Drawing

I never really thought I was good at drawing. I never seem to be able to draw "lifelike" subjects. It used to bother me. Not anymore.

I haven't been inspired lately to do much, creatively speaking. And you want to hear the funny thing? I've been doing loads of stuff, creatively speaking! I'm trying to push through this "funk" that I'm in by creating anyway. And one of the ways I'm doing that is by rediscovering my drawing skills. This weekend, I pulled out an old photo of my mom. A photo booth picture. She has a lot of them and I love them. So I decided to recreate that image in pencil. And it actually looks a lot like the original. The only thing I'm not happy with is the facial features but I just need more practice I suppose. I didn't know what to do in the background and didn't want to risk messing up the drawing so I left it blank on purpose. This was a good exercise in observation and reproduction. I should definitely do more of those.

Please keep my friend Judie in your thoughts and prayers.

Play

So often we forget to stop being serious. So often we forget what it feels like to be free. Too often, we forget what it means to play.

Working with kids isn't always easy but one thing they are great for (amongst many other things) is to remind me to stop being such a grown up and to start to play. And today, I did play. We all had fun.

Take the time to play this week.

Discover yourself

Lately, many people have been writing or saying: just start with a doodle. And that's what I did. And it turned into a face with funky hair. So it begged for funky colours. The yellow on the face was intentional. I was trying to make highlights. It looks better in person than on the computer.

This Spring, I'm really feeling the "renew" vibe. I've been doing some cleaning every day. Not big cleaning but still, small is better than not at all. I've finally put some stuff aside to bring to the second-hand store. Things I haven't used in months, years (some even at least 10 years!) I'm a bit of a packrat, you might say. But I no longer want to be a packrat. I want changes. I admire Pam for making her dream come true.

Inspiration is everywhere

Where do you find your inspiration? Do you have a special place you go to when looking for a new idea? Do you look at every day things for inspiration?

For this month's daily art cards, I decided to make them in order to turn them into my very own inspirational deck (following in Violette's footsteps.) When I woke up this morning, I started thinking about what my card would be today. I got my answer only when I came back from work tonight. On the windshield of my car, someone had tucked a card under the whipper blade. A Pokemon card with "energy" on it. It had been raining most of the day but the sun came out just as I left from work so inspired by the card and the energy from the sun, I went about creating my card. I made it 3" x 4" out of watercolour paper and it was coloured with watercolour, coloured pencils, Glaze pen, PosterPaint Marker and a flower stamp with ink.

Listening to the muse

I've been trying different things with my art. Playing differently with my supplies. Experimenting. And I'm not done yet. Not even close. But I'm enjoying it. Every second of it.

I had a craft play day with CeeCee and Mom last Friday. For once we were able to do it during the day instead of in the evening. I made some more paper spool collages. Most of the times, when we're all three together, that's all I seem to do.

It's odd. Sometimes, I seem to have no inspiration at all even though I'm creating every single day. I guess sometimes, I'm creating more out of habit than anything else. What does that mean? I wonder... Anyway, just wanted to show I'm still alive and kicking.

Off days

Sometimes, no matter how much you want to create something, it just won't come out the way you envisioned it. It will come out as something else. So just let it go, accept it for what it is and move on.

Synchronicity and Serendipity

I actually started typing Sunchronicity. I like that! I may start using that word now. You know, when the sun comes out exactly when you need a little encouragement or something similar. "I was feeling sad this morning when I woke up. And then I started thinking about you and the sun came out right at that moment. Man, that was some good Sunchronicity!" Yep, I like it!


Anyway, I wasn't going to post tonight because I just wasn't feeling it. But then I made my DAC (Daily Art Card), which is NOT the one posted above but similar to it. Inspired by Zentangles. I've read about them on many blogs and forums and finally caved in to see what the fuss was all about. Well, I have to say, it's nothing new to me. I've been doing these kinds of drawings since I was a kid but we just call them doodles or Dessin Sans Dessein which basically means a Drawing without Intention (or without Design.) A drawing that hasn't been thought out prior to being put on paper and which does not represent anything in particular. So anyway, like I said, I've been doing these since I was a kid but hadn't done any in a couple of years. So I decided to draw them again and to use them as a sort of meditation (speaking of which, I've given up meditating on a daily basis; I really don't enjoy it all that much... so I'm doing other things instead like Zentangles-type drawings and knitting.) So expect to see a few more of these drawings.

