Andrea in Luis' Book ~ Round 5

I forget whose book I'm on!

Collab w/ Ammon - he built the house, I painted it.
I made a mess. The red paint went everywhere, pages stuck together, dogs & cats living together, it was chaos. Then it ended up like this. :o)
My Moleskine Dreamcatcher
Backside of the Spiderweb. This page was also a mess which I repainted black.
Seeing through the dream to the moon...
The moon! Collage piece made by painting a piece of paper through the dreamcatcher.  
And a green moon for Ellen to play with. Been so busy this last two weeks... moved into a real genuine private art studio! Yaaay! I have a table to work on! No more kitchen floor!

PS - This is Balookey's Book! 

In Roma's book - now with Ellen.

This top piece is a collaborative piece with Ammon. All of the rest are my own. This book should now be with Ellen.

In Gretchen's Book

Acrylic and colored pencil. I'm pleased with this one.



I am not pleased with this piece. I keep messing with it but I'm pretty certain I'm going to paint over it. It just looks a mess.

My collab piece with Ammon? Yeah... I made a mess of that as well. My style doesn't seem to know what to do with his style and I get to feeling all awkward trying to somehow complete what he started. I'm sure I will get over it by the time I get my own book back. 

In Mary's Book, which Should now be with Ellen

Acrylic and marker



5 Muses. Colored pencil.



Mandala and collab page for Ellen. Acrylic paint.

confession....

I have THREE books.

I'm so very sorry.

Don't file a missing persons report quite yet.

Waiting Patiently

With my own book mailed out roughly two weeks ago, I wait patiently (eagerly) for a new one to arrive. In the mean time, I created the above piece and listed it on Etsy.

steve's art in ballookey's book + +

Whew, sorry it's been so long since I've participated here. I finally got some work in Ballookey's book and it's ready to send out. I ended up gluing in some of my drawings/paintings after a major messed up attempt at painting on these pages, intended for drawing. So, this was the only way I could fix the situation at hand. I threw a mix CD and a Splotch Monster in your gift pocket as well Ballookey, so I hope you enjoy 'em.  Mary, I also started a drawing for you to collaborate on as well in there! It's been a lot of fun doing round 2 and I wish I could participate in 3, but new responsibilities and priorities have come my way this time around. Thanks to everyone for their wonderful art, inspiration and encouragement. Thanks especially to you Andrea, for getting the ball rolling and keeping it alive!

Biffybeans: Last page in my book, collaboration for Ellen

Well... here goes nothing. Finished my last page in my own book. A collaboration piece left for Ellen. I am trying to decide whether or not to add any decoration to the cover but I will be shipping to Ellen soon. I am still a bit blown away at the prospect of letting this book go and the way in which it will be returned to me in a year's time. With all of the work I've been doing pertaining to personal growth, it just seems like the most perfect exercise at the most perfect time. It also falls into the category of, "If you love something, set it free..."

Biffybeans: Third and Fourth in My Own Book

99.99% of the time I create art without thinking. This means that something started can end up as something else - which is what happened on both of these pieces. When I tried to add some Zinc White acrylic over a Neocolor II mandala, they all smeared.... (Which is how the background tint evolved.) But I didn't care. I grabbed a brush & some black gesso & painted over it and then added white gel pen doodles. 1st layer black gesso, then I pasted in some pretty wrapping paper, tried to do Neocolor mandala in similar colors, white paint, black gesso, then white gel pen. The End.



This girl started out in colored pencil. (You can still see some of it.) I felt like I was "pushing" when I created her. (To me, "pushing" means creating art when I'm not fully present and I usually make a mess.) I filled the background with craft paint, then eventually obscured what I'd started with. The message seemed appropriate. Kind of like the old, "You gotta break some eggs if you want to make an omlette."

1 more piece before I'm ready to ship and it's a collaborative piece for Ellen. When I bought this Folio, I didn't realize there was an actual "Sketchbook" version with 160g paper. I bought a blank journal... which means plenty of pages for people to always work on the right hand side of the page if they choose.

holy smoke..... finally!!!!

safe journeys...

4 Ash

bacon and eggs

Expecting 3, Got 4

A pile of sketchbooks has landed on my doorstep! The Moleskines of Ballookey, Mike & Mary arrived safely in New Hampshire. I just wasted a perfectly good hour ogling them, yes indeedy.

Also enclosed was a sweet little blank sketch-journal, with gold & silver metallic cover art of the Toronto skyline drawn by Ash. Thanks, Ash! It's a lovely way to mark a "fresh start" for all of us :-)

And start I must, as I have my work cut out for me now, HA! The first thing I should do is figure out whose book to do first, so I don't mess up the shipping order. I admit I'm easily confused. I think Ballookey's book is first, then Mike's, then Mary's... did I get that right?

deep sea life in willie's book

Lately I've been more into watercolors and figurative drawings - mostly animals of course. I was inspired and blown away by the work in Willie's Mole, and some of the sea life, including Aya's octopus and Ellen's two-page spread really inspired me to try some too. Being into things that are freaky and monstery, I went for the stuff that lives miles below the ocean's surface, and learned a lot in the process. That's what I love about these exchanges and drawing in general - they inspire me and cause me to want to learn about things I might otherwise know little about. Anyhow, it was an adjustment, working back in the smaller Mole again, being I've been spoiled by working in my newer A4 watercolor book, which I love to pieces. Still, it was kind of cool trying to draw so small again. I hope to get this journal out into the mail ASAP.

hen house

in Heidi's book.

octopus

in the mail :)

bird house

for Aya

prints - woohoo!

Hey guys! So, I decided to get some prints made of some pages from this Moleskine exchange (Ash's book), as well as from some in Aya's. Yesterday I got four from a company called Artscow. My wife told me about a deal they had recently, so I thought I'd give it a go and see what they were all about. My expectations were low-to-average, however, I'm happy to say the results were far from it! The quality of paper, the crisp image, the vivid color - I was even more pleased than with Imagekind, which says a lot. Anyhow, I will be putting these all up for sale at my Etsy shop this week. The giant tortoise is the first to go up! The prints are all 14" x 11" and will be in a limited run of twenty, signed and numbered by yours truly. Twenty-five bucks per print is a fair enough price, considering the cost of getting them made, mailing them, as well as the time and labor involved. So, stay tuned for more this week. I'll definitely be selling more prints of this kind very soon as well. Anyway, hope you like 'em (and sorry for the shameless self-prommotion).

steve's work in ash's book

Finally, I finished working in Ash's book! Spring is a busy busy time at work/school, so it was good to find some time here and there to add to these drawings (sometimes working in the book while my students were working on their art, which doesn't always work out!). I based my animal drawings on some photos I took where I live in Leesburg, Virginia. I used watered down acrylics and Pigma Micron pens for those four. The bottom one was a fun little collab done with Ellen. Anyhow, this sucker goes in the mail tomorrow to you Mary. So sorry for the delay!