Upcoming Art Giveaway!

I hope everyone is enjoying their day today...mine was lovely and kind of lazy again! I really do have a lot of stuff to do but it is just so cold outside....and I have this week off to not think about school stuff...but I really should!

Anyways I did do some artwork...Here is Vino 2



Here is my finished deer...it is a little different from my normal style...I guess I am experimenting a little!




I am also working on an art giveaway with another blogger I admire. I will give more details later but please be sure to vote in my poll so I know what type of art to give away! Thanks so much!

100th post!

Wow! This is my 100th post! I cannot believe it! I started this blog back in June but only really started writing on it in August. This blog actually started as a class project for one of my Technology in Education classes I took this summer. Apparently blogging is all the rage in education now!

I originally was going to use this blog with my students but ended up having too much fun writing about my own art and life...oops! I still am going to start a class blog someday!

Anyways today I had a lazy day...I am hoping I get a second wind tonight. I feel so blah if I don't get things accomplished!

Today I went grocery shopping and bought lots of healthy food for the husband and I! We are trying to be healthy now and having only "good for you" food in the house is key! I bought myself a little treat though at the store...those of you who are vegetarians or vegans I am sorry...

But I bought my favorite

SUSHI!



I think it is so pretty...the husband thought I was a weirdo for taking pictures of it! Sushi is my absolute favorite food and I rarely buy it at the store because it is so expensive! Oh well...treat for me:) The husband hates it! What is your favorite food?



I also worked on some new collages. Here is a work in progress...nothing is glued down yet.



I'm still going to paint some details after everything is collaged down. I will post the finished product!

I also have been playing around with masking fluid and watercolors. Here is a design I am working on:




Masking fluid works as a resist so wherever you put it on your paper, it will stay white even after you paint on top of it. I just love it!

Well have a happy Monday...I am off to do more art!

What did the boy olive say to the girl olive?

OLIVE YOU! hehe...corny right?!

In the spirit of Valentine's Day being around the corner (I know I know...not really... but everyone seems to be creating art for it already!) I thought I would share one of my new collage series I am working on. I have the whole week off (one of the perks of being a teacher!) so I am hoping to come up with a lot more art this week!

New Artwork

I have gotten back to doing some art today and this is what I have come up with:

Apparently I cannot get the idea of celebrating and being merry out of my mind!

This one is called Vino 1...yes there will probably be more of these to come!




This next one is called Still Life with Cupcake and Flowers in Vase....the sugar-filled holiday has made its way into my art I guess!



This last one is more of my typical style (birds and flowers). This does not have an official title as of yet...I need to think of one:)




I still need to glaze these and mat them before they get put on etsy. Hopefully someone will want to give these artworks a home!

Hope you are having a great Saturday! It is actually WARM in Ohio...kind of rainy though:( Oh well...I will take what I can get!

After the holidays....

I always feel a little sad after the holiday hoopla...does anyone else feel this way?

I'm glad that the shopping is done...everyone has opened gifts...all of the food and drink has been merrily consumed. I think I am just sad that there is not any more major reasons to get together as a huge family for awhile. I see my grandparents and my aunts and uncles now and then but everyone including myself is so busy during the rest of the year it is hard to see everyone as a group except on Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Anyways...I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday! The husband and I went back and forth between our families for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Luckily our parents do not live far from each other so it wasn't bad at all!

Both the husband and I ate our way through Christmas so starting tomorrow (or the next day!) we are eating healthy! That means no more Christmas cookies!



I have also taken a break these past few days from art but tomorrow I am going to get back into the swing of things and start making some spring collages to put in my etsy store. I am already excited for warm weather!

Well have a good one and I hope to post some new art tomorrow!

Happy Holidays!

Have a very Merry Christmas!

Packing Tape Transfer Technique

Here is a fun technique that anyone can try! What I did was make a photocopy of a picture I had taken (the one shown here was architecture I took in Florence, Italy.) Then you simply get a piece of packing tape and place over the photocopy (tape over the picture side.)