One of the reasons I wanted to write about synchronicity tonight is that for the past 2 weeks, I've been getting messages from here and there about a singer/songwriter I greatly admire: Leonard Cohen. He's a Montreal native and for as long as I can remember, I've loved his music. But I hadn't taken the time to listen to it for a while now. So a few days ago, I put on the only CD of his I own, Cohen Live, and rediscovered some of my all-time favourites. And I think it was the next day that I heard he was being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and that he will be in concert in Montreal for the Jazz Festival. I would so love to see him in concert but at the moment, I can't afford it. Maybe one day soon.

My thoughts are getting scattered again. I've had back pain for a couple of days now and the pills I took are not helping (nor did rubbing and putting heat and/or cold on it...) So I'm going to bed in hopes of waking up in better shape tomorrow. Goodnight.

How do you like your coffee?

I've signed up for an ATC swap which has a coffee theme. So I've been creating coffee themed things. And being inspired by this painting. So I decided to try something new. Painting with coffee. Yup, you read me right. Dipping my paintbrush into a cup of coffee. I love it! It makes for lovely shades of beige and brown. And it smells yummy too!

Have tried something new lately? Something different? Are you pushing your limits? Give it a try and let me know how it goes!

Once in a lifetime

Going back to work after more than a week of vacation isn't as easy as it sounds! But I'm not complaining.

Outside my apartment building, the path that leads from the street to our door is full of snow. Thigh high. I kid you not. In the school yard, some kids could easily sit on the fence in some places (we didn't let them of course!)

I'm not feeling chatty tonight. Maybe I'll actually go to bed early for once...

Early "Spring" Cleaning

This week, I've taken on a big task. Cleaning up the files on my computer. All the pictures I have since December 2005 are being renamed, refiled and saved on CDs. It's a big job even though I don't have as many photos as a lot of people I know. But still, it's something that needs to be done and sooner rather than later. All my 2005 and 2006 folders are done. 2007 will take a bit longer but I'll work on it Friday. And as for 2008, I already have probably as many photos as the whole year of 2006! Of course, having been on 3 photographic adventures with my brother has greatly helped this!

Like a lot of people, I'm getting tired of this harsh winter. Snow storm after icy rain after icy snow... I mean, come on! Enough already! I had to shovel my car out of the snow to move it on Sunday because they were going to plow the snow that night. And again today! Sheesh! I've got biceps again! Which I suppose is a good thing. But still, I can't wait til Spring when I can walk by the waterside and plant some herbs and flowers in my outdoor pots. Soon...

Before I forget, Lisa Vollrath is having a St.Patty/Easter countdown soon. Check it out!

A productive day

Today's eye candy are my latest Daily Art Cards. The first one you see is #60 and the last of the 4" x 4" I made. For March, I decided to try a new format: 4" x 6". It gives me a bit more room to play with but sometimes, less is more.

Disturbing dreams last night. It had been a while. I woke up in tears twice during the night. I kept dreaming that someone close to me was dead. I know it doesn't mean this person will die soon. One thing that was weird in the dream though is that I found an old foreign newspaper. Probably from Asia (I saw characters that looked Asian instead of our alphabet.)

I've had a productive day. I have one painting in the works, made 4 ATCs for a swap, made 4 paper spool collages for another swap, made a card for the Deck of Me challenge, finished last week's page for the Art Journal Challenge and made my Daily Art Card. Plus, I went grocery shopping and washed some dishes. And I always do my Morning Pages (between 15 and 30 minutes every morning.)



For the 21 Days Challenge, I've picked a small journal. I'm mostly using the quotes provided by Rhonna and journaling about meditation. So far, for my first 2 days, I've only done 5 minutes, focusing on the flame of a candle in the dark, before going to bed. Tonight, I want to do 5 minutes without the candle. We'll see if it works.

Tomorrow I'm meeting up with Catherine. That's always something to look forward to. We have so much fun together. Now I'll just go relax in front of the television.

Another month bites the dust

Can you believe it? It's already the end of February! Time really flies by!

Today was fun. It was a ped day which means more hours and fun activities for the kids. And today, we went to Fort Angrignon which is a really cool place for kids. They have all sorts of activities, mini challenges and more. The staff takes care of everything and we could follow the kids or sit in the main hall and relax. I usually follow the kids when I go there but this time, I sat and talked with my boss and coworkers. We're all still getting to know one another. One of my coworkers is really into The Secret and Law of Attraction so it's really nice to have someone to talk about that stuff with.

Lately, I've been feeling a little bit icky. Not really sick but not 100% well either. I've regained some of the weight I had lost but not all of it so that's positive.

To try and recenter myself, or whatever (:-p) I've decided to start meditating. And what better way to start a new habit than with Rhonna Farrer's 21 day challenge. They say it takes 21 days to make or break a habit so I've decided to give it a go. I'll keep you all updated on my progress. I've never really meditated before but I think I'm ready now. And there's no better time than the present, right?

