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!

True Confessions, Part XXIXVIMXXIV

So here's something I've been exploring: the "FAKE IT TILL YOU MAKE IT" way of life.

It's kind of cool, actually, as long as you don't lose your nerve.  When you can project the confidence that you know exactly what you're doing, that everything is going your way because it simply wouldn't dare do otherwise, that things are working out exactly as they should, and it's all because of your sheer awesomeness... well, even if it wasn't strictly true to begin with, sometimes it ends up actually turning out that way.  And somehow, you just make it look easy.

Like magic.

And then you find out?  That you had that wild, free-flying awesomeness inside you the whole time.

Trust me on this one.

Love Shelley!

So I have this penpal...

She's awesome and amazing and has made me realize something about penpals who turn out to be (or turn into) real friends.  Just because we live far away from each other doesn't mean we have to follow the traditional penpal rules, where she sends me a letter, and then I send her a letter in reply, and then we each take turns ad infinitum writing to each otherNOOOOOOO.  Rules are for people with no imagination!

THIS penpal has sent me three very different items since the last time I sent her anything.  And one of them was a quick-and-dirty thinking-of-you note that was actually just as awesome as the other two more elaborate packages.  Which got me to thinking: that's right!  Every single thing I mail doesn't have to be "ART".  Or rather, it can be, but it doesn't have to be the kind that takes four days to put together. 

In that spirit, I dashed off a note on a long piece of gray heavy paper I'd gotten at the thrift store (a big pile of these sheets for $0.49!!) and added just a couple of embellishments, nothing fancy at all.  Just a quick hello and update on how things are going over here.  Then?  I didn't even put it in an envelope. 

I know!  How much less formal can you get?  Instead I just folded it up and used these Avery mailing seals to keep it together.   

Of course, you kind of have to know ahead of time that you're doing this, so you can leave a clear area for the address, but I think it's kinda cool. Oh, and this also works best if you're just using paper - not adding in little loose things as gifts or anything.  If this does happen to come open, nothing will be lost.  And a mailman somewhere will be highly amused to read the transcript of a recent prayer I sent up.  Win-win, right?

I didn't really do anything fancy with the back, it was getting late and I was determined that this was going to be a quick note, and would be in the mail TODAY.

I'm happy to say: mission accomplished.

Love Shelley!

Giant postcards!!

Sometimes I sign up to do fun things that have nothing to do with my own art journals, just for a challenge and because they're usually a lot of fun. Plus they always result in getting awesome mail in return.

This one was through http://www.swap-bot.com/, and the assignment was to make a giant postcard for your partner.  In the US they can send something up to approximately 6" x 11" (or is it 11" x 6"?) for FORTY-FOUR CENTS!!!  Wow.  If we had that rate on postage I'd be sending out massive postcards all the time.  Oh, plus they can be up to 1/4" thick!!  Just think of the possibilities!

Canada Post unfortunately does not have a separate rate for postcards, so I was going to have to pay the "oversize letter" rate. Which to the US is $2.06, as long as it's not over 100g. I figured I'd better get my money's worth. I made a "postcard" out of a cardboard file marker that measured 9 1/2" x 15". Since it was pretty huge and kind of intimidating, I started off by basecoating it with gesso. If I don't have any ideas for something, I'll often start by throwing down a coat of gesso or paint, just so I'm at least doing something, not sitting there stalled. And more often than not, the ideas do come.  Unfortunately I ended up covering up every bit of the card with collage material afterward, so the gesso turned out to be completely unnecessary.  That's okay though, it got me moving at least.


I started gluing stuff onto the card.

Doesn't that look amazing so far?!   Sometimes my genius is almost blinding.

I collaged a whole bunch of bits and pieces to my postcard: a parking pass, some EKG paper, tissue paper, old receipts, a calendar page, some fabric tape, washi tape, rub-ons, a computer punch card, patterned cardstock, part of a flash card, a photo, labels, magazine bits, a piece from a lottery ticket number picker - really anything that was within reach that was fairly neutrally-coloured.  Then I started stamping - I used a dotted-line roller, a date stamp, a script stamp, and some number stamps.  Oh, also the "UTILITY" stamp that I got at Value Village.  I have no idea what it was originally used for, but it's one of my current favourites!

After that I covered the whole thing in a wash of titan buff paint, to blend everything together.

Starting to look like something, right?  After that I stopped taking progress pictures, because I kind of got into it.  My victim - I mean SWAP PARTNER - likes the number 8, the ampersand symbol, and the colour blue.  So my postcard wasn't entirely made up of random elements.  I tried to make something she would really like.

 The ampersand is actually a thin chipboard cutout, covered in patterned paper and then trimmed and the edges sanded.  I did the lettering by hand, which is why it's not always straight.  But I do really like how it turned out around the ampersand!  It reminds me of an ad for a circus or something. 

