Things I have learned week of Oct. 1, 2017

This is the third installment in the things I have learned that are related to my hand injury.  It is amazing how things has changed or is changing my outlook on many things.

Oct. 1 - The ability to be able to smile in the face of adversity is priceless.

Oct. 2 -

•  Stitches removed today.  I am normally a woose when it comes to things like this but I put on my big girls pants and was brave.  It did not hurt much.
• the mass shooting in Las Vegas was very emotionally draining.  So many lives lost and so many injured.  It saddened me greatly

Oct. 3 

• I was able to crochet today.  It hurt a little, but I have to use my hand as much as possible to get my range of motion back into my fingers.

October 4

• Washing dishes is a good way to soak my hand and fingers and get exercise. Who knew.

Oct. 5

• Exercise 6 times a day, wow, made a schedule so I can get it done.  
• While at PT yesterday I realized how blessed I am  when I see the injuries of others.
• drawing is good therapy also.  All of the things I like to do will help my hand.

Oct. 6

• Exercise hurts a lot, but it is worth it.
• Working on a scarf (knitting) and it is going ok.  
• I am project managing my exercise plan....it is in my bones.

Oct. 7

• Last day of what I have learned----everything I like to do, paint, draw, crochet and knit are part of my therapy program.  This is going to be good.  Getting ready to make some cards.

Love this flower, so bright and this is how I feel today.

See you later....pilgrim

Lesson I have learned week 2

Second week of healing and living in the non-dominant hand world.  I am doing something a little different and writing something each day of the week,

Saturday - Sept. 23rd:

• decided to concentrate on my art as if I only had a left hand.  Today's lesson, it is not possible to paint and not be messy; hence paint on my bandage, so much for trying to keep it squeaky clean.
• you have to be willing to laugh at yourself.

Sunday - Sept. 24th:

• exercising fingers to rocking music at church is pretty cool.
• drawing faces with left hand has a sketchy look which I think I like
• use my tools (more on this in a later blog)

Monday - Sept. 25:

• Time to evaluate things and places that no longer suit my needs or represent me

Tuesday - Sept. 26:

• I cannot knot or crochet with left hand.  boohoo
• a hot cup of tea before bread is so relaxing
• paint crackle medium on deli paper and use as collage pieces.

Wednesday - Sept. 27:

• Healing takes time and you just have to be patient.

Friday - Sept. 29:

• It is better to be open and honest when making major changes.  It can help to eliminate rumors.

Art work done with non-dominant hand this week:

This has been an interesting week, would not have changed a thing.  until next time.....pilgrim

Things I Have Learned......

Results of a Fall

You know how people always say it could have been worse?  Well, truer words were never spoken this week.   Early in the morning on Sept 18th I fell dislocating fingers 3, 4 and 5 on my right hand.  Fingers 4 and 5 went back into place with heavy sedation and a pull.  Finger 3 required surgery, stitches and a soft wrap to fix.  Now I am at home resting and healing.  I have had a time to think and the result will be a few blog posts about what I have learned through this experience.

What I have learned 9-18 to 9-23

• I have some really great friends, especially Marge who took to the hospital and stayed with me for hours
• I always try to be the best patient I can be, it can make a very trying experience somewhat better, if that is possible.
• Using a pepper grinder is out for a while, using black pepper in the can.
• I am somewhat ambidextrous and that is a blessing in this case.
• while I try to be a good patient, I DO NOT LIKE getting my blood pressure taken every 4 hours, it hurts people.  That automatic BP machine puts a death grip on your arm.  About the same pressure as the masochistic mammogram machine
• I can make greeting cards with my left hand Yay!!!!!!  
• Cutting up my food is a challenge, but I will not starve
• It truly could have been worse, I could have broken my leg, broken my arm...so I am so thankful and have been letting God know this all week.
• greatest invention ever, sleeve to cover arm and wrap to keep it dry when taking a shower
• I have to learn to slow down and take it easy.

That is my list for this week. Next week I am going to try art journaling with my non-dominant hand, should be interesting and fun.

until then.......pilgrim

Creative Retreat Weekend

I spent this weekend and will spend part of today, participating in the Art is Magic online Creative Retreat and it was wonderful.  Sponsored by Galia Alena, it was a smorgasbord of classes presented by awesome teachers.  A side effect of this retreat was to convince me to get busy working on the online classes with unlimited access that I have not worked on in Ages.  I can have my own creative retreat just working on these classes.

I am going to post a few photo's of paintings and try to get the name of the teacher correct.

