Art Cabinet Update

I have to say that this cabinet is my favorite piece of furniture in my house.  It's nothing grand...it wasn't expensive (consignment shop!).  It was someone's old dining room cabinet from decades ago.  And I think I gave it a new lease on life.

The light is very bright from the snow coming in the windows, so it's hard to see the details.  However, I decided to take the old handles and knobs that came with the cabinet and paint them black.  They were a tired, old brass....at least that's what they looked like.  I also added a bit of gold down the piece of wood where the doors meet on the bottom.  I wanted each section of the cabinet to have some gold.  And I added a small black star at the top...again to make the cabinet have some uniformity.  I added some more gold to the dentil molding on the top so it shows more (although you can't really see any of the gold in this photo).  I still have touch-ups to do but I really love it and it's working just great in my art room.  My sister had suggested that I add a harlequin pattern on the sides...rather ambitious...but I haven't ruled it out (did I ever mention I'm not good in math?) because once I finish the cabinet, I want to seal it so it preserves the painting I've done on it.  At least that's my thought at this moment in time.  If you go back numerous postings, you can see how the cabinet looked when I brought it home. 

Altered Book Class - Paris

It was nice to venture out yesterday....a sunny day with no new snow.  But it was cold!  At class this month we did a couple of pages in our altered books on Paris.  We learned how to make the fan on the right hand page and our instructor had all kinds of "Paris" themed objects to use to decorate the pages.  The fun thing about this is that we all had similar objects to choose from... but everybody's pages looked different and unique...and that's why it's fun.

The Word is...CHAMELEON

I decided to add another word to my word journal this weekend..Chameleon.  It has a nice sound to it....and it means...."a small lizard whose skin changes color...especially according to its surroundings....and here are the pages...(still working on them)

 Isn't that a great lizard??  I found him on a National Geographic site.  And the page of "grasses" in front of him flips open....not sure what I am going to add there, possibly another lizard.  I should be doing more drawing of the illustrations rather than printing photos from the internet....this lizard almost looks like he's laughing....at what?

FACES

I wasn't going to blog about this drawing because I don't like it, but I think you can learn from your mistakes.  Unless you're very accomplished in drawing faces and see all of the nuances....it's very difficult to capture the "spirit" of the face...the soul.  So this drawing I drew without looking at a face and...she has no soul. She is just flat.  Colorful, but flat.

So, I need to go back to photos of faces...fashion magazines are a great resource...and really look at the face I am drawing...in order to give it life.  The picture below you've seen before on my blog, but look at the difference as to when you pay attention to detail...there is a "light" behind her eyes...almost wistful....  So...practice, practice practice....

The Word is "Crayon"

Crayon may not seem like a special word to be added to a "word journal"; we just take the word for granted and don't really think about it...but a definite visual image comes to mind when we hear that word....the box of Crayola Crayons in particular.  And there is nothing like the smell of a new box of crayons.  The next best thing...is the names they give them like wisteria and asparagus and indigo and mauvelous...got to love them!

I've always loved to color...whether it was coloring books at an early age or those "paint by number" kits (do they still make those??) or whatever was available.

When I was a senior in high school, I had appendicitis and landed in the hospital.  So, while I was there...I colored in coloring books to pass the time, and everyone who came to visit me, while we were chatting, had to color a page in my book and sign it.  I kept that coloring book for years...wish I still had it now.

Euphoria didn't happen.....

 

I decided to work in my word journal today and I chose the word....EUPHORIA.  Funny thing about that...euphoria didn't work for me today...wasn't feeling it.  But these two pages developed in the journal.  There is no "word" featured here, I just created storage pockets for the various words and phrases that I cut out of magazines to use in collage work.  This dual purpose altered book is working out OK...special words and word storage....I won't give up on finding ....euphoria...another time....

p.s.  The Good Things business card is from a store in Idaho where I used to ship some of my painted bird houses for sale quite awhile ago....loved their card....even more amazed that I could find it!

Ground Hog Day

This is the worst weather I've ever experienced living here in the northeast and I've lived here since 1974....I'm a wreck!  My gutters are jammed with ice and on the back bedroom side of the house, water is leaking in the bedroom windows and bathroom too, downstairs to the first floor bath...right down to the basement.  It's a nightmare.  I have buckets here and there and towels and plastic bags.....

So, in my attempts to distract myself (it's not working), I journaled a winter page and a "sunny" page (encouraged by my sister) and here they are.  

On the "sunnier" page, I have the lyrics to the Beatle tune...Good Day, Sunshine...thank you John, Paul, George & and Ringo.... once upon a time.
I used parts of a paper napkin on the sunny page.