Tag: whimsical

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Dragonfly art doll

Hi artsy friends.

I don’t know about you, but I get restless with just making the same kind of art.  I’ve enjoyed making art dolls and picked up a few new patterns recently and started with this doll, Cecily.  I purchased the pdf pattern from the NLH Designs Etsy shop.

Cecily is a steampunk dragonfly art doll, about 16 inches tall.  She is a fairly simple doll, with minimal joints. The instructions are easy to follow and she is pretty quick to sew up.  The stuffing takes a long time and I have to admit that I over-stuffed her a bit and popped a couple of seams in the process, including her filtrum.  Poor thing.  The nose is needlesculpted.

dragonflyartdoll-tenukihandcrafts.jpg

I followed my own face style for painting the face, using Prisma pencils, gel pens, Pitt pens. I didn’t seal her face because, well, I popped the seam. Didn’t seem to be much point, really.

I used faux fur for her hair, that was cut in sections and sewn directly on her head. I made the dragonfly wings, following the instructions but haven’t assembled and attached them yet.

Even with her flaws, I think she’s pretty cute.

I am enjoying this process, but I need to plan ahead when I make the next one.  The sewing and stuffing is rather tough on my hands. I’m going to have to spread the work out over several weekends: cut and sew several heads and bodies; stuff on another weekend; paint faces; assemble dolls; make outfits; make accessories.

I see a box full of soft, art doll body parts in my future.

Once my hands recover and I finish Cecily, I’ll post the final photos.

Happy arting!

 

 

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Life Book Weeks 5-9

Hi there, beautiful ones. I mentioned in the last post that I started with Lesson 1 of Life Book 2015 and am “catching up.” I know from last year’s experience that I can skip lessons (I skipped 2), some weeks are an artist interview (no art lesson), and there are plenty of what Tam calls “bonus lessons,” which are less work-intense. I feel no pressure with this matter of ‘catching up.’

Without further ado, here are my pages, and 1 canvas, for February’s Life Book 2015 lessons. For this particular group, I think I used every art supply in my stash.

Week 5 Dream Catcher with Rachel Rice.  I didn’t have the doily that Rachel used on her page and instead, used a circlular thing that I crocheted using my own hand spun yarn. Truthfully, I don’t remember when I made this little thing or why I kept it.  But it came in handy for this page, as it represents my dream to someday go back to knitting, crocheting and spinning my own yarns.

Week5Dreamcather

Week 6 Seeds of Love with Tam.  This was another lesson that I saw a lot of posts for and really loved the art that people were making. I enjoyed this lesson so much that I created two additional paintings.

Week6SeedsofLove

Week 7 Heart Community with Jill K. Berry

Week7HeartCommunity

 

Week 7 Magical Mystery Tour with Violette Clark, close-up of my page

Week7MagicalMysteryTour

Week 8 Treasure Seeking with Mati Rose McDonough. This lesson was on wrapped canvas and I was compelled to re-imagine one of Tam’s Life Book 2014 pages in this lesson.

Week8TreasureSeeking Week 9 Favorite Favorites with Lynn Whipple

Week9FavoriteThings

What do you do to manage the feeling that you are behind?

 

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Life Book Weeks 1-4

As I mentioned in the last post, I signed up for Life Book 2015 after completing Tam’s mini workshop, Summer Girls, near the end of March.  Although it means that I need to do some catching up, I chose to work through the lessons from the beginning.  At the writing of this post, I am just beginning to work on Week 12, Your Inner and Outer World with Jane Davenport. In real time, the class is on Week 17. So I have to catch both myself and you up so in order to do this, I’m posting a month’s worth of lessons at a time.

Rather than bind my 2015 Life Book, I am using a 9″x12″ Leuchtturm 1917 journal, which I plan to use for all the art classes I take this year. I’m writing the name of the class and date I finish each page in order to keep track. In addition to LB 2015, I am enrolled in 3 self-study classes, “Primitive Portraits” with Mindy Lacefield, which influenced Week 4’s page; Mika Diaz’ “Face2Face” class (lessons on hair!); and Tam’s mini class, A Christmas Whimsy, to help me make holiday cards this year.

Sometimes I copy the lesson as presented and other times I go in my own direction, based on the arty urge at the moment I sit down to work. I continue to use Effy’s Ultimate Class Notebook,which helps me retain more information from each lesson.

On to Life Book 2015 pages!

Week 1 Warm-up exercise byTam

LifeBookWeek1Week 1 Beacon of Light, also by Tam. One of the reasons I gave in and signed up for Life Book. I loved all the Beacons that people were posting to the Facebook group.

BeaconofLight

Week 2 Playing Tag with Roben-Marie Smith

Week2Closeout

Week 3 The Artful Wordsmith with Joanne Sharpe

Week3

Week 4 Courage Dear Heart with Patti Ballard

Week4CourageDearHeart

 

Drop me a line and let me know how you make your life more creative, whether it’s arty art, cooking, crafting, etc.

 

 

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Whimsical Krampus Handmaiden

image

My friend Marva invited me to join her upcoming Krampus themed show at Bedlam Coffee next month.
Most of my pieces are altered digital photos of Marva in her awesome Krampus costume.

I really wanted to include a mixed media art piece. I sketched a few whimsical Krampuses and they were OK. It wasn’t until I got to Lesson 2 of Radiant Faces with Tamara Laporte that I was inspired.

That lesson produced Inner Child and her dark cousin, Krampus Handmaiden. I have to give credit to Jane and Teesha and Mermaid Circus for helping me with finishing touches. I’ve heard the message in many classes, but it clicked in Mermaid Circus.

This piece is 16 inhes by 14 inches cold press watercolor paper. With collage, stencils, acrylics, Neocolor 2’s, Aquamarkers, Promarkers, Pitt pens, Prisma pencils, and Montana markers.

Edited with #aviary > http://avry.co/_getAviary_

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Whimsical Shaded Gal

For the Lesson 26 of Life Book, I picked up three pencils (2B, 4B, and 6B) plus some charcoal.  When I finish my various class lessons, I fiddle with my various art journals. I thought it was a good time to go back to pencils and make a portrait in my style.  For comparison to the more realistic style, I included my final version of Week 26 gal.

Here is Whimsical Pencil shaded gal.

https://flic.kr/p/oGZHET

I enjoy working with pencils, but don’t like so much the smudging.  I sealed the page with Windsor and Newton sealant, but it was a bit smudgy.  I added a layer of clear gesso, my new best friend.  A bit of smudginess with applying the gesso, but ok for an art journal page.