Playing with Doodles

I've been noticing Zentangles (formerly known as doodling) a lot on Pinterest and the net in general lately, and I figured it was about time I gave it a go myself.  I think I like the term tangling better than doodling...for no other reason than as I sit here reading the title to this post, I realize that 'playing with doodles' makes me either sound like a perv or just really darn gross...

My first two attempts are on cheap 4 x 6 index cards from the Dollar Tree (which are really thin and clearly need some gesso to give them a boost!) and the third is in my art journal.

Here's my first attempt:

Nothing to write home about...but it was my first try...

It's pretty rough around the edges...too much white space between the doodles, maybe?  I don't know, but it was my first attempt...I thought I could do a little better:

A little better, I think...I am digging it more than the first attempt...

The second one gave me the gumption to try a bigger page of doodles:

Woo hoo!  I am really happy with all the different patterns!

Pinterest is a great source for how to make different patterns.  Right now, I have a couple pins on tangling on the "Art and Word Journal" board if you want to check that out, I've got a button in my side bar or just search Sweet Red Clover on Pinterest.  I'm liking this so much, I may have to make a board just for Zentangle/doodle patterns!

I've Got Mail (Art)!

Saturday, I walked out to the mailbox and found something something really awesome: Mail Art!  I am EXCITED!

This is the first mail art I have gotten, and my lovely friend Cheryl actually sent me two separate things!  On Saturday, when I first opened the mail box, I saw this peeping out at me:

My band-aid collage from Cheryl!

I love the girl's face (I have a thing for faces...aka an obsession) and I really admire Cheryl's collages...she is one of the people who inspired me to try my own collage that I shared a few posts back!  The ephemera on this piece is so neat...it makes me wonder if Cheryl has a big huge room full of old magazines and newspapers...and then it made me wonder if I can go visit Cheryl and her room and swipe some good stuff! (ha ha)

And then, today when I came home from work, as I was looking through the the mail, I was super surprised to find another piece of mail art!  (She's so sneaky!  I didn't know there were going to be two!) I saw this beautiful diamond among the coal (aka a big stack of bills...boo for bills!):

An envelope busting at the seams with goodies!!!

So, I opened (extra carefully) the envelope (because it's so pretty, I want to keep it!) and check out all the neat things that it contained:

Some really great sheet music...I don't know what song this is, but if I remember music class correctly, I bet it's a peppy song...IF I remember right...just know that music class was a long time ago...

This sweet patchwork heart napkin!  I also sew a little, so this is very cool  on two levels!

This beautiful bird napkin (I can't wait to use it!)...I am really going to have to check out the napkin section next time I go to the store, because I am missing out on some really cool stuff it seems!

This wonderful ATC (artist trading card)...I love silhouettes!  And this one has just the perfect amount of sparkly goodness...I wish I was a better photographer so you could see just how perfect it is!

And this amazingly gorgeous ATC, which I love, love, LOVE!!!  There really aren't enough exclamation points or letters UPPER CASE enough for me to express how much I love this ATC!

I am so happy and excited about receiving such lovely art!  Thank you, Cheryl, so very much for making my day with your beautiful pieces and fun goodies too!  I sent my mail art to Cheryl this morning before work, and I was so excited, I actually forgot to take pictures!  I was literally skipping into the post office...for the record, when an adult skips into the post office, the man at the counter looks at her very oddly...and that's ok...I was too excited to care!  

So, in a few days, Cheryl will get my mail art to her, and I hope that she will like hers as much as I like mine! (Or at least close to as much, because I REALLY like mine, so she'll have to pass out from excitement to be able to like what she's getting more...and while I hope she likes it, I don't want her to pass out...hehehe!)

Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU, Cheryl!!!

Gaudy Girl

Hey fabulous and glorious and magnificent people!  First I want to say thanks for all the kind words concerning my last post.  You all really brighten my life up in amazing ways...and I appreciate it so much!

I just want to share my entry to the Daisy Yellow "Gaudy" challenge (learn more HERE):

Yowza...that's pretty darn gaudy...

This was a fun challenge for me, especially considering the droopy way I've been feeling lately.  I needed a little pepping up, and I think this is definitely fun and peppy...and bright.

I used a much bigger brush than I'm used to on this page, and I had a good time with it!  I actually like how the hair turned out, so I may have to finesse it up a little bit and add the big-brush-hair to my regular rotation.  I also like the way some of the paint scraped off...it started out as an accident, but then I thought it was kind of interesting looking, so I scraped off a little more in different places.

When I thought about gaudy, all I could think of was red and gold...for some reason, that color combo stuck in my head.  But when I went to use my gold paint (which is a hundred years old and a cheapie paint to begin with), it wouldn't show up on the red...so then I thought about it some more and thought of a person with way too much make-up on...and this is what happened.  She is completely frightening...and I kinda like her for it!

The Sad Girl

Here's my most recent art journal page:

Prismacolors and acrylic paint on ultra matte black background

And close up:

The Sad Girl

I've been having a bit of a rough time lately, and I didn't want to make a happy page feeling the way I do.  It would be a lie.

