Artcation - day 3

Today we went down to the Pier Park to have lunch and do some shopping. 

You must play the tourist at some point, right?

 But first on the agenda was lunch! We went to Jimmy Buffets's Margaritaville!And of course, you can't eat there without seeing the big salt shaker come down out the airplane!

We began with an ASIAGO CRAB DIP, its A sharp asiago cream with crabmeat and artichoke served with crostini bread. And it was YUMMY!

Anna had the signature Cheeseburger in Paradise....which is a must for first time visitors!~ 

My Fish Sandwich was so big I had to cut off the ends of the fish to be able to eat it...can we say leftovers for lunch tomorrow!

By the end of the shopping trip, we were pooped!

Artcation - day 2

Wow, yesterday we spent almost all day playing with watercolors, watching movies, eating chocolate and took a break to go down to the pool area and sit in the hot Jacuzzi while they played music. We finally had a break in the rain and it was nice to get out of the room for awhile!

I love checking out other people art supplies and Anna loves her watercolor brushes. I love how she keeps them rolled up in this bamboo mat with her little watercolor swatches! She is this neat!

She is also very methodical and takes her time making very controlled art. I am very impressed with her patience!

 I, on the other hand am very spread out and messy!

My drawing was more along the lines of fast and furious. 

Yesterday was very rough for us, after hours of drawing and painting all day, we crashed early last night. We also decided this morning that we needed to move from the couches to the dining room table for better back and light support, so we shifted all the supplies over to the table. Hopefully that will help us out...

Artcation DaY 1

So my image of sitting on the beach watching the Lunar Eclipse didn't turn out like I had pictured it.

Rain, rain, go away

Sandee wants to paint the moon today.

Well, the universe didn't listen to me, so I turned to the internet and watched the eclipse live and painted it that way. Now the computer screen looks blue in the picture but in reality it was black...

Anna and I are having fun, looking through each others journals, eating pizza and chocolate, watching TV and painting. She has showered me with gifts, one of her handmade journals, a set of Neocolors, Doves Chocolate, a sheet of her handmade paper and 2 cookie molds that I can paper cast from! Christmas has come early!!

No designer paper you say?

Well, that is super easy for me since I rarely use pre-made paper and prefer to make my own. It's not hard to do and actually quite fun! Currently I am making some fall paper using dried leaves as inclusions and it is so pretty, but for this challenge I am using some paper that I made previously.

On this paper I used the Metallic Dust sets ( gold in this paper ) that you can purchase from the Arnold Grummer Paper Making store. I then hand-stitched a geometric design with my floss and used a Happy Birthday stamp along the bottom edge. I think the gold metallic kinda goes with the birthday celebration them of the card.

I am entering my card in the Simon Says - No Designer paper challenge

Life Drawing - Amalia

Well, today is the first time I got to draw the same model. And that is OK, not sure I like drawing someone again or if I prefer random new models. I overheard the model asking if the studio owner needed any more male models and was quite surprised to hear that no, she had more male models than females. Just an interesting little fact.

Another interesting fact is that there are a couple of artists that have DRAWN ME during our sessions ...wth? I find this a little weird....

So today I took my Faber Castell Water Crayons with me, and I can say, I still don't love them. They just seem to leave too many marks even after I have used my water brush to smooth the lines out.

3 minute poses

I always am amazed at how a new medium feels in my hands when I begin, the crayons felt large and clumsy, especially after several weeks of slick pens and pencils.

10 minute poses

I knew when I had planned on using the crayons that I was not going to be able to get small details, like her face.

But it was the lack of fingers and toes details that I missed the most.

This young woman is rather limber as you can see and we all groaned a little because this pose is all about foreshortening. And let me point out that she is striking this pose on top of a stool!

20 minute poses

I really prefer her hair up, but she usually takes it down on the last pose or so. I am sure there are people who really prefer it this way.

Then I got another surprise. The owner was off talking to one of the artists about a book, and she actually held the book up and called to me across the studio, saying something along the lines of "Look Sandee, this is your style!" What? I have a style? I mean, other than I use colors and different mediums while the remaining artists all use charcoal and pencils, what would my style be?

