Diva Challenge #363, a Duo-challenge and other artsy endeavors

Diva Challenge #363

"Laura's Aura's"

Who doesn't love auras?

My Monday morning cafe set up

This page in my DIY journal seemed like a good candidate for the task at hand. Instead of actually aura-ing sections, I chose some patterns built by aura. I was watching some YouTube this morning and caught this video. I love how she was drawing "Pepper" and decided this could be considered an aura pattern. That's my story and I'm sticking to it;-) Then of course, one of my mac 'n cheese patterns, Sandswirl and then Pixioze.

Then I moved on to this

The Weekly Duo-Challenge

Joey #216 & IAST #243

Now and again, I'll tweak Joey's front & center placement slightly to give myself the option to carry it over to the other side later if I want..
Adele's challenge was to do a Zen Button. I've seen so many of these all over the internet and I love them but I've never made one. Adele linked to this great tutorial from Marguerite Samama. I chose not to do the white charcoal pencil highlight thinking it might throw off the balance of the two sides. I know it's the key to getting the 3-D effect and I may go back and do it later. maybe. I can see some 3D potential in the Joey side, but frankly, I'm wiped out. I've been home sick with a cold for a couple of days. It hit me quick and hard, so I've been home drinking turmeric almond milk tea for two days and arting between naps.

I'm headed off to Cheese Camp Sunday thru Tuesday and I can not be sick! I won't be able to go if I'm still sick. Even if I'm mobile and feeling ok, it's a sanitation thing because we're actually going to be touring several cheese making farms and the production rooms so I can't be coughing and hacking all over the place. The cough is what always lingers when I'm recovering from a cold. So, fingers crossed. 

In other art:

My most recent hand bound watercolor journal

I followed this SeaLemon coptic stitch bookbinding tutorial.

a page inspired by this video at CeeCee Creations

another CeeCee inspired water color page

a page of watercolored and brush pen butterflies

inspired by Maremi Small Art

I liked the idea of adding butterflies to my art journal pages and wanted to make my own. I've been working on this page for a couple of weeks. I printed a layout of butterflies from the internet and traced the silhouettes onto watercolor paper. Then using a wet on wet technique, I wet within the silhouette with clean water, picked up a bit of paint on the the tip of the brush and  dripped the pigment into the wet shape and let it spread and feather. When the paint was all dry I used a black brush pen to do all the line work, using a variety of images from the internet to inspire the different details.

I color copied them and did a couple of reductions as well. I'll cut them out and use them in my art journals and perhaps some envelope art.

Travelling Tangles I completed this past week:

My finish...

...to Heidi Whitney's gorgeous start

My finish...

...to this cool start by Angie Lorandos

another finish...

...to Angies start

My finishes...

to these gorgeous starts by Megan White

travelling from Kentucky

I'm happily overwhelmed by the generous starts I've been receiving in the mail. Some of my swap buddies are sending me 4, 5 or 6 pieces. I'm having a lot of fun with them 'cuz  now I start seeing the art journal potential with so many of them, especially those that are not traditional Zentangle.

I always work through all of the pieces in the order that I receive them rather than pick and choose what speaks to me.  It's so much more fun (the more out of my comfort zone the better) but mostly out of respect to the senders that were quick with their part of the exchange. What's that saying? "You can't wait for inspiration, you have to chase it down with a stick".

She's ready for her close up

and she looks so wise doesn't she?

Thanks so much for stopping by. Your thoughtful and generous comments delight and inspire me;-)

Weekly Challenges and other artsy stuff

Diva Challenge #362

Use My Tangle Monday: "Somnee"

This weeks UMT pattern "Somnee" is by The Diva herself, created from some doodling during a bout of insomnia;-) I LOVE this pattern and it is seriously Zen.

I'm back in the DIY journal and as luck would have it, I actually had my Staedtler Triplus Fineliners out as I was pondering my first return Travelling Tangle tile. I was flipping through my journal and this watercolor page stopped me in my tracks. Circles were down in a matter of seconds. I only meant to contain Somnee to the upper left corner but I was having so much fun with it, I kept on going;-)

Before shading and misting

I like the way the Staedtler's are water soluble so I like to get them wet when I'm done, hence the bit of blur on the finished piece. That's  just my thang;-)

The start

Duo Challenge

Joey #215 & IAST#242

This is where I took my first break
I loved the IAST side but had no idea where to go next

This was a challenge and it took me awhile to get back to it. In the interim, I finished some Travelling Tangles from Heidi Whitney. She sent me a bunch of cool stuff.

Heidi's start...

I've been noodling around with "Soul star" in my sketchbook

Heidi's cute little Bijou start

I totally swiped the rosebuds from something I saw on Today's Tangles
because I love flowers;-)

Heidi sent me a blank Metaphorist tile
I LOVE these!

