31 Hearts: Day 7 + Color Challenge #3 Announcement

Hello my art friends! How are you guys doing this fine evening. Very well I hope. For I have some more art to share with you guys today. I might, before long, vary the way that I do these posts, as I do not want to bore you. On the contrary, I would like to excite you to create, and I don't know that posting the same thing over and over again is really helping that too much. But, for now, I'm going to remain the way that I am, until I can figure out how else to do it.

We're starting out with my 31 Hearts page. I decided to do a zebra inspired page today, and actually created a stencil to make this page. I've been doing a whole lot of that lately; making stencils, masks and stamps to fit the theme. For example, I also made two zebra heart stamps today as well. I love the way that they turned out, and I'll probably do something with them tomorrow. My head is already swarming with ideas; we just have to see where they go.

Also, I decided to throw in a picture of yesterday's page and today's page side by side. I don't know if I like them right next to each other like this; I don't know if I'll do it again; but I did think that it would be interesting so that you could see this. I thought that although it was kind of weird to see two hearts side by side in my journal, it was also kind of different and unique. So I just had to share it.

My 30-30-30 Challenge page (30 art journal pages in 30 days in 30 minutes each) today, is actually extremely similar to yesterday's page. I decided to do more doodling. And this is what I churned out.

Here is my ICAD. Doodled.

And a couple of ATCs. Also doodled.

And really, to be honest, that's all I have for you guys today. At least art wise. I also have something else for you guys today. You remember when I did the color challenge with Dede? And with Barbara? Well. The color challenge is back. And it's more advanced than ever. I am once again playing with Barbara. We both enjoyed the previous challenge so much that we decided to do another! But there are some differences. First, and foremost, we actually have another person joining us! Mavis Penney of Mavis Penney Studios! So it's not so much a one - on - one challenge as it is a personal/secret challenge. Also, we have another twist that we will be adding in. The reveal will be Monday the 16th, and we will be revealing a total of 3 pieces. That's three pieces in 10 days. I'm ready to get started! And I hope you guys like the results!

Anyways. I'll see you guys tomorrow. Have a good rest of the night!

Color Scheme!

Yeah! I made it back for the fifth day in a row. I've been doing pretty good so far on my commitment. We'll see how long it'll last. So today was also day five of Art Journaling Daily. It's pretty awesome. So today I thought I'd do a little bit of experimentation with doodling. I don't think I've done that yet in my journal, so I just messed around with it a bit. I used the colors blue, green and orange. I actually got the color scheme from the 365 Card challenge, and it's going pretty good so far. I couldn't actually find a challenge to use for my art journal page, so I just decided to try that. I doodled the stars, then painted, stamped, and collaged over TOP of the doodles.

Also, you can see that along the edges are a line of glitter. I did that in the normal way, just using regular school glue and shaking the glitter over top of you. I kind of like using it, though it's not really my style.

Here's a version of it a bit closer away. I'll probably add more to it, but that's all I'm going to do for now. I like it a lot. By the way, this is my official 100th page!!! I'm totally freaking out. I can't believe that actually happened. It feels like it happened so quickly. It's strange. But so cool!!

Okay, so this photo above is simply a view of a color scheme. This was on 365 Cards. I love this color scheme. It's totally my style, and I love the brightness of it.

Here's the card that I created for this challenge. I know it's a bit messy, but that's sort of my style. I used more of that zebra stripe ribbon. I seem to be addicted to this lately. I'm not quite sure why, but I just am. Crazy huh?

Here's another view of it. In this picture you can see the stamping a bit better.

I know I promised you guys yesterday that I'd show you what my cross stitch is supposed to look like finished. And here it is!! Do you like it?

One last picture. This is my progress. I know I showed one yesterday, but you can sort of see some progression. I like it a lot so far, and think it's turning out perfectly. You can sort of see in the dark brown in the back the two extra cars forming.

Realistic Tiger Drawing

Yo all you peoples!! Okay, so I'm back once more for a post with some more of my art. I'm glad that I'm finally managing to get into at least somewhat of a rhythm with my posting here, because I really like sharing it with you all! I guess I can only hope that you enjoy looking at it as much as I like creating and sharing it. So anyways, as a little idea of what I'd like to do, is to post on here daily. I know that sounds impossible, but I really think that it would encourage me. I don't know why I think that, I just do.

So looking back to the first picture on today's post, you see an art journal page with a zebra painted background and a little zebra doodle. This was a printable piece from Milliande's page, and it was also from one of her prompts. I know I'm a little late to the party as this prompt initially came out on January 1st, but when I find a good art journaling prompt series, I just can't help but play! It's simply not in my nature!

So as we look at this page, the first thing that probably pops out at you is the zebra. That's the prompt. Z for zebra. The zebra type background was drawn by me, freehand, and then painted with a paintbrush and acrylic paints. Black and white. If you look at the white sections up close however, you can see where some of the black pain mixed in and created gray. Though that's not quite what I was seeing for the page, I let it go anyways.

I added the doodle and a couple of spritz of glimmer mist, then stamped a few words and doodled a bit with a marker. So far I am kind of liking where the page is going, but it's far from done. I don't like it currently. But I have a vision for it, so I'm going to keep going and try it out anyways. As far as I know, it should work. And nobody's going to tell me otherwise. :P

Next up on the list of things to show you guys is a card. It's a card for today's challenge on 365 Cards. To use a bit of pink on a masculine card. Now I'm not so much of a card person, but when I do make them, I have fun with it. So I don't know why it doesn't happen more often. You see, I think what happened was when I discovered art journaling, the more structure aspect of cards and scrapbooking just didn't seem fun. The pleasure just disappeared. And when I'm crafting, the last thing I want it to feel like is a chore and that I "have" to do it. I need to have fun.

That's what gave me the idea to start putting pictures in my art journals. That would give it the same type of art journaling pleasure, with the pictures, memories, and practicality of a scrapbook. I may try that out tomorrow, though I'm not sure. I'm considering joining a monochromatic challenge for scrapbooking and entering art journal picture pages instead of the average type of layout. *shrugs* We'll see.

So now I've got another crochet/yarn arts type project to show you guys. I do quite a bit of crochet and knitting work over time, and if you've ever done that for any extended period of time, you know that you come up with tons of little scrap ends that are really short - anywhere from 6" to 3 feet. That you can't do ANYTHING with, but feel horrible throwing them away. So here's the deal. I had been stashing these little thread ends for about a year when it finally dawned on me - why not just create my own pattern just to use these up?

It's done entirely in single crochets, making it extremely simple, and it's fun to work up since you are constantly changing color, thus you never get bored of the project. Plus, all of the little thread ends are constant reminders and memories of finished/half finished projects that have fond memories attached to them; who would have thought that yarn could be so sentimental? I sure didn't. :)

And now, what you've all been waiting for; my first EVER realistic drawing. All in pencil, on an ATC sized cream cardstock. I can't tell you how long I spent on this single card - it was for a swap I'm in, and I thought it was worth a shot. If I had to give it a guess, this single card cost me about 3 hours of my life. And 2 of those were spent perfecting the eye. I guess you can imagine how late I stayed up last night. :P I thought I couldn't draw, but I guess I was wrong. Okay, very wrong.

This is a perfect example of how you should never doubt yourself when it comes to art. I spent four to five years thinking that there was no way I could POSSIBLY draw anything realistic. So I resisted the temptations I had to try. But here I am, my first try EVER to do something realistic and it turned out almost photographic. I know. It's strange. But don't doubt yourself. I learned that the hard way.