Catching Up

It's been a busy week here. We're getting the house ready to host 4 students from Oklahoma State tomorrow evening.  Lots of extra cleaning, cooking, and bed-making.  Oh, and getting my book finished.  It should be here tomorrow.  I'm so excited.

Here is the art I've done for the last 3 days:

Zentangle tile with Auraknot and Bunzo

ATC ZIA

A study in colored pencil:
base layer is metallic pencil
then covered with red and white Prismacolors
highlights with pink watercolor pencil
burnished with white Prismacolor
I'm debating whether or not to smooth it out by adding water to the watercolor pencil. I think I will have to sleep on this before deciding.

Trying Something New

For years, I've been thinking I should make greeting cards. I have scrapbook supplies; I have stamping supplies; I have art supplies; I have youtube. But, alas, I made no cards.

Today, that changed. I decided that if I was going to create art every day, I really should do something with it. Turning my art into cards seems like the perfect solution.  So, today, I made art, and I made a card. Here it is:

My inspiration was a project from:
Unfortunately, after collecting a bunch of watercolor books, I realized, after an hour of searching, that I have no transparent watercolors!  All I have at home are opaque gouache paints.  Amazing. So, I for this project I used acrylic, thinned with water and floating medium to try and make it at least look like watercolor.  Regardless, I like it and hope you do, too.

Watercolor Sunflower ATC, revisited

Since I didn't like my watercolor sunflower and I have been liking the results of mixing Zentangle and watercolor, I thought I'd see what would happen if I did some tangling over the ATC from a few days ago.

Before: a sloppy watercolor sunflower

After: I'm still not digging it.
But I do like the background.
The inner critic is back. <sigh>

Working Backwards

Yesterday, I started by tangling and then adding watercolor. Today, I did the opposite.  I put down a little wet-on-wet.

But, I thought it needed more texture, so I put down another layer of watercolor. I've decided I really like putting down colors and just watching them blend and seeing what happens. It is very freeing.

Then I tried to find tangles the emphasized the paint designs. It was hard to pick just the right tangles and I'm not sure I completely succeeded.

Here is the final result.

I think it might need some more color on the tangles.  What do you think?  Is it done? Please comment and let me know.

No Judgement Day

Today, I refused to listen to my inner critic. I wanted to do something fun and free-flowing and colorful.  Lately, every time I sit down to do art, I hear this little voice in my head telling me how bad it is. She can be very persuasive and it sucks the joy out of painting. So, today, I declared it a "no criticism day." Every time that voice started, I just told her to shut it.

It worked.  I was able to have a blast on this piece and I really like the results.

My favorite part. I think it looks like a mermaid tail in a beautiful blue sea.

Phiclops, a very fun new tangle. After painting and shading this, I used a white Gelly Roll pen and then covered the whole thing in Glaze.  

The whole piece: 5x8
watercolor, pencil, Sakura micron, Sakura Glaze pen,
white Sakura Gelly Roll pen

Sunflower Take 2

I thought it would be fun to see if I could recreate the Sunflower ATC from a few days ago in watercolor.  I was mistaken.  I don't know if it is because

• I spent 1/10 of the time on the watercolor
• I need more practice in watercolor
• I just prefer more detailed work

In any case, here is the watercolor version.  Not my favorite, but I'm still glad I made time to paint today.

The Muse is Feeling Overworked Again

I used up all of my creativity working on the back cover for my book.  Writing the book was 1000 times harder than I thought it would be. I have no idea why I thought doing the cover would be any easier.  For what it's worth, this is my creative output for the day.  No flowers again. Such is life.

Stifled

My inner muse is feeling stifled with the whole "flower" thing. Yesterday, I did the Diva Challenge and created this.

Then my muse went on strike. "Enough, already, with the flowers," were her exact words. "I've already done my job for the day."  She has a good point.  I think I will change my challenge to: something creatively created every day, which may or may not include flowers.

(And, I don't really hear voices in my head from my inner muse or otherwise. I think I've just been reading Fifty Shades too much lately.)

