Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Diva 93 - Bunzo

iamthedivaczt
It's been a long, hectic week watching Hurricane/Superstorm Sandy rampage up the east coast. Trapped in a hotel room in Maryland wondering why in the world Kali's school trip had to correspond with the storm. Wondering if we were going to be able to get to the school, if they were going to have power, if they were going to even be open this week. I had a lot of time to tangle, to watercolor, to watch the weather channel. One of the tiles I was able to complete is the one above. Laura gave us the challenge this week to try out the new tangle Bunzo. I learned bunzo quite awhile ago and have been getting used to it. Bunzo in the tear drop, striping everywhere else.
Thank you to all who were interested in Kali's trip this week, we were able to get to L'Academie de Cuisine in Maryland. They opened back up today after the storm. Kali was able to take the entrance exam and did a wonderful job with it! We have a little more paperwork to submit, but they went ahead and fitted Kali for her uniforms today. Yay!!! Classes will start in May and then 15 months later we will have a pastry chef in our family. The school is ranked within the top ten pastry schools in the country. Way to go, Kali! Mom's proud of you!

The Creator's Leaf

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Painting to the Sound of Rain

Yesterday was a pretty scary day here in Maryland. Plenty of rain and wind and snow and did i mention rain? Courtesy of Hurricane Sandy, now known as Superstorm Sandy - the worst storm in the history of the United States. Kali and I rode out the storm in Maryland as we waited to hear if she would be able to take her entrance exam for the pastry college today. And while I waited - I watercolored.
I began by drawing my outline. I left my circle template in Florida (can't believe I did that!), so I scouted the hotel room for circles to trace. The smaller, inner circle is from a hotel water glass :) and the larger, outer circle was made by tracing the lid of the ice bucket :). You gotta do what you gotta do! Then I divided the area into sections.
Tangling was the easy part. Then I stippled the heck out of the center. I did something similar once before - except that turned out to be a flower. This looks more like a math project gone wrong. OR a fun math project!
The project I was working on for my class called for a prismatic approach, so I drew a string in and around my sections and background . . .
. . . and began laying color. The thought was to make my focal point stand out from the background by my color choices. Of course I used my Derwent Inktense Pencils. The only way to go with watercolor. Well, not really, but it's my preferred way because the colors you get are so bright and vivid and intense. A waterbrush and pencils. Easy peasy.
For the most part, I tried to separate the colors where the string line made divides. Didn't always accomplish that, but I tried.
I figured the central focal part would be the hardest, so I did all of that first. I went with variations of purple, pink, and blue because I really like the way those colors look together. I have actually had my hair all these colors - one at a time, not all at once, although I'm not totally unfond of the idea. 
Then I picked out yellows and greens to do the contrasting background. Once this was dry, I went back to my copic multiliner and added the penwork shading. All shading and detail work was done with this multiliner. It's always a challenge for me to figure out shading on color - the black penwork is the way to go! This was a fun project, not hard to do, and I was very satisfied with the results. I am not one to be able to draw awesome pictures of flowers and ladies and animals and landscapes, but I can tangle me up a bunch of artwork! Throw some bright color on there and I am one happy lady sitting in the midst of one scary, scary, scary hurricane! (And I still have the heater set on 82, trying to warm up! Florida, oh how I miss you!)

The Creator's Leaf

Monday, October 29, 2012

Oh my gosh, the trees are bending!

Day 2, Hurricane Sandy - here is the view from my third floor hotel room. Blowing wind, stinging rain mixed with snow, this storm is 900 miles wide. It is still 195 miles from making landfall. Set to be the worst storm in the history of the United States. It is predicted as many as 50 million people will be without power. Temperatures are dropping, and the trees are starting to bend.
You know how I am with pictures. This is a shot of the storm in the  mirror above my work desk in the hotel room. Monitoring the storm on the TV, trying to post photos here on my blog, and staying in touch on facebook. And there is painting to be done.
Drew this tile last night. That is your standard bedspread background highlighting the linework. I'm seeing all kinds of crazy things in this drawing that I didn't intentionally put there. The sun in the center, radiating out into oblivion as the rain and waves crash onto the shore, and could that possibly be a bridge? One that could get Kali and me to Florida? Please?

Oh! This was made using the String 024 that came from Tangle Patterns (dot) com, courtesy of Jadie Wright. This is what the string looked like before I filled it with tangles.

