Valentine RAK for Seniors 1 & 2
I posted a challenge of sorts in the general stamping talk forum over at SCS.
The challenge was to make Valentine's and donate them to seniors' homes. Lots of seniors have no family and are forgotten by society and don't get cards or gifts unless the staff gets them for them. My grandmother is in a home right now and my grandfather spent the last years of his life in a home.
I challenged everyone to make 1000 cards between all of us.
Here are my first two designs. They represent a total of 20 cards for a grand total of 20 cards for the challenge so far.
Card Recipes:
Card #1Rocco (Stampendous)
Valentine Cube (Sunshine Designs)
Be My Valentine sentiment (unknown)
Valentine Row (Michaels $1.50 stamp)
Swiss Dot CB folder
Dollar Store Ribbon
Watercolour pencilsFunflock
Card #2Rocco (Stampendous)
Valentine Cube (Sunshine Designs)
Happy Valentines Day (Hero Arts)
Heart Stamp (CTMH)
Watercolour pencils
SticklesFunflock
If you want to join the challenge leave a comment here and let me know how many cards you have made and a link to your card.
Posted by Lori at 11:17 PM
Labels: Cards, My Own Art Works, RAKs, Seniors Cards, Splitcoaststampers
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Not Sure If I Like This Or Not
I did this from a very grainy photo of wild turkeys and when I took the photo of the painting I had to crop it closer than I wanted too. Funny thing about this is that when I look at it from across the room I really like it ut when I get close I hate it. The turkey on the left has turned thoroughly to mud.... But I like the snow and the weeds they are standing in. I'm considering doing this over a little larger maybe.... Need to work on the turkeys and see what happens. I may start with the turkeys first this time and then do the background.
Posted by Lori at 4:05 PM 1 comments
Labels: My Own Art Works, Pastels, Ugh
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
After The Storm
It has been realy blah around here. Cloudy, cold and snowing constanly for the last 5-6 days now. I'm not complaining about the snow. I like it. Alot. But it's put a run on the bird seed in the back yard. The traffic has been busy at the feeders. And not only the birds are hurting.
I looked out this morning and, along with all the usual customers - blue jays, cardinals, chickadees, juncos and sparrows - that clean up after our friendly neighbourhood squirrel, I saw an odd shaped grey-brownish blob sitting in the snow. I did a double take and realised that it was a rabbit. We have one that winters in our yard. The snow must be pretty deep for him to be back at the bird feeder. Guess I'll have to go get some pellets and hay for him.
This little painting was done as en plein air as I get at minus 20 celcius - I was standing at the back window. It's a little corny with the bunny there but I wanted him in because he was what prompted me to do the paining in the first place.
Posted by Lori at 1:33 PM 0 comments
Labels: En Plein Air, My Own Art Works, Pastels
Sunday, January 3, 2010
Happy New Year
I took these pictures on New Year's Day. And I'm a couple of days late in posting them but this is the first chance that I've had to get them up here.We were plowing the snow out of the driveway and I happened to sort of start packing snow with my hands and realised that it was the perfect conditions to make a snow man. I wanted one by the house and one by the road. So I actually made 2 of them. The noses are pieces of slider from my boyfriend's skidoo and the eyes and buttons are golfballs covered in electrical tape. The branches are just good old fashioned branches from the forest across the road.
I love that the one by the road is there to greet me when I come home and same with the one here by the house.
Posted by Lori at 8:45 AM 0 comments
Labels: My Photos
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
PTI WCMD India Challenge
This was for the PTI WCMD India challenge - to be inspired by all the bling.
The stamp set I used made me think of henna tattoos and the owl stamp
just fit so nicely with the flower that I had to use both. I put bling (swaroski crystals) on the owl, the flower and the branc as well as on the background.
Posted by Lori at 4:48 PM
PTI WCMD Mexico Challenge
This is for the PTI WCMD Mexico challenge and I was inspired but all the lovely pottery I saw. The liszards asa well as the sun and moon images.
This card got a little crazier than I intended.
Posted by Lori at 4:45 PM
WCMD Australia Challenge
This is for the PTI Australia Challenge for WCMD - to use dots. I was also inspired by the silhouettes and the spraying and sprayed glimmer mist over a screen and then added the dots.
Posted by Lori at 4:43 PM
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
PTI WCMD Japan Challenge
This is for the PTI WCMD Japan Challenge.
I was inspired by all the lovely water images I saw when researching the topic.
Posted by Lori at 4:41 PM
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Predators
Yesterday in the sun we were watching the dragon flies in the yard and they were all lined up on the clothesline. Waiting for mosquitos I guess. They were amazing. And it is pretty cool to be able to stand underneath one and take a photo of it. Kind of shy bugs though. They don't seem to like it when you get too close to them. They were all lines up and then all of a sudden one would go up in the air and go down the entire line and touch down near each one. Don't know if it was giving orders, checking in or just trying to get a better spot on the line. I think I took about a hundred photos of them there and on the corn in the garden and in the front yard. They are the best predators ever because they make the nasty mosquitos go away. Woo hooo.
Posted by Lori at 10:48 PM 0 comments
Labels: ramblings
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Sheep, Chickens, Geese, Duck and Copper
Had an interesting morning today. I was taking photos for reference at the neighbour's farm. They weren't home but I had permission.
Got my stick to protect myself from the viscious pair of geese and found out that they aren't that sure of themselves with strangers even if they try to attack Mrs. Neighbour. They stayed away from me and actually hid behind the sheep for protection to see what I was going to do.
When I climbed over the fence the geese walked away from me towards the barn and I went about half way over, watched them turn into the barn and I sat down. In a few seconds out comes the heard of sheep one by one, complete with ram and the geese following behind. The sheep were curious and checked me out and stamped their feet and gradually walked closer, then they all flanked me as a group and came quite close to me and then decided I was pretty boring and wandered off for breakfast. And let me tell you they are very loud chewing machines!!! Way louder than cows or horses. I just sat their quietly the whole time and pretended to ignore the lot of them.
I sat on the ground between the lumps of sheep manure (I realised this after I had sat down and taken photos for about 20 minutes) and I'm not sure how I managed to sit between it rather than in it but I did. No stink on me!
Then I watched the chickens. Who were interesting but not as brave. Except for the broodie hen who was actually down right pissed and tried to run me off several times. I just ignored her too and she went back to her nest and sat and fumed at me from a distance. The others were semi-brave, one little guy just kept pecking and pecking the ground and a bigger spotted girl was the obviously bossy one who told everyone else what to do. The rooster was a total chicken though. All he managed was to peek his head around the door of the hen house. He never came out. Talked alot and told me off but stayed inside. I'll have to take another trip and hope he comes out to see me next time. Did get a nice picture of him in the door way trying to decide what he should do though.
They have a muscovi duck and I got an awesome portrait shot of him. And also of bath time for the geese.
At the end of it all I tried to leave to walk home but Copper, the 4 month old beagle puppy, wanted to play and wouldn't let me leave. I got fed up and put him in the garage with the older dog and thought I was very clever until he showed up behind me again at the bottom of their drive. Guess they have a dog door and he knows how to use it. I spent over a half an hour trying to make him stay home , including climbing two fences and trying to get him to down stay and walk away - he's very good at that but after about 100 feet he is out of range of my remote control and he just comes running. At that point I had to go home because I was going to be late so I gave up and decided I would just drive him back to his place once we got to mine but about half way there his little beagle nose took over and he decided he should bugger off. So I caught him and picked him up and stopped at another neighbours and asked for a ride to take me back to his house to leave him there. He was heavy and wiggly enough that I wasn't sure I'd get him all the way to my place.
So we drove him home and dropped him off and they I got a ride back home.
It was actually pretty funny and he's sweet little dog but I'd have never forgiven myself if something had happened to him.
I have photo of him somewhere and I'll find it and put it in here tomorrow.
PS the reason the car ride was needed was because he lives almost a mile from where I do. I'm in the country so neighbour is a relative term I guess!
Posted by Lori at 10:44 PM
Saturday, August 8, 2009
First Attempts at En Plein Air
Almost everything you learn is to paint from life if you can. My favourite subjects of animals I often paint from photos because they move too quickly and don't have the patience to sit for a portrait. But landscapes don't run around. The light will move and if you paint from life it will force you to work quickly and more spontaneously or you lose that light.
