We went on a vacation, seriously! We spent five days in the Cantril, Keosaqua, Iowa, area, visiting amish grocery stores and the like. We’ll definitely be returning next year, most probably in the fall when the birds are migrating through that area, and to see the fall colors.
Some drawing time!
I’ve been drawing while also working on the Santos Caged Doll project. You can learn more about this project over at my patreon. While you’re there I also have a poll asking about video viewing preferences plus videos of me drawing some floral compositions.
Making more Progress
The the middle shelves still need to be cleared, and cleaned, the mouse made a huge mess, and then everything put back together. I think I'm going to take a break on the west shelf for now as I'm behind in my creative deadlines. It definitely smells better in my studio now that I've started this deep cleaning process. Hubs will wash that bottom shelf for me with Krud Kutter and then finish it off with anti icky stinky poo which supposedly discourages mice.
Ode to August
I should have taken the month off, to be quite honest! But I didn't, and trying to work through the brutal heat has taken it's tole on me!
Yesterday, with the help of my husband, this loom and a second one that's still in the garage, were created. The one still needs it's hardware and the holes drilled into the board, otherwise it's good to go. It's 40" long by 3.5" wide and an inch thick. It's for bead weaving trims, and the like.
My first project will be a leather and bead wrap bracelet. And then on to other projects for my newest series, more on that later.
Videos are in the making, I chose not to video tape the past 10 days, it's so hot in our house I didn't want my camera to over heat and croak, we don't have AC or central air. Rumor has it that the temps will drop, and significantly, sometime around September 10th.
What Inspires Me!
Taken at Dakins Lake, Zearing, Iowa.
Making Book Covers
I’ve been making a lot of book covers for future journals. I made some with aluminum flashing as a test. Next up will be leather book covers and some mixed media covers with my natural dyed fabrics, etc.
This time around I made a couple of book covers from canvas panels. Once the holes are cut out, with wood chisels, I will coat the covers with Venetian Plaster. You can see the video here!
Art Book Covers
So it turns out I really needed to use wood chisels to cut these holes, when the Zutter Bind-it-all wouldn’t go through the reclaimed book cover. The chisels gave me some good clean cuts, with a little practice. Check out the video short here!
Cardboard Art Books
This was a lot of fun to make, you can see another progress video here on Youtube. I’ll definitely be making more of these cardboard art books.
This is the piece of watercolor paper I had on my work table when I was painting the cardboard book pages. It turned into a work of art in it's own right!
Making an Art Book
Making an art book out of reclaimed cardboard, from an amazon delivery box, for myself today. You can see the YouTube shore here.
Magnolia Seed Project Continues
Was dreaming about this project last night so had to draw this when I woke up this morning. It may be a sign to get busy creating once again.
Studying Rotting Fruit for a Painting
Three Minute Drawings: Pinecone
Did a draw along with a video on Youtube, artist was drawing pinecones. I
t was quick and very easy. In the past I always struggled with drawing them because I started from the top down, lol.
Not sure why I. thought that was the correct way to draw them, now I know the correct way and there will be a lot of pinecone drawings in my future.
Fun fact: I have a rather large pinecone collection filled with pinecones from all parts of the. US including from a forest in California. Many were given to me by friends they picked up while traveling.
I used a 0.7 m mechanical pencil with purple leads which can be bought here: Note these are Amazon affiliate links and I make a small commission if you make a purchase. Thank you for supporting my studio!
Doodling in my Downtime
I needed some down time, to just create and not have to do much thinking. Doodling was just the thing I needed to do!
I love this book!
I liked the book so much I bought my own copy! Highly recommend for artists looking for quality natural colors. Ten out of Ten!
Sweet Pea Blossoms Part 3
I finally finished off the Sweet Pea Blossoms with some oil pastels, it was a lot of fun to paint.
Life has been crazy with John on vacation for the month of June, he fell this past Friday, landing flat on his back from the top of the concrete steps he was working on, giving us a scare. Things are better now and I'm back to painting and making more videos.
Snow Pea Blossoms Part 2
Part 2 In this video I added detail lines with my micron pens/markers and then a sharpie marker. The caran d'ache water soluble wax pastels leave a waxy surface once dried an acted as a resist when I was using the pens, preventing the ink from staying on the paper. I also added some iridescent watercolor highlights.
Lobster Day
Today is the international day of the lobster, I found this out from one of Danny Gregory's YT live streams this afternoon. So I sketched along with him and everyone else until lunch was ready.
Sweet Pea Blossoms
This is part one of my slightly abstracted, or exaggerated, sweet pea blossoms!