Gloria Vanderbilt

Art Journal

The Rainbows Come and Go

Watercolor, acrylics, ink, water soluble crayons

I've been doing a lot in my sketchbook, and haven't done anything in my art journal recently.  So today was the day.  I recently saw the documentary that Gloria Vanderbilt and her son, Anderson Cooper did called "The Rainbows Come and Go".  I also read their book and those are the inspiration for my journal pages today.  I haven't quite captured Gloria....her eyes don't look like that and, while she has a big smile...this isn't quite her smile.  However, I hope that between the hairdo and the big smile....she looks a little bit like Gloria.  I had fun doing the pages nonetheless.

In progress..

I think to look more like Gloria, maybe her top teeth should be shorter, her cheeks higher, mouth wider...neck longer.  Not sure about her eyes.  Perhaps I'll try her again sometime!

Sketching:

Kousa Dogwood

The Gilded Nest

a store in Georgetown

The Early Bird

Coffee Shop

Buckets of Fun

Sketch from photo

Christ Church

Trying to catch up on posting.  Just been too busy creating.  Enjoying the process and learning as I go. 

Summer Reading

Sitting on my deck for awhile today....

Water colors and Ink

In my Sketchbook

I know this is a strange angle....looks like I'm "morphing" into the chair!  Maybe I was...the drawing is a bit distorted, however, it gets the point across.  Being that I was the person I was sketching, I couldn't distance myself to get a good perspective and I couldn't include hands or arms...because I was using them.   My favorite part of the drawing is from the book to the shoes.  All in all....I like it a lot.  I'm putting things in my sketchbook that would never have occurred to me to draw and paint and put in my art journals.  I'm S-T-R-E-T-C-H-I-N-G myself to sketch!

                           

Love Me Love My Dog

Sketchbook

Ink and Watercolor

Love Me Love My Dog

I am loving sketching.  I feel like everything I look at now....I picture as a possible sketch!  It's crazy...and it's fun.  You don't have to be perfect because you're capturing just a piece of what you're looking at.  How divine and stress free.  I was watching a video on sketching (yeah) and I looked up and saw Boomer snoozing on the couch....he just looked so sweet....had to be in the sketchbook.  In the early part of sketching him...he changed position!  I had to remember...how did those paws look exactly...especially the one closest to his face....In the end it all came out.  (I see I forgot to finish his nose!) 

Here is a sketch I did this morning...

The Early Bird Cafe

I went out for breakfast this morning and sketched The Early Bird Café when I got home.  This was more difficult than sketching Boomer...there were reflections in the glass, perspective and all of those chairs and table legs to make sense of....which I didn't really, but I'll keep practicing 'til I get the technique down.  The great thing about sketching...it makes me want to draw, and drawing can help my paintings whether in my art journals or on a canvas.  So much fun.

FEELIN' FISHY

Art Journal

Mixed Media

Feelin' Fishy

In the home stretch in this journal, so I've been going through it and tweaking things here and there.  The above page had some stencil paint remnant on it.  I took a different stencil, the one I call fish scales, and added spray ink to the page.  Shades of blue...my favorite.  I then took a piece of "delicious" paper, aka deli paper, that my sister and I probably created on a vacation a couple of years ago using the Gelli plate.  I have a nice stash of papers from that time...but I could always use more.  I cut fish shapes out of it.  The paper has wonderful colors and lots of metallic paint and it's semi-transparent.  The fish came out great.  The crab is a Maryland Blue Crab (is there any other kind???) and it was in my stash.  I carefully cut it out and added some paint to it.  So that's another page done...and I like it...

Here's another fish page I did today...I'm into fish...what can I say?

Water soluble crayons

Water Colors - Ink

Weathervane Fish

Back during Memorial Day, I had painted a beach house scene and posted it here and the page opposite that was blank.  Today I painted this weathervane fish.  My mind is actually spinning with some kind of fish painting in mind...whether on watercolor paper or canvas...I just don't know yet.  Fish are a great subject that come in myriads of color....endless options...maybe too many, which is why I'm still pondering the fish...

There's Always A Song In My Heart

Art Journal

Mixed Media

"There's Always A Song In My Heart"

I'm coming close to finishing this art journal.  I don't always totally finish them...here is what it looks like...

I love all of the colors you can see when it's standing like this.  What amazes me most about it, is how heavy it is, and that's due to all of the materials glued and painted and pasted on the pages.  The gesso alone is responsible for a lot of it!  This is a Dylusions large journal and the first time I've worked in a journal of this size which I think is about 9 x 11. 

Some of the materials I've used here: stencils, ink, rubber stamps, collage materials and Lindy's Stamp Gang powdered paint from her Hawaiian Islands collection with colors named Aloha Avocado and Magical Mai Tai and Plumeria Pink.....You just mix the powder with water and the colors are beautiful.  This page has a lot of pink which isn't generally one of my colors...The brightest pink is an ink spray...so pink it almost hurts my back molars!  Sweet!

When I first sat down to do this page, my intention was to do a paper mosaic, but things kind of went in another direction.  The one thing I didn't change, is the theme...There's Always A Song In My Heart.  I love music, all kinds of music and it is often a song that will inspire a journal page. 

My Re-Imagine Journal is almost complete!