These two paintings were done on separate days. The bottom one was done first and the second I just finished.
I really like the clothes line. I think I got the light pretty right and I am actually happy with the greens which started as blue and red and purple and yellow underpainitng.
The bottom painting is a section of a tree in the back yard at dusk and I was just playing around with the pastels and trying to get the lights and darks in the proper places with no thought that it would look like the actual tree. What's interesting is how my niece and nephew, Jessie and Robbie, viewed it when I asked them what it was. Jessie immediately said that it looked like a stormy sky and then said it looked like a tree on a stormy evening. Which was what it actually was. Robbie said a tree at night. So that was pretty cool!
The clothes line is a little washed out in the photo, looks better and more the the real thing if I tip my monitor back a bit.
Thursday, July 30, 2009
J 37 - Cow Face Pose #1
This is the completed painting of J37. I am really happy with it. I think it conveys the sense of light I was looking for as well as depth. The background trees are just barely suggested and I purposely left her body very rough in order to keep the focus on her face. The two photos below her are of two other stages in the painting that I took photos of.
Part of me wanted to keep fiddling with her but I told myself to put down the pastels and stop. she was finished and anymore mucking around would either have the potential of making a mud pie out of her face or of distracting from her face.
So here she is:
(J 37 - Cow Face Pose #1, 8x10, soft pastel)
(Stage 3)
( Stage 2)
Posted by Lori at 11:59 AM 2 comments
Labels: My Own Art Works, Pastels
Sunday, July 26, 2009
J37
As part of my vacation I was able to go and see my parents in Saskatchewan. Because of financial reasons I haven't been able to get back fo about 5 years. I got to hang out with my Dad and we checked the cattle twice a day. I took my digital camera to take photos of everything and one of the unique things about the cattle is that since they don't know me they are curious and on alert for the first while that I get near them and they all look at me. That meant that I was able to take alot of portrait type photos. The candids were harder to get. But I decided that I wanted to do drawings of my folks' heard. This is the start of the fist one. She is J37 and is 10 years old. The interesting thing is that I want to differntiate them based on who they really are and not based on an arbitrary number that I give them like #1, #2 etc based on the order I draw them in. Now I realise that Dad and Mom gave them arbitrary numbers but I want to use those ones and not mine. So I decide who I'm going to draw and then I call Dad and describe her to him and he tells me who she is. Alot of the older cows have lost their ear tags but Mom and Dad know who each one is.
I'm torn about what to do here though. Part of me wants to just leave this as it is because I think it works just like this. the colours are "wrong" but they work in relation to each other. This was just a first impression of what I would use as my base colours. I think I'm going to continue and "finish" it off but I would be tempted to do some of these and leave them this way.
The reason I'm convinced that they can work like this is that my mother-in-law and niece saw the roughly laid in colour of the old man on the chair I'm working on and thought it was finished. Even though the colours were obviously "wrong" because they were just really basic primaries but that showed me that I had gotten them right. And I find that interesting. So we'll see. for now this girl is going to get to have more colour added and fine tuned but for kicks I may just do each of the cows very primitively as well and see which I like better in the end.
Posted by Lori at 8:45 AM 2 comments
Labels: My Own Art Works In Progress, Pastels
Friday, July 24, 2009
Quick Birthday Gift
(Strawberry Bowl, 8x10. pastel)
This was a quick one, from concept to initial sketch to complete and framed it was about 2 hours. It is my sister-in-law's birthday this weekend and I wanted to get a gift for her. She has always given me thoughtful things on my birthdays and I wanted to do something special for her this year. It is still strawberry season here and every summer she does strawberries - jam, fresh, with ice cream, shortcake, sugarred... I had taken some photos of some strawberries I had myself and immediately thought of those reference shots as a subject for her gift. This is the finished product. I double matted it in a linen cream-coloured mat and then framed it in a sort of rustic dark brown wood frame with hinges in each corner - she has a 100 year old home with some of the original cabinets and so this should work in the house really well. I sure hope she likes it.
Posted by Lori at 9:50 PM 0 comments
Labels: My Own Art Works, Pastels
Working On It
I'm making progress on this painting for DSFDF. Was away on holidays so haven't worked on it in about 10 days. But it's coming along. I know Karin said to finish the figure and stay away from the background until the figure was complete but it just felt like he was floating in space and if I put some of the background in I would be able to get more harmony in the painting as far as the way the colours were working together. I was getting too focused on the clothing and needed to get a view of the "big picture" so I stepped back and worked on something else for awhile. Still needs work but I was going to muck it up if I didn't give myself some space. Still have 6 days left so I'm hoping I'll get it done in time.
Posted by Lori at 9:54 AM 0 comments
Labels: DSFDF, My Own Art Works In Progress, Pastels
Friday, July 10, 2009
Work In Progress
I started the next DSFDF challenge last night and this morning by making a sketch of the image Karin Jurick posted for us. I guess I'm trying to get ahead of the game and not end up trying to finish at the last minute. Tonight I started adding the basice colours and refining the jeans and shirt as a start. People aren't my thing. I think I got a pretty good sketch down as far as the figure, the chair is a bit wonky but not horrible. We'll see how I do with the colours I guess. The top layer of bricks is getting cut off, literally, with scissors so that I'm not tempted to mess around with it. Sometimes I don't know when to stop and that last layer of bricks should have been left as the black paper it originally was. Looking at the photo I'm thinking I'm on the right track with the shirt and jeans. Further along on the jeans. But at least the colours are working - blue, yellow, red and green. The shirt need some red in some areas yet but I'm tired and gonna go to bed. I'm hoping this turns out OK. We'll see I guess.
Posted by Lori at 12:31 AM 1 comments
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
On The Lake
On The Lake (pastel, 12x12)
This was my response to Karin Jurick's latest challenge over at DSFDF. I think I may have missed the deadline. But that's OK. It didn't photograph that well. Much better IRL. I was trying hard to concentrate on the colours and on seeing what was there and not what I thought was there. I think I did OK. The girl in the boat isn't the best but people aren't my strength and she looks better IRL as well.
Posted by Lori at 7:24 PM 3 comments
Labels: My Own Art Works, Pastels
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Chicken and Rooster 1
Chicken and Rooster 1 (11x14 Soft Pastel)
(Chicken and Rooster 1 detail)
I have been thinking about drawing chickens for a little while and today I thought I'd give it a try. I may give it another try and see what I can do. I'm pretty happy with this. It isn't the best and There are a couple of things I would change but not bad for a first try. I may actually crop it down and frame it as a gift for a friend's wedding.
Posted by Lori at 5:15 PM 2 comments
Labels: My Own Art Works, Pastels
Friday, July 3, 2009
A Poem
Cheeks was the theme over at IMT today, well yesterday I guess. A poem sort of popped into my head. Here it is:
Cheeks
Soft, round cheeks
Precious baby fat
Mama’s gentle touch
Learning to make sound
Freckled, fun cheeks
Six year old surprise
Daddy’s whisker rubs
Playing in the sun
Make-up, pimples, cheeks
Sweet sixteen desires
Monumental blush
Persuading dimples
Smooth, refined cheeks
Mother, wife, daughter
Pastry flour smudged
Navigating mines, falling way behind and trying to be kind
Wrinkled, worn cheeks
Velvet textured smile
The purple hat club
Weathering the storm
Hope you like it. The topic just made me think about how our cheeks change as we grow older. From something smooth and soft like a baby's cheeks to our Dad's that used o give us whisker rubs, to the first bit of a woman trying to get out of a pimply face as a teenager to the grown woman that is trying to be everything for everyone to the older gal with the velvety feeling cheeks that has been through it all. The thing to me about this was the physical feeling of the cheeks at different ages and trying to combine it with the emotional feelings you' might have at those different ages. Not sure how I did. Some of it's good but some of it needs a bit of work. First one I've written since high school not counting song lyrics which are a different sort of bird altogether.
