Sunday Sketches 9/11/11

When I sat down in church to get ready to sketch this, I discovered that I did not have my trusted kneaded eraser.  I found a school pencil in one of the pews and had to use that.  I think she looks sort of sad as some of my faces do. I figured since it is the anniversary of 9/11 perhaps she is appropriate for the time.  I came across this memoir of 9/11 by author Meg Cabot.  It is beautiful, haunting and sad but worth reading too.

Layered Impressions

I signed up to take Layered Impressions, the online class with Katie Kendrik.  I am so excited to be taking this class.  It starts on Tuesday. If you signup before then you even get a DVD of the class, now that is a great deal. It is more than I usually like to spend on a class but when I looked at the synopsis of what we will be doing I thought it was amazing.  I think it will be well worth price. Katie is an amazing artist and I feel like we will really being going on a journey with her.

I added some collages and journaling to the some of those pages I did while in N. Idaho a few weeks ago.

If you are one of those artists who gets a background done and then doesn't know what to do next, I thought I would offer a little advice. I tend to look at the colors of the background and then will pull out my stash of collage items and start placing things on top that I think will look good. I may go through a lot of images before I choose one that I like. Or there may be several I place on the background and then finally just choose one over the other. The process becomes intuitive at some point, what I choose may end up being an image that I just get a good feeling about. I have often used an image I have left on my desk from a precious art session.

Some artists plan the whole page before glueing anything down. I do that sometimes, but often I just glue down and image and then look for something else, it seems more spontaneous that way. I just don't think that much about it, just go for my first thoughts and glue it down. If my background is a collage in itself I make the collage on top simple. I think the idea is just to play, whatever you do will be just fine.

My Remains of the Day Journal

I resisted this class for a long time but after I actually saw my friend Jolene's Remains of the Day Journal I had to take the class and make one.  Oh I do love the process, a perfect way to use up all the stuff I have.  I am taking a trip to the Oregon coast in a couple weeks and made this journal for the trip.  I used lots of blues and aquas to symbolize the ocean water.  The way this journal is used is first you make it and embellish the pages and then add things from your trip while you are on it.  There are spots to tuck things, pockets and places to journal.  It will look different when filled. Here is a little video of my pages.


 If you are intrigued by this journal style you can check it out here.  Mary Ann's class is really great, I highly recommend it.

Blogging Change

Sometimes we all find that blogging takes up so much time, we love it so we don't want to give it up, sometimes we take breaks from it but we always come back. I have decided to take after my daughter who blogs 3 times a week. So that will be my plan for a little while. I plan to blog Mon, Wed and Friday. There may be times I do so on other days but I will consider them extra posts.

Completing the Artshine Traveling Sketchbook

I have been working in the various books of the Artshine Traveling Sketchbook for over a year and this is the last one. The theme was the female figure and I had a hard time coming up with something I thought I could do. I have never drawn a female body so I was a little apprehensive. Plus I had no models who were offering to pose for me.

So I started out with a collage. I chose this paper as it looked like wallpaper to me.  I wanted it to look old and faded so I added a wash of thinned gesso to it. I took a floral stamp and used sepia ink to age it a little. I am not sure what else it needed so I left it simple.
 I starIU ed shkhskhkj

Here I used a magazine image as a model and drew her in vine charcoal. Charcoal is so forgiving, you make a mistake and your friend the kneaded eraser comes to the rescue. I should work in charcoal more. This was fun.

I am including this for Sunday Sketches too, so you can check other ones here

Happy Labor Day everyone!

Thrift Store Finds

I have been thrift store shopping. Looking for old clothes to cut up to use in journals and other crafts. I found two skirts and a dress.

I thought the dress was cute so I had Sarah try it on, she says she felt like a 50's housewife but I think she looked darling.

I also been to two library book sales. I went to one in Wallace and got a French dictionary and some old books to make into journals.

I found out our library, which hosts its sales in the basement 4 times a year opens up the basement area in the evenings. I went looking the other day and found a Chinese cookbook, some travel books, an almanac and some old technical books that have great diagrams to use for collage.

