Documented Life ....using underpaper

 What is underpaper, you say? Well, it's the paper you keep on under your journal when you are painting, to keep the table clean. I've gotten to where I will empty the brush out on that paper before I clean it out in a glass of water to change colors. You end up with a nice colorful paper that can be used in other projects. This turtle was sketched on one of those papers.

The ocean is also made from underpapers. I found some Hawaiian proverbs online, and since I love Hawaii, I decided to make a page from one of those. The theme for the week was "What lies beneath" and Hawaii has a lot "beneath" with volcanoes and the ocean all around.

Originally I had a page facing this one that included a volcano and lava underground, but it was too bold for this page, and I wanted the turtle to be the focus. So, I cut this page out and glued it to another page to stand alone. Sometimes, you just have to edit a little. When we were in Hawaii, we saw green sea turtles many times, and one swam up to us one day when we were swimming in a lagoon. It was a rather magical moment!

 Gorgeous black cliffs and the prettiest blues ever.

A fisherman and his son with their nets, while turtles sleep nearby.

Drawing at the lake...

It's been windy and cold at the lake. We have no heat there, so we bundle up, or even sometimes go out antiquing to get warm!

I've been spending time on the porch where the sun heats it up a little better.

I've been painting backgrounds and drawing flowers. While things would dry on the backgrounds, I'd go out and draw some plant from the yard.

I've only made ATCs once before (a long time ago), but we had some playing cards that didn't make a whole deck, so I gessoed them. I put it on kind of thick so it takes a while to dry.

I brought Derwent Inktense pencils with me, so that's what I used to color the ATCs and also to add color to my drawing. These are very cool pencils...different from watercolor pencils in some important ways. There is a nice article HERE about the differences. The colors are much bolder once they are wet with a brush, and I'm still getting used to that. In real life, the climbing hydrangea is very subtle colors that would be easily achieved with watercolor, but I veered from reality and made them brighter since I was using the Inktense pencils.

Loving playing with the colors. I colored some directly on the cards and then wet with a damp paper towel. Others I loaded the brush with water and used the pencil as a watercolor pan, drawing up pigment that I could paint with and splatter around.

I wrote on some with Indian ink before or after painting. It will be interesting to see where these go.

Three Rivers

This is a piece that was commissioned. I wanted to incorporate elements of the recipient's Native American heritage. All the elements have meaning, the ledger paper I drew the Indian on, the map, the stars, the 7 feathers, the arrowheads.  It was interesting trying to get it all to work together. The customer was very happy with it, and that makes me happy!

I wanted to use the 7 feathers, and I also wanted to make them look a bit magical, and the "zentangle" or doodling seemed to fit the bill. The little dots and circles are to represent the wind....to make them kind of swirl around the piece.

I loved making these feathers and will be making more of them, I'm sure!

I drew this hunter from the image on the website. I tried to find multiple images to work from, but the one on the Sappony website was the only image I found of a Sappony Indian. I went ahead and drew from it, since I wanted the Indian to be accurate for that tribe, and not a generic image.  So, I did him in ink on vintage ledger paper, and antiqued the edges a bit with ink from a stamp pad.

Feathers and pressing on

I was going a bit crazy last night. I'd been trying to do the background for a piece that I need to have done soon, and nothing was going right. I kept muddying up the colors and...well my mojo had left the building. So I covered it all in gesso and started over. I decided that maybe simpler was better, and I picked 2 greens and a yellow and applied them with a credit card. I like it! Especially since I've started drawing over it with the white. I need to work some antiquey papers on to it as well, and I'm not sure how that's going to work, but think I might be able to mesh the two somehow. I have a couple ideas floating around in my head.

Do you suppose she's a wildflower?

I've been enjoying doing some backgrounds the way Rae Missigman shows on her blog...the 15 minute background. It's quick and fun...you can just let loose and work fast. It makes it easy to experiment with colors that you might not use much too. Here is the background I made tonight in less than 15 minutes. I started on a page that I'd taken notes on, so it already had a layer of interest. Then I layered on the paint.

