Creativeness?

For some reason I remember a saying that said messiness equalled creativeness. You remember that one, right? If it's true then here is proof I'm enjoying a very creative spell.

CT: Birds of a Feather (#71)

Happy Creative Tuesday! 

The most recent challenge was to work with the theme Birds of a Feather.  What a fun one considering my new crush on red tail hawks.  I love the idea of getting familar with the way their feathers look and how they carry their feet when they fly.

I just played with pencil this time.  It's soothing, meditative.  And upon further reading I saw somewhere that among Native Americans traditions, hawks are considered the messenger of change.  And couldn't be more appropriate as things, they 'a changing. 

Hawks reminded the people they needed to be awake and aware and can achieve great things through persistence and sheer strength of will.  I love that!

 

Creative Tuesday: Curls (#70)

Happy Creative Tuesday! 

I'm so proud of myself for actually working on this week's challenge of Curls in advance of Tuesday.  I admit I didn't really have any ideas in mind, so I just let me brush wander over the page in very soft waves.  Not knowing what it would become I set the page aside and let it dry overnight.

The next morning I decided it wasn't curly enough.  It was wavy yes, but I was certain I could push the theme farther.  So, with a black sharpie I started in with the curly lines and knew I was heading in a great direction.

The result is another one of my crazy, colorful, abstracts.  And I'm smitten with it.  And because I can't resist here is the instagram of the doodle. 

Hope you had as much fun with this one as I did.  And I'm looking forward to the next challenge, aren't you?

 

Creative Tuesday: Polka Dot (#69)

I have a very late Creative Tuesday entry.  But I still enjoyed creating the piece and thought I should post it anyway.  The theme was a simple one (and fun).  I admit I didn't spend much time thinking about how to make it cute or clever.  I simply played with the shape of the Polka Dot.  And I think this is the result of a whole city of polka dots dancing and playing together.

I started with some transparent watercolor circles and began layering deeper and deeper from there.

All said and done, I used watercolors, markers, and colored pens.  Very soothing to create and nice to get into my doodling pad again!  (Not the greatest picture, but you hopefully get the idea.)

Creative Tuesday: Spy (#68)

Hello Creative Tuesday!  Have I told you how much I adore you lately?  I wasn't sure if I would be able to fit in a piece today, but an idea clicked for this week's meme of Spy and I ran with it.  I even got to paint with bubble wrap.  Yes, sir, a little creative boost when I feel like I really needed it.

Can you Spy the secret coded message?  Enjoy!

 

No fabric incorporated this time, but the bee is made of paper towel colored with sharpie and the coins are made from foil off the top of a food container.  And of course bubble wrap to create the trippy textured background.

Also, I posted about the Sammy picture I painted on fabric for a previous Creative Tuesday in case you want to see the final thing.

Till next week!!  Muah!

Creative Tuesday: Beatles Song (#67)

It's Creative Tuesday time!  Today's meme was Beatles Songs.  You know that English group that was pretty popular back 60's/70's?  Ya, before I was born, ha!  Well, the challenge is to pick your favorite Beatles song and create a drawing inspired by it.  So, I bet your dying to know what my favorite song is, right? 

Me too. 

I admit I've heard of the Beatles.  I can even openly say I think I like their music.  Then, I pondered about what my favorite song was. 

Drew a total blank. 

Then, I tried to think of any song by the Beatles. 

Again.  Total blanksville.  I admit, connecting music artists and their song names isn't a strong skill for me.  (I can hear the Mister laughing at that.)  Thank goodness for Google!  After about 5 minutes I was off and rolling and couldn't get the song "Love is All You Need" out of my head. 

Perfect!  I had my muse!  I got my acrylic paints out for this one.  I've been wanting to see how they might mix into a multimedia piece.  I started with a base of red tissue paper, pink and green fabric, and that piece of striped cardboard.

Layering is my favorite part, I applied a bunch of acrylic paint with a paint brush and bubble wrap.  The hardest part of using paint for me... is waiting for it to dry.  Who's with me?

Thank goodness for distractions.  While the piece dried I set out to add more texture to the Sammy piece that you might remember from a previous Creative Tuesday.  I will be showing off the finish tomorrow for the Pet's on Quilts parade!!

Once the paint was dry, I glued on a bit of lime green tissue paper, and a few torn pieces of origami paper.  Then doodled around with sharpie markers in lots of colors to outline, trace, or emphasize. 

Totally soothing. 

Totally creative. 
Totally creating without concern or plans.

And I admit, I adore the results of that crazy mind of mine. 

I also adore these two lovable pups who wouldn't let me out of their sight last night.  That's Katie on the left and Sammy super-manning on the right. 

Anyway, here's a better look at the results of my mixed media craziness.  I see many more of these pieces, in this style, in my future.  I have even thought about how I might be able to better bring this style to my quilting. 

And of course I had to instagram it!  I can't remember exactly what filter I used, but I love the way it faded the piece and made it seem like old school rock and roll.  I'm also excited that this is my third piece that I found a way to incorporate fabric in an unexpected way!

And, I'll leave you with a snap of the lake down the road.  It was so peaceful, so calm, so serene this morning!  Sure gets my creative juices bubbling!

