Color Challenge #2 Reveal: Barbara

Hey everybody! I'm here with my first post of the day. I may have another one for you guys coming up later tonight, with the rest of my art (My ICAD, 30-30-30 Challenge, and In The Sun post). But for right now, what I have for you guys is my color challenge REVEAL!! I've been working on this challenge pretty much every day since I announced it here, and have really enjoyed it. The colors were lime, light purple, red, pale yellow, and white. Barbara and I decided to do this in a bit of a larger scale than I did last time with Dede. With that challenge, we gave ourselves a week to create one art journal page. And that was cool. But for this challenge, we gave ourselves two weeks to complete five projects. It was a little more time consuming, but I love the results! So let's get on with it!

The first project is a page in my art journal. This is my big, fat art journal with the black cover and green spine. I don't know if I've ever put a picture on here of just the journal, not the pages inside of it. Maybe I should think about doing that. And perhaps a flip would be in order. That way you guys can see about how much I have left to do before the journal itself is done.

Anyways, focusing more in on the journal page itself, let's look at a close up of the page. You can probably see that in the very back of the page is a background that was composed solely up of dictionary paper that I tore up and then collaged down to the background in all different directions using Elmer's School Glue. It actually works just as well as Mod Podge from what I've done so far. Which I think is impressive. Though it could just be me. Anyways, with this page, I actually decided to blend the concept of this page with another challenge. A Year In the Life of An Art Journal. I really wanted to do all of the prompts for this part of the challenge, but I simply ran out of time in the month. That's okay though. There's always next month. :)

And here you can probably see the stamping a bit better. I used my circle stencil, along with 3 found stamps to create these circles. Something that I find popping up again and again in my work is circles. Whether it be deep inside of the layers of a page, the main focus of a page or accents ON a page, it seems that everything that I make these days has at least one circle on it. And if I don't want to use circles, it takes quite a bit to pull myself away from them. It's crazy. However, I have learned to accept it for what it is. Part of my art. And I'm not going to try and change that.

Here is the second project that I did for this challenge. I decided upon a spread for this portion of the challenge, and tried to do a portrait. I don't like it as much as some of the other portraits that I have done in the past, but I believe that to have something to do with my limited color pallet. I couldn't deviate too much from the colors Barbara and I had picked together, so I just went with what I knew would most likely work. However, this did inspire me to work more on my portraits, as this is certainly not my favorite. So I guess it was kind of a win-win situation anyways.

Also, just a question. Does this background look familiar to you guys at all? :) I slipped you guys a sneak peek a few days ago, I just didn't tell you. If you are still wondering where it is, you can click here to see. :)

One of the other projects that I decided upon was a series of ATC's. I decided to count this as a single project, instead of three. I suppose I could have done it either way, but I had some other ideas that I had floating around in my head, so I decided to go with those as well. So I created these three ATCs, simultaneously, as part of a series. They are not identical, but they go together. I would LOVE to trade these! One of my goals for my DayZero Project is to trade 101 ATCS. I am currently at 0. Even though this is only three, it'd be cool to have a few at least.

Here's a bit of a close up of the first ATC. It is titled "TAKE ME TO THE LAND OF JAZZ." As you can see.

Here is the second ATC.

And here is the third. They are composed of many layers of media on top of one another.

Here is the fourth project I came up with for this challenge. I decided to do a mini collage; it measures 6" on each side. I made most of the papers that this collage was composed of as well. The only one that I didn't make was the red grid with the lime circles showing through it. I painted the papers specifically for this challenge, and I still have a whole bunch left over. I'm not sure exactly what I'm going to do with them, but it could be one of many things. Something that I love about this collage though, is all of the little details.

For example, this layered circle that was composed up of multiple layers of paper and paint on top of one another. I love the way it turned out, and is was so much fun to work on. Plus, I love the way the stamped title looks when it was layered with the circle.

Here's another part that I love. I laid down a stripe of lime green paint down onto the page, then punched circles out of the red graph paper. Then I glued it on top of the green. Then, of course, I added the red to the green, and the layer of red stamping along the side. And the lettering. Can't forget that.

Finally, we have the red circles that I added to very bottom to accent the pale yellow and purple background. I tried to go without putting something in every spot, but I just didn't like the way that it looked. So I filled it up. And I quite like the way that it turned out.

And then, for my fifth and final project for this challenge, I have a little mini "canvas". If you follow me on twitter, you might have seen this picture. I was giving you TWO sneak peeks. ;) I wanted to see if anyone would notice, and then put two and two together. Anyways. I was greatly inspired to create this "canvas" by this post. And, the reason that canvas is in quotes, is because it's not actually a canvas. It's a box. A little cardboard box.

