Art is stopping the boredom.

When my arm was out of action for so long I couldn't do much. Watching art videos online did make me want to start doing something again so I was really happy when I got to use my right hand again. The following pages were done during that period.

 This lesson about the inner child was created by Sam Kira. It is watercolours, acrylics and pencils. I tried to do the eyes differently than normal but I don't like them as much. I will stick with my own style I think.

The next lesson was done with Tracy Verdugo.  It was meant to be an abstract style painting but I couldn't resist turning it into leaves. Acrylics and markers were used here. The shiny paint is the Luminarte silks paints. They are very cool. 

This whimsy lesson was done with Willowing. I used a scrap of material for the dress. The rest is watercolour and pencil. This is probably the first whimsy drawing that I have done that I really like.

The monochromatic lesson was created by Rhomany. I didn't want to use black because I had done that earlier in the year so I did it all with one blue inktense pencil except for the white highlights in the eyes. The image I used to copy for the pose was a magazine ad. 

Jane Davenport taught this lesson. It was mermaids but because I have done live lessons with Jane where we did a mermaid I chose to do a girl instead. It was one of the most inspired pieces I have done so far for Life Book. Some lessons get the ideas flowing more easily. Acrylics and pencils. 

The Christmas doll was a lesson taught by Adriana Almanza.  It was meant to be a Halloween witch but it was well into December when I did it so I made it a Christmas doll instead. This is another page started with acrylics and finished with pencils. I used a stencil for the border.  

The last page here was a watercolour lesson with Wyanne. We used masking fluid to cover areas we wanted to save while we worked on the background. After removing the masking fluid I used a limited amount of pencil to add some details. I had to put the quote on because I tore the page when I wasn't careful removing the masking fluid. I had a lot of fun doing this lesson. It reminded me how cool watercolours can be.

I may not make it back here before Christmas so I wish you all a very happy Christmas and hope you get to spend quality time with all those you love.

I am back :-)

 Hello friends.  Sorry it has been so long since my last post. I had the arm/wrist surgery and recovery was a lot slower than I thought it would be. I didn't realize I would be so restricted in what I could do after I got the cast off. I had very little movement in my wrist and no strength at all, so sitting at the computer typing for any length of time was not something I could do. I did manage to do some art while I was relaxing, even a little bit when I was temporarily left handed.These pages are from the Life Book course.

This first page was taught by Connie Hozvicka who does fearless painting. It was a fun page to do and because I was doing it with one hand I had to tape the page down to keep it still while I worked on it. I applied molding paste to the page for texture then painted it with acrylics. I dipped my hand in paint then stamped that onto the page, filling in missed areas with a paint brush. I used a stencil and sprays to make the pattern. The background is lumiere metallic paints and a few simple daisies. I was very surprised how much I could do with one hand and it helped me see I should keep going.

This next Life Book page was a lesson with Guadalupe Cabal. It was drawing a mandala using rulers and compasses. Again it was a lesson I could do left handed, using weights to hold the ruler in place. I would probably do more shading if I did one with my right hand but I am happy with the way this one turned out.

The next lesson was with Tam who runs Life Book. I collaged paper and material onto the page then embellished it with some machine and hand stitching. The bird is a print of a watercolour I did a couple of years ago. I printed it onto the calico back of a piece of canvas. The flowers didn't stand out at first so I filled them in with pan pastels. It was a fun experimental page and the last one I had to do left handed because it was the week my plaster cast was changed to a plastic one that allowed me to start using my right hand.