Week 25 - Weekly Art Challenge - Old Paintings

I'm going to post a couple of paintings that I did some time ago for this week's challenge. Babysitting grandchildren keeps me busy and leaves me exhausted, so I do not have as much time for creating as I would like to. Also, since I'm behind due to life and computer problems, this is an easy way for me to work on catching up with where I am supposed to be (I believe on Week 27 - so I'm getting there!) Thank you for your patience!!

Grandchildren - 14" x 20" colored pencil on hot press illustration board. I drew this for my mother-in-law of all her grandchildren. The seven older children had spontaneously posed themselves for a photo that I used for the drawing. I added the 2nd youngest working from a photo of her standing against her grandfather. Before I had the painting completed, the youngest grandchild was born. I rearranged the arms and had one of the girls hold the baby. It was fun to have everyone ask me how I managed to get all nine grandchildren posed at the same time!

Grandparents - 11"x14" unframed colored pencil drawing on hot-press illustration board. I worked from a photo of my grandparents taken when my grandfather turned 90 years old. Unfortunately, my grandmother passed away the following month. I painted this for my grandfather as a surprise. I had never seen him cry, until he unwrapped this painting. I am so glad that I made this for him. 

Carrie, 11"x 14" unframed hot press illustration board, double-matted and framed (14" x 20"). This is a black and white colored pencil commission that I did for my husband's cousin. He surprised his wife for her birthday with it.

I enjoy working with colored pencils. They blend nicely and can be layered many times. They are transparent, so layering adds a richness that is hard to achieve with paints. I love the challenge portraits bring. However, I would like to improve drawing portraits without working from photos. 

Keep creating!

Lynnita

Week 21 - Weekly Art Challenge - Other Artwork

For Week 21, I didn't get anything new completed to post. So I'm posting a couple pieces that I finished some time ago. 

Dad's Hunting Dog - 20" x 16", oil on canvas

 This is an oil painting I did for my father-in-law of one of his favorite hunting dogs that he lost too early. He was very pleased and it hangs in the dining room of his home.

Mom and Dad - 20" x 16", oil on canvas

I painted this portrait of my parents from a photo I took of them when they stayed with me in Florida one year while I had surgery. My parents had fun figuring out when I photographed them in the clothing they are wearing, as they couldn't remember having any such outfits! I had to laugh and tell them it's artistic license! (Mom is an artist, so she should have guessed this!). Dad had a white T-shirt with a wild print on, so I painted it as yellow. Mom wore a bright, printed button-down shirt. I painted a plain blue jacket over her brightly-colored top. They were very surprised with the gift and it has a prominent location in their home, overlooking photos of the rest of the family.

I no longer work in oils very much, as the smell bothers me more and I'm starting to react to the oils if I get them on my hands for any length of time. It's a shame, as they are easy to work with and so forgiving if a mistake is made!  However, water-soluble oils are now available. I don't know if I would react the same to these, since I wouldn't have to work with solvents. I might have to give them a try.

Keep creating!
Lynnita

Trip to CA

This year when attending the quilt retreat (see previous post), I flew in and out of San Diego, instead of driving. My sweet cousin, Betsy, picked me up and took me to the retreat and then came back for me on Monday and took me to the airport. We had some time to spare before I had to go to the airport, so we went to Seaport Village along the marina in San Diego. It has a lot of little touristy type shops and eateries. It was a fun place to walk along the water.

Seaport Village sign. Didn't realize till I got home and looked at
photos, that I didn't have a photo of Betsy! 

Navy ship across the bay at the shipyard.

Duck swimming in pond located in the center of the shopping area.

There were about 4 of these birds sleeping in this tree by the pond,
where the ducks were swimming. Not sure what kind of birds they are.

This bird had just woken up and I was able to get a shot of his face. They're about 2 feet tall and appear to be in the heron family, but have never seen anything like them.