Two years ago this May, I lost a very dear friend.  He was the best man I have ever had the privilege to know, and it hurts every day not seeing him and hearing his voice.  

The way my friend's life ended, by his own hand, makes the loss of him even harder to deal with, to find peace with.  I think that the people close to one who commits suicide probably always blame themselves in some way.  You ask yourself if you should have seen something, if you could have said or done something that would have stopped them from doing what they had done.  And the truth is, you just don't know.  You never get to know, and even if you could have, it's always going to be to late to change it.  That's a hard reality to come to terms with.

It's gotten easier overtime, or at least I don't think about it every second of the day.  But still, and probably for the rest of my life, little thoughts pop into my head and there it is again.  I try now to honor his memory, to think about the good things and not the way it ended.  I think it's funny how a certain smell, or the way the light shines, or the way I see the movement of another person can call him to mind so quickly...and I don't think that's a bad thing.  I don't want to forget him.

I've just been having a hard time lately with him not being here.  He always gave such good advice, it was one of the great things about him, and I could use some of his words of wisdom right about now.  I guess that's what I've been thinking about lately and what led to this journal page.

Was it just...a collage?

I have some loverly internet friends that I met by doing art journal challenges.  I am so happy I get to see and be inspired by the wonderful things they make!  

One thing I've seen and really enjoyed are the wonderful collages done by some of my facebook friends...and they inspired me to try my own:

The over view...

And the gratuitous close-up:

I believe I will call you...Puppy Love...

I had so much fun doing this collage...minus the cutting...I tried to go zen with it and just zone out and snip, but I don't think I accomplished that...I was pretty happy when the snippy snippy was done...

My favorite thing is the image of the boy and girl, which I did using the packing tape transfer method.  If you google it, you'll get much better instructions, but basically, all you do is take a toner-based print (go to the library and make a copy if you need to...or do it at work like I did...shh...don't tell!), put clear packing tape over the top of it and then wet the back of the paper.  Wait a minute or two and then start rubbing the wet paper and the paper part will come off and leave the toner behind on the packing tape!  I think this is so neat, because you get to see whatever's behind the image (if you have light spots in the image anyway)!  On a side note, this doesn't work with ink jet printers *sad face*...the internet told me so, but I had to try for myself...the internet was right...it just all comes off when you start rubbing...no adorable goodness gets left behind...

I had a blast doing this collage...so much so that I think I will have to do another one sometime!  Perhaps I can handle the snipping, since the rest of the process is so much fun.

Oh, and before I forget, I would like to give an unpaid (although if they want to pay me that would be great) shout out to YES! paste, which is this awesome glue stuff that didn't wrinkle the paper AT ALL!  Take that Elmer's glue (just kidding Elmer, I love you too...just for different applications...)!  I am definitely going to be using the YES! paste from now one, it works so nicely!

Pinky

Here's my latest page, done and done:

I actually made this art journal (the book itself)...I'll have to post about that some time...

And EXTREME CLOSE UP version:

A couple things about this page...first, pink is NOT my favorite color.  I had done the girl before I did the background and given her pink eye shadow just for kicks...then when painting the body, I had a massive error involving ripping the paper (UGH!) on accident.  I was looking for something to cover that up, when I saw a card one of my coworkers gave me that had a similar coloring to what I had done on the eyes.  So I got out my watercolors and painted the background pink.  I cut up the card in manageable pieces and gave them a little bit of a wash (they were a little too pastel in the beginning) and glued away.  

Second, I am in the process of working on layering.  It's a skill that has eluded me for far too long.  In the past, it's always seemed like my ephemera was just sitting there on the page, not looking like a part of the page at all.  This is the first page I've done where I'm reasonably satisfied with the layering looking like it's part of the page and not an afterthought.

Third, the journaling bit in the lower left hand corner is a quote from a song by Mama Kin.  It says "Love was a cruel mistake."  The irony of it is that while I was writing the quote, I accidentally smeared the pen on the word mistake, so I scribbled it out and rewrote it below...now it's one of my favorite parts of the page...so hooray for some mistakes!  

Be THAT person.

Who are you when no one is looking...be that person much more often.

I finished this page last night, staying up to the wee hours of the morning to finish...I have got to stop doing that!  At least today was Saturday and I could sleep in and make up for it...

One of the things I'm working on is making interesting backgrounds.  I am bad for drawing the main thing first and then trying to fill in a background and not mess up the main image in the mean time...  With this page, I did the background first (like a normal person!  ...for once)...and it was a different experience for me, because I kept seeing parts of the background I really liked and didn't want to cover over...which shaped the way I decided what to draw.

My favorite thing on the page happened by accident (that's always the way it goes, isn't it?).  I was writing the quote journaling in a light colored marker, so it would blend in, but it was too light, so I wrote over it in a slightly darker color...still too light...so I wrote over it again a couple more times.  I like that you can kind of see the original writing underneath...like a ghost image...or when you're taking a picture and the camera is shaky!  I think it looks pretty neat.