DLP Week 35: Self-Portrait

I record all the DLP challenges in a Traveler's Notebook insert. As soon as the new challenge is on the Art 5 blog, I grab my Confettidori that houses this notebook, and I quickly jot down the challenge and prompt. Easy peasy.

Squirrel!!! ::  I purchased the sweet insert shown above ^^^^^ from Natalie at her Etsy shop, ArtichokesElephants! It's a collection of one of three notebooks called Summer Sips. Do check out the goodies in her shop. All items are lovingly made by a beautiful and sweet woman! Her store hasn't been open for a very long time yet, so she deserves a SHOUT OUT!! :) 

Anyway, back to this project at hand. Week 35, August 29th art Challenge was to do a self-portrait. EGADDD!! I like to doodle, but to do a self-portrait?!?! Not on my list of comforts, that's for sure. When I first read all the Art5 ladies' ideas and the guest artist's ideas, I thought, I can do this! I can paint like Pam! (Check out her tutorial for this prompt, it's wonderful! I felt emboldened to try it myself...then a few days passed, then a week...and I wasn't any closer to trying it. Then the next week's DLP prompt came, and it was TRANSFERRING photos! Ooh, I have wanted to try that for a long time, so I quickly started! See below.

The page I put this in was full of painty goodness from playing with my Dylusions paints, just like Ms. Reaveley suggests. It was fun. And busy.

I printed off a photo of me in black and white, then I used a Stabilo All black watercolor pencil to color in the black areas of the photocopy. I couldn't find my Acrylic glazing medium at the time, so I used Decou-Page by DecoArt, and covered my Dylusions page with it, over all the painty stuff, then placed the photocopy face down in the wet medium. I added water and more Decou-Page, let it sit, then slowly pulled it off the page. It had dried a little by this time, so some of the paper stayed behind. That sounds like a failure, but I liked the extra texture and messiness it gave me. BUUUUUUT.....the eyes did not transfer. NOOOOOOO!!! The hardest part!!! The most important part for a portrait to have, right? My brain thought that anyway. LOL! Seriously, I totally winged this thing. I ignored all I had learned about transferring images, and just did my own thing. I'm a rebel, I know. 

Firstly, let me say, I should have stopped at this point. Just like a previous DLP challenge had us do...

Soooo, I needed eyes and more of the glasses. So, I printed off another copy of the photo, and colored in with the Stabilo All to try it again. By this time, I found my acrylic glaze, so I did the same method as the first time, and I achieved a bit more success. Still, the eyes weren't very bold in my piece, but it'll have to be okay. Next came painting. I don't want to describe to you how I painted it, as I have no method, and it didn't work out. I look like I just came off the circus circuit. I guess my life is similar to a circus, so I'll go with it.  I can't work on it anymore, I am too mad at my results, so I'll just leave as is. Maybe in a few years, after I have learned how to actually paint faces, I can come back to it, right? Right? :)

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And a few days later...

I'm calling it done. It kind of looks half done, but I did want some of the painty background showing in the end. LOL It really doesn't look like me, but it's an attempt. My daughter says I should have added my hair, but I like this funky look. The eyelashes and eye lines look too black and the nose wonky, but it'll have to do. :)

Back to more art journaling with a friend of mine! You should see my art "studio"! That gives you me an idea. I'll take a photo of the artsy chaos that is supposed to be our dining room/kitchen...

here it is...

Have a great day! 

Anna

Daisies Afoot in my DLP Art Journal

June theme for the Documented Life Project is Travel Journaling.

June 20 art prompt is hometown inspiration,

and the journaling prompt is: There is no place like home.

I instantly thought of all the wandering and discovering I and the kids do around home. We have wild nature as our backyard. This year we have lots of daisies growing everywhere and I love taking photos of them! 

My youngest brought me some of the beauties, and they graced my table for a week. I finally got up the nerve to do a little 5 minute sketch. I was quite pleased how it turned out! So next, I got up the courage to color it in with watercolors! I painted it on Japanese Tomoe River paper, which is a strong but very thin, somewhat translucent paper. It has a very similar texture of good quality bible pages. The use of water on the page created an interesting warp, which I think lends itself to the imperfectionist style I am going for. :) Took some manipulating of the paint and water on the page to get it right. Well, I know there's lots of improvements I could make to this, but it's my very FIRST watercoloring piece from a sketch, so I'm happy! A for effort, right? ;)

See this pattern in the center of the daisy? It's a beautiful pattern that is found in many aspects of nature, like in the honeycomb, the pine cone, snail shells, and more. Based on these patterns, the Fabonicci sequence was discovered by classical mathemeticans. I'm not explaining it well at all. I suggest googling it for a clearer idea, if you're interested. They came up with an algorithm for use in many practical ways. It's fascinating to me! Math IS art! I talked about this to my daughter and niece, so that's where the art journal page comes in! I had posted this on my Instagram feed, and chose to copy my words to my page, documenting my "traveling".

I sewed messily around my watercolor painting, and glued it to my page. I added a square of bright yellow paint through a gorgeous stencil above it. Now it sat for a few days, too busy to work on it, or no ideas coming forth of what to do next to make it look cohesive.