Posted by Lori at 12:31 AM 4 comments
Labels: My Own Art Works, Poems
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Lupins
Lupins (soft pastel, 12x19)
Dana Marie at Inspiration All Around Us provided us with a secret garden challenge. She gave us a lovely picture of some lupins. This is my interpretation of that theme. Very sketchy but I think I like that about it. I could have worked up the leaves a bit more but I chose to leave it all loose. The flowers themselves are just 4 layers of white, pink, purple and blue and I left it at that. Thanks Dana Marie for another terrific challenge.
Posted by Lori at 11:49 PM 2 comments
Labels: Inspiration All Around Us, My Own Art Works, Pastels
Sunday, June 21, 2009
More Colour in Florence
I've added some more clolour to my painting of Florence. I feel like I'm struggling with making the buildings square and I can already see another spot that will need fixing up. (Well I see more than that actually. I'm just gonna keep on plugging away at this I guess and hopefully I'll finish with something that I'm happy with.
Posted by Lori at 8:28 AM 4 comments
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Some Colour Added To Florence Scene
Well here us the first bit of colour on the painting from Florence. Wandering around Florence was lovely and the day they did the pictures from Florence the lighting was pretty spectacular. I had seen some user photos on Google Earth with these lovely reflected buildings and found them quite by accident to the (I think) east of Ponte Vecchio. And my DB was able to help me figure out how to do screen shots in order to get the photos I was taking of Florence into my computer for reference. The orange building on right's reflecion is a bit wonky, I'll have to adjust that. but so far so good.
Posted by Lori at 8:49 AM 0 comments
Labels: Chalk, My Own Art Works In Progress, Pastels, Virtual Paintout
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Chalk Sketching
These are two chalk sketches I did tonight. The top one is a rough sketch inpsired by Dana Marie's photo of lupins from Inspiration All Around Us and the second is for the Virtual Paintout which is in Florence for June. I'm not sure how either one of these may turn out. The bottom one may be too small and the top one may be too large and I'm worried about being able to get the lighting right on the lupins but... Guess I'll give them a whirl.
Just realised I have to go buy more paper tomorrow morning - almost out of black - just one sheet left.
Posted by Lori at 11:01 PM 2 comments
Labels: Chalk, Inspiration All Around Us, My Own Art Works, Pastels, Virtual Paintout
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Summer's Gifts
Summer's Gifts (12x18, chalk pastel)
For the challenge this week at DSFDF, Karin Jurick offered us a photo of some summer vegetables. It was a terrific challenge and I loved painting them. The lighting was spectacular and that is what made it such fun to paint.
The challenge I gave myself was to try and portray the different textures - the onion, tomato and then corn in husks. I think I managed to meet my own challenge. The thing I'm trying to learn is to draw what I see and not what I think should be there. No assumptions - just look at the light and shadow and colours and draw what I see with no preconceived notions.
Wish I hadn't taken so long to do this drawing but I did it.
Posted by Lori at 10:31 PM 3 comments
Labels: My Own Art Works, Pastels
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Inspiration All Around Us - week 29
Blue Sky With Clouds (pastel, 12x19)
This is my response to Dana Maries newest challenge over at Inspiration All Around Us. She provided a wonderful picture of an amazing blue sky with clouds with a landscape below the sky.
Landscapes are something that I struggle with. I like how the sky and clouds turned out as well as the tree with moss on the left hand side.
I guess I'm happy with this... It's not too bad.
Thanks, Dana Marie, for another terrific challenge. Can't wait for the next one!
Posted by Lori at 10:29 PM 3 comments
Labels: Inspiration All Around Us, My Own Art Works, Pastels
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Felt Like A Hallelujah Moment
A Cowboy's Still Life (pastel painting, 10x12)
This is my response to the Virtual Sketch Date challenge for May. The photo was of two girls at a hoedown and one of them was wearing a cowboy hat. I don't draw people very well and the idea is to be inspired and use the photo as a jumping off point.
My own cowboy hat ( a Shady Brady - very high tone in cowboy terms) looked quite alot like the hat the older girl was wearing. So I set myself up a still life with my boyfriend's old dirty work gloves on a chair in the living room. It was about 6PM and the light was coming through only a corner of the kitchen window and I slid the chair around until the light hit the objects in this incredible way. I took a reference photo of my own (to preserve the light effect) and then I sketched the still life.
Today I did my painting with Nupastel. And I remembered my first art love from high school - we had to reproduce a master's painting in a different medium. Someone had given me Conte Crayons and I used them to reproduce a Rembrandt and then used them to draw everything I could find until there was nothing left but stubs I couldn't hold and then I could never find pastels I liked as much. Now I have choice and I chose Nupastels - lovely smudgy but firm pastels - to try them out.
And I am extremely happy with the results. I like that there are three distinct textures in this piece (the wood, the hat and the gloves) and I thinkg I pulled them all off. I also think I pulled the lighting effect of the chair fading off into the shadow pretty darned well too. I don't mean to sound like I am bragging.... I've just been so.... disappointed in the work I've been doing lately and jealous of how wonderful everyone else's art looks. So I and just feeling genuinely overjoyed to have maed a piece of art that I am happy with to the bottom of my soul.
I think the trick here is that I just let myself go. Rather that working so hard and trying so hard I just let it come out of my hands and onto the paper. I was in some sort of zone that in colour is hard for me to get to... I could see the block of colour and then just blocked them in and fine tuned it to blend them. I wish it always fet this easy.
My new box of pastels rock. Whoo hoo!
Posted by Lori at 10:04 PM 3 comments
Labels: My Own Art Works, Pastels, VSD Challenges
Rue Lepic
(Rue Lepic, 10x20, Inktense)
This is my contribution to the virtual paintout the Bill Guffey hosts. This month he took us to Paris and I found this lovely little street.
The perspective on this drawing is all out of wack but that is intentional and it is supposed to look a bit sketchy and even a little odd. I think the right hand side looks a bit off and I think I must have had my camera at a bit of an angle but it's late so...
This painting was fun to do and now that it is done I quite like it and may do more based on several other sketches I did while "touring" Paris.
Posted by Lori at 12:10 AM 1 comments
Labels: Inktense, My Own Art Works, Virtual Paintout,
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Not Sure If It's Done Or Not
(Spring Fields in PA, 9x12, watercolour pencil)
This was done for the challenge over at DSFDF. Karin posted a grayscale photo and we were to put it in colour however we wanted to. The idea was to pay attention to the tones.
I've gone over and looked and there are some amazing paintings. I am having all kinds of trouble tonight trying to size this so that she will accept it though. I'm also not sure if i'm through with it yet or not.
I thinkg I got my tones right. I like the barns and silos and house. Not sure I like the field and I think I should have skipped the grasses in the foreground. They seemed like a good idea at the time but now I'm not so sure. I may play with this a bit more but for now this is it.
I altered a few things though.
I chanegd the house to something more like stone and I made the barns red. I also altered the roof of each silo because that's how they are around here. I like the candy stripe effect of them around here so I put them in that way. I'm also happy with the sky and they far distance. The only thing I really dislike is the grass and unfortunately I can't get rid of it.
Oh well!
Posted by Lori at 1:24 AM 2 comments
Labels: DSFDF, My Own Art Works, Watercolour Pencil
Friday, May 22, 2009
The Other Side
Self Portrait - The Other Side (mechanical pencil, 9x11)
Over at Inspire Me Thursday this week the word was warrior. What popped immediately into my head was to do a self portrait. It looks a little flat in the photo here. In real life there is more depth to it. And I am resisting the urge to rework the cheeks again - I think they should be a little rounder perhaps. I haven't done a self-portrait in 20 years - not since Mr Robertson back at Thom Collegiate made us get out the mirrors and pencils in grade 12 art class. It's a little intimidating to do but I did it and now I'm just going to leave it alone and stop mucking with it.
Here is the reason I chose to do a self portrait for this inspiration word...
I have been through stuff. Not happy stuff, catastrophic to me at the time it happened. In the big picture nobody died. Cheating ex (that's why he's ex), anxiety attacks, depression... all that sort of thing. Sometimes it felt like I was at war and had to fight just to keep going. Sometimes quietly with determination, sometimes with the support of friends, sometimes loudly and alone with lots of tears of shear frustration at what was happening in my life. There were a couple of times that I felt like just giving up. There are times when I am at war with myself even still and I can be my own worst enemy. But I keep plugging away and somehow I manage to get through. It isn't always pretty but I manage.
