friends & faux - who's next?

Friends & Faux has an ongoing wandering postcard project. I did one a month or two ago and Peggy recently sent me another. I drew a detail of a sunflower directly on the card, figuring if if I royally screwed it up, I could do something else and paste it over the top. But it came out fine. Used Pitt Artist pens and Copic markers.

Then Rhonda came down for an over-nighter and I talked her into doing one, so now I need to send it on to someone else. Any takers? No worries about having to make original art just for the card, you can isolate a scanned piece of art you made a while back and glue it down. Just has to be a neat little piece of art. And then you can mail it back to Friends & Faux, no need to find someone to take it next. Please reply to this post with a "yeah, me!" or email me at maugreall at gmail dot com.

The second from left in the top row was almost completely gone by the time it got to me. Really a shame cause it looked like a cool one. Hoping my drawn-right-on-the-card survives better.

Sketchbookery Class

As I mentioned last post, I signed up for Mary Ann Moss's Sketchbookery class and am really enjoying it. For the first time ever, I'm sketching and painting with acceptable results. The most useful part of the class (for me) are the videos where she shows an object and then films herself sketching it. Just watching someone draw something has been more helpful than anything.

I made a sketchbook for class, using the cover from a hardback book, reinforcing the spine with duct tape. For the first time I used hot press watercolor paper - which I had to order online, nobody around here had it - for the signatures. Started with 9x12 paper simply folded in half so my book is about 6x9, a good size. A Goldilocks size, not too big, not too small.

Quite like the smoothness of the hot press paper. First time I used it was for my hydrangea drawing. That was before I made the book, so I just bound it in as the first page.

I didn't use the binding stitch she shows for the class cause I wanted to try long stitch. I perused a bunch of pics on Google images and then played with dots and lines on a piece of scrap paper before binding my book. I wasn't terribly on center when I punched the holes but I like the basic idea.

I may rebind it paying more attn to the top and bottom rows of stitches. I wanted a thicker looking line there and meant to make loops instead of stitches, but forgot.

Inside front cover.
Not finished doodling, I don't think.
Love that turq and orange together.

Wanted to do some lettering but wasn't into finding a quote
so I just did the book I'm reading.
Then added a leaf from my coral bells out front.  

Testing the colors of the little box of pearlescent paints
I bought at Nasco when Julie was here.
So lucky to have that place nearby.
They have only 3 retail stores nationwide
and one of them is 30-40 minutes from me.
Will draw some more bugs, then paint them. 

pink hydrangea drawing

I signed up for Mary Ann Moss's Sketchbookery class, in the wild hopes of learning to sketch and watercolor just well enough to satisfy my own fairly low expectations. Unfortunately, I'm not really patient enough to go thru the drill of many blind contour drawings, many more semi-blind contour drawings, etc, etc.

I just wanna be able to draw. Now.

But that's not how it works. That's not how any of this works.    (how I love that commercial)

But I forged ahead and last night sat down with a will and a purpose - to draw and paint something recognizable. I went slowly (sooo difficult) and drew what I saw, not what I thought I saw.

Then I painted it, again going slowly and really looking at my subject, changing my paint colors little by little as I layered.

And a crazy thing happened. I drew and painted something I'm happy with.

Behold.

It's not a Monet but it's way the hell better than anything I've done before.

So thanks, Mary Ann! I may end up being able to sketch after this class.

gelli printing on black

I've been a gelli printing fool lately. Pamela was over for that one day, then my friend Julie-in-July came for 4 days, one of which we spent cranking out gelli prints. And tomorrow I'm leaving for an over nighter with my friend Moneka.

Guess what we're going to do?

Yup. Gelli printing. Cause her 13yo grand daughter is visiting, so I'm taking all my gelli stuff, plus my book binding supply box, and we're going to make cool prints the first day, then make some simple journals with them t he next. Also going to show her how to make a zine somewhere in there. Should be a fun-filled 2 days. Supposed to be around 105F both days, so we'll be spending some time in her pool too. I haven't crammed myself into my bathing suit since 2005 when we snorkled the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. Should be... interesting.

Anyway, I did some gelli printing on black card stock and it came out kinda cool. Not sure why I haven't tried it before, but I'll be doing it again, for sure.

best Photoshop/Elements mixed media tutorials ever

Tangie Baxter is a mixed media artist, both digital and paper. I've been a fan for several years, going to her studio in AZ last fall for a workshop that was a blast, taking online classes, buying digital goodies from her. A couple years ago I anted up for her full digital workshop and am sooo glad I did. I'd been using Photoshop and Elements for a few years and was doing ok on my own but would get terribly frustrated trying to figure out how to do cool mixed media effects by looking in books meant for photographers or other types of users.

I started at the first lesson and by the end of it had taken so many notes that I'd filled the class PDF I'd printed out and had to get more paper. I kept going, "So THAT'S how you do that!" It's really a great bunch of tutorials.

AND... they're now down to $75 for all 3 - Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced. You get 35+ videos, PDFs, elements to use in the demos, a $25 coupon to Tangie's studio etc, etc.

$75 is half price. I'm posting a plug for the class cause I know from experience that it's a great deal on excellent classes. Every digital collage I've posted in the last couple years was made using what I learned in these classes.

If you've had a hankering to learn from scratch, or get better at, Photoshop or Elements, go take a look at this great deal.

quickie - cool book binding blog

Just a quickie! Discovered a great blog with tons of book binding info, pictures, tutes, links to tutes, book reviews, etc. If you've never tried book binding but like hand made books, give it a shot. It just isn't that difficult and you don't need any special tools or materials.

Go forth and make books.