I was notified by F&W Media (North Light Publishing) that they published Zen Doodle Coloring Book this past month and included some of my artwork in it! I do not know which Zen Doodles they included, as I have not yet received my complimentary copy. But it is exciting that my work has been published in another book.
This coloring book is built of lovely Zentangle®-inspired art and coloring in these inspiring and unique designs will help you relax and relieve stress. You'll clear your mind, you'll have fun, and you might even have a pretty piece of art to frame when you're finished! Find more than 100 Zen Doodle illustrations selected from some of North Light's bestselling titles, including Zen Doodle: Oodles of Doodles, and Zen Doodle: Tons of Tangles.
If you would like to buy a copy of the book, please order through my blog, so that I receive renumeration. You can click on the link in the right-side column to order your copy.
Also, North Light is offering the book as part of a coloring kit. It includes the Zen Doodle Coloring Book, the Zen Doodle Summer 2015 Workshop (a book that has great ideas, easy techniques, and step-by-step projects for your doodling, as well as techniques for shading, adding drama with dimension, incorporating color, and drawing eye catching patterns), and a 5-pen marker set of Earth Tones Chameleon Color Tones. These color-changing alcohol-based markers will change the way you doodle! You can change the tone of your marker from very light or no tone at all, to a deep vibrant shade. This unique transition enables you to add great depth to your art and is especially suited for Zen Doodling! You'll have the ability to create stunning effects including smooth transitions, highlighting, shading, gradations, and blending, all with one pen. The 5-pack Earth Tones set includes these colors: Spring Meadow, Bark, Seville Orange, Hot Cocoa, and Olive Green. If you would rather buy the kit, you can click the appropriate link on the right-side column.
Thank you for your support and encouragement!
Keep creating!
Lynnita
Wednesday, July 8, 2015
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!!
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 24 - Weekly Art Challenge - Faces
This week I continued working with Jane Davenport's Drawing and Painting Beautiful Faces, This week the exercise worked with "latitude and longitude". Davenport treated her simple faces (or Draw Happy faces) as globes with latitude and longitude lines. Using these as guidelines makes it easier to draw faces that are tilted, rather than looking straight on. These are my results, with the "globe" I used as a guideline in the lower right-hand corner.
3/4 view - 4"x 4", Pencil on mixed-media paper. |
Tilted up, 3/4 view - 4" x 4" - Pencil on mixed-media paper |
Tilted down-3/4 view - 4" x 4" - Pencil on mixed-media paper. |
Tilted up - 4" x 4" - Pencil on mixed-media paper. |
These has been an eye-opening experience for me. I had never thought of thinking of the faces as a globe and using latitude and longitude lines to determine the placement of the facial features. Even though these are fairly rough sketches, I learned much creating these. The next section of the book starts working on the details of facial features. It's exciting to think I can start getting a fairly realistic looking face without working directly from a photograph.
Keep creating!!
Lynnita
Week 23 - Weekly Art Challenge - Blended Photos
I blended photos this week using my favorite photo-editing app, Pixlr, to create these compositions (except for the first one).
I enjoy exploring photography editing with the Pixlr app. I love to see what I can create!
Keep creating!
Lynnita
This photo is the brick work of our walkway beside our driveway, covered in Mesquite tree flowers and leaves. This is one of the original photos I used to create the blended photos this week. |
I used filters in Pixlr Express to create this collage of the brick work. |
My friend, Lynn, took this photo of wood in their barn. |
I blended the original brick work photo with the barn wood photos.I added a green overlay. I think this would make a wonderful fabric for quilting or a background for mixed-media artwork. |
I enjoy exploring photography editing with the Pixlr app. I love to see what I can create!
Keep creating!
Lynnita
Week 22 - Weekly Art Challenge - Cactus photography
I'm still trying to catch up on my weekly art challenge posts. I'm at week 22. An online art group I belong challenged us to take photos of something close by. I chose to photograph the cactus garden in our front yard.
