Posted by: Mary @ 12:11 pm
Art Doll Melanie flew off to True North Arts today for the Paper Doll Swap. I played with different ideas and when it all distilled down to a vision I worked non-stop and created her. It was a little sad to send her off this morning but she has a sister and I will create her next.
Melanie is a gentle and wise spiritual guide who is there for you when you
need her. She has great powers of visualization and discernment that can help you in your journey. When she holds up the mirror of truth you will be able to see yourself more clearly and elucidate the path that resonates with you. Melanie encourages you to be free to be your authentic, creative self. Knowing yourself is the key to discovering your inner power and reaching your dreams.
The doll pattern is from the Enchanted Gallery. This is a freehand drawing and the support used was Strathmore bristol board smooth finish 100 lb. Supplies used were pencil, pitt pen, staedtler markers, prismacolor nupastels, workable fixative, and uhu glue.
Posted by: Mary @ 6:49 pm
Here are a couple of hand drawn ATCs I did recently. This mandala ATC was inspired by a wonderful Vimeo Athena Mandala on Daisy Yellow and YouTube Zendalas by Milliande is another great mandala drawing video. ATCs are so portable and you can work on one anywhere. If you want to learn more about ATCs including their history, visit atc - artist trading cards. There is a nice guide to making ATCs at Art in Your Pocket: ATCs.
Posted by: Mary @ 7:11 pm
This is something I have wanted to do for quite a while now and I finally did it! My sources of inspiration were several Somerset Magazine publications, Lisa Engelbrecht, and a library book - Hand Lettering for Crafts by Sandra Salamony. Then I came up with my own idea and ran with it.
Basic Supplies: Colored pencils, HB pencil, hand sharpener, eraser, art journal/sketchbook
Painting Supplies: water color paints, brushes (small or medium flat wash and small round are good), palette (i have several kinds but you can even use a disposable plastic plate), water container, mister bottle (an empty pump hair spray bottle works well), natural sponge (if you have one), and paper towels
First I drew a shape, in this case a circle but any shape will do. Use light pencil marks as you will erase the lines later. Next, draw a line across the page somewhere above the top of the shape. Curve or bend the line as you go. Then you echo the first line drawn moving down the page and keeping the lines about the same distance apart (equidistant). Let the line disappear inside the shape (or erase it afterwards) as you are going down the page. Stop after you get past the bottom of the shape, leaving some white space above and below your design. This does not have to be perfect but you can always erase and adjust some lines if you want.
Now think about words flowing across the lines that you’ve drawn. If you don’t know what to write, copy a passage from a book that inspires you, excerpt song lyrics, or combine different phrases together. Sometimes if you start writing the words will just come out. In this case I intermixed remembered phrases with my own thoughts. Pick up one of your colored pencils and keep a small hand sharpener nearby. Get comfortable and loosen up. Relax your hand. Take a cleansing breath and just start writing, slowly, one letter at a time. For reference I had alphabet sampler pages printed in various fonts but I put them aside and did not use them. Instead I decided to embellish my own letterforms. I took my time and thought about each letter and word as they slowly flowed from my hand. I totally lost track of time and was pleased with the results. The hardest part is getting started. Once I get going I am in the zone. And yes, I made a mistake in there but it’s OK. Not easy to say for someone who counts proofreading as one of her many job duties 
I put the piece aside to think about it and decided to put paint down the next night. When I am going to paint or collage in my art journal, I gluestick two pages together and run a brayer over them (you can also rub them together with a wooden spoon) for better support. At some point I erased all the original light pencil lines. I was not so sure about doing this but the colored pencil letterforms remained intact. There was paint on my palette from a previous project - a red, a blue, 2 greens, a yellow, and a tan - so I spritzed them with the mister bottle and they were usable again. My intention was just to put light washes down so that the lettering would show through, so I watered down the paints and dipped the wash brush in first the red, then the red and blue, and so on. Closer to the bottom are muddy but interesting colors which is what you get when you mix colors that contain all of the primary colors (red, blue, yellow). If it gets too wet you can blot it with a paper towel. Put the paint down lightly and try not to go over it too much as it will look fresher, cleaner, and more spontaneous. It is easy to overwork watercolor and it is better to stop before you think it’s done. Less is more. I used the natural sponge to dab paint into the circle, first blue and then green. If you don’t have a natural sponge try using a household sponge or a crumpled up paper towel. This was so much fun and I plan on continuing on with this form of expression. Enjoy!
Posted by: Mary @ 6:29 pm
It is Sunday night and this is what I have completed this past week for the Vision Journaling Workshop. First there is an ATC card and a companion collage in my sketchbook illustrating the word balance. I used my new fineliner Staedtler markers to make the balance ATC card. The collage is just a picture cut out from a magazine on top of scrapbook paper - very simple. Gluestick is your friend There are several other words for which I want to create ATC cards and corresponding collages when there is more time. Next there is a small wooden box that I found at Joann Fabrics to keep the ATC cards in. This is followed by ATC cards made for week 2 core values and week 1 relaxation. For the core values I used scrapbook paper and markers and for relaxation I used watercolor paints and gel pens. It is interesting and fun creating a design in a small format (2.5″ x 3.5″) and the cards look nice in the wooden box out on the coffee table. I have used a corner round pounch on most of the ATC cards and like the effect. Each lesson with creative prompts is very helpful in getting you to focus on what is important in your life.
