THREE CHALLENGES

For Inspiration Avenue the challenge is Creativity and Cats, and I've created Dezzy:

Dezzy - by Jez

DEZZY THE MOVIE ACTOR

Dezzy is an actor, and he thinks that's cool,

He learnt his acting skills at the Feline Drama School.

Just now he's in a movie with a wonderful part,

Being ugly and scary, with a very black heart.

So he looks very fierce, but when all's said and done,

He's not wicked at all - he's just having fun.

I hope that the So Artful Challenge team will not mind me submitting a second entry for their theme of Friendly Monsters, but it's such a fun theme that I wanted another go:

Rose - by Jez

ROSE, THE CAMEPHANT

She's a Camephant and her name is Rose,

Four Humps, twisty tail and an oversized nose.

Rose lives in the desert, as everyone knows,

Where the land is dry and nothing grows.

And she wears her boots wherever she goes -

She can't bear getting sand in between her toes!

Finally, Collage Obsession has an Open Theme this week, so I am showing a page from my sketchbook of my art mannikin Mervynn:

MIX IT WITH INSPIRATION TO GET A FRIENDLY MONSTER

COFFEE

A trio of challenges today, starting with Mix it Monthly, where the challenge is 'Coffee, using a certain colour range', and this is my entry along with a couple of verses to make the coffee taste even better:

I LOVE COFFEE

I love coffee, I love tea,

I love the Java Jive and it loves me.

Coffee and me, makes me happy you see -

A cup, a cup, a cup, a cup of coffee.

I love coffee, I love tea,

I love the coffee shops and they love me.

Coffee and me, and the Barista makes three,

We really love a cup or mug of coffee!

(Words from Milton Drake's lyrics, very much adapted by me - with apologies to Milton)

Anyone around my age will probably remember the catchy tune that this song was sung to)

WATER

Over at Inspiration Avenue the challenge subject is 'Water', a nice theme that can be interpreted in many ways:

My entry is Dashing Darren Duck in his smart red cap and turquoise tie,  dressed in his best and ready to meet the ladies.

THE FRIENDLIEST MONSTER IN TOWN

Ladderlegs is my sketch for the So Artful challenge of Friendly Monsters.  He was never happy about his unusual legs until he visited the park one day and found everyone wanted to be his friend.  He's so happy that he's made the park his permanent home.

Linking to Mix it Monthly, Inspiration Avenue, So Artful Challenges,
                 Paint Party Friday, and Manon's Paper Saturdays.

FACE NO 14 FOR 29 FACES FEBRUARY 2014

FRIDAY 14 FEBRUARY - FACE NO 14

'TIME TO BREAK THE RULES
Sketch and Collage by Jez

Abby, in this post at her blog talked about the work of Annie Higgie and her unusual black and white collages.  Abby had created her own brilliant version, and this inspired me to try my hand at my own interpretation of the style.

Definitely way out of my comfort zone, but I was so excited thinking about it all the time and how I could approach it.  Having looked at Anna Higgie's work on the net, I shut my mind away from her images as completely as possible so that I could do something that was my own, not a poor copy.  For a start I decided on a male face instead of a female face.

Searching through magazines for black and white patterns turned up very little, just about enough to create this sketch/collage.  Since I'd like to do more of these I had better start collecting for future efforts.  I was lucky to find the words jump out at me from one magazine, and I'm always happy to be working in my favourite 'colours' of black, white and red. 

The most difficult point for me was when I had drawn a face I was happy with ….. and then having to do something to mess it up, but having done it once I shall be able to do it more easily next time.

Here is the round-up of this week's other faces, starting with …..

SATURDAY

SUNDAY

MONDAY

TUESDAY

WEDNESDAY

THURSDAY

Linking to 29 FACES FEBRUARY 2014, Three Muses Challenge, Paint Party Friday, Inspiration Avenue, Paper Saturdays,

FACE NO 9 FOR 29 FACES FEBRUARY

SATURDAY 9 FEBRUARY - FACE NO 9

DESIGN FOR STAINED GLASS WINDOW
Pitt Artists Pen and Watercolour - by Jez

I used to 'build' my imaginary dream house when I was younger, and I would include all the features I wanted.  A circular window featured high on the list.

The imaginary house never got built, and I never got my round window.  But I still have the imaginary house, and now I can put my own design of stained glass in its round window, and the sun will shine through it beautifully, making it glow and casting patterns of colour across the white carpet.

