new canvas progress

i worked on my newest canvas this morning.  she seems to like the name "Faith".  i reworked her face shape a tad, she told me the dragonfly wings were eyelashes not eye brows, i gave her a few more coats of glaze, and worked on her eyes and lips, as well as dots.  a girl must have dots.

this is how she looked last night;

and this is after working with her;

part of me wants to add more, but i'm really digging her simplicity.  i will sit with her and see what she calls for next, if she wishes for more or wants to be simple.

until later,
jenny

art challenge suckiness, but i have things to share

well, that sucked.  my so called art challenge.  i did about 9 projects this month, and then fell out of the nonexistent habit.  i did MUCH better with my 30 day yoga challenge and 100 day sun salutation challenge which is still going strong.  (days 59/100 for the sun salutation challenge, and 27/30 for my yoga challenge, following this yoga instructor).

here are the rest of the cards i did manage for my art challenge

meh

pure hatred towards this, so i left it.

this one was a style learned by ivy newport

i've also been working on some of my LifeBook projects, but not as many as i had hoped.

these are in progress, from a class 

taught by rae missigman

i've also found a wonderful artist who does real time, and live, videos on how to paint fun canvasses.  she is a hoot!  her name is cinnamon cooney, the art sherpa.  check her out!  i fell in love with one of her paintings that included a pony and sketched one out;

today i have been working on a canvas that is inspired by the teaching of shiloh sophia.  she had a free easter class you might still be able to take advantage of (free until may 2016), and she was this weeks' LifeBook teacher as well.  i incorporated a few of her other stylings as well.  it's not finished yet, but here are some progress photos.  i'm trying to stay loose and not worry about realism or proportions, just getting my ideas and my feelings down on canvas, letting the paint flow.  there are so many layers to this piece!

you can't see it, 

but her eyebrows are dragonfly wings

so this is where it sits as of now.  taking a break from her, and i will see what she asks me for tomorrow.  i'm loving her so far, but i know details are lacking, and i'm not thrilled with her hair yet.

until later, 

jenny

art challenge day 8

today i'm trying to pick myself up, pull myself together, and kick my muse into gear.  i got started before noon, which is a big deal these days, and spent about an hour on it.  some frustration and then frustration at the frustration, but i kept it together, trying to remember that i'm always in a learning process.

i knew i wanted to get back into faces today, but didn't care about where it went, didn't care about realism (as you can see), just tried to get some shadows and highlights where they needed to be.

i put this one on a card from my daddy to one of the kids, and let my daddy speak to me.

i put arrow washi tape down, and was thinking "which way to happy".  then i put down the prettier pink tape and the bright background green and yellow.

the words "on my way to happy" came to me, and i like that.  a lot.  where ever i am, i'm on my way to happy, i'm doing my best with what i have, i'm climbing out.  it's ok, i'm doing it now.

my card;

and, yes, i'm happy with this card!

until later,
jenny

art challenge days 5 and 7

it's been a rough few days with the blahs, then illness, and a tragic fire in a neighboring town that claimed 2 little girls.  the girls were friends, one visiting the other, so two families are forever devastated and the community is surrounding them with love.

this has hurt me deeply, knowing the pain of the death of a child not thru illness but a shocking event.  my brain goes to places it shouldn't, as a bereaved mama.  i understand that parents who have not lost a child go to that place as well and it can hurt them deeply, but i get lost in it.  it consumes me.  i've heard all the tips i can handle, i don't need any more tips or hints or well meaning advice to get me to 'snap out of it'.  i need to feel the hurt, to understand it and love it as best as i can.  to treat it and myself gently and not try to brush it away.  even though it's not a pleasant place to stay, it's part of me, and to love me i must love the pain.

so, i'm trying to be gentle with me if i miss a day or two here and there in the process of trying to make art every day for 30 days.

day 5 was when i wasn't feeling like getting creative but i went and got painty anyways.  i didn't create 'something' out of the mess, i just let it be what it was.

the colors seem to be washed out in the photo.  it's more fun than it looks.  the layers are nice.


day 7 is my attempt at claiming my feelings as ok.  i wrote down some words about the loss of children and then used oil pastels and india inks and a little acrylic.

this challenge is going to be a challenge if i can't seem to make 'pretty' things while dealing with grief.  but at least i got it out of me so it won't fester.  thats important!

until later,
jenny

art challenge day 4

i didn't expect much today at all.  just not feeling the creative muse.  or anything but tired.  but i persevered and got it done

not my best work, but i like some of the details and the layering.

until later,
jenny

art challenge- day 3

yesterday i did not post my failures.  i tried to make art on the other 2 cards i had gessoed, and found that the paint as well as the gesso was just coming off.  so the card makers did a great job with gunk-proofing their cards.  kudos to them.

one with collage and one without, then one without any gesso. 

all failures.

i had thought of sanding the cards so they aren't so slick, but decided that, as a woman with fibromyalgia and without much patience i should not expend my energy and time sanding 30 playing cards.  stupid idea!  and then i remembered that i am a packrat like many artists (and non-artists), and have saved greeting cards from everyone who ever sent me a card... since, practically, ever.   i decided to cut the front of the card from the back and use the inside of the cards to art on.  the outside of cards are slick but not the inside of a lot of them.  of course i am saving the really important cards for personal reasons, like ones with my daddys' handwriting on them, or ones from special friends.  but the others are fair game.  pretty sure i can find 30 cards that don't mean too much to my heart.  i will make up the two 'art on greeting card challenge' entries during the month.


i spent a good hour playing with my first card.  using acrylics, water soluble oil crayons, and india inks, i layered a nice amount of color and texture.  then i turned the card until i found the subject of my art.  i was surprised by what came out.  not my normal style, but i'm SO pleased with the finished product!

he is painted with shiny silver paint and i love him!  i added black to the silver for shadow areas and white to it for highlights that still have shine.  i love the background colors and i love the shine and i love the bird on his head and i love that he has a personality.

i think my first official day 1 has been a success!

until later,
jenny

art challenge

in order to get me out of this funk i've decided to give myself a 30 day art challenge!  short and sweet, but hopefully i can commit to a challenge each month to keep me going and keep my interest up.  i've written a list of ideas for these challenges;

so, the month of march i have decided will be art on playing cards.

today i spent a good hour in the studio, pasting and painting and getting frustrated when the texture was too much for me to paint what i wanted well enough.  i pushed thru, knowing that this is experimenting and not going to be displayed anywhere (but my blog, and honestly it's not getting much traffic so no worries!)

i'm not sure if my thought of putting a layer of clear gesso to get the card ready for paint was the best way, but i gessoed three of them yesterday so i didn't have any excuse to not work on one today.  i think i will sand a few of them to see if that works better.

here is my art card #1 for march;

"she flung her stories in the air like the bricks she built her wall"

there is a lot of texture from the gesso and from collage pieces under the paint.  i like the idea of the words a lot. if i'd had more room i could have written it better, but it gets the point across.  i like the hair color which was a mixture of several colors.  her face went thru many layers of color, starting with a blue.  i tired my hand at a small hand with a not so small brush, so it's not too detailed.  and i made sure i was painting the correct hand for the arm this time, but i need practice to get hands to look right.

for my first small card in a while, i'm happy-ish.

until later,
jenny