Eye Practice - Lauren Rudolph

This is a use what you have moment, so this was painted in watercolor since I did not have the 

colors in acrylic.  I loved this lesson. Takeaway from this session, you can get deep colors
using watercolor. You can see notes to the side that I wrote for myself.

Backgrounds - Amanda Grace

I love creating backgrounds that can be used later or just just left as is. Takeaway from this session
backgrounds are so inspiring and liberating.  I can leave them as is or use them as a basis
for more in-depth painting.

Rise - Lady Mille

Again this was use what you have lesson for me.  I did not have pictures

of butterflies for collage, so I drew one on tracing paper, painted it with watercolor

and collaged it.  The layering was so much fun.  The shabby chic look is one of my favorites..
Takeaway from this lesson,  soft colors is in my soul.

Black and White - Denise Daffara

This was a Sunday after church project.  I only completed the first half and it was fun.  

I do love working in black and white; however, instead of using white I used the color Vanilla

 by Craft Smart.  She is a little crosseyed, but that is okay.  Plus...drawing the sketch with stabilo woody is a great way to  gain depth.  This was my takeaway from this lesson.

Draw and paint what you see - Fiona Haight Clark

This lesson is something I have done before, but not to this extent.

Drawing squiggle lines on a page in charcoal or stabilo marks all and then

looking for items to draw.  Started with the face and then formed a body.  Some of the

class mates had beautiful forms and then there is me keeping it real (LOL).  Takeaway from
this Lesson, develop a discerning eye to see what the marks tell you.

Beyond Word - Gaila Alena

Ok, why do I like this?????The vines and leaves.  I mixed the color using jet black by Apple Barrel and 

Mint green by Craft Smart.  I did not have a leafy green color, so I thought to mix black with the green

to get a deeper color.  My takeaway from this?  I love drawing vines and leaves and color mixing is

a valuable tool.

Garden of Tranquility - Tiare Smith Woods

This is a Sunday project that I did this morning.  I am in love with this painting.  My takeaway from

this lesson?  Using baby wipes and sponges for the majority of the background and the flowers in the grass.

I have a few more classes to complete this afternoon.  Great way to spend a quiet day.

Take care my friends.....pilgrim

#21Embody - Day 10 - Nose

Improving

I really was dreading attempting the nose.  It is not my favorite body part to draw, but it is an essential part of our anatomy.  I did not want to paint it or do too much shading as I like what I did and did not want to mess it up with paint.  I think the eyebrows are a little to high up, but oh well it will be get better with more practice.

For today, this nose actually looks like a nose.  Woohoo.

see you tomorrow....

#21Embody day 9 - Lips

Lips

Lips, I think I am getting better at capturing the contour and expression.  Arting pretty much everyday is becoming a welcomed habit.  It allows me to relax.

see you later

#21EmBody - Day 8 Eye

The Eye

Day 8 is the eye,  I painted this eye a while ago and my spirit kept telling me to use it as it fits into my premise that no one part of the body is more important than the other.  However, the eyes have a story to tell.  Often times, I can tell when my friends are in pain because of the story their eyes tell.  We have to look and pay attention to see what the eyes are saying.

see you later.

#21Embody Day 7 Arms

Holding on

This was fun to do, reminds me of days gone by.

see you later......

#21Embody day 6 - In Position

Dancing Feet in Position

I really started to collage some feet, but something in me said, go ahead and try it and I did.  I have never drawn, much less painted feet before.  It is really interesting to try the different parts of the body.  It also made me think of a class I taught last week at church.  We were talking about the Body of Christ and how no one body part is more important than the other.  Each part plays an important role and when you put them all together, they make a very strong presence as the body.

see you tomorrow.....

#21Embody - Day 5 Hands

Hands of Love

Hands have never been my strong suit in the world of art.  I started to cut out hands from a magazine and collage; but, I thought I would give it a try.  Granted this is a pretty simple solution; however, I am so happy that they really look like hands.  It is amazing when I really step outside of my comfort zone to try something that gives me problems and arrive at a solution.  I will probably try to draw hands in more detail, but for tonight I am really happy with this effort.

see you tomorrow.

#21Embody - Learning to draw the Body days 1-4

When you try to do something you have never done before, it is really a crap shoot.  I decided to participate in #21 Embody because my plan for this year is that if I sign up for anything new, it has to be free and this is a free challenge.  Plus, and this is significant, the concept was new to me.  Drawing singular body parts, I had never tried that and it is good to have in my artistic arsenal, especially for art journaling.  Below are my interpretation of the parts of the body for the first four days, the lungs, the heart, the back and bones.

I like what I have done mostly because I was willing to try.  I was thinking this morning that I may try collage for some parts.  That is exciting because collage challenges me and I want to improve.