Next you submerge the taped paper in a bowl of lukewarm water. Begin rubbing the paper off and presto! Your image is on the tape! You can then glue it using matte medium to create cards and collages.

Here is a great link showing this step by step:

HGTV Packing Tape Transfer Tutorial

I just love doing these transfers! You can even make copies of your own artwork and replicate them in collages...the possibilities are endless!


What is your favorite collage technique?

Christmas Ornaments

Christmas is nearly upon us! I don't know about you but this year I am all about the handmade gift! I am getting sick of how Christmas is becoming all about buying people "stuff" that has no meaning whatsoever.

Recently I went to Michael's craft/art store and purchased these lovely little ornaments to decorate.




I painted the ornaments first with acrylic paint and then collaged images I cut out from my hand-painted papers. Next I added some details with payne's gray and white colored paint. I am going to try to finish some more today- I still need to loop a pretty ribbon through the top so I can hang them.

Little red bird



This one was inspired by some of Henri Matisse's paper cut- outs:


Another little red bird


What are you making this holiday season?

Creative Color Wheels

Here is a fun little project to do with kids of all ages! Create a unique color wheel using only the primary colors (red, blue and yellow). This project will help students learn to mix colors. Mixing your own paint colors produces more realistic colors than if you were to use paint directly from the tube.

If you would like to see the lesson plan for this project you can go to my art education website Canvas Door and click on Color Mixing. It is a pdf file and you can download it if you would like!

I do this project with my introduction to art students (grades 9-12) and they all seem to love it! They get really creative with some of their color wheels! Here are some of my students' examples.

Music Friday

Here is a video of one of my new favorite songs by Santogold. It is called Lights Out. The video is kind of 80's looking and there is some interesting dance moves going on but the song is still so fun! I love to paint and work out to this!

What is your favorite song right now?

Meaningful Christmas Present

I teach at a pretty large high school and have a great group of about six teachers that I hang out with regularly. Last year for Christmas we each picked a name out of a hat and bought a $20 present for that person. This year with money being tight for everyone we decided to do something different. My friend Karen got this idea from Oprah and I just had so much fun doing it and also felt like I was making meaningful presents for my friends! This is what we did...it is so simple!

Karen put six colorful index cards (the large ones) into each of our mailboxes at school. We were to write meaningful letters to each of our friends and decorate the cards (if we wanted to!) and then return them to Karen on a specific day. We were then to bring in a box and Karen would deliver our letters to us...kind of Valentine's Dayish also!

Well I have been working on mine and I just finished tonight! Here is what I did:

First I painted each of the cards with acrylic paint:





Then using some paper that I had previously hand-painted, I cut out flower shapes and glued them on using matte medium and a paint brush. I then went over the flowers with some more acrylic paint and added decorative details in the background. Next I layered the collage with gloss medium to make it shine! Here are some of my final products! I wrote the letter to each friend on the back of the collage-so fun:)











I am so excited to give them to my friends on Friday! That is our last day of school and then we get Winter Break! Yay:)

Have a great evening!

Soy Eggnog

OK...I know this is an art blog- but sometimes you need to go off on a tangent and talk about other things.

Last night the husband and I were out at the grocery store getting some items to make dinner with. While walking through the dairy aisle we suddenly had a craving for eggnog! Strange craving I know..we never drink eggnog so it surprised us to!

Eggnog is soooo bad for you so we were looking for the light eggnogs. I discovered that Silk makes a soy eggnog! It only has 90 calories and 2 grams of fat per 1/2 cup...much healthier!

The husband was very skeptical at first...what could this eggnog be made with if it was vegan? When we got home we tried it and were pleasantly surprised at the taste! Yum! The only major difference to me was the thickness...it is pretty thin.

So this holiday season if you would like to try a light and dairy free version of eggnog...I am recommending Silk! Oh- it also makes great coffee creamer! I am drinking it now in my coffee and it is delicious!

Hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend...I have been doing all of my Christmas shopping online but still have to do some in- store shopping (blah!) I am going to try and go on Monday when hopefully people will be at work. I have been doing most of my shopping at Amazon.com because you can find almost anything! You also can make wish lists and look at other people's wish lists. Amazing! I also have been doing a ton of shopping on etsy.com. My favorite place! Great unique handmade gifts to give people:)

Where are you doing most of your Christmas shopping?

Inspiration Board

Do you have a place where you tack up things that inspire you? I have a large bulletin board that I put anything and everything that inspires me. Most of it includes collages I have made, pictures I have taken and random artwork and doodles I have done.


What is on your inspiration board?

Here is mine!



Close up:

Etsy Purchase

I just bought this adorable necklace from Kgarnerdesigns on etsy. Karen Garner has some beautiful and reasonably priced jewelry in her store. If you are looking for a present for that special someone this is a great place to buy from! The necklace came very quickly in the mail wrapped in a little brown box with a chocolate bow...tres chic!

Just thought I would share my great experience with this etsy artist!

Have a great Monday!

4 Seasons Drawings

I hope everyone is having a great Saturday so far! Where I live it is snowy, cold and icy out! I am happily staying in the rest of the day and plan on drinking a LOT of hot chocolate!

I wanted to post some drawings completed by my Introduction to Art students. The assignment was to complete four drawings that represent each season (Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall.) Students were to use a viewfinder and look through magazines or personal photographs to find images for each season and draw with the following media: pencil, colored pencil, oil pastels and ink with watercolor. Here are some of their drawings:

Winter done in pencil




Spring done in watercolor and ink






Summer done in colored pencil


Summer in oil pastel


Autumn done in colored pencil

Andy Warhol Self-Portraits

I just wanted to post some of the self-portraits from my drawing class. Students had to do them in the style of Andy Warhol! Very fun and easy introduction to self-portraits. Every one was a success! Next we are doing self-portraits from observation. We shall see how these turn out!

Landscape Video 2

Final landscape painting






This is the second installment to my landscape painting video series. The first one was posted last Tuesday. That video was just my underpainting. This video shows me painting the first layer of color over the underpainting. There is not any major detail shown yet. I am saving that for the final landscape painting video! Wow 3 videos! I did all of these videos with my mac laptop. I still have a LOT to learn! The whole reason I started doing these videos was so that I could upload them for my students to watch for a demonstration. That way I was not taking up the whole class time painting! Tell me what you think, I really value your opinion!

Thanks!

Egg Help!

OK- I have been working on some paintings of eggs all night! I am not finished but was just wondering which position do you think the eggs should be in?! All feedback is totally welcome!

Should it be A)



B)


or C)


Thanks!

Self-Portrait Monday

This is a drawing from observation of myself with pencil and watercolor on watercolor paper. Try drawing something from observation rather than a picture, it is much harder!

Hope everyone had a nice Monday. It was rainy and kind of snowy here. I am going to go and work on some paintings for my children's book. I am going to illustrate E tonight. I am thinking E will stand for Egg...kind of goes with my bird obsession! I will post what I finish...hopefully it will be worth posting!

New Art...without birds!

Hope everyone is enjoying their Saturday so far- I have just finished three new collages and wanted to post them. They will be on etsy as soon as the husband mats them and photographs them for me. I actually did three collages without including a single bird! Unbelievable! I have moved on to new animals! I am really digging deer right now. So we shall see how many deer collages I can do! Here is a picture of the deer that come into my backyard frequently. They destroy my garden in the summer but are so cute!



Here are my new deer collages. I prefer to make my deer colorful!





Here is a new sailboat collage. I know it is kind of summery but oh well...I am already thinking of warm weather! You kind of have to when you live in the snowbelt!



My sailboat collages are inspired by my summers at cottages on Lake Erie and Lake Michigan. I just love the water and someday hope to have a house on the lake. How wonderful would it be to sit outside and have coffee every morning overlooking the lake?! Or hear the waves at night? That is my kind of heaven!

Well have a great Saturday, hope it is productive whatever you do! The husband and I have a family Christmas party (we do things early around here!)so should be gone all day. Tomorrow will be my productive day I think.