Creative Tuesdays - Mistletoe

The theme at Creative Tuesdays is MISTLETOE and of course mistletoe goes with Kissing! But feeling silly I decided to go for a slightly non-traditional version...

Hope you have a great day and that it continues to be creative! I will visit everyone when I can.

(Oh and I decided to start decorating for Xmas - with a nutcracker background, of course!)

Sunday Sketches and back finally to my FACES Sketchbook

It's been awhile since I have sketched anything much - I have missed Sophia and Sunday Sketches at Blue Chair Diary so often (and much) this year - nothing to show, to participate with.... I am also hopelessly behind on my book of faces that I started work on earlier this year. Saturday night however, I sat down with a newspaper for inspiration and started to sketch. 

from an advertisement...

 maybe recognizable...

Looking forward to visiting everyone and seeing your sketching efforts!

Paint Party Friday - Week 38 - A Snowman is Created!

Which came first - the chicken or the egg? As one of the hosts of Paint Party Friday, I know what the post and poll will be about in advance - though I rarely integrate what I do here with PPF. This week was different. But I'm unsure if the idea for the post came first or the idea for this little painting did!

After seeing the fabulous Christmas art that many of you are creating, and thinking about my wonderful nutcracker painting that Kristin created.... I wondered - could I do something like that now that I have been painting a bit longer?

Not quite brave enough to start with a nutcracker, I decided on a snowman painting to add to my collections of snowmen soon to escape from their long storage sleep... 

A Friendly Snowman!

Straight on

Right Side continues...

Left side...

"Top" Hat...

  

 

Bottom scarf...

8x8

As the nutcrackers and snowmen come out for Christmas, I think some will serve as models for new paintings. Yes - I think a nutcracker WILL be next!

Hope you have a great time at the party! I'm looking forward to seeing what you've been painting this week.

Paint Party Friday - Week 37 - New Header! And W.I.P.

Hope all my American friends had a wonderful Thanksgiving Thursday and have a great long weekend! 

I was working on two things this week - a watercolour pencil and paint play on the word THREE for Creative Tuesday and a notebook cover. I had so much fun creating this silly piece that I have decided to use it as a new blog header. My little robin has been wanting to fly south and seemed sadly out of season at the moment.  I'm not sure how long my jazzy blind mice will last until they are replaced by something Christmasy. (Hmm - I just gave myself an idea - I love it when that happens! Maybe by next week we'll see if it works!)

New Header (and above)

Old Header (You may see him back again in Spring!)

I bought a new notebook. I really like this brand as they have a hard cover, better than usual quality of paper, and a folding magnetic edge to keep things from falling out (Cambridge Business Notebooks). I wasn't paying close attention though when I bought it (them). I started writing in it as soon as I brought it home and then peeled off the label. I was very disappointed to discover the cover was faded everywhere except where the label was. Ugh. What to do? 

Why not paint it?! So first a coat of black gesso. Then my wonderful friend the Moon. And a dark sky. I know there will be stars... should there be something else?

Work-in-Progress

Have a great time at Paint Party Friday! Looking forward to seeing what you have painted!

Creative Tuesdays - Three Blind (Jazz-Playing) Mice

THREE - 3. 

Word association games go wild in my head... Three - Three Blind Mice. BLIND - musicians ...Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles - very cool jazzy piano players. And if there were three - what other instruments (that I could draw) might be in a jazz trio?

Et voila! My silly fun piece for Mr. Toast's Creative Tuesdays.

I'm thinking of making this my new header as winter is almost here and my little robin no longer feels timely... 

Looking forward to seeing everyone's CT efforts! Thanks Mmm - I had fun thinking about this one and working on it!

Paint Party Friday - Week 36 - An experiment - unsure if successful though

I've been working away at a fun little sketch/painting for Mr. Toast's Creative Tuesday * and didn't get much painting done this week. But I still wanted to come to the party and have been wanting to try painting abstracts and also to try using a limited pallette.

Well.... not so sure I was successful but here it is! Not quite the abstract look I was going for but it might be an abstract landscape....

It's only on a heavy paper so instead of trying to fix it, I think I will move on to another experiment. (My  paper is too big for my scanner - I think I need a bigger scan-bed!)

Hope you have a great time at the Paint Party Friday and have a great week with some experimentation in it!

* Come back Tuesday to see my fun and silly little piece!

Paint Party Friday - Week 35 - I've looked at clouds....

from both sides now...
From up and down, and still somehow,
It's cloud illusions I recall,
I really don't know clouds, at all.
(Joni Mitchell)

I've been thinking about clouds. And painting skies. Some of you PPFers paint the most amazing skies! I think this is a skill I want to learn. So here is my attempt at painting clouds...doesn't make for a very exciting journal page/painting but it takes practice, right? I tried these in my Walking in my World journal, using watercolours and some acrylic white paint for the clouds.

Clear sky with a few clouds (poor scan...)

Unusual cloud in Orlando (which always seems to have the most amazing clouds...)

Do you have any tricks for painting clouds? Want to share your secrets? 

Have a great time at Paint Party Friday!