The Diva's Challenge #68

I'm having a terrible time with Blogger right now! Trying again! I found the limitation to two tangles, Hybrid and Strircle, in this week's challenge kind of frustrating, but eventually came up with some ideas! :) I wasn't crazy about the color combination, but...live and learn, right?

To see some fantastic tangles go to I Am the Diva and check them out! Happy doodling and shalom!

Art? Dance is art!

Actually, I began perusing videos of Davidic worship dancers hoping to find a model for a drawing. This is one of the first I found and I will share my unworthy thoughts with you below the video. ;)

My ideal was to find a slim, beautiful, Israeli woman dancing in a flowing, colorful dress. Something magnificent to draw and color. In reality, I kept coming across REAL PEOPLE dressed in simple, sometimes not-too-attractive outfits. These women reminded me of myself: thick waisted, middle aged (or maybe older!), not necessarily beautiful. (Remember, I said they reminded me of myself!) But as I watched them dancing it began to dawn on me how shallow I was being. God sees beyond our outward package.  He sees, in these women, hearts that are willing to worship Him, maybe in a way that makes one more vulnerable than many ways. I doubt that these women are trying to impress us with their outward appearances, rather they're hoping to teach us a new way to express our love for God through this lovely choreography. As I continued to watch I was drawn to the oldest woman in the group with her white hair in a bun. Isn't she beautiful? This is something to aspire to; to be actively worshipping God as we grow older.  I would hope that our worship would become more and more concentrated on God and less aware of our selves.

I was reassured to know that no matter what our outsides look like, and the ravages of time will affect all of us, God sees our heart.  Our spirit. Whether we are physically and mentally strong, or languishing in a nursing home with dementia, our spirit, if it belongs to Him, is safe. This has nothing to do with outward appearances. When He looks at our spirit, He sees Jesus who died for us.

So, I'm off, still in search of a subject for my artwork. (Will I never learn?) But I will continue to remember the lesson I've learned. Dance unto the Lord! He is worthy of our praise!

Shalom!

Sunday Sketches...

Well, I finished a few things this week.
 For the Weekly Diva's Challenge I finished this Calvary zentangle. I thought it would be cool to design something with an eternal message out of the great zentangle patterns. I'm thinking the bottom is a little out of scale with the rest. I should have made the cockels 'n' mussels pattern a little smaller perhaps. But I still like it. The challenge was to design something for Earth Day and I was thinking, "There's no better message on earth!"

I also finished this watercolor of a rose for the Rookie Painter Challenge.

And for my hilarious finish, I did two portraits from photographs. These were for the Drawing Lab lessons at Painting Myself Pretty. We were to draw the portraits with our non-dominant hand, in my case my left hand. The first one was "sketchy", but my hand began cooperating a little more on the second one. It was a fun experiment!

I'm off to Sunday Sketches to see what everyone else has drawn this week! :D

Shalom and happy sketching etc.!

29 Faces

Well, it's time to link up for the "29 Faces" challenge that starts on May 1st! I'm looking forward to trying my hand at drawing LOTS of faces of all kinds! This challenge is hosted by Ayala Art , so go visit if it sounds interesting to you! :D There is a link in my sidebar also.

Have a great day!
Shalom!

Drawing Lab-Lesson Nine

This is for Lesson Nine of Drawing Lab. We're to draw two portraits using our non-dominant hand. In my case, this is my left hand. Here is the photo I drew from for my first portrait. Sorry, Angelina!

And my drawing...

Here's my second photo...

And my second left-handed drawing...

Hmmm...she looks like my husband's ex-wife...and a lady at work!

This was kind of fun and harder than I thought it would be! Thanks to Cameron at Paint Myself Pretty for posting these Drawing Lab lessons. I'm enjoying this so much!

Shalom!

WOYWW!!

I've been doing a lot of messing about with a piece of zentangled inspired art for The Diva's Weekly Challenge and a watercolor painting of a rose for the Rookie Painter Challenge.

Look at my computer monitor. Is that crazy or what? It's a reflection! Anyway, here I'm working on the Calvary zentangle. I have the requisite jar of water teetering perilously close to my computer. Oh no! All went well...so far. I still have to empty the jar. See my badge?

Here are close-ups of the two projects I finished today:

Here's a long range view of my space:

You really can make do with very little space and a few art supplies!

Well, I'm babysitting granddaughter Audrey and she's getting into something.