 I thought maybe it's my line drawing and use of color that defines my style, but evidently the fact that I use my mediums as watercolors also comes into play?

So I opened up the book after I got home to see what defines Expressive Figure Drawing...

"Others see the visible world as just the starting point for creating art that expresses a meaning beyond what is visible. This group places the goal of self-expression paramount in their works.They tease, trick, tickle,and torture their themes and motifs to bring out the maximum meaning,"

So there, I am feeling quite posh about myself. UNTIL I read more about this style....sigh...
And you don't have to be especially "gifted" to get started. Expressive drawing takes you "back to the spontaneity, the worry-free expressive nature you had as a child,"

So yeah, my art is considered childlike to her....lol..oh well...the inner child in me rules, what can I say?

"Usually people who are older are no longer as fearful about looking silly,"

Die Crazy....hmmmm

Sounds like the next sequel to the Die Hard movies...or maybe it's what my future holds in store for me? lol Not sure, but I do love my dies, and especially my newest ones I purchased from the Simon Says store.

Tim Holtz Bird Crazy

Simon Says - Die Crazy

Of course I had to use my handmade paper for this little card, and I love that the dies cut handmade paper so well too! Seriously, I cannot get enough of Arnold Grummer paper making, it's addicting!

Busy, busy,busy!!

After this week-end I'll finally get a little bit of a breather. Tonight is the preview party for the Open Studio Tour in conjunction with the Rhythm and Brews event, so 4 hours of music, and partying! lol  I have to work the closing take down shift so yuck, but you have to pay your dues! 

As for today, I am in a DecoArt Designer contest, which means it's more or less a popularity contest, sooooooo
if you want to cast a vote for me or another designer of your choice then please go HERE to this link and do so. I love this picture I got while taking pictures for the contest photo 'cause a little female hummingbird flew up to investigate my box. I guess she liked it too :)

And last but certainly not least, the Youtube hashtag event #LoveFallArt kicked off today and here is the link to my video I created.  It's a 3 day lollapalooza of videos that get uploaded, but don't worry, you don't have to watch them all at one time, they will be there forever! Hopefully I will have the next one tomorrow too so please check back. If you subscribe to my channel then you will get notified automatically (I think) by e-mail when I upload.

Life Drawing - meet Mike

I really look forward to my life drawing sketching, and this time I took my box of Daler Rowney pencils with me to play with. I didn't get to try them all, but I did manage to try 5 of them. In the 3 minute poses I used my Sanguine Drawing and Sanguine Smooth. The Drawing one gave me a finer more defined line and the Smooth felt more like a charcoal, but didn't smudge. They were both fine for the 3 minute poses. I think in hindsight, I would like to outline with the Drawing and then use the heavier lined Smooth for depth and shadows. 

Next, my dreaded 10 minute poses are becoming less dreaded now. I can tell you one thing, in life drawing, foreshortening is the trick to getting the poses completed, but I'm actually enjoying the challenges although I didn't have enough time to get his left arm done well, I do like how the right arm turned out. I switched to my Watersoluble pencils, so far I really enjoy sketching and then being able to take my water brush and smooth out and add shadows. 

Watersoluble 8B

10 minutes Watersoluble HB

10 minutes 4B

He looks a little chubby in the next 2 poses, but he was not. Mike is a man in his 60's and in pretty darn good shape.

20 minutes HB

I always get tickled at the 30 minute poses, mainly because the models tend to doze off. I cannot imagine being that relaxed laying naked in front of a group of people. However, they seem to be.

30 minutes 4B

We had a lot of accidents during this session, easels collapsing, pencils dropping and general rummaging around in supplies.... and sneezing....lol And one person arrived late, which I think it altogether bad form when you have a nude model.
Thankfully the model was good..

you tube angst

I have been taking lesson after lesson trying to learn more about how to make my You tube videos better. I have now learned how to make "annotations" that say please subscribe and "cards" which direct the viewer back here to my blog if they want more inspiration and "branding" which I have finally come up with a logo for my art. The only thing left to learn is how to get my friends to click on the subscribe button...any suggestions from my friends? :)

I also need to remember to either NOT make videos at night or to pick up some daytime light bulbs before filming my next one! This video is yellowish! lol I also need to remember to NOT leave the fan running while filming so I don't have static noise.