On my way out I saw this little gem, I went back to pay for it and they just gave it to me. Its a small book written in German in 1900. What a deal. My library even has a table with free books on it. I got several of those books from that table. You might want to check out if your library has sales like these or even better if you can go in any time and look.

Dining, Wallace and Wolves

On one of our off days from biking we headed up to Coeur d' laine. When we are traveling some times we like to find a triple D restaurant.  One of the ones that were featured on the Food Networks  show Diners Drive Ins and Dives. We knew there was one here so we checked it out.

It was called Jimmy's Down the Street and the food was great.

I had the chicken and dumplings which was amazingly good. Dave had the John Wayne, can you see the size of that sandwich. It was a heartburn special, fried chicken, fried bacon, fried onion rings, fried pickles and all the trimmings. He said it was good but it did give him heartburn so he paid the price.

On one of the days we drove to Wallace, its an old mining town where the movie Dante's Peak was filmed. This building held a small train museum.

Inside the old ticket window was still intact but alas there was no one to sell me a ticket.

The old routes were still visible ont those clipboards and a replica of the town was on the table.

Wallace even has its own space ship, so we had to check that out too.

























I am a big SciFi and fantasy fan so I couldn't resist the opportunity to climb aboard.

The last place we went was in Cocolalla Idaho, to a place called Wolf People. Its a wolf educational facility where they raise Timber and Arctic Wolves. They had pups and adults and a wonderful tour that we took. I think the pictures will tell you how much I enjoyed this experience.

I This is Mike the wolf handler who conducted our tour.  I have a ton of more wolf pics but I think I will just put them on flickr. Check back in a couple days, this will be the link

On to Montana and Idaho

photo credit 

Our first destination was Missoula Montana which is a 5 hour drive. We like to stop in Dell along the way.  They have this great old restaurant that has excellent food.

We were greeted to a new sign inside, what a great version of the keep calm signs you see everywhere.  I'll second that advice.

photo credit

In Missoula we stopped at the Import Market to get some more of these. We wanted some more small bowls and lunch plates.  The Import store has the largest selection of open stock Fiesta Ware in the area.

photo credit

The new color Marigold is really gorgeous. I had to add this one to the colors I already have.

photo credit
We had to get a pizza at MacKenzie River Pizza Co, one of our favorite places to eat.

Then I had to stop at a craft store to get these. Just a few papers, a stamp, carving rubber and some stamped twill tape.


On to Northern Idaho














We headed to Northern Idaho to bike on the Trail of the Coeur d'Laines. It is a 73 mile bike trail that was created on an old rail road bed.  There are numerous places where you can get on the trail.  We camped near Harrison, Idaho so we got on the trail there.  It is the most scenic part of the trail,  right along several lakes. The first day we biked 22 miles which is the longest I have ever gone. The other days we did shorter distances and it was a lot of fun.

We stopped for a break and had some lunch, with my favorite kind of bagel and yogurt.

These osprey's were nesting out in the middle of the lake near one of the stopping points.

I saw several sailboats that looked so inviting.

Sometimes the trail went through the woods.

The scenery was often breathtaking.

I saw this purple martin bird house in the town of Harrison.  I thought it looked so neat.

With all these lakes there were bound to be lots of boats. This houseboat was tethered right near the trail. I really wished I could have gone out in it.

Travel adventures continue tomorrow.

Collage and portraits part deux

Here are some more of the collages I did last week.

In this one I used a spray painted background and I added a new supply that I just love.  On the right is some tape made by Tim Holtz. Its called tissue paper tape.  The cool thing is that it looks different depending an the paper or paint you use underneath it. It comes in a two roll package with two different designs.

I got the idea of doing a zentangle border and it turned out it was fun to do. I think I may have to do this again. I have had this picture of dogs for a long time.  I always wonder what it is they are thinking.

I did a few portraits too.  This one is done in graphite.

This one I drew with Inktense Pencils and then added water and the colors came about a bit bright.  This style is a little different for me but it was fun.

I drew this lady and then painted her with water colors.  Then I added her to a background I made earlier.

In my next post I will talk a little bit about my trip and share a few highlights.