Cozy Cat

Cozy Cat T-Shirt (white text)
by cherylasmith

I haven't posted any new designs to my Zazzle account in quite awhile ... I had some free time today, so I doodled up this cozy little kitty cat design.   I think it turned out pretty cute.

Making art of any type always makes me feel better. 

Happy Christmas

Made a quick animated gif from some public domain clip art.  Hope you enjoy this holiday snow globe.

#Comictober2019 (part2)

OK.  It's rough ... pardon my crappé tuxedo, but you get the idea.  I am short on time - so I knew I wouldn't get a drawing done every day for "Inktober" / "Comictober", but I am trying to participate a little bit.

Drawn in my Composition notebook with Indian ink pens & color added with colored pencils.

 

#Comictober2019

#comictober2019

This is my first comic for #comictober2019 and #inktober2019 - I drew this in my composition notebook.   I combined the prompts from both challenges "candy" and "ring".  

Drawn with Indian ink pen, colored with watercolor markers and colored pencils.
 

Haunted Houses - House Shaped ATCs

House Shaped ATCs - Haunted Houses

I haven't spent much time making ATCs this year ... so I decided to join a swap for "Haunted Houses - House shaped ATCs" at ATCsForAll.com.

I had fun making these ATCs (artist trading cards) with printed paper collage, paper punches, sequins, Indian ink doodles, and fabric trim embellishments. 

The swap runs until mid-October - so there is still plenty of time to join in.
http://www.atcsforall.com/forum/showthread.php?36561-HAUNTED-HOUSES-House-Shaped-ATC-Swap-due-October-17-2019

More Magilla

Art Collage in my gluebook "Magilla"

I had the itch to pull out my gluebook "Magilla" this weekend.  I noticed that my pages tend to fall into the same types of color themes (soft greens. blues, purples, etc..), so I decided to start the page with some random colors.  I pulled out 23 tubes of acrylic paint and used a random number selector to choose colors for me.

Each time a number was selected, I pulled the corresponding paint color and painted a swatch or two on the page.  When the page had a complete coat of paint, I started cutting words and images from my freebie paper stash (free local papers from the boxes around town).  After a bit of gluing, playing with oil pastels, and some paint stamping, I used a gold marker and a white paint pen to further embellish the page.

All in all, it felt good to play with random colors and see what happened.  I like this page much more than my previous page (shown below), which falls into one of my usual color themes.

Gluebook collage in "Magilla" notebook

Coloring with Markers : Giraffe

Colorful Giraffe

I felt like coloring last night ... so I pulled out some markers and a printed sheet from an art kit I received.  A fun way to de-stress.  Afterwards, I cut it out and pasted it into my composition notebook.

You can print a copy of this giraffe to color for yourself here:
https://www.artskills.com/Project-Ideas/Marker-Giraffe.aspx

Watercolor Experiments

waterlily watercolor

I saw something similar online & wanted to play with my watercolors, so I gave it a whirl.  Not exactly as I wanted it to turn out, but still kinda' neat.

 

More Sketchbook Revival Art

Continuing on with the "Sketchbook Revival" online workshop ... I worked on Day 12: Session 1 - "Cosmic Smashbooking: Power Trigger = Super Power" with Catt Geller.

I pulled out my gluebook / smashbook, "Magilla" (click "Magilla" in the tags below for more pages in this notebook), and played along with Catt. 

Daily Doodle Journal: Happy

Continuing on with the "Sketchbook Revival" online workshop ... I worked on Day 8: Session 2 - "How to Start a Happy Journal" with Jennie Moraitis.  I have a few little moleskine notebooks that I received in a Dick Blick swag bag, so I decided to put one to good use and start a little daily doodle journal.

A Happy Journal includes little things that make you smile or feel joy throughout your day.  I had done this previously in my Composition notebook, but have really had a tough year - so I lost my mojo.  Here's me trying to get my mojo back & start to feel happy again.