So many things to learn what to do and what not to do.
lol

So here is my latest videos with everything above mentioned.
The good, the bad and the ugly of my recent You Tube experiences.

If you would like to see better close of pictures then please, by all means visit the Helmar blog on August 14th, in the meantime I am going to continue trying to make better videos. I would love for you to subscribe so you can follow me on my journey.....I need subscribers...I know....hanging head....
begging isn't pretty......sigh.....

Life Drawing - Amalia

This week I worked with my Inktense pencils and while I love their vibrant colors, they weren't the best for sketching since I could only blend them once, one they dried, that was it...which is what I love about them in general...just not for quick and fast sketches.

3 minute warm up poses 

 At this point I love the richness of Intense pencils when they are dry

Next, the dreaded 10 minute poses....lol

Then, more my style - the 20 minute poses

This model did more with her hands than the previous models had, and I really enjoyed working on them although not always successful. Hands are still hard for me to do.

The absolute hardest pose ever...so far anyway.

And then we had time for one last 10 minute pose

I tried to be looser and intentionally made a drip and sploshes

Just BEE Yourself

Inspire Me Art Contest

I've never had a shirt inspire an art journaling page before but that is exactly what happened. I painted this shirt over on the DecoArt Project and Tutorial page ( you can go there if you want to make one yourself ). So I decided to use the templates that were already cut out, that were left over from making the T-shirt. I decided to use them ( the flower and the bee ) along with a sheet of paper I used to mask the front cover of my journal ( another project I designed for DecoArt but that project hasn't been released yet so I can't show it to you yet ) to make the journal page on the right hand side.

This is the shirt that inspired me for my art journal page.

Although the entry for this contest is actually right side, the left side has a particular involvement in this which does create a 2 page spread. Can you guess ( without cheating and scrolling down! ) what that could be? I'll give you a clue, it has to do with the very awesome and cool to work with films that Grafix sent me to experiment with. 

I drew a circle onto the Grafix Wet Media Dura-lar Film ( .004" Medium weight ) and then cut the circle into a spiral. I used my Identa Pen to draw little hash marks around the spiral to represent the bee's flight pattern and then adhered one end of the spiral to the left page and the other end of the spiral to the right page with my Helmar 450 Adhesive so when you open the pages it springs opens! I hope I can show a decent picture of this as it's very hard to photograph the invisible....and the invisible element is what makes it so cool too!

When the spiral opens up it does a lovely twist and turn thing and I am so glad that the Dura-Lar film is non tearing and then returns to a nice flat state when the book closes. The Dura-Lar films just excites me, I LOVE playing with them!

It's here, it's here!! lol

I have been seriously trying to up my You Tube game....I've not only made a channel trailer which only be seen by new people visiting my channel who have not subscribed, but I even added a blooper out take at the end of it! I'm posting it here for everyone who already subscribes to my channel so they can see it too. If you haven't subscribe, well....what are you waiting for? lol

Be transparent

Inspire Me Art Journal Contest

RULES:You may enter up to three times (three art journal pages or spreads)They can be one or two page spreadsFor every entry, you must upload the following;1. Photo or link to photo of what inspired you2. Art journal page inspired by #1Title each upload in the following way; Name 1, Name 2For example Sue Wojtkowski 1 (what inspired me) Sue Wojtkowski 2 (Art journal page)Entries will be accepted from August 26, 2015 to September 9, 2015.Voting for round 1 will take place from September 10- September 16Voting for round 2 will take place from September 17- September 23Winners will be announced by September 25.Voting should be based on how closely the art journal page was inspired by the object or photo, and execution of the art journal page itself. The top 3 vote receivers will receive a package of art supplies

Glasswinged Butterfly

A migratory butterfly, Greta oto is found in virtually all habitats in Costa Rica, including disturbed ones. It is often spotted passing through open areas, and sometimes visits gardens in the Meseta Central region.