So I decided to do a self portrait. It was done from a photo on a day when I was happy and having fun because who takes a picture of themself when they have been bawling or want to just curl up under a rug and go to sleep??? So I look happy in this and I think that represents where I have gotten to right now. I have struggled and perservered and come out the other side the victorious warrior, so to speak. At least for now...
There is a song written by Kevin Welch (Wynonna Judd recorded it as well) called The Other Side and it is all about making it through the tough stuff and knowing that you are strong enough to do it. That song got me through things that at the time seemed impossible. So this portrait is of me on the other side of the blackness I went through and optimistic about the future.
I know I am through this part but I also know that there will be more to come. When learning to become a better self there is always stuff that you will have to work through and perservere through. So althought this is me on the other side, so to speak, I also know that I will have to continue to be a warrior to keep growing as a person and becoming who it is I want to be.
And now I am going to hip PUBLISH POST before I chicken out. Here goes...
Posted by Lori at 7:19 AM 1 comments
Labels: My Own Art Works, Pencil
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Promise of Something More
Wild Apple Blossoms I (6x6, Inktense Pencils)
I love apple blossoms. They are delicate and beautiful and they mean that spring is here and summer is on it's way. The crabapple trees loaded with fuschia blossoms all around just make me happy.
This picture was done from a photo I took yesterday of some wild apple blossoms growing near the garbage dump. They aren't that exotic fuschia colour of the mikmaks and the like, they are soft and delicate and when I saw them I had to stop.
The suprise was the scent. "Tame" crabapples don't have that scent. The smell of these wild apples was lovely. It was sweet but subtle, just the hint of scent that would get stonger as a breeze blew by and then would waft away again. I would be left wondering where it came from and where it had gone and when would it come back. It left me waiting for and wanting the promise of something more.
The drawing is in inktense pencils again and is on stonhenge paper.
Posted by Lori at 9:31 AM 0 comments
Labels: Inktense, My Own Art Works
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Brown Horse
Portrait of a Brown Horse (Inktense pencil, 10x10)
The inspiration for this portrait came from Inspiration All Around Us - a photo taken by Dana Marie called "Modesty" that she posted on her blog. It was a realtively quick one to do. Drawing horses is easy for me - I've been doing it for 30 years now... I really liked the pose of this horse. I cropped the original image in my quick sketch and then after I transferred it to Stonehenge paper I got going with my inktense pencils and water. I piddled around for awhile with light washes and underpainted with reds, yellows and purple and then I added the top layers. The underpainting actually changes the way the top colour comes out. The body of the horse is a bit rough in this photo and I've reworked it a bit now, not sure which way I like it better... If I decide I like the new version better I'll change the picture.
I'm happy with how this turned out though. I think I kept it loose and not too controlled. My horse is a little heavier than the one in the photo but I guess that's OK. Thanks to Dana Marie for providing such great reference photos, this is my first attempt at interpretting one of her shots and I hope to do it again.
Posted by Lori at 8:08 PM 0 comments
Labels: Inktense, My Own Art Works
Monday, May 18, 2009
Stop Lights
Well it's been a couple of weeks since I posted anything here.
That was supposed to be because I was going on vacation and was busy at work before I left but as it turns out I never went anywhere - my basement flooded and the trip got cancelled. But that gave me some time in the last 3 days to work on this picture that I desperately wanted to do.
Karin Jurick, at Different Strokes From Different folks posted an image of New York City the challenge for the last 3 weeks. The work done with this image and that is posted on Karin's blog (see link at side) is terrific.
Karin had made a comment that some people say that they are nervous working outside of their comfort zone and that who wants to always do what they are familiar with. I agree with her. How do you learn unless you try new and unfamiliar things??? I wish I could step outside of my comfort zone more easily in my real life - the way I am willing to do it with my art. All I can say is that I am still a work in progress. I don't think I'll ever be finished.
Anyways... This wasn't something that was out of my comfort zone per se. It was really more like something I had never thought of doing. I try to approach my art with a no fear policy and just go for it.
So I just went for it and this is my interpretation of her image. I did it with Derwent Inktense pencils on Stonehenge paper and used water over top of the pencils which makes the colours incredibl vibrant and alive.
Stop Lights (Inketense pencils on paper, 14x16)
I am happy with how this turned out. It is the second time I've used the Inktense pencils and the only time I have ever done an in-colour picture of a cityscape. I like that it challenged me to get outside of something that I would normally do and I really enjoyed the puzzle of all the buildings.
I had a couple of goals. The first was to make sure the taxis and vehicles were grounded in the picture and that they didn't look like they were just floating on top of the ashphalt. The second was to use the intensity of the colour and the detail of the drawing to help with perspective. The third was to try and paint the buildings loosely so that the cars stayed the focus of the work. And the fourth was to make the stop lights and the tail lights look like they were glowing.
I think that I managed to do that.
The lines of the building edges aren't perfectly straight and I guess the light post on the right is leaning at a bit of an angle but I don't mind. For me this is supposed to be representational and not photorealistic - I want it to look like a painting or drawing and not like I just took a photo.
Next I want to work on my Virtual Paintout paintings of Paris and I'm thinking the old Inktense pencils may be coming out again for those drawings as well.
Posted by Lori at 9:07 PM 4 comments
Labels: DSFDF, Inktense, My Own Art Works
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Ooh-la-la! I'm "virtually" in PARIS!!!!
Bill Guffey has a blog called The Virtual Paintout and on it he posts a map of a city of his chosing and asks us all to visit that city virtually by touring it through an interactive map by Google Earth that provides street views. You can walk around the city and look at things.
For the month of May Bill has chosen Paris. I wanted to find and quaint little street with bakeries and cafes and shops on it to paint. Cut I couldn't - all I could find were super busy streets and the Eiffel Tower - which was cool but painting that would be too predictable. So I found a tour site www.parisnotes.com and they have a page called hidden paris that gives info on all sorts of off the beaten track or different info. They reccomended going to a place called Les Petits Mitrons, which is a lovely bakery. So I hunted up and down Rue Lepic until I found it.
This is a rouch sketch of the block that Les Petits Mitrons is on. The perspective is sort of screwy but I kind of like it. This is the start of the sketch for the next block which has all sorts of wonderful shops on it. Once again the perspective is odd but...
This block isn't finished yet. I'm fooling with my sketch book again. Pulling out pages and using them to expand what I have there and I'm going to need to add some more on the right to get a market in on this block. There is a cafe across the street on a corner that I want to draw and down the block the other way is a really nice flower maket/gardening shop as well as a store that sells roses. I'd like to sketch those as well.
I'd also like to try and find a particular statue on Notre Dame Cathedral - I'll have to see if I can and if I do find it, I want to sketch that. And last I want to sketch a restaurant that Renoir and Monet used to go to and sketch at on Isle Chatou near the Seine called Maison Fornaise on Rue du Bac. I searched and searched for it and finally found it and along with that I found a garden sort of like what I was hoping to find as well.
Once I get the rough sketches done I want to transfer them to heavier paper and add colour to them. Not sure how they will look but I want to give it a try.
Posted by Lori at 11:41 PM 1 comments
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Pet Parade Still On Today
There is a pet parade that is still going on today. If you go here http://planetmfiles.com/2009/04/28/pet-parade/ you can watch the parade and even join in if you want to. Sorry but I don't know how to do the fancy links so I just paste in the location. I guess that's something I need to learn how to do.
Anyways... They want you to post and link pictures of your pets or a story about them.
So I did this quick sketch of one of my cat's (Mako) this morning. And I discovered that a napping cat will change positions 6-10 times in the space of 15 to 20 minutes, which is the length of time I was working on this sketch. I guess they are always on alert for sounds and things and he actually got up before I had a chance to really finish the sketch.
Early Morning Naptime (5x9, pencil sketch)
The nap in the drawing was taking place at 7AM. I only got up at 6. Not sure when he got up but I know he was awake at 5AM because he tried to get me to get up and feed him his breakfast then.