Week 2 in the Vision Journaling Workshop involved a process to elucidate your core values. I did not follow the initial directions and started this at work, which turned out to be a good thing as it was a major mid-day de-stressor and led me to focus on what is important to me. I also have a long commute and do a lot of thinking in the car with new age music in the CD player so ideas come to me easily that way, even when doing 75 on the interstate (in the slow lane just keeping up with traffic and everyone is still passing me). I struggled with this exercise somewhat as it was hard to narrow things down to just 10 items and my initial lists were very long. In the car on the ride home Friday night I visualized exactly what I wanted to do - get my yet unchosen 10 words into the computer with a pastel box behind each word on a page that I could print and cut out and then add the words to a paper collage. And I still want to do that as well as make ATC cards… later.
When I started on this with InDesign yesterday and the 2002 Land of Forever CD playing, my graphic design gene led me down a different path. After working through the exercises I had 29 words and could not choose only 10 words so I finally settled on 12 that truly resonated with me. I typed my words in, first the whole list and then the list of 12. On the next page I took the 12 words, made boxes behind them, and chose different pantone colors. Then an idea came… I thought why not make a background with all the words repeated over and over, faded color and leading (line spacing) spread out. What next? Why not adjust the colored boxes the way I would have cut them and place them randomly around the background and do this piece digitally? The stark white background did appeal to my minimalist senses but I added a color screened back as a transparency and was pleased with the results. I have included the 4 page PDF to show my thought process. Once I get started it seems that one idea leads to another.
This weekend I bought myself a circles template and used it to create an interlocking circles design in my sketchbook with a mechanical pencil. The resultant shapes were then randomly filled in with my colored pencils. This was a fun exercise and the design reminds me of molecular structure. My Rapidograph pen was clogged (I have a .3 and a .5) but I was able to successfully clean it today and can try using the technical pen with the circle template next time. I love my Rapidograph pens even though they require special care.
This is the color palette chosen for painting my bedroom in my it’s about time redecorating scheme. It has been a major project for me the past 2 weeks, from emptying the room to prepping the walls to painting the walls and then the trim, followed by putting everything back in the room. The room is finished and looks fresh, light and airy, while my knees are recovering from all that lifting and climbing up and down on the ladder. The walls are Hosta Flower, a pale lavender, and the trim is Swiss Coffee, a creamy off white. The paint is by Behr from Home Depot and the Behr web site has some great tools for choosing a color palette. I took my paint swatches to Joann Fabrics and picked out the fabric shown in the background of the photo for new valances. I plan on designing and creating a series of new quilts for the walls. Possible themes being considered are mountain, ocean, desert, and sky for the four different walls, with a diptych on the longest wall. I have not yet decided on the overall look or theme and may mix new and old pieces to show transition and change. Last night I finished machine quilting the last border of my fall leaves quilt for my bed, shown below, and just need to finish it off with the binding - a rich green batik seems to work best to unify the piece. The colder fall weather with a dusting of snow the other night on my way home from work motivated me to make the final push to get this quilt, 6 years in the making, finished and onto my bed.
My fall leaves quilt is heading into the home stretch. Last night I finished thread painting the leaves into the colored band border. All that is left to do is the meandering line quilting in the last white border and then the binding. My quilt should be done before winter sets in so that it can go on my bed. This quilt was started 6 years ago and has been to quilting retreats and been a long time in the making. Here are some photos showing how I take over the dining room table to work on the machine quilting. I have a Bernina 1090 which was purchased at a Super Bowl Sunday sale 15 years ago and it still runs great. It is like wrestling an alligator to roll the quilt to get the center portions between the free motion foot and the right side of the machine, bit it can be done. I did not want to send this quilt out for professional machine quilting because I wanted the work to be totally mine. The machine quilting gloves have small rubber bumps on the palms and fingers which provide good traction and flow for moving the work under the needle as it goes up and down.
This quilt was inspired by Mexican Eye of God yarn weavings. It was designed in Adobe Illustrator and foundation pieced on paper patterns. It is 18 inches square and hangs on the wall in my upstairs hallway.
These Christmas ornaments were made from my own foundation paper pieced designs this week using some of my favorite fabrics. My quilting patterns are designed in Adobe Illustrator and previously in MacDraw when I had a Mac Plus (my pattern collection goes way back). Foundation piecing is one of those techniques that people seem to either love or hate - there is no in between. Carol Doak is the queen of paper piecing if you are interested in learning more about this method and these types of patterns. To me they are a lot of fun to put together and you get extremely accurate piecing and points.
Posted by: Mary @ 7:07 pm
One of my favorite Robert Frost poems is “The Road Not Taken”. The poem can be seen in its entirety at Bartleby Quotes. At times we are faced with a decision and a choice as to which path to take in life. Sometimes it is a small decision and sometimes it is a huge one. Sometimes the choice is clear and other times it is arrived at with difficulty. This mixed media piece was created over the past week and illustrates my feelings about having two similar yet different paths appear at a moment in time. I started by cutting varying width strips of different scrapbook papers and glueing them down to a 12″x12″ cardstock base. After leaving this on my work table and letting it sit for a few days I decided to add marks with a blue pastel stick. Next I chose to cut random width and length strips of transparent velum and glue those down. Today I remembered the photos of boardwalks that I took this year at two different places in nature: the Cranberry Bog and the Audubon Center. After printing one photo from each place I arranged them carefully on the surface and added my favorite part of the quotation to finish the piece.
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
Journals come in all shapes and sizes and can be used to express yourself with words, drawings, photos, ephemera, and many other ways. The Moleskine journal project features 13 artists who were asked to record and express “A Week in Your Life” in their journals. The results are both surprising and delightful.
1000 journals are traveling around the world and being passed along in a monumental collaborative journal project. Each person adds their own stories and drawings to the journal before passing it on. The 1000 Journals Project is an incredible concept and experiment.
You can make your own journals to use as you wish. Elise Blaha shares some wonderful directions for making small blank books on the Tuesday Tutorials section of Ali Edwards site. Below is a small ring book that I created with easy step by step directions.
