#3 in the Mixed Media Drawings

This is #3 in a series of mixed media drawings that I have completed. It is 18"x24". First I draw in pencil and then I ink the drawing with an extra fine point permanent marker, then I erase the whole thing and color in the parts that I want to be in color using Prisma Pencils. I like leaving the "Hair" in black and white with all of the embellishments in color. The drawings usual take be about 3 to 4 days. I started this one while we were in Santa Fe, NM. Then the inking takes about 8 to 10 hours. After inking I erase the entire drawing to remove the pencil marks, I don't like for the pencil marks to interfer with the Prisma Colors...because it tends to make the colors blurry or darker. Taking this one to be framed and am starting #4...It seems I am on a drawing "kick" never know how long it (the "kick" lol) will last...but I have a lot of fun while it does last...:)

Altered Book Yahoo Group 10 Year Celebration

I belong to one of the oldest and longest lasting Yahoo Groups on the web, Altered Books Yahoo Group, and it is the 10 Year Birthday of this group....there are over 7000 members...and to celebrate this occasion members were ask if they would like to create a page (4"x6") to be made into a book. So far about 200 members have signed up. That is really exciting. Each person that participates will get a coping of their own to keep. Wow!
This is my contribution to the book...this is an original hand carved lino stamp that I made. Then I embellished it with gel pens, and used my "chop" as my signature.

Drawing almost finished.

All most finished. This is a Prisma Pencil/black marker drawing...I draw everything out in pencil, do the editing that I want and then go over the drawing with Fine Tip Sharpie, then color the parts that I want to be in color with Prisma Pencil.

New Drawing on the Table

There is a new drawing on my drawing table. I haven't been drawing enough lately, when I say drawing I mean that I haven't started a drawing that is intended to be a completed piece of art work...I draw all the time sketches, drawing in a journal or an embellishment in an altered book.
I really draw all of the time, but this is the first drawing that I have started as "just" a drawing.
I am sure this sounds a little redundant...but you get the idea. I have been working in mixed media for quite a while and haven't drawn a piece to stand alone..

So these are a couple of "Progress" pics, I don't usually take pics of the progress o my paintings or drawings...simply because I am usually into doing the piece that I don't take the time to take the pics...but decided to use a little self discipline on this and see how they would look.

Color & Texture in Chrisy's AB

This is an altered book belonging to my friend and cohort Christy...we are involved in a Round Robin on ICE Yahoo Group and we are in the last month of the RR... This pic of the entire book.
It is awesome.

This spread was made with Perfect Paper..then I added a large embellished butterfly on the left and a small metal butterfly on the right page (she really like butterflies) then I added some large sequin garland on the right hand edge. I used Golden Glaze for the color and added a sheet of cellophane that had silver stars(it came from a 1924 Central State University year book that I found in an antique store in Palestine, Texas...how cool is that?)

This is the second spread that I did and it has Golden Gazes for the back ground color, then some foam triangles that I cut out with some scalloped scissors and wrote on with gel pens. Then I sewed some beaded garland that I got at World Bazaar in San Jose California, they were having an after Christmas 90% of sale...love it...then I added some beaded fringe at the bottom.

This is the third and final spread for Christy's book...what I did here is I used some paper that I altered by using strips of an old magazine that I tore up and glued down to some water color paper, then I added strips of masking tape (3/4") and some glue dribbling for texture. After the glue was dry I did some washes of blue and yellow allowing them to blend in the middle, hence the green area, I stamped some swirlies on it and then just glued the page into the book. Then I added some alphabet beads to say "color" and "texture" and some little rhinestone embellished

cross beads. Then I glued down some sequin and furry trim and added some little tiny safety pins that had purple heads to the trim...I hope Christy likes how it turned out...

Three Finished Catalogs, Killed by Me

These are the three Catalogs that I have killed so far..you may have seen in previous posts how these catalogs looked after I soaked them in the bath tub and then how they look after they were scrunched and smashed and then dried...I really am amazed how they turned out...each one is so different. I just started adding some paint, some glazes and some stamping...then I added some fibers and some clay pieces that I had made and painted....these were quite a stretch for me, I usually lean more to the realistic side of art...but when I finished I was pleasently surprised. I am thinking about putting them on my Etsy shop. This one has a lot of beads and pages that I rolled up while they were wet and let dry. It could be hung on the wall or place on an easel for display. I gessoed the back of this one but I left a lot of the printed material in the catalog show through the glazes...The green pearlized leaves are some pins that are like corsage pins that I got from Lisa at Collage Stuff. I just pushed the pins into the back of some of the rolled up pages. There is a little frame that was made by cutting a small square in the paper before it was dry. There is a piece of lace that I put on diagonally to create a little more texture and then the beads are from a store called World Bazar in San Jose.
You know after Christmas sales are awesome, you can get some really cool stuff at 90% off.

I call this one "I See You" because I found some "googly eyes" that are funky colors and they just happened to match the colors I was using...funny how that happens some times....I probably had these things for 20 years and I just knew I would use them someday...well this was the day...lol. This is the catalog that had some blue & yellow Easter egg dye on it, so I built on those colors...well you know how much I love my Golden Glazes and the burgandy is my favorite so I add some of that...then I wiped it with a rag while it was still wet...then I used some permanent markers to do some doodle thingys. I have about 2 million buttons so I went through them and found 3 green ones and I sewed those on to the center. When I started to do the doodles I began to see triangles and so I followed the folds of the paper and accented those triangles with a purple marker. This idea of the Catalog Killing came from a UK artist by the name of Maggie Grey...if you google her you can find a lot more of her awesome work.

Any way, there are more "unsolicited" cataloges being soaked, or dryed or squished as we speak, some other artists and I are going to do a collaboration using this media, it will be fun to see how different our styles will be when we finish....we will post the results some time at the end of the summer...hope you enjoyed clicking on these so you can see them bigger.

I Wish I Was 18 Again

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This is a video from my 50 year class reunion that was held last month in Fort Worth Texas. It is really cool...what great memories.