 Happy mail is so awesome! I've never heard of these before. I don't know if you can see the texture of the surface but it's like linen. I saw something on Today's Tangles that inspired the design and I had so much fun drawing this. I used a black Staedtler Triplus Fineliner (a recommendation from another swap pal) and I really have to refrain from misting some water on this because I didn't even want to shade it. The black fineliner bleeds out a cool shade of brown that I love...another time perhaps;-)

It's been a while since I've done the Travelling Tangles, but if anyone is not familiar with it you should check out The Travelling Tangles Project on Facebook. We swap partially started tiles and finish them off. It's such great inspiration for getting out of your comfort zone and learning something new and it makes a trip to the mailbox a lot more fun too;-)
Once I've built up a stash of them, I want to start a new mixed media journal using the cards and envelopes as the base to showcase each finished tile. Stay tuned!

More flowers...

In the DIY art journal

This was a page I'd started weeks ago. I was cleaning off one of my watercolor palettes and dropped down some murky circles that I eventually used for flower practice and then left it at that. Yesterday, I felt compelled to add some colored pencil to brighten up the colors, then I deepened some shadows with a Tombow brushpen...then...what the heck, let's do a background. I love what came out of a page that was essentially a throwaway.

"I'm trying to bathe here!"

Thanks so much for stopping by! Your thoughtful and generous comments delight and inspire me!

A Duo Challenge and Other Artsy Stuff...

Duo-Challenge 

Joey #213 and IAST #240

I had fun with this one...once I got over the hump of Frames. I love how it turned out but I am the worst at complex grid patterns. Not gonna lie...I did it in pencil first;-)

Adele's challenge offered up some super fun accompaniments to Frames with Flukes, Cubine and a new fun fave Elirob and her string flowed pretty well from my Frames set up.

Mixed Media art journal

One of my cosmic garden Diva Challenge pieces repurposed

Since The Diva took a break this week I thought I'd share a couple of  pieces I worked on with past Diva art as my jumping off point.

I finished off my set up from last weeks Duo-tangle challenge

playing more with last weeks IAST patterns Tupuk and Flec

Napkin Doodlin's

Platinum Preppy 05 fountain pen

Izirozuki Kon Peki blue ink

I love the gradation of bleeding

Here's one of my DIY hacks for making my own components for my mixed media art journals. I do this at the cafe when I'm watching YouTube videos. They're super quick and it's a good way to get a bit of detailed line work on top of heavily textured and acrylic surfaces.

My Cheese Art

Where's my cheese?

Thanks so much for stopping by! Your thoughtful and generous comments delight and inspire me:-)

Diva Challenge #359 and The Duo-Challenge

Diva Challenge #359

Finger String

Hi all. I'm gonna keep it short and sweet today as I'm having some technical issues and problems getting my pics loaded.

This week's challenge is to trace your fingers in some creative way and use that as the string. Once again, I felt compelled to break out the DIY art journal. This previously painted page seemed like a good fit:

The string is placed

I started out trying to use the white space around the border as another way to break up the string. Things got a little busy and it took much longer than I thought, but I like the way it came out. I was drawing this at the cafe on Monday. The text says "today,  a woman at the cafe asked me if I was an artist. I caught myself hesitating before I said 'Yes. I am an Artist.' "

A Challenge Duet

Joey #211 and IAST #238

I'm quite happy with the way this one came out. The parameters of Joey's "Finish my Tile" challenge is to start with the focus pattern, Breach, "Front and Center". I went rogue and off-set it a bit. Symmetry makes me...uneasy and given the unknown of IAST at that point, the tweak gave me some leeway. 

Napping is tiring business🐾🐾🐾🐾🐾

Thanks so much for stopping by. Your thoughtful and generous comments delight and inspire me.

Diva Challenge #358, a Challenge Duet & more mixed media

Diva Challenge  #358

"The journey begins with an idea, so many possibilities, so many what if's to explore"

This week's challenge is a UMT (Use My Tangle) featuring "Pickpocket" by Tomas Padros. It's a beauty, but it's also very high focus.

I felt like this was a good journal piece because it's definitely something I want to remember. I'd previously set up a few watercolor pages in my DIY journal and went for it.

A start inspired by this video

A Challenge Duet 

Joey #210 & IAST#237

Another long exploration done and dusted. At first, I wasn't too crazy about the IAST pattern selections but I liked how the string played into Joey's Mak-rah-mee. I had done all but two of the Mooka  tendrils on Monday, hoping I'd be able to carry them into IAST. Now, that's my least favorite part of the page. My favorite parts are the two IAST patterns Kaboom and Kulecane. Go figure. It's always a journey;-)

Other artsy endeavors:

My DIY Journal

inspired by this video from CeeCee's Creations

I used a Platinum Preppy fountain pen

filled with Iroshizuko Tsuki-yo blue ink

on a previously watercolored background

More DIY Journal flowers

My new mixed media journal cover art

that's actually a bronze acrylic so it looks much better in person;-)

First page

inspired by another of CeeCee's morning pages

These next two pieces, I worked on simultaneously, starting with a large watercolor practice sheet I cut in half. I find that I really like doing these circle flowers and it's a great way to give my old tiles and watercolor rejects a new life. The original background was a light turquoise wash with orange and blue splashes and spray. I hated it. Yet, it inspired the results of both of these pieces.

Flowers

  made from used baby wipes from my paint clean-ups;-)

"cat among the flowers"

Thanks so much for stopping by. Your thoughtful and generous comments delight and inspire me!