Pages 09/13/07

The finished colorized version of
'Evil Grows'.

Pages 09/08/07

Not sure where this image came from in my mind. But at least I'm drawing again. Hopefully I am out of my creative block for now. This is the black and white version. I'll colorize it over the weekend.

'You never know, where evil grows.'

Pages 08/28/07

Wanna buy five copies for my motha' –Dr. Hook

Wowee. I got a bit of a surprise yesterday when I got my ATC Quarterly in the mail. I knew there was going to be an article about my Journal ATC's in this month's issue - but had no idea I'd be on the cover. Did I say Wowee yet? Well, if all the nice emails I've received from folks trying to help me snap out of my creative block, this certainly will. If you haven't checked out ATC Quarterly - check it out! I always find it very inspirational. Ronna Mogelon, the editor, is phenomenal. Anyway, I wanted to share the good news. :-)

I feel the urge to do some drawing, so maybe this dry spell is coming to an end ...

Pages 08/16/07

I am having one BUMMER of a week, guys. I've done nothing creative for myself since the weekend. Ack, wish I could hide under my bed, and skip Friday. Work, is just ... a drag this week. My 'rock' at work (a co-worker) is sick this week and I'm just so missing her strength and sense of calmness she gives me when dealing with all the wahoo clients we have. Boy, I wish the week was over.

Well, enough whining ... no art to post today, so I thought I'd find some ephemera or something 'collage-y' to share with you out of my collage stash. Here's a freebie - a nice fat scan of a game board of a bunch of cards. These are great to add on ATCs, or I print them small and use them in matchbox swaps.

Gosh, can you creative types send me some creative vibes to get me back in the groove? C'mon, I know you can help me ... if I have any readers out there (I'm not sure if anybody reads this blog 'cept my niece and KD), post a link to what *you* are working on this week. I'd love to see. ;-)

Pages 08/13/07

Zipper Pull with a handmade Day of the Dead bead and danglies.

Pages 08/05/07

Back to Collage
As anyone who follows my blog can tell you, I tend to get bored pretty easily. To break my boredom, I pulled out a chunk of collage materials and got to work on some ATCs and altered tags.

A friend of mine gave me some pretty cool tags from some clothing she bought and thought I could 'do' something with them. I love them! The tag pictured isn't complete yet, and I expect to go back and work on it again. I do that with alot of pieces, get as far as I can, then think about how I want to finish them, or decide if they will be part of a larger piece. I wonder if any of my readers do this?

One new technique I tried was layering a heavy layer of gel medium on the background and gently sticking newspaper to it. Once it started to adhere, I pulled OFF the newspaper and it left the text behind. It's very subtle, and tricky to do. If you try it do it on a test piece first and expect to do it several times before you get an interesting pattern.

I also painted and pre-made a stack of about 12 ATC card bases ready to be collaged on. Last weekend, while recovering from a cold, I sat in the backyard with a bunch of magazines and clipped out a bunch of images that interested me and put them into a small box. I figured if I had all the pieces ready, I could delve into the images and grab a pre-made ATC and go to town with very little prep work.

I highly recommend this technique to anybody who has limited time to work on art, but needs a little downtime after a hard day at the office.

The two ATC cards I made, I collaged at the same time with the same palette. Again, I am not sure these are done yet. I think they need some words.

That's it for today. I am off to the Santa Clara County Fair. I'll try and take some pictures. ;-)

Pages 07/21/07

Day of the Dead Bamboo Beads

Sumthin' different. I've been making Frida Kahlo bamboo beads for awhile and was geting bored of making them. I think it's cool that you can tile the photo across the three beads. It opens up alot of possibilites. I put these up for auction at eBay if anyone out there is interested. :-) They are sealed and water resistant and ready to rock and roll in a cool project. These would make a neato bracelet. I haven't tried putting one together yet, but plan to. I have several sets I will play around with soon.

Pages 07/19/07

Faux Postage

I got inspired from a class I recently took with Mountain View Artist Jacqueline Ernst. We learned how to get better at sketching while travelling. The class was very laid back and Jackie was very flexible with the class schedule. She'd pretty much teach us whatever we wanted to learn or try. It was a great class, very friendly and supportive. Jackie makes faux postage. Her stamps are very intricate and reflect her past travels. I was fascinated by them and quickly sketched some in my journal.

These are the sketches which I scanned and colorized in Photoshop. I made a stamp border and added type. They aren't as detailed as Jackie's, but they're me. ;-)

I recommend a class with Jackie. Her studio is warm and cozy and her personality is infectious.
A shout out to ya Jackie. I'll be back for another workshop soon.