A few days later, it all came together. 

A doily at the bottom, cut in half, on a yellow paint and ink background.

I used a fountain pen for the border, which has water-soluable ink in it. I also added Dylusions spray in a water brush, spritzing it several times, and wiping away, repeat, repeat, until I had the look I wanted for the background. The letters are foam stamps, an old set by Magnetic Poetry, from back in the day when I was an avid scrapbooker. It is still one of my very favorite alphabet stamp sets! :)

Before adding anything to the page, I gessoed it first. See the corner? It's thick with gesso and water and paint layers. Once dry, I scratched with an exacto knife, adding more texture to the piece. I spritzed water over Dylusions ink spots by the letters as well, to get a more watercolor-y effect. I also doodled with a white Signo Uniball gel pen over the letters, so that they weren't quite so stark and for added dimension.

And here it is again, the whole page. 

I had a great time doing this! I want to thank the Art 5 ladies for all that they do, inspiring us with great challenges, and it's all free. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Blessings, and ART ON! :)

♥♥ Anna ♥♥

Artful Summer Displays

Hi all! :) Just a little update on my recent wanderings and creative play these gorgeous, warm summer months.

Playing here and there, some mail art, some in my brand new traveler's journal called a Confettidori, other times I add more paint to the cover of my Dylusions journal that is home to the challenges of The Documented Life Project 2015 - The Journal. 

The summer is so full of delicious colors and aroma of flowers. Take the time to savor all these beautiful things! Our peony plant is showing off. This gorgeous display lasts such a short time! Every year I am in awe of its beauty. Maybe I don't get out enough? LOL 

They bloom so happily, not afraid to be real.

And also this. Sweet toesies....they belong to my little nephew, four weeks old. Aren't they the sweetest??? ♥♥♥ I hope to cuddle him today. I haven't called his mommy to warn her yet. ;)

On the weekend, the boys played in muddy water, in a creek off the main river. The oldest son got the mud into his hair, on purpose. He says it works like shampoo. O----KAY. Whatever. Loved their screaming and laughing and splashing, loved the sunshine shining down into the water, casting lovely sprinkles everywhere. I was a bit scared of the great rushing river nearby...but they stayed happily here in the creek.

While the boys were splashing around in the water, I wandered. Here are the lovely steps down to the creek.

Gorgeous large leaves on this flower! We can't find our nature books anywhere! I love identifying the plants by name.

The humble Buffalo Beans always sing such happiness and delight to me. They create this lovely cascade of yellow along the river back, not shouting out their presence, but just content to be who they are. :)

Bought the gorgeous paints by Dyan Reavelry: the Dylusions paints. They are super yummy to work with! Here I added some color through a stencil to my DLP journal.

More yellow paint in my journal. Working on a recent DLP challenge. Next post will be about this finished page.

This lovely field of daisies grace our backyard. So happy and carefree! I have been really inspired by the colors and shapes of these lately!

And here's my beautiful daughter wearing her youngest brother's cape. She is waiting for hers to be sewn ever so patiently. She wants it a certain length and the weight heavy, like they were in the old King Arthur's days, and a deep green. Such velvety velour fabric we cannot find for a decent price, and so she waits.

Well, time to wrap up this blog post. May your summer wanderings find you in magical places. Places that make you dream. Places that lifts the load off your shoulders, you know, all that stress we carry around so often! Hope you have time to create this summer!

Blessings to each of you!

♥ Anna ♥

Take Me to Italy...meanwhile I will dream...

I dream of faraway places. Italy is one of those places for me. I think of overgrown doorways and windows.  I dream of walking along a road where famous artists like Da Vinci has walked. To walk the places he trod while brainstorming ideas for his next painting. Walk where he hurried to get home, so he could quickly fill up another page in his many sketch books. I was at a local book store the other day, and saw a book of his sketches. It would be so inspiring to see the places he saw. I dream of spending a whole week just in one little place, so that I can take in every little detail. I haven't been too far from home all my life. 

One day I will. 

Meanwhile, I will make Pinterest boards called:

-- Artful Windows --

-- Artful Doors --

-- Artful Houses --

and paint little scenes like this. 

It really was an accident, this humble little picture. It's not done perfectly, but I will call it a success, because it is a piece of my heart.

I used my calendar stencil I had made made for last year's Documented Life Project. Part of the art process of this piece involved unwashed, dirty stencils. Happy accidents. I love them.

It started out with a few stencils that I like. Some of it was just unloading color off my brayer while Gelli-printing! The dot one is a Dina Wakley stencil, I believe. 

I have to say, the work of amazingly talented Junelle Jacobson inspired this doodling and coloring. I am happy. Thank you, Junelle! I highly recommend any of her classes!

Have you painted / created a scene of a place you would like to visit? I would love to see it! Send me a link in comments below. That would be super of you.

:)

I am looking forward to teaching a few art classes next month. Maybe they can create a dreamy little scene like this too.
You lovelies that are local to me, go here to find out more infomation about my art classes:

Artful Stories with Anna

or

Scrapbooks Made Simple

Have a great day!

