Monday, March 25, 2013

a little something

I've been away for a while.  It's not because I don't enjoy my work, it is more because I'm suffering from carpal tunnel.  Well, after a couple of months of physical therapy, wearing a brace at night and just plain resting, my wrist is MUCH improved.  It was bad.  Real bad.  I could barely write.  All I could do was sew on a machine, and that was limited.  I have not been a happy camper (ask my husband) at all!  I am so happy that I can write and draw again and it is pain free!  I still have some numbness is a couple of my fingers and I do need surgery.  In the meantime however, I am back to drawing in my journal and working!  YAY!  

The first thing I am doing is preparing samples for a summer workshop I do with kids.  Yesterday I played around with a technique I learned from my artist friend, Diana Trout.  

A couple of years back I took a class with Diana in bookbinding and was immediately hooked.  Diana is a fantastic teacher and artist.  She is the author of Journal Spilling which I highly recommend.  Diana posted this video of her drawing doodle game on you tube.  I thought this would be such a fun thing for kids to do, so I've taken it in a different direction and created a project out of it. 

 It sort of reminds me of Miro:

so it starts with a line that doesn't cross draw on watercolor paper with sharpie

and ends up like this:


I added little monstery details.  Then painted it with watercolors.  So, this is a little preview of one of the summer projects.  I've enjoyed the ability to create something again.  Now I'm off to work on a painting...I'm giddy with happiness!  Ahhhh...to paint again :)