Now, dolling it up, takes a bit longer. I took it to the couch and doodled on it some while I watched TV. Then I got some papers out. The girl on the bicycle is from a candle advertisement that my neighbor saved for me. I love that people are starting to save interesting papers for me! I had a dictionary with the word "foxglove" on it, so I drew a foxglove on the page and glued it in too. More doodling and a quote from Alice in Wonderland, and I had a page I really like. Sorry for the glare..I might take a new pic when I have daylight.

Praying Mantis

I've been thinking about things I want to accomplish in my yard this year. I can't really call it a garden...the back yard doesn't have anything planted except one cherry tree I planted last year. I want to set my fire pit up, I want to plant to draw birds and butterflies, and I'd love to fence it so that I can just let Hawkeye out without having to watch him every second. Here is another critter I'm always happy to see in the garden.

This is drawing on one of the prints made on the gelli plate. The bug was lost in the background completely until I added the color and beefed up the main outlines a bit. I used Sharpie markers and a PITT pen. If I had it to do over, I'd have painted the leaf in with a lighter green so you could see his legs better, but I was at work and impatient, so I used the markers I had.

The wonder is......trees in my art journal.

Who doesn't love trees? Incredibly, I've actually known a few who don't, but to me trees are a wonder. I did another 15 minute background for this one, but using entirely different colors from the last one. It made me think of the woods. I seem to have a lot of quotes going in this journal, and I think I'll just keep adding more of my favorites.

Draw a Bird (part 2)

Today felt like spring! I decided to draw a robin on the back of the Big Bird page. Luckily for me, it was already painted robin's egg blue! I don't think I've ever tried to draw a bird head on, but I like this mama bird.

Documented Life Prompt: What makes me me?

This week's prompt was "What makes you you?" I'm  work in progress and so that's how I started this page.

 Drawing a caterpillar on an old book page...used a little pencil first to make sure I got him about the right size to fit on the page later.

Extreme caterpillar closeup. 

This is moving along, at a snail's pace, because I'm not sure what I want to write. I knew I wanted to approach it from the idea of being a work in progress, and changing, hence the caterpillar to butterfly. I think many of us can relate to the hopeful idea that we can go from where we are, and grow and improve ourselves. Sometimes we might even have to hide in a cocoon for a while along the way!  As usual, I read a lot when looking for images to draw, and have learned from this article in Scientific American this amazing bit about how the metamorphosis happens.

Here it is all done (I think). I wanted to mostly think about what makes me me, in a positive fashion....and a few of the things I try to work on and do better.

Butterflies...it's spring time as far as I'm concerned.

I worked on a planner page today, inspired by my the beautiful pictures of butterflies my cousin posted on Facebook. I don't have the page done, but I did a little drawing of a monarch butterfly and glued him to a bright yellow planner page. Lately I've been using a lot of strong sunny colors and I think it's because I'm craving something besides cold, snow, sleet, and gray skies. I can't make it happen outside, but I can make it happen in my art journal. It might hurt your eyes to look at this one when I get it done. Stay tuned!

She sells seashells down by the seashore.

More doodling around on Bingo cards. I still might add some watercolor to the seashells. Makes me think of nice sandy beaches and warm sun on this cold day!

 Small pieces that have to be seen close up to catch the background, which is made with paints plus ephemera including maps and trading stamps.

Honu

I drew this from a photo I took at Pu'uhonua o Honaunau. I picked a page stamped with the park's stamps while I was there. If you are traveling and you don't seem to be getting time to draw, carry your sketchbook anyway. As you go you can collect postmarks, national park stamps, stickers, maps, and postage stamps from places you visit. Don't forget to collect bits of ephemera like napkins, menus, ticket stubs and the like. It's good to glue an envelope in the back of your journal (if it doesn't have one already) in which to save all these goodies.

