In the Sun Class Pages

Hello all of my artsy friends! Hope you guys all had a fun, art filled day. I know I did. Today I would like to share with you guys some pages from my In the Sun art journal class. I've been having a lot of fun with these pages, though I have been falling a bit behind lately. Today I just took some time to catch up. I'm not completely caught up yet, but that's okay. I've also been skipping around with them lately. Doing the pages that I'm inspired to do right then and there. And it's really been turning out nicely. Today I have three pages to share with you guys. And I'll probably work some more on this journal tomorrow.

The first page though, that I would like to share with you guys is a page about my favorite snack for the summer. Now this, for me, is almost impossible to decided upon, since I do have such a passionate love for food. It's ridiculous. But I have a tie between watermelon and ice cream. Since I was sure that a lot of people would say ice cream (not that it matters; if it's my favorite, it's my favorite), I decided to go with the watermelon. Plus, I just wanted to play around with the colors and see what became of it.

The next page that I would like to share with you guys is this fireworks page. This is an extremely simple page, in comparison to some of the pages that I have done in this journal in the past. I took the painted paper background, which in and of itself was fairly simple (just white crayon and watercolors), and then added splatters of paint in two colors. That was the prompt. To make splatters of paint to represent fireworks. Then I added the title.

And, of course, added a border around the page with a marker. And that was that. It was finished. I love the way this page turned out though. I think, as simple as it is, it really represents me. Although it might be in a different way than I would normally expect.

The third and final page that I would like to share with you guys today is this one; the prompt was to  create a journal page about your greatest weakness. This was difficult for me, as I do not generally like to put my fears or weaknesses on paper where I can see them. I like to confront them in private, and work through them. But I don't generally like to talk about them.

Also, the background was part of the prompt. I drew the diamonds with a sharpie onto the background, and filled in the spaces with paint. I REALLY like the way that this page turned out. As simple as it is. It is one of my favorite pages in this whole journal. The more I look at it, the more I like it. I just think that the colors really work well together, and that was nice to see, since I really just picked random colors of paint off of my desk. 

I would like to say one more thing however. I had a thought last night, as I was trying to get to sleep. I know that the Olympics are coming extremely quickly (they start on July 27th; I'm SO excited!), and was wondering if any of you guys would be interested in an Olympics oriented challenge. I know that is extremely confined in the overall idea, but if there is interest, I will start to develop the idea. There would probably be a prompt a day, as well as some art journal pages that were inspired by it. And maybe something where you can link up your pages. I would totally love to do something like that. Let me know! Yes or no? It would be greatly appreciated.

Well. That's what I have for you guys today. Tomorrow I think that I would like to share with you guys a 31 Hearts post, even though I'm not quite so sure about that yet. Anyways. I'll talk to you guys then. And I hope you guys have a good rest of the day, and a good day tomorrow!

30-30-30 Challenge: Day 20

 

Hello my friends. How are you guys doing today? I was working on a whole bunch of stuff today; finishing up my pieces for my art journal color challenge. For those of you who were wondering, or just wanted a bit of a refresh... the reveal is TOMORROW! I'll let you know the colors then! :)

However, let's get on to today's art. This is my In The Sun page for today. I haven't really been enjoying the way that these pages have been turning out for me, so I thought that it would probably turn out a bit better if I tried to lighten it up. I looked at the pages that I didn't really enjoy, and they were all extremely dark. So I tried to do the opposite. And this is what I came up with. I really like it; it seemed to turn out perfectly, especially for what I was looking for. I was trying for something a bit more simple, so I didn't use a photo. I love it.

And this is today's ICAD. I decided to use one of the prompts today, even though I haven't really been using them lately. I used the prompt 'butterfly'. This is what I came up with. I wasn't really sure exactly what I was going to be doing, so I did the background first, with all of the circles and the colors. Then I added the butterfly, and decided to layer the words on top of it. And that is that. 

And here is my 30-30-30 challenge page for today. I don't every really know how I did this page; I used a bunch of layers; watercolors, acrylics, and lots of other layers of paper and doodling. There are a lot of little details in this page that I love as well.

Here I layered a stenciled butterfly with the title and photo. The journaling overlaps with it as well. I loved the coloring of this page as well. It turned out pretty cool. Also, today marks my 2/3 point of this challenge. I've really enjoyed this. And I'm looking forward to seeing it finished through to the end.

