Saturday, January 30, 2016

update on the goings on of me



hello all! yep, it's been longer than i had hoped since i've updated. oopsie.

life has been happening, it's been full of goal making and note taking and just a little of art making. my minis have sort of fallen off the priority list, and i think part of the reason is because the christmas theme was an easy one to get into. now i must go to my notebook for ideas, and it's more of a struggle to get into my head that it might not be as easy.


life book with tam laporte is off and running. some of the classes are more my style and easier for me to get into, and others are harder to get the techniques down. i'm not stressing about doing them in order, but i am taking notes in my handy journal





one lesson, taught by ivy newport was painting on collage and i had a lot of fun coming up with inspirational words and meanings for me;







another lesson, by annie hamman was to be a wild romp with your inner child... if you don't have an actual child around to help you. the making of a face and then adding childlike smears and wild colors, painting as a child would, was rather fun for me. very much my own style, but with permission to try and push it further. i did my first painting on canvas, since i knew i wanted to play big! the lesson came around the time david bowie died, and since his portrayal as goblin king in the movie labyrinth is a rather important figure in our life (my youngest son was named after the character), it hit me hard. apparently my inner child wanted my painting to be a tribute to mr. bowie, so it transformed pretty nicely.

started out using greens for the skin tone, since i wanted to free myself with this painting.  no rules.

letting my inner child work her magic 


this is where the inner child wanted crazy hair and i thought it might be for mr. bowie


i added more details and slanted the eyebrows like the goblin king.  and the canvas 
"tears of a goblin" was created.


i also did a smaller painting on paper to add to my life book at the end of the year.




i've also been busy creating a yearbook full of goals for myself based on a class over at journalwild.com . jen has lots of great inspiration if you are interested in learning more about art journaling. here is a peek at some of my pages;







totally not done yet, and i'm seeing that her prompts, along with my goal setting, are helping me find what is important to me right now.


i also am trying to be more dedicated to my art journaling with effy wild. she has a free year long art journaling group that is full of love and great energies over at journal52.com. she is one of my favorite artists, ok, she's THE artist. i've got a 'slight' artist crush on her. do check out her stuff.

effy had a prompt for the full moon, and had a video of her doing her thing. i had an idea that was similar in mind for feeling gratitude for the full moon in leo that happened january 23rd, so i played with her positioning a little to make it more my own. but i made a mistake...



can you see it? unfortunately i didn't catch the mistake at the sketching phase, but after i had painted the VERY dark night sky, and was painting her hand. now can you see? yep, the left side hand is on the right side arm! i was not pleased. i was to the point of ripping it out of my vintage scrapbook i've been using for a journal, but the very delicate paper wouldn't let go. i took that as a sign that i should leave it in as a lesson learned. something i can look back on and laugh. and i went back to work, painting her pink hair, so much fun!


speaking of pink hair, i’ve decided enough with playing ‘by the rules’ with my hair color! i’m done with being the mousy one who wants to please everyone while letting my spirit wilt. i can understand if i worked at a bank or something uptight like that, but what do i do; i sit at home with my pups and i paint. every now and then i go to the store with hubby. who is to stop me from coloring my hair whatever my heart and soul wants? only me and my fear of not being loved. i am enough as i am. i am a good person, whether i have brown hair or teal. if someone cant love and accept me with crazy hair, then maybe they aren’t enough for me and MY life? maybe they don’t love me for the right reasons? i am an artist, and i love color. it's time to live for myself and do what i want to… with my hair, and my life. and, you know, if i hate it, i can color it black. it’s only hair.

my first attempt, a couple months ago, to go for wild purple hair was pretty tame, close to the ‘wild red’ i had before. this time i knew i wanted a blue-purple, not a red-purple, so when i went to sallys beauty supply the woman working there (who had very beautiful bright purple hair) suggested some ideas, and when i still hemmed and hawed about how i wanted it she suggested putting manic panic purple in after i colored it if the color wasn’t right. afterwards i wasn’t too thrilled with the color. i figure if you have to hunt for the color if you are in shade, then why have a cool color? so i went with the manic panic. now it’s a very dark purple, almost black unless the sun is hitting it, and then it explodes into, yep, another red-purple.


before the manic panic

after manic panic, in my studio

after and in the sunlight



it’s neat in the shadows though. but, next time, i’m going to venture into the blues!



last but not least, i will be attempting to do something for 100 days. since it’s been a gripe of mine that the minis are getting harder for me to do, i was thinking it would be a good challenge for me to do a mini canvas a day for 100 days. am i out of my mind? maybe. but, during the christmas season, i was able to crank some out in a few hours each. maybe it’s thinking too big. i have started a nice mini that has taken a long time, so maybe the idea should be more of “work on a mini each day for 100 days” and see how many i can finish? i don’t want them to look cheap though, and since my geriatric dog, pita, doesn’t enjoy me working in the studio, i have to interrupt my arting for his needs (which usually include my sitting on the couch while he sleeps next to me. not too conducive for getting anything done). i was hoping to start this challenge on February 1st. maybe i shouldn’t wait for a ‘perfect date’ to start this challenge, but wait for the perfect challenge topic to start…

i’ll let you know!


(i've decided to learn to do the sun salutation and commit to do it for 100 days!)


until later,
jenny