A strange view of "Old Hollywood"

I made this art for a swap for my facebook group. I did not entirely intend to sign up for this swap, I spent a long time avoiding getting started. I kept thinking I would do an image transfer and intensify the contrast with paint or whatever and keep it at that. But it was boring to me so I avoided it, and avoided it, and avoided it and.. you get the point.

So, the Documented Life Project is a group on facebook. They do weekly prompts. I will be completely honest and say I am not keeping up with them, but occasionally the prompts will inspire something else, something completely different, and I use them to "begin" projects.

So, here I was. Tonight, sitting. I had been browsing through the DLP feed, looking at a lot of splattery-drippy art. I had printed out some old hollywood actresses, I decided to just go for it. I started to spatter and flick and drip watercolor, I smeared some inktense across the wet drips and extra water, I used some gelatos, the background was fun. Once the background was done, dryish, I decided to try my first inkjet printed image transfer. Here was the result. 

At this point, it looks good. Its not dramatic enough for me, so, I attempt to play up the contrast, and add extra drippy splatterness. 

almost there! Added pen, added black watercolor to her body area, it went crazy! The paper was left after the image transfer it soaked 

I don't know why I felt like it had to have purple... but I so did. I could not stop myself. Anyway, I hope my partner will enjoy my strange interpretation of the "Old Hollywood" theme. I had fun making it. 

Art Every Day.

I started to try to challenge myself to do art FOR MYSELF every day. I do a lot of art that I give away (in exchange for art from others) but not very much for myself. I find my days lacking in free time, lately, especially now that we have a vehicle. When you don't have a car, you don't go anywhere unless it is necessary. I thought that having a car would give me more free time, but not really, it just gives me more out of the house, spending time with Rob and Greyson time. which is enjoyable, and wonderful, of course. Regardless, the amount of "art for me" that I've done is pathetic. I challenged myself midsummer and I bought a sketchbook especially for it ..at the end of August, maybe? I have filled 4 pages. I am ashamed. But maybe putting it out there will encourage me. Here are all of my... sort of pathetic, art of the days. I have found it really therapeutic to write on the pages, sometimes covering the journalling up with art. I have been also doing this in my abandoned DLP art journal, pretty much using it exclusively as a journal now, making use of all the pre-painted tip-ins and the boring layouts. I promise, next time I post this I will have better things to show you!

Playing with twinkling h2os and pen, mostly just covering up the journalling I did, trying to get myself moving.

I drew this for practice, I will be doing more soon, for a swap.

Playing with my new gelatos. This was extremely therapeutic for me, the gelatos are really fun to use, smooth, creamy, easily manipulated with water. Really like them.

Just forcing myself to do something. 

Alcohol Ink Process Photos.

It might not be as interesting as I made it seem :P

this was pretty much my step one. I had started out trying to make it a light wash of color, I used purple and my partner really hates purple, so I was trying to change it to blue, I used a bit too much alcohol in one spot, it turned out looking like a moon. The bottom half was how I intended it to be, it was supposed to go purple, pinks/red, down to yellow, and then I was going to do a little green at the bottom and spots of red, obviously I got distracted. The red really took over most of it, the pink pretty much completely disappeared. At this point, I stopped and looked at what I had and decided where to go. 

I added more blue to the top to drown out the purple. I took alcohol and "washed" the sides, leaving all the interesting parts in the middle. It started to look sort of like a sky and maybe a mountain.. 

I remade the circle in the middle, and decided to make the red at the bottom smoother. I added pen at this step, emphasising the circle at the top for interest. 

added more pen, you can't really tell in the photo

some details

Abstract Art.

It is not easy for me to do abstract art, I will start something abstract and I will see something within it, and I can't help myself but follow through. I did this artwork with alcohol inks and pen. I can't keep myself from using pen, I think that is ok. It is for a swap, I found myself so in love with it that I am having trouble convincing myself to send it away, it looks to me sort of spacey, very lunar at least. I love the moon, it seemed to get so much depth, I had to redo the moonish object several times, it is amazing what you can do and change with alcohol inks. I am going to post the finished project here, and a process set of photos in another post, so you can see how much you can transform alcohol inks, and the really amazing process. I think that my favorite thing about alcohol inks is that you CAN NOT think too much, they sort of make art themselves, you just help them along. Anyway, this is the final "abstract art" piece for my swap, I think I may get it scanned and printed tomorrow for myself.

