ICAD 2013

blank index card

So what is ICAD 2013 I hear you ask? It is a challenge by Tammy Garcia to create some art work on an index card each day for the months of June and July. I will post the link on the right. There are no rules other than the work must be done on an index card either 3 x 5 inches or 4 x 6. The reason for this is explained by Tammy but basically it frees you up to experiment because if you really don't like what you have done you can just start over with another card. You can use lined or plain cards, tabbed or not. I am using a selection of lined and plain cards from my stash in the 4 x 6 size.

There are prompts posted on the challenge page but you don't have to use them if you don't want to. I am using them at the moment. The weekly prompt was colour and the one for this card was wallpaper.

 I did use distress stain to colour the card first for another idea then changed my mind. I decided to use fiber paste to create a raised effect. I placed the stencil over the card and spread fiber paste across it using an old credit card. When I carefully lifted the stencil off I was left with the flower design on the card. I let it dry for a couple of hours.

Note: if you don't have fiber paste you could use texture paste, molding paste or even a thick gel medium. They will give you a smoother finish.

 I then used twinkling H2Os by Luminarte to paint the whole card. I let this dry for about an hour.

The next step was to spray the card with Lindys Stamp Gang spray in the Jolly Roger Red shade. I sprayed it quite generously while it was flat and left it to dry overnight. The sprays are a lot darker when wet. When it dries the spray collects around any textured areas and highlights them.  It also washed some of the watercolour off the raised areas.

I like the finished index card. It reminds me of an old piece of embossed wallpaper.

#1 This card was the first one I did using the prompts colour - red and zebra.  I sketched a zebra from a photo then painted in the stripes with twinkling H2O (hot cinnamon shade). I then sprayed a little water along the bottom and watched the colour spread. Simple technique but very effective.

#2 This card used the prompts colour - orange and candyland. Another experiment using twinks and black pen outlines. I think in the future I will be using some of these cards as a jumping off point for a journal page.

If you are interested in joining in it is not too late. Check out the link on the right.

Stitch and paint

Another 21 Secrets lesson I did was with Joanne Sharp. She is known as the lettering lady and taught us to stitch over our writing. We made an embroidered journal cover for a hand made journal. I love lettering and embroidery so this was a lot of fun for me. I used an old art quilt for the background.

 Ro Bruhn had us using the inside of envelopes to make flowers and backgrounds for our journal pages. I didn't have many envelopes to use but I have now collected a few more designs.

Another part of Ro's lesson was to use fun foam to make stamps. I made these daisies and used them to do another journal page.

21 Secrets 2013

I decided to join 21 Secrets again this year because there was a lot of new artists that I hadn't heard of before. I still think this type of mixed workshop is the best way to test out an instructor's teaching method and find out whether it suits me.

The first lesson I did was  with Dion Dior and concentrated on adding sparkle to your pages. We used Twinkling H2Os, silks, glitter and various other supplies.

The first page is an abstract using all the supplies. 

 

 

  The next page was a simple flower image. 

 The last page was morning glories and spiders web, designed by Dion. The web really sparkles a lot.

The next lesson I did was with Tammy Garcia. It was a watercolour workshop and had a few exercises and a completed journal page. I had fun with this and although I have done some watercolour I still learned new things.

This lesson was about blending the colours. I loved the chance to play. 

 

This lesson was about adding words to the page. I did squash mine in a little, lol. I should have chosen a smaller quote. 

 

 

This bubble writing was fun to do. 

 

For my final page I chose to do a garden theme because I like drawing flowers. I really enjoyed this watercolour playground lesson.

Warning!! Very long blog post here.

I signed up for Life Book again this year because I thought it looked very different to last years class. There were a lot of teachers who I had heard of and would like to learn from.
The class started well and I was inspired a lot but slowly I have become a little disappointed with the way the lessons are going.

The first lesson was with the coordinator Tam of Willowing.org It was a fun lesson with two components.

 

 The next lesson was taught by Christy Tomlinson and was fun too. It is very mixed media and I still have some of the paper we made for it left over.

 

This lesson was taught by Dion Dior and involved white on black with silhouettes. I chose to do a hand with butterflies and I like the way it turned out. 

This lesson was to make some cards with affirmations on the back and put them in a pocket on a journal page. I did that last year and it was too bulky in my book so this time I made more cards and did one large flat page with them.The images are collaged atc images.

 This lesson is another with Tam and involved using masking fluid and watercolours. I loved the chance to experiment with sprays and watercolours.

 
This was not a lesson taught by any one but a simple prompt to put a bunny on your page. I again chose to do watercolour.

 The next lesson was taught by Jane Davenport. It was the same lesson she has taught in her online course that I did, so I found it easy. I continued to play with watercolours and pale colors that are not my usual style. I was just in the mood for that.

 This lesson taught by Danita was about painting over a printed image from a magazine. It seemed a bit basic to me, especially after we had already learnt to draw figures in Jane's lesson. I did it my own way and again went with pale colours.

The next lesson with Tam saw us making rolled paper hearts. I had fun doing this lesson but I prefer drawing or painting something less abstract. 

I didn't like the week 11 lesson at all because it talked about hate and I don't have hate in my heart. There is no room for it with all the love and happiness in there. I chose to ignore that lesson and do one from the Willowing blog about an angel. This is probably one of my favourite pieces so far. 

 The next lesson was a lot nicer and taught by Mindy Lacefield. She paints the most adorable little people and this is my take on that.

 The next lesson was a fun one by Tam. It was quirky birds and everyone seemed to love it. If you look at the Life Book 2013 group on Flickr you will see hundreds of quirky birds.

 The next lesson was a simple page with only writing on it so I have not done that one.  I moved on to this lesson based on stained glass windows with Joann Loftus. It was another fun lesson for me because it is a little different.

 

 I did two designs and couldn't decide which one to do so I did them both at the same time. I was a little disappointed when I finished the landscape because it needed more variation in colour. I realised I shouldn't have stuck with the greens for the hills and should have used some of the pinks and reds I used in the other picture. That would have added life to the image. Next time I will do that.

This weeks lesson is another one that is mainly writing on the page and very little art so I will have to go my own way again. I think that is why I am a little disappointed. Last year we did so many faces I was starting to get bored with it but at least the lessons were challenging. This year the art lessons have become more simplified and I am sometimes not inspired to do the work or I end up doing something that is not anything to do with the lesson. I will continue and see what happens. It may be only these few lessons that are like that. I have enjoyed most of the class so far and would still recommend it as great value for money.

Where have I been? you might ask.

I am sorry I have been away so long. Just a couple of days after my last post we had some major family emergencies that have kept me from wanting to blog. Both are  resolved and I hope, done with for now, so I am back to the computer again. I have not stopped making art because it helps to keep me sane but I just haven't written about it. I finished off the Life Book lessons and I will share that today.

  

This last lesson was taught by Bonnie Rose and was meant to be a self portrait but I just did a girl with wings. I love the way the page turned out and can see how much improvement I have made since the start of the year. I am tempted to redo some of my earlier work but I won't. It is good to look back and see what has changed in my art after lessons with so many different teachers. 

When the teachers were announced for this year's Life Book I could see many changes had been made and it looked like another fabulous year of lessons with lots of new teachers. I signed up because it is so cheap for what you get. I will share some of the work I have done in my next post.

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.