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.

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.

Another sketchbook put to bed

Pen & Wash,  there's nothing significant about these doodles except it's the last page in the 6x8 inch watercolor sketchbook, I guess it's #14.  This is probably my favorite plein aire/travel size.  I needed a stamp that said "SCANNED" and it wasn't available in my office supply stores so I had to carve it myself.  This isn't one of the sketchbooks on my list but I am grateful for the SMASH book because of how it has stirred my creativity and got me out of a little artist block.  I've only got four pages left in my self-made sketchbook.

World Wide Sketchcrawl #37

The big reason I can't join groups for sketchcrawl is Mom.  She was dragging in the morning and was low on energy all day.  I can't go off and do my own thing.  I managed to cash in my piggy banks to the tune of $32.43, surprisingly more than just paying for lunch.  I got my flu shot, and I bought my birthday gift (a coffee machine for my office.)  Despite my morning frustrations, it turned out to be a good day.  Bonus, I've only got one page left in this sketchbook!

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.