There were several children playing by the marina and a few flying kites. This one
 stood out in the beautiful blue sky. There happened to be a kite shop close by in the village.

The kite shop had several of these mobiles - birds, ducks, flying pigs, elephants, giraffes. They were darling and I had to get one to hang by our front door in memory of my time with Betsy. She's a wonderful person and cousin!

I enjoyed my trip thoroughly. It was very creative and productive!!

Keep creating!

Lynnita

Week 6 - Weekly Art Challenge - Blended Photos

I'm late posting my Week 6 art challenge. I'm hoping life will return to a normal routine soon. We finally got to bring our granddaughter home from the hospital on Wed, after spending her first 2 1/2 weeks of life in the neonatal ICU at the hospital. She was a preemie - born a month early. She's doing well now and steals the hearts of everyone who has seen her. The nurses and doctors were wonderful! We are working on a signature quilt for her - the medical staff were so happy to sign a block for her. Waiting on a few more people to finish their blocks, but I'll post a photo of the quilt when it's finished.

With spending so much time at the hospital, I didn't get to do any painting, so worked on blended photos on my tablet. I focused on blending photos of my grandchildren with nature scenes that I had taken. I'm still learning what all I can do with the photo-editing program, Pixlr.   

Photo of a foggy winter morning in Ohio highlighting a bare tree, blended with a closeup of our new granddaughter's face. A heart overlay was added. The face is difficult to see after the blending, but I like the overall effect.

An Arizona sunset with a starry night overlay blended with the same photo of our new granddaughter's face. A border of swirls was overlayed. This blended photo makes me think of her dreaming of  all the possibilities for her life - "the skies the limit"! 

Photo of a palmetto leave taken at a quilt retreat in CA last year blended with a photo of our 9-month old grandson. Added an overlay of  'xoxo' and a border of a key variation. He looks cute peeking through the individual leaves.

Some of my photos came out interesting and some not so good, but it's fun to try to blend very different photos, as well as similar photos. I like the various effects that can be created by blending photos. I still have much to learn, but it sparks my creativity. Eventually, I'd like to print some of the blended photos to use in mixed-media artwork and some to turn into quilts. I have more exploring to do before first!

Keep creating!

Lynnita

  

Quilt for Naomi for her 100th Birthday!

This past week has been crazy!! I was asked to make a quilt for a dear friend's 100th birthday. It all started by saying that I knew how to put photos on fabric!! That got me saying "Yes" I can make the quilt, too!!!

For Naomi, "No" just isn't in my vocabulary! She has been a dear friend (like a grandmother) to me for almost 15 years now. How could I possibly say No? The quilt would be from the Mesa Q-Bee's, the quilting group at our church, the Mesa Church of Christ of which I've been a member since it was started. Naomi has been a member for many years. With a backing fabric to start, I went through our church stash for fabric for the top - I had decided to do a scrappy Log Cabin quilt with the photos as the center of each block.

Top completed. Auditioning fabrics for borders and binding.

I got the photos about 10 days ago. After going to a friend's to scan the photos, I  worked on editing them, cleaning them up, and getting them ready for printing. Running to JoAnn's on Thursday (Aug 28) for more printer fabric (since I didn't have enough) I finished printing the photos on Saturday. I spent the weekend designing the quilt in EQ7 (Electric Quilt version 7) - a program for designing quilts.  This helped me decided on the photo placement, the block size, and the colors for the quilt top. Sunday I ironed and cut fabric (at least most of the fabric). Monday and Tuesday, I sewed most of the 12" Log Cabin blocks. I occasionally cut more fabric as I didn't have the color I needed or enough variety to keep the quilt very scrappy.  I finished the blocks on Wednesday, sewed them together, and added a flange and a border. Thursday (Sept 4 now - 2 more days to go!), TR helped me spray-baste the quilt and I started quilting it at church during our quilting group. Naomi didn't even notice what I was working on! LOL! Everyone else thought the quilt was beautiful! I finished quilting it that evening. I stitched a square feather wreath in each block around the photo. I also quilted a feather motif in the border. Friday, I sewed the binding completely by machine and created a label on the computer and attached it to the quilt! Whew!! It was finished with hours to spare!! I finished it on Naomi's 100th birthday! I couldn't have planned that!! I even was able to go to bed at 10:30 pm (most nights this past week, I didn't go to bed to 1 am or so!).