Gelatos and White Sand Art Journal Page

The Documented Life Project 2015 - The Journal 

January Theme

The Blank Page and How to Face It!

January 17

Art Challenge: The Color Wheel

Journal Prompt: 

"I found I could say things in color with shapes that I couldn't say any other way..." - Georgia O'Keeffe

The journaling prompt for week 3 really resonated with me. I have thought about it all week long. :) I speak jibberish often. I speak fast, I stumble over words, I stutter, I mumble. It's hard to explain sometimes how I feel. I am a very passionate, emotional person, and since the people closest to me can only stand so much of me, LOL art journaling is way of letting things flow from my heart. I couldn't even say how it works or why my heart seeks out color and shapes and why I feel such a need to create, but it's very important to me.

This week was really busy, and hadn't really planned on stopping where I did, but I think I am calling this journal page done. Who knows, I might add something another day, but I happy with it for now. :)

My date numbers are looking too cool colored compared to the rest of the colors, but it must be the lighting and my lack of photography skills, as in real life, I didn't notice that they clashed a bit. ;)

 This spread is important to me, as I wasn't concerned about the outcome. I just wanted to play with my supplies. I wanted to create different textures. I used a Finnabair Texture Paste - white sand,  from her Art Extravagance line.

I hadn't used my Gelatos much yet. The colors I used here came in a set. First I gessoed the background. Then I simply colored in circles witht the Gelatos quickly and randomly over the page, not over-thinking it. Then I added modeling paste to the circles in areas with my fingers, and then the texure paste in between where no color had landed yet, making sure each layer was completely dry.

 And that's it! I'm done!

Thanks for stopping by!

Week 2 of DLP 2015 Art Journal

Week 2 of The Documented Life Project 2015 - The Journal

If you're not familiar with this project, go HERE to learn more.

January Theme

The Blank Page and How to Face It!

January 10

Art Challenge:  Gesso

Journal Prompt:  “The beginning is always today.” -Mary Shelley

I chose to go with a path. Each day is the beginning of my daily journey of my life. Instead of fretting about the future, focus on today. If it starts wrong, start over. With reading, memorizing, and meditating on scripture, optimally, to restart the day gone wrong. Sometimes that's the middle of the day for me! 

I think of the scripture Psalm 119:105:

Your word is a lamp to my feet, a light on my path.

Over the years I have come to see how much it helps me if I start my day right with certain rhythms: the word of God lighting my path. There are many aspects to this, so these things I have doodled along my path.

1. See the the white polka dots on the yellow? That's what I put down first on this blank spread: it's gift wrap. Then I applied gesso on the middle areas.

2. Next came the gorgeous, fantabulous rubber stamps that I received as a gift for moderating on the DLP Facebook page! These are designed by Rae, and Roben-Marie sells them in her shop, Paper Bag Studios. I used black Staz-On ink. People, the smell of this ink is fantastic! Maybe a bit strong, but it smells like Christmas to me: almond extract. LOL I sttamped them in a line, from top to bottom. After staring at the page for a few days, totally stuck! I got to the third step:

3. A big blob of black gesso on the stamp was my next trick. I stamped it on the bottom right edge. Oh my. That was a mistake! It looked horrid! So I covered it in gesso a few times, drying between each application. Then I sprayed some Dylusions ink onto that area. There was so much thickness going on with all those layers, that the gesso started to crack, which I LOOOOOVE!! The paper ripped too, so I ripped it further, and added some old watercoloring bubbles I had in my journal stash. I just glued it down directly under the white and yellow polka dot paper, as I hadn't stuck it perfectly down on the page. I like!

Peek-a-boo!

4. I applied some gesso over some of the stamped flowers to tone it down.

4. Next, I went crazy with Gelli-printing. I didn't actually include any of the prints on here, but I removed the access paint from the brayer onto the page. See it there, in the path?

 5. I randomly smudged Viva Inka Gold to the pages, concentrating on the edges. Some areas I left gesso peeking through. You gotta have white space. My style, anyway.

6. Out came my ogee patterned stencil I made a while ago, which I use REGULARLY! See photo below. I applied white modeling paste. Once dry, I applied more of that luscious pink Viva Inka Gold. Forgot to mention I wrote in the wet white gesso on Step 2 with my General's Sketch and Wash pencil. See it below? :)

7. Splattered green in the white and other areas with Necolors2.

8. Rubbed OLD graphic almost-vintage office letter rub-ons randomly in places. They don't work well, so I just grabbed the whole page full of letters and rubbed away. Fun fun!

9. Doodled on the path. Kinda private, so I wrote illegibly. 

10. Next came the girl dancing along the path. Life's a great big dance, in love with life, in love with my Savior, and FREE! And, gloriously, at the end, I will spend an eternity with my God, the creator of heaven and earth. I glued her down with matte medium, and added some dimension with some watercolor pencil on the edges.

11. Almost lastly, I ripped up some fun pink polka dot washi tape, and applied it to the edges and a bit over the stamped flowers.

12. Lastly, I wrote the Shelley quote (who, by the way, wrote the famous classic, Frankenstein) directly on the girl.

Whew! I did it! That was long! On to the next prompt please! :)