I'm trying to improve my photography and composition skills. Digital cameras are a god-send, since I can take as many photos as I desire without worrying about film and developing costs!
Keep creating!!
Lynnita
New growth from old. The texture the dying cactus arm captured my imagination. |
The main trunk of the cereus cactus died, but new branches have sprouted. |
The red cacti fruit contrasts nicely against the green branches. |
Water trapped on petals of a Wandering Jew plant. |
The bright green of the philodendron contrasts nicely with the dark purple Wandering Jew and it's delicate pale lavender flower. |
I'm trying to improve my photography and composition skills. Digital cameras are a god-send, since I can take as many photos as I desire without worrying about film and developing costs!
Keep creating!!
Lynnita
Friday, June 26, 2015
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 |
Mom and Dad - 20" x 16", oil on canvas |
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
Week 20 - Weekly Art Challenge - Faces
For this Weekly Art Challenge, I worked on the next exercise in Jane Davenport's Drawing and Painting Beautiful Faces. (See previous posts here). Jane described drawing and shading spheres; then explained how the face can be represented by spheres to help create dimension with shading. Working with the "Draw Happy" faces, she added spheres for the cheeks, nose, chin and lips. These are the two faces I did in this style.
"Baby face" - 4" x 4" - charcoal and 0.005 black Sakura micron pen on mixed-media paper. |
"Young girl" - 4" x 4", charcoal and 0.005 black Sakura micron pen on mixed-media paper. |
I'm enjoying Jane's book and learning more about how to draw faces. However, for me, it's tough to get a good face without a photograph.
Keep creating!
Lynnita
Wednesday, June 24, 2015
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. |
I enjoyed my trip thoroughly. It was very creative and productive!!
Keep creating!
Lynnita
Week 19 - Weekly Art Challenge - Patt Blair Retreat
I'll be trying to post the last few weeks art challenges in the next few days. I'm running behind due to computer issues and life (especially babysitting three grandchildren that range from infant to toddlers!)
For the last three years, I've been attending a quilt retreat in May with Patt Blair at Vina de Lestonnac in Temecula, CA. It's an awesome time, with many of the same people returning each year. So it's more like catching up with old friends who all enjoy the creative process as much as I do! These are a couple of bird quilts that Patt showed.
I didn't take as many photos as in past years (see posts here). I really enjoy the Vina de Lestonnac's grounds. They are beautifully manicured with many roses and other flowers, bushes, trees, and grape vines. They are located close to several wineries and horse ranches. Love the country!
I mainly worked on my project (plus it rained the first two days!). Patt teaches wholecloth painting on fabric with Tsukineko inks and how to quilt the resulting painting. I enjoy portraits, which I have done in colored pencils and oils. I had never used Tsukineko inks for portraits and wanted to pick Patt's brain on how to accomplish this. I combined a couple photos of my 4 month old granddaughter and am adding fairy wings to her.I didn't get finished, but will show what I have completed so far.
I did figure out how I'm going to do her hair by practicing on a scrap piece of fabric. It came out great. Can't wait to add it, once I get the background color painted. I also plan to add beads and crystal to the fairy wings.
Keep creating!
Lynnita
For the last three years, I've been attending a quilt retreat in May with Patt Blair at Vina de Lestonnac in Temecula, CA. It's an awesome time, with many of the same people returning each year. So it's more like catching up with old friends who all enjoy the creative process as much as I do! These are a couple of bird quilts that Patt showed.
Another bird quilted and painted by Patt. |
This is a small bird quilt that Patt painted. I love the detail and the quilting Patt chose. She is such an accomplished artist. |
I didn't take as many photos as in past years (see posts here). I really enjoy the Vina de Lestonnac's grounds. They are beautifully manicured with many roses and other flowers, bushes, trees, and grape vines. They are located close to several wineries and horse ranches. Love the country!