The Mesa Q-Bee's celebrating Naomi's 100th Birthday. Log Cabin quilt  42" x 54".

The back of the quilt showing a feather wreath around each block.
The border also has a feather motif.

Close up of label containing a photo of Naomi counting the number of quilts we were donating that day to New Leaf, a local charity that passes the quilts to the people in their battered women shelters, boy's home, and homeless shelters. The label says "The Mesa Q-Bee's in celebration of the 100th birthday of Naomi, September 5, 1914 -2014.  The past and present members of the Mesa Q-Bee's at Mesa Church of Christ with a list of 37 names. Designed, pieced, and quilted by Lynnita Knoch, Chandler AZ, September 5, 2014."   

Giving the quilt to Naomi at her 100th birthday party celebration! The current members of the Mesa Q-Bee's are standing around Naomi. She is very surprised and shocked. She got tears in her eyes when she realized that the center of the blocks were photos from various Q-Bee events.

Naomi is examining the label of the quilt. She laughed at it being a picture of her counting quilts. 

Naomi taking a closer look at the photos, recalling the various events. 

It was a special day for a very special lady!! I'm glad to have had the privilege to make this quilt for her. She deserves it! I wish I had known how to quilt while my grandmother was alive. I would've loved to make quilts with her, like I have with Naomi and I would've loved to have made a special quilt for my own grandmother, like I have for Naomi.

Enjoy the quilt, Naomi!! It was created with much love!!

Week 28 of 365 Days of Art Challenge

It's been an exciting week and has kept me busy enough that I didn't get this posted yesterday as planned. My daughter came over yesterday to tell me she was pregnant!! It's her first! So she's very excited, but nervous, too.

On to the 365 Days of Art Challenge - Week 28! Time just keeps marching forward! I did some more digital art this week. I worked with my Paper Camera app that I mentioned in last week's post (Week 27 of the 365 Days of Art Challenge).  I chose a photo that I took of my 2-yr old grandson playing the piano and then used the different effects available in Paper Camera to show the features of the app. 

This is my original photo - a vignette of my grandson singing while playing a small electric piano. I had planned to use a flower image, but the photo of my grandson shows off the various effects better.  

Vignette of 2 year old grandson singing while playing electric piano.
I originally edited this photo using Photoshop Elements. 

 Following are the 14 effects available in the Paper Camera app. There are various choices in each effect (background, brightness, colors, contrast, edges, foreground, lines, saturation, quantization, shine, slickness, strokes, water, vignette)  that can be manipulated to change the final outcome of the photo. Paper Camera can take a photo to work from or use a photo already on your tablet to create digital art. I thin this app creates some interesting effects to use in digital art.

I tried to put these in a video format. The preview worked great, but every time I then saved the final version, the program would crash. The company said it's a bug in the program and they are working on it. Hopefully next time I have so many photos (especially of a series), I can put them in a video!  

Acquarello produces a watercolor effect. 

Andy Pop is reminiscent of Andy Warhol's work.

Bleaching washes out the colors.

Comic Boom creates a comic book look.

Contour creates a monotone drawing. The color can be changed. 

Gotham Noir creates a rich black and white image.

Granny's Paper produces a sepia-toned image.

Half Ton creates a dot matrix effect in color. 

Haystacks is reminiscent of pointillism (creating an image using dots of color).

Neon Cola creates an effect like a neon sign - bright, bold colors against the dark night. 