Cats are amazing creatures and mine are very sweet and friendly cats who really like to spend time with us. And are usually hanging pretty close even if they are napping. The exception to the sleep around people rule is that if we stay up too late then Mako will just go to bed alone and pass out for the night until he hears the food bag rattling and then he'll get up to eat and go back to bed.
This is Mako sleeping on his favourite fake leather reclining swivel chair. He is fake sleeping right now though and trying to ignore that I am taking his picture.
This is Bandit in one of his two favourite napping spots. The back of the couch. He is also fake sleeping and pretending to ignore me while I take the picture of him.
Hope you like my contribution to the Pet Parade and hope you decide to join in.
Posted by Lori at 8:17 AM 6 comments
Labels: Cats, My Own Art Works, My Photos, Pencil
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Springtime
I've been wanting to do this drawing for about 2 weeks now. Ever since I saw the first robin that came back this spring actually. Which is more than two weeks ago come to think of it.
Well I finally got to it this evening. Just did a quick sketch with pencil and then added some pencil crayons on top. I need a base drawing of a robin for some other things and I want to do several things with some robins. This will work for practice to see how it goes and then who knows what might happen.
Return of Spring (5x9, pencil with pencil crayon)
Posted by Lori at 9:31 PM 4 comments
Labels: My Own Art Works, Pencil, Pencil Crayong
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Diana's Companion
This is my interpretation for the challenge at Different Strokes From Different Folks...
... to do a drawing based on a photo taken of a statue of a companion of the goddess Diana.
I decided to just go ahead and do it because of Inspire Me Thurdays challenge for this week which was PUSH. I considered lots of other options and then decided to draw this to push myself.
I did mine with a mechanical pencil on sketch paper. In real life it looks much better but... Oh well. I'm actually quite happy with this drawing because I DON'T draw people. I am not good at it. They never come out quuite right. Or at least that's what I've always believed. This drawing has opened my eyes and now I believe that if I work at it I CAN draw people.
Diana's Companion (8x14, penci)
I'm thinking that copies of it would be excellent for use in collage and mixed media pieces.
Posted by Lori at 8:21 PM 5 comments
Labels: My Own Art Works, Pencil
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Opening Soon (12 x 12, watercolour pencil over gesso)
This is my interpretaion of the Virtual Sketch Date inspiration photo for April 2009, a rhodoendron bud.
I'm quite happy with how it turned out. I like the intense colours of the pencils once they are wetted and how the gesso base gives it a sort of chalky feeling when it dries. I completely chickened out on the background though. Or maybe I just reigned myself in a bit... I originally intended to do a wild geometric background and then decided that it would probably distract alot from the drawing I had already done. So I just kept it simple with a light wash.
Posted by Lori at 7:12 AM 13 comments
Labels: My Own Art Works, VSD Challenges
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Inktense Experiment
I got new pencils the other day at Wallack's and wanted to try them out today with my rhododendron sketch from yesterday for the April VSD.
I'm liking them. Really liking them. A successful inktense experiment so far....
Posted by Lori at 10:50 PM 1 comments
Saturday, April 18, 2009
A Pair of Rhododendrons
These were done for the Virtual Sketch Date challenge for April. It was a Rhododendron bud image. What a lovely flower and what a striking bud.
I started with this pencil drawing to look at the shading and draw in a way that I'm comfortable and happy with.
The Objet-D'art blog has a challenge this week to use colours and I just got some new pencils so I want to so something more with these sketches.
And that's why I did this line drawing. To use as the basis for something more. Just hope that I can make something work with my new "crayons". Inksential pencils from Derwent - really cool - they do regular drawing as well as washes. I've just played with moving the colours so far but I want to try them in a drawing and this one is going to be one of the ones that I try them out on.
Posted by Lori at 11:51 PM 3 comments
Labels: My Own Art Works, Pencil
The Old Soldier
The Old Soldier (7x9, pencil sketch)
This is the finished sketch for Inpsire Me Thursdays "green" topic.
It is a drawing of a snapping turtle that is from a photo I took of a very large snapping turtle (14-15 inch carapace) on the road near my home about a year ago. He was crossing the road and was actually pretty quick about it considering what you hear about how fast turtles usually move. A turtle this size is quite old and has probably been through a lot - a real warrior.
The turtles are actually protected around here and there are signs for turtle crossings - you are supposed to help them and not run them down - so in a way this is "green" because helping creatures is a green concept. It is also green because there is a slimy green moss and algae on his carapace that made him look like an old rock from the top.
I'm happy with how this drawing turned out. In real life both sides of the drawing are the same saturation. It is done across the spine of my sketchbook so the light is hitting each side a little differently causing the turtle's right leg to look lighter.
He looked quite alot like a walking rock and I can see how people step on them in shallow water and end up losing a toe from that snapping beak. This guy was the perfect old gentleman though, he never even hissed at me - just laid there and let me take his picture from about 3 feet away from him. I was very fortunate indeed.
Here is the photo I took of him....
Posted by Lori at 12:08 AM 3 comments
Labels: My Own Art Works, My Photos
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Green Inspiration
It's Thusday and I'm alway eager to see what Inspire Me Thursday has as it's topic.
Today the topic was green. That originally made me think of our recycling box which is not the colour green but is a green idea.
Then for some reason I remembered this snapping turtle that I took photos of almost a year ago today. Saw him on the side of the road. Stopped and went back to take pictures. He was very kind and didn't attack me or anything. Never even hissed at me. Just sat there on the shoulder and looked at me and let me get within about 2 feet of him. Of course at the time I didn't realise he was a snapping turtle (I'm from the prairies and we don't have them there - but we do here in southeastern Ontario) and could have bitten my fingers off....
But he was HUGE. About 15 inches across his carapace and after doing some turltle research I learned that this means he is really quite old. His carapce was covered in moss and he looked like an old muddy rock - really excellent camoflage.
Anyways...
I decided to draw him this morning and this is as far as I've gotten with him in my sketchbook and now I have to go to work for the rest of the day so I'll have to come back to him later. But I think I have captured his eyes and his mouth.
After reading about them I was suprised at how calm and gentle he was that day. So turtles in children's books are green sometimes and maybe that's how I jumped over to this turtle - certainly the moss on his shell was a greenish icky colour.
Either way the topic green inspired me to draw him. So I have started. Stay tuned for more updates with him.
Posted by Lori at 11:26 AM 1 comments
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
In Memorium of Buster
This picture was done tonight to remember a dear friend who is dying of cancer. Buster Irish. Buster lives down the road from us and used to live next door. He sort of thinks of our yard as being his yard and is the happiest dog in the world. 99 pounds fighting weight.
(Buster Irish, 9x12, pencil)
After supper tonight I saw his owner Charlene coming up our steps with him and he had shaved patches on the sides of his chest and he looked awful. Lost a tonne of weight and just looking generally wupped. I asked her what had happened to him. Last time we saw him he looked the picture of health and was laughing and his normal self (we see him sporadically before it gets really warm outside because he is inside more then).
He got sick about 2 weeks ago - just after we saw him last - and they found out today that the cause of the fluid on his lungs is severe lung cancer which as a primary tumor is incredibly rare in dogs. He can't breath because of all the fluid on his lungs. Over the last 2 days they have drained several litres of fluid out of his chest. Today he is having a good day and they only gave him about 48 hours to live - the cancer is inoperable - and Charlene brought him so that we would know what happened to him and to give us a chance to say good bye to him She is a wonderful lady to have thought of us at this horrible time for her family.
We had him in and he had some ham and wagged his tail and just rested and let us pet him. He tried to be happy for us but he is soooo tired.
He is a terrific dog and always came over in the mornings to say hello and send us off for work if he'd gone outside for his day and usually after work or on the weekends if his family wasn't home and he was outside he would come over and just hang out with us. And then he'd hear Dave's truck pull in and he'd take off home. Or they'd whistle and he'd take off for home. He was always so happy and always made us smile. We will miss him alot. The world will be missing something important once he is no longer in it.
This drawing was done from a photo I took about 18 months ago. Our flyers had been going missing and we couldn't figure out why. I looked out the window one morning and saw him lying on the front lawn chewing on our bag of flyers. Mystery solved.