Wishing you endless creativity and all the time you need to capture it!

CT: "Christmas in July" (#66) & IF: Carry

How about a mostly wordless Creative Tuesday and Illustration Friday, where I will let the pictures show the process?  The meme for Creative Tuesday's was Christmas in July... hence the 'sandman' and festiveness.  The meme for Illustration Friday was Carry... hence, Katie, the golden on the left, carrying the santa hat over to top the 'sandman.'

Felt so good to get out creative gear and let my stress flow out through my paints and markers.  Proves once again that creativity is very powerful!

Wishing you a lovely and absolutely creative week!

Creative Tuesday: Paradise Island (#65)

This weeks Creative Tuesday challenge was the theme of Paradise Island.  What fun, right?  I can just picture it now....*close your eyes with me*  Sunshine, sandy beaches, soft blue water, and lots of time to relax with little umbrella drinks. 

I have been wanted to create a paper/fabric collage for sometime and I seized this as the opportunity to try it out.  I started with this handy paper towel that had accompanied me in my recent fabric painting.  I had used it to sop up extra dye as I created and then decided I couldn't part with it.. that I needed to create something with it. 

And it's got the perfect blues for paradise ocean waters.

I ripped and cut a piece of the paper towel and glued it down as the base.  The island and tree trunks are some brown fabric scraps I cut to shape.

I added a light airy, cloudless, blue sky and some wavy palm tree leaves.  I also added some depth of greens and turquoise to the water and browns to the island with watercolors.

And finally a little more definition with sharpie markers and a hammock strung from yarn.

What a little pleasure to put this together!  In my original plan, I was also going to add some stitchery to bring it to life even more, but I couldn't do it.  This piece kept telling me to stay simple and so I did. 

The only thing I might have added to the island, to make it more of a paradise, is either a stack of books to read or my kindle.  You know... that sounds like a sweet way to pass a warm sunny day with an ocean breeze.

You can tell I definitely have the multimedia bug.  I used paper, fabric, markers, watercolors, and yarn to create this piece.  And the textures are just out of this world!

And.. in case you're interested you can read more, see the other creations, and join in the fun if you like!

Creative Tuesday: Simply Darling (#64)

This weeks Creative Tuesday challenge was to create something that represents Simply Cute or Simply Darling.  Being a southern bell at heart I couldn't resist going with darling.

And I'm sure you see where this is headed.  I mean are puppies darling, right?

I say yes.

So, I picked a picture of Sammy (the one year old golden) and tried a to me new technique of painting on fabric.  I'm smitten with how the paint spreads and mixes and excited about what I have planned next for this piece.

In case your wondering the paint is called PROfab transparent which I sourced from Pro Chemical & Dye.  And I am painting on white cotton that is prepared for dye (PFD).

In the next phase of this work, I will be making a quilt sandwich (adding batting and backing) and then trying my hand at some thread painting to add texture and dimension.  I'm thinking that this will be the piece I enter in Lily Pad Quilting's Pets On Quilts in August.

Yes, you will have to wait a whole month (give or take) to see this evolve.  Apologies in advance, but I promise it will be worth the wait. 

And I can already tell that I am going to want to make one of these for Katie.  And I'm already toying around with the idea of going bigger.  Like way, bigger.  monster. created.  Awesome!

And.. in case you'd like to join in the fun on this creative meme... you have a whole extra week to get your doodle on for Simply Cute or Simply Darling.  Read more and hope you join us!

Wishing you puppy licks and sunshine!

Creative Tuesday: Blog Icon/Button (#63)

This weeks Creative Tuesday challenge was to create a blog button.  *cricket, cricket*

I admit this is something I've tried a bunch of times and I don't feel like I'm very good at it.  But, in the spirit of the challenge I decided to give this another chance. 

You see, I can't work small.  I've tried.  Even in my quilting I've tried.  So, to help me through that, I started with very small paper.  I created hand doodles in pencil, and then traced over the designs in pen and marker.

I'm not sure where I originally got the idea that happiness is a mushroom, but there is something very whimsical and mysterious about mushrooms and so it's stuck.  I also decided that the mushroom spots, should be paw prints to represent my pups.  Happy stuff and dogs.  That about sums up what I ramble about these days.

Once the line drawing was complete.  I scanned it in and loaded into GIMP to crop, add color, and scale the drawings.

This is a picture of the computer screen showing the first round of coloring I tried. 

 

Here is an idea of how the button looked.  Something was off with it, right?  The letters were too muddy and the top of the mushroom popped in the wrong way.  But, this is why I like using a digital editor so much.  It's a few clicks to change the color around. 

As you can see I went through a few iterations until I realized that my blog name just wasn't big enough to be legible once I shrunk the icon down to actual size.  Nothing a quick re-draw couldn't fix.  I also highlighted the paw spots in a yellow to bring them out better.

And after much playing here is the button I decided on.  I still see little things that I would or could change, but we'll call it done for now.  This was a really fun experiment in visual branding and I also welcomed the GIMP practice!

You can find out about the next weekly challenge and see what the other artists put together at the co-op blog.  I can't wait to see what Mr. T has in store for his own button re-do!

Wishing you puppy licks and sunshine!