I did upload two more sketchbook pages today showing what I have been thinking about concerning monkeys, and counting. Maybe a monkey can count the bananas he is eating, and I could show him getting fatter, but where will it go from there? He goes swinging through the trees and works it all off? Not sure I like that idea.
Spent some time today thinking about what I might like to write, and draw about. I drew a little monkey in my sketchbook, and I thought that it might be fun to write and illustrate a story about monkeys. The first thing I thought of was that little song, Ten Little Indian Boys, but instead of Indian boys, make it monkeys. It's kind of simple, and not very original, but for a practice book it might be fine. I don't think I would publish that on Amazon. If I could change it somehow, and make it more of a concept book on counting, then it might be good. This will take time to think out, and then decide on what I want to do.
I did upload two more sketchbook pages today showing what I have been thinking about concerning monkeys, and counting. Maybe a monkey can count the bananas he is eating, and I could show him getting fatter, but where will it go from there? He goes swinging through the trees and works it all off? Not sure I like that idea.
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I finally did the one thing I have needed to do for awhile now. I got a new laptop, and a new all in one printer that is wireless. I have been wanting to do that for some time because my computer that my old scanner is hooked up to doesn't work all that well since it is so old. Basically, that computer is the one that keeps me hooked up to the internet, so I can use my laptop, my kindle and the wireless printer. Because of the problems I have had with that computer, I haven't been able to work on my web page like I have wanted until now.
All of this came about because of one thing that happened. I got an e-mail from CBI (Children's Book Insider). The e-mail was about the release of Amazon's new software, The Kindle Kid Book Creator. When I first read that e-mail, I pushed it off to the side because I thought, 'Oh, I wouldn't know how to do that.' I didn't delete. So it stayed in my e-mail for a while. Then a few weeks later, I get another e-mail from CBI that the creators of CBI are offering a video course on how to create a kids book using the Kindle Kid Book Creator, and I thought, 'Oh, now that's a different thing!' If they can show me how to use it, then I want to try it. Besides, it sounded like fun. Then a few weeks after that, I get another e-mail from CBI about the release of the new Kindle for kids from Amazon. So they are looking for content. My problem is that they are assuming with this software that you already have a story with picture to go. I don't. I have wanted to write and illustrate a picture book for a long time, but I was always afraid that I would get rejected a lot, and I didn't like the idea of spending all that time, and postage on something that may not happen. That turned me off, so I never I never committed anything to paper. This changes things for me. I added a post to my sketchbook page. I noticed that I haven't posted on there since 2012. That is too long to go. I want to do more sketchbook work, post it on the sketchbook page, and then do some other work that is more finished for the main page. That shouldn't be too hard to do.
This is one of the areas I have been having a really hard time with. When I do my art work, I do it and then post it on the main page. I haven't been really writing or blogging about my artwork like I should be.
So, what have I been thinking about? A lot of things. I thought about the efforts I have made to be a better artist over the last couple of years, and the things that seem to work and the things that don't seem to work. Certain web sites that work for me, and the ones that don't. I have been on Drawspace.com, and I thought that would really help me with my art skills, but I just couldn't stand the way drawing is taught on that site. It is too detailed for me. I want my drawings to be fun, and imaginative because if you I am not having fun drawing and painting, then it is going to show in the art work. Mark Kistler's way of drawing is what seems to work the best for me. I can take what I learned from him and shape it into my own ideas. I can sit there with my sketchbook and play around with whatever I am learning until my hand falls off, and still be more pleased with that than trying to do something photo-realistically. Drawing like that works for some people, but not for me. I want to write stories and draw the pictures, but I want it to be fun. I don't want this to be a complete chore. I need to get some sketchbook pages up, and maybe do some actual pieces of art work, and post them on the main page. I suppose those are my goals for now. As I wrote on the main page, I did not get much of my art journal pages uploaded to the webpage. I want a new desktop computer. I wish I had taken my tax refund check and bought a new desktop computer with it.
Beyond all of this, today was an okay day. We aren't celebrating the 4th until Sunday because we had a few people in the family who had to work today, so we are celebrating on Sunday with a cookout at my sister's house. It should be fun. I am going to make the egg salad-as usual. That is my dish that I make for the summer cookouts. It's Mom's reciepe, and there usually isn't much left over for us to bring home if there is anything left over at all. I am going to double up the reciepe this year because my sister asked me to. So, instead of cooking 12 eggs, I am going to be cooking 24 eggs. It will be fun. I'm looking forward to Today was a pretty good day. Dad and I went to the movies this afternoon and saw White House Down. It's a good movie with a lot of action, and a pretty good story line. I liked it.
