Octo-Lady!

Sometimes I wish I had eight arms (and some coordination).  Then I could REALLY get things done.

I found a library card that I had liberated from a used book store in my stash yesterday, and since 2012 is the official Year Of Using Up All The Good Stuff, I started doodling on it.  I know you're as shocked as I am that it's another octopus.  I don't know why I have them on the brain lately, but I predict that you might see one more yet.

I coloured her in with Inktense water-soluble pencils and a water brush, then went over the lines with a Staedtler pigment liner.

Then I thought how nice she would like (and how beautifully she fit!) on the back of this tag in my current art journal and voila!  A little bit of messing around on the top of the tag and I called it done.

Bonus photo, because I love these and I know you do too: the journal on my messy, messy desk.

Smooches!!

Love Shelley

Go the f*&^ to sleep!

My kids have been really antsy at night lately, and can't seem to stay in bed or go to sleep within a reasonable amount of time, which makes me irrationally angry and eye-twitchy and control-freaky.  So last night I sat at the kitchen table so they couldn't sneak around without getting caught, and drew a little bit.  I had been inspired by Nina Johansson's art, specifically this piece.  Don't you love the internet?  I've had some really great 'aha!' moments lately while I've been surfing around - like this reminder that you don't have to draw THE ENTIRE ROOM, you can pick a corner or a bit and just draw that.  That realization takes away the pressure of trying to figure out how to fit it all in, and where to even start.

Next time I think I'll outline in ink though.  The pencil is pretty soft-looking and I think I'd like it bolder.  And the perspective issues will probably straighten themselves out with practice, right?  (Say yes!)

Over and out.

Love Shelley!

Goodbye, comfort zone. (**CAUTION: BOOBIE DRAWINGS IN THIS POST**)

Well so far January has been pretty exciting!

In the last week I've stepped well outside of my comfort zone.   First, I did this:

This is the Mindbender, the awe-inspiring roller coaster at West Edmonton Mall.  It's 14 stories high, and is the largest triple-loop roller coaster in the world.  I told myself 14 stories is no big deal, after all, I rappelled down the front of a 17-story building last summer.  Well, the Mindbender makes the DropZone event look like an afternoon in a hammock.  It only lasts a few minutes but it's still pretty (terrifyingly) memorable.  Also?  Turns out I scream like a little girl on fast rides.  I did not know that about myself.

********

Then, I did something I've been talking about for the last 6 months.  I went to a life-drawing evening.  This is way out of my comfort zone because a) naked people and b) I've never gone to anything like this before.  It's not a class; so there is no leader as such.  It's just a person (NAKED) that we all gather round and draw.

Well it turned out to be a really nice evening.  It was my first time sketching; it was the model's first time modelling.  In my head I imagined that the model would be silent and aloof and very separate from the people drawing her; but she turned out to be really friendly and cheerful and came around at all the breaks to visit and see what everyone's work looked like.  It was a very low-key, casual, and thoroughly enjoyable evening.  She started off with 1 and 2 minute poses:

Then moved on to 3 and 5 minutes:

And then 10, 20, and finally a single 40 minute pose at the end.

If you're looking at the pictures and laughing at some of the details, don't worry, I laughed too.  But they're pretty strict with the timer - when it goes off, she strikes a totally different pose.  So I got interrupted a couple of times.  I'll learn to judge my time better and not give her half a head of hair or only one thumb next time.   Also my only goal for the evening was to be able to look at my sketches and recognize that it was a human being.  So I'm happy with my progress so far!


Now... what will I do this week to keep up this fabulous momentum?

Stay tuned...

Love Shelley!

 

Let's Wrap This Up.

Hey guys!  

I haven't been making as much art as usual in the last couple of months, but I'd love to show you what I DID manage to finish.  Wanna see?  

This little guy is an ATC.  It's a little 2 1/2" x 3 1/2" card, made from some very soft watercolour paper. The little critter is a Blue-Footed Booby. I did him for a swap I was involved in, and he's off in the mail to someone in the US. Safe travels, little buddy!