We'll miss you Buster.
Posted by Lori at 12:06 AM 1 comments
Labels: My Own Art Works
Monday, April 13, 2009
Good Evening In The Morning
Last week I stumbled on the Virtual Sketch Date website which offers a sketching, painting, art challenge once a month. People do a piece of art based on an inspirational photo posted there and then link the photos for others to see. I missed the date (obviously because this is May...) but I really liked the image and wanted to do a drawing of it anyways. So here is my attempt...
Good Evening (9x12, pencil with pencil crayon)
This sketch is really much better in real life. The birds are grosbeaks, I think, from the colour and the shape of their beaks and bodies. I added some light coloured pencil over the pencil drawing but it isn't showing up that well in this photo. And the bird on the right isn't washed out in the original drawing. Adjusting the way you look at the monitor will help bring the make bird on the right up and not looking so washed out. At least it helps on my laptop...
It also looks a bit odd - it's in my sketchbook and drawn on the back of the patched together paper from the "Wednesday at 7AM" still life sketch I did late last night - I didn't want to waste paper and initially I never intended to draw anything more than what was on the lower half so I wasn't worried about the patched together bit. And it looks curvy and that is of course because it's in the sketch book... Oh well, I like it.
I called this "Good Evening" but since this is moring I'll just say have a great day.
Posted by Lori at 9:46 AM 0 comments
Labels: My Own Art Works, Pencil, Pencil Crayong, VSD Challenges
Tulips and Lunch
Yesterday I got to do alot of work in the afternoon. I started playing with some of the tulip images I had taken last week. And playing with media I haven't played with in a while.
This first drawing is with coloured pencil in my sketch book. I'm happy with the way it turned out because it's been over 20 years since I've used coloured pencil this way.
Independent Tulip #1 (5x9 coloured pencil drawing)
This second image is the same tulip but done in mixed media. I have watercolour crayons that I haven't had a chance to fool around with much and wanted to play with them today. This went through several stages. I painted the tulip first and then worked on the background. I wish I had masked the tulip and done it in reverse but oh well. The tulip originally was quite nice but I used too much water on the background and the tulip ran because there was alot of pigment and I wasn't patient enough to let it dry well enough. I had a much lighter background at first but again with the running pigment I decided to go dark instead. I added in some coloured pencil and some ink as well. Not too bad I guess.
Independent Tulip #2 (5x9 mixed media)
The third image is a line drawing I did of the group of tulipe I want to work with and my intention is to use this a the basis for some other things. Perhaps some block printing and maybe some painting. We'll see. This I am happy with because I think there is some perspective in it.
This last drawing is also from my sketchbook and it got too large (well I started too large) and had to glue in another set of pages behind the initial sketch in order to finishe it. I'm happy with it and took some reference photos of it so that if I want to work in colour later on then I can.
I have to say that I really like that little coffe cup. I like the whole thing but that little cup just makes me smile because it was soooo quick and simple. Well that's all for now. Enough tulips for tonight. Gotta get to bed so I can get up and make lunch tomorrow (well this) morning.
Posted by Lori at 12:08 AM 0 comments
Labels: My Own Art Works
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Bandit Sleeping (2.5 x 3 inches) Ballpoint pen on sticky note
I did this picture last night when I was sitting on the couch and watching TV. My cat is pretty cuddly at night time and he snuggled down with me and I thought I should sketch him. But as soon as you move to get something a cat is up and going and won't settle back down for awhile so I decided t be a bit sneaky and just use whatever I had at hand. Which was a blue ballpoint pen and a pad of sticky notes from Meyers. I'm actually pretty happy with this sketch because it captures him at that moment.
These guys below are my second set of Easter goodies I made. They are from an accucut die and I really just assembled them and added some colour and ribbons and candy but they are cute and everyone seems to like them. Marchant Paper Products in Kingston has a die cutting machine that uses accucut dies and if you buy the paper there you can use any of the dies for free. I however was lazy and just bought them pre-cut but I'm not going to beat myself up about that.
Happy Easter!!!!
Posted by Lori at 12:43 PM 0 comments
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Talking Turkeys and Tulips Etc
Late last week I was on my way to Ottawa and looked into a field to my right to see a cat stalking through the old corn stalks and wondered what he was trying to catch. About half way down the field I saw these guys....
I'm pretty sure the tomcat was not going to be able to bring one of these wild toms down for breakfast but he was sure concentrating on them. I've seen this group of wild turkeys in that field a few time but this was the first time I'd ever been able to get a picture of them. Never got a picture of the cat though. Too bad!
When I stopped to take the photos this guy walked across the road right in front of me...He's a bit blurry because I was sooooo shocked to see him there and that he stayed close enough for long evough for me to even focus. Normally when you stop the truck these guys are GONE!!! Very shy from being shot at I guess and smart enough to say so long.
Today I made two sets of Mini Milk Cartons for gifts. I got the idea from Inking Idaho (http://www.inkingidaho.blogspot.com/) and if you want the instructions you can purchase them from Becky there. Great value and very clear with diagrams and colour photos.
Yesterday I bought myself some lovely orange tulips and took some photos of them today in the half light from the front window. Nice a cloudy and supposed to be ideal right??? Well I'm particularly happy with this one and hope to do something more with it eventually but for now I'm just gonna toss it out here.
It's nice to have something lovely smelly and pretty and sunshiny to look at after two days of spring snowfall here. These tulips remind me that spring is almost here.
Posted by Lori at 6:28 PM 0 comments
Labels: 3D Items, Cards, My Own Art Works, Photos
Posted by Lori at 6:28 PM 0 comments
Friday, April 3, 2009
Watercolour Over Gesso Sketches
Both of these sketches are done in my sketchbook in Peerless Watercolour over gesso as an experiment of sorts last week at the urging of my friend Glenda. It was a way to get me painting without having watercolour paper in the house. It was neat to try and I will definitely do it again but it was hard to get as much contrast as I wanted to have, especially in the asparagus painting. I'm not sure if it was the watercolour medium or if it was the gesso. Doesn't really matter though because they were fun to do and got me painting.
Asparagus (6x9) peerless watercolour on gesso (Mar 26, 2009)
Bananas and grapes (6x9) peerless watercolour on gesso (Mar 27, 2009)
Posted by Lori at 7:20 AM 0 comments
Labels: My Own Art Works
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Waiting (9x12 watercolour)
This is the first "real" watercolour that I've ever done. I've done watercolouring with watercolour markers before on cards but I have never done a painting with watercolour paints before.
This was done for a challenge on http://www.differentstrokesfordifferentfolks.blogspot.com/ which was to make a painting based on a photo of a beach scene.
This girl was painted based on the gentleman in the baseball cap after my friend Glenda told me that it was cool to change things up and do your own thing. So I also made it a sunset scene rather than a mid-day scene.
I like parts of this painting but I'm not totally happy with the pregnant girl. Of course I don't really ever draw people so... it isn't too bad considering that I guess. I actually quite like the water and the sky, although if I did the sky again I might do it a bit differently but overall I think it's a pretty good first effort.
Posted by Lori at 9:55 PM 0 comments
Labels: My Own Art Works
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Just Do It
One of the things I need to overcome with my art is the fear of it not looking good and accept that not everyone creates the same way. I also need to overcome a lack of motivation. And part of that is tryng to do something artisitic every day if possible. That isn't always possible but I want to try. Sometimes and especially lately I've been making my cards (and not posting them here) but I've been toying with the idea of doing some watercolouring and block printing again. My friend Glenda told me that I should try some watercolouring other than on cards and my other friend Sophie just told me to stop being afraid and basically just suck it up and do it. Those aren't her words they are my translation of a much more encouraging email.
But I need to take baby steps and start again with something I'm more comfortable with - like black and white and shades of grey and sketching.
So today I decided to just do a sketch and work from there. I need to start to with a drawing to watercolour anyways and so I decided on a tree frog for some reason. Somewhere around home I have photos I took of a local tree frog on our glass window one night in the dark but I can't find them right now so I sourced a photo on the internet and used that as inspiration for my sketching. The top sketch of the entore frog is the first one I did and was all I really intended to do. The lower one in the right corner was my second sketch. It just sort of happened and adapted and morphed into what you see. I'm pretty happy with how they turned out.
