AEDM Day 30 Variations on a Tree Theme

For the last day of AEDM, I present you with the last tree in the series I have created this month. I didn't set out to create a series but after the second tree it seems that they have, with much encouragement from many of you, taken on a life of their own!

Thank you all for your wonderful words and nudging to keep going!

Here is the last one:

(excessively dressed up for the holidays!)

and the model. Created to help me with the night version (Day 19) and the collage version (Day 16), I printed and cut out Day 1 and have been using it to try to keep the same basic shape. It was sitting on my desk and everytime I see it, I smile so I thought I'd include it too. 

(My cropping with the scanner makes it look larger than it is.)

And here (if this works in Picasa - well it did, then it didn't so try #2) is the full collage versions of "Variations on a Tree". It has been great to experiment with so many different media to such different effects. The only thing I didn't really try was thick acrylics but I couldn't do that within my CED2010 book. Maybe at some point I will play on a canvas, just to see how it looks.

Well, it's been a very fun month!! So nice to get to know so many new people!! So fabulous to see such amazing art created!! Wow!!!!

I'm looking forward to weekly vs daily check-ins and finishing up CED2010 in 31 days time. Hope to see most of you every Monday until then!

xoxo

EVA

AEDM Day 29

Today I thought I'd do another silly  girl with a funny hat and then finish up my "Variations on a Tree" theme tomorrow with the final version and a collage of all the trees together. It seems like a fitting end to finish up the formal AEDM. I'll still be continuing to create every day in 2010 though I am looking forward to checking-in weekly instead of daily!. I'm almost finished Book 4 and will start Book 5 soon. I'm still amazed at myself that I've made it this far!

Are you continuing in December?

AEDM Day 28

I'm feeling wiped after a busy weekend both of creating, cleaning, organizing, cooking, shopping, cleaning, laundry etc etc etc ...  You know the drill!

My little AEDM/CED2010 sketch reflects this!

Sunday Sketching 21Nov2010 SBP Jellyfish, People, Ideas, the Pot and the Empty Roll

I am getting a little fretful about The Sketchbook Project and have decided that if I want to

a) finish on time

b) get all my Christmas preparations done

c) enjoy a relaxing Christmas

I have to ramp up speed and progress. And for me, accountability helps. I know Sophia didn't create Sunday Sketching check-ins exactly for this purpose. I think she also wanted to encourage sketching actually on Sundays (I think). But it is such a wonderful group that I hope you don't mind if I report my progress here. Somehow knowing that I am showing it, seems to get it actually done. Two of these were done today and the others were created earlier in the week. 

How many of you are (still) working on the SBP? How many pages left? (Are you panicking yet?) Do accountability and check-ins help you?

I may need help with my challenging theme. So far ideas are still forming but I have 19 spreads, 2 half pages and the cover yet to do! So any ideas for "I'm sorry I forgot you" that you'd like to see me try to do? (I've eliminated a bunch of my ideas since they need to be doable by me, not repetitive and not too negative ideally.) I've thought up lots of depressing ideas but I'd rather go with silliness or humour. Thanks for any and all comments!

Today:

Thanks to Pavinee @ Have a Merry Day who inadvertently inspired this one (double clicking helps the pencil show up better)

Earlier in the week:

Looking forward to seeing all your Sunday Sketches!!

AEDM Day 27

An incredibly busy day today cleaning and organizing (all puckered out) but I did take some time out to do a zen doodle for AEDM.

AEDM Day 26

Though I have taken a break from my "Variations on a Tree" theme, I had a few more ideas to come back to later. Today I woke up to a nice little snowfall, so I thought today I'd go with this one!

AEDM Day 25 "Ingenuity"

HAPPY THANKSGIVING to all my American friends and readers. I hope you have a wonderful day and create fabulous meals for your family and friends! Thank you all for visiting out my little blog and for your friendship and encouragement since I started this!

I have been thinking about Inspiration Avenue's weekly challenge of "Ingenuity" since it was announced and also thinking I want to sketch more faces. Then an "Aha" moment! Why don't I sketch the person who most personifies ingenuity to me? Thus my (very amateur) sketch of Thomas Edison with his light bulb...

I have also been thinking about a piece by one of my favourite (living) artists - Marcus Pierson's "The Dreamer" and thought I'd share it with you...

Marcus’s words found on the painting read: “I knew they were laughing. I knew they thought it wouldn’t work. No matter. For by simply daring to make it I had cast myself from their lot. I was a dreamer.”

AEDM Day 24 Whimsical Pilgrim

Thinking of my U.S. friends as your Thanksgiving approaches... a whimsical pilgrim for today's effort and for Dan Haase's new Whimsical Wednesday challenge.