So my stained glass girl is my Face No 9 for Ayala Art's 29 Faces Challenge.  It's a good job it's only a design because I don't have the steadiest hand, so the imaginary glass expert will tidy up any dodgy areas.

The picture below shows my original drawing, and the need for a steady hand was the biggest challenge!

The reason I chose this subject for today's face is that the theme for Inspiration Avenue this week is 'Stained Glass' - I hope I'm just in time for it.  The 29 Faces challenge is so intense that it unfortunately leaves little time for other challenges, and it is good to be able to combine the two.

Linking with 29 FACES FEBRUARY 2014, INSPIRATION AVENUE

A TALE OF TWO CHALLENGES

The challenge on Inspiration Avenue  this week is an interesting one - 'Altered Ancestors', with a choice about using real ancestors or 'instant' ones borrowed from some other source.

I have no photographs of real ancestors because sadly almost all my parents family photos were destroyed.  That left me free to use an instant ancestor, and I chose my Auntie Andromeda, though I've lost count of how many 'great, great, great, greats' there are before her name. 

Auntie Andromeda (or Auntie Andie as we call her) was a bit of a rebel, always getting into scrapes and usually being rescued from disaster just in the nick of time.  Here she is, with 'before and after' photographs.

You can see that she took her penchant for tattooing to extremes, and the photographer firmly refused to take a shot of the front view.  Whew, thank goodness for that!

Actually, at the time of the tattooed photograph Auntie Andie was stuck in the middle of one of her latest escapades, marooned on a rock in the ocean and at the mercy of a vicious maiden-eating sea monster.

You probably remember that in Greek Myth, Perseus travelled to rescue Andromeda from a terrifying sea monster.  Valiantly he wasted no time and plunged straight in to tackling and killing the monster, even though it enmeshed him in its coils.

Unfortunately for Auntie Andie, when Perseus turned and saw her, the tattoos were such a turn-off that he changed his mind, departed suddenly, and left her to the mercies of any other sea monster that might come along.  And history (or at least myth) was changed.

Credits:  Original painting: 'The Doom Fulfilled' by Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, sourced from Wikipaintings.

Linking to Inspiration Avenue

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EVERYONE

Here is my card to wish all wonderful blogging friends the best of years in 2014, with a good share of joy, love, happiness, success, friendship …….. and perhaps even a little bit of World Peace thrown in.

In what has been a difficult year for us right through, as it has for many others, you have all brought me Joy and Pleasure, and I hope that 2014 will be a little easier for us all.

Digital image by Jez - click to enlarge

The snowflakes were created on a little app called 'Silk', which I enjoy playing with.  Everything else was done on Photoshop.

Apart from 'Happy New Year', the words are by Henry W Longfellow, though I'm sure he must have said Happy New Year a good few times in his life.

And this is my 6" x 4" New Year's wish postcard to everyone at Sunday Postcard Art:

I'm linking this to Moo Mania 'Snowflakes',  Take a Word 'A New Year', Inspiration Avenue 'Joy to the World', Paint Party Friday and Sunday Postcard Art 'Anything Goes'.

NOVEMBER AEDM 1 AND INSPIRATION AVENUE

I'm joining in with the November Art Every Day Month, and here's what I created today.

A quick unfinished sketch from an early morning walk up to the little wood at the top of our road.  This is a fairly neglected part of the woodland, some rocks, and the edge of a pool.  Drawn with a black pen which is not waterproof, so I was able to lick my finger and spread the ink a little - probably not hygienic at all.

When I got home I added just a little colour with watercolours.  

I've decided that, to make life a little easier, I'll make a post each Friday for Art Every Day with whatever I create during the week, whether it's 3 pieces or 7.

INSPIRATION AVENUE

This week the challenge from Inspiration Avenue is 'Moustache Art', which fired my imagination straight away.

CREGGAN

This is Creggan.  He's a good looking chap, lovely sideburns, square jaw and a cute little dimple in his chin. But for some reason he just can't seem to find himself a girlfriend.  On Sunday he decided that perhaps a little facial hair would appeal to the ladies, so he bought himself a set of real-hair false moustaches to try out, a different one each day.

On Monday he went for 'The Manly Look' which made him feel strong and protective.

His Tuesday choice was 'The Slim Pencil Moustache', and he felt suave, like a 1930s film star.

