Coffee Girl Art Journal Page

I've got this strange quirk. 

I keep practicing faces and then using the ones that I'd call fails in my art journal. 

Which has resulted in a good many weird ones making it into 'finished' work and the 'good' ones in a stack of papers with my mail... getting coffee stained as I'm a huge klutz.

This is funny as I've always been a proponent of, 'kill your darlings" and this has a whiff of, "those ones are too precious" to it.

How about you? Do you use your crappy stuff (supplies, sketches, backgrounds, yarn...) and hoard your good stuff?

Just me?

P.S. I'm very happy to be going back to my art journalling roots. It's nice to just mess around with no real concern for the outcome. Makes this girl very happy.

And Happy Halloween!

Stained Glass: In Progress

Moving generates a whole lot of cardboard so I decided to reframe that thought as moving supplies a whole lot of substrates for art. 

We'll call this my 'recycling period' so it sounds artsy, K?

My husband has a open 'window' above his office door that sounds just moseys through like you would not believe. And his video chat meetings do not need to hear our history lessons... or worse. 

So I'm making him a 'stained glass' cardboard window filler. I'll post proper pictures when it's done. 

Recycled Playing Card Postcards - Give Away

click all the pictures in this post to see them larger

Thanks so much for the warm response to my altered playing card tutorial. It's so nice to hear from so many of you who are excited about this project.

I decided to tackle another batch of cards this afternoon, this time focusing on the etched hearts. First I typed up some of my favorite quotes from Pinterest using my all time best and most used font you see on every single project I do (just about). It's naughtily named, "Fucked Olympia" which completely confused me. Was the first word in that phrase "I" or "He" or "Nobody"? Turns out soon after I downloaded it, I was looking at vintage typewriters and the brand was Olympia. *lightbulb moment* So it's the olympia font, just a little bit messed up. 

Okay, now where was I? Right, made another batch...

After printing the quotes out on our laser printer (ink jet runs when you use Mod Podge) I mixed and matched quotes and hearts, let them dry and then added in details with a black pen. The etched gesso is a perfect gutter to guide your pen lines. Easy peasy.

Since last year I've had a set of Pantone Postcards lying around my craft room. I'd bought them with the lofty goal of making cool collages on them and mailing them to friendlies far and near. Yeah, that didn't happen. I kept saving them for the perfect project - which, of course, never came along.

Today they were called into duty. 

And now for the giveaway, leave a comment telling me which card is your favorite and I'll choose someone to send one to. Make sure there is some way I can contact you :-)

Thanks for stopping by.

Warmly,

~~~~Nicole

The Importance of "Before" Pictures and Projects

This is my "Before" pictures for expressive figure drawing. It is also my first project of this type.

I know I'm absolute rubbish at it but my 30 year plan to be able to draw expressive figures by the time I'm 65 has officially started.

The original plan was to wait until closer to 50 - TO TRY - because then maturity would somehow translate to talent. LOL. I don't know why I think the things I do sometimes.

There is so much wrong with this but you have to start somewhere, so here's what I like:

*The weight of her breasts
* The curve of her hips
*The placement of her right arm (implied)
*The proportion of her waist/hip/pubic area - it feels like everything is more or less in the right place, anatomy-wise
*The slope of her shoulders

It's important to look at your work, no matter how rough and novice, and see the likable bits.

And I look forward to the day when I can pull this out, compare it to that days work and say, "Wow! Look how far I've come!"

As adults, I think it's really hard to do new things that we know we aren't going to be very good at for quite some time. It's easier to stay in our safe, accomplished comfort-zone where we know how everything works.

But where is the fun in that?

Voodoo Man Mixed Media Canvas

During this year's season finale of Grimm we met a zombie raising vow-doo man. I love the iconic, inspiring imagery. 

From Grimm:

Here's the villain from Disney's Princess and the Frog:

And this picture was too amazing to pass up.

So I took a crack at my own Shadow Man.

I started with an old canvas and gessoed over the previous picture. While the gesso was wet I etched words and marks into it. You can see the water-reactive colors coming through and tinting the gesso. Yummy!

Once dry, I spray painted the whole thing. Lately I've really enjoyed painting a background entirely and then blocking out sections with a solid color until the picture emerges.

 A few close ups:

It's the first time I've tried flowers and I'm hooked. You'll be seeing more of these.

Here's how that texture worked out. I love etching into wet gesso. 

It creates so much visual interest.

The playing cards might be my favorite part :-)

My husband took this canvas and hung it in his office as soon as it was dry. What a sweet compliment !

Thanks so much for stopping by. 

Warmly,

~~~Nicole

Graffiti Canvas - Monster Love

I know I don’t stand a chance but I’m going to like you anyway.

This is my project for Michelle Kral's Life Book 2013 class

We were supposed to make a cool pop-up, card-like thing but I didn't have any large paper. So I went and cleaned my basement instead and found an old, forgotten canvas. It was painted peachy-tangerine - AWFUL!

So I spray-painted it. A lot! Using lots of fun Artistcellar stencils.

And then went to work making my creature.

Here are some close -ups:

Thanks for visiting.

Don't Let Your Struggle Become Your Identity

Today is my 40th birthday. 

I thought I'd be older. 

Thinner

Smarter

Well-read

Sure of myself

Further along my journey

Healthy and Whole

But I also never imagined that I'd be 

So dedicated to my family 

Creative

Living an artful Life

Actively seeking beauty

Pretty good in the kitchen

Madly and hopelessly in love with my husband of 18 years.

On the 10th year of my health struggle but still fundamentally me-ish.

Because one of the things I strive for is the message of this art,

Don't Let Your Struggle Become Your Identity

~~~

This "canvas" is actually a See's candy box. How great is that?

xoxox

Warmly,

~~~Nicole