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.

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.

Quiet Mother's Day

I like my Mother's Day nice and quiet. I like to reflect on my own mom's life I guess and since she's been gone for almost 19 years now (has it really been that long??), I don't like a big fuss. It took my family a while to really get that but I think they do now and that's just fine. I'm a mom EVERY day. I don't need one special day a year to fuss over it.

I was too lazy today to even sketch much. I did get a couple more faces sketched though. They are unfinished but dammit I"m counting them for my 29 Faces! I'm hoping this week gets me back on track working a little more on my projects than I was able to this week. I also have one more from yesterday... a practice sketch for my Portraits 123 class.

I see some issues that I need to work out a little better in both of these sketches and I will work on that tomorrow. I would like to turn what I can into finished projects or include them in my art journal when I fix them. But anyway... here's numbers 11, 12, and 13.

A little further...

I've taken my Drew Barrymore sketch a little further. I fixed the right side of her face that looked a little wonky and I fixed the right side of her head that looked like she had a big ol' tumor growing there. We haven't gone that far in the class yet but I went ahead and did some shading on the face according to the photograph. I don't know that my girl really looks much like Drew Barrymore but I'm not hating it as a drawing. Her hair leaves a lot to be desired. I am looking forward to that part of the class so I can get something that looks better. I know I still have a lot of work to do to get better but I don't feel it's too shabby for never having drawn anything until January of this year. I did a little bit in junior high school but I hadn't since then... and never people.

Unfortunately I am not going to have a lot of time to play around with my drawings this weekend. Well not until Sunday anyway. My youngest son's senior prom is Saturday. We just picked up his tux. The boy has a sense of humor, that's for sure. The tux he is wearing did not come from a tuxedo shop. It came from a costume shop. It is the powder blue tux with tails and ruffles from the movie Dumb and Dumber. He's wearing his high top Converse sneakers with it and carrying a cane. It's actually the tux he wore a couple years ago in the high school's production of Grease. He was Eugene (the nerd) and he wore it in the big dance scene.So yeah... tomorrow will be interesting to say the least!

Sketching and class homework

I was finally able to sit down and concentrate on one of my new classes I'm taking with Rhomany. I didn't think I have been doing this long enough to be "set in my ways" but having a bit of trouble teaching this old dog new tricks. LOL  I have no doubt the system works. I can see that it works. I'm just having a little trouble applying it. I will persevere!

So I have a little homework to show and just a sketch I played with. Today is really the first time I've ever tried to draw a face from a photo. I quite like my second one. It's certainly got a LOT of room to improve but not too shabby for a first couple tries. I'm going to count these two faces as my numbers 8 and 9 for my 29 Faces challenge. I may have more to post by the end of the day as well. I'm in that mode now to keep going.

I don't think this first portrait is the greatest. It could definitely be better. The second is supposed to be Drew Barrymore. I'm much happier with her than I am with the first one even though she could use a lot of improvement as well.

I highly recommend Rhomany's Portrait 123 class though. Seriously... I've taken several classes online already. Some were pretty great and some... eh. This is the first time that I've really felt like I was learning something new though. She's VERY thorough with the content she provides in the classes and seems to be every bit as helpful when you feel stuck. I love fun and games as much as the next person, but her no nonsense approach to teaching makes me really feel like I am getting my money's worth. And this is just having gone through the first lesson only! :) Kudos to Rhomany! I can't recommend her classes enough.

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. :)