An artsy kinda weekend

I have managed to do a couple more spreads in my altered art journal this weekend. Yesterday I played with a sort of 'doodle page' using spray inks and stencils and lots of doodling. This was totally inspired by Christy's Eclectic Art Journal class. It's great to have some pages prepared ahead of time and then sit and mindlessly doodle while watching tv in the evenings. I did this one while I was in the middle of a True Blood-athon this weekend.

I had a hard time falling asleep last night so I worked on another drawing of a girl from a magazine. I think there's enough likeness there that you could tell I used it for inspiration. But at the same time it's definitely not a realistic portrait by any means. She turned out kind of somber looking so I made up for that with lots of happy colors and cute flowers made from book pages. What can I say... I like the irony.

I plan on getting back to Rhomany's Portraits 123 class just as soon as I get my son's grad party off the ground next weekend. Until then, I will just continue doing pages like this just for me when I have time this week (which won't be much). I like to be able to sit down and really concentrate on class stuff when I work on it.

I drew something today!!

I know, I can hardly believe it myself. It's been so hectic around here I either haven't had the time or when I have I couldn't muster up the motivation to. I'm taking this weekend off of anything graduation related though and come Monday I'm back at it until after next weekend's party. Then other than babysitting one of the grandpunkins a couple days a week, the summer is mine to play with my art supplies all I want.

Anyway... here is my drawing. I put it in my first altered book journal. It's an old human development text book from the 70's I believe. The first page happened to be totally blank so I didn't do anything to it before I started sketching. Now I'm half afraid to screw it up by trying to paint or color her because I am actually quite pleased with this drawing. I've been going thru old magazines and picking out pictures I like that I might try drawing and this one really caught my eye.

This drawing was JUST for me. Not for any of my many classes and workshops I'm taking and not for any other reason than I just wanted to. I've been kind of stressing myself by allowing myself to feel behind in everything. There are no deadlines for any of these classes and they are all open for whenever I want to work on them. But for some stupid reason I sometimes let myself get all caught up in feeling behind or like I'm letting someone down. Who? You got me! LOL  But no more of that. I'll finish all my classes at some point. Art is to be enjoyed and I'm not going to stress about any of it anymore.


I also did a random page in one of my Eclectic Altered Journals from Christy's class. It's an old catalog. It's mostly collage and doodles and I really enjoyed playing on this one. The images make absolutely no sense together but I liked them all because they were bright and eye-catching.

UPDATE: I decided to play around with a monochromatic background for the girl I drew today. I used doilies for a stencil and and my ink sprays over acrylic. It's in my nature to really goop this up with a lot of stuff but I really think I like this very simple background with her and I like the idea of leaving it just as it is. I'm sure I'll change my mind a dozen more times or so because that is also in my nature! But for now I like this and it just needs some journaling. 

Catching up

I've been busy the last couple days again but not so much that I couldn't get a few artsy things accomplished. I played around with a couple faces yesterday. They aren't all that great because I was just quickly sketching on some excess book pages I have from altering a book for Christy's Eclectic Altered Journal class. But at least I'm somewhat caught back up with 29 Faces with face numbers 15 and 16.

I also doodled some flowers and played with my new Prismacolor markers on the book pages. I have a lot to learn with the markers yet. I only have a set of 24 but it's plenty to play with. I really like them so far. I played around with some of my sprays and stencils yesterday too with those book pages. I have SO many book pages I have a lot to mess around with. I will use these in my Eclectic Altered Art Journals... or somewhere.

One more thing I've played with is finishing the couple bound journals I made for my youngest daughter. She keeps a journal now that she's a freshman in college. Just a writing journal. She's not so much into the art thing at this point. But I made a couple coptic bound journals for her with plain copy paper and they turned out awesome. I recycled some boxes for the hard covers and used a roll of white paper I have here for the little ones to play with to cover those with and then used markers to doodle the cover. The second one I left plain for her to decorate herself. I am so tickled with how they turned out and want to make some for myself as well.

I'm not sure what it is about binding my own books that I love so much but I adore the process. I could easily just keep making them and end out with way more books than I'll ever get through so I guess I have to find more people to make them for!

The next thing I need to catch myself up with is Rhomany's Portraits class and the latest Art Geeks prompt. I've fallen behind again. I think that catches the blog up for now. I should be able to get some play time this weekend to do some more before next weekend's big graduation craziness. My baby is graduating. The last one! I can hardly believe it.

Face 14

I completely forgot to post yesterday. I'm in a bit of a rut this week I think. I haven't had much motivation for journaling, painting, drawing, or anything else for that matter. Not really sure what's up with that but trying to dig myself out of it. I have really mostly been drawing homework faces for my Portraits 123 class and counting them as my 29 Faces. It works but it's certainly not much.

Sometime today the Eclectic Altered Art Journals class is supposed to start so I'm hoping having some nice new places to play will inspire me to draw and paint a little more than I have this week. I'm also going to try and work on the latest Art Geeks prompt soon and hopefully that will inspire me too. Until then... here's the little bit of effort I could muster up.

Finally some play time!

I took my time getting myself motivated to do any sketching today. The coffee just wasn't doing its thing! But once I got started I have been on a roll. I put this charcoal sketch in a recycled art journal I recently started. It's not the greatest but it'll do. I played with some sprays and stencils in it last night before I got too tired and just decided to do the sketch there. I used a few pan pastels for some color. Two more to go and I will be caught up with 29 Faces again.

I am hoping to get started on Rhomany's Portrait's 123 class with my next faces. I joined this class earlier in the week and have had next to no time to even look at it, let alone work on any of it. I did watch some of the videos last night though and I have to say this is probably one of the better portrait classes I've seen yet. Very thorough and well organized! I am looking forward to diving in and getting started with the exercises.

I'm also signed up for Christy's Eclectic Altered Art Journals class coming up on the 15th of this month. I am chomping at the bit to start that one! I love making hand-bound journals but I also love the idea of recycling things I already have here or can get free or cheap somewhere. I was at the Goodwill store yesterday and bought several books to use as altered journals for this. I also got some sheet music there and an old dictionary to use the pages in my journals. In the meantime while I wait for the class to get started I've tried a few things on my own. I'm a little unsure of how successful I am with it at this point but it's all learning, right?

Yeah... this art journal crap has pretty much taken over my life. :)