One of the beautiful rose plants in the garden. |
The rabbits are cute and often out in the early morning and evening. They will pose for photos if one doesn't move too quickly. |
Looking out over the neighboring winery and country. |
I mainly worked on my project (plus it rained the first two days!). Patt teaches wholecloth painting on fabric with Tsukineko inks and how to quilt the resulting painting. I enjoy portraits, which I have done in colored pencils and oils. I had never used Tsukineko inks for portraits and wanted to pick Patt's brain on how to accomplish this. I combined a couple photos of my 4 month old granddaughter and am adding fairy wings to her.I didn't get finished, but will show what I have completed so far.
In progress painting of granddaughter. Still have more work to do on her eyes and hair. Need to add background color and wings, too. |
Keep creating!
Lynnita
May ATC Challenge - Tea Party
I'm running really behind in posting on my blog. Between my computer acting up, my granddaughter getting her first illness (which was scary with the heart defect - she is fine now!), going out of town, and just life in general, time has gotten away from me!
At any rate, May's ATC Challenge, hosted by Blue Twig Studio, was Tea Party. I made two cards. The first was a collage.
I found a free clip art with a picture of this vintage teapot. I drew and painted it using Derwent watercolor pencils. I'm a Little Teapot was one of my favorite nursery rhymes as a child. I taped two 2 1/2" x 3 1/2" cards together with Washi tape featuring music. I painted the background blue with Derwent watercolor pencils and wrote out the I'm a Little Teapot nursery rhyme. The "I'm a Little Teapot" ATC card opens up like a tiny book, featuring the nursery rhyme inside.
At any rate, May's ATC Challenge, hosted by Blue Twig Studio, was Tea Party. I made two cards. The first was a collage.
Can You Lend Your Ear? ATC Card, 2 1/2" x 3 1/2". Collage on multimedia paper.
I layered the background with Dylusions Spray Inks through a couple of stencils. Then I added a photo of a tea cup with a fairy peeking around a column under the moonlight that I cut from a fantasy magazine, adding steam to the cup with a micron pen. Finally, I added a piece of Washi tape with a teapot that says, "I'm just very lucky. Can you lend your ear for a while?"
The second ATC card was from a favorite nursery rhyme:
I'm a Little Teapot. ATC Card, 2 1/2" x 3 1/2", Watercolor pencils on multimedia paper. |
Saturday, May 9, 2015
Week 18 - Weekly Art Challenge - Blended Photos
These weeks seem to be going by quickly with having our daughter, her boyfriend, and our granddaughter living with us! I'd rather hold Lydia and care for her than do much of anything else!! She's so adorable, tiny, and a good baby. Also, I'm the taxi to take her to all her doctor appointments of which she has several due to the congenital heart defect. Making time for art can be daunting sometimes!
This week, I played on my tablet some more blending photos with the Pixlr Express app that I've mentioned in previous posts.
I'm still learning much about blending photos in the Pixlr Express app. I've made some blended photos that I did not save as they look terrible, but it's fun to experiment and find what I like and don't like. It's helping with me understand composition and design better, too.
Keep creating!
Lynnita
This week, I played on my tablet some more blending photos with the Pixlr Express app that I've mentioned in previous posts.
Floral Garden Sunset. I blended a floral garden ZIA that I created (see post dated Mar 12, 2015) with a sunset photo I had taken a year ago. This is the "difference" blending. I added some doodle stickers to complete the photo. I like how the garden color changed when blended with the sunset. |
Floral Chickens. I blended a photo of two of our Americauna chickens with a flower photo I took in California last year. I like how the color of the flowers affected the chickens coloring! |
I'm still learning much about blending photos in the Pixlr Express app. I've made some blended photos that I did not save as they look terrible, but it's fun to experiment and find what I like and don't like. It's helping with me understand composition and design better, too.
Keep creating!