Then, of course, I have the tab. I was searching through a whole bunch of my stuff today, and found a bunch of different kinds of tabs. I was freaking out. Seriously. I think I almost passed out. :) And I was just thinking about how cool a book would look with different colored and shaped tabs sticking out all over the place. Ha. I'm such an art nerd. :) But there's no problem with that. Anyways, make sure that you check back tomorrow to see the reveal of my color challenge! Actually, there might even be two posts tomorrow. One with my regular art, and one for the challenge. So make sure you check back! See you then! Bye!

Art/Challenge Updates

Today I found the art a little bit harder than I have in the past. Whatever I tried to make didn't really turn out the way that I wanted it to, and I had a bunch of other chores and stuff that I had to do. So I didn't have a whole lot of time to do all that I wanted to do. So it just turned out pretty bad. I hope that tomorrow goes a little bit better for me. 

Here is my 30-30-30 page for today. I really liked the way that this page turned out. This is really the one thing that I do like. The rest of the stuff I made, I wasn't all that fond of. But that's okay. I need to learn to be okay with the stuff that I do. It's okay. If I mess up on something, or don't like it, that's okay. I need to learn that.

Here is my ICAD for today. I didn't use a prompt for this one; I haven't been for the past few days. I think that it is almost forcing me to be more creative in a way. Which is a good thing. In my opinion. Even though I'm not completely fond of the way that this looks, I do like the techniques that I used to get myself to this point.

And lastly we have my In The Sun page. I don't like this page. At all. And it seems that these pages are getting worse and worse. I don't know why. I liked the first few things that I did for this art journal, but they just seem to be getting worse to me. Anyways, the prompt was more of a question. Natalie asked us: When you go outside, what do you do? For me, the answer is obviously basketball. I wish the page would have turned out better. Because that's one of my favorite topics. Anyways. I'll see you guys tomorrow.

Second Floor Challenge #6 + Challenge Updates

Hey guys! What's up? I have some pretty cool projects to share with you guys today. At least I think that I do. I'm going to start us off today with the 6th Second Floor Challenge. It's only the second one that I have done, but I really like the way it turned out.

The challenge today was 'use a pencil', and this is what I came up with. I actually covered up a previous page that I didn't really like so much with plain white paint, and then used a pencil to draw circles all over the page, filled some of them in with paint, and left others normal. I really like the way that this turned out. It seemed to me to be a really nice remake, and since I don't normally use pencils in my work, it really stretched my boundaries. Also, I stopped with the layers a lot sooner than I normally would, so that was also a different thing for me.

Here is my In The Sun page for today; the prompt was to make a page about where your dream vacation home would be. I wasn't really able to pick just one; I would either pick Wooster, Ohio, where I'm originally from, so that I could be around my friends, or Costa Rica, as I went there on a missions trip a few months ago, and I really enjoyed it. The people were so nice, and even though there wasn't air conditioning, or any of the conveniences that we have over here, I still enjoyed it immensely. This is the page that I came up with.

Here is my 30-30-30 challenge page of the day; I used a couple of images and pieces of collage paper today instead of just one, and I really like the way that it turned out. After I had everything all collaged down, I used a black Portfolio oil pastel to outline everything on the page. It made everything stand out really nicely.

Here is a bit of a closer view of the details. Just so you can see it. :)

And here is the final project that I have to share with you guys today. This is my ICAD. Of course you guys could probably have told that by the shape. There were only three components to today's card. I used pink paint through a flower stencil, then used a black pastel to fill in the background. The last layer was, of course, the title.

And that would be that. See you guys tomorrow!

6.25.2012 Art/Challenge Updates

 

Hello everyone out there in the blogosphere. Whether your day has been going good or not so good, I send kind greetings your way. Sometimes just that can make or break a day. I hope to make yours. :)

So today, I have for you guys a bunch of new art. I was experimenting with quite a few different things today, and I'm glad that I'm going to be able to share it with you! I'm going to start us off with Day 16 of my 30-30-30 Challenge. I love this page, quite honestly, even though it's quite a bit different than what I'm used to. You guys know me and my style; I tend to go for the brighter, bolder colors, or anything that would make a statement. However, with this page I decided to go with muted tones.

I used the same graphic circles that I've been using in a lot of my art lately, and that kind of ties it together, and marks it as my own. At least I believe that it does. However, I do know something else; my style is really, quite frankly, undefinable. At least I believe it to be so. There are so many different elements to my style; so many different things that make me, ME, that it's almost impossible to say.

Another thing that I worked on today was a page in my In The Sun journal. This little homemade book is slowly but surely working it's way up to becoming a full journal. I made this journal out of 5 separate signatures, and I'm about halfway through the first. I'm not exactly sure how much of this journal I'm going to fill up, but I may even continue into fall, adding a separate page for that season as well. Since it says 'Summer 2012' right on the front cover, I would probably have to do another divider page. Which honestly wouldn't be too hard to do.