On Wednesday he remembered his holiday last year and went for 'The Mexican' - dangerous to know.

He felt artistic on Thursday and tried out 'The Dali Look' and had a rather surreal day.

Friday's choice was 'The Brush, Big and Bushy' which he thought gave a rugged outdoor appearance.

When Saturday came the only moustache left was 'The Inscrutable', but it didn't seem to work for him.

I just hope Creggan doesn't go for The Inscrutable, but I'd be prepared to go out with him for a week or two if he grew a Dali Look 'tache - it should be fun, especially if he adapted his character to fit.

What do you think?

Linking with November Art Every Day Month and Inspiration Avenue

A MISCELLANY OF ENJOYMENT

I had lost my creative mojo a little bit, so I spent a few days just playing about with making postcard sized collages just for fun.  The result was that today I found it easy to get straight down to creativity and sorted out five challenge pieces.  So the enjoyment was mine, just feeling the flow, but I hope that you also enjoy something in this post.

Firstly, here is my postcard sized sketch for this week's theme of Baking for Sunday Postcard Art.  This came together so quickly.

I made a very quick sketch in my 'rough' sketchbook while I had my morning coffee, came back to the studio to draw and paint it.  When it was finished, I realised I had concentrated on the 'baking' and had forgotten the postcard size.  So I cheated a little and added some blank space at the top to get it to the right size.

We were given a colour challenge from Collage Obsession, with the colour purple to be used.  Here's my offering:

I just love the rich colour and this image which started from a photograph.  Yesterday my sweet neighbour from the apartment three floors above us came to the door with a beautiful bunch of salmon pink roses because when she saw me on Sunday she thought I didn't look well.  Such thoughtfulness and kindness, and the flowers make me happy whenever I look at them.

The purple image doesn't look much like pink roses, but that's how it started.  I photographed part of the bunch using the Photo Booth app on my i-pad and choosing one of the image types available.  I think this was 'swirl'.  Then in the PSE app (Photoshop Express) on the i-pad I changed the colours to purple.  I love the result.

This colourful scene started as a postcard sized experiment I made with acrylic paints some time ago - just the central section that suggests trees or mountains.  On Photoshop I added the blue and the sandy colours and put a frame around it.

It just fits the brief from Inspiration Avenue of 'Postcard'.  The abstract image gives me the feeling of a landscape, and with our grey cloudy skies at the moment it looks just the kind of warm and colourful place where I'd like to be spending a few days of holiday and sending a postcard back to my friend.

Jen at Artists Play Room suggested it would be a fun theme to use 'Abstracts' as our challenge this week.  So I decided to have fun and created the abstract painting above.  It consists of four waste pieces from a larger acrylic painting that I was cutting up to use for something else.  A constant saying when I was growing up was 'Waste not, Want not',  so I decided to put them together to make an abstract with a difference.

These are the three strips and triangle that I put together, cut the top and bottom straight and stuck onto another piece of card.  Quite pleased with that.

And last of all, here's my offering for the Take a Word challenge of 'Warm Colours'.

The background is something I tried out a while ago, and I have been wondering how to complete it.  I searched through my box of 'failed paintings', and this image of a girl jumped out at me from an acrylic experimental piece.  The girl's size, shape and colouring were exactly right.  I cut her out and stuck her in the cave-like space of the background.  And I loved it.

The girl came from the failed painting that produced the waste strips used for the abstract above.

All in all I've had a good arty day, great fun, and feel I've got my mojo back.

BUTTERFLIES ON MY MIND

This week the challenge from Take a Word is 'Butterflies', and over at Inspiration Avenue it's 'Red White and Blue'.  Then at Collage Obsession the theme is USA, celebrating the 4th July.  At first I thought I'd be giving it a miss since I am English, but then decided I could use the 'Red White and Blue' theme there.

My personal challenge was to combine butterflies with red, white and blue, a rather unlikely pairing perhaps.

I love butterflies, but I wanted a different take on them, and rather than create a picture with pretty, colourful butterflies I was inspired to turn them into a red white and blue abstract which disguised the original butterfly drawing.

My start point was the single butterfly outline above, drawn with black pen in the middle of a sheet of A4 white Bristol board.

I kept repeating the drawing fairly randomly over the page so that they interlinked.

At this point I decided that a 6" x 6" square would produce what I wanted, and cut out a frame to help me choose the section I liked best.

And this is what I chose.

