Just {Playing}

 I'm continuing to have fun playing with different art supplies and trying new techniques. Sometimes it's really nice to make something that doesn't have an intended purpose- it's not to sell, it's not for someone else, it's simply making art for the sake of being creative.

I dug through my collection of vintage books and tore out pages to free-hand cut feather shapes in order to make this skirt. The pink parts are actually from handwritten notes for a Geography class taken by Gail Perkins in 1934! She left a wonderful stash of handwritten notes tucked in the pages of her text book! Thanks for the inspiration, Miss Gail Perkins, where ever you are!

            This sketch was inspired by a pinterest photo and I used NeoColor II to color it in. I think she's so pretty- despite her giant left eyelashes. I'm thinking she forgot to put on a fourth coat of mascara to her right eye. LOL.

 I'm often drawn to paintings that have large, loose brush strokes, lots of color and less detail. It's more about capturing the idea of the bouquet or arrangement instead of the look of each specific flower. Plus, I had 12 new Liquitex Acrylic colors I wanted to try!

These next two are journal pages from my LifeBook 2014 class, using spray inks and white space. It was neat watching this page evolve. It wasn't until all of my spraying and techniques were completed that I realized the "splats" would make great dream catchers, so I added some feathers and a little doodling.

The dream catcher page was my warm-up before the actual lesson, making this girl with flowing hair. Thank goodness her eyes were closed, because drawing a profile of a face was completely new to me and was challenging enough! And then to make the spray ink look like flowing hair...wow! Look what I can do!

There is something so freeing when I try something I haven't done before. I seem to go through a similar pattern of emotions with each lesson I take through LifeBook. At first I'm eager and excited to get started. Then the lesson starts and I see my blank page and the Artist Instructor's finished page and I think "No way I can do this- I believe that for a bit- I'm vulnerable and questioning myself. Then I start...and...what?! Oh, look, you can do this! My self-talk gets a little nicer and I feel motivated and excited to continue. Often, I get going on my own path and will turn off the video lesson and just let myself continue to be inspired and finish my journal page on my own. Typically I'm left feeling really proud of myself and my confidence has been re-replenished. This feeling is what ultimately leads me to venture into "play-mode."  I end up coming full circle with both my emotions and my art!