Old Printer - The image appears to have been created on an old dot matrix printer.
You probably need to be over 40 to remember the old dot matrix printers. Lol!
(I'm certainly dating myself since I remember using these printers!)  

Pastel Perfect gives the soft effect of pastels.

Pen and Ink produces a blue monotone image.

Sketch Up produces a pencil or charcoal- like drawing of the image. 

Thank you for checking out all the effects that Paper Camera can create with me. 

Keep creating!!

Week 27 of 365 Days of Art Challenge

View of dust storm heading our direction (coming

west) Photo taken from backyard. The opaque 

cloud that can be seen over the tree tops and

roofs is the dust storm. The trees and roofs give

an idea of how high the dust cloud is. Blue sky 

can still be seen above this cloud of dust.

It's been a hot muggy week here in AZ. We officially started our monsoon season with a huge dust storm last weekend. Visibility was reduced to 0 in some areas. I went outside to check on the chickens and could see a wall of dust coming our way quickly! By the time I got my husband to help me round up the chickens to enclose for safety, they had already gathered in their nesting box and we were able to just close it. They are smarter than I give them credit for!! The storm hit just then. Hard to see with keeping my head down and eyes covered (still got dust and dirt in them!). Wish we had gotten rain with the storm!

View of dust storm heading our way from front yard (coming up from the south).  The dust storm looks bigger from the front yard. The wind was strong enough to topple huge trees in the neighborhood.  

I played on my tablet this week with two photo-editing apps. One is Pixlr Express, which I use frequently to touch up pictures. This app also allows me to combine photos, add text, texture, stickers, etc. to photos as well. It's fun to experiment with. The above photos of the dust storm are edited in Pixlr Express to help emphasize the dust clouds.  

The other app I enjoy using on my tablet for editing photos is Paper Camera  because of the choice of effects that can be used to make photos look like drawings or paintings. The following photos are ones I edited in Paper Camera. 

My Jack Russell Terrier, Abu, is 15 years old. He loves to sleep on his pillows all day, except to take a walk or to eat people food or a doggie treat! I love the Sketch Up effect in Paper Camera. This photo really looks like a sketch, even though I've not picked up a pencil at all! This is my sketch for this week! Lol!!

With this photo of seed pod on a cactus in our front yard, I used the Neon Cola effect of Paper Camera.

It creates bold outlines of the various colors in the photo and puts them on a dark background. 

Photo of my daughter edited in Paper Camera using the Haystack effect. The Haystack
effect transforms the photo to look like it's been painted using pointillism (tiny dots of color). 

A photo I took in Sedona last fall. I used Paper Camera's Acquarello effect. This

makes the photo look like a watercolor (albeit a paint-by-number watercolor! Lol!).

This is another photo from Sedona. I used Paper Camera's Andy Pop effect to create a tiled
image in the style of Andy Warhol. The number of rows and columns can be changed. 

This is another photo I took in Sedona last fall. This is the Pastel Perfect effect to make the photo look like it's been painted in pastels. I like this effect, but wish it were a bit lighter and brighter. 

This time I used the Gotham Noir effect from Paper Camera with the same photo
as above. Gotham Noir creates rich black and white images of photos. 

I hope you enjoyed the various effects of the Paper Camera app. These are only half the effects available in Paper Camera. There are a several other styles in Paper Camera that I did not show today, like Comic Boom (I believe this is suppose to give a comic book like effect), Old Printer (black and white dots like the old printers use to do), Contours (looks more like a charcoal drawing with outlines), Bleaching (the photos is outlined with the colors faded), Half Ton (similar to the Old Printer but in color), Granny's Paper (sepia toned), and Pen and Paper (photos is done in shades of blue).  I'll create photos using those effects and post them in another blog.

Made it through another week! Keep being creative!!

