n2cre8n

Sketching Horses

Sketching at the beach . . . ya, that didn't suck! : )

Right behind me is my son's middle school and I had been there doing a photography workshop.  It was my day to carpool, so I had an hour to kill and took my sketchbook.

My daughter is a horse LOVER!  She takes riding lessons once per week and it has become her passion.  We re-painted her bedroom this summer and rearranged the furniture.  She and her dad are off to pick up her new bed as I type.  

So, above her bed, I told her I'd do a painting for her if she wanted one.  She said, "A horse!"  

Naturally.  I knew this was coming, but was kind of intimidated by it also.

So I began with these sketches.  I haven't drawn a horse since high school art class, so I needed some practice.

I printed some pics from online, ripped a page from a magazine, and used a horse coloring book my mom sent to my kids years ago.  

And I drew horses.

Journal Pages

Not all days are happy days; therefore, not all art journal pages are happy pages.

Sometimes, they have to be dark and messy . . . and therapeutic.

But through all hurt feelings, we eventually come to terms with the situation and make a decision on how we are going to handle it.  So I decided to make the other page about that.

I blurred out the words so you don't have to read my temper tantrum . . . but it just talked about how we try to forgive, but never forget how people make us feel.  I think there's a similar quote by Oprah or Maya Angelou.

And my decision to accept the things I can't change, forgive the ones I can, and let it go.

Thanks to Zac Brown Band for those lyrics.

Journal Pages

 
A few pages from my art journal . . . a creative book with no expectations or failures.  Some are just backgrounds waiting to be transformed, some are inspired by song lyrics, some are just spontaneous art.

 
 

 






 . . . and even hubby was inspired to try a journal page (I had to hold back my excitement so I didn't scare him away)

Time to go play some more!

Inspired 2010

Back home from the Inspired Artist Workshop ---

Wow . . . what an incredible weekend (again)!  My mom and sister came with me this year, from Wyoming.  We spent two days here in VA sight-seeing, then drove to NC for a 4-day weekend of painting, sculpting, paper-crafting, wax layering, bead-making, journal-junking, apron painting, and more. 

SO MUCH FUN!!!

Lots of catching up to do and photos to upload - but here is a little journal page I made tonight about my weekend.

Art Journal page, Boats

A journal page I did this winter about boats - from a song I love.  As a kid, I grew up going boating almost every weekend.  I should explain what boating was to my family.  Now that we live on the east coast, "boating" has a whole new meaning.  Here is can mean sailing, having a smaller ski boat, or an ocean fishing boat.  In WY, it meant taking a ski boat to a lake 45 min. away and doing some water-skiing and tubing.  A great time! 

Now that we are surrounded by water out here, I feel drawn to the water again and hope we will have a boat in the next few years.  There's something so peaceful about being out there on the water.

Boats, like the songs says, are "vessels of freedom; harbor of healing". 

Here is the finished journal page:

and how it all started . . .

the background colors were applied by some quick squirting and blending, nothing to precise, just fun playing around with colors

I then added some background patterns with stamps and glued on some images of boats I printed

I liked the overall look at this point, but felt it was too contrasting, so I chose to paint a white wash over top the whole thing and add some stencil painting (compasses)

to finish it off, I wrote the lyrics of the song that inspired this page:
"Boats" by Kenny Chesney from his Lucky Old Sun album. 

 

To hear the song put to a slideshow on youtube, click here

  

 

The Art of Happiness. The Happiness of Art.

Wow, it's been a while since I posted.  Sorry about that.  I did some photography for a small, local wedding.  Since I'm very much an amateur photographer, it consumed hours and hours of my time.  I checked lighting at the church ahead of time, made a mini book that fit in my back pocket of poses to not forget, did the wedding, then spent a gazillion more hours altering the hundreds of photos I took.  They were great people and it was a good learning experience.  You can check out some of my favorite photos from the wedding in the Photography photo album to the right. The first 15 photos are from a Senior Portrait shoot, so the wedding ones are about halfway down.

I finally started an art journal.  It's something I've been intrigued by for months now, but never got it started.  There is so much inspiration on the web, it's unbelievable.  What finally got me jump-started was Rhonna Farrer's 21-Day Challenge.  That is Day 19, so it's almost over.  But you can always start over at Day 1, if it's something that interests you.  I had to do it my own way because I'm not a consistent enough person to do anything (besides get dressed & brush my teeth) on a DAILY basis.  Nope, not my strong point.

So, anyway . . . I dug out my Artist Sketch Book that I've had a for over a year now, some paint, and some of my favorite stamps and "junk".  I will be using lots of inspiring WORDS that are moving to me.  I've recently been reading a couple books that have really helped me gain a more optimistic point of view, have written a few quotes down, and have gathered several quotes online that I save in a Word doc.  So I've decided to put ALL of these things together into a journal. 

I'm calling it "The Art of Happiness.  The Happiness of Art".  I'm still just barely getting my feet wet, so I only have the cover and first two pages to show you.  It is becoming a new priority to me, though, as it makes me totally HAPPY when I create these pages.

A work in progress . . . otherwise known as "my mess"

Cover

Closeup of a quote on the cover.  This image design is what all of Rhonna's printable quotes look like.  I edited it a bit to add in the Dr. Seuss images and take out the number of the day.  I really like this quote.  It fits with all the great stuff I've been reading about creating the life you want to live.  In case you can't read it, it's from "Oh, the Places You'll Go" and says: "You have brains in your head.  You have feet in your shoes.  You can steer yourself in any direction you choose" by Dr. Seuss.

 

Inside Pages - my word for the year is PERSEVERE - inspired by Ali Edward's One Little Word challenge, so I made that the focal point of my first pages.

A couple closeups of each page:

Want to know how to get started on one of these journals?  I've collected some info online and put it into a Word doc.  Post a comment that you'd like to receive instructions and I'll email it to you!  It's a ton of fun and will make you feel HAPPY! : )

Go ahead, make a mess . . .

Diana