Zentangle

I know it's been a couple of weeks since I posted.  I have been doing my 10 hours per week although I haven't been posting.  I did some gelli plate printing, which is always loads of fun, using the Joan Bess book Gelli plate printing: mixed media mono printing without a press, which is a great resource for techniques using your Gelli plate.

Then I had to go to St. Charles, IL to the Association of Bookmobile and Outreach Services conference at the Pheasant Run Resort.  Although I took my watercolors, I didn't paint.  On the plane over and back, and while I was resting at night, I worked from one of my all-time favorite books, One Zentangle a Day: A 6-week course in Creative Drawing for Relaxation, Inspiration, and Fun by Beckah Krahula.  I have owned and worked from this book on and off for years and I do find it fun and time really passes quickly when I am zentangling! What I really need now for Zentangling is to have a cheat sheet with all the tangles on it, I'm sure there is one and I'm going to find it (or make one).

Unfortunately, a wonderful lady who volunteered for many years at the library is in hospice.  I decided to do a card for her using Zentangle and watercolor so that is my pic for this post.  I hope it gets to her before she leaves us.  I just mixed some watercolors on the 140lb paper block, then after they dried I drew the bird and trees and did the tangles.

I used the picture from the November/December 2015 issue of Cloth, Paper, Scissors magazine. The  article is "make merry: creating with paper clay" by rogene manas although I didn't use paper clay, sorry rogene!  I do intend to try paper clay sometime though, I will post how it goes when I do!

Art Journal Courage - continued

Today I continued working in Dina Wakley's Art Journal Courage book.  I have decided this book will definitely join my art book collection.  I love it that it keeps me working.  When I don't have the supplies she calls for, I just use the ones I have and things still come out great!  Even my husband liked it.  I didn't have a silhouette of me so I used one from a magazine and cut it closer to my shape.  This was a lot of fun!  I also embarrassingly spelled curious wrong (I was supposed to be using adjectives to describe me) so that one is a noun instead.  I only had rather large letter stamps, need to fix that.  I have lots of letter stencils though.  

I 've decided to use this blog to review the resources I am using, such as this book, or classes I am taking, either online or in person.  

3 hours today - Art Journal Courage

Once again I was able to spend the day playing in my studio!  Today I worked with Dina Wakley's Art Journal Courage book.  I did two pages, one in my mixed media 9x12 spiral bound journal and one in the journal I made at the Roadhouse Arts "Art Prints and Journals with Gelli plates" workshop with Carrie Avery which was fantastic!

 I'm calling this one "Will you still love me tomorrow" because I wrote lyrics from Carol King's song on the leaves.  I've decided to write about the music I'm listening to while I create.

This ballerina was copied from one of Terry Madden's sketches in his Watercolor Workshop book.  I didn't trace like Dina suggested but went ahead and tried to draw it.  I like the technique and it was fun doing these!  This one is called "The Impossible Dream" because it has lyrics from that song on the page.  When I was in 5th grade our class sang this song as part of the annual class performance.  I attended school at that time at Howard AFB in the Panama Canal Zone.

10 hours a week

Today I am trying to get organized about my approach to becoming a better artist.  The Artist's Journal Workshop by Cathy Johnson suggested I draw a journal map but instead I started with a list.  This new blog I'm starting is going to be great for finding all these resources again when I need them!  I love it that she has a blog, I only knew about the book!

Malcolm Gladwell, in Outliers, posited that if we spend 10,000 hours doing something, we will become expert at it.  If I spend 10 hours a week it's going to take me about 19 years to become a really good artist.  But that's ok, I'm going to give it a try by planning to spend 10 hours a week at it right now.  Maybe when I reach my goal of part time work, I can spend more but really, life seems to get in the way and my other interests are going to creep in.

Luckily, it's September in Texas, the weather has cooled enough that I can truly enjoy my "studio", which is a Tuff Shed out back.  It is cleaned up and ready to go.

I had a whole weekend to play this weekend, nothing else to do.  I procrastinated by spending a lot of time cleaning and organizing and finally focused yesterday afternoon in the studio.  I am supposed to be headed there now but am procrastinating writing this blog post.

I did create a background using techniques from Danielle Donaldson's Creative Girl book.  I used a Strathmore 140lb watercolor notebook that I picked up for an online watercolor class with Jacqueline Newbold I took from Artful Gatherings this summer.  For this one I only used Holbein watercolors.

I also took a great Mixed Media FX class from Joanna Grant but I haven't yet finished all the exercises, work gets in the way.  I did start several backgrounds and made it through a lot of the steps but didn't actually get to the collage part.  I still have hopes (and the backgrounds).

I tend to be one of those people that collects supplies, and it seems every one of these books has different supplies I need.  I am hoping that in the end, I will have the time to use all the supplies!

Creative Girl background on Strathmore 140lb watercolor paper with Holbein colors