Valentine RAK for Seniors 1 & 2

I posted a challenge of sorts in the general stamping talk forum over at SCS.

The challenge was to make Valentine's and donate them to seniors' homes. Lots of seniors have no family and are forgotten by society and don't get cards or gifts unless the staff gets them for them. My grandmother is in a home right now and my grandfather spent the last years of his life in a home.

I challenged everyone to make 1000 cards between all of us.

Here are my first two designs. They represent a total of 20 cards for a grand total of 20 cards for the challenge so far.

Card Recipes:

Card #1

Rocco (Stampendous)

Valentine Cube (Sunshine Designs)

Be My Valentine sentiment (unknown)

Valentine Row (Michaels $1.50 stamp)

Swiss Dot CB folder

Dollar Store Ribbon

Watercolour pencils

Funflock

Card #2

Rocco (Stampendous)

Valentine Cube (Sunshine Designs)

Happy Valentines Day (Hero Arts)
Heart Stamp (CTMH)

Watercolour pencils

Stickles

Funflock

If you want to join the challenge leave a comment here and let me know how many cards you have made and a link to your card.

Not Sure If I Like This Or Not

I did this from a very grainy photo of wild turkeys and when I took the photo of the painting I had to crop it closer than I wanted too. Funny thing about this is that when I look at it from across the room I really like it ut when I get close I hate it. The turkey on the left has turned thoroughly to mud.... But I like the snow and the weeds they are standing in. I'm considering doing this over a little larger maybe.... Need to work on the turkeys and see what happens. I may start with the turkeys first this time and then do the background.

After The Storm

After The Storm (3.5 x 9.5 pastel)

It has been realy blah around here. Cloudy, cold and snowing constanly for the last 5-6 days now. I'm not complaining about the snow. I like it. Alot. But it's put a run on the bird seed in the back yard. The traffic has been busy at the feeders. And not only the birds are hurting.

I looked out this morning and, along with all the usual customers - blue jays, cardinals, chickadees, juncos and sparrows - that clean up after our friendly neighbourhood squirrel, I saw an odd shaped grey-brownish blob sitting in the snow. I did a double take and realised that it was a rabbit. We have one that winters in our yard. The snow must be pretty deep for him to be back at the bird feeder. Guess I'll have to go get some pellets and hay for him.

This little painting was done as en plein air as I get at minus 20 celcius - I was standing at the back window. It's a little corny with the bunny there but I wanted him in because he was what prompted me to do the paining in the first place.

Happy New Year

I took these pictures on New Year's Day. And I'm a couple of days late in posting them but this is the first chance that I've had to get them up here.

We were plowing the snow out of the driveway and I happened to sort of start packing snow with my hands and realised that it was the perfect conditions to make a snow man. I wanted one by the house and one by the road. So I actually made 2 of them. The noses are pieces of slider from my boyfriend's skidoo and the eyes and buttons are golfballs covered in electrical tape. The branches are just good old fashioned branches from the forest across the road.

I love that the one by the road is there to greet me when I come home and same with the one here by the house.

PTI WCMD India Challenge

This was for the PTI WCMD India challenge - to be inspired by all the bling.

The stamp set I used made me think of henna tattoos and the owl stamp

just fit so nicely with the flower that I had to use both. I put bling (swaroski crystals) on the owl, the flower and the branc as well as on the background.

PTI WCMD Mexico Challenge

This is for the PTI WCMD Mexico challenge and I was inspired but all the lovely pottery I saw. The liszards asa well as the sun and moon images.

This card got a little crazier than I intended.

WCMD Australia Challenge

This is for the PTI Australia Challenge for WCMD - to use dots. I was also inspired by the silhouettes and the spraying and sprayed glimmer mist over a screen and then added the dots.

PTI WCMD Japan Challenge

This is for the PTI WCMD Japan Challenge.

I was inspired by all the lovely water images I saw when researching the topic.

Predators

Yesterday in the sun we were watching the dragon flies in the yard and they were all lined up on the clothesline. Waiting for mosquitos I guess. They were amazing. And it is pretty cool to be able to stand underneath one and take a photo of it. Kind of shy bugs though. They don't seem to like it when you get too close to them. They were all lines up and then all of a sudden one would go up in the air and go down the entire line and touch down near each one. Don't know if it was giving orders, checking in or just trying to get a better spot on the line. I think I took about a hundred photos of them there and on the corn in the garden and in the front yard. They are the best predators ever because they make the nasty mosquitos go away. Woo hooo.

Sheep, Chickens, Geese, Duck and Copper

Had an interesting morning today. I was taking photos for reference at the neighbour's farm. They weren't home but I had permission.

Got my stick to protect myself from the viscious pair of geese and found out that they aren't that sure of themselves with strangers even if they try to attack Mrs. Neighbour. They stayed away from me and actually hid behind the sheep for protection to see what I was going to do.

When I climbed over the fence the geese walked away from me towards the barn and I went about half way over, watched them turn into the barn and I sat down. In a few seconds out comes the heard of sheep one by one, complete with ram and the geese following behind. The sheep were curious and checked me out and stamped their feet and gradually walked closer, then they all flanked me as a group and came quite close to me and then decided I was pretty boring and wandered off for breakfast. And let me tell you they are very loud chewing machines!!! Way louder than cows or horses. I just sat their quietly the whole time and pretended to ignore the lot of them.

I sat on the ground between the lumps of sheep manure (I realised this after I had sat down and taken photos for about 20 minutes) and I'm not sure how I managed to sit between it rather than in it but I did. No stink on me!

Then I watched the chickens. Who were interesting but not as brave. Except for the broodie hen who was actually down right pissed and tried to run me off several times. I just ignored her too and she went back to her nest and sat and fumed at me from a distance. The others were semi-brave, one little guy just kept pecking and pecking the ground and a bigger spotted girl was the obviously bossy one who told everyone else what to do. The rooster was a total chicken though. All he managed was to peek his head around the door of the hen house. He never came out. Talked alot and told me off but stayed inside. I'll have to take another trip and hope he comes out to see me next time. Did get a nice picture of him in the door way trying to decide what he should do though.

They have a muscovi duck and I got an awesome portrait shot of him. And also of bath time for the geese.

At the end of it all I tried to leave to walk home but Copper, the 4 month old beagle puppy, wanted to play and wouldn't let me leave. I got fed up and put him in the garage with the older dog and thought I was very clever until he showed up behind me again at the bottom of their drive. Guess they have a dog door and he knows how to use it. I spent over a half an hour trying to make him stay home , including climbing two fences and trying to get him to down stay and walk away - he's very good at that but after about 100 feet he is out of range of my remote control and he just comes running. At that point I had to go home because I was going to be late so I gave up and decided I would just drive him back to his place once we got to mine but about half way there his little beagle nose took over and he decided he should bugger off. So I caught him and picked him up and stopped at another neighbours and asked for a ride to take me back to his house to leave him there. He was heavy and wiggly enough that I wasn't sure I'd get him all the way to my place.

So we drove him home and dropped him off and they I got a ride back home.

It was actually pretty funny and he's sweet little dog but I'd have never forgiven myself if something had happened to him.

I have photo of him somewhere and I'll find it and put it in here tomorrow.

PS the reason the car ride was needed was because he lives almost a mile from where I do. I'm in the country so neighbour is a relative term I guess!

First Attempts at En Plein Air

Almost everything you learn is to paint from life if you can. My favourite subjects of animals I often paint from photos because they move too quickly and don't have the patience to sit for a portrait. But landscapes don't run around. The light will move and if you paint from life it will force you to work quickly and more spontaneously or you lose that light.

These two paintings were done on separate days. The bottom one was done first and the second I just finished.

I really like the clothes line. I think I got the light pretty right and I am actually happy with the greens which started as blue and red and purple and yellow underpainitng.

The bottom painting is a section of a tree in the back yard at dusk and I was just playing around with the pastels and trying to get the lights and darks in the proper places with no thought that it would look like the actual tree. What's interesting is how my niece and nephew, Jessie and Robbie, viewed it when I asked them what it was. Jessie immediately said that it looked like a stormy sky and then said it looked like a tree on a stormy evening. Which was what it actually was. Robbie said a tree at night. So that was pretty cool!

The clothes line is a little washed out in the photo, looks better and more the the real thing if I tip my monitor back a bit.

Morning Clothesline (pastel en plein air, 6x8)

Abstract Pine At Dusk (pastel en plein air, 7x9)

Purse and Lunch Box

I spent today with my niece and nephew Jessie and Robbie. We went and saw G-Force and then made boxes using My Timeless Templates for Card Coture and Let's Do Lunch. The lovely purse and flower are made with pretty butterfly paper that Jessie got at the dollar store and Robbie's Lunch Box is in a John Deere theme.

J 37 - Cow Face Pose #1

This is the completed painting of J37. I am really happy with it. I think it conveys the sense of light I was looking for as well as depth. The background trees are just barely suggested and I purposely left her body very rough in order to keep the focus on her face. The two photos below her are of two other stages in the painting that I took photos of.

Part of me wanted to keep fiddling with her but I told myself to put down the pastels and stop. she was finished and anymore mucking around would either have the potential of making a mud pie out of her face or of distracting from her face.

So here she is:
(J 37 - Cow Face Pose #1, 8x10, soft pastel)

(Stage 3)

( Stage 2)

J37

As part of my vacation I was able to go and see my parents in Saskatchewan. Because of financial reasons I haven't been able to get back fo about 5 years. I got to hang out with my Dad and we checked the cattle twice a day. I took my digital camera to take photos of everything and one of the unique things about the cattle is that since they don't know me they are curious and on alert for the first while that I get near them and they all look at me. That meant that I was able to take alot of portrait type photos. The candids were harder to get. But I decided that I wanted to do drawings of my folks' heard. This is the start of the fist one. She is J37 and is 10 years old. The interesting thing is that I want to differntiate them based on who they really are and not based on an arbitrary number that I give them like #1, #2 etc based on the order I draw them in. Now I realise that Dad and Mom gave them arbitrary numbers but I want to use those ones and not mine. So I decide who I'm going to draw and then I call Dad and describe her to him and he tells me who she is. Alot of the older cows have lost their ear tags but Mom and Dad know who each one is.

