Happy Halloween

I was involved in black cat swap for Halloween so here is what I got.


















This is from Cheryl who doesn't have a blog as far as I know. She sent some chocolate and some lip gloss too. My cat sits on my mantle piece and looks out on her domain.













Here is the cat that I sent to Pam It is done on a 6 x 6 gallery wrapped canvas. First I painted the canvas in reds and oranges. I drew the cat on plain paper and cut it out of black cardstock. Using it as a base I added decorative scrapbook paper in black and white. Then I added the face with white and silver gel pens. The little bats and ghost were stickers that just appeared out of nowhere. oooh eeee....


















Here is my last drawing for the Big Draw. Its been an amazing month of drawing every day. I don't know if I can stop now. I think thats a good thing. If you enjoyed seeing all the faces you can see the whole group here. Thanks to all of you who visited and commented on my work. You've been wonderful.

Next month I switch over to writing. I posted every day in October and November will be totally different. I will probably post a couple times a week at minimum, maybe more

Judging Time

Its time to judge my mail art contest. I have listed the front of envelopes below with a number. Just leave a comment and let me know which number you prefer. The numbers are below the envelope. You can scroll down to previous entries to see the backs and so forth if you like. you may also click on the picture to make it bigger. I'll wait a few days and then tally up the score and announce the winner.









No. 1










No.2














No. 3












No.4












No. 5












No.6











No. 7

A gold mine in the mail

I got in on this giveaway from Kelli Perkins and look what she sent me. First the envelope was lovingly decorated.














Then package is full of paper, beads, fabric, ephemera of all kinds it is quite a gold mine. Make sure to click on th pic for a closeup.


















and here is todays drawing.

Reverse Graffitti

A friend sent me this, I know you'll enjoy it. This is so cool.

600 Posts

This is my 600th post on blogger and my blogiversary is next month on the 17th. I will do something to celebrate all that in December. I have no time right now and November is shot so in December I will come up with a give away of sorts.


















I seem to have a full blown cold, with a sore throat and nausea thing going on. Yuck. Right before Nanowrimo too. I hope the worst is over by Saturday. I am spending a lot of time in bed lately. I can still draw though so here is today's drawing.

Comments: thanks to all the wonderful souls who have been commenting on my drawings and so forth. I have not had much time to go do the same for you but I do appreciate your efforts.

New books

Here is todays drawing. I am not feeling great today so I decided to get it done early. I think I caught the bug from Sarah this past weekend.














This past week I got these 2 books in the mail and they are both not what I expected. This is a good thing though, they are both better than I thought they would be. This first one has been talked about a lot on blogs. I thought it would be a page a day for the 37 days but it is so much more.















This book I have been waiting for. I hate when you hear about a book but you have to wait till its published.I really like the premise and will be doing more and more self portraits in the coming year. I have learned manynew ideas and techniques and I have been opened up to new artists. That is all a plus. I really like both of these books very much...

Day 27

Day 27's drawing. Only 4 more faces to go and this month will be over. That is sort of hard to believe that I have done that many faces.

I am back home now. I only ended up working one day for the4 campaign but at least I was able to help a little bit. Sarah was sick while I was there so it really wasn't as fun a weekend as it could be. Her place is so small I felt so cramped. It feels good to be back to my open spaces but I do miss her already. I used a photo of her for the base of todays drawing

Drawing in Missoula

Well I am still in Missoula so the the drawing has to continue here. The canvassing went well I will write about it later, Time to go out and get some food.

Went to Missoula

I have gone up to Missoula to work on the Obama campaign here. I thought I would work today and tomorrow but after all the getting ready to go and the 5 hour drive here I was just too pooped. I signed up to work tomorrow at noon. Sarah and I spent the rest of the day shopping. I was really good at the bookstore.










I bought a couple sheets of white paper and these new acrylics by Golden. They had a small set 6 colors in a small package so I got them to try out. I have heard good reports about these new paints and was interested in trying them. This was the first place I have seen them.


















Here is todays drawing.....

Last of the mail art

I got some mail art today, these were the last ones I was expecting. This one is from Ninnie. It is gorgeous don't you think.












and here is the back of envelope.














she also sent this lovely ATC. Thank you Ninnie for all this beautiful Art.













and from a Jr. Glitter sister Banna.













and then the back too. Plus Banna sent me a darling little note. Thanks Banna

Sometime next week I relist them all and let you all vote.

The papers

Here is my second attempt at posting the pages. These are just the ones I did. The ones Kate did were just as nice. I hope they show up well. We followed the instructions here Some of the colors are so subtle that you may need to click on the page to see it better. This was really fun and I hope to do it again. We learned a lot our first try. Maybe I will have to do a video the next time.

















Page 1. I used a comb on these.














Page 2, I used a comb tool and stamps.












