Painting, drawing, and book altering

I have been working on a few projects the past week and I'm finally ready to share them.
The first is a doodle that I painted a face over for the doodles unleashed class.

Blue Can Be Happy Too

The face was difficult for me.  I had to rework it a bit so I could be happy with her.  It was a lot of fun even though I'm new to making faces and it got a bit frustrating every now and then. I like the painting quite a bit now.  I'm sure that I will continue to improve as I practice.

The next thing is my latest drawing for Lifebook.  This one isn't done yet.  I need to add folds to the clothing, and more shading, along with some words.  This project was a bit scary since I did hatching and cross hatching with a pen.  No going back and erasing when I don't like it.  I will continue to practice more people and shading, so that I will eventually improve- I hope.  Here they are still a work in progress.

The last project that I am working on all the time is my book of days.  I have a couple of pages complete and some backgrounds started on this Monday.

Pretty soon I will be starting to sew for the high school musical that my daughter is in.  It is Hello Dolly this year.  I am seeing a lot of ruffles and lace in my future.  After seeing all the dresses that we have to work with yesterday I am getting pretty excited about altering them and dolling up a bunch of girls.  The Victorian era clothing is fun to play with even though I don't want to wear it every day.

Have a good week,

Janelle

Snow dyeing

My daughter, Katrina, and I did some snow dyeing this weekend.  We each did a piece of cotton and a piece of silk.  We took our fabric that was soaked in a soda ash solution and loosely crumpled it on a screen over a tub.  Then we covered each one completely with snow.  After that we took our dye solution (using fiber reactive dyes for natural fibers) and decorated the snow- squirting the dye all over in no particular order.  We covered the whole thing with plastic and left it to sit.  As the snow melts the dye is carried into the fabric and sets.  This method produces some really pretty patterns in the fabric.  The next afternoon I washed everything out and discovered some beautiful fabric.

The silk is first.  It takes the dye much lighter and more pastel than the cotton. 

 The first cotton piece, followed by some close-ups.

The second cotton piece, followed by some close-ups. 

 I hope you enjoy the pictures and I can share more of my methods if anyone wants to know.
Janelle

Marbled papers

I wanted to share the papers that I marbled this week for my Lifebook class.  I used shaving cream and alcohol inks to do the project. 

I am slowly adding to my collection of decorated papers that I can use in my art.

doodle painting

I made another doodle painting this week.  I have been having fun just making marks with paint and ink and then adding pen and marker later.  I don't like how this one looks as well as the last one, but since I am just cutting them up to use in other art work it will work.  Before I cut them up I take pictures so that I can use the painting in digital art too.  Someday I will have more time to make art on the computer.

Katrina drew a picture for her mythology class this week.  She had to make up heroes and a story to go with it.  Here is her drawing.

 Happy creating!
Janelle

Collage and Doodling

I went to a collage workshop today at my local library.  I made a collage, met some new people that love creating art, and I collaged a bit in my Book of Days in prep for a future page.

I love blues and purples, so that is the color that I chose to work with.

I also made a couple of new doodle paintings that I want to share.  These were experiments from the Doodles Unleashed class that I have been following along with. After I took all the pictures I cut these two into smaller pieces that I will use in future art work.

I hope that you are all having a good weekend.  I will try to catch up on everyone's blogs tomorrow, if my son lets me use the computer. He complains that I don't let him have enough game time on the weekends.
Janelle

Book of Days

Here are my newest pages for my Book of Days Journal.  This is the first time that I have tried to keep an art journal.  So far it has been fun and I am actually writing some memories in it.  I am writing a lot about my beliefs  and what I want to accomplish this year; spiritually, professionally, and personally.

Thanks for looking and be creative this week.
Janelle

Book of Days

I have been following along with Effy Wild's Book of Days project.  http://wildpreciouslife.com/  I have never kept a journal and I am going to try this year.  It might just turn out that I have a lot of colorful pages without a lot of words, but I might actually write some things down.  I am behind, so I just completed my front cover.

Soon I want to work on my inside cover and then start to create my spreads for each week.  

Janelle

Doodling

My daughter, Katrina, and I spent some time doodling this afternoon.  I have been following along with Traci Bautista's Strathmore Online Workshop. http://www.strathmoreartiststudio.com/group/workshop-1-traci
Katrina has not seen any of the videos however.  We got out the paints, pens, inks, oil sticks, etc...  We had some fun.  Here are our results:

This is Katrina's piece.

This is my piece.

I was just having some fun putting marks on the paper, not planning anything in particular.   Sometimes we just need to play.  I hope that you take some time to play this weekend.

Janelle