Enjoy visiting, everyone! To join the snooping go to the Stamping Ground blog and join the fun!

Shalom!

Rookie Painter Challenge

Here's my submission for the Rookie Painter Challenge. Not the best. My favorite part was adding the pen lines, so maybe that should tell me something?

Anyway, it was good practice. To see more versions of this rose, go to the Rookie Painter Challenge site! :D

Have a great day and do some great art!

Shalom.

The Diva's Challenge...

The Diva's Challenge for this week involves making a zentangle inspired piece of art having something to do with the earth, in honor of Earth Day. This can be interpreted ever so loosely as anything to do with the earth, such as vegetation or rocks. I was already working on this Calvary zentangle and thought it would do nicely since it depicts vegetation, rocks and the earth's atmosphere. I enjoyed working all of the different tangles in to depict various aspects of the picture, though we all know that a tangle is not supposed to represent anything real. :)

I'm hoping to do a second piece for this challenge, but I thought I'd submit this now, in case I don't get around to finishing a second one. I'm not 100% satisfied with this. I think the clouds and sun may be too cartoony for the serious subject matter, but experimentation is what it's all about and we learn from every piece we do! :)

To see more zentangle art go to the Diva's Weekly Challenge page and click on the artists' links!

Have fun tangling with those tangles!

Shalom!

Sunday Sketches...

I'm beginning a painting for Rookie Painter Challenge. I've just got the lighter shades and will add the darker shades when these dry.

This is a piece of zentangle inspired art. I'm not finished with it either. I'm not sure I like my choices of tangles for the clouds and sun, but it's too late now! :)  Gotta soldier on and finish it. I really enjoyed doing the vegetation, but wish I had made the cross grey instead of brown. Well, I can always do another scene using what I've learned from this one! (I think I'm going to finish it for this week's Diva Challenge.)

To look at more Sunday Sketches art, click here .

Still not sure I like this new blogger! I can't get it to let me write above the photos! Hints? (I did finally figure out that you simply type and then insert pics where you want them as you go along. So much easier than the old version where your pictures appear at the top and out of order no matter how hard you try! I was getting tired of cutting and pasting to get photos where I wanted them. This is nice!)

Enjoy your Sunday art!
Shalom!

Composing on the new blogger interface...

I had problems with paragraph breaks, but I think my problem is solved. I guess you actually have to click on the "compose" button, and then it works.

See?

Ha! Have fun!

Shalom. (Colors! Yahoo!)

Almost forgot! It's TSMSS!!!

This is my dear son Jordan who is a music minister at a church in Joshua, Texas, a suburb of Ft. Worth. I think it takes a manly man to write a song about Jesus being his lover and himself being Jesus's bride. :) I'm proud of him and miss him since he lives so far away. I hope you enjoy this song he wrote called "Alive and Well". (Not only is he a very spiritual guy; he's also a NUT! LOL! I miss his humor.)




Half my life I was a slave
A life of fear and an early grave
Til my lover found me and I was saved
Then they laughed and beat Him all the way
to the hole where He was laid
The place that would have been my grave
But it wasn’t over still
He walked away alive and well
He broke the power that death had held, yeah
He bought me out with His own life
Said he wants me as His bride
Cleaned and dressed me all in white
I’m not my own
I’ll be His and His alone
My heroic lover on the throne.
And it isn’t over still
He walks with me alive and well
He broke the power that death had held
And it isn’t over still
You walk with me alive and well
You broke the power that death had held
You stayed through the pain for me
You stayed through the pain for me
I am yours, my King
You stayed through the pain for me
You stayed through the pain for me
And I am yours, my King
You stayed through the pain for me
You stayed through the pain for me
And I, I am yours, my King
My King
But it isn’t over still
You walk with me alive and well
He broke the power that death had held.
(Alive and Well by Jordan Richards)

A little experiment...very little...

I don't own any gesso, so instead I tried some white primer we had sitting around the house. It didn't work at all. Watercolor just beads up on it and ink doesn't do that well, either. So, I just experimented with watercolor and pen right on the bare page of text. I kind of like it this way! I may need to make my designs rather "ink dense" to cover the text enough so they don't get lost in the background, but that should be a fun problem to overcome. Here's my little experimental sheet. This is one of the pages I removed from my altered book Scripture Journal.