This is the title of the page today; I cut out the letters from a photograph, after being prompted to do so by Natalie by the prompts. I love the way that she has been setting up this course, and, once more, I am highly appreciative to her for doing what it is that she is doing. I might have to find me some more challenges to do, once summer is up. Or maybe I'll just have to start one of my own. For fall. We'll see. I'd have to come up with some ideas before that could happen.

And HERE is my Week 3 entry for the Summer of Color Challenge 2012. The ice cream flavor this week was composed of the colors white, raspberry, and a light/medium tan. This little batch of papers is what I was able to take from that. These papers had a little bit of better flow, than did the Mint Chocolate Chip ones, and I think I might have enjoyed working on them a bit more. I'm not sure why, but sometimes I just feel that way. I think that I'm going to have to find something to do with all of these papers after this summer challenge is over; maybe that could be part of my personal challenge; finding something to use them all up. I'm starting to get a little bit of an idea here. ;)

And finally, I give you my ICAD. This was based around the weekly prompt: 'Use a Fortune From a Fortune Cookie on Your Card." This is what I came up with. Something extremely simple, that is composed of the minimum amount of pieces that I could use. I like simplifying for these cards. I find it makes it a bit easier to work with them, and I think it looks nice. Minimalism is cool. I was even considering leaving out the number strip, but I decided that it looked better with it. I think that it grounds it a bit.

Well. That would be all that I have for you guys today, even though I have been working on other stuff. Like my things for my one-on-one challenge with Barbara, and some stuff for my e-course that I'm trying to design. I might have some more information about that up sometime; start saving your money, it's going to be good. ;)

I'll see you guys tomorrow! Bye!

More Artwork/Experimentation

Okay. So I'm back with you guys yet again. Sorry that it has been so late the past few days though. It's just that I get really caught up with the stuff I've been doing every day, and it just kind of uses up a bunch of time. So I've been doing these posts while lying in bed at night. It's not that difficult for me to do, and I get my daily post in. You know how it is, I'm sure. Plus, I've been arting up to the very end of the day as of late, so that has a lot to do with it as well. 

Anyways. Something that I've been experimenting with a bit more lately is portraits/faces in my journal.  I just thought that it would be a fun thing to play around with; plus I'm not very good at it. Not yet anyways. So doing a few of these every now and again really sort of drills it into my brain. I've been doing them on two page spreads in my journal, instead of on single pages, but that's because I just like the look of it better. I'm sure I could do one on a single page if I wanted to. In the picture above, you can see one of the portraits I've been working on with the base of it laid down. And the beginnings of the background. And that's that.

Today is Day 13 of my 30-30-30 challenge, and this is my page for today. I decided to do today's page about the seasons, and how I think it's amazing that they can change so drastically, especially in particular part of the world. The background was actually woven from strips of magazine papers, glued down to the background, and then painted over with a thin layer of white paint, just to tone it down a bit. I thought that it turned out pretty interesting.

I also love the way that the paper layering turned out on this page. Sometimes my layering doesn't turn out quite the way I would have liked it to. But I thought this was a good one.

My ICAD today was actually a sketch; my first one that I've done on these little cards. I don't really know why; I've been told that I'm actually pretty good at drawing. And I enjoy it too. Actually, I'm working on a drawing of a Phoenix right now. Actually just putting the finishing touches on it. Maybe I should post a picture of that one of these days. But the ICAD prompt that I used today was on one of the (new) weekly prompts. It was to sketch a bicycle. And I just so happened to have a photo that I took lying around of my bike at a cool, unique (I think) angle. And I drew it. And I like it. A lot.

And then, here we have, once more, my In The Sun class page. I love the prompt for today, and I think that my page turned out pretty good. A little dark for my taste though. But that's okay. Not every page has to be perfect. Plus, I might add onto it later, so that I like it more. Anyways, the prompt was to make a background using magazine paper strips and washi tape, then write your daily schedule over the top of the page. Notice that practice basketball is on there. Alongside art. :) Yep. That's pretty much my world right there. 

She also gave us a bonus prompt to do over the weekend, and I think I'm going to go for it. I'll probably also do my other page that I never did over the weekend as well. Sometimes I just feel like I don't have enough stuff to do in a day, but I don't really know what kind of art I want to work on. These little prompts work wonders for that. Anyways. That's all I have for you guys today, and I'll see you tomorrow!

