Route 66 in Texas...

More borders. This is a border I use a lot in my journals. Mindless and fun to do while watching the political debates.

Now I have to decide what these panels are about...yes, I work pretty spontaneously on these.  I like to do it that way, because the idea is to have the same feel as my travel journals, which are very much "on the spot" and contain drawings and journaling that is all freehand...usually straight to ink with no penciling in. It makes for wonky, fun drawings. I've decided to make this panel with Texas sights.

In my job as an antique dealer I have access to lots of old books, maps, and print items to use! Sometimes I use a bit of gesso to knock the print farther into the background. 

I love the old neon signs and unusual advertising gimmicks on Route 66. They often show up in my drawings.

India Ink and Spray Ink..

One of the panels started looking appealing, so I added some green ink sprayed on, and then picked up my India ink pens and started a little border like I use on many of my journal pages.

Playing around with adding some color. I use a brush, and I also use my fingers alot...like a toddler :D

 I like the print peeking though. These are all relatively small pieces, so details that you experience up close become important.

I do these very much like I do the backgrounds in some of my sketchbooks. It's basically art journaling, but done on a base that's easier to display.

In the beginning...

I'm starting some new pieces today. I primed and then gathered together some vintage papers to use as  a base.

I glued some on the artist panel. Eventually, I'll paint over these papers, and add more vintage paper, but bits of this print will still peek though. It adds a nice bit of depth. In these I've got vintage checks, trading stamps books, play money, foreign phone book pages, ledger pages, and pages from an old stamp collectors book. I like to do several at a time while I've got my brush full of glue.

Now to let them dry, and get out the paints! Some of these will have a Route 66 theme, and I've included papers from Dwight since it's along the old road, Others are a mystery, even to me. Sometimes I get ideas about what the subject will be after I see how the colors turn out.

The Scribble Project

Yesterday, I while I was at the shop, I doodled on a page from The Scribble Project. Fun, and it gets the drawing muscles loosened up!

The Scribble Project is the brain child of Australian illustrator Lisa Currie. Hop on over and do your own doodled interview!

Back to the Drawing Board...

It might seem like I've given up drawing, but I haven't! I went through a long dry spell, followed by a bunch of work that is just too personal to show to anyone, and now I'm back at it. I sold most of my Route 66 pieces (Yay!)  and need to create some more. I'm also working on a Route 66 T-shirt design to carry at the shop. Hopefully, there will be frequent posts as I create some new, fun stuff!

Honomu, Hawaii

Honomu is a sweet little town near Akaka Falls. The buildings are over a hundred years old and the shop owners have gussied them up with some eyecatching colors. The Woodshop Gallery and Cafe serves a delicious ahi sandwich, and the rest of the food looked good too.

The shops in this drawing sell some beautiful sarongs and such. This kind of drawing is the most fun for me...start in with the pen and see where it goes. Usually wonky..and I like that. You might see more of this town later, because the rest of the strip is equally interesting.

Right up the road you from this town you find Akaka Falls State Park. The park has several falls including this small one:

and two very large ones including the 422 foot tall Akaka Falls:

The path is paved (though there are lots of steps) and the park is definitely worth a visit!

Hilo on Dwellable

Flickr Meet-up

Today I went out with Dennis, whose artwork I've admired on flickr for a long while.

We, and his student Brentton, were going to go on our own little sketchcrawl today, but it was raining pretty hard most of the day.

 We took quite a few photos, and eventually settled down to do a drawing. Well, I did a quick (for me) sketch...Dennis did about 7 or 8 in the same time.

 This is the spot I drew, but from a bit of a different angle.

I used pencil, which I have not used in a long time. Perspective sometimes gives me fits.  Because it was raining so much I tore a few pages out of my sketchbook...that way I could just grab a page with out having the whole book out to get rained on. When I got home, I just hinged it back to the stub I tore it from with a pretty piece of paper and some glue.

A bit of color..

I can't seem to get the color to show right on screen, however. The water is definitely a completely different color...but I don't have the skills to mess with the photo to show you a more accurate version. But you get the idea. Lots of blues and purpley blues..for some reason the violets are getting lost.

This is a gorgeous spot on the Puna coast on the Big Island of Hawaii.

Drawing by the Ocean...

I walked down to the ocean today to check out the plein air painters gathered there. There were quite a few artists gathered. Many seemed to be working in oils and acrylics...fun to watch.

