Back to my Face Book

I haven't played in my face book for quite a while.  The last few days, I have returned to it using colored pencils.  I wanted to move away from typical face and hair coloring.  I wanted to loosen up.  I think these four new faces worked.

The hair line is pitsy...but the style is right on, lol.

Again...I need to work on hair line...but the wild colors are cool.

Allowing hair to be green...and working on eye socket bone structure.  The little blue person was me showing someone else the proportions of faces then I drew right over that.  This is a Facebook after all, lol.

Weird hairline but cool colored hair!

The stamps I hand carved but drew right over them. 

I used colored pencils over gessoed pages.  Made detailing difficult and the pencil underdrawing sometimes smeared and some times shows through.  Layering of the colored pencils did not work very well either.  I am going to try some chalk and oil pastels and other media next time I want to play in this book.

February 14, 2013

I pick up "oddities" at the YSM.  Things that catch my eye because of how they look, or because they are curious, or because I want to understand how it works, because it is eye candy...you probably know all the reasons.

Sometime ago, I picked up a little hand loom, thinking it might be fun to play with.  It has knocked around my art rooms since then.  In January, when I was consolidating three art rooms down to two, I found the loom again.  I also, found a paper bag of off white scraps of fabric I used to make shabby chic flowers.  I decided to see what I could do with the loom and the scraps.

The loom was made by Loomette of California.  It is four wooden slats with tiny headless nails all around the edges...

The paper bag is full of old unusable scraps...

I tore the scraps into strips and wove them into some string I threaded onto the nails...

This is about placemat size...I have no idea what I will do with it...

I have found that I can weave about four inches before I start to scream...

I do not know how to finish the raggy edges...something I will have to figure out, if I finish the little weaving...

I am constantly thinking "what can I do with this as a foundation?"  If you have any good ideas...let me know!

February 3/2013
What have I been doing this new year?  I am still trying to decide on my word of the year.  Last year's word I really did not do much with and I cannot really find a word that I want to manifest in my life right now.  I seem to be satisfied with the status quo, so to speak.

 My friend and mentor Carla Sonheim started a "year of the giraffe" idea where she is going to fill a whole sketch book of giraffe art.  I thought what a great idea, so I started drawing some giraffes too.  But, then, I suddenly thought I would  do owls, since I consider them one of my totem animals.  So, everyday, I am going to try to do some sort of art that includes an owl.  I used to be very good at sticking to and finishing a commitment like this, but I have notices the last couple of years, I start and things slowly fade.  But I am okay with that.  I refuse to cause myself stress over anything...so if I don't do it...no big deal!  Here are a few of the drawings I have done in January.

I started out playing with Carla's Picasso type drawings...they are really fun to do!

And then some blind contour drawings...always good to get you back into the sketching mode...

 The next drawings are modified contour drawings...

Back to blind contours...

Started doing owls instead...

 This one is a modified contour...

 Modified...

Just some birds I played with...seeing what I could draw without a model...

 Modified

 I am not really good at organizing the uploads so here are some earlier blind contours of giraffes...

And an owl drawing in another sketchbook which happened to be handy at the time...

So expect more owls in the future...

January 10, 2013-Cute Little Book

Another Carla inspired art activity.  I started with three pieces of scrap paper.  I folded the papers at random trying to make sure each was folded at a different spot so so the pages would peek out from each other.  I cut the each of the folded pieces edges a bit rounding and waverly, again each one differently.  Using my water color pencils, I then scribbled at random on the pages using random colors.   I then used a brush to wet the scribbles and blend the colors.  Once dry, I then tried to "see" what was in the colored "clouds."  Here are the pages to my little book.  Littlest car girl and I decided to title it "Opal Gets A Pet."

                                                             Opal Gets A Pet Cover

Opal is looking for a new pet.  She looked at a cat but it was too unfriendly

and she looked at a doxy but he was too barky

She looked at hairy dog but it was too itchy

And yeow, she looked at an elephant but it was too big!

She looked at a puppy but it's tail was too short

                                            She looked at a bird but it was too noisy

And she looked at another cat but it was too lazy

And finally, she found a tiny little puppy that just right for a girl about to turn six!

Biggest car girl loves her new jammies.  She was sweet enough to model them for me today.  She is a beautiful model!

Over all look...great to hang out at home in...

A bit of lace and a lacy pocket makes them much more feminine...

And a lacy pocket  on the bottoms for phone of course!

So glad she loves them!

Dec 23/12 Lounge Pajamas

My friend who owns Junky Funky Gypsy Mamas store found some vintage (deluxe) clothing at an estate sale recently.  When I dropped in for a visit, amongst the shirts and other finds, I found some vintage 100% cotton underwear.  I immediately snatched them up.  There were four tops, two bottoms, and three undershirts.  I knew I had to have them.  I knew I would be altering them.  When I got them home, I examined the tags and such...some of the pieces still had the price on them...$1.49 for a top and bottom set!   I knew they had to be quite old.  The bottoms did not have elastic so I figured they must have been made before that sewing phenomenon was in high use.  The tag reads Penneys on the underwear.  I of course went to the net to see what that was about.  From what I could find the logo Penneys was retired in 1917 and changed to JC Penneys...so I am thinking these were made about that time.  Wow.  People back then must have been smaller too, as the tops are size 40, and the pants stamped 36 and these "johns" are just right size for my oldest car girl who is 12 years old.  We dug around in my vintage lace and linens, and she picked out what she wanted me to embellish them with.  Here are some photos.  She was really amazed at how warm they are...she is a thin girl and is always cold, lol, so I think she will put these to good use!

The johns have a very lovely aged color, the tops in the henley style...

The tag says the tops are size 40 with the Penneys logo...

No elastic in the pants...just this back with an adjustable shoestring tie...

Fron of johns button and the band has little tabs I assume for suspenders...

It was fairly easy to add elastic to the waistband...

And we added a pocket and lace trim to the pants...

And more lace and another pocket to a top...

The dark spot is actually a factory stamp-number 36...

I thought some fabric shabby chic flowers would be cute but she opted out of that...she is not one to over frill herself...

There were three of these ladies undershirts...white not cream colored... maybe newer?

With an extra sweat pad sewn in the underarm area...interesting.

So, the next set maybe I will add the flowers and such.  

December Art

I sell my creations at JFGMs (Junky Funky Gypsy Mamas).  She is in the process of adding a deli to a corner of her shop.  One day, while poking around the net, I saw a chandelier made from punch/lunch cups.  Since she was looking for the right look, I sent her the picture and we decided to make them for the deli...what could be better than beverage cups in a deli?  Rather fun project.  Thanks to Johnbob for the inspiration!

I have collect old linens and lace and buttons and bows for several years and needed to put a dent in my stashes so made some shabby hearts.  They are so pretty! I used bits and pieces, buttons, beads, love them! 

Actually, they are still a bit in process...I am still adding beads and other embellishments to them, but they are almost done!  I really can't see a dent in my stash though, lol.

And, you might notice, I have pictures today?  I realized, I could delete another blog I hardly ever visit now a days to make more photo storage space...so I did and it worked!  Yay!  Thanks Janet for the suggestion!  I am not sure how long I will have photo space available but I will keep writing until then!