This was such a simple little thing, but I really enjoyed it. It should be very satisfying to fill this journal. I will be Mod Podging two or three page sections together to give it more strength and so the watercolors won't warp it so much. I'm off to explore some of your blogs! Shalom! (I kind of like this new "compose" page on Blogger, except that I can't make paragraph breaks where I want them! Anyone know why that is?)

29 Faces in May-Ayala Art Challenge

Ayala Art is having a new challenge beginning May 1st! The challenge is to draw 29 faces during the month of May. I think it will be good to practice drawing faces. They don't have to be human faces. Animals are fine or something you created yourself that fits the description "face".

Click here to join the fun!


Shalom!

WOYWW!

Here it is! I've been mostly having fun with zentangles this week and beginning a scripture journal which I'm making out of an old copy of Barchester Towers. You can read about that in my previous post, if you're interested! Do you like the roll of toilet paper behind my WOYWW badge? It's handy for blowing my nose AND for blotting my paint brushes. You will also see a scrap of paper that I'm practicing a tangle on and the ever-present headphones! :)
This is my zentangle for the Diva's Challenge for this week. We were to use auras, or extra lines surrounding tangles. It was a lot of fun!
This is a much larger zentangle that I'm just playing with a little at a time. Something to fool around with and then put down for a while, which is a good way for me to do art.
Here's my little scripture journal cover. The label didn't cover the bookcover design, so I turned it sideways. I've pasted a couple of maps in it, but I'm going to do some Bible study before deciding what else I want to put in it.
If you want to visit some other desks from around the world go to Julia's Stamping Ground! Everyone have a great time with your art!

A new Diva Challenge!

So glad to hear that Artoo is on the mend and baby and mom are home! The hospital is not a pleasant place to be, though we appreciate their care. I've missed the challenge, though I've done some tangling on my own.

This week's challenge over at the Diva Challenge is to use "auras" in our zentangles. I thought this was a lot of fun! I learned several new tangles, which isn't difficult to do, since I'm a rank beginner! Go over to the Diva's website to see more zentangles!

Here's mine:

I may try another before Saturday...or I may work on my larger zentangle.

Here is the cover of my scripture journal.

I've glued a couple of maps inside, but I'm not quite sure what I will add next. I think I will do more reading and studying of the Word before deciding on something special to put in it.

Everyone enjoy your zentangling!
Shalom!

A beginning for my scripture journal...

As I'm reading through Galatians I see many scriptures I'd like to write about in my journal...but first I need a journal! I've already removed pages from this copy of Barchester Towers in preparation for making an altered book, so I'm going to use it for my journal. .
Rather than putting gesso on all of the pages I'm going to write my scriptures and thoughts on old pieces of paper from a 1905 copy of A Child's Garden of Verses which I dismantled earlier. (How could I tear these two books apart?? you may ask. The Garden of Verses was in very bad shape and falling apart already. I posted earlier about saving the cover to make an art folder out of. I'm also saving the colored prints and some of the poems for other projects. The copy of Barchester Towers was a nice one, but I see copies of it at the library book sale all the time, so I can easily get another to read, though I'm not sure it's my cup of tea anyway. This one was nice, with a sewn binding that will work for an altered book. I've taken some of the old blank pages from The Child's Garden of Verses and (between sneezes) painted some watercolors on them. When these dry I'll try writing on them. These pieces of paper I will then cut to size and paste into the journal. This will leave the text in the altered book still exposed and I will either draw or paint over that. I'm not sure how it will turn out, but it will certainly be an experience! :D
The paper to the far left is curling and behaving differently than the other two, so I'm not sure if I'll use it. Oh, and here's how my zentangle is coming along!
I'm enjoying listening to my YouTube favorites list while I do art. Ah, this is the life!

Shalom to all who visit here! :)

TSMSS and progress on a zentangle...

I love this version!

Remember this from a few days ago?

This is what it's looking like today. I haven't quite got the hang of the "featherfall" pattern, but I like it!

I'm off to work in a little while, but wanted to post something. Last night at work was SO hectic. I'm really tired! Sigh. Wish I could stay home, take a nap and then draw! But life costs money, so I'll muddle through. (End of whine.)
Everyone have a great day!
Go with God!

Two Journal Ideas...

With all of the challenges beckoning on the web I've had some trouble whittling the choices down to a manageable few. I'm working on it, because I know I can't do everything! :) I'm trying to "stay loose" and only do an art challenge if it really speaks to me. I don't want to feel like I "owe it" to someone to take their challenge just because it's there.

