Christmas Kitties ATCs

Just a couple of ATCs with a Christmas Kitty theme.  Drawn with Indian ink pens, colored with alcohol ink markers, colored pencils and sparkly gel pens.

Cats in the Garden

Drew and colored this card for my Mom's birthday.  Inspired by some art I saw on Pinterest.  I used Indian ink pens and markers, as well as colored pencils.   I like how bright and cheerful it is.  I hope my Mom feels happy when she sees it.

Another Art-athon is happening now at ATCsForAll.com - it starts today and runs through Monday.  Join in if you feel like it - or just pop by to see what everyone is making or trading.

 

Art-a-thon July 26th through 29th

Shy Octopus Comes to Visit

There is an Art-a-Thon going on right now at ATCsForAll.com!  The Art-a-Thon will be running through July 29th.   You do need to be a member of the website to participate (free free always free).  The members are all very nice and happy to help you get started.

This is a "Challenge Art-a-thon", which means that there is a list of challenges to do (themes and such), and points are awarded - so it is a little competitive.  

The ATC above was drawn in pen and markers.  I had a challenge to depict the words octopus, shy, and to visit on the project.  I think it turned out pretty cute. 

Next I made this 4" x 4" chunky page using some blind drawing of cats, acrylic paint, Indian ink pen, glitter gel pen, washi tape, paper and fabric flowers, and fibers.  

I hope I am able to find the time to participate a bit more before the Art-a-thon ends.
 

Dream Bedroom

Another warm-up challenge for the facebook group "Virtually ‘Making Comics’ With(out) Lynda Barry". It is a brand new group (as stated): to self-guide a bunch of our groovy and willing selves a virtual Lynda Barry class.  

This challenge was to draw a "Dream Bedroom".  I opted to draw the Dream Bedroom of "Fluffy" (our neighbor's cat), who is basically a little princess.

If you want to draw more -or- just enjoy Lynda Barry ... come by the group for some fun eye candy and drawing challenges.

Shoebox Treasure and Crazy Tails

I joined the facebook group "Virtually ‘Making Comics’ With(out) Lynda Barry" the other day. It is a brand new group (as stated): to self-guide a bunch of our groovy and willing selves a virtual Lynda Barry class.  We are currently doing warm ups.  Today the challenge was to draw weird items you had laying around. 


In order to strengthen my hand and get into the habit of drawing every day ... I also pulled out one of my old doodle books, "Scribble Doodles! Crazy Creatures", and finished drawing tails on these critters:

Looks like I will be posting more frequent updates!

Quarantine Junk Journal Art

Some more art from my latest junk journal.  This is a lion inspired by Carla Sonheim.  With a single line, I doodled a loose loopy lion face and used Indian ink pen to fancy it up a bit.  I then colored it with pencils and stencils to add texture. 

Here's one more page from my junk journal:

This page was inspired by Lynda Barry's Quarantine kitties.  I drew this kitty with an Indian ink brush pen, and painted it with acrylic paints.

My Quarantine junk journal is starting to fill up with lots of crazy critters.  It is my little getaway during this time of "stay at home".

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. 

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!

Challenge Art-a-thon

There is another "Challenge Art-a-thon" happening right now through July 23rd.  During the challenge, you are given a list of creative challenges and earn points for making art to fit the tasks.  Then you may trade your art with other artists if you wish.

You do need to be a member of ATCsForAll.com (free for all) in order to post in the forum and play in the challenge.  This is a group of friendly folks, so no worries - and it is lots of fun to be able to make art around the clock with everyone!

Torn Paper Mosaic Watermelon

These are the ATCs (artist trading cards) that I have made so far.  One of my favorite things about the challenge is that I end up creating art that I never would have thought of making outside of the challenge.  

Most folks are making ATCs, however you may create art of any size or shape ... inchies, chunky pages, art journaling, fabric, etc...

Please do pop by and play if you want - or just enjoy the eye candy.  You do not need to be a member to browse the forums.

108 Quickly Doodled Objects

108 doodled objects

I saw an exercise posted somewhere about drawing 100 objects as a "stream of consciousness", taking about 5 seconds for each and moving on to the next.  So, I grabbed my non-photo blue pencil and my composition notebook & gave it a whirl.  

It took me 3 sittings to fill the page ... but I did draw the objects very quickly in pencil.  I spent a little more time inking them in with my pen.  I (of course) went "blank" a few times and looked around for ideas. 

I do see a "stream of consciousness" pattern in the drawings and I can see where I got stuck (between the toast and the butterfly, for example).  

I enjoyed the exercise & it's fun to see all the little doodles in my notebook.
 

Inchie-A-thon

Inchie Sized Kitty Cat Paper Doll

I have been participating in the Inchie-A-thon that is going on over at ATCsForAll.com (which continues through Jun 22). 