'Butterflies in Hiding' - Jez

This is the finished abstract, coloured in photoshop.  You should be able to pick out some of the butterflies at least.  I do like the way the pattern has curled around in an unexpected fashion.

CO HOSTING INSPIRATION AVENUE THIS WEEK

'OUTFITS FOR ALL OCCASIONS' - INSPIRATION AVENUE CHALLENGE

IF YOU'D LIKE TO CREATE YOUR OWN COLLAGE LIKE THIS ,
THERE'S A FREE TEMPLATE BELOW FOR YOU TO COPY
AND DETAILS OF HOW I ASSEMBLED THE COLLAGE

This week is a special 'first' for me.  I am so happy to be acting as Co-Host on one of my favourite challenges, Inspiration Avenue - I hope you will pop over to see the theme I set for this week -  'Outfits For All Occasions'.  You can also see all the examples I created to provide a little inspiration.

The gorgeous lady above, who has carefully chosen her outfit for her summer holiday, is MILLIE, and I love her.  She looks a lot of fun.

People often ask me where my idea for a drawing or collage comes from, so I'll show you how Millie started:

This is what I call my rough sketchbook, which is always ready by my seat on the sofa. The figure of Millie emerged from a rough scribble, and was strengthened with stronger pencil lines.  Ideas like the hat, sun, bird and beach ball were sketched in but not used in the finished collage.

Millie looks a bit fed up here, but she put on a smile when she knew she was going to be included in a blog post.

TUTORIAL and FREE TEMPLATE FOR YOU TO COPY

Materials required:

Coloured A4 card (not too thick), blue for the background and your choice of 'skintone' for the body.
Tissue paper in 3 colours to represent the sea - or any paper of your choice.
Scissors and/or sharp craft knife.
Tracing Paper, Pencil, Glue of your choice.

Here's the outline shape for tracing.  I wasn't sure how long I would want the legs to be, but decided to end them at the point shown in the tracing, even though I didn't draw the lines across.

COPY THE TEMPLATE IN ONE OF THE FOLLOWING WAYS:

(1)  Right click on the image.

 (2)  My Macbook has a trackpad and no mouse.  I Googled to find how to copy the template, and it can be done this way:    Hold down ctrl and left click on the image .  (ctrl key is next to alt key at bottom left of keyboard.)  A menu comes up, select Save Image as .......  Use the name shown or key in a new name, and Save to desktop.  Your image should appear on the desktop for  you to use.

(3) Take a screenshot.  (Refer to your computer manual for instructions).

(4)  If you can't use either of those methods, take a photograph with your mobile phone or camera and print from there.

Print to suit the size of A4 card.  Trace the image with tracing paper, and write the words RIGHT SIDE at the top of the page.

NOTE:  I suggest that you transfer the tracing of the image to the REVERSE side of the card if you wish to follow my directions below.  To do this, decide which is the reverse/wrong side of the card.  Place your tracing so that the image and the words 'Right Side' that you wrote are facing the card.  Complete the transfer of the drawing on to the card.

I wanted to be sure that I cut out only the BODY shape, and because I forget easily I drew over the pencil lines with a black pen, drawing only the actual shape that I wanted to cut, as shown above.  Note the two enclosed spaces between body and arms that will later be cut out with a craft knife.

Then I used a red pen to draw round the shapes needed for the hair and two-piece swimsuit, ready for tracing separately later.  This will leave the 'right side' completely clean of marks when the body shape is cut out.

Here's the cut out body shape and the collage pieces for hair and swimsuit.  When I made Millie I photocopied some fabric with a small pattern for her swimsuit, and I did the same with a spotted fabric for this version.

Find a flower or bow that you like for her hair, and a scrap of coloured or gold card to cut strips for her bracelets.

MILLIE'S TWIN SISTER - IZZY

Glue the collage hair, swimsuit, flower and bracelets to the body shape.  Add facial details of your choice, and lines where the hands touch the legs to define the legs.

Glue the body shape to the blue card, leaving space for the 'sea', and add torn strips of tissue paper in three or four layers to represent the waves.  I used tissue-paper hats that I saved from Christmas crackers which were just the right colours.

My completed collage shows Izzy who is enjoying her summer holiday at the seaside with Millie.  When I was young, people here in Lancashire would have called them 'A bonny pair of lasses', a lovely description.  I love them both.

Linking with Manon's Paper Saturdays - hop over and see everyone's entries.