Tuesday, November 30, 2010

a very wooly sheep - art every day day 30

Today is day 30 of 30 of the art every day challenge hosted by Leah of Art Every Day blog. I joined the challenged about day 7.
I would like to thank Leah first for hosting such a wonderful event and I hope that she will do it again next year, and second of all the other bloggers I have met over the month. This month has prompted me to pick up my art brush, get the pliers out to not so gently persuade, my not used in at least 6 years, tubes of paint and to do some actual non-digital painting, as well as to explore the new medium of watercolour pencils.

Today I wanted to so something a little different but alas I now have a fresh cold and feel rather rotten, and my concentration was all over the place as is evident in my wool sheep.  The wooly sheep is a rather confused piece on plywood, with a layer of newspapers, then acrylic paint and some textured paste. yes it is rather a mess. To console myself I am considering this a draft piece... ah my cold medicine is working.
It has been a wonderful month. I am glad I took part. Thank you all for coming by and visiting and commenting.
Cheers

Monday, November 29, 2010

Monday Corners

My day 29 Art Every Day art are a couple of corners doodles that I did when I got a moment of peace and quite.  The plan is to vectorise them for embroidery designs.

If you got a moment pop by Art Every Day to see some rather cool Day 29 art.
Cheers

Saturday, November 27, 2010

Saturday Frames

"I must, I must do some art" was my mantra today and I had about an hour to do. I had started a little frame which was not going so after popping down stairs and sorting the kids I went back up and covered the frame in blue and this is what evolved. Nothing like what I imagine. So on day 27 of  Art Every Day for a month my daughter has a new frame and is now busy and happy making colouring a picture of a Christmas tree with presents to put into it. Yes she is a bit Santa (Christmas) obsessed. I have managed to get her not to save the cookies I made today for Santa, but I am sure come December 1st we will be decorating for Xmas :)

 Cheers

A snowflake on Friday

Not much behind this. It was snowing outside and she appeared :)
Watercolour pencil on paper - wish I could remember if this cold or hot-press paper but it is rather good quality and lets the watercolour pencil really be manipulated when water is added.

Pop by Leah's site,  Art Every Day, to see some other cool day 26 art :)
Cheers

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Art Every Day day 25 ...5 more to go :)

This is actually post AED day 23,24 and 25 :) I seem to do a little something everyday but do not manage to turn my chair to the scanner and turn on Photoshop (PS). I swear my scanner and  PS have a serious love-hate relationship.



On day 23 I did some sketches and vectorised some birdies; on day 24, I did one of those close your eyes and see what happens - the dog and the elephant and vectorised some more birdies. I had hoped to colour the dog for whimsical Wednesday but real life has not been cooperating this week; and today so far I have done some sketches.
The sketches are raw and rather clique as I am thinking of valentines for my little shops.


However if you wish to see some rather stunning art drop by Art Every Day to see some super art!

Cheers


p.s it looks like winter has come to stay. The snow is falling and falling. I love the snow. I just hate to drive in it.



Monday, November 22, 2010

IF- Sneaky & AED day 22

Did you really think Bow-peep lost her sheep?:)

Playing with watercolour pencils and white acrylic as the medium on paper.

Had a time trying to scan it, and then tried to photo it but in the end I gave up and was reminded why I use the pc to do illustrations. The blue sky did not reproduce at all.

If anyone has a good suggestion for was a scanner that would be super.
Cheers.

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Sunday Sketches - Dancing and sneaky

Today was dance dress rehearsal as the show is on Friday night - yeah. I thought it was a full dress but it was not , just skirts, vest, sock and shoes ( the clothes are some seriously heavy wool). My monster dancer is one of the youngest in her group and she had a great time at the rehearsal. It was funny to see the kids all standing up straighter, point stronger with a larger audience. The show will have groups from 5-7 to  the "mature dancers have members that are 50+.
I will try and take some photos if permitted to post later.

The other part of the sketch is a sketch to deal with this weeks IF (illustration friday) which I hope to be able to complete this week. The sheep are being sneaky :)

Pop by Blue Chair Dairy to see some fantastic Sunday Sketches

And Art Every Day to see some super day 21art!
Cheers

Saturday, November 20, 2010

Catch-up Saturday :)

well all I can say is "Thank God tomorrow is Sunday Sketches!" :) My, what a week it has been and here we have had a 4 day weekend which means the kids are home and concentration time is low.
For art today I worked on the website to match this blog. Basically it was just changing some colours, background and pics, and then newsletter and I am happy that I  have done it. I have wanted to change the sites for a while for after a couple years its sort of grows stale - if you know what I mean.  Anyway below is a screen shot of the site. The birds got to be a little christmassed up :)
Hope you are having a productive Saturday.
Remember to Pop by Art Every Day to see some funky day 20 art.
Day 19 was a rather art less day as I did some boring site things.
Cheers 


the home page
















the shop page

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Thursday Blogger

My art for today is meant to be saving the patterns I worked on early this week in various formats, but I got side tracked as one of them caught my eye and inspired me to change my blog (I hope for the better) ( yes I am not a procrastinator but a side-trackers :)). So my art for today is my blog. Not sure if it is too much but I guess time will tell. Hope you like it lol

Pop by Art Every Day to see some funky day 18 art

Cheers
p.s the pattern I liked in the "ribbon" flowers and my son says that birds do not have long legs :)

p.p.s the left hand side seems a bit bare but not sure what to put there as yet.