Musing about art

Some days, if it weren't for my Daily Art Card, the Deck of Me and Art Journal Challenges, I think I wouldn't create anything. Other days, I create so many things, I wonder where I find the time and energy for it.

Here are some of the above mentioned creations from the last few days.

The Deck of Me card. The theme was Someone or something you miss... Sometimes, I miss my beautiful long hair... You can't see it but on the upper left corner, there's an eyelet with lots of fibers hanging from it. Like a pony tail!


Monday's daily art card. Using up some rub-ons I have (and am tired of seeing!) Metallic gel pens are my new favourite pens to use lately. All around the border, I wrote Smell The Flowers.









Tuesday's daily art card. The background is layers of watercolour crayons, gel pens, coloured chalk and oil pastels. And then I searched through my stash and found the monkey picture. The other pieces of ephemera just followed. This one makes me smile.








Finally, a page for the Art Journal Challenge. The inspiration word was FLY. I had first done something on the page with lots of rub-ons and it didn't turn out the way I liked. So I gessoed everything lightly, re-wrote the words with indian ink and a dip pen, stamped the bird and nest with StazOn and then had fun with oil pastels, my white Poster Paint marker and a pencil. Now I like the result.

The landlord came to change my water heater this morning. Yay! I have hot water again! And now it's rust-free! Woohoo! Thank you Universe!

Too often, like many people, I tell myself that "starting right now I'm going to take better care of myself." You know, exercise, healthy food and all that. And every time, like many people, it lasts a couple of weeks and then I fall back into my old habits. I've tried using visualization and positive thinking to reach my goal. But I guess I'm still not getting it, for this anyway. I don't know. Maybe I need to read The Secret again.

Doing my Daily Art Cards is really helping me in trying to step out of my comfort zone. I'm giving myself permission to try new things, new products (in moderation), to make mistakes and messes. Anything goes on these. My intention at first was to use a different size for every month but I don't know that I can find a total of 12 different card sizes. We'll see. For March, I want to do more of a postcard size.

Recently, I found that my little drawings speak to me. Like the girl below. She didn't like the dress I picked for her so she let me know with that little line. M'kay.

My thoughts are all over the place tonight. Sometimes I wish my blogging were more profound or witty or something else. But it isn't because, well, it is me, my thoughts, my memories, my ideas. I have so many ideas brewing in my head that I don't always know how to get started. For instance, a few weeks ago, I suddenly had a flash that turned into a story which I want to turn into a book for kids à la Neil Gaiman, with grungy looking illustrations and dark humour. But I don't know how to get it all started. Not yet anyway.



March break is coming up next week. (Our version of Spring Break.) There are so many things I want to do but the week won't be long enough! I need to spend less time on the computer and more time in the world. Or at least in MY world. You know, the one where it's okay to talk to animals and imagine they talk back. Where it's okay to have paint splattered on your hands and arms and clothes and maybe in your hair too. Where it's okay to dance in the rain and chase snowflakes around.

I'm ending today's post with another image. A new layout for my scrapbook. It's completely different from anything I've done before. I love that cluster of vintage buttons at the top.

Of creatures (which are mostly of the bird variety) and other things

So I notice that some symbols keep coming back in my art. Of course, we're aware of the heart symbol which has already been discussed in a previous post but lately, I've also seen a variety of birds appear here in there in both my art AND my dreams. Anyone know what dreaming of birds mean? In the past weeks, I've had dreams of hawks (but friendly ones), owls and crows. In two dreams, the bird landed on my left arm. Strange. Anyway, I've decided to focus some pieces on those birds which explains the second art card you see here at the top and this painting below.

Now. About this painting. I've really been inspired by Kal Barteski's recent paintings (I've told you about them already) and thought I'd have my own take on this idea. I had all those old books of children stories which were missing a lot of pages (library books that were going to be thrown out.) So I decided to paint on the pages individually. Some have really nice illustrations on them so I might try to use those for something else but the pages with only text will be used in this fashion. They measure about 9" x 12". I started with a layer of gesso which had been mixed with some pink paint for another project (which is below) and had some left over. The tree came out of nowhere and wanted to be painted purple. So I did (more like lavender if you ask me.) Then the little bird appeared and wanted a swirly sun so I gave it to him. And before I knew it, he had me writing this little bit right in the middle of the painting! (It says: he just knew that one day he would fly to the sun.) This little guy really had a mind of his own. And now he wants siblings and friends to play with so I guess I'll have to do more paintings. This was a big change for me: painting on something other than canvas and out of my journals. So, tell me what you think of it. Would you pay for something like this? Would others? It would be so wonderful to actually make money from my art, you know what I mean? Others are doing it. Why not me?