Graveyard Sketch

Christ Church Parish Graveyard

In the sketchbook

After I sketched my garden shed, I took a drive over to my church to see what I might sketch in the graveyard.  The graves are very old, from the Revolutionary War, and many are broken or you can  no longer read the engravings.  It's a very interesting place. I chose the stone above because I could still read the words and....it had an American flag on it to indicate that a veteran was buried there.  I took photos while I was there as there is potential for more sketches but I might just pay another visit.  There's nothing like natural light.  The two locations I chose to sketch yesterday...my driveway and the graveyard...there were no people around.  I'm trying to gain confidence so that I can sketch in a public place where there are people around and not feel self-conscious.  Haven't tried that yet....I'm a work in progress!

The Garden Shed - in the sketchbook

Sketchbook

The Garden Shed

It was a gorgeous day here yesterday, so I plunked myself down in my driveway and decided to sketch the garden shed.  Not the first time I've painted it, but this is in keeping with "sketching" vs doing a painting.   Working in pen, I sketched going from left to right, trying to keep in mind the perspective.  I wasn't going to include the house on the right which is my neighbor's.  I actually didn't think I  would be able to place it correctly, but because it's a sketch...the vagueness of the drawing works and the house is in the distance.  There are so many different "greens"...from the pachysandra to the grass to the holly to all of the woodsy stuff in the background.  I draw it all with a vague sense of noting that there is a green "something" growing here and there.  The trees in the back become a wash of green with some pen strokes.  But you don't want them to look like they're lined up behind the shed.  I probably have more detail here than necessary for a sketch, but you can go as far as you want with it.  What I love is getting lost in the moment of the creation of the drawing and actually hate when it's done!

I Don't Follow Directions.....

Art Journal

"I Don't Follow Directions"

Acrylics, Stencils, Mask

I could have titled this page...."I just don't listen".  That's kind of the way I fly.  It's the way I'm wired.  Sometimes the learning process just takes too long.  I want to know how to do things RIGHT NOW.  I'm certainly not a millennial, but I do like instant gratification.  I think this silhouette looks like that of an independent person.  I started painting a background, first used my fingers to smoosh color around the page.  Then I started using some stencils and spray acrylics. 

I had thought about leaving this as is....just a colorful painted page.  But not.  I decided to add a figure.  I took a piece of cardstock and cut a shape and then I took black paint and using a small sponge, wiped the paint around the mask.  That was scary....I could have ruined the above page!.   But not.

One more close-up before the mask.  I decided to glue the mask to the opposite page, where I had wiped all of my excess paint. 

Just listen to your heart and you won't need direction(s)

YESTERDAY'S LUNCH

Yesterday's Lunch

Tuna Salad, Tomatoes and Grapes

on a glass plate

In my sketchbook

5 x 7

 

Working directly with a pen...no erasing, I see the errors of my ways.  I learned from my sister, that when sketching....to include every line so to speak, around the perimeter of the drawing.  In other words, I shouldn't have drawn the entire circle (plate) without including that one grape hanging over the plate at the top.  So, unfortunately, it has a line through it.  Secondly, because I wasn't drawing "live" from the plate, but used a photo of the lunch...when I finished the drawing, I realized that I didn't have the entire fork....and that's because it wasn't in the photo!  The drawing looked funny with the fork cut off.   So I cheated a bit and added a longer fork after I had written the words on the page.  It worked OK. The fork looks like its seen better days!  I did not include the dark wood of the table underneath the glass plate...not sure how that would have turned out. 

The food itself....how do you paint tuna salad??  Below is a close-up...you can't see my mistakes here!  Next time I should sketch the lunch before I eat it....note to self. 

GINKO...a memory

Art Journal

Ginko...A memory

Water color, Acrylics, Ink, Stencil

Haven't done what I call a "true" journal page recently, but I consider this page one.  I did enjoy creating it.

The opposite page is just...what it is.

Journaling...

Ginko....

Remembering....

Too Much Fun...

In My Sketchbook

Water Colors!

These are the water colors that Tom gave me for Christmas.  There's actually a whole other row of colors under the ones I drew here.  Then I went outside...

Backyard

This sketch is an area of my backyard...I know it's hard to see; below you see it in color.

The Pink Shop

I was at a local hardware on Rt. 7 earlier today, and directly across the street from where I parked, was this little pink shop.  It's empty now but it's been many shops over the years and not always pink.   It sits in a precarious place with a river right behind it....almost under it.  So I snapped a photo and came home to sketch it and add a little bit of water color.  Here's the photo of it...

How could I not try to capture it?  It's sweet.  I love the "looseness" of sketching!

SKETCH - Berry Crumble

Sketchbook

Berry Crumble

Pen and Water Color

This is the 2nd sketch in my new sketchbook.  I like the way the basket turned out, but the dishes should have been more dominant in the drawing because they are the main subject of the sketch.  I did not draw the subject in pencil first; I went right with the pen because then I feel I'm committed to the drawing and can't erase what I've done.  Sketching really makes you look at whatever it is you are sketching and if I want to do more drawing in my paintings, this is a great skill to work at.  And the Berry Crumbles...they were scrumptious!

IT'S FISHY

Art Journal

Acrylics

Just a quick post.  This didn't start out as a "fish" post.  Originally, it was a vertical painting of colors and shapes.  The more I looked at it, I decided to isolate the fish from all of the shapes going on and it became a horizontal painting.  This is what I ended up with.

 This is a seed of an idea of something I'd look to do on a canvas with lots of pattern and color.