More Sketching

Well, it seems that when you have a broken leg ( dear husband)
and other health issues (dear me) -
you spend a lot of time in doctor waiting rooms...
waiting of course!

I NEVER leave home without my handy dandy sketchbook
and Pitt Artist Pens.
NEVER.
You shouldn't either.
This is a page that I worked on while they were
REMOVING HUBBY'S CAST!!!

YES!
He got his cast off after 5 weeks of being restrained in one...
Mind you, he is still restrained (are you reading this dear husband?!)
but the cast is gone, gone, gone!
He is still on crutches, with orders to limit his weight bearing to about 20-30%.
But he is healing - which is great!
Thanks for all of the emails and well wishes.
I (well we) really appreciate that.

I'll try to post another finished sketchbook page tomorrow.
Maybe a new piece of artwork as well!
Yep, I completed yet another mixed media collage piece today!
I mounted the piece in another shadow box, with a black background this time.
It really looks so nice with the different background.

Hope that you all are keeping cool in this heat wave in the east.
I'm doing my outside work early in the am
and then late in the pm...
like every other southern resident!

Stay creative, my friends.

Tenderness

My husband knows how much I love getting fresh flowers,
and having them in our home just brings this...I don't know, this tenderness to each room that they are in.
This weekend, he brought me some beautiful roses.
All goldenrod, yellow, orange, apricot colored...just beautiful!
I was taking pictures of them each day - watching the progression of how they open and show more luscious colors...
enjoy this with me.

August sketches

I have always love to draw, to sketch...to put pen (or pencil) to paper

and leave my mark.

My vision of what I see...

whether it's a one of a kind thumbnail from nature,

or my take on a famous painting or drawing.

My son seems to have the same desire...or fire...or ability.

Take your pick.

We could be left alone for hours with nothing more than a sketchbook and a pen and

we. would. be. cool.

Ask my husband (yep, Mr. Wonderful)

(the one that buys me all those cool sketchbooks and pens!)

(and totally fills my soul)

(forgot to say this - right before the (yep,) part)

did anyone but me understand this?

I'll bet Laura, Liz, Tama, Charlotte and Judy did! (Hey my soul sister peeps!)

Well - I totally got side tracked, didn't I?

I do that a lot.

A lot.
Creative minds and all that you know.

Back to the original post thing...

Sketch books, awesome husband, talented son and drawing...not in that order but my world revolves around it!

So - I have been doing a lot of sketching of thumbnail drawings here lately.

And loving it.

I totally recommend this activity to anyone that is interesting in drawing.

I'm going to share the last two pages

of my sketch book cause - well, cause I like to share.

And I think that showing all of you some good art work along with some not-so-good-artwork will make you feel better about what you're doing.

Or not doing.
Whatever the case may be.

The point being that if you want to draw better

YOU HAVE TO DRAW!!!!

Seriously...You might say "Oh, I wish I could draw like you do."

But if you want to do that (not like me but anyone that can "draw")

you have to draw.

A. Lot.

Like- everyday helps.

Doesn't have to be a masterpiece (but if it turns out to me - good for you!)

just a little bitty bit of daily drawing.

Could you do this for a week?

Could you?

Let's try it, okay?

It won't be hard for me because I already draw just about every day anyway.

Alright - draw daily for a week and then compare your drawings.

I'll bet that you will be very surprised at how much better you are.

It's like doing (sewing, drawing, painting, golf, playing a musical instrument, cooking, running) the more you practice, the better that you are!

Painting. Sewing. Quilting. Golf. Driving. Playing a musical instrument. Cooking.

You get the picture.

So - if you want to be able to draw better...

then what are you going to do?

Draw.

Oh- see the drawing of the dragon'ish circular image above? I saw a billboard going towards Charlotte NC yesterday that had a similar image that was a silver bracelet (or ear rings - not sure which) but they looked awesome! I wrote down the designer and the jewelry store...

might have to check that out ladies!

It appeared to be one of those pieces of jewelry that may take up gifts for the next four years though...

any jewelry designers out there that could make something like that for less?

Please email me...

Art Journal

Those of you that read my blog regularly(or know me personally) probably know that my (awesome) husband is a college baseball umpire -in addition to being a sales engineer during the day.
Since I love to be with him, I often travel with him to his games. One of the things that I have learned is to carry projects with me that I can work on while riding in the car, sitting at a ball game or occupying myself while waiting on his return. Working on my Art Journal is one of those perfect projects!

I have put together what I call "my drawing/art journal case". It is basically one of those "Art Bin" type cases - except I went to Hobby Lobby to the scrapbook section, armed with a 40% off coupon (you DO know that you can get one of these coupons online, usually every other week, don't you...?

What?!
You didn't know that?

O!M!G!