Happy Mail Envelopes

I made some interesting happy mail envelopes I thought I'd share with you all.

Collage style envelope. I am going to try this style again, this one is lacking something.. 

Spray inks, paint, pen, marker. Is the bug creepy enough?

Spray inks, paint, gesso, pen.

Spray inks, twinkling h2os and pen.

acrylic paints, spray ink, twinkling h2os, pen

Newer art.

Here are a few things I've done in the past month or so.

Nature Inspired Artwork for an exchange. This is a piece done with alcohol inks and pen, it is mushrooms and flowers.

Fox Art! This was my envelope

Fox Art! This was done with alcohol inks and pen! I loved it, it was hard for me to give away

Two ATCs for the fox swap. the first one is a stamp on deli paper that I received in happy mail, put onto a piece of scrap paper, added the things the fox "says".. from the song. The second one is a tea stained pre-cut ATC that I had leftover from another project, it is made with watercolor and pen. 

This one is inktense blocks, watercolor, black, white and gold pen.

I got this idea from pinterest, I drew this for myself (really I wanted to give it to my son who really enjoyed all the fox art I did, but he didn't really care for this one :P) 

Wisconsin Art!

Some art I made for "hometown" swaps, I love Wisconsin! :D

Recent art I've made for Swaps

I love to update with art I've made for others, to send away, far, far away. Sometimes I miss it when its gone! So here are a few of my recent swap arts :D

Zetti Style!

This is a postcard I made, attempting "Zetti" style.
The words in the background are more or less descriptive words that represent what makes something zetti-style. There are a lot of different things, but I embraced the idea of using different body parts, and the black and white elements! It was my first try, I liked doing it I may try more in the future :D

Sketch a day challenge.

I challenged myself to do a drawing a day! I encourage you to do the same, it's amazing how in a few days you become used to it, it feels natural and with practice, you improve greatly. It only takes making it a habit. Here are my sketches for the last few days.

Day one. Pen

Day two, pen and watercolor

Day three, all pen. (these are ATCs I am trading in my art group, the theme is hometown and these little baby cows are representing Wisconsin for me :))

Day 4. Ebony pencil, pen and watercolor

An easy day.

We have had a difficult couple of years. They have been trying, they have been stressful. Rarely a worriless day comes, but when they do, we cherish every carefree second.
A few days ago, we decided to get out of the house, the weather was nice, we had a few gift cards and freebies to use around town, it was Saturday, lets do it! So we went and had a few slices of pizza, a beer, some ice cream, we let Greyson enjoy the ducks and the Union, there were tons of people out for Maxwell Street Days, we bought him a very small Djembe that I am happy to say he is thoroughly enjoying, I bought a handmade journal, the paper smells like tea, it's not great for drawing but I don't care. We barely spent any money but it felt so enjoyable and freeing. Being under constant financial stress, along with health issues and adjusting to parenthood ...the last few years... it's rare to feel freedom. This little, simple day made me happier than I can express. I hope for many simple, happy days to come.

Some of my favorite moments...

Boy likes Thai

Greyson, since he has been old enough to eat, like, really eat, not spoon fed pureed fruit eat, has loved every thai dish I have put in front of him. Doesn't matter if it is spicy, sour, sweet, bitter, whatever, he loves it. He especially loves squash curry (my favorite also) and that is the only dish I can give him absolutely full of vegetables that he will eat all of. Half the squash cooks down and becomes one with the red curry sauce anyway, so he'd be getting veggies no matter what. I love it when he eats something I've made and exclaims it to be "manishous" Tonight I got a mmm nommy this is good I like it. I even got him to say "I like it da pad thai" which I thought was the best compliment ever. And he slurps noodles adorably. I bet his taste for thai goes all the way back to my pregnancy, during which I had many, many curries and noodles. I need to go buy a couple of cookbooks and expand my thai food knowledge so that I can give him more variety. Anyway, here are a couple pictures of him eating, adorably.