After we came home and had dinner, I went downstairs into the art studio and did some art journaling. I got two pages done today, but I couldn't post them yet because I used Stickles on one page, and you have to wait a while for that to dry. If you don't, you will have glitter glue all over your scanner. YUCK! Since I didn't have any of my own art work to post today, I wanted to post something, so I added a Dyan Reaveley video to show other people how this kind of art journaling is done. It's one of those things where you can do it the way she shows you, but if something doesn't appeal to you, you can just forget it, and do the next thing. You pick and choose what you like, and what works for you. Each page is a little different. Tomorrow I will have to go out and get my hands on another couple of sticks of collage glue. I'm almost out. I think I am going to get a couple more of Julia Nutting's paper doll stamps because I bought one and I really like it. They also work great with the art journal. And I think I may want to get more Stickles. I need a wider variety of colors than just three :o). Hopefully, I will get my work posted It is easy to see that I didn't get anything downloaded to my page like I wanted. My desktop computer is awefully slow, and I have run my System Mechanic on it, but it is still kind of hard to do anything with it. I will keep working with it, and hopefully I will get somethings posted on the main page.
I did change my theme on the page to something more artistic. I like it a lot better than the old one. I wish I could say that I got some artwork done today, but I didn't because I was out running a bunch of errands. I plan on spending the day downstairs in the studio tomorrow. Then I am going to try to get a post up. When I started the larger painting that is on my main page, I wanted to try two different shades of brown. In the Middle East, everything is basically the color of sand, so I tried the same color paint for the ground around the pyramid in the middle. The only thing I really didn't like about that was that it was the same color as the pyramid, so the pyramid sort of blends into the ground a little. Then I tried a darker brown, and the pyramid stood out more. It might not be correct color- By the time I sat down today to work, I had been thinking about what all I might like to try with this pyramid. So, I sat down at my drawing table and and just did this page. The pyramid in the middle is the one I did first, and I made it a little too wide. I drew some more, and I came up with the other drawings. I tried color, and just black and white. I wanted to see if I could somehow seal the drawings so that the pencil wouldn't smudge, so I used Collage Pauge on the middle pyramid first to see what it would do. It smudged, then I tried to use a little less Collage Pauge on the pyramid with the sun behind it, and it still smudged a little, so I used even less Collage Pauge on the small pyramid over to the right, and I didn't spread it around as much as I did the other two pyramids, and it only smudged a little, but I was able to fix it. If I tried to shade on the Collage Pauge, then the pencil shading would still smudge. Forget the Collage Pauge for this project. This is the first lesson I did from the lesson page at draw3d.com. I did this one about a week ago, and I got busy at work, and I had a few things I had to do this week that kept me from getting more done during the week. But this is where I am starting. This is the Sketchbook I got in the mail today for the Sketchbook Project 2013. I have done two other Sketchbook Projects before this one, and I just finished what I could of a sketchbook for the Limited Edition book that will be coming out in the fall. My first sketchbook for the Sketchbook Project was not as good as I had hoped it would be, but I sent it anyway, and I had fun doing it. The second sketchbook I did was for this year and it should be on tour now. So far, I haven't gotten any e-mails telling me that anyone has seen it yet. But it is just starting the tour, so there will be time. My second sketchbook was way better than the first one I did. Most of that was because the sketchbooks that the Art House Co-Op are making for these projects is better than the Moleskines they were using before. The paper is better, and there is a more realistic amount of paper in the book, so it is easier to actually finish the whole sketchbook. The first sketchbook I did not finish because there were too many pages in the sketchbook, and I didn't have enough time to finish it. The second one I completely finished. The second sketchbook is an underwater theme where I drew cartoon fish, castles, jellyfish, etc.... My drawing style is basically cartoonish. I spent a bunch of time trying to find a way of drawing that I was comfortable with. I did the college courses, and I learned about gesture drawing, contour drawing, and modified contour drawing, and all of those ways of drawing are great, but I get sort of bored when it comes to drawing things from real life. Then one day I found a really cool book on drawing cartoons by Mark Kistler, and I learned that I could draw from my imagination once I new how to draw certain things. Once I got to drawing his way, I started to think up my own ideas for what I had learned. That's when it started to get really fun! That's the way his drawing works. He gives you the basic know how to drawing, and then you run with your own ideas and create your works. It's great! I know there are some people out there who think he is an art teacher for kids, but I think there are a lot of adults out there who find his way of teaching to be perfect for them. Before I started the last sketchbook for the project, I signed up for Mark's online art academy. So I started with the ocean lessons and created fun ideas with what I knew how to draw. Now, this sketchbook is going to be based on Ancient Egypt. The question is, can I fill a whole sketchbook with my own ideas of cartooning Ancient Egypt? I am using his online lessons to learn to draw cartoons based in Ancient Egypt, but then I want to come up with my own ideas for sketchbook pages. Since I work in an elementary school, I get my summers off to work on my artwork, and the Sketchbook Project. I didn't get as much done last summer as I wanted, but I got some of the sketchbook done, and I eventually finished it. I want to do more this summer. We have about two and half weeks of school left for this school year, and then my time will be my own. I am looking forward to this summer. |
MonniemoonI like drawing, painting, and art history, and I love dogs. I am hoping to get busy doing some artwork that I can share with other people. I like a lot of different kinds of music, but metal is my favorite. Archives
September 2017
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