Round 3: "What if Everything I told you was True?"

"What if Everything I told you was True?"
Golden "Open" acrylics
in round 3 Moleskine
click image to view larger

I did this on one of the blank pages in my round 3 Moleskine sketchbook.  I bought some open acrylics and thought I should experiment in my own Mole rather than Mike's, in case I screwed it up.  The first thing I did was lay down cobalt blue, red and yellow and blend them, then painted the forest scene over that--it is almost entirely painted with the primary colors, with just a little white and black added at the end.  (I only bought 3 tubes of paint to try out.)  The "open" acrylics are supposed to stay workable significantly longer.)

I am thinking of the scene as something from dream shamanism.

Round 3: Walking on Eggs (in Mary's Mole)

Walking on Eggs, acrylics and pencil

Walking on Eggs, Acrylics and pencil, Round 3--still have a lot of round 3 pages to complete.  I'm going to write more about this later.

Garrett's Broken Arm

Garrett's Broken Arm
acrylic on water color paper
in Round 3 Moleskine
click image to view larger.

This is my latest painting in my round 3 returned Moleskine.  It is an illustration from a serial novel in progress, Discovery at Little Hog Island.  It's an adult novel, in spite of the fact that these are children, but I may also use the illustration if I ever finish it, for a children's novel. I know it's imperfect, and I may work on it more later, but I have to quit for now.

There are a LOT of empty pages in the Moleskine, which is a water color Moleskine, so I don't understand why.

In Ammon's: Calling Home from Elba

Calling Home from Elba
005 micron pen and watercolors
on coated 5 x 8 Paper

This is another one for the "Virtual Paintout" where the topic for February is Elba. Here's the google streetview from which I painted the picture:

One for Ballookey's pocket round 3 and one for Hennie round 2

I finally got another set of the Sakura Gelly Roll Pens I ordered a while back, and since they were new to me, I was eager to try them, but since I don't have a mole, I decided to make cards. These are cards with envelopes, Strathmore Drawing cards, my first time trying them, too.

The Chrysanthemums will be for Ballookey's pocket--I think it is Ballookey's book I get next, and the mandala, which is called, "What if all of Creation were in the hands of an unsteady Goddess?" is for Hennie Mavis. The shown colors aren't quite right. Close, but no cigar.

Pens from Andrea

I got some new pens from Andrea--0h goodie--for participating in her collaboration challenge on Something Different. I love those blue energels. I doodled a little doodle first in the back of my Round ONE Mole--which still has some blank pages. Once I got a feel for them, I did a collaborative piece for Ammon. I have one more piece to do in Andrea's Mole, sorry it's taking so long--but it's a good thing I did not take the mole with me, because we got POURED ON camping and everything got soaked!!!! These came out in the wrong order. The collaboration is on top. The doodle to try out the pens is on the bottom. Both images enlarge if you click on them. The doodle enlarges to bigger than it is in real life, at least on my screen.

By the way, the collaborative piece is intended for Ammon, but if anyone else would like to play, I'd love to see what you might do with this. I am having fun fantasizing what Ammon might do. I will send ONE handmade art card to ONE person who does a collab with this piece. If more than one person does, I will use a random number generator to pick someone. No strings attached.

And here is another pocket item for Andrea:

It is a sketch I made separately, since I didn't know how many pages in the mole I should use. I made it with a pencil from Andrea. Seemed fitting.

Andrea's Mole comes to visit Mary via Gretchen, Roma and Mike

YAY! I have a moley again--it just arrived a little while ago!!! What a wonderful treat to see all the glorious artwork IN PERSON--it's so beautiful in the flesh--or--in the paper and ink etc. I'm afraid my photos do not do it justice!!!!

I couldn't take it outside to photograph as I often do--because it is POURING RAIN!!!

Speaking of rain, we are STILL digging out from the mess created by two floods, but we are slowly regaining some portion of normality. Still, I may need a full month to complete the moley.

You can click on this image to see it bigger. I did not choose what pictures went where, it was done randomly by Picasa. If I have time, I may post more because there was so much to enjoy. One that is not well-represented in this collage is Roma's Vietnam post, which was wonderful. I was trying to get the words so they could be read, but it didn't work out. Go here to revisit.

Mike's Round 3 Mole Arrives!!!