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Wednesday whimsy :)

I am not sure if the idea got translated in the colour version - I find sketches sometimes lose something  when they are done neater :(  but the flowers are meant to be cosying up to the bird adoringly :)

Watercolour pencil on paper.



  Pop by Art Every Day to see some super day 17 art
 and whimsy art at Whimsical Wednesdays!

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Pattern Tuesday

Maybe today should be called Pattern Monday-Tuesday :) On Monday I decided I'd better attend to my shops and after much sighing and doing put-off chores eg cleaning,  some patterns and sketchs of birds emerged, which I will redraw on the pc this week. Today's pic is one of the patterns I tested to see if it could work as a digital stamp. It is coloured with watercolour pencils on paper.

To see some really cool Day 16 art pop by the Creative Every Day blog :) 
Cheers

Sunday, November 14, 2010

Sunday Sketches - Tautas Deja

Daughter dear had dancing practice today and I was allowed to watch as it was an on stage rehearsal for a concert (we are normally not permitted to watch), so I sketched a bit :)

They "folk dance", which in Latvia is almost like how ballet is in some other countries. Most kids here grow up doing some form of folk dance. The shoes, when they were when in costume, remind me of cross between Indian moccasin and ballet shoes, and they wear thick wool socks with symbols. At Gabs age group 5-7 there are about equal number of boys and girls.

Pop by Blue Chair Dairy to see some fantastic Sunday Sketches

And Art Every Day to see some super day 14 art!

Cheers

Saturday - a thought

Was working on daughter dears room and discovered that darling hubby's architectural design does not lend itself to whimsically feminine (well so much for the choosen wall paper) :( SO back to the drawing board to to figure out how to make a rather beautifully sterile room reflect my daughter's feminine and girly personality, and then hopefully she would desire to move back into it.
She does like the knobs which are now on her cupboard and there is talk about sleeping in her room- no action yet but there is hope glimmering.

This painting is a quickie exploring a character thought. I think Illustrations Friday's theme - Burning - got into into some how, can you guess where? ;D
Painting is acrylic on wood.

To see some really cool Day 13 art pop by the Creative Every Day blog :)

Friday, November 12, 2010

Knobby Friday

One of the things about Art Every Day is that it is motivating me to do something artsy everyday and not put it off for another day i.e it will get done tomorrow.
This afternoon I took out some cupboard door knobs and painted them to match the wall paper I hope to sew onto some roller blinds this weekend for my daughter's room ( yes that will be my art that day and I hope a successful project).

First I got the knob and lightly sanded it to (I hope) remove the varnish.
Then I got some acrylic paints and tried to match the cupboard door colour more than the wall paper.


Here are the knobs with the base coat. Then I decided which flowers to paint and painted them on using acrylic paint and a hair dryer (it was taking forever to dry in this temp we have here hence the hair dryer:D)




A section of the wall paper and the knobs.

To see some really cool Day 12 art pop by the Creative Every Day blog :)


Cheers
Jehanne

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Baa - Thursday

A 3am sketch of a sheep I should have been counting.

Pop by the Creative Every Day blog to see some really cool Day 11 art :)

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Woeful Wednesdays.

It has been one of those days. Finished some digital stamps and was testing them out. Not overly happy with any of the results :(.
This is a pic of one of them.

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Skating on Tuesday

Oh dear yesterday I did a doodle but was not able to put it up, but I managed to do it- in a bank no less as I waited and waited for my turn.
Today however I am home and here is a completed little ice-skating bird.

Watercolour pencils on paper, with a white acrylic as snow.

Sunday, November 7, 2010

A beady Sunday

Art every day month.. I hope this counts:) My daughter wanted to do something to give her friends, so after a bit of thought I came up with us using white clay to make some simple beaded bracelets. To do this she pinched off some clay rolled it into balls, then I used a thin stick to make a hole and then we let balls(beads) dry.Once dried she painted them - well she did the detailed work while I got to do the grub base colour paint :). When this was finished we strung the beads together and got a bracelet.

Pro- this is a rather nice project to do with your kid(s), and is simple enough that they can take part in almost all stages.
Con - a 5 year old has a limited attention span, so best to do the project over the weekend in parts.
Cheers

Art Every Day for November

I read about this on Missy's blog and it seems rather cool and a good way to help get the juices going and something down on paper.So here we go... we , mean I, am committed. Will do and put something up today..later.
cheers

Saturday, November 6, 2010

IF- Afterwards

The IF topic this week was rather apt when it came. Thursday was an emotionally unsettling day when I discovered my son missed the school bus and had left his mobile home. When I got to his school he was no where to be found. I was at my whits end as I drove the 5km home thinking that if I did not spot him on the back road home the next stop would be the police. About 1 km from our house I spotted him walking coolly along the road. Besides wanting to throttle him all I could say is thank God he was okay, and knew the way home.
On Friday I was still shell shocked and hence the art therapy.
We had a long chat with him about going to the teachers, school guard or security guards for help instead of being so self-reliant. The teacher actually gave the whole class of 7 year olds a talk on what to do if one is left behind.

Watercolour pencils on paper.
J.
p.s. not my usual style but this is what came out, and yeah there are lots of errors. had a problem getting one of the eyes of focus :( but alas ....

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

IF - Spent

Ahh what an interesting word "spent". It can be interpreted many ways...
Exhausted after days of hormonal warfare, Boris finally succumbed to another biological urge.

Watercolour pencils on paper