Now the next step will be to put the image onto a piece of watercolour paper and then see what I can do with it. Also I'd like to try block printing this little guy which is more inside the comfort zone. But either way I'll have to translate him into a line drawing.
Maybe tongight after work or maybe tomorrow I'll do that.
Posted by Lori at 9:28 AM 1 comments
Saturday, March 7, 2009
Passionately Kissable Chocolate Siamese Brings Me Back
OK. First of all I have been stamping and creating but I kinda forgot I had a blog the last little while because I've been really busy at work and I've been sick for the last two weeks too. Blogging is a bit of work and it gets late and I get tired and I just go to bed. But I made a new friend at SCS mitchygitchygoomy and she came and looked at my blog and I was so embarassed that there was nothing new here since January that I decided this morning that I'd better get on that. So I am back today. Plus if I ever want to apply for a DT job then I'll have to have a blog I update regularly and hopefully my intended bosses would skip this post and not read it at all.
This card was done for the colour challenge this week at SCS.
I don't always get to do the challenges the same day as they are posted and often the colour challenges get missed because I have a loooooong day a work on Wednesdays.
So this was done after the fact.
I was inpired by Karen (k dunbrook) and her lovely gallery at SCS whic can be found here: http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/ga...?si=k+dunbrook. I found Karen through the forums and a commenting game over there that is so much fun.
Karen's lovely use of colour inspired this card. The siamese cat was just on top of my stamp pile so I chose her to be on my card. I often do what I call kamikazee stamping and just use whatever is on top. Part of what made her catch my eye, I think, is that one of the gals on another forum was trying to find the perfect cat stamp and couldn't. This one was just a second hand stamp I bought from Heather's Stamping Haven in Ottawa, Ontario. I don't know the name of the stamp or the company because there isn't a mark on the block at all to identify it.
Chocolate chip was perfect for a Siamese cat too because one of the colours they come in is chocolate point and so I just couldn't resist this stamp on so many levels.
I stamped the cat in chocolate chip and then used pink passion and kiwi kiss ink out of my reinkers and did a watercolour BG effect with lots of water and salt. I masked off the cat and then sponged the lower part of the BG with kiwi kiss and chocolate chip and then sponged around the outside of then entire panel with pink passion. I stamped the flower cluster (from Stampendous - sorry but I have worn the name off of the block but I think it's something like agapanthus) afer I attatched the main panel to the card base of white so that the pink would be on both pieces and lined up correctly. I edged the main panel by dragging it thrugh my chocolate chip pad and then outlined around the panel with my chocolate chip marker. I sponged in kiwi kiss, pink passion and chocolate chip around the card base and added my fuax piercing with my choc chip marker and then stamped the sentiment from Pocket Silhouettes around the edges. Lastly I added the Bella's Baubles in a line along the left side of the main panel.
I really like this colour combo! A friend of mine who has seen the original card says that I managed to make it look oriental to go with the siamese cat. It was fun to do as well which is the main point right????
Posted by Lori at 8:11 AM 0 comments
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Tenugui Inspired Cards
This is my take on the inspiration challenge for today over at SCS. The challenge was to be inspired by a tenugui towel.
Here is the first towel that was my inspirtation:
http://wuhaonyc.com/catalog/product_...roducts_id=326
I loved the two tone nature of the towel with the rabbit backlit against the moon and the grasses backlit against the black sky. I also liked that both parts of the image were in each contrasting colour.
For my card I masked off a circle I cut with my nestabilities and then stamped the zebra from Artful Stamper and the grasses from Inspired by Nature with Memories black ink through the hole in the mask. I removed the mask and over stamped using my stampamajig with versamark and embossed the entire inmage with clear EP. Then I put the hole mask back on and sponged the moon in cameo coral and real red, removed the mask, placed on the cut out over the moon and sponged the back ground in memories black. I mounted the main panel onto cameo coral cs and then onto a black card base. I adhered the bellas baubles onto the moon edges and hand wrote thanks around the inside edge of the moon.
This was a really fun challenge but a bit hard given that I am still kamakazee stamping (my stuff is mostly packed so I'm using whatever is on top and handy). I'm happy with the results and very glad that these stamps were at the top of the basket of stuff I have.
This challenge really got my creative juices flowing and made me want to do a second card. And this is it.
The towels made me want to draw something myself.
This is the towel that inspired my card:
http://wuhaonyc.com/catalog/product_...roducts_id=315
Her name is Okame and she is supposed to be full of fun and to make people laugh so thought I would follow that lead and make a cheery card. I think I did this the hard way though.
I hand drew her face on whisper white cardstock and then used regal rose to blush her cheeks just slightly. I'm not sure that shows up very well in the picture. Then I stamped the ribbon in her hair using an Inkadinkado clear set called Asian By Design and hand coloured some of the flowers in red and some of the background in gold. Here's the part that may have been more work than necessary. I coloured the entire white sheet black with sharpie. I thought about cutting her face out and mounting it on black paper but I wanted her to be a part of her hair and not just a face sitting on top of the hair so I went ahead and coloured in the whole thing. I hand wrote the sentiment in white signo gel pen and added red Bella's baubles to the red flowers and string of pearls baubles in her hair. I mounted the coloured panel onto real red and then onto a whipser white card base.
Ireally liked this challenge alot. The towels are beautiful and definitely inspiring, there is another towel there of a dragon that makes me want to draw a dragon. And I may have to just do that.
Posted by Lori at 1:23 AM 2 comments
Labels: My Own Art Works, Splitcoast Challenges
Sunday, December 28, 2008
Pigs and Irises
The challenge over at Splitcoast today was an inspiration challenge. The inspiration material was from the Mackenzie-Childs online store (at http://www.mackenzie-childs.com/ and we were to use any product from the store as inspiration for our cards. This is the first card that I made and it was inspired by a piggybank.
I was inspired by the pig itself and immediately thought of this Whipper Snapper Designs stamp. I loved the pattern on the pig which was pink flowers with green vines. The B&W stripes were inspired but the B&W checks on the bank's ears and feet.
This card involved alot of masking again and colouring directly on the stamps with marker, spritzing with water and then stamping. The pig was stamped in black ink and then coloured. All of the sentiments are hand written.
The second card I did was inspired by the bearded iris pattern bread plate as well as the honeymoon pattern (checker board pattern). All of the piece was done with watercolours and the only stamp used was the Penny Black iris stamp which I coloured directly on with markers and spritzed with water before stamping it.
The two cards have different feelings and I'm happy to have been able to be inspired enough by the challenge to have made two different cards.
Posted by Lori at 12:13 AM 1 comments
Friday, December 26, 2008
Today's challege over at Splitcoast was a limited supplies challenge and the limitation was no December holiday stamps, no red and no green were allowed to be used. We were just supposed to make a card to make a card.
The first card I made was the card with the blue and rust coloured bird. I made if for a friend of mine that is very ill and in ICU. She has a terrible form of malaria and the last I heard she was in a coma. We were all asked to offer our prayers for her. I decided that I wanted to make a card for her. Now I realised that she wouldn't be able to see it but her family will be able to see it and they can certainly read it to her if they want to. I just wanted them to have a tangible bit to know that I was thinking of them and of her.Now the second card was just pure whimsy and craziness. Mother Mark had posted this card:
http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/photo/1169153?si=lsc200
that showed a bunch of chickens and ducks and the chickens were teaching the ducks how to do the chicken dance. It made me remember going to weddings back home in Saskatchewan in the 80's and we always did the chicken dance (and the butterfly dance too of course). It was also played on the radio on the Saturday Night Dance Party on 980 CKRM which is now no longer that call number anymore. I also happened to remember this stamp from Art Impressions that I got at Marchant Paper in Kingston, Ontario and I've been wanting to use it for awhile. I just wanted to make something funky and different as far as an image went and I found the ribbon in my stash and chose it because it was on top and was the first thing that grabbed me and also because it kind of reminded me of a feather boa.
I like the way both cards turned out and already have an idea for what I'm doing for tomorrow's challenge. I love it when the post the challenges early like Stef did tonight!