This is my latest art journal page. This journal is almost full. Three more pages and I'm done with it. Yikes! Whatever will I do next? Well, I guess I'll just have to use one of my many other journals patiently waiting on my bookshelf in my bedroom. Maybe go smaller? I don't know. I have another big spiral journal that I could use but do I want to work this size again? So many questions tonight!

Anyway, like most of my journal pages and art cards lately, this one has lots of layers. And I just noticed that I didn't use oil pastels on this one which is surprising. I guess I didn't want the "dirty" or "muddy" look it would bring to the page. This one almost looks clean to me. The drawings are supposed to represent my cat Diesel and myself. My auto-portrait is ok but Diesel is much darker in real life. She's a big furry purring ball of colours all mixed in together. I also did this page as a response to iHanna's prompt to use hearts in our journal. So here's to you Hanna!

This weekend I'll show you another small painting and something I received in the mail.

Of collages, paintings and a prize in the mail

As promised, here are my latest paper spool collages. I made these last Friday while spending an evening of fun and crafts with two of my favourite people in the world: my mom and Catherine. I also worked on another little project which I won't show until it has arrived to its final destination.

My hands are feeling a lot better. I don't know if it's arthritis or carpal tunnel and as long as it doesn't bother me too much, I don't want to know. Now, no lectures please.

Anyway, yesterday, I finally decided to take some Tylenols and it helped relieve the pain so I was able to create. Of course I did my Daily Art Card which is the following picture, but I also finished an art journal page and two paintings. I'll show them later this week.

I've always considered myself an artist. There was a time when I thought I was only a painter but now I know I'm much more than that. I guess that if I have to label myself it would be Multimedia Artist and Recycle Crafter. Ye like? I like! But I had forgotten how much I love to just paint. So I've prepared a few backgrounds to work on when the mood strikes. It was fun to work on something other than a canvas. My plan is to do enough of these types of paintings to eventually sell them.

And finally, I received my first OWOH prize today! What joy to find a parcel addressed to me coming from Hawaii! And when I opened it, I was presented with this beautiful doll made by Lilla... look at her. Isn't she pretty? She shimmers in the light.


Right now, she's hanging on my fake wreath which is still on my bedroom door (and might stay there all year long to display various hanging goodies I receive and/or make.)

Now, I'll go paint some more me thinks. No blogging tomorrow as I'm having dinner with my parents and watching LOST with mom. Have a good Thursday!

Send me some cheese

I have to whine! Ok, not really but I do need to get this out.

I'm only 30 years old and I occasionally get really sharp pain in my fingers. I don't know if it's the beginnings of arthritis or something else but when it starts to hurts, there's not much I can do. I don't like taking medications so I try to just breathe through the pain. Even typing this post is a bit difficult as I have to stop after a few words because of the pain. Sometimes it feels like needles stabbing through my fingers (sorry for the imagery this may create for some.) It's hard to describe really. Well, anyway, yesterday's Art Card shows you a little bit how it feels. I was okay all day at work today but the pain came back after dinner and now my left hand is pretty much useless because of this. So I'm making this post short. Hopefully I'll feel better tomorrow. Goodnight!

And now, back to our regular program

Staying out of blogging for 2 weeks has been... well... different. Neither bad nor good. Just different. Of course, I kept myself busy visiting all those amazing blogs in the One World One Heart event, entering giveaways (I've won 4!), replying to some comments. And of course, creating stuff. The picture for today is of my Daily Art Cards for February so far (today not included.) I've made journal pages for Emily Falconbridge's challenge and my cards for the Deck Of Me challenge. I've started other projects that aren't quite finished yet. But soon...

The weather has been... crazy. Snow, icy rain, more snow, sunshine, still more snow... We've never received this much snow for as long as I can remember. A few weeks ago, I bought myself some Light Duty Traction Devices for walking on ice and snow and I certainly do not regret it! I've been using them every day when going to work since buying them.

In other news, I've been doing really well when it comes to food. Yes, I admit, I've been indulging in a few sweets but in moderation. Which is a big improvement for me. I noticed that my waist measurement has changed. Lost a total of 1.5 inches since the holidays! Yay for me! My clothes aren't as tight as they used to be so I'm happy.

I've been trying really hard not to buy any more stuff. It's not easy. There are so many nice things out there and I wish I could support all my talented friends by buying their creations. But alas, I, too, am one of those starving artists! Okay, not starving but certainly nowhere near being rich... yet. Actually, I'm toying with the idea of eventually opening up my own Etsy Shop. But don't hold your breath as I'll need to create a lot more stuff to be able to apply that plan. I hope everyone's having a nice weekend.