Happy Thanksgiving tomorrow as you all create marvelous meals!!

AEDM Day 23

I'm starting again to have days when I have no idea what I want to create. The blank page haunts and taunts me. Eventually something comes but  it is often a surprise what it will be....

Hope you're having the type of day where the ideas flow in advance of encountering the blank page!

AEDM Day 22

This year I have done a number of zen doodles which start as circles. Are these zen mandalas? Or something else? I don't know as really it's just me playing around. Yesterday I thought I'd do another version of "the tree" using that type of zen doodle but I got distracted with a crayoned landscape (that I'm quite taken with and may turn into a new header...). So here today is what I meant to do then.

It's Monday and back to work, so it will be harder to check in on everyone's AEDM activity... but I will try to sample as I can!

AEDM Day 21

A bit of a change today... thought I'd zen doodle but ended up playing with crayons...

Also finished two more pages for the Sketchbook Project which I posted to Blue Chair Diary's weekly Sunday Sketching - another very wonderful and warm group to participate in.

Sunday Sketching 21Nov2010 SBP Shakespeare and The Grocery List

Sunday Sketches with Blue Chair Diary continue to be a great venue to help me work on my challenging SBP theme of "I'm sorry I forgot you..." Here are my contributions for today.

 and

Still way too many pages left but at least there is forward motion! Looking forward to seeing your efforts!

AEDM Day 20 "Incognito"

No tree today! The theme for Inspiration Avenue's Weekly Challenge is "Incognito" and that's the inspiration for today's little creation:

This is a lovely group to participate in and the entries close Sunday noon if any of you AEDMers need an idea for today or tomorrow!!

AEDM Day 19

I thought I was going to work on something entirely different today but my subconscious kept saying - "do the tree at night". And I have tube watercolours I haven't tried yet so I listened and these formed today's little creation.

Hopefully I'll get an opportunity to catch up with what all the AEDM participants are doing this weekend rather than the intermittent sampling I've only had time for during the week. 

P.S. Is it too many trees yet?

AEDM Day 18

"No such thing as too many trees" Dan says! So here is another - watercolour version this time...

Will there be more? I don't know yet. Maybe or I may do something else for a few days then return to the "Variations on a tree" theme. I will definitely try to put them together in a collage or poster as Judy and others have suggested.

AEDM Day 17

I've been encouraged to keep going on the Variations of a Tree theme so I searched my art drawers to see if I had any media or tools I hadn't used yet and discovered several. Today I used pencil pastels. Very different from the oil pastels of last week but equally messy. I probably should have smudged more to blend but I did these before leaving for work and didn't want my fingers too stained...

With the limited colours I have of these, this almost look Christmasy!

AEDM Day 16

Is this the last in the series? I'm still not sure! Maron suggested collage so here is my tree - collaged:

Have you ever done such a series? Same (roughly) image using various media? Will you link to it in the  comments?

AEDM Day 15

I was encouraged to keep on going with my variations on the tree theme. So today's little creation is done using my fun Caran D'Ache watercolour crayons (sans eau/without water). Like the last time I played with these crayons here, various colours cried out to be used that weren't in my planned palette. I listened....

Last week, one of the AEDM participants who I have just met, Michelle Pendergrass, posted an amazing photo that she had taken. I looked at it and looked at it and the urge to paint took over. I am a very novice painter and this is only the second real painting I've done since joining CED2010 in January. Here is my take on her photo:

Scanned below (Grass at edge of first image is grass in second image. I couldn't quickly figure out how to paste the images together as canvas was bigger than the scanner!)

Sitting on my easel with the photo on top:

And Yuri wanting to be involved in the filming process:

Anyways, beautiful photo Michelle!! I'm not sure about the painting - I like parts of it but might have to tweak it a bit. We'll see.

Lastly for Leah, who was musing about stuffing recipes - my Lemon Cornbread Stuffing recipe from an old Food & Wine Cookbook. Love it! (Double-clicking should enlarge it. Hmm, perhaps I should include the turkey recipe too as it is different from many with a much shorter cooking time yet always moist. Maybe tomorrow... if anyone is interested.)

Until (late) tomorrow!

Sunday Sketching 14Nov2010 SBP Play and Lest we Forget

Sunday Sketching with Blue Chair Diary is not only a fun group to participate in but a great way for me to keep working on my Sketchbook Project. Having a place to check-in on it adds accountability for myself and I sure need that to make progress! January will be here in no time and the empty pages still daunt me. But there are 2 less empty spreads as of today! Thanks again, Sophia, for hosting this great group!

I am also thrilled I used new ideas, inspired by the week instead of digging into my stash of "I'm sorry I forgot you" thoughts. There aren't too many there so it is great to keep the ones I have for those brain dead Sundays when I can't think of anything else!

Inspiration here is obvious:

On Monday, I played with crayons for AEDM, creating a butterfly turned moth and my SBP pal Lisa commented on forgetting about her crayons. Aha! Another idea was formed! Thanks Lisa!

Looking forward to seeing your sketches!

AEDM Day 14 "Community"

Today I am combining AEDM (Art Every Day Month) with Inspiration Avenue's weekly challenge where the theme is "Community" this week. I thought I'd put together a community of my "Girls with Funny Hats". 

They love to hang out together and design and create new hats and outfits together either for their own selves or for each other. 

AEDM Day 13

Today I am finishing up my "variations of a tree" theme with a charcoal version. These have been a great way to come up with ideas for AEDM - the same image using different media. I could probably stretch it with painting or collage but I'm not sure if I will. Should I?

Here (again) are all the other styles/media versions to compare. It's kind of fun to experiment this way. Charcoals and pastels are so messy but I do like the effect at times.

Pen Pointillism Style

 Zen Doodle style

Oil Pastels

Now that it is the weekend, I will try to visit more of the artists participating in AEDM. There are so many that it adds a second challenge to the AEDM challenge, or maybe a third as I find posting every day versus a weekly check-in to be a huge challenge!! Meanwhile my other big challenge for the weekend is cleaning closets! Hope you have a great weekend!

AEDM Day 12

Continuing my tree theme using different styles or media. Today I tried my oil pastels, after yesterday's zen doodle, and Wednesday's pen pointillism. I really like pastels except for 2 things: the messiness and that crisp lines are a major challenge. Still the effect has a certain charm and it was fun to do.

I'll be trying to sample more of all the artists participating in AEDM this weekend. Lots of great discoveries!

AEDM Day 11

Variations on a theme. Yesterday day I did a tree with falling leaves in a pen pointillism style. Today here is roughly the same image in a zen doodling style.

Now to decide if I want to try yet another style with this image/theme or move on to something else? What an amazing gang of artists that are participating in AEDM at Creative Every Day! Wish I had the time to look at everyone's efforts but it is totally overwhelming. I kept up when the check-ins were weekly but unfortunately this is too much for me. Sampling it will be...

AEDM Day 10

Pondering my next media yesterday - pastels or pens - Missy voted for pens. Then I started dreaming last night about dots, so today's little efforts is another little effort based on pen pointillism sketching.

Last time I tried this, I did (roughly) the same image a few different ways. Tomorrow I might do something similar zen doodled? Or pasteled? (At least I have a idea for tomorrow! That is a big bonus!!)

AEDM Day 9

Yesterday was crayons, today is watercolours (over a little sketch). Debating over pastels or pens for tomorrow.... which will it be!?

It is so hard to visit everyone and see what you all are up to! So many wonderful participants in AEDM!

AEDM Day 8

What to do each day? This month seems harder than most to come up with ideas! (I guess after 300+ days of creating every day, that's no surprise but...) 

I think I will play around with media this week. After only having pens and pencil while travelling last week, it might be fun to play with my other tools(toys).

Today is crayons.I thought this would be a brilliantly coloured butterfly but instead a moth emerged!

Oops, I guess I sketched too close to the inside/gutter of my CED2010 book!

AEDM Day 7

By the time I finished with my two Sketchbook Project aka SBP pages, I almost ran out of ideas for AEDM!

Here is one of my "girls with funny hats" doodles dressed up for the colder weather....

Sunday Sketching 07Nov2010 SBP Walking and Remembering

Back from my business trips and trying to get caught up, get back sketching and back to seeing what y'all (my last stop was Texas) have been up to! My sketches today are more work on my SBP "I'm sorry I forgot you" theme. 

Now back to laundry and seeing your work!

Catching up from my unposted week(s)

I am now back from a week away. Unfortunately I didn't have time to post these before leaving so they seem way behind schedule. But since I am still on track for my year's Creative Every Day (CED2010) Challenge, I wanted to put them up! 

Monday: Playing with crayons...

Tuesday:

Wednesday: Thinking about Hallowe'en...

Thursday:

Friday: Travelling on a jet plane.... so I won't be able to use mine! 

Saturday: The Happy Face - in Disguise!

Sunday: A participant at my conference.....

Tomorrow Art Every Day Month starts at Creative Every Day. Posting daily is encouraged rather than the usual weekly check-ins. After I get caught up from my travels, I will try to keep up with the daily posting for the rest of the November. I think posting every day will be harder than creating every day! It almost seems like twice the effort as each post is a creation in and of itself! Looks like there will be lots of new artists there to meet and share their efforts!

Hope you had a good two weeks and I look forward to seeing what you were up to while I was away!