Sunday Sketches and Creative Tuesdays - Four Seasons Tree

Sundays seem so busy lately and I have been missing Sunday Sketches with Sophia of Blue Chair Diary! So this week I wanted to get back on track. I was thinking about the seasons recently and how we may have skipped one! Spring never seemed to come here or if it did it was so rainy that it was hard to notice. And yesterday felt like full on summer. (Yay!) Any decent day - the garden (and the weeds) call and I need to be outside working instead of inside on my computer. I did however make some time one rainy day and played with Creative Tuesday's (which I have also been missing lately) theme of "tree". I thought it might be fun to try my own variation of the Four Seasons Tree:

I have also been working on my pointillism tree painting (which if you're joining in at Paint Party Friday you've already seen).

WIP - Pointillist Tree

I'm looking forward to seeing everyone's effort at Sunday Sketches and Creative Tuesdays but it may take me until the evening or when the forecasted rain arrives (sigh) to visit!

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 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 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 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!

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!!)