Above is shown the coolest thing I made over the weekend.  An inchie sized (1" x 1") kitty cat paper doll.  The head, bow, legs, and tail are attached with mini brads.  It was surprisingly simple to make.

Below are a few of the other inchies I made so far:

Drawn mostly with Indian ink pens and colored pencils, a couple are collaged from printed images.  I have traded most of them & had lots of fun during the a-thon.

Return to Junk Mail Journal 1

I had a few pages left in my first Junk Mail Journal (circa 2008), so I decided to play around with some of my paper scraps and see what developed.  This page was made from scrapbook papers, newspaper clippings, a sticker, stamping, doodles, Indian ink pens, sparkly gel pens (the entire fish is colored with sparkle), and a paint marker.

I made the little junk journal 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.

To see more, just click "junk mail journal" in the tags below.

Scribble Doodles: Holiday Wreath

Oh yes, I am still playing with my Scribble Doodles! books.  This is a page from my Scribble Doodles Christmas book. 

I have been working so much lately, it felt good to just take an hour off and make something goofy.  

To see more pages from my Scribble Doodles! books, just click the "scribble doodles" tag below.

Art-a-thon Challenge Hunt Weekend

Had a blast this weekend at the Art-a-thon Challenge Hunt over at ATCsForAll.com!   I finally took some time off to make some art and play a bit.   The weekend was all about getting together with other artists and making and trading art - participating in challenges and just having a creative fun time.

Above is my favorite card from the weekend.  I made it for a 3 word challenge: porcupine, desert, heart.  Indian ink pens and colored pencils.

I also made a Zombie poetry ATC (Artist Trading Card 2-1/2" x 3-1/2") for a "found poetry" challenge.

And a Zombie postcard (6" x 4") for a trade at Swap-bot.

I later filled in the Zombie thought bubble ... I had too many ideas (nice to "meat" you)(would love to have you for dinner) etc ... so I took suggestions and went with "LET'S do LUNCH".

I made this Kitty ATC for a blind drawing challenge.  I thought he would come out a bit funkier, but I draw cats so much that they just about draw themselves.  I love doing blind drawing.

The last ATC I made was this mushroom ATC.  I wove strips of paper for the background.

Over the weekend, I made 5 inchies, 8 ATCs, and 1 postcard.  I haven't made that much art during a weekend in years!

Composition Book Doodles

I have been filling up my composition notebook with doodles and blurbs on a regular basis.  Here are some of my favorites:

1) A duck I see often at Piedmont Park.  He has something wrong with his tongue that makes it stick out all the time.  Otherwise he seems to be getting along fine.
2) Just some folks I saw at the park.  A 20-something-ish young man walking a dog, with an older woman (mom?) walking behind carrying a bright pink baggie of poo (I presume, from the way she was carrying it.).
3) Doodle inspired by a particular shoe seen during the Olympics.
4) Ed Emberley style thumbprint kitties.
5) Doodle inspired by something I saw.
6) Monkey face inspired by Carla Sonheim's "Drawing Lab for Mixed Media Artists"
     Drawing Lab 7: Monkey Business.
7) "Jan in the Pan" from the movie "The Head that Wouldn't Die", which I was watching at the time.
8) Ed Emberley style thumbprint mice.
9) Doodle inspired by a woman I saw at a Walmart.  She was riding an electric scooter and dragging the cord behind her like a tail.
10) A spider web I noticed.
11) Ed Emberley style thumbprint dogs.

It's a lot of fun to look back through the composition book & helps me to remember more of the day to day things that occured over the summer.

ICAD - Index Card A Day Challenge: Days 57 and 58

ICAD Day 57:stickers - acrylic paint, PITT pen, paint pen and stickers.

ICAD Day 58: graffiti - Collage of clippings, PITT pens and paint pen.

More info about ICAD can be found here: http://daisyyellowart.com/icad-base/
Be sure to visit the Flickr ICAD group to see what others have created!   

ICAD - Index Card A Day Challenge: Day 14

ICAD challenge : my index card for Day 14.  Drawn with an Indian ink pen and colored with pencils.

More info about ICAD can be found here: http://daisyyellowart.com/icad-base/
Be sure to visit the Flickr ICAD group to see what others have created!

Zetti Style ATCs : Bumble Kitties

More March Madness!  These are my zetti-style cards made for Day 8 in the March Madness Challenge at ATCsForAll.com.

Collage made up of printed papers with some doodling added.

MasterBoard Postcards

Here are the postcards that I made from the MasterBoard shown in my previous post.  Mixed media including: printed papers, acrylic paint, stamping, Sharpie doodles, punches, glitter glue, collaged images and text, washi tape, and little doodled sleepy time night caps.

I sent these 2 postcards off for a mailart swap at Swap-Bot.

Countdown to Halloween : 31 Days of Halloween Art : Day 27

ATC (artist trading card) Ink and colored pencil.  Made for a Halloween swap in one of my art trading groups.

27 days down ~ 4 more days till Halloween!