Giveaway!!!!

One of my art journal idols, Effy Wild, is having an amazing giveaway! If you've ever thought about art journaling - here's your chance:  Effy's Giveaway

The One In Which I Say THANK YOU With Some Free Stuff & A Giveaway & A Coupon Code

Heart of my heart

Mixed media, mainly acrylic, on hardboard.

Let Soul Speak

I have promised myself that this would be the last straight-on face I would draw or paint until I have practiced the 3/4 profile.  That said, I really like how she came out!  The quote, by Rumi, says, "Let soul speak with the silent articulation of a face." I experimented with crackle medium over the top of the finished face and stenciled images, then rubbed paint into the resulting cracks.  I love the "old masters-look" result.  A lot of shine on this page, so it was hard to get good pics that show the true color without glare. Her hair is actually quinacridone magneta with fluorescent pink highlights, and the green in the background is much darker than it appears.

 

Here are some in-progress pics.

 

Collecting wisdom

This is my first attempt at drawing and painting an owl.  I fretted over this - my inner critic wreaked havoc with me.  I know it's an ok owl, but I don't especially like it.  I do like how the shading in the moon came out though...

The quote, a Zen proverb, reads, "Sometimes simply by sitting the owl collects wisdom."

Shadow and Light

I struggled with this one - specifically the tree.  I finally decided to let it be before I totally ruined it!
I created the stencil of the crow from a piece of clip art.
I included two pictures because the first one shows the vibrant color on the left-facing page, and the second one shows more detail on the right-facing page as well as the true color of the sun circle.
The quote is from Rumi: "Sometimes the shadow stays next to the light; sometimes it disappears into the light."

Embrace every moment

An online friend of mine, Andrea Gilsdorf, sent me the gift of Jane Davenport's video Whimsical Faces.  It taught me a lot, and here is the first journal spread I've created using some of her techniques.  There's also the influence of Effy Wild in this spread.

Giveaway

Effy Wild is giving away a seat in Radiant: Faces!!!!   Get details here:  Win a Spot in Radiant Faces! 

Respond to every call...

My latest Journal spread, from a Rumi quote:  "Respond to every call that excites your spirit."  I experimented a bit more here with modelling paste and I like the results!

 

Goddesses Within

This is my latest journal spread.  I made "goddess" masks and placed them on gelli prints to create the images.  Then I used paint markers, acrylics, modeling paste, and guilder's paste.

I also had some fun coloring a goddess symbol to enter a Radiant Faces giveaway courtesy of  Julie Gibbons:

Life Book

An artist from whom I've learned a lot from, Effy Wild, is giving away a seat in Life Book 2015!  Click here for details.  If you aren't familiar with life book, check it out here:  Life Book 2015
And that's not the best part - the best part is that this is part of a blog hop promotion for Life Book and every participant is giving away a spot!  Check it out!  
 

Nothing can dim the light from within.

This is my latest art journal page.  I used homemade stencils and acrylics on the background, and graphite, acrylics, Inktense pencils, Sharpie paint pens, Neocolor II crayons, and a rubber stamp on the woman.  I printed out the quote in Jane Austin font and colored the paper with transparent acrylic paint and then ink around the edges.   I took one work in progress picture as I was working.

I’m pleased with how she turned out.  I look forward to getting better though.

Work in progress pic:

Final result:

 

I am SO happy to be done with this spread - really I just gave up on it. Couldn't get a face I was happy with, so I decided to stencil over it. Then two nights ago I was reading Bringing Home the Dharma: Awakening Right Where You Are by Jack Kornfield and came across this Jung quote and knew it was perfect for this spread in more ways than one!

Rumi Art Journal

I love the wisdom in Rumi's words.  I spent a couple of hours a few days ago combing the Internet for Rumi quotes and found 20 or so that I love, and I've decided to make the current journal I am working in a journal devoted to what Rumi's words inspire in me.  The book itself is a circa 1960's nicely bound book on Eisenhower (8" x 11") that I picked up at a library book sale.  I've removed some pages to allow for the bulk of my entries and glued pages together to give each page more strength.  I've gessoed the cover but haven't designed it yet.  The spread "I am not my hair" is already in the book, and I've just completed spread #2:  "Close both eyes."  This was another background I made several months ago and then a few days ago I knew I wanted to paint poppies on it.  Then I got really excited when I knew I wanted the entire journal to be full of my favorite Rumi quotes.  I used the typical (for me) acrylic paint and gesso for the background.  The poppies are gesso underneath with acrylics and prismacolor pen, and the sun is gesso and acrylics, along with paper doilies as stencils.  Then I realized I wanted some more text or something in the background so I added the music stamp.  The eyes have a gesso base covered with acrylics, prismacolor pen, graphite, and Inktense pencils.  The quote I printed out and colored with distress ink.

 

"I am not this hair"

The first art journal spread I've completed in a while.  I wanted to experiment with gelli plate mono printing on deli paper, and see how it would work as collage elements - that's what I used for her hair. I also am practicing shading faces with paint. The quote is from Rumi; it says, "I am not this hair, I am not this skin. I am the soul that lives within." You have to click on the first pic to see the full spread.  I can easily see many things wrong with it, but I also see a lot right with it, and I'm happy.

I had created this background over a year ago, and I loved it so much I've been afraid to do anything else to it.  But then I took the plunge.  Here's the process:

 

Older projects

Since I don't have much of my artwork posted on my own blog, I thought I'd remedy that today!  Right now I am struggling with trying to paint faces.  I've had fairly good luck with prismacolors, but when it comes to paint - ugh!
Anyway, here are some of my pieces from the last couple of years (mostly journal pages).  The DaVinci horse is a canvas I made for a friend using clear caulking as an image transfer medium:

Wow.  It's been almost a  year since I've been here.  Last month I retired, after 28 years of teaching high school English.  Now, I can do.... what ever I want.  It's an adjustment I wasn't expecting; I had no clue what it would be like to wake up mid-morning and know that it's not a weekend, it's not time off.  It just IS.

I can delve in to my art explorations now.  One course has really caught my eye: