A Stack of Canvas Paintings on a Chilly Afternoon.

They were all white at the beginning of the session but I rubbed them down with ends of paint tubes to give me some ideas of where to start.

I began a collage on the yellow one and then started to paint over it.

 After that I added the neurographic lines and rounded corners.

 I like the way that the collage shows through in places. the effect would have been nicer and more pronounced if I had covered the collage with gloss medium or clear gesso before painting.

Here's where I left the painting at the end of the day.

Come back tomorrow to see what happens next!

What a difference a day makes. this is brighter and more fun but I should  have just stuck to making a nice collage instead of turning it into this mess. Don't you think so? I always get carried away and beat a painting to death.

Oh well I've gone this far, I might as well ride it out and see where it takes me.

Wish Me Luck!

I've been going around with those canvases for days and haven't really gotten anywhere with them and I've tried about everything I can think of.

I felt that the tiny painting had too much yellow in it. Before changing or adding colors, I decided to see what it looked like in black and white. I liked this version much better.

This painting has been painted over the orange and green one with an elderly woman. I did it last year as a greeting card illustration.

The Pointless Point

 Hi There,

I'm at that point in my creative cycle again where I need to clean up my workspace, get some rest and recharge my creative batteries before I decide what I want to try next.

Do you find this to be a regular routine for yourself as well? It has been a constant in my life since I was 2 or 3 years old.

I've had a nap and sucked up some media so I should be ready to go again...except for the cleaning up my workspace. How many of you guessed that I haven't done that yet? Yes, you're right and I am reluctantly starting to do that now.

I had put together a small, "how to paint a sailboat kit" for an acquaintance I never saw again. Maybe I should do that and sharpen my skills (I've been carrying it around in my tote bag since late last year).

 It's probably about time that I did something with it. What do you think? If I get too bored with it I can always paint something else over the canvas panel.

Doing the painting was a good chance to practice painting with gouache and I was surprised to find them so much easier to control than painting with acrylic paints. I wish I had discovered that years ago.

Sounds like a win, win. to me.

Meanwhile my lunch is calling to me.

Have a Happy and Creative day,

Julia

Combining Different Drawing Techniques: Doodles, Neurographics, and Zentangle

 I haven't done any serious drawing since the early 1990's. What I mean is that it's the last time that I got serious about learning to draw, and draw well. I couldn't cross hatch or stipple properly because I couldn't place things evenly to create the right effect. Eventually I gave it up again and abandoned any attempt at it again. has that ever happened to you?

On the other hand my sister moves swift and surely through it with a machine like precision that amazes me.

Meanwhile I stumble along trying one thing after another hoping to discover why success has eluded me for so many years.

Well, enough of that, on to the drawings:

On this one I had started by doing neurographic art in blue marker and switching to a black pen to try some doodles. I loked some areas better than others.

This is just the star of a mandala that I planned to doodle on the corner of an envelope in my out going mail.

I kept adding bits too it and was wishing that I was a jewelry maker so that I could turn it into a nice broach or pin in enamelwork with some onyx beads. I'd love it!

I also think my friend will enjoy getting it in the mail.

What do  you do with your practice drawings?

Doing it Again

 Here I am again building on a small painting. I enjoy it because you can never tell which way they'll go. It's a little adventure and a chance to try different materials and techniques.

It started like this and the first thing I did was put a coat of clear Gesso over it.

Doing that kept the watercolors from soaking through the paper layer and still allowed me to see the sheet music show through.

After that I got out some acrylic paints and added some flowers and vines to pull it together and lead your eye around it. I'm still not happy with it but will take a break for now. I'm wanting to sand it down in places but no one will get me any. It isn't that I want to destroy it. What I'm hoping to do is expose bits of the under layers to see what effect it would have, it's just that no one wants me to do it.

Building on a Small Painting

This painting began with a 5 x7 inch canvas that I had worked on recently. I'd hung it on the wall and lived with it a while before I decided that it needed something else.

Here's Where I Started Today.

 I start each day with a little neurogrphica. If you're not familiar with it yet you can find a lot of it on you tube these days.