The Creator's Leaf

Sunday, October 28, 2012

Preparing for Hurricane Sandy

Kali and I are in Maryland waiting for hurricane Sandy to hit. We expect much rain and wind and some flooding, no power, you know - all the nastiness that comes with hurricanes. We have an appointment at the culinary school on Tuesday for Kali to take an entrance exam. I don't really think at this point that this appointment is likely to happen, but we'll see. In the meantime, I have a nice cozy hotel room and lots of time to create art! Not much editing ability, or sizing photos, so what you get is what you get. I've even thrown in a pattern I messed up inadvertantly made. I'm going to call it punkin' in honor of the fallish pumpkin appearance it took on as a life of its own. Enjoy! 

The Creator's Leaf

Thursday, October 25, 2012

Beads of Courage

iamthedivaczt
I am running a little behind with this particular challenge, but it's important enough that I want to post it anyway! Laura was celebrating Artoo's second birthday - yay!!!! Happy Birthday, Artoo!!! Laura introduced us to a wonderful program called Beads of Courage. This is a charity that helps children with chronic illnesses tell their story of courage and strength along their medical journey. Each bead represents something the child has been through medically - a test, a poke, a needle, a procedure, an appointment, use of oxygen, you get the idea. Their beads show their courage through the incredible journey they have been on. So, Artoo, happy birthday, buddy, here are my beads for you!

To learn more about Beads of Courage and to see all the beautiful offerings of beads to Artoo, please go here.

The Creator's Leaf

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Diva #92 - Stripes

iamthedivaczt
The Diva's Challenge this week was String Theory vs. Stripes. I chose to interpret this a little different that everyone else. Not so unusual for me to be different - sorry, Laura! When I read the challenge all I wanted to do was play with the tangle called Striping. It's  been one of my favorites for the past week or so. I hope you all don't mind me changing it up a bit. You can check out all the stripe/strings here. You could even post one of your own :).

The Creator's Leaf

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

String 023

This week's string challenge at Tangle Patterns comes from Barbara Finwall. Here is my response. This is what we were given:
This one was a lot of fun and gave the possibility of many tangles. If you would like to participate, you can pick up the template here.

The Creator's Leaf

Sunday, October 21, 2012

Free To Float and Fly

Eight balloons no one was buyin'
All broke loose one afternoon.
Eight balloons with strings a-flyin',
Free to do what they wanted to.
One flew up to touch the sun - POP!
One thought highways might be fun - POP!
One took a nap in  a cactus pile - POP!
One stayed to play with a careless child - POP!
One tried to taste some bacon fryin' - POP!
One fell in love with a porcupine - POP!
One looked close in a crocodile's mouth - POP!
One sat around 'til his air ran out - WHOOSH!
Eight balloons no one was buyin' -
They broke loose and away they flew,
Free to float and free to fly
And free to pop where they wanted to.
Eight Balloons by Shel Silverstein
(Downloaded online)
Project for Water Color Pencil class.
Strathmore Visual Journal
Bristol Smooth, 100 lbs.
Derwent Inktense Pencils

The Creator's Leaf

Saturday, October 20, 2012

Black Water

Really just playing around with some of my favorite tangles. There are two of them that I don't even know the names of, but I use them often. So, I should probably figure that out!
And once again, I realized that I forgot to shade. Shading really does make an incredible difference, adding depth and dimension. Some of the shading is done with a pencil and tortillion. Other parts are shaded with a light grey colored Pitt artist pen. At this point I probably couldn't tell you which is which. You should get your pen and tile out and draw something. You'll be glad you did!

The Creator's Leaf

Friday, October 19, 2012

Watercolored Sunflowers

For several months now I have been following the artwork of Dion Dior. If you don't know who she is you are missing out on some amazing artwork! Seriously, you should stop right now and go look at her blog. She gets the most vibrant, brilliant colors and you know I am all about the color! I found out she teaches an online watercolor pencil class through Joggles. You can see their course offerings here. I signed up for Dion's class and already I am behind. Oh well. I am working on it!
Since this is a purchased class and a livelihood for Dion, I can not go into detail about the instruction but I can show you my first assignment. I began by sketching out a picture. And since I am really getting into zentangle® more and more, I used tangle patterns to make my actual shapes. 
It's called zentangle inspired art - ZIA.
Once I got my sketch the way I wanted it, I began filling in color with my water color pencils. I never know if that is one word or two. Water color or watercolor. And then depending on where you live it could be water color or water colour. 
My pencil of choice is the Derwent Inktense Pencils. I love the vibrancy and depth in the colors!
You are really able to get some 3-D feel with the layers.
And they come in so many colors!
Once I was satisfied with the piece, I flicked a little color around the paper and called it done. I still have two other assignments before I complete week one. And week two has already been assigned. And on Tuesday we get week three :). Wow! Thankfully, Dion doesn't mind if we work at our own pace. Thank you, Dion!!!! (I am a horrible example for my own students.)

The Creator's Leaf