Sunflower ATC

OK. Change of plans.  I think it makes more sense on the weekends to do a more time-intensive project instead of 2 smaller ones that I do during the week. I almost said a larger project, but this weekend's project is an ATC.  But, it is an ATC done in colored pencil, so it took almost 2 hours. Here it is.  It is definitely my favorite project of the year :-) Hope you like it.

A Tangled Rose

For my 4th flower, I wanted to try something new, so I used the ubiquitous garden catalog, but this time, instead of using it as an inspiration, I used it as part of my art. Here are the steps:

1. Cut out a picture of a light colored flower with large petals. I selected a picture of a yellow rose.
2. Get your Zentangle pen and start tangling, using flower as your string. (If you aren't familiar with Zentangle, check out my other blog: TangledUpInArt.)
3. Every petal gets its own tangle. I tried to used darker tangles on the sections that were darker in color, but that's not necessary. 

How cool is it to be able to create a beautiful, colorful piece of Zentangle-Inspired Art using only your black pen and without the need for any drawing or painting skills. You don't even have to shade it!

If you try this, please leave me a comment and let me know how it turned out.

Lavender's Blue Dilly Dilly

Another day, another quick sketch. Maybe over the weekend, I will have time to spend more than 15 minutes on a sketch. In any case, it feels good just to have a paintbrush in my hand. Left, today's inspiration, from the same catalog as yesterday. (Not much blooming here right now.) And the result on the right. If the year keeps going as it is starting, I will be getting a lot of practice with quick sketches.

Funky Flounder

I made this paleo fish for my mom and me for dinner. She was a bit leery of the combination of spices, but we both agreed, this is a 10. Try it, you'll like it.

Watercolor Rose

I knew when I started this project that there would be days when I was busy and didn't feel like creating. I just didn't think it would happen on DAY 2! I spent all day using up my creative juices working on my newsletter for TangledUpInArt. Ugh. So, at 10:30, I was ready to go to bed and Alexa reminded me that "we needed to blog." (It is good to have a partner to help you keep your resolutions.)

So, I grabbed a garden catalog from the recycling and found this for inspiration. Since I didn't have a lot of time, I thought it would be fun to do a combination watercolor pencil with a wet-on-wet stylistic rose.

John F. Kennedy Rose - I'd love to have a week or so to paint this beauty.

I used 3 watercolor pencils to start my sketch: pink, magenta, and golden yellow

Then I just got my brush and slopped water over everything and let it run.

I used my hot pink and yellow pan colors to brighten it up and a bit of salt to try and mimic the "raindrops on roses."

After adding a watery leafy background and scratching in a few branches, I'm calling it done.

The hardest problem for me painting to late at night is making sure I dip my paintbrush in my water and not my tea!

Tropical Sorbet

Hi, Alexa here. This year, I am being creative with food. Here I will share my original recipes.

Sorry you didn't get my first creation to you on New Year's Day. It had to freeze overnight before I could test its yumminess. (It passed.)
So, without further ado, here is recipe 1!

Tropical Fruit Granita
1 medium banana
5-6 large strawberries
1 kiwi
1/3 c. cantaloupe
1 t. stevia
1/3 c. non-dairy milk (original)
1 t.  ground arrowroot

1. In a blender or food processor, combine fruit, milk, and stevia
2. Transfer to a small saucepan.
3. Stirring constantly, over med-low heat, bring to a low boil. Add arrowroot
4. Reduce heat to low. Continue to stir. Cook until thickened, aprox. 10 min.
5. Remove from heat and allow to cool for about 5 minutes.
6. Using a spatula, force mixture, a little at a time, through a fine sieve to remove seeds and lumps into a freezer-safe container.
7. Freeze at least 4 hours or until firm.

Rose Parade

This morning while we watched the Rose Parade, I was inspired to stipple a flower with a few of my Creative Memories pens. So, when I heard about create every day and she suggested doing something simple, I had an "aha" moment. I will do flowers.  So, here is my first flower of the year.

Welcome to Create X 2

Has your New Years resolution already fallen through? Mine lasted all of four hours! So, with the New Year still young, I made a new goal; inspired by this blog, I decided that I would create every day. My daughter Alexa decided to join in. Maybe you will too! My theme is flowers, and Alexa has decided to do two- music and recipes. Hope you find this blog inspiring, and join us as we create. Times 2!