You can see that a little bit better here. It has a bit more depth to it than normal canvas. But I really like the way that this one turned out for me. I used pink words on this, instead of one of the colors, but only because I couldn't find any that matched. And this just looked good.

And THAT my friends; that was my color challenge reveal! I hope that you guys enjoyed it! Make sure to check back later for another post. :)

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!

30-30-30 Challenge + ICAD #28

Hey everyone! How are you guys doing today? I'm doing better than I was yesterday; I guess I just felt like I was having a bit of an off day. I'm better today though. I like the way that the stuff turned out. It seems that I just go through my phases. Today's 30-30-30 page was a bit more collage based than were some of my previous pages. I just painted on the border, and then worked the collage in the center. As I was working on this, I didn't really know what to expect. But I decided to just push through anyways and seeing what became of it. After flipping through a few pages of a magazine, I produced this image.

From there it was just a matter of working the collage at the bottom half of it. I experimented with a strip of paper that had large holes punched into it with a circle punch, and let some of the earlier layers show through. Then I added the piece that says 'trust'. These pieces that I've been using for titles lately were actually part of a punch out sheet that came with a pack of paper. They sometimes include those alongside stickers. Which I think is pretty cool. If you know how to use them.

Here's a bit of a better view of the collage, just for your enjoyment. And, of course, the journaling for this page was around the very edges of the page. I've been thinking lately about how I'm going to want to bind this, but I'm really not too sure yet. I'll figure it out. I will. Believe me.

And here is today's ICAD. I LOVE the imperfection of this piece! It was one of the very most basic ones that I have done thus far; it was composed of a single layer of media. 

I used a feather pen to draw lines all over the card with blue ink. It was super easy, but it gave me a very effective look. It didn't take very long either, which was cool. Sometimes I want to sit down and work for a long time on a card, but today wasn't really like that. I really just wanted to work on my workshop. Which I did. I did some videos. It was pretty cool. I'm really getting somewhere with this, and there might be an announcement coming up fairly soon. :) Anyways. I'll see you guys tomorrow. 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!

30-30-30 Challenge, and ICAD #24

Hey guys. It's Jordan. I know that you guys probably figure that by now, but I just thought I'd tell you anyways. That way you know I wasn't hacked or anything like that. Anyways. Sorry for the late post. I really hate getting them to you like this, but I do what I have to do. Today we watched a movie. Together. As a family. And I couldn't just bail so that I could write on my blog. Sometimes it stinks being busy. Plus, I tried to do this earlier, before the movie, but the power was out. As was the internet. So I was completely and totally helpless.

Anyways. I present you with my 30-30-30 page of the day. As of today, I am officially half of the way through the challenge. And it HAS been an adventure, I'll tell you that much. I love the way today's page turned out; I really think that it expresses who I am as an artist. Not all bright colors and fun and games. Though the topic of the page is rather lighthearted. 

And here is my ICAD. My 24th card. Can you believe that? It's crazy. Honestly, it is. It doesn't feel like that long to me for some reason. Even though the challenge has definitely had it's ups and downs, I feel like it's been enjoyable to me overall. 

But more on the topic of this card; I didn't use a prompt today. Can you believe that? I don't know if I can, to be honest with you. It's pretty crazy. I haven't done that. But I do like the way it turned out, so I don't really mind. Anyways. I'll see you guys tomorrow. Hopefully a little earlier.

A Really Quick Update Post

Okay guys. So sorry that I'm so late today, but at least I have a good excuse. I went to movie with a friend around 3:30. I didn't know how long I was going to be out, and got back around 10:00. Then I watched the first episode of Dr. Who with my Mom. I did this art while I was watching that show, and, even though it's not super advanced or anything, I'll share it with you anyways.

The first thing is, of course, my 30-30-30 page. That's just the way I roll. Plus, even though it's a really basic collage, I do like it. A lot. I think that I really was able to express what I wanted to, even without words. Which I really like. I don't even think that I'm going to add a title to it. I was thinking about something like 'Wonky', but I decided to bail on that. I like it better plain. And I think it's more powerful.

And the other thing that I wanted to share with you was my ICAD. I think this is my first card that I did that was made up completely of words. In one color. That doesn't focus on design as much as the words themselves. Which I think is important. This was also one of the weekly prompts; "Record a moment in words". This was my representation of that.

Well, I hope you guys have a good rest of the night, and I'll see you later! 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!