Testing. Testing. 1. 2. 3.

Middle: first test on a thin slab of  faux wood veneer with black acrylic. Right: dark wood veneer with guilders paste. Left: translucent clay with acrylic and alcohol inks. In all three I used that tool you can see in the picture to scrape away some of the paint/ink to bring out the hi lights. In the translucent test, I even painted alcohol inks on the back to add more color dimension. It really worked!

Close up. Edged with Gilder’s Paste

Not really sure where I’m going with this experiment. Yet. It really has a nice depth (that the camera just can’t capture). Something cameo-esque maybe? Anyhoo was fun to play.

With the light shining through

Jungle!

The smaller one on the right incorporates a small clay snake that Jessie made for me. Can’t wait to wear it! Not sure what I’m gonna do with the rest of the leaves though. LOL!

Inspired by history

The idea came from Jessie’s history lesson today. Saw the illustration of the Great Serpent Mound in Ohio and thought it would make a great fit for this week’s challenge.

Turned out my polymer clay projects box to find something to sand. Ummm yeah. Lots of that. LOL!

Goodness!

Most of them need a good sanding. And then to be made into something. Or sold as loose beads… bead sets… something. I’m running out ta room!

Raw Sketchbook Assignment 1

Wow! January flew by. I’m glad though. January is usually a stressful month.

Goal-wise things went very well. Stretching and karate are becoming good habits. Budgeting is… well I’m working on it and getting better. Yearbook is the same. I’m still trying to come up with a good focus topic for the year (dunno why but I keep going there) and “planning” keeps popping up. Maybe that’s it. I’m sure doing a lot of it!

Homeschool-wise things are well planned. Though I keep staying up too late obsessing researching until it feels right. Or until I find it within budget range. One night while obsessing researching about geography (considering winging it on my own) I sorta had an ephphany. Or rather a “duh” moment. Epiphany sounds too dressed up for someone who spends so much time in sweats. Anyway. The one subject I should be doing from scratch is ART. O.O Duh. We often have not gotten to art cuz I’m obsessing on creating other subjects from scratch. So no more of that! If I can buy an outline or curriculum for another subject, I will. But art… that I’ll create!

Next school year we’re going to be doing art/sketch journals with prompts through out the year. With friends even! Got the idea from this resource. And I might pull in some of Millande’s exercises too. Then at the end of the year maybe we can have a journal party.

Speaking of next school year, I’ve put up what we’re going to be using on the Our Homeschooling page. It isn’t all there yet but its close to being done.

Oh! I posted a bit about this yesterday but those who want an in-depth investigation into their own artistic style… Millande.com has an online course (free!). She’s a homeschooling mom too! I’ve been working on this and am pretty excited. I’ve never felt like I had a developed artistic style. In doing some of the exercises (gathering works I like) I’m already seeing a pattern for the surreal and the detailed. And flying things. The first surprised me. A surrealist?! Me?!! Mebbe.

Okay. Time to publish this baby. I think I’ve rewritten it 3 times now. Keep getting distracted or wandering off. Every time I got back to it I had forgotten where I was going. LOL!

Edited to add: Of course I just realized that I am creating a half-credit intro to psychology course for Sam. Or trying anyway. Just not finding something that seems workable or that is affordable.  It is a passive interest for him and he needs another half-credit for electives. If you have any suggestions, I’m all ears! Right now I’m looking at using About.com’s Psychology 101 as a basis. The twitter feed has a term of the week, history bites, influential people in the field. Thinking maybe part of the course has him following it and harvesting that info for a binder of sorts.

But without further ado… here’s how this week looked for CED 3. (be sure to click that link to see what other artists have been up to)

Sunday: Done!

Monday: first zendala

Tuesday: still working on it

Wednesday: CAPI Assignment: Raw sketches

Thursday: CAPI Assignment: Raw sketches

Friday: CAPI Assignment: Raw sketches

Saturday: CAPI Assignment: Raw sketches