So, I'm trying to get in touch with myself and figure out what would really be fun or important to me personally in the area of art. As of today (lol!) my choices for projects would be two particular journals:

1.) I discovered this morning that my hubby has been writing 4 line silly poems about farm life. I thought it could be a lot of fun to make a small book of his poems with my illustrations! Later, I could make copies for all the kids.

2.) My second idea is a journal of scriptures with illustrations. I'm finding so many wonderful scriptures in Galatians and I'm sure I'll find many more that I'd like to have in a journal.

Besides these I'm sure I'll do the occasional zentangle or painting. I'm just trying to keep art from becoming my master instead of my joy.

Speaking of zentangles, here's the beginning of my next one. This one fills the whole page instead of a 3"x3" square. I've only just begun with my string and the very beginning of the featherfall tangle. As part of my new resolution to keep things under control a bit, I'm planning to take a good long while to fill in this page a little at a time. When I finished this little part it was getting late so I said to myself, "Okay, that's enough for now. I have the rest of my life to finish this. No hurry." How mature of me, eh? :D Baby steps...



Shalom!

WOYWW!!

I know those on the other side of the pond get a head start on me. Hope you don't mind if I post now! Hee, hee!

My desk may not look too inspirational from this vantage point, but to me there is inspiration enough. First of all...
Got my WOYWW badge from Julia! Woo-hoo! Thanks so much, Julia. Makes me feel special! I too wonder if I will ever meet another one!
The headphones that are tangled around my badge are there so I can listen to music videos and tutorials on my computer. One of my favorite people to listen to is my son Jordan, who has lots of music videos on YouTube.
The messy paint blobs in my sketchbook are my attempt to do Lesson 8 of the Drawing Lab lessons. Check out my previous post for an up close look.
I'll be checking up on lots of other workdesks for WOYWW!

Drawing Lab-Lesson 8

Lesson 8 over at Paint Myself Pretty for the Drawing Lab is to make three random paintings using red, blue and yellow paint. Just slop it on any old way. After it dries try to find an imaginative animal in it and draw the details in pen. This is what I found hiding in mine.
My blobs...
My three drawings...
At first all I could see in this was the snake shape, but then it reminded me of a camel. I thought that was too obvious, so I went for the Bronto!


There was a butterfly leaping out at me, but I thought maybe I did that on purpose. I really couldn't see anything else until just now when I saw the duck.

This is my favorite! I knew it was a yak from the beginning. I just had to find a photo online to get the details. :)

This lesson was fun! Looking forward to Lesson Nine. But most importantly...I caught up with the class finally! lol!

Happy arting!

A look at Diana Trout's collection of journals...

I found this fascinating and it helped me to see how many ways there are to do an art journal!
I also loved this video about making a one signature pamphlet. Great for a small sketchbook for your purse!


I hope you got some great ideas!
Shalom!

Drawing Lab-Lesson 7

I kind of enjoy drawing monkeys! I don't have a large variety of art supplies. No pastels and few felt tip pens other than black and a few colors. But I did what I could with what I had. Here are my two little guys:

The monkey on the left I used a red colored pencil, a green felt tip, a charcoal pencil and a black pen. The one on the right I used orange watercolor, blue colored pencil, purple felt tip pen and peach colored pencil for the guy's finger.
On to Lesson 8, which I think looks very interesting!
Go to Paint Myself Pretty to find out more about Drawing Lab!
Shalom!

Drawing Lab Lesson 6

A funny thing happened at work today. I forgot how to draw! Here are my 20 Great Danes. I have to admit, I absolutely hated this lesson! :( I think I'm a little ADD and after I've done a thing once I have a craving to try something different, so having to draw the same thing over and over makes me NUTS! Having said that, I forced myself, lol! I can't believe how badly I drew these dogs! If I had drawn the dog only once, I think I would have taken my time and done a much better job. Knowing I had to do it TWENTY TIMES, I rushed through the drawings. It was also difficult to fit this big dog in a 3"x5" space. (I didn't have index cards and didn't want to waste what little sketching paper I have left, so I used notebook paper.)






Now that I'm finished whining about this lesson I'm off to see what the next lesson is all about! (It was a long, hard day at work! Sorry!)
If you want to know more about the Drawing Lab lessons we're doing together go to Cameron's Paint Myself Pretty blog!
Have a peaceful evening, everyone!