Sunshine girl

That's what I think I'll call this one.  She has sunny colours.

And, surprise of surprises....we, too, have a sunshiny day!  All week looks pretty good...that'll be the first week without snow since ...well, since about October 2013 actually.....

I may get to golf on Wednesday... although, they are calling for showers on that day..... I better dig out some rubber boots and go anyway...it could be our only golfing day of the summer..... aacckkk!

"Sunny" adds some warmth to anybody's day.... with her love of perky colours and fabrics....

I glued bits of pretty pink and gold papers to her parasol, her skirt and even on the top of her blue bag... it could be a purse, or ....a fancy shopping bag....

I gave her some cute little "twiddly toes" as Mom used to call pigeon toed....

She's ready for a day of shopping or just admiring herself in shop windows as she goes merrily on her way......

too "normal"

I did another girl for the Creative Girl project.  She is not totally my own design.  Took some inspiration and liberty from an ad in a magazine.  I called her Shopping girl.... but, have decided she is too ..... uhm...... normal looking, if you know what I mean.   Danielle's girl was ... more .... fun... more ...caricature-like and whimsical .... even less realistic ... sort of ....

But, I did have fun doing her .... and really enjoyed trying to lay on some water colours and get some pretty results ... and, I want my girl ...my own design ultimately.... to have a pet of some sort...so I tried a doggy this time too  ... a pink poodle don'tcha know....  I've made one of those before ... when I was making bears and dogs....

I tried the little trick of gluing on some pretty paper in a couple of squares on the skirt ... to add a bit more visual appeal ....

Today ... another girl ...in between laundry, dusting and some other stuff...yes...it must be done... I can only put things off so long... and, all of you crafters out there DO so know what I'm taking about ...I know you do!  After a while, the dust bunnies get almost big enough to fight back ..or I need cages instead of a vacuum..... where do they all come from?

Skipped to the last project..

The first and third projects in the course didn't appeal to me all that much...but, for sure I viewed them and got all the information from them... and, then... just skipped to doing the girl in the final video.

Watercolours are not an easy thing to lay down..... but, what fun giving it a try!

We are doing a girl in our final project, and, of course, we are supposed to "invent" one of our own eventually.  But, in the meantime, Danielle gave us all sorts of little bits and pieces to use to make one up .... or, in my case, I just more or less copied the one she did on the video.  I also used the same colours to get an idea of how she did things...

Here is my gal....

Here is Danielle's....

I'm sure you can see the differences...but, all in all, I'm pretty happy with my effort....

Here they are side by side....

I need some better white ink pens... and a bit darker pencil...and of course, lots of practice...but, what fun!

She says it took her abut 5 years to come up with a girl she likes and can draw easily ... not using a detailed face at all as it would detract from the rest of the body and colours..  etc... so, today I'm attempting to come up with a girl of my own design........or at least partly my own design..... we'll see how it goes....

The cat came back...

..well, she probably wasn't even gone... she was just hiding somewhere.  And, look how perky she looks.  ..ahahha...she was probably downstairs where the boarder is staying and I didn't want to invade or intrude.   But, I felt guilty that I had missed her dosage of thyroid meds and Googled to check how serious that could be ... decided it was okay to miss one time and left visiting her 'til last night.  I found her straight away and closed the downstairs door and pasted a big note on the door handle.  Do. Not. Leave. Open.  

I'm happy I have now claimed our own space.  The cat's and mine.  I feel totally relieved.

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Here is my first little attempt at Danielle Donaldson's water colour class.  I jumped to the second project as the first didn't appeal to me ...although, I did go through the video of course...as it had a lot to do with how to put down some watercolour paint.  Not that I figured out the part about more water til the fourth video actually...and, so my colours are a bit darker than she did.

I'm pretty happy with the results ... which are not too dissimilar to hers... except for the darker colours and the gnome hat on the little house to the lower left..hahahhha... reminder to self... don't put trees directly behind a house and expect it not to look like a hat!

I now realize than when she says add more  water to the brush and go from colour to colour taking some of the last colour with you...she means put it onto a mixing surface, get the right colour and then go to the paper ...  ...she didn't mean to take it directly from the pan of colour.  Okay, ...got it.  Next one.........

And, I  need some better white ink pens...mine are too transparent....

In the style of Suzi Blu

My Suzi Blu girl.  Not quite as grungy as Suzi does them...and, I doubt I would ever manage to do a grungy one anyway....     but, I love her!

See the little area with pink roses and stems?  That is some pretty tissue paper I happened to have hanging around ....so I glued down two pieces ...  ... one other is up on the left corner ... I just couldn't believe how perfectly it fit with my colours...

Here it is .... near some of my own chosen pinks and greens ..

A few of my means of getting some texture and odd areas of interest.  I found a bit of scratty, sort of open weave straw ribbon or whatever it is .. no clue why I had it in my box of assorted oddities.  A piece of golden open weave ribbon.. and I punched out my own version of sequin waste to put paint onto in a few areas.  Worked just like the waste does.

Almost reminds you of stars in her hair and on her dress....