I waited for what seemed like FOREVER for Jill Berry's new book about maps to come out, and it was worth the wait. I've had a map obsession for years, and now I'm actually starting to make some maps on my own. I started with this phrenology doodle in one of my art journals: 

You might see more noggins in my work. I liked being able to pin down everything that was floating around my head and causing me to procrastinate. 

Next, I did this compass rose, inspired directly by Heidi LaMoreaux (she's one of the featured artists in Personal Geographies.)

I had so much fun making this. I actually got out my compass and ruler and spent a very peaceful evening creating this from scratch on watercolour paper. Then I used an X-acto knife to cut out all the blank areas. The page is now mounted on vellum, which is that cloudy white behind the compass rose. I have lots of ideas to make more of these, in different shapes and forms. We'll see how many of those actually materialize.  : )

 

And then last night, on a total whim, I stuck five shipping tags together and drew the road I live on. I wanted to capture the stories of all these homes and families on the road I've lived on for most of my life.  It's not as colourful as some of the stuff I've been doing, but it does have a certain charm.

After I had an argument with my 7-year-old about which house was ours (he strongly disagrees that we live on that side of the street); I dragged out the old typewriter and typed up a couple of sentences about each house on the map. For me, half the fun and charm is the fact that you can't erase your mistakes; but my kids thought this was horrifying. They both tried their hand at typing after I was done, but beach left the room in tears because they couldn't get it just right. They are definitely children of the technological age!  Oh yeah, my 9-year-old also wanted to know "what are all the little poops" on the page. *sniff* It is SO nice to have a family who's so supportive of my art!!

Finally: this is one of my favourite things that I've worked on recently. It's pretty big; 19 1/2" across and 6 1/2" tall. It's on a piece of black heavy-duty paperboard? I'm not sure what it's called. I think you could use it as book covers, it's certainly thick enough.  I was totally inspired by this Halloween costume I saw on Pinterest.  Pretty sure I like my version better though!  HAHA!

That is all for now!!  I hope that you have all had an EPIC year, and that 2012 brings health, happiness and lots of art to all of you.

xoxoxoxox!
Shelley

Laid Bare

This is the cover of my new eight-dollar art journal.  I wanted something a little bigger (9x12") so I can make a bigger mess.  First I went through the book and tore some pages out, made fold-outs and stubs, and just generally made it a lot more interesting than it was when I brought it home.  This is what I've done with the formerly-plain-brown-and-boring cover, and as you might guess, the object of the game is to get right down to the bottom of some stuff that's been bugging me.  I have a couple of pages started in it, but nothing ready to share just yet. 

But don't worry; there will always be enough silly to go around... after all, this is me we're talking about.  This guy was speaking to me so I added him into my book, by gluing him onto a piece of cardboard and then punching holes to make him fit into the book. 

This is the back of that piece of cardboard.  Sometimes my favourite things are made from things that have no value whatsoever!  I guess I should take that to heart and quit buying expensive paper. 

HAHAHAHAHAA!!!  That will never happen.  EVER.

Love Shelley!

The Daily Doodle

Do you ever notice that sometimes your random mindless doodling turns out better than any actual art you attempted on purpose in a given day?

Oh.  Uh, me either.

Because everyone likes a nice octopus, right?

I was busy writing a long-overdue letter to a sweet friend of mine and I suddenly started to worry that I was going to run out of interesting things to talk about.  The problem was that I had already taken apart several empty envelopes and trimmed them all to the same size and stapled them back together into a booklet, so I was really feeling the (self-imposed) pressure to fill every single page.

Of course this was before my son engaged in a dance-off with a carnie at a rural festival; before my daughter announced she was mad at God for letting her nana's cat get run over on the road; before my husband came home with a recipe for making mini bombs out of stray blobs of mercury; before I played 'make-up bag' with my sister, and before we met the dumbest waitress on the planet (when four people arrive at a restaurant for dinner, and the waitress asks you how many of you would like cutlery... seriously?!)  So it turns out I would have had LOTS to talk about, but that's fine, because who doesn't like a nice orange octopus? 

*sorry about the facing page still being there - I scanned this one instead of taking a picture, and I couldn't figure out how to get rid of the extra stuff.  I COULD tell you what it says, but isn't it more fun to imagine what I wrote? 

And that's it for now.  I have more but I really have to figure out the technology part before I post this stuff. 