Page 3, using a combing tool.












Page 4, once again playing with a combing tool I got from the paint dept.














Page 5, I used a comb here.














Page 6, I used a rolograph stamp here.














Page 7, using a rolograph stamp.














page 8, using a rolograph stamp to take off color.













Page 9, again using a rolograph stamp.














Page 10, and using another rolograph stamp. The layering of color is what makes it interesting.













Here is today's drawing..

Paste Paper

Here is todays drawing.

Today I spent the day making paste paper with my friend Kate. I did take pictures but they really didn't come out well. We really had fun making these papers. It took a little while but we finally came up with a system that we were happy with. At first the paste seemed too thin and then we started layering colors and had better success. I found that using rolograph stamps made some great papers. I will try to take pics of mine again tomorrow. They really came out nice.

Continuing with mail art and drawing

This is from Gemma, and here is the front of the envelope. I think its just beautiful. Inside she include some green chai tea and a note saying the drawings are based on the ballerinas of Rachel Isadora









and this is the back. she also said "My girl danced her way to you. She skidded to a stop @ your doorstep". This is so nice, thank you Gemma.


















My latest drawing. I am sorry it is crooked, but you still get the idea.

Latest Painting

This is the latest face I have been working on. I am not sure if its finished yet. I think I will just let it sit for awhile and then decide. My newest goal is to stop apologizing for my Art. Normally I would go on and on about how I think there is something wrong with it but no more. I don't think that serves us as artists at all. I know it won't be easy but I am going to try and stop doing that.

I was such in a painting mode that I thought I would tackle an older painting that I have been unhappy with. After slopping paint all over the sucker I decided that it just wasn't going to work. I am in the process of putting gesso over it and beginning again. This actually felt good to do this. It needs several coats so later today I may have a surface I can work on. I think I really learned a lot working on the painting shown above so I am ready to do another right away.

More mail and magnetic stamps

I got some Mail Art from Mahala













First is the lovely envelope. Yes you can do collage on an envelope and still mail it. This is so pretty, I love it.













and inside a lovely card.

















and then a lovely ATC. Sunflowers are my favorite. Thank you so much Mahala.

















Todays drawing.... are you getting tired of seeing faces...














After reading Kate I's blog and seeing the magnetic alphabet stamp set I just had to have one. Roberts did not have them but Michaels did. You have to buy 2 different parts. One is all the stamps and the other has the holder and the attachments, you can do a single letter, one line or two lines. They have other alphabets and stamps of words so there are other options. My set is called rummage and comes with small and capital letters and punctuation and numbers. They come in a metal tin for storage and are really nice. I can't wait to start using them. I did find that you do have to think backwards when you are lining up letters to spell your words. The d and b were hard to distinguish for me. I think that will become easier after using them for awhile.

Contest ends soon

My mail art contest ends on October 25th but if you tell me you are mailing something I will hold it open till I get all the mail. Remember the prize is a copy of Art & Life along with some miscellaneous goodies.



















Here is today's drawing.

Day 19 the drawing continues

I drew my face today in church, I find it easy to listen well when my hands are creating something and my minister does not mind at all. The people around me are always intrigued by the process too. it does a body good when people really like what you've done and say Oh you are an Artist. I try really had not to not say oh it really doesn't look like the picture I was trying to draw from. I swallow and say Oh thank you. I think that becoming is an Artist is all a process and part of that is owning the title for yourself.

I finished my cat for the swap, I will show it on Halloween, it has to be kept a secret until then. It was fun to do but now I am glad I have all my art commitments done.

Poetry

I went to a Poetry Slam last night. They are held here twice a year and I always seem to forget about the dates and never get to one. My friend Jeff called to remind me about it. I wish I had taken the camera, but alas I did not so I have no pictures to share. Here is how it works, 5 people from the audience are chosen to be judges. They had a 2 piece band a saxophone player and a drummer who played between poems. The top five get to perform a second poem and then there are 2 prize winners. The age ranged from teenagers to senior and everyone else in between. The poems were funny, serious and tragic. There were several people who were real performers and it was incredible to see them perform. The poetry was great. I really enjoyed.

Check to see if anything like this happens in your town and go to it you will have a great time.

Nights in Rodanthe

I was sent this video this morning and thought I would share. Its all about art and sharing your process. I love how she took childhood pictures of herself and her sister and made them into small mermaids. They are really cute.















I wanted to go see The Secret Life of Bees last night but it wasn't showing here so I saw the Nights in Rodanthe instead. It was beautiful, sad, touching and emotional and very well done. Diane Lane is a favorite actress of mine and when you throw in Richard Greer on top of that how can you lose.

I just found out about this new blog called Urban Sketchers, it looks like it will be really interesting to see. Several people around the world who sketch their city and surroundings.

















Here is todays drawing.