All over the place

Over the past week or two,

I've had no desire to pick up the paintbrush.

I kinda feel guilty about it,

but the call to draw mandalas

and doodle,

and experiment with different medias

have been too much fun.

I can't ignore that, can I?

Want to take a look at what I've been doing?

I have been practicing my drawing (there are so many great step by step tutorials online!)
in my moleskine...pen for size.

The beginning stages of a zebra.
Definitely the hardest thing I've tried.
Go to www.drawspace.com for free drawing lessons.

I've had fun trying out random shapes
and doodles,
playing with my sparkly gel pens;
revived from the dead!

 I just bought a UniBall Signo white pen...
and oh, people were NOT lying when they
ranted and raved about how awesome it is.
It flows spectacularly,
is bright and just POPS against dark color.
Love.

Next up was my BIG journal.
I painted the background black,
and at first tried to use colored pencils.
I don't think they are supposed to color over shiny, acrylic paint.
Ok.
I tried my Neocolor Crayons.
YES.
I doodled some mandalas.

So I went out to Michael's,
 and bought some black cardstock.
Oh, colored pencils worked on that!
I got bored and kinda gave up on it though :)

Should I settle down and find my niche?
I think, eventually.
But this is all along the journey of finding myself,
and for the first time...ever...
I can say that it feels good.

A Thank You Note

All the wonderful comments I get on this blog

make me smile.

Every single time.

I may not comment back on everyone,

but know that when I get that e-mail

I grin, knowing that someone cared enough

to respond to my art.

You all have helped me get through

some tough times,

and helped me keep going when I have

not felt like I could, or should.

I can't thank you enough.

You all help me

keep on keepin' on

Michelle Ward's Crusade and another mandala!

Hey folks!

I'm glad to be back on with electricity.

Yesterday afternoon a insane thunder storm

came whipping through town,

knocking 45,000 people out of power.

It has been in the mid 90s (before the heat index),

so the lack of Air-Conditioning wasn't fun.

But the power came back on today and I am back

to basking in light and internet and AC.

I have been working steadily over the past

few days on a new BIGGER mandala.

I have been trying them out in my tiny moleskine,

but decided to try it out in my big journal.

The first one was a disaster,

so for the second one I decided to bust out 

my compass and ruler.

I am a fan of symmetry.

I punched it up with some watercolor.

There really is something so soothing in the repetitive

drawing of simple shapes, and so far I really love the outcome!

Its one of those things that looks harder than it is.

Seriously, I can't draw AT ALL.

On a different note, I decided to jump back into 

Michelle's Crusades. I love her ideas and techniques,

and I'm glad to have the inspiration back.

Her challenge this month was simple: Gridlock

Make a grid in your art journal.

This goes along with my analytical/linear mind.

I love grids and tiny details.

For this challenge, I cut up some of my

spray-painted papers that I have been hoarding.

Why is it that when you cut up papers to smaller sizes

they seem more fascinating and awesome?

I like the end result, but it sat for a few days.

It needs something else, but that something else

never came to me.

Maybe one day! 

More Mandala Happiness

I am in Mandala-creating mode lately!

I like parts of this mandala...and parts I am "meh" about.

It is all part of the learning process, right?

I really like this one.

I used a compass to make it more symmetrical

and really like the result.

I am also working on Michelle Ward's Crusade #40:

Gridlocked. I feel like I am starting to 

jump back in the world of art making,

and boy it does feel nice.

It is also fun to see inspiration everywhere!

Stay tuned for my next post on Michelle's Crusade!

Mandala Happiness

I have long been inspired by people

who can draw the most gorgeous mandalas

(check out this flickr group)

I have been researching them over the past few weeks,

as I haven't wanted to create art 

except on my couch.

I figured a pen and this cute little moleskine I just bought

would probably be ok to do on the couch.

As pretty as they can be,

it seems many people were going on about how

soothing it was to make them.

Therapeutic, even.

I need as much therapy as I can get! haha

I also am a "struggling" doodler.

It doesn't come all that naturally to me,

and I figured that if I keep trying to draw

mandalas, maybe it will loosen me up.

So, here is my first serious one I tried.

See? Tiny!

At first I just felt frustrated that I suck at trying to think

about what to draw next. 

My mind is amazing at going blank when I 

force it to think about the next step.

After awhile, I realized that it IS

soothing to create a shape and 

just go around in a circle and repeat it.

I think I am a believer

More Watercolor Fun!

Well I must be feeling better,

as this is the third post in a week!

I'm still in the "I want to play in my living room" 

mode, so it is my pad of paper

and watercolors it is.

This piece was done over a few evenings.

All I did was put my favorite colors down

and watch the colors blend and do their own thing.

I realized that I love blues and purples

and reds and oranges.

Basically the primary colors, mixed.

How ordinary.

The close up picture most closely represents

the vivid and brightness of the colors.

It is hard to take a picture of my paintings.

I couldn't put the 11x15 paper in my 

homemade light box,

so I had to make do with my desk light.

It was fun working on a larger piece of paper.

Maybe one day I will get courage to unwrap

those large canvases I have :)

On another note, a family I baby-sit for

gave me a gift card to Barnes and Noble (they are awesome),

so after hemming and hawing I decided to purchase

Susan Tuttle's photography has 

always been something I've admired.

I've had Photoshop for a long time but never have 

really known how to do such creative and awesome

editing as she does.

I'm excited to learn! 

Finding beauty in the ordinary

I had some free time in between appointments today,

and walked around downtown

armed with my iphone.

This is what I found.

Just feel like doodling

My poor, poor art desk.

It has gotten no love in so long.

I sunk into a depression hole,

and when I started climbing out of it,

my uncle passed away.

It has been a rough few months,

but I think and hope that I am out of the worst of it.

I still don't have much energy for sitting down

at my desk and really working on a painting.

But, I have been trying to play

with my watercolors

(I can lay on the living room floor with those!)

and just doodling.

I really really loved this one...until I marked in the black

rain/tear drops.

Oh well, I still like it...I like the colors

and drips.

Just trying to get a feel on how to use

my watercolors.

Such a different beast than acrylics!

Created tonight in honor of my Uncle

The colors are a little washed out in this photos.

All I did was put the paint down, let it dry

and found shapes for the drawing.

These were fun! I babysit for a family on Sundays,

and a few Sundays ago I brought in an art project for them to do.

You put down masking tape on a piece of paper

and color around it.

Simple and easy.

I can see how this could turn into fun exploration

of negative space.