Inspiration jar.

Most of the time I have tons of ideas going through my head, my brain never stops thinking about what I can create (sometimes too much thinking).  Then every once in a while my brain freezes and I get stuck.  I know I should really carry a note book around with me so I can write down all my ideas so when I do get stuck I can refer back to the note book.   Then again that would require me to remember to bring the note book with me!  The other day I was sitting there looking at a blank page very stuck.   I couldn't think of one thing.   I decided to look up words that describe, people, feelings or moods and write them all out. Words like brave, elegant, compassionate were some for the over 50 words I wrote down. I then cut out the words and put them into a large glass jar. My inspiration jar as I called it was now ready for me to use.  All I have to do when I get stuck is reach my hand in and  pull out a word to use as a jumping off point.

I used the jar the other night and the word I pulled out was"elegant".  Elegant makes me think of a fancy dining room or elegant dress so I decided to create the background with the word elegant in mind.

I first used washi tape, tissue paper with music notes, and dictionary pages to cover my background. Then I used water color crayons in, beige, salmon and yellow to cover the page. Next came a layer of titan buff and titan white rolled on with a roller.  After the paint dried I used a tear drop stencil and molding paste to create some texture.  When the molding paste dried I used some tan and brown water colors to wash over the tear drops.  I then started on the drawing of the girl.  I decided I wanted her to have a side profile and a long dress. One of the stencils marks came through on her arm and I thought it looked like a tattoo so I went with it.  I choose to color her hair lavender and used neo colors, pencil, pro markers and titan buff to color in her face and body.  I used a water color crayon in aqua and twinkling H20's for her eyes along with pencil and pro markers to complete them.
I finished up the piece by adding some stamping with a butterfly stamp and words then used distress inks in Vintage Photo by Tim Holtz for the corners and on the tear drops.   I used a rub on of the words, " stand boldly" in small writing next her.  

I really like how she turned out and I look forward to my new word that I will jump from.

She stands boldly in her elegant world.

Fairyland Zine

This year along with life Book I have been taking another year long online class Called, "The Year of the Fairytale" created and taught by Carla Sonheim. www.carlasonheim.com.  Carla is the author of The art of Silliness and the Drawing Lab. She lives here in the Seattle area too.  Although I haven't really had much time to do all the work from the class I have enjoyed her lesson and discovering old and new to me fairytales.  Plus I have learned a few new technics to play around with. 
Recently we did a lesson on the Princess and the Pea and Carla asked all of us to participate in creating a zine.  We had to think of something other than the pea to put under the bed and so I created Princess and the Dragon.  In my illustration the princess doesn't know what she is going to do with all these dragons.  My illustration is on page 71.  It was fun to create this little piece and I love seeing other classmates illustrations too.  Click the link below to be taken to the zine.  Hope you enjoy!

 http://carlasonheim.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/fairylandfinal.pdf