It's going out in today's mail.  Hopefully it arrives quickly; mail from here to the eastern seaboard seems to take about two weeks, for some reason.  I sure hope it fits in her mailbox!

Have a fantastic day, you guys.

Love Shelley!

This isn't about the Beatles

I started this page a loooooong time ago - I put down the background paint, put the gaffer tape around the edges, and glued down the heart and used rub-ons to spell out love love love. 

Then I stalled.

I loved the colours, but couldn't think of what else to do with it.  So it sat, literally, for a couple of years. 

Then a couple of days ago, I made the colours a little stronger with watercolour crayons, and added the black and white dots, and then the rest came pretty easily.  I liked how my last page turned out, so I did a couple of things the same - writing over the whole page in pencil and then using stamps to do the big lettering. I just used pencil crayons to fill in the letters, but they didn't cover all that well, so I ended up giving them a quick coat of white gesso first so that the blue/green would actually show up.  It was easy-peasy, just a little time-consuming (but meditative!) 

The finished product, I have to say, is a nice change from my usual angry pages!  But for the last few days I've been feeling pretty contented and relaxed.  I was a little worried that without the strong negative emotions, that my creativity would desert me.  After all, it has been my outlet for a long time. 

The good news is that I have a BUNCH of unfinished pages in various in-progress journals, so maybe I can dump out all kinds of happy emotions into some of them for a change.  Maybe the reason I couldn't finish some of the pages was because they were too positive, too pleasant, too sweet and light, and were meant to be filled with love and laughter instead of rage and frustration.  Well I guess we'll find out, won't we?

Until then,
Love Shelley!

Well, it looks good from far!!

Hey everyone!

I'm finally back, and I'm done that sandwich board sign that my brother Neil asked me to update for his church's dinner theatre program.  After my sister Kristy and I brainstormed and doodled some ideas, we decided on a layout, and then I put together this idea of basically how I wanted it to look:

Neil had given me the old sandwich board, and the plywood was really too rough to paint on, so we got some pre-primed 1/4" hardboard.  Two coats of gesso, and I was ready to put the pattern down. 

At this point, I was congratulating myself for being so far ahead of the game.  After all, Neil didn't need the board back until February 15.  This thing was going to be a MASTERPIECE!!  People would come from far and wide to see The Sign!  I would be drowning in commissions in no time, because nobody would be able to believe my amazing sign-making capabilities, even though I've never made a sign in my life!  (I have a very rich fantasy life, can you tell?)

Only it wasn't meant to be.  Somewhere along the line, we messed up the dates.  I suspect he said January and I just got it wrong.  At any rate, he called me on Monday night and asked if it was almost done yet. 

PANIC!!! 

On Tuesday evening Kristy came over for a different purpose entirely, but as soon as she walked in the door, she found a pencil in her hand - she got the drama faces transferred to the boards while I started painting with red.  Lucky for me she's easygoing, plus it turns out she's really good at this kind of work!

You know what I really hate about red paint?  IT DOESN'T COVER VERY WELL.

At around 9:30 my brother Dave showed up, and soon found himself with a brush in one hand and an eraser in the other.  Then Mike came home and he got put to work too.  I am an excellent recruiter!

Kristy was very concerned about the paint not covering very well and looking splotchy in places.  I assured her that people would be mostly looking at it while they were driving past it in the dark.  So no worries!  (When you have 24 hours to go, your standards tend to fall away pretty quickly.)

Plus the state of the "before" sign ensured that ours would look good by comparison no matter what we did to it.  Heh.

Here's the almost-finished product, splotches and all:

Mike graciously dug into his personal stash of red reflective tape and put arrows on both signs for me.  Here he is posing with his handiwork.  Can you see his brain?

And finally, here are both sides of the sign.  Neil can figure out how to affix them to the existing sandwich board - my work here is done!

Obviously, I owe Kristy, Dave and Mike a huge thank-you, because there's no way I would have finished this in time by myself.  Plus it was fun working on it as a team - sitting at the kitchen table joking around while we all work together is always a good time. 

All in all, a fun project!  Working big was a refreshing change, but I'm not gonna lie, I'm looking forward to getting back to my paper art journals.  This weekend is going to be a huge treat for me - a bunch of us rent a church hall once a month or so, and spend an entire Saturday working on our art/crafts/scrapbooks/whatever, and that's only two days from now.  I can't wait to see my friends, and I am really excited to spend the day doing art stuff.  Wheeeeee!

With love and rockets,
Shelley!

EDIT:  The sign got lots of compliments - for about a week.  THEN SOMEONE STOLE IT. 

Well.  I guess that is the ultimate compliment.  : )