In Black and White

{loved drawing pigtails on this girl}

Hello and Welcome!

I'm back to share some of the girls I sketched from Tamara LaPorte's Art, Heart and Healing E-Course last spring. I'm a newbie when it comes to drawing and recently shared my first mixed media girl, in color, from Tam's course. You can see Lucy here in case you missed the post. 

I love how Tam uses color in her mixed media and her whimsical creatures are fantastic. It's a free e-course for those who sign up to her newsletter and you'll find that there's a lot of drawing content in this course. If you don't need the healing part then follow Tam's recommendation and skip it. 

I took the course because it was 

1. Free 

2. I love her art 

3.She's an awesome teacher 

4. I wanted to learn how to draw whimsical creatures

You can visit her blog and click on the banner at the top right to join if you're interested.   

I highly recommend this free e-course!

I made notes on my page while Tam was instructing and refer to them when needed.  

I found it beneficial that she also teaches you how to draw different articles of clothing, shoes, styles of feet and hair. I'm telling you, there's a lot of art content in each video and it's all for FREE. 

In the 4th video Tam taught us how to draw an angel and I can't wait to share her with you next week. I have a sketch of the initial angel I drew plus another angel which I colored with some of Tam's favorite watercolor mixed media products. 

In the meantime, I hope you'll visit me on Friday when I introduce another "new to me" adventure right here on my blog. 

See ya then!

Lisa xx

Say Hello to Lucy

Hello and Welcome!

Hope everyone here in the US had a wonderful Labor Day holiday. Ours was busy but we had a great time visiting with our kids and furry grand babies. :)

As I mentioned in my previous blog post I'm sharing something new here on my blog. I discovered Tamara LaPorte's blog - www.willowing.org  - earlier in the spring and fell in love with her whimsical mixed media art. After watching her FREE 4 Week E-Course titled Art, Heart and Healing I was inspired to do something I haven't done in a long time...draw. This is one of Tam's mixed media girls from the class and I named her Lucy. It's a little intimidating sharing your art with others and for the past several months I've kept it a secret. Today I'm choosing to step out and share the girls I've been creating in my art journals. Over the months I branched out and you'll be able to see that progression weekly here on my blog. 

"Inspiration does exist, but it must find you working."

                                                     -Picasso

Lucy is an independent spirit whose destined to blaze her own trail. 

Hence the quote below by Dr. Seuss.

I typed up the quote using Adler font, cut the word strips out and used a black gel pen to scribble a border around each one. Liquitex Gloss Gel was lightly brushed on the back and they were glued in place.

Whimsical people/creatures share three traits-

big heads

small bodies

overly emphasized features

and I just love them!

I'll be back later in the week with a Snapguide tutorial featuring a fall cutting file from The Cutting Cafe. Thanks for looking today!

Lisa xx

Art Journal Play

My poor blog has been neglected the past few weeks with moving my daughter to another apartment and taking a family vacation to Branson. We certainly did not know we'd be moving her when the trip was planned but it provided a nice break from all the packing. Thankfully she's in a better place with huge closets (girls love those), more living space, a fantastic outdoor space for our grand dog to play, and less noisy neighbors. :)

After recovering a few days, yes I needed to recover, I went downstairs to my crafty room and played in my large Dylusions journal. There was no plan in place and I started by spraying some of my favorite colors on the page using Dylusions and Mister Huey ink sprays. I always use Dyan's trick of rolling a paper towel roll over the pages to soak up the excess ink. Don't throw them away because you can use them in your art, if not on your current project then another one perhaps. 

I added strips of drywall tape and random stamps by Tim Holtz in various places. The stars were stenciled with a Dylusions stencil and Archival Leaf Green permanent ink. To shade them I used a black Stabilo pencil and went over the lines with a paint brush dipped lightly in water for a deeper effect. Stamping the letters with a speckled dot stamp (by Tim) helps them pop a bit. 

This song popped in my head and I decided to spell it out with alpha stickers and foam thickers for dimension. I love how Finn's Dots and Stripes stencil and Modeling Paste adds great background texture. Because I love circles I added a few using gesso and a cap from one of the nearby products I was using. That's a trick I learned from Kate Crane, thanks Kate!

I'll be back on Friday with my design team project for The Cutting Cafe and in case you haven't heard yet there's something new coming to Adventures in Paperland. Don't miss it!

Have an awesome day, wherever you are!

Lisa xx