Lungs

Heart

The Back

Bones - Back Bone

see you tomorrow.....

What I have been up to

Been a few days since I posted.  It has been really busy around here with a lot of church related activities.  I have been able to squeeze in some art time.

For the Birds

The idea behind this 5x7 journal page was a swap hosted by Gisele Grenier.  The premise for this page was to use the Movie The Birds by Alfred Hitchcock as inspiration.  This background for this page is a wash of black and white acrylic paint.  The bare trees are drawn free hand and the birds are an assortment of Stencil girl product birds.  I forget that I can use stencils in my art projects and this one had great results.

Human Lung

the heart

The lung and the heart are works in progress, they need to be painted.  I am participating in a 21 day challenge that seemed really interesting.  It is call 21 embody and each day for 21 days you draw and paint a body part.  These represent day 1 and 2 and I will spend the next couple of hours painting them and drawing day 3's body part.  I tell you this is really interesting especially since I did not think I could really draw a realistic heart, who knew!!!!

So, I am still working through the Paint Mojo class and will post some of that by Saturday.  

see you soon, maybe tomorrow.

Paint Mojo week 1

Batch of Ephemera 1

Bundle number 1

Ephemera batch 2 - tea dyed papers

Ephemera Batch 3

Bundle 3

For the next six weeks I am going to be working through an online class, Paint Mojo.  I have been watching the video's for week one.  The first step was to put together some Ephemera bundles.  The idea is to gather papers that can be used for collage.  However, the practice is not think about what you are doing and see what comes together.  I have a lot of ephemera that has been collected over the years.  I decided to go through my stash and randomly pick out some items and put them into a bundle. 

One of my favorites is ephemera batch 2 which includes papers that were part of a bundle soaked in tea last year while attending a class with Orly Avineri and Katie Kendrick on Bainbridge Island, Washington.  For some reason the bundle did not download, but that is ok.

I think this is going to be a really eye opening experience.  I started not to post these bundles because painting was not involved.  This morning I realized that I am doing this for me and taking my readers along for the journey.  As a result, I need to show all aspects of the process and that includes painting and non-painting exercises.  There will be works in progress (WIP), swipes of paint on a page, marks and all sorts of things because the objective is not to come up with a masterpiece although that may happen.  No, the objective is learn a process I have seen and wanted to learn for a long time.

So I am going to enjoy recording this journey so that I have a record of what I have learned.  It will be swell for you to join me on this road of discovery.

see you soon.

29 Faces challenge the end Days 26-29

Day 26

Day 27

Day 28

Number 29

Holy Crapola Batman.  I did it.  29 faces in 28 days.  It was such fun. I learned a lot and think I actually grew a lot in my abilities.  I can draw a nose and ears are not too bad either.

Most important is that I kept the commitment.

My next project is working through a online class I won, Paint Mojo by Tracy Verdugo.  I am so excited to spend the next 6 weeks working and enjoying.

so, see you tomorrow.

Playing Catchup - Days 23, 24 and 25 of 29 Faces Challenge

Day 23 side braid

Day 24 Flowing hair

Day 25 - Top Bun

I had two art projects to complete and fell behind in my daily drawings.  Once the projects were completed, I started drawing faces.  I did not paint them, although, I may spend this evening painting.

I find that painting sometimes changes the look and I like the effects of the drawing.

The Challenge is almost finished; however, I am committing to drawing more faces throughout the year.  I am going to do a 100 face challenge and the best part is that I will have a 29 face head start.  In this way I hope to perfect the painting of faces.   I will post the faces as they are completed.

On the 28th I will announce my challenge for March.

see you tomorrow....

day 22 of 29 Faces Challenge

more practice with hair

Today's challenge was with hair giving volume.

see you tomorrow....

Day 21 of 29 Faces Challenge

Lady in Blue 

This is another painting inspired by Gustav Kiimt.  It was and is truly a learning experience.  Making a face standout from the dark background is a challenge that I will keep working with.  I am enjoying the challenges.

More to come.

Day 20 of 29 Faces - It's all about the hair

Day 1 of hair practice 

This week I will be working on hair.  Today's painting was done with Derwent inktense blocks.  They are really nice to work with.

Days 19 of 29 Faces Challenge: Inspired by Matisse

Keeping it Simple - end of week

Day 18 of the 29 Faces Challenge

Deep in Thought

This painting is inspired by Gustav Klimt.  I happen to love painting closed eyes, like the person is deep in thought and I don't do it enough.  This was fun to work on and I think it has given me the confidence to start working on my online class, Painting with the Masters that I have had for some time.

See you tomorrow