Week 25 of 365 Days of Art Challenge

This week has been a challenge. Spent the beginning of the week at the hospital helping my daughter-in-law with our two grandsons. She called late Sunday night with news that my 2-year old grandson was in the emergency room, as he had managed to cut off the end of his finger My husband and I got dressed and went to the hospital, so I could watch the baby (6-weeks old)  in the waiting room, that way she could go back with our son and grandson in the room where he was being treated. A hand-surgeon was called in to perform surgery at 11pm that night to re-attach the end of the finger. He was moved to pediatric ICU. Unfortunately, the re-attachment didn't take. But doctors said it was iffy as there was only a couple tiny blood vessels to try to get blood flow to the whole tip. They had to do a second surgery Tuesday morning to remove it and then the doctors made a cap for his finger. He was able to go home later that day!

He was quite the trooper!! On Monday, he showed me the opposite hand with the pulse-ox monitor (that glowed red with a tiny light) and asked me to kiss it as it was his "owie". So cute!! But at least that meant his finger that was injured didn't hurt! He certainly made out with getting several larger cars, a car track that included a dinosaur, and a set of matchbox cars to play with in his crib and take home with him!

While he was sleeping, I sketched a picture of him. It isn't quite right, but it does capture his chubby cheeks, lips and nose.  His forehead needs some work. He looked so sweet and angelic sleeping! My daughter commented, "It looks like his arm is in a cast. I thought he just injured his finger.". His arm was completely bandaged up to his elbow! Can't expect a 2-year old to leave a bandaged finger alone! The doctors sent him home bandaged up to his elbow, with just his thumb sticking out. His thumb has a smiley face on it, so it's his happy thumb! He's adorable!!  He's running around at home with his usual, exuberant energy!

Pencil on mixed-media paper.  Two-year old grandson sleeping in the crib in pediatric ICU with
his hand and arm bandaged after loosing the end of his index finger accidentally. What an angel! 

Thank you for putting up with "Grandma" carrying on this week about her grandson's crisis!  I even managed to get a sketch done, too!!  

Have a great week!

Week 21 of 365 Days of Art Challenge

Another week done!! I can hardly believe how fast the year is going - it's almost half over! Where has the time gone??

Once I returned from the retreat, I was busy helping my daughter-in-law with 3 sick children and a newborn, helping another friend who is closing her quilt store after almost 14 years, and giving 3 demo's on Zentangles for a local quilt guild.  Rather than sketching this week, I decided to play with some of the photos I have taken recently. I have an a photo-editing app called Pixlr Express on my tablet that I enjoy using to edit photos. It doesn't do everything that Photoshop Elements does, but I find it much easier to use.

My first photo is a collage I created of my 2-year old grandson. He was playing a small electric piano and just having fun singing and dancing when he didn't think he was being observed - three of the photos in the collage reflect this. The other two photos are from two weeks ago, when his baby brother was born.

2-year old grandson playing the piano and taking a photo of his new baby brother. He has such cute expressions! Now if I can figure out how to blur the edges of the photos and make it look seamless... That's for another day!

These next photos are flowers and succulents I took on the Vina de Lestonnac grounds at the quilt retreat.

Combined two yellow flowers into one. I placed the center of the flowers close
to each other and highlighted the dark center surrounding the daisy-like flower. 

These are the two flowers that I combined into one photo. One is a daisy-like bloom on ground cover plants. The other is a yellow lily. 

Combined two succulents, one green and one red, aligning their similar centers. 

These are the original photos of the two succulents. I love the texture that appears when combined into one photo. I want to play more with this and see what else I can do.

I also took the photo of the red succulent and added doodles with the app to make it look like a Zentangle. It didn't turn out as well as I would have liked, as my stylus battery died, so I had to use my finger to draw. I saved it anyway and had planned to post it along with these photos. When I re-opened it to copy it to my computer, the doodling wasn't saved as I had drawn it - it was all over the place with half of the doodles missing! I was disappointed with this. Not sure if I did something wrong or it's a glitch in the app.  I will try again when I can use my stylus.

Thanks for stopping by.