Lately, instead of doing the exercises on paper, I work it in different colors. And also in layers with paint over other paintings.

It calms me and also seems to improve the paintings as well.

I continue to work in this way until I am satisfied with the results or until I get sleepy. It's been wonderful to enhance and improve my sleep.

I liked it very much at this point and put it back on my gallery wall so that I could enjoy it.

The Journey Continues

 Today I'm picking up where I left off on the canvas that used to be a teapot painting.

I didn't have a real plan in mind so I decided to do a neurographica exercise in paint on the canvas instead of in ink on paper like I did yesterday.

I enjoyed doing it a lot more like that and was fairly pleased with the results. I'm not sure where the painting will go from here but I think it's got a good base structure to work with now.

Who knows, I may do tomorrow's pages that way too. It may not improve my painting but it's doing wonders for my mood and my sleep.

It's Thursday now and as you may have guessed I just couldn't leave that painting alone.

I kind of fell into it. And the canvas reflected that.

I got a bit lost after that but enjoyed the wandering. I am indeed more of a "process person" when it comes to art and you'll never find a piece of awe inspiring beauty here but you will come across some fun ways of looking at things and processing the bits an pieces in life that come our way.

What a difference a day makes. I find myself  hearing those words in a song Nat King Cole sang. I seem to have my own personal soundtrack in life. Nearly everything reminds me of a song lyric or a movie quote. Are any of the rest of you that way? It entertains me as I work.

I'm pretty happy with this so far and will go back to worrying about why more of you aren't at least following my zazzle stores if the blog doesn't interest you. I must be doing something wrong and have yet to figure it out. Any comments?

Well, I'm off to zazzle to see if I can figure things out there. I figure if my own family isn't interested enough to follow me there has to be something wrong with me or them. What do you think?

It's Saturday now and I'm still painting over and over this canvas. I may just have to set it aside and move on to something else.

It looks different here because I gessoed over it and tried painting with watercolor instead. That lead me in a whole different direction which I continue to pursue.

At this point we decided it was finished and hung it on the gallery wall.

Drawing Practice

 Welcome Fellow Free Spirits,

It's funny that those of us  that are lucky enough to have homes often find  ourselves complaining that we're feeling cooped up and wanting to get out. It's really silly when you think of it.

In spite of that I was really feeling restless and glad to see that the bright sun was melting enough of the snow and ice that it would be easier to ride my wheelchair around outdoors.

We also went to a favorite restaurant and split a sandwich even that has been a rare pleasure the last couple of years because the pandemic. It's nice to find places open again and be able to afford to go.

This one felt like a real vacation because it's in a log cabin with a stone fireplace like you'd find "up North". It's a nice contrast to everyplace around home.

It's amazing how much it helps to get out once in a while. Even if it's just to pick up your groceries at a different store than usual. I love the produce aisle best because of all of the shapes, smells and colors that can take your mind to faraway places.

For those of us who have been without food in the past, it's a real treat to be able to pick out  what you want and get it. 

I found my self feeling a lot better when I got home and started munching grapes before we even finished putting things away.

As you can imagine I don't have a lot of art to show you today. I just wanted to write anyway and share a bit if the happiness I'm feeling right now.

I've been working on this drawing the last couple of days to blow off steam and improve my sleep it seems to work just fine on the nights when I don't take a sleeping pill. One of my goals is to get to the point when I don't need or want sleeping pills, Wish Me Luck. 

Drawing relaxes me as well or maybe better than writing.

Give it a try and see what you think.

Julia

I've done many more drawings since I started this post so I'll include those here.

One of the drawings is done with marker on an antique art book page that fell out last time I put the book away and the other was on a stained up page of watercolor paper that I decided to doodle on as well. Each effect was unique and gave me more ideas to work with.

The leaf and flower doodles were on a corner of an envelope in my outgoing mail. I usually put stickers om it but had run out for a while.

They're a few new styles I was trying to learn from a tutoral on you tube. I practice them anywhere when I've got some time to kill or a surface that I want to decorate.