 I wish I had them over here! I think they are so cool looking. I would love to have them here in the States, maybe my friend Jamie can illegally sneak some back after her trip over there? lol

 Anyway, they inspired me to create a pop up element in my journal because I really wanted to capture motion in that element. Grafix sent me a variety of their Dura-Lar Films to try out so I got the .004" Medium Weight sheet to play with. It's a polyester film, archival and acid free and non-tearing ( great, since the butterfly will get some abuse being in the inner enclosure ), coated to accept water based mediums and inks. INKS? oh yeah, I have new inks from Higgens ( check out their gallery, you can find some of my work featured there ) so I tried them on the Dura-Lar film, and boy was I impressed. The inks glided onto the film, no running or bleeding ( unless I intentionally mixed them together which I did :) ) Very pleased with both products! AND of course used my DecoArt paints for the background and Helmar 450 Adhesive to securely hold the butterfly into the crease of the book. 

When you close the book up she folds her wings together very nicely.

But when you open it to her page her wings pop out and spread open. I simply love how she turned out. The Dura-Lar film is very flexible.

who says paper is boring?

Not me, especially after reading what these papers were made of...lol

I'm sure this must be a great touristy item to buy, lol Definitely a novel item, eh?

Never think you have a horrible job, you could be making this!

Elephant Dung Paper

I never would have thought of making paper from mushrooms, but I must admit I am intrigued and would like to try this one. Here is a good article on making paper from mushrooms in case you want to try.

Shaking my head...just speechless on this one...lol

I made some paper from a Mulberry tree....yes, I am just that wild and adventurous, lol Visit my wildness over on the Arnold Grummer blog today!

Life Drawing - Jay

I thought I would be more nervous about drawing the male cock than I ended up being, actually had a harder time capturing the curves of the thighs and the muscles in the shoulders and chest....yes, I suffered greatly today for my art.

I chose to bring my Tombow markers and I think I was slighted by the artist sitting next to me who asked if she could show my markers to the artist on the other side of her and said...."Are these made to be used in the adult coloring books?" I told I guess you could but that I've never used one...her answer "Me either, I don't have the time for that." hmmm....bit my tongue and returned to my own little world.

So first off, the 3 minute poses, I decided to put them all on one page in order to spare my paper usage, after all, they are just practice....well, actually the whole session is practice, but you know what I mean. He was a very good model, came with all his own props and supplied us with "classic" poses.

Next up were the 10 minute poses, I think these are more frustrating because it's more than a quick sketch but not enough time to fix mistakes or get the details. I was also a little more than frustrated with my choice of the markers, and was having some difficulty being fluid. I was very stiff and uncomfortable, I think that ladies remark was still bouncing around in my head.

This pose was extremely difficult, and I just couldn't grasp the foreshortening in a 10 minute pose.

Then we had a 20 minute pose, and I knew I had to change up something in my style as I continued to not like the drawings. Drawing a male body was such a learning curve for me, the slim hip, the broad shoulder, there wasn't any fat on the model so you really had to look for the definition. At this point I kept saying to myself to look for the shadows...look for the shadows...

Next, we had a 30 minute pose, I love the longer poses, but I also tried something different. I tried Contour drawing technique and really liked how it turned out.
A contour is the line which defines a form or edge - an outline. Contour drawing is the place where most beginners start, following the visible edges of a shape. The contour describes the outermost edges of a form, as well as dramatic changes of plane within the form.

Honestly, I would have been happy to have been finished after that drawing because I really, really liked how it came out. but we had time for another 20 minute pose. I tried the contour drawing again but it wasn't as successful as the first one. But by using the Tombow in a watercolor format seem to work pretty well over all and I felt more comfortable using them.

I also will admit that it un-nerved me a little bit that he came over to me after the session to see what I had drawn. I was the only one too....I was more nervous showing him my version of his nude body which was silly considering he just posed nude for 2 hours but I've read that the men are always curious to see if women draw their male bits or if they gloss over that area. I think since I was the youngest in the group he came over to see what I had done. .....there was a lady who sat next to me on the other side who did just draw his face and "glossed" over the male bits and she requested a female model next time. All I could think of was...really?

He was actually a little "impressed sounding" ( or could that have been my imagination?) that I did watercolor sketching...I think I smiled all the way home.