Artful Journeys Week 35 - Sweet Memories

It's funny.  When I first started planning this prompt, I was grousing and grumbling about how I was already over it and hadn't even started the damn thing yet, lol.  But once I got started painting it, I knew I had to finish it, because the memories it brought back were ones I had almost forgotten and now I never will.  Before my folks split up in 1976, we used to go to the lake all the time to fish and camp.  One of my most favorite things to do was to catch fireflies after dinner, and while my mother was freaking out about ticks and whatever else she could think of, my daddy was in the bushes with me, helping me catch fireflies.  I never kept them for long, certainly not more than an hour, but that hour was long enough, and the memories are so wonderful...sometimes the most irritating noise, or a seemingly aggravating prompt, can refresh our memories and bring a smile to our faces after all.  

So let me tell you what I did...

I actually painted over a background in my altered book because I didn't like the way it had turned out, so down went 4 shades of red, some orange and some purple...once all that was dry, I then went across the bottom of the page with black, making trees and bushes for my fireflies to play in.  I used a nail art tool and a toothpick to create my little fireflies, then added some acrylic inks to give the image of the setting sun reflecting off the clouds in the sky...I added a few stars as well, then my little quote.  I ended up having quite a bit of fun with this quote even though I was not even close to being jazzed about it when I started.  

The initial layer

After the "trees" were added.

Here it is after the acrylic "clouds" and fireflies were added.

And here with the "stars" and the quote.

Left page

Right page

close up of the quote.

That's usually how it goes for me, although occasionally I will find one that I still don't like even after I'm done with it.  But that's what art and this group is all about...pushing yourself to step outside of your comfort zone and try new things...even if they're only new to you.

So there you have it....my take on this week's prompt.  I hope you enjoyed it, and thanks so much for stopping by.

Later, y'all!!

Week 21 - Circles

So, this week over at Artful Journeys, our prompt is "Circles"!  Now, generally circles are right up my alley, but for whatever reason, THIS week, I just was NOT feeling it!  I tried painting them, drawing them, cutting them out of painted paper and cutting them out of book pages...still, I hated them all.  So, finally, a phone call with my dear friend and suggestion from her, I had an idea....so I got busy...again.

I started with some medium magenta and titanium white, and got busy on the first layer of my background, then added some craft acrylic accents in ocean reef blue, turquoise and parakeet.  Then grabbed my "bubbles" stencil by Dyan Reavely, and went back over the background with my medium magenta...so that it looked like this.

So far so good...now using my craft acrylics, and an assortment of discarded lids, I started making circles on top of what I had so far, until I got this.

I actually liked it here, but thought it needed more...so I added more.

Not really liking it anymore...I think it's the white...but at this point, I've decided that I just can't take anymore circles and move along.

I added my quote down in the bottom right hand corner..."I've wasted time, I've wasted breath, I think I've thought myself to death."  Kind of appropriate considering all the hell I've gone thru since I started trying to do this prompt.

Here are a few close-ups of the page...thanks for coming by and looking!

The quote is actually part of a song by The Kongos

Week 15 - "found" poetry

I didn't think about it when I suggested this prompt for the group...found poetry...using letters and words cut from all manner of print sources.  That's all well and good if you have a bunch of sources you can use.  I, however, like pictures...and colors...I buy books for my words...so when I came time to do this prompt, I didn't have anything to cut up.  So, I printed it off on my computer and changed the font for every word....thank God I'm a font ho...I had plenty to choose from...lol.

So, working in my large Dylusions journal, I started work by creating my background using 3 colors....Titanium White, Turquoise and Brilliant Yellow Green...The white and green were Liquitex Basics, while the Turq was Amsterdam All Acrylics Standard Series.  So, grabbing my 1" flat Dina Wakley brush, I started laying down color.  Once it was finally dry (got a little heavy handed with my paint) I cut out and added my words, then traced around them with my Scarlet Lime pen, so they'd jump out a little off the light background.

I hope you like the spread.  Please leave me some love, I love hearing from you guys!

Here's a shot of the full spread....I love how the colors just came together on this....now to figure out how to achieve this without using so damn much paint!

This quote....I think everyone of us feels this way at some point in our lives.

Artful Journeys - Week 13

This weeks prompt was damn near the death of me!!!  For our prompt at Artful Journeys we had - Northern Lights/Stars.  Now I love the Northern Lights.  Would love to go see them!  Painting them however, proved too much for my limited talents and abilities, so I dropped back to the Stars part of our prompt.  I must have tried painting the Northern Lights at least 30 times, and every time my paintbrush went flying across the room in frustration.  My dog could have done a better job trying to paint them, and she is NOT a smart dog...doesn't possess any real talent, and gives no indication, on most days, that there is even a working brain in her head (much like me after a day of teenagers fighting).  So I did what I always do when I need some inspiration and a kick start.....I went to Google!  I started by searching for "nebulas"...and found a SUPER cool infra red pic of the Eagle Nebula...and I got to work!  Here is the picture I used for my inspiration....Gorgeous, isn't it?  And of course, it's just my color scheme!

 So, I started with Liquitex Basics in Mars Black and covered both pages in my small Dylusions journal.  Then, I flicked some watered down Basics in Titanium White all over before adding anything else.

 Here, I've gone in with Amsterdam in Turquoise, using my large round brush by Dina Wakley and began slowly adding my colors...this was by no means a quick spread.  All  told it took almost 3 hours from start to finish...that's a lot of painting time for me...lol

Here it is with most of the turquoise done....

The turquoise is done, and now I went back in with Diox purple (Basics) and began the process all over with that.

As is par for the course, I got caught up in what I was doing and forgot to take pictures as I started each new color, but I also added Basics Med. Magenta, Quin Magenta, and Bright Aqua Green.

Then I came back with some pearlescent acrylic ink and some watered down Titanium White and flicked it at the spread again.

I discovered, during the flicking process, that I suck at flicking...lol.    I got more paint on me, the laptop and the dining room table than I did the damn spread, but I did finally get what I felt was an adequate amount of "stars" onto the paper.

Then last, but not least, using a black water based Sharpie paint marker, I added a quote that just made me smile....

I was informed that I don't use my own writing enough, so I did....lol.

And there you have it!  My take on Week 13's prompt!  I hope you enjoyed it, and thanks for stopping by to look.  Please share some blog love and tell your friends to come on by, too!

Later, y'all!