Love Shelley!

Hungry?

Last week I had to attend a meeting for Cameron's soccer team, and since I work in the city and the meeting was in the city, I decided to stay in the city rather than driving home and back in again.  So during the downtime, I treated myself to a burger at A&W... this isn't the actual burger though.  It didn't last long enough to pose for a portrait.  HA!  No, I was way too hungry for that.  While I ate, though, I drew the burger off of the coupons they gave me.  I just used a red verithin Prisma pencil crayon that I found in my desk at work.  Originally I was planning on going over it afterwards with a Sharpie and colouring it in with watercolours, but then I decided to leave well enough alone.

Although.... if I would have painted it, then it would probably be easier to tell what each layer is. 

Bon appetit!
Love Shelley

Nature Lover

This plant has a lot in common with Fred Penner's cat.  I wonder if I gave it to a man going up in a balloon, if he would take it up to the man in the moon...?

I guess it would be more humane than "loading up my shotgun with nails and dynamite."  Right?

Love Shelley!

Happy Mail!

Slightly crooked as usual, and the white words really disappear into the paler colours at the top.  (watercolours, sharpies on watercolour paper) 

My inspiration:

Just a little bit of the outgoing mail around here lately.

That's all for now.  Be back soon!

Love Shelley!

Bonus Day!

I was all ready to head in to work this morning when I got a call from the bus driver: school is closed!  I wasn't expecting that at all.  But really, there's no downside (besides getting further behind at work, of course, but I guess I'll just work reeeeeeeeally hard tomorrow.)

The kids were happy that I was here to have breakfast with them; less happy that I put them to work emptying the dishwasher after that, but happy again when I decided to bake!  Right now there's a lemon slice in the oven.  Maybe later: chocolate chip cookies.  After all, if the weather is miserable enough to force us to stay home, then I'm pretty sure some comfort food is in order. 

I'm also going to try to get a couple more of these little sketchy things done.  I have Big Plans for this collection of stuff.  I'm telling you that so that I will be accountable - I know my own tendency to start on a Big Idea and then not follow it through.  So I'll share this with you: I want to do 28 of these, and then make 'em into a zine.  I've always dreamed of doing zines, and after all, I AM trying to make this an epic year. 

Okay.  I'm off to see how much butter I have.  Cookies and watercolours are the order of the day, and that makes me really happy.

Love Shelley!

You might have to squint a little

 

I had a great time this past weekend working on some postcard-sized doodle/paintings. And I just realized that it's already THURSDAY and wow, am I late showing these to you!

Actually I'm only going to show you one for now. I don't know if it's because the watercolour paper is still slightly curled, or if I did something wrong when I cropped out the extra stuff, but this photo isn't exactly accurate.

The colours are pretty close to the original, but the actual picture is taller and narrower, not short and stumpy and crunched-looking. So yeah, if you squint a little you'll get the idea, but I think I'll try to get better pics to show you the other ones I did. 

Back soon.
Love Shelley!

Never had one lesson!

Okay, that's not EXACTLY true.

A couple of years ago, I signed up for a beginner's art class that was supposed to teach me how to draw.  Well, the teacher and I didn't exactly see eye to eye.  Her idea of teaching was to repeatedly say some phrases that didn't mean anything to me, like, "Just draw what you see!"  (If I could do that, I WOULDN'T BE HERE) and "Compare and contrast!" (?????)

So yeah.  I've had a couple of lessons.  But on the whole, I just try to draw what I see.  HAHA!!  Ironic, isn't it.

I didn't see this chicken in person today.  Just a photo of him standing atop a building.  He's a roadside attraction somewhere, I think.  I thought he looked majestic and happy, so I decided to see if I could draw him.  I was just playing, nothing serious.

I sketched him out in Sharpie and filled it in with watercolours.  He does not look exactly like my model, but if I don't show you that one, then you can't compare and contrast, can you?  Basically, if you can tell it's a chicken without me giving you a broad hint, (BAWK!) then I'm happy with how he turned out.

Of course, I can never leave well enough alone.  I thought he was a little boring, so I added some extra details to the background.

Can you still tell it's a chicken?

Good.  Then my work here is done.

Love Shelley!