Two days ago, I think, Mike's round 2 mole arrived. I now have three moles, two from round 3 (Roma's and Mike's) and one from round 2 (Mike's).

As usual, this mole is a GREAT PLEASURE to see in person. I loved seeing all the beautiful work in it.

Click the image to view it somewhat larger.

Lotus Meditation for Lost Souls, 3rd in Roma's

This is done in Faber-Castell PITT Artist brush pens, pens, pencils, colored pencils. The second is the two-page spread. It wouldn't fit on my scanner so I took a snap. Sorry about the reflections. Image size increases slightly when clicked upon.

Blood from a Stone, pocket items

The first one is a sort of continued collaboration with Steve Loya. I loved his splotch monster so much, that is, my version of it, posted here, that I made a second one with the Virginia character on the top, turned the other way. I gave her a whip and a flower. The painting is water color and unfortunately, I made it way too big to fit in a pocket, so I made two small prints, one for Mike, and one for Roma.

The second one is for mike, for his pocket, in his round 2 mole.

I have two moles at my house now, Roma's round 3 and Mike's from round 2. I am currently working on a piece in Roma's which I had hoped to finish last night but was thwarted by my own slowness. Click images to view larger.

Celebrate Celebrate! YAY I got a moley in the mail

Woohoo! Spring has come and a new Moley has arrived, Roma's has arrived from Gretchen, Round 3, and it's here in time to travel to Texas with me, though my schedule is pretty busy. Maybe I can work on the plane coming and going. Click image to view larger. I was trying to showoff my forsythias and daffy down dillies that just opened today. But the forsythia in particular doesn't show up too well.

Self Portrait on Indian in Gretchen's

I was inspired by Andrea's portrait of me in my motorcycle gear to do a self portrait on an Indian. In 1964-65 (I'm giving away my age here, if you didn't already know it), I owned a 1949 Indian. This is not it, but an older one I used for the art. I have, believe it or not, NO pictures of that amazing motorcycle. But I had fun--on the bike(s) and on the art. I did the piece in metallic markers, but you can't tell in the scan.

In Gretchen's pocket, with apologies to Aya

I was up a good part of the night with insomnia and made several art pieces, always a bad idea to work when I am tired and without references. But in spite of all that, I liked this piece enough to make a small print for Gretchen's pocket.

It's called "Crash and Burn."

Self-portrait Time

Lately I've wanted to paint myself. By way of background, I hate seeing photos of myself. I'm always putting my hand in front of my face when someone tries to take a photo of me. And when I see the image, I think to myself, Is that how I look? Really??

So I have this idea that if I paint myself over and over, I'll overcome the disconnect I feel whenever I see a picture of myself. That's my theory anyway.

This weekend I worked on another self-portrait for my third Moleskine piece in my own book. Oddly, it started out kind of looking like me but the more I worked on it the more it ended up looking like an elderly woman that owned a card shop where I worked when I was about 13.

Taking Aya's cue (of photographing herself with her journal) I snapped a shot of me next to my self-portrait. The good news is I don't look like Mrs. Kinney--yet. The bad news is, I'm still not so good at doing my self-portrait. :)

We got Snow in our Boots (Round 3)

"We got snow in our boots."

Water color and water color blocker (masking fluid). No gouache. (click image to view larger.)

This is the piece whose sketch I ruined and had to do over. I did it without references--I do better with references, but my computer was unavailable.

(At least I am feeling a little better today.)

But we ran anyway

"But we ran anyway," page two of an imaginary kids' story. Watercolor. I did the snowflakes and flying snow with both masking fluid and gouache.

Click image to view larger. (The scan isn't great either.)

I am still sick. :-(

Why I should never paint or do art when I am sick (or without sleep, as sickness tends to leave me):

• I made a lot of stupid mistakes. :-(
• I kept leaving the water color palette open when I wasn't using it and then setting my hand or arm or the Mole in it. :-(
• I worked really hard on a sketch for the next piece and then proceeded to totally ruin it beyond redemption so I have to start all over again.

Luckily, this is my own Mole (round 3), hope things improve before the next one.

It was not a good day to run away

First round 3 painting, in my A4 landscape watercolor mole. Watercolor and gouache (snowflakes). Being up with insomnia (and being sick) is probably not the best time to paint--tired! Woozy! Didn't sketch first or look at any references, just painted. Prolly should have not painted the kids dead center. Oh well. Click image to view larger.