Listen up dog...
Go to their website - they have wonderful sales every week but usually every other week they have a 40% off coupon on any one item. One coupon per person. I usually make my husband and my son go with me if there is more than one item I want..I mean need.

whoops...

Anyway, I purchased a nice, heavy plastic bin that I can slide the little closure things over in order to lock it closed (since I have so many little things in there). All I have to do now, when it's time to go (since I usually wait until the last minute to get ready...) is grab my handy dandy art case and head out the door.
I've got everything I could need to draw, shade, color and paint an art journal page.
A couple of my favorite things are Pitt Pens. The four pack that has xs, s, f and m sizes in it. I also love the Windsor Newton compact watercolor paints. That is really an awesome little set that has bold, bright colors in it.
The page that I posted was drawn with the above mentioned pens then colored with the watercolor paints.
Hopefully you'll be able to zoom in and see the tiny shading details on it.
I've been doing some more painting it the studio.
I'll try to get pictures of all that as well. Did some really nice background textures and started painting a girl I drew earlier for Paulette Insall's "Faces" class.
Gotta run right now, I'm traveling with my handsome hubby this evening to Western Carolina College in Cullowee NC. It's a nice ride and I'll plenty of time to draw, paint and nap - I mean write - on the way.

Christmas News...a little late

Guess who I spent my Christmas with?

No Ideas?

How about Mary Stori,

Cate Coulacos Prato,

Rayna Gillman

and

Lynn Koolish?

Betcha' never guessed that?

My husband bought me three great books

"Mixed Media Self-Portraits" by Cate Prato

"Create Your Own Hand-Printed Cloth" by Rayna Gilllman

and "Fast, Fun & Easy Fabric Dyeing" by Lynn Koolish.

And an awesome beading DVD from Mary Stori!

I had told him that I wanted Cate's book and Mary's DVD

and then good ole' Amazon told

him that I would probably like the other ones!

How cool is THAT!

At first I thought that he had seen my "wish list" on Amazon,

but then I remembered it is not in a public form.

Then I remembered that I had seen the "If you ordered this, you may like this" list

after ordering in the past.

I, for one, am very thankful for the

"let's prompt this man to spend more money "

list from Amazon.

And I am thankful for all the talented ladies

that put so much hard work

into writing and contributing to these wonderful books and the DVD!

And if you have not see these books or Mary's DVD,

then run over to your favorite book dealer (or Amazon!)

and

check them out!

Happy Holidays All!

The Rust Bug

My husband has caught The Rust Bug! Ever since I made the first rust fabric, he has been collecting rusty items for me (or for himself if the truth be told).

A few days ago, we gathered up our growing collection of rusty tid bits, armed ourselves with our secret mixtures of Rust Energizer and got to Work.

We layered.

We spritzed.

We pondered over placement.

As he was studying over where to place each particular piece of treasure, I was itching to just throw all of it on the fabric.

His engineering brain was very methodical...

My Crazy Callie brain was running here, there and yonder.

He added one fat quarter of fabric...

I added a piece of vintage lace, a wadded up kimwipe, a bit of cotton string, a torn piece of loosely woven fabric.

He added a beautiful old gear from a meat grinder...

I added 10 rusty nails, a bolt, a washer and 5 pieces of an old bent & broken tin can.

So (and I say this with laughter in my eyes)you can see how well we work together.

Each of us appreciate and even envy the others creative spirit.

I stand back and watch him work in his exacting way,

my mind screaming,"Hey, try this! Try that!".

He moves out of my way

even as his mind is screaming "Stop!Stop!"

and, in the end both of our ways work,

very nicely I might add...

Very nicely indeed.

That must have been one of the pieces that I could no longer stand it on...I tossed a handful of rusty nails in for good measure!

If you look on the bottom left hand side of this fabric, you'll see the image of a beautiful old key. It wasn't rusty but it acted as a resist for what was under it. In the next picture, you'll see the other side of this fabric...

The key image is now in the upper left of the picture. It is shaped kinda like the key, but you would not recognize it as the same image, now would you? There must be some chemical action or reaction that causes each side of the fabric to look different. One side had the outline of the pieces that you use...while the opposite side of fabric will have the entire image appear as solid rust. Hmmm. it makes for some really interesting pieces!

Look at all the awesome shapes and colors in this piece. This is PFD fabric from Big Horn Quilts.

Vintage lace from my Grandmother's stash, kimwipe, cotton lace and a torn piece of loosely woven fabric.

Rust Fabric

I made some rust fabric , using Fiber Art Workshop as a guide. It was so much fun to do...my husband thought I was kinda crazy though..looking for rusty things in his shop. I have posted a few pictures of how it turned out. The 2 pictures are of the same piece , just front and back. So that's cool that you would get such different looks from the same piece. I might try to do some more , it was very simple to do. Oh, and I do recommend the above book. It's an invaluable tool to have around.