Sketchcrawl - Bristol

Today I went on my first ever sketchcrawl. I've wanted to try it since I first came across the sketchcrawl website, so I finally posted a message on craigslist to see if anyone else out there wanted to join me.

Two women took me up on the offer and we met this afternoon in beautiful Bristol, RI. It was a great experience. I liked Alyssa and Denise very much and it was fun to talk about art and tools, etc. Also, it was just nice to have company as we sat in the grass sketching tulips or along the sidewalk drawing trees.

I was very focused on trees today, as I feel I need much practice in that area. I've posted my two favorite attempts here: a pair of shrubs and a leafless tree. In reality, the tree did have leaves, but I was so happy with the shading I achieved on its trunk and branches, I didn't want to bury any of it in green. I was also practicing with gouache paints, which I really enjoyed using. I just need a better travel palette for them.

Pen & Ink Deco

Here's the second and last deco page of the day, another one created by Tam. The pages are the blue you see here.

What I love most about doing ATCs and decos is that they push me to try new things; they give me the courage to experiment. This is the kind of thing I would not normally do. I was looking around my art room for something to draw and my eyes rested upon this old doll I purchased at one of those junky antique stores years ago. She's unusual - not sure what culture she represents, but she is swathed in gold and silver fabric with tiny rhinestones all over her jewelry and headdress.

I decided she'd be fun to draw and good face-drawing practice to boot. I used the Sakura .005 and colored her in with Prismacolor CPs. Her arms and hands were doing that "walk like an Egyptian" thing and I totally screwed them up, so salvaged it by making an oval and cutting her out. Then I used my exacto knife to remove the background as well, leaving the oval outline.

After gluing her onto the deco page, I drew the flowers and tiny circles around the outside of her oval, colored them in and filled all the "gems" on her with silver gel pen. I decided this was a good time to try out my new diamond glaze on each gem. It gives them a raised appearance, like little diamonds. That was fun. I love trying new things. I also like that I made this up as I went along, with no plan whatsoever. I should do that more often - see where my creativity leads me.

Honey Bee Deco

It was a crazy week that left no time for creating. Today, on my designated art day, I have several projects to get caught up on. The first are two decos. This is a Honey Bee Deco started by the talented Tam, in the Embellished Circus group.

I was provided with the brown cardstock base. Using a photo I got off the web as reference, I drew the bee with my Sakura Pigma Micron .005 (which was on sale at Michael's for only $1.99 each last week) and colored him in with various Sakura and Prismacolor markers. Then I printed this flower photo off the web and cut it out using my super-fine, ultrasharp Honey Bee scissors. Total coincidence!

I wasn't sure what to do then, so instead of also cutting out the bee, which would have probably been a disaster, I colored in the background with various shades of blue Prismacolor and Derwent colored pencils. I glued it all to the cardstock, leaving an edge of brown so the flower would feel like it's coming off the page a bit, and then added text.

I'm always disappointed when my .005 marker won't write over colored pencil. The tip is immediately clogged by wax, so I had to use one of my new Faber Castell Pitt artist pens. It worked fine.

Now onto the other deco...

Sketch

My new favorite thing: Bath & Body Works In-shower Moisturizer. After using your soap, you slather this stuff on all your dry spots, leave it on for a minute and then rinse it off. I can't remember the last time my skin was this soft. I love, love, love it!

I drew this with my Sakura Pigma Micron .005 and used Prismacolor colored pencils to give it some interest. I did finally get a Faber Castell Pitt Artist Brush Pen, but I'm not confident enough yet in those sketches to post any. Soon, I hope.

More Art Dolls

On Sunday I played with fabric scraps and made two more art dolls, one for an Art Object PIF Twist on Nervousness. Instead of sewing beads all around the seam, like I did with the first two, I sewed dangling beads off each arm, the bottom and the head. I like the effect.

I bought face molds at AC Moore a couple of weekends ago and used soft Fimo polymer clay, onto which I brushed PearlEx Pigment powder in silver and bronze before baking. After baking, I sealed the faces in a glossy varnish because the pigment still rubbed off a little when I touched it.

This photo makes them look like they are the same color, but one is blue and one is purple.