Sneak Peek and Art Project Update

Hey everybody! I've got some exciting stuff to share with all of you guys today! At least I think that it's exciting. But, once more, I am completely and totally biased. 

But, to start us off today, I am going to be sharing a little bit of a sneak peek of something that I have been working on. Remember the other day, when I mentioned that I was going to be doing a couple of ecourses? Well, I've been further developing these ideas, and coming up with some ideas for them, and I've been doing that through working in my art journal. My big one. I did a lot of that today, and I greatly enjoyed it. As you can see in the picture above, I found a way to get a lot of texture into any given piece, and, even though it takes some work to get it to that point, I personally believe that it is totally worth it. More on that at a later date.

So let's get started on the project updates now, shall we? I believe that we shall. I think we're going to get the ball rolling with my 30-30-30 page for today. I love this page, and the way that it turned out, even though I went through a lot of layers to get the background as textured and interesting (I think) that it is. It is difficult to see in the photograph however. Just a lot of the fine details of the piece were lost through the internet. That is one of the sad things that we do have to deal with.

However, something that I have very much enjoyed with this project, that I don't think I have mentioned before, is the fact that these are really starting to make me think. Something that I have been doing with them, is taking a newspaper page, picking out a random word that I really think could either relate to me, or lead to some really good journaling, and then just use that as my title. It's simple, quick, and easy to do. Not to mention the fact that it's just plain interesting.

Now we move onto the ICAD. This, for me, is ICAD #21. I personally am somewhat surprised that I actually made it this far. Three weeks today. On the nose. It's been a good journey thus far, and I look forward to keeping it up for the full 61 days. Who knows what I'm going to do with them all after that, but we will certainly see. I was thinking mini art journals, using these cards as the covers. 61. Little art journals. We'll see how that one turns out. But I thought it was an interesting thought. I wouldn't run out of mini journals for a while. Plus, it might give me a nice theme for the book. Who knows. It might happen. Might being the key word there, but...

ANYWAYS. The card itself today was based upon the daily prompt that Tammy has decided to start doing. Which is a bit lucky for me, because I had no idea what I was going to do with the remainder of the weekly prompts. It would have been a challenge, that's for sure. However, the prompt today was 'a funny joke'. Now I KNOW that this card isn't going to make sense to anyone but me. But that's because, instead of telling a joke, I decided to go with an inside joke. Yep. Cause that's the way I roll.

And last, but certainly not least, I have my In The Sun page for today. I wasn't able to complete two pages in this journal today in order to "catch up", as I was planning to do (not enough time), so I decided to simply do today's prompt instead. We'll see if I'll do the other one. I have an idea for it, so I might have to. We will see.

But today's prompt was actually a music video prompt. And there, in the middle of the music video, for a split second, was a photo of a sunset. And then the next thing I knew, they were doing cartwheels in the sand. I don't know. But I knew exactly what I was going to do. I used this photo that I took a few days ago, when we were watching the sunset with the friends that were visiting. It's my favorite photo I took of the sunset. And I think the page itself turned out great.

Plus, I just love the way the background turned out. I wasn't exactly sure when I started if it was going to pan out, but it did. I'm happy with it. And to me, that's all that really matters. I'll see you guys tomorrow. Bye!! :)

6.19.2012 Project Updates

Hello my friends. How are all of you doing today? I hope good. Me? Why thank you for asking. I'm doing fine. In fact, I'm doing a little more than fine. I've been having a ton of fun with my art today, and I love the way each and every one of my projects turned out. Normally when I do this much work at a time, I come up with at least one thing that I'm not all that fond of. Today I didn't experience that. Today I experienced nothing but nice stuff. :) It made me extremely happy, and hopefully that continues on tomorrow.

I even went outside and played basketball today; I sweated up a storm. The back of my shirt was soaked through. And I was shocked. Because that had never happened before. But, a quick search on google told me that this means that I'm getting into better shape. And I'm so glad! Earlier this year when I was playing volleyball, I was the most out of shape person that you ever saw. But I'm getting better. And my stamina is up too!

Anyways, let's get back to the project now, shall we? This is my 30-30-30 challenge page for today. I feel great about it too. Sometimes the mistakes though, are the things that really improve a page. For example, take the picture above. You see the red circle covering up this model's face? I wasn't planning on doing that. Not at all. But when I was working in this corner, I accidentally rubbed through her face. So I had to cover it up. And this is what I came up with. I love the way it turned out, and I think that it gives it a layer of depth that wasn't there before.

