drawing exercise and three works-in-progress

Here is an "upside down drawing," a drawing exercise I did from an instructional book, Drawing for the Absolute and Utter Beginner. I think it came out better than I thought it would. Also, here are three works-in-progress. I did these on individual sheets of paper.

first attempt at drawing!

I've been doing lots of art-related activities recently! Everything from coloring pictures for a charity called Color a Smile (www.colorasmile.org) to painting backgrounds to doodling designs in my art journal. I don't have any completed pages of my art journal to show you, though. However, I do have my FIRST attempt at drawing to show you. I followed an exercise from a website called Teach Art at Home (http://www.teachartathome.com/). I will be taking an online drawing class with Leslie Herger (http://www.comfortableshoesstudio.com/) in September, so I wanted to experiment first. Here is my final product! (PS- I know it's terrible!)

Rome and Sparta pages

Roma- I made this spread about a month ago. But, a few days ago, I added to it. I used an ultra fine black Sharpie, a fine black Sharpie, pictures and a map from an old book about Rome, gesso, and walnut ink.

Sparta- I made this spread about a month or two ago. I used watercolors, Twinkling H2Os, a black Sharpie, green acrylic paint, and two poems from a book of modern Greek poetry. After reading one poem by CP Cavafy (one of my favorite poets ever), I was inspired to art journal about Sparta. Writing in cursive is always a challenge for me, as I usually do not write this way. However, I was happy I chose to use cursive writing for this piece.

zendala

Here is my very first zendala! Zendala is a cross between a zentangle and a mandala. I made this zendala early in the morning after a sleepless night. I used an 03 black Micron pen and a fine black Sharpie permanent marker. I would like to thank Milliande at http://www.milliande.com/ for her video about zendalas! It was her video  that inspired me to make my own zendala.

Shape your Happiness spread

Here is a collage I made today. I started with the intention of making a gluebook-style spread. So, at first, I used just paper and a glue stick (and a scissor to cut out the elements). After I made the collage, I decided to place a player of yellow tissue paper over the spread. I used gloss Mod Podge for this. I find it interesting that this is the second art journaling page I've made this month that is yellow. Maybe a psychologist would be able to figure that one out! lol

Art Journal Stimulus Project (with Dawn D. Sokol)

This is an assignment for Dawn D. Sokol's art journaling class. With a permanent marker, I wrote all the nasty emotions I have been feeling and the causes of these emotions. Then, I painted two layers of white gesso and two layers of deep yellow paint. Next, I used a red permanent marker to write all the good things about my day. I also added a quote by Dr. Seuss and three pictures of song birds.

bronchitis and backgrounds

I've had bronchitis that has lasted more than two week! I am starting to feel much better now, and I am back in action with creating art. Two days ago, I painted some backgrounds, some with watercolors and some with acrylics. I am starting to realize that I like creating art journaling pages on individual sheets, rather than in a journal. However, I still use journals, as well. Here are some of the backgrounds I did the other day: