DETERMINED TO DO SOME CHALLENGES

I have missed taking part in challenges for the past couple of weeks so much, and so I am determined to make an effort today, even though it is an effort.

At Three Muses the challenge is 'Get Ahead, Get a Hat'.  Marilyn and Archibald had their photo taken specially to show off their new hats.  They assured the hat-maker that they were delighted with them, but somehow the photographer just didn't quite capture that emotion.  They either need a new milliner or a new photographer. ……. or both.

In the next picture the apple-cheeked lady is my offering for both Try it on Tuesday and Moo Mania.

Moo Mania asks for the use of corrugated cardboard.  I scanned the corrugated at an angle to give diagonal stripes and changed the colour to blue digitally, then added the green background digitally as well.  I then assembled the whole image on Photoshop.  She may not be able to tell her dots from her stripes, but still, she looks a happy lady.

And for Try it on Tuesday Dotty wanted to have her say on the subject of 'Feminine and Fancy'.  Dotty's always been a bit of a feminist who doesn't see why she has to wear frills, furbelows and feathers to show her femininity - and she's had 5 husbands and 12 children so it works for her!  She always likes to be a bit different from the rest, and I think she may well find that she achieves her aim in the TIOT Feminine and Fancy challenge.

Both the Hats card and the Dotty lady card were originally made to send to my dear friend Karen Isaacson at I am Rushmore a while ago, and I hope she will excuse me for re-using them for these challenges given the way I am feeling just now.

Linking to Three Muses, Try it on Tuesday, Moo Mania

HAPPINESS IS LIME GREEN

A couple of Limeys - Jez
Pitt pen, coloured pencils and digital framing

The Three Muses this week asked us to create something using Turquoise and Lime Green.  I asked myself what I could paint with Lime Green, and the answer was obvious - Limes.  I even found that I had pencils labelled Lime Green and Turquoise in one of my many sets of coloured pencils, so it was meant to be.

When I was younger English people were often referred to as "Limeys", mostly by Australians and Americans.  This seems to have died out in favour of other nicknames.  The name Limeys was derived from the fact that from the 1800s the British Navy issued lime juice to their sailors to help prevent Scurvy, which is a rather nasty illness caused by lack of Vitamin C.   

Nothing like doodling - Jez
Acrylic paint

For the April challenge at Art Journal Journey the theme is Moments of Happiness.  I was stuck for a while because it can be interpreted in so many ways.  Inspiration struck when I was doodling with paint, and realised that doodling and colour - particularly yellow, orange and red - give me a lot of pleasure and many moments of happiness.  Who needs diamonds and couture clothes when we've got colour to play with!

Linking to The Three Muses, Art Journal Journey, and Manon's Paper Saturdays

VINTAGE AND COLOUR

Vintage Image 'Romantic Illustrations'  Copyright-Free Book
Frame - own photo - Jez

SIPPING SODA THROUGH A STRAW

- JESSIE AND DIGBY CELEBRATE THEIR ENGAGEMENT.

Someone should point out to Jessie that a chap too mean
to buy a drink for each of them

is not ideal marriage material.

Linking to Three Muses challenge, where the theme this week is "Vintage and Color"

FACE NO 17 FOR 29 FACES FEBRUARY

MONDAY 17 FEBRUARY - FACE 17

'Flourishes in Shades of Red'
Mixed Media - by Jez

Today I combined two challenges, creating a face that matched the So Artful challenge of 'Flourishes in Shades of Red', as well as the 29 Faces theme.

When I had drawn the girl's head, I intended to add quite a bit of collage, but as soon as I had stuck down those two red grid pieces I knew that was my starting point for the flourishes.  I'm quite pleased with this.

Linking with 29 FACES FEBRUARY 2014, SO ARTFUL CHALLENGES

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,

HATS AND WORDS AND SOMETHING NEW

FLISS'S HAT TRAGEDY
Mixed Media on Watercolour Paper
- by Jez

FLISS AND THE LADIES GROUP ANNUAL HAT COMPETITION

Fliss, as you can see, is not a happy bunny

She made her own hat and it took a lot of time and money.

She made it to her own design.

- I don't like it, but she thinks it's fine.

She loves the feather and all the flowers,

And making it passed many enjoyable hours.

But then Fliss had a great surprise

- She really couldn't believe her eyes.

A garden, some posts and washing she sees,

And a girl hanging clothes out to dry in the breeze.

This invasion by that squatter of minimal size,

Means our Fliss now has no chance of winning the prize.

That's why she looks grumpy, as grumpy can be,

Though I think the hat's improved, and I'm sure you'll agree.

A NEW APPROACH FOR ME -
SKETCH, COLLAGE AND SKETCH

When I make a collage I work directly by cutting and sticking onto the paper or card, with no sketching and with little or no pre-planning about where it is going.

I thought I would try a different approach for this piece, starting with a sketch, adding some collage elements, continuing with more sketching and then colouring.  The A3 sheet of watercolour paper I used already had splodges of pink watercolour on it.

Next I cut out the hat shape from Docrafts 'Papermania' paper and free-cut the flower shapes from magazine pages.  The flowers that look black are in fact purple, but the colours on the photo have not come out very true.

So this is how it looked when the collage/sketch was done - my entry for the Take A Word  challenge of "Hats-N-Things'',  for Creative Every Day and Sketchbook Challenge "Sketch and Collage".

'Radiant Leaves' - Jez
Watercolour on Watercolour Paper

For Collage Obsession we were asked to use Pantone's Colour of the Year - 'Radiant Orchid' - as the main colour or as an accent colour.  Radiant Orchid is a pretty name for light purply-mauve, and an attractive colour too.   I've used the nearest I could get to it for the four light mauve leaves at the top of the leaf picture.

'HAND' - Jez
Acrylic onWatercolour Paper
Word and frame added on Photoshop

I was pleased with the simplicity and colour of this painting of my hand-print for my offering to the Three Muses challenge of  'Choose a Word'.


Also linking to Paint Party Friday,  Artists Play Room, and Paper Saturdays

COLOUR ME HAPPY FOR 2014

COLOUR ME HAPPY FOR 2014
Watercolour - Jez

This is my first entry to the Three Muses challenge, where the topic is COLOUR ME HAPPY, and these are the colours that make me happy - yellow and orange.  There is some grey in there because we have to accept that into each life some rain must fall, and without a little sadness we wouldn't know what happiness is.  But it's happiness that keeps the wheels of life turning.  Painted in watercolour, and the border was added on Photoshop.

I couldn't resist trying a couple of digital colour changes - interesting, but I much prefer the vibrant yellow and orange, those are my happy colours.

It's also my first entry to Moo Mania where the challenge is BIRDS, and drawing or painting birds is something I really enjoy.  Here is my sketchbook page of Flamingos:

I don't know if you've ever spent time trying to draw flamingos from life.  If not you've missed a treat.  Flamingos have an attention span of about 3 seconds, which I swear they reduce to 1.8 seconds as soon as they see a sketchbook and pencil.

They're in constant movement, twisting, bending, preening, feeding, squabbling and generally having a go at any other flamingo who dares to come near.  At Martin Mere there are two separate flocks of flamingos, one group is Chilean flamingos, and I don't think I've ever noticed where the others are from.

I'm fascinated by their knobbly legs, flexible curving necks, and 'mud-pie' nests - and in the spring their fluffy grey chicks on their long skinny legs.  I just wish I could capture a good image of them, but it's a question of scribbling down at least part of a posture and hoping they might just take the same position once or twice more, so it's a matter of jumping from one part-sketch to another.

Apologies for the dark photograph, because although we've had some gorgeous sunny days and blue skies over Christmas and New Year it's not been quite good enough for a decent photo.  We've been so lucky over the holiday period with our weather in this area of North West England.  Over great areas of Britain, coast and country, there have been huge winds, gales and rainfall and people have been flooded more than once, and without power for days on end, even on Christmas Day because so many power lines have been down.  On this morning's farming programme, which we listen to in bed at 5.45 am (very early risers!), the farmers said the fields are so waterlogged that the rain which was forecast again for today and another few days  has nowhere to go - it can't drain off the fields because the rivers have already overflowed and just can't take any more water.

So my thoughts are with those whose Christmas, New Year, lives and homes have been so terribly affected, and if anyone reading this has suffered from those problems I do hope things start to improve for you a little soon and will be thinking particularly of you.

Linking to Moo Mania, Three Muses, Paint Party Friday and Manon's Paper Saturdays