Posted by Lori at 11:28 PM 0 comments
Labels: Cards, My Own Art Works, Splitcoast Challenges
Thursday, December 25, 2008
If The Shoe Fits Hang It On The Tree
I was in a couple of car accidents in the last year and as a result have been going to physio and for massage therapy. My massage therapist knows about my creativity and asked me if I could make a shoe ornament for each of her dauthers, Izzy and Abby.
Not having enough to do, I agreed to make them and promised that if I had to drive them to her house on Christmas Eve she would have the goodies in her hot little hands even if we had a humdinger of a snowstorm that day. Thank goodness it had snowed over night but by the time I got them done and got on the road the plows and sanders had been out and the roads were AOK!
I started making the ornaments on Christmas Eve morning actually. Which was sort of nuts but was it ever FUN! Just me and some tiny plastic shoe, some glitter and some feathers and I'm a happy girl even if time is tight!
Abby's ahoe is the pink one and Izzy's is purple. Mom requested lots of glitter so that's exactly what she
got. And I added some maribou in becasue - hey what girl doesn't like feathers right????
The shoe bases are some ornaments I bought at fabricland and are just some sort of hard frosted plastic that I coated with glue and added one colour of glitter to at a time. The outer uppers are pink or purple and the inners are green-gold and gold and then there are green or teal decorations on the shoes with an onyx coloured glitter for the sole and the heel. I added the feathers at the very end.
I think they kick butt and let me tell you it was hard to give them up (did I mention I LIKE shoes???) but who can argue with such a wonderful tradition as giving your daughters each and ornament every year so that when they leave home they will have a treeful of ornaments to take with them? I asked mom what would she do then and she said she'd have a colour coordinated tree that year - but I bet she'll miss all those ornaments.
I dropped them off at their new home but haven't heard how the girls liked them yet. I'm sure I'll hear next week when I go for my next treatment.
I took pics of them from all angles because I thought there were so lovely and wanted to remember how they looked. Oh and did I mention that I really LIKE shoes????
Posted by Lori at 11:55 PM 0 comments
Labels: My Own Art Works, Ornaments
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Thursday, December 25, 2008
Merry Christmas!!!
I haven't been able to stamp in awhile because I have been busy getting things ready for my craft sales and going to those and then there is the problem that all of my stuff was trapped in purgatory - a large disorganised mess in the spare bedroom. I decided that I was going to clean it all up and put it away somwhere that I could actually get at things until my studio in the basement gets finished and low and behold all of a sudden I want to stamp again!
I've done a bunch of other things over the last few weeks and have pictures of them all and I'll post them later on as I get the time but for now I wanted to post these two cards I did for the WTC challenge over at Splitcoast this morning.
The challenge was creative letters and we were supposed to find ways to use letter creatively along with images for our cards.
The first card "Moose You Much" was done because I decided to just make my card with the first image that I put my hands on and it happened to be this Inky Antics moose stamps. The pun on miss you came to mind and I dug out my MSE set with the U - can't think of the name of it right now and the packaging is currently MIA. I stamped the moose, masked him, stamped the U and masked it, then masked off the perimeter of the card with post-it notes and then stamped the rocks and grass with a stamp from Rubber Necker and then I cut a free hand cloud mask from another post-it and sponged in the sky with brocade blue and pacific point ink from SU. Lastly I added the shadows and the dashed brackets to finish the card which is actually all on one layer.
This second card happened because the moose image just delighted me so much and I wanted to use him again. I masked and stamped the layered images much the same as the other card, starting with "Merry" from Stampendous and then the snail which I got from Ellen Huttson and finsihed with the moose image. I stamped the moose face 3 more times so that I could do some layering and also stamped the little snail a second time as well. After everything was masked off I sponged in the background with riding hood red from SU inside the maksed off borders and then I coloured all the images and layered everything onto the card. At the end I did some doodling touches with my pens and added stickles to make it all shimmer a bit.
The snail probably doesn't make any sense but I am going to send this card to my Auntie Heather in Calgary. She has always been notoriously late at sending cards and stuff and this year I never managed to send any cards. I thought that she would appreciate this card so I'll send it to her and if it's late she won't judge me.
Have a Merry Christmas!
Posted by Lori at 3:00 PM 0 comments
Labels: Cards, My Own Art Works, Splitcoast Challenges
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Barnyard Black-Eyed Susans #1
This is the second block print image that I made. I 'd done a few drawings on the fun foam and was liking some of them and not others. I'd done another barn and it was nice but I didn't like what I'd drawn in the foreground and after I took it back to class I realised from what Bonnie was doing that I could just cut them apart and get parts of the image to use as I chose on my collages.
But this image I wanted to do as an entire image so I worked at thinking a bit about the composition as I drew it and what was going to be in front of what and all that. You don't have any opportunity to erase when you're essentially carving the image out of the fun foam as you draw. I guess I could make a drawing ahead of time and then "carve" it from the foam but there is something sort of spur of the moment and loose that I like about doing it the way that I am right now. That may get old soon but right nowI Ilike it so I'm going to keep working that way - at least for now. The image is a little dirty and there is a paint blob on the bottom but that's because I haven't worked in pencil for awhile and forgot how easily they can smear on the side of your had as you work. I made a mental note to use a paper under my hand to protect my work next time.
There was a technique on Split Coast Stampers that I hadn't gotten a chance to try and I forget what it was called right now but essentially there you were stamping with white ink onto black paper (ah there you go - it was called "Black Magic") and then colouring with pencils on top of the white and then some of the girls were outlining with white gel pen to make the images POP! I stamped mine in black and because it's a negative image thing the outline turns out white already and that makes it POP for me. I guess if I wanted to have a black outline and a white ground I'd have to use white paint on black paper. You can do whatever colour background paper and whatever colour paint you like. And you can also do this with inks although I haven't tried that yet because I'm enjoying playing with my paints and pencils right now.
The inspiration for this piece is a photo I took of some wild black-eyed susans in the ditch here last summer. I caught a small bee in flight just about to land on one of them. I've made another stamp inspired by the same image using only the flowers and nothing else and have used them on a collage I'm working on now in class. I'd like to find the picture again and work on the little bee image a bit because it just delights me. But that may be hard to do because when I was moving last spring I very carefully kept all my photos and scrapbooking papers aside so they wouldn't get wet or spoiled in the move and put them into my Pathfinder to move. That night I was in a car accident and rolled the truck and all of my pictures (which were actually organised) and all the paper got tossed around the road and ditch after the windows smashed out of the truck and the truck did a very effective roof slide with a twirl. I wasn't hurt but it's really hard to lay my hands on most of my pictures still because I haven't had time yet to go through them all and see what I still have and what's missing. If I can find it digitally I'll post the photo later. I just looked now and it isn't on the computer so it must have been on one of the disks that went through the crash.
This one I called Barnyard Black-Eyed Susans #1 (6x9 paint and pencil on cardstock).
Posted by Lori at 8:27 AM 0 comments
Labels: My Own Art Works
Friday, October 31, 2008
Jack O'Lantern - A Portrait Of An Irish Gentleman
Happy Halloween!
This is a block print coloured with pencil crayon that I did in honour of tonight! It was done as part of a collage class I am taking from Bonnie McQuillan at the Village School of Art in Osgoode.
Bonnie is an awesome teacher and always lets me work really freely. This technique involves making a stamp for block printing by drawing with pencil on fun foam and then using acrylic paint to make the print on cardstock. Then the image was coloured with pencil crayons and the stars were added with metallic pen.
This was the first drawing I made that night in the limited amount of time I have to go to the class on Thursday night after work. I never coloured him in class, I worked on him after I got home and decided his name was Jack O'Lantern. The suit was so that it would look like a formal portrait but of course that is the irony because it is so not formal at all given the looseness of the technique I was using.
I am just thrilled with this technique and have done several other pieces with this technique and slight variances of the technique which I'll try and post later on as I get them completed.
"Jack O'Lantern - Portrait Of An Irish Gentleman" 4x6 paint and pencil on cardstock.
Posted by Lori at 9:49 PM 0 comments
Labels: My Own Art Works