I'm torn about what to do here though. Part of me wants to just leave this as it is because I think it works just like this. the colours are "wrong" but they work in relation to each other. This was just a first impression of what I would use as my base colours. I think I'm going to continue and "finish" it off but I would be tempted to do some of these and leave them this way.

The reason I'm convinced that they can work like this is that my mother-in-law and niece saw the roughly laid in colour of the old man on the chair I'm working on and thought it was finished. Even though the colours were obviously "wrong" because they were just really basic primaries but that showed me that I had gotten them right. And I find that interesting. So we'll see. for now this girl is going to get to have more colour added and fine tuned but for kicks I may just do each of the cows very primitively as well and see which I like better in the end.

Quick Birthday Gift

(Strawberry Bowl, 8x10. pastel)

This was a quick one, from concept to initial sketch to complete and framed it was about 2 hours. It is my sister-in-law's birthday this weekend and I wanted to get a gift for her. She has always given me thoughtful things on my birthdays and I wanted to do something special for her this year. It is still strawberry season here and every summer she does strawberries - jam, fresh, with ice cream, shortcake, sugarred... I had taken some photos of some strawberries I had myself and immediately thought of those reference shots as a subject for her gift. This is the finished product. I double matted it in a linen cream-coloured mat and then framed it in a sort of rustic dark brown wood frame with hinges in each corner - she has a 100 year old home with some of the original cabinets and so this should work in the house really well. I sure hope she likes it.

Working On It

I'm making progress on this painting for DSFDF. Was away on holidays so haven't worked on it in about 10 days. But it's coming along. I know Karin said to finish the figure and stay away from the background until the figure was complete but it just felt like he was floating in space and if I put some of the background in I would be able to get more harmony in the painting as far as the way the colours were working together. I was getting too focused on the clothing and needed to get a view of the "big picture" so I stepped back and worked on something else for awhile. Still needs work but I was going to muck it up if I didn't give myself some space. Still have 6 days left so I'm hoping I'll get it done in time.

Work In Progress

I started the next DSFDF challenge last night and this morning by making a sketch of the image Karin Jurick posted for us. I guess I'm trying to get ahead of the game and not end up trying to finish at the last minute. Tonight I started adding the basice colours and refining the jeans and shirt as a start. People aren't my thing. I think I got a pretty good sketch down as far as the figure, the chair is a bit wonky but not horrible. We'll see how I do with the colours I guess. The top layer of bricks is getting cut off, literally, with scissors so that I'm not tempted to mess around with it. Sometimes I don't know when to stop and that last layer of bricks should have been left as the black paper it originally was. Looking at the photo I'm thinking I'm on the right track with the shirt and jeans. Further along on the jeans. But at least the colours are working - blue, yellow, red and green. The shirt need some red in some areas yet but I'm tired and gonna go to bed. I'm hoping this turns out OK. We'll see I guess.

On The Lake

On The Lake (pastel, 12x12)

This was my response to Karin Jurick's latest challenge over at DSFDF. I think I may have missed the deadline. But that's OK. It didn't photograph that well. Much better IRL. I was trying hard to concentrate on the colours and on seeing what was there and not what I thought was there. I think I did OK. The girl in the boat isn't the best but people aren't my strength and she looks better IRL as well.

Chicken and Rooster 1

Chicken and Rooster 1 (11x14 Soft Pastel)

(Chicken and Rooster 1 detail)

I have been thinking about drawing chickens for a little while and today I thought I'd give it a try. I may give it another try and see what I can do. I'm pretty happy with this. It isn't the best and There are a couple of things I would change but not bad for a first try. I may actually crop it down and frame it as a gift for a friend's wedding.

A Poem

Cheeks was the theme over at IMT today, well yesterday I guess. A poem sort of popped into my head. Here it is:



Cheeks

Soft, round cheeks
Precious baby fat
Mama’s gentle touch
Learning to make sound

Freckled, fun cheeks
Six year old surprise
Daddy’s whisker rubs
Playing in the sun

Make-up, pimples, cheeks
Sweet sixteen desires
Monumental blush
Persuading dimples

Smooth, refined cheeks
Mother, wife, daughter
Pastry flour smudged
Navigating mines, falling way behind and trying to be kind

Wrinkled, worn cheeks
Velvet textured smile
The purple hat club
Weathering the storm


Hope you like it. The topic just made me think about how our cheeks change as we grow older. From something smooth and soft like a baby's cheeks to our Dad's that used o give us whisker rubs, to the first bit of a woman trying to get out of a pimply face as a teenager to the grown woman that is trying to be everything for everyone to the older gal with the velvety feeling cheeks that has been through it all. The thing to me about this was the physical feeling of the cheeks at different ages and trying to combine it with the emotional feelings you' might have at those different ages. Not sure how I did. Some of it's good but some of it needs a bit of work. First one I've written since high school not counting song lyrics which are a different sort of bird altogether.