Art Spark Wednesday!

Hello everyone :) Here is my latest art journal page. It took some unexpected twists and turns. I learned some things, made a mess and had fun in the process. Isn't that what it's all about after all? I sure  hope so lol. After the video was done, I turned to my art journal and it "told" me it needed a few more finishing touches. I smeared some gesso around the paper the quote is on and then dripped some white paint onto the pages. Sorry I didn't think of it while making the video.

Here is the video:

Thanks for stopping by and have a creative week!

Hugs, Dawn

Magazine Monday on Thursday

                  What is Magazine Monday?
         It's a new segment I am trying out on my blog here to help me post more frequently and to practice my painting skills. It's just an ordinary ESPN magazine that was going to end up in the trash. I like it's over sized pages.
    I usually start by finding a quote that "speaks" to me and then I gesso my pages.

 The quote I choose usually determines what I will paint on the pages. This week I went with a Bible verse:
He will cover you with his feathers and under his wings you will find refuge.   Psalms 91:4. So I drew and painted a wing with powder blue acrylic paint.. I also filled in the background with green paint, and then went around the edges with white while the green paint was still wet.

 I added some white paint to the wing so it wasn't so flat. Then added some smaller feather looking spots for interest. I painted the lower right of each of these marks with white paint. I also flicked a white Elmer's Painty Pen to make the white paint splats. Giving the wing freckles :) I also darkened the Bottom of the wing with dark blue paint.

 I wanted the shadow under the wing to be darker, so I coated the pages in a thin layer of Collage Pauge. This makes the surface nonporous. Which works well for adding some India ink from my Pitt Brush pen. I marked it on the paper and smeared it around a little with my finger.

 I finished my pages by adding the Bible verse I chose and hand painted some feathers around the edges. At some point I also added some Twinkling H2O's in  Light Blue, Gold and Yellow to add some sparkle.

I will see you next week, hopefully on Monday next time for another installment of Magazine Monday!

Have a great day!

Hugs, Dawn

Art Journaling again....Camera Page

I worked on this page today. My BFF Jeanne sent me these super cool canvas/chipboard Camera stickers and I had to use them......ALL OF THEM! Thank you Jeanne for sharing with me. The cameras were my jumping off point.

I didn't really know where to go after that so I grabbed my new goodies aka Gelatos by Faber-Castell. I got them at Jo-Ann's with 40% and 50% off coupons. I love a good discount.

The back of the flap is one of my favorite parts of this page. I loooooooove how the alcohol inks dripped and bled, I tried to recreate it on the rest of the background and it just didn't turn out as well. I still love it though :)

Here is a closeup to show the dimension of the canvas stickers. I love these! I need to find or create other shapes in this stuff.

This last photo is just a close up of the quote. I thought it worked perfectly. 

Thanks for stopping by to take a look. I hope you have a fantastic day.

Hugs, Dawn

Watercoloring

I am trying my hand at watercoloring. So I drew this mouse and bear and got to work. SO MUCH FUN! I still have heaps to learn. I have been looking online for inspiration and there is no short supply for talented watercolor artist online! Thank God for the internet and for artists willing to share their knowledge and processes online.

Sorry for the crappy pics. I really need to get my camera out instead of being lazy and just using my phone camera.

Colored Pencils continued :)

Made this one for the word.......

......Celebrate

This is a work in progress. Can you tell what it is?

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

Hugs, Dawn

Check this out!

I love going to art blogs and looking at incredible art. There are some highly talented people out there. I have some favorites that I check out daily. Thank you internet for making inspiration only a click away. Today I went to Abz Hakim's blog and was blown away by the images I saw there. He has such talent! He puts so much emotion into his characters. This one in particular: Gabriella
I also love, love, love the art by Bob Canada. He always throws something I don't expect into his artwork. His characters are wonderful.
If you are in the mood to check out some art blogs, here are a few more of my favorites:
Cally Jane Studio
Action Art
Beautifique
Dani Draws
Gingerbred
Happy Doodle Land
She Sure Is Sketchy
Stewy Stuff
The Ol' Sketchbook

I hope you find something you like. Thanks for coming by today :)

Working in Photoshop

I was watching Dani Draw yesterday morning when someone in the USTREAM chat room asked if any of us had seen Mark Crilley on Youtube. After her show was over (Dani inspires me to draw everyday, if you haven't checked out her show, you should. Tell her sleep_pea sent cha. You can also view recordings of her daily shows on her ustream page Here is a link in case you want to check her out, Dani Draws ;)I simply love her style and wish she would sell some of her images as digital stamps.), I went and checked out Mr. Crilley on YouTube.com. He creates Manga (a Japanese graphic novel, typically intended for adults, characterized by highly stylized art.) characters in his videos which are easy to follow, and packed with information. He has videos that show a breakdown of placing the facial features. I think the part that shocked me the most is how much lower on the face the eyes are placed, compared to where I generally put them. I added the video I watched, but there are several others to choose from, simply go to youtube.com and do a search on Mark Crilley (or just click the links).

Armed with the knowledge from the video, I turned to Photoshop and my tablet and tried my hand at creating a character. This is the first one I did.....

Uhhhh yah. Damn lol. Uneven, big eyes and her chin is pointy as hell. It was fun drawing digitally tho.
This one is my second try.....

Again she isn't perfect but I think a lil better than the first, which is enough to keep me practicing, which is half the battle for me :). As always, thanks for stopping by!!! Before I go though, I would like to add a special Thank You to the artists out there, like Dani and Chris that so generously offer their skills up for the general public to read, watch, and absorb. I have learned alot.

Practice, practice, practice :)

No freebies today, sorry. I haven't had a chance to play with my tablet this weekend, hopefully tomorrow. I have however, been drawing on paper. Here are a few selections from today, yesterday and Friday. I am working on getting some personality into my faces. Pardon the crappy pictures, but I took em with my cell phone :) I know none of these are "perfect", Mostly, I wanted to post these to remind myself how far I have come with my drawings. I will have to take some pics of some of the first ones I did too so I can compare. Thanks for stopping by and taking a look.

I would also like to tell those of you who have posted comments on my last few posts, thank you so much. You really made my day!! I appreciate you taking the time to do that :D Hope everyone is having a great weekend, talk again soon. Love and hugs.