Also, I've really been enjoying journaling on these pages. I don't know if I've mentioned that before. AND!! I just realized earlier today, when I was working on this page, that this is my 10th page! That means that today marks the 1/3 point of the 30-30-30 challenge! I've really enjoyed the flexibility that it's given me as an artist, and feel that it's really given me a chance to grow. Which I love.

Now let's move on to the ICAD. This is ICAD #19. I based this card around the prompt 'hidden message'. I know that you can't see it. But that's the point. I started this card out with writing a message to myself. And then I covered it up. Nobody knows what it says but me. Because I took a picture. Now I won't forget.

I love the texture that I was able to achieve with this card though. I scratched some lines into it with a pallet knife, and did a bunch of layers with different types of medium so that I would be able to get a very layered effect. I'm loving the green. I don't work with green as much as maybe I should. I love it as a color. Of course, I pretty much like all colors, so...

On the note of color, let's move to my In The Sun spread for today. I don't know what made me want to do a spread today. But I just thought that I should go for it. The prompt for today was to write about  which goals you would have liked to accomplish by the end of summer. I came up with three in particular.

Then, the technique part of the prompt told us to write our title with paint, and then outline it with pen in order for it to be able to stand out. I love the way that this looks. Honestly. I feel like it's so me. That's the cool thing about all of these prompts that I've been working with as of late. I find new things that are my style, that I wasn't even aware existed, or I just didn't think about it.

Here's a close up of one of the goals I would like to have achieved by the end of summer. Of course it's basketball related. My dad says I'm obsessed. I like to think of it as a healthy habit that I am trying to form to get myself into shape. Plus, it makes me feel good. Gets all of my energy out, as well as some of the pent up anger and emotions. Art gets out the rest.

And, as a final goodbye, here is a card that I made today, for my mom to send to my grandpa for father's day. It's a little bit late, but she wanted to make sure that she got something to him. This is what I came up with. I used the prompt from 365 Cards for today, which I like to do every now and again. I was thinking today though; they would probably make pretty cool art journal prompts. Huh.

Anyways. I'll talk to you guys later, and hope you guys have a good rest of the night!

30-30-30, In The Sun, ICAD2, and Summer of Color

So here I am. Back with you again for yet another art-filled post. I hope you enjoy. Today I'd like to start you guys off with my 30-30-30 challenge page for today. This is today's piece, and I will show you the piece that I was telling you guys about yesterday. The one that I forgot to take pictures on. So anyways, let's talk about this one first. I used a quote today that I absolutely love. It's by Dr. Seuss, and it says:

"Today you are you, that is truer than true; there is no on alive that is youer than you."

                                               -Dr. Seuss

And I absolutely love that quote. It's amazing. Plus, I really love the way this page turned out. It's a little more pink than I'm used to, but that's okay. I like it anyways.

And here is the page from yesterday that I forgot to photograph. I like the way that this one turned out as well, even though it's a little bit dark for my taste. The journaling that I did on it was basically just words that I believed were, or could be 'Mystic', which was the title that I had chosen for this page. I love the way that this turned out as well.

I also made another batch of papers today; this time I used the Week 2 colors from the Summer of Color. I already talked about it here; go ahead and check it out if you want to. The colors for this week were based around Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream, and so the colors were a mint green and a dark brown. These are what I came up with. I didn't spend as much time on these ones as I did on the other ones, because, quite frankly, I didn't know what to do with them. I was legitimately confused. They were weird colors to work with for me. I hope that everyone else had an easier time with it. :)

Next up we have my ICAD card. This is my 18th index card for this challenge, and I think that I'm doing very well with it. I used the prompt 'swirl' for today's car, and you can probably see it pretty well. At least I hope you can. For some reason I was having difficulty with this prompt, with getting it to turn out the way that I wanted it to. I think it turned out decent though, so I'm happy.

Last, but certainly not least, I have my In The Sun page for today. I took a bit of a break from this journal over the weekend, as the prompts weren't being given; just catch up days and photo prompts. Which is fine by me. But today's prompt was to do a black and white photo transfer and then color it in with oil pastels, or any other material that you could find that would work. But here was the problem. My image transfer didn't work.

You see that gray layer? In the back there? Yeah. That's my image transfer. My failed one. it ended up as a plain gray square. No image at all. It was kind of sad. But I decided to continue on anyways. I added some other magazine images to the page, along with a bunch of layers of doodling. Love the way this little bit looks, especially. So many yummy layers that I simply love!

And here was the title. Where it counts. The other part of today's prompt was to form your page about what it is that you wished for TODAY. I wished that I would be able to put my energy where it counts. In my opinion, at this time in my life, that's what matters.