Lava at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park

Today I dug out the maps and bits and pieces I brought home from Hawaii. I want to make pages for some of the park stamps I collected in my sketchbook while we were there. I thought I might be hauling too many brochures and maps home, but now I wish I had packed even more! This page is about the types of lava on the island..the smooth and curvy pahoehoe, and the ouchie a'a. Facinating stuff, how the earth is formed!

Here is a pic of the a'a lava...it's truly next to impossible to walk over! Looks like another world, doesn't it?

 While I was at it I added a Hibiscus to the corner of the page I did awhile back. It looked a little blank there..so it got the state flower.

Pepeekeo on Dwellable

April Showers Bring Mermaids

I think April is about done....just a few more days to comment on and then it's history. I just thought I'd show you all the finished calendar.

I kind of like this purple/yellow/white fish saying hello down in the corner.

Fish, Jellyfish, and

other sea creatures....

We what the land folks loves to cook
Under the sea we off the hook
We've got no troubles, life is the bubbles
Under the sea...
~from the movie "The Little Mermaid"

April Calendar...

For Christmas, Joe gave me this giant sized Moleskine sketchbook. I'd never seen one so big, and knew right away what I wanted to do with it. I decided to start doing calendars again with the new year. Well, this it the first one, but better late than never! I don't do these as "to do" calendars to remind me of dates. Instead I doodle on them as the month goes by and try to remember to write something that happened each day...more like a little diary, I suppose. If I skip days, it gives me more squares to doodle on.

This month I hit it with a little watercolor first...

Then I laid out the squares using little post-it notes, and hit it with some spray ink. Then I took the notes off and hit it with a little more spray ink...just 'cause it's fun.

Next I started doodling the circles on the lines, because doodling is a great way to start. I did circles while watching TV.....have to keep my hands busy while Dancing With the Stars! Eventually, as the month went along and it rained and rained, I started drawing fish and realized we are under water this month. I still have some days left, and some more creatures to add, so I'll post another photo later.

I had a fresh, juicy stamp pad and some of the ink bled through so I think I may do a spread of snapshots between calendars. It'll be a calendar/scrapbook! I started making calendars occasionally when I saw Tracy's on Flickr....they are wonderful. There are lots more arty calendars in this Flickr group. Check them out.

Rainbow Falls, Hilo, Hawaii

I haven't drawn in several weeks as I've been spending some time with my sister and her family. I'm feeling very, very rusty. I dug out the Hawaii photos to try and get back into the swing of it. And it was hard! (whine, whine) But at least I have broken the ice and gotten started again.

Our family is reeling from the loss of my brother-in-law, Doug. He was a wonderful person and left us much too soon. I have talked to so many people lately whose only sign of a heart attack was shortness of breath (this was Doug's symptom too).  Please familiarize yourself with the signs of heart disease.

Bloom

Using one of those pages from yesterday, and a quote from Emerson. The moth is out of a vintage children's dictionary, and some child had traced around it so many times I didn't even have to cut it out. I just pulled on it and it came free from the page! I picked up the clock face at an antique shop.

And I have a fantastic video to share with you. It was made by Irina Dakeva...animated with 2000 handpainted watercolors. Amazing!

Playing around....

with that page from this weekend. I tore some tidbits from the literature we picked up from the park and played wtih the watercolor pencils. Thanks for the nice comments yesterday....isn't the internet great?! I don't know very many people in my "real life" who are into journalling. There are a few who understand, but most people think it's kind of cool...yet seem to wonder why you'd spend time on drawings that aren't always all that good. In my "virtual life" I have all you folks who really get it!

Sketching at Morton Arboretum

Saturday we went to Morton Arboretum to wander around and enjoy the day. I was with Joe and he's not a sketcher, but I got in a fast one anyway. This is a sculpture by Patrick Dougherty. Very cool and very sturdy...though it makes me think of one of the 3 little pigs houses...built of sticks!
The 17 year cicadas were everywhere...and the noise they make is other worldly. I still may add some color or something to these pages.
Looking up....like a rustic church.
Just trying a new profile pic.