I sat down on a rock and settled down to sketch a bit. I decided on this scene.

 A friend from Christie's labyrinth garden stopped by and gave me a couple of Hawaiian paint brushes. They are seed pods from the Lauhala tree, and I may have to try and use them to paint a bit of this sketch. It started raining pretty hard which sent me on a walk back home. Watercolors and rain...not such a good match.

 Beautiful blues.

I started inking in the basics, and will add some color. More tomorrow...

Puna on Dwellable

Ahalanui Warm Pond

 Today I went swimming at Ahalanui and brought my sketchbook along. This pool is a mixture of spring water warmed by the volcano and ocean water coming in a spillway at one end.  It's usually so warm it feels like a warm bath....

 but today the waves were huge, and

 crashing over the wall putting lots of ocean water into the pool. It made it more like a luke warm bath, but still very pleasant, and it's always good to have a lot of fresh water in the pool.

 I swam and sketched, and swam and sketched...

 until I was pretty well sketched out and waterlogged. Nice day! Now for some dinner!

 

Big Island on Dwellable

Quick

 Pohoiki Warm Pond

Quick is sometimes better. I just wanted to try that little pond again, so I did a quick one tonight, and I like it better. Sometimes you just have to quit thinking so much.

Pohoiki Warm Pond

I almost scrapped this one, but saved it because I started drawing it on site. It's a record of my day, and a pretty nice day at that......any day by the water in the sun has a darn good start. The ocean is just feet away, but this little pond (heated from underground) is tucked up under the ivy and trees.  I get self-conscious when people watch me (they were) and was trying to draw all those rocks without really taking the time to truly see them as they are. Anyway, I wish you could see how beautiful this little spot truly is.

Sunday Morning

Hawaii Bound

Have you ever just felt drawn to a place? I have. I feel drawn to Michigan, where I grew up spending my summers, and I try to go back as often as possible. I never expected to feel drawn to Hawaii, even though my sister and I were born there. I just thought it was a beautiful place I hoped to get to see one day. Then, when I had the opportunity to visit there in 2009, I was struck by how that place spoke to me. I thought I was a lake girl, but now I know I'm an ocean girl as well. I know you probably wonder when I'll stop working from pictures from those trips. The answer might be "never."

My sister, Holly, and I are going to Hawaii soon. Both of us have had a rough year, and this trip seems like a good way to get away from it all and an opportunity to soak up the aloha of the islands. Since I will be staying a while, I hope to do some drawing and art journaling, and maybe even try to sell some artwork.

One of these days, I'll have to do a post about traveling to Hawaii on a budget. Not that I know how to do it for free or anything (haven't figured that one out yet!), but there are ways to make it cheaper than most people generally do.

I can't promise to blog everyday. I learned a long time ago, that that is a hard promise to keep. I'll definitely be posting some pictures though, and I'll try to post the good, the bad, and the ugly...whatever I draw while I'm there.

Queen Liliuokalani Gardens

 I did this page long ago, and wasn't happy with it. It's still not what I would have liked, but I kind of like the moodiness of it now. I added some pieces of maps, a fish cut from a tattoo ad, and a little journaling about the day.  The facing page will probably feature a geko....a tattoo influenced geko :)

Polynesian Tattoos..take 2

All done. I toyed with the idea of adding color to the background like the beautiful golden brown skin these tats were on, but I liked the black and white when I was all finished. There maybe be another page like this in my future (so many tats, so little time!), and I might try a bit of watercolor on that one.

Polynesian Tattoos

When we were in Hawaii we saw so many beautiful tattoos. I wonder at the meaning of them, but apparently the meanings could vary from one island to the next or even from family to family...and the meanings of some have been lost through the ages. As you can imagine, each person has a personal story or meaning behind their tat.

Puna Road

I think I'm going to have to try this one again, and try to simplify. Sometimes I get so caught up in trying to draw every little thing, and then I get lost, and things go a bit haywire. Anyway, it's a start, and at least the overall effect is jungley.  I haven't drawn much of anything since I moved in September. I've just been settling in and trying to get my little house squared away.

Studio/Office

This is my little studio/office/dressing room. I just finished the curtains for this room tonight. I'm loving this little room now that I'm getting it into usable shape. It's very cozy.

Right through that door is the downstairs bathroom....great for cleaning out paint brushes! Behind where I stood to take this picture is a couple of big bookshelves full of art supplies and office supplies...and books! Maybe I'll get a pic of that tomorrow.