Sketchbook Revival : part 2

Sidewalk Crack - Grasshopper

Continuing on with the "Sketchbook Revival" online workshop ... I worked on Day 1: Session 2 - Sidewalk Cracks: A Creativity Starter" with Carla Sonheim.  I found this photo of a sidewalk crack online & developed it into a grasshopper munching on a leaf.  

This was a fun session, however I did work with sidewalk cracks previously when I was working in Carla Sonheim's book, "Drawing Lab for Mixed-Media Artists", several years ago.

Here is one of my sidewalk crack drawings from 2010:

 And here it is colored:

I still have several sessions to work through.  This is keeping me motivated to play and make art every day.

Sketchbook Revival

I am playing along in the "Sketchbook Revival" online workshop for a couple of weeks.  I don't have much free time, but I am making sure to do at least 1 exercise each day & hope to make up the others over the weekend.

The first exercise I participated in was the "Portrait Party" with Koosje Koene.  This exercies was about making blind drawings of the face.  I love doing blind drawings & have done this before from photographs, but never using a mirror or doing any type of self portrait.

The next exercise I completed was "Mindful Inspirations: A Thumbnail Sketch" with Rachel Rose.  This exercise focused on finding inspiration all around you in small things. 

 
Next I worked on "Sketching Like a Kid Again: Scribble, Doodle, Color" with Charlie O’Shields.  This exercise was quick doodles, crayons, and watercolors.  I have always been "blah" with watercolors ... but did find some of the tips very useful.  It will take some practice, but I think I will give watercolors another try.  

I am excited to continue on with the exercises that I haven't done, yet.  So ... more to come!

Spring Forward

egg-shaped ATC doodles with haiku

This brightly colored egg is actually an egg-shaped ATC (Artist Trading Card) that I made last week during another Art-a-thon at ATCsForAll.com.  It is a haiku poem as well as eye candy.  I used my "Blick Illustrator Markers" (alcohol markers) to color it & Wow! It is so bright!

So ... I have been arting around here & there - working on several things at once.  Here are a couple more:

junk journal collage

I collaged another page in my "Junk Mail Journal".   This little junk journal was made by taking the junk mail postcards that had accumulated near my computer, trimming them all to 4" x 6" or so, and spiral binding them into a book.  Then I just started pasting random bits inside to decorate the pages.

This page features clippings from printed scrapbook papers, punches, decorative cutting, some stamping, a little bit of paint and a little bit of pen work.  To see more, just click "junk mail journal" in the tags below. 

ATC Coin (round ATC)

And ... just for fun.  I picked up a 2.5" circle punch at a super discounted price yesterday and decided to give it a spin.  I ran across these despicable characters & had a flashback to the "Wacky Races" I used to watch on Saturday morning as a child. lol.  Good Times.

House Shaped ATCs

Kitty's Beach House

There is another "Art-a-thon" happening right now through January 28th.  This one is for "house shaped" art of all sizes - inchies, moos, ATCs, chunky pages, etc...  Anyone may join in, you only need to join the site ATCsForAll.com - new members are always welcome.

I have only made a couple of ATCs so far ... but it is always nice to make time for art.

"Kitty's Beach House" (shown above) was made with cut paper collage.  I added some detailing with an Indian ink pen and used some sparkly glitter glue on the fish and water.

"Little Gnome's Mushroom House" was made in similar fashion.  I cut an ATC sized (2.5" x 3.5") piece of cereal box, drew my mushroom shape with a pen, cut out the shape and sanded lightly.  I then cut and glued printed scrapbook paper to my mushroom shape and embellished with ink drawn images and a touch of glitter glue.

House shaped ATCs are so popular now, that there is a group of folks trading them year round:  http://www.atcsforall.com/forum/showthread.php?35302-HOUSE-Come-to-our-Block-Party-Trade-House-Shaped-ATcs

Happy House Building!