Still have't found any beeswax to smooth onto the whole canvas..but, maybe I won't bother anyway.... my big fear at this point.... what if I ruin her?  Yes, I know our first attempts are supposed to be experimental anyway ... but, I do like my result ...and ... well...    ..

Blog buddies are special

One of my blogging buddies gifted me with what she referred to as "a book on drawing".. imagine my surprise when I opened a parcel to discover this!  Suzi Blu has been of interest to me for a couple of years now..I have watched several of her videos on Youtube and thought about taking this class a few times.  Never got around to it ...

Now, I have it.  There is even a DVD included with the book!

I sketched out a little idea.... after going through the book.

Got a few 5 x 7 canvases... I couldn't find any birch wood pieces like Suzi uses...I will for the next attempt though.  Canvas just doesn't quite work the same .... but, for now...I wanted to give one a try.

I drew and coloured a head.

Glued it on and proceeded to try a bit of colouring.... I did use some watercolours as well as the acrylics Suzi recommended....  it's all a bit of an experiment really when one doesn't actually quite know how supplies will work.....

It's not finished, but still seems a long ways off from this....

I'll be spending some time today adding more colour depth and interest... in between stuffing a little chicken .....and doing some baking.........

here's one for you....

...   a little waif in the Art Doll Quarterly magazine ... one of those sad, kind of slightly creepy things I guess... some folks don't like this sort of thing for sure.... but, in a way I find them kind of cute and sad.

Thought I would give it a try in my simple rendition of drawing with pencil and coloured pencil.. I will eventually try to add a bit of Shiva Paintstick colour to this one, along with a few others....

.....

Today, it's Effie Trinket...

Have you seen Hunger Games movies?  This is a character from those.  I found lots of pictures of her on the net... not too many that are straight on to her face...but, decided to give this one a try...

She usually has even more outlandish lashes than these .... but, here is the original..

... and.....here is my rendition...

I didn't get her eyes round enough, but, I quite like her ...

Hi, it's me....

Quite literally.... this is me.  Well, yes, of course....I've taken total artistic licence ....and liberties.... but, basically, I drew it from a photo of me taken about 8 or more years ago....

I definitely left out the wrinkles.... plenty of 'em.... because, when I think of me I still visualize me just like this...  well, maybe I was never this wrinkle-free ..hahahhah... but, you know what I mean.... and, maybe I got the neck a tad longer and slimmer...and....oh, boy....

Go on.....have a good laugh yourselves..... I'm here for entertainment purposes only.  Actully, that's why my sweetie, Mr. BV,  says he keeps me around.... comic relief.... that, and the muffins, biscotti and other goodies .... the cheek!
   

........................still snowing................

...................so ....................I'm still playing.....

Made this face shorter and rounder and placed the nose, lips, and eyes closer to the centre of the face to have her appear younger .....

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also had a play in the kitchen...with some leftover strawberries from the last batch of Mr. BV's lunch muffins I made.  Last time I was at Safeway, I saw strawberry/white chocolate scones and now...I wanted to try them.  But, the tv was on blaring away the news... all bad...and I wasn't concentrating I guess (on scones that is...) .... so, all of a sudden I realized I hadn't added the sugar to the flour.... rectified it....but, then...just as I popped them in the oven... saw the egg still sitting on the counter... dammit..... and further insult... what the? ...there sat the white chocolate square as well... still wrapped.  Sheeeesh!!!

And, then... even worse, for me ... (not for Mr. BV ) ..he loves overcooked baking.... I turned off the oven while I stirred some soup and began toasting big slabs of home made bread to eat with it...I forgot the scones!   After all that...I can't believe they were even edible...but, they are ...and very tasty too, I might add... even without an egg... how is it possible?  Guess I can bake them that way if I want next time I'm out of eggs....hahahahhaha....less cholesterol!  Bonus.

Look at this crumb... still great...

I prefer them a bit lighter than this ..

'specially on the bottom.... but, ehh..... they're okay....

And, I bet some of you noticed.... white chocolate drizzled on top... I was not going to do without that after I wanted it inside them in the first place.... so, I popped the square in a baggy..... put it in a bowl and poured boiling water on top of it... melted the white square and snipped off a corner of the baggy...and drizzled it on instead.  Lovely....

..... plus... had some ginger/apricot biscotti that I just baked the other day and thought I'd give the last bit a try on a few of those as well... haven't had one dipped in my tea yet....just off to do that now...
wanna join me? ... ....

... and, then?? ...I better do about 40 minutes on the treadmill !!!!

whoops...

My third gal.....

I've done faces before.  When I took a class on face painting for dolls.  I learned it then, ....but totally forgot I guess...hence the reason to refresh a person's little skills and crafts...

.... and, I forgot... finish off the eyes totally before I bother doing any other part of the face really... see what happened here?  I grabbed a Pigma pen for eyelashes... it was a .05 instead of a .005 .... sigh.... and now they are too bulky and can't be fixed.   Oh, well....now, she is either going out on a dark evening... to a dark club...or ... perhaps she is pretending she is an aspiring stage and screen star...hahahhah.....

They aren't even all the same size or direction...I gave up on them after I got them so bulky and not really what I wanted at all...

Oh, well... there are more girls where she came from...........................

more fun drawing some today ....later.....