Lynnita
Friday, May 8, 2015
Blue Twig Studio - April Product Review and Projects
This month, I received a package of Twinkling H2Os by Luminarte for review for Blue Twig Studio. I had heard a lot of great comments about these from friends the last few months and had been wanting to try them, but couldn't justify buying yet another type of paint. Therefore, I was very excited when I received these for my April product review!!
Product:
Twinkling H2Os are highly pigmented, light fast, lusciously luminescent mica-infused watercolors. The H2Os are non-toxic and archival safe. The amount of water used determines if the color is opaque, translucent or transparent. This set contained 12 jars of H2Os, along with a free spritz bottle. The colors in my set included: poppy, rose gold, persimmon, mango mamba, mustard green, autumn butternut, black cherry, plum crazy, blue zircon, sweet alfalfa, cedar wood, and pearl red.
(Note: my spritz bottle arrived with a crack starting at the spritzer and running a third of the way around the spritz head. Needless to say, it didn't work very well as a spritzer, but was still able to use it as clean water. I could spritz, if I didn't mind water spraying )
The watercolor comes as a solid hard-pan cake. When you open the desired jars, the colors can be "woke up" by spraying the surface of the paint cakes. Directions state: after allowing the water to soak in for 3-5 minutes, mist the jars a second time and wait a couple more minutes. The paint begins to soften and it easily mixes into a creamy texture when dipping a paintbrush in it. I actually had to wait about 10 minutes and I used a toothpick to mix the paint. The Twinkling H2Os can be used for painting freehand, creating color washes, to color inside the lines of a drawing or rubber stamped image, or to apply to a rubber stamp before stamping with it.
Projects:
For my project, I was initially going to paint an 8"x10" canvas. I painted an abstract background and then planned to use a large 8 1/2" x 11" Crazy Lace stamp by Kari McKnight-Holbrook (see Blue Twig Studio large stamps) with black acrylic paint to create an overall design on the abstract background. Unfortunately, my black paint didn't stay wet enough by the time I got the whole stamp coated and did not print well on my canvas. Therefore, I scrapped this project. I'll try to salvage it for some other project in the future.
In interest of time, I chose to create several tags that can be used as gift tags, bookmarks, labels, luggage tags, and so on. My daughter joined me and made tags, as well. Following are the results. Besides brushes, a palette knife, and a freezer paper palette, I used Derwent watercolor pencils, black Sakura micron pens, and Pico Embellishers to accent the tags.
Product:
Twinkling H2Os are highly pigmented, light fast, lusciously luminescent mica-infused watercolors. The H2Os are non-toxic and archival safe. The amount of water used determines if the color is opaque, translucent or transparent. This set contained 12 jars of H2Os, along with a free spritz bottle. The colors in my set included: poppy, rose gold, persimmon, mango mamba, mustard green, autumn butternut, black cherry, plum crazy, blue zircon, sweet alfalfa, cedar wood, and pearl red.
(Note: my spritz bottle arrived with a crack starting at the spritzer and running a third of the way around the spritz head. Needless to say, it didn't work very well as a spritzer, but was still able to use it as clean water. I could spritz, if I didn't mind water spraying )
Twinkling H2Os by Luminarte |
Open jars of Twinkling H2Os. Colors listed on cap to right of paint jar. |
Color chart for Twinkling H2Os. |
Projects:
Pico Embellisher in irRESISTible Neon colors. |
In interest of time, I chose to create several tags that can be used as gift tags, bookmarks, labels, luggage tags, and so on. My daughter joined me and made tags, as well. Following are the results. Besides brushes, a palette knife, and a freezer paper palette, I used Derwent watercolor pencils, black Sakura micron pens, and Pico Embellishers to accent the tags.
Music Tag, 2 3/4" x 5 1/5", Twinkling H2Os and black Sakura micron pen on watercolor paper. I created an abstract background by brushing swirls of colors onto the tag. I used plum crazy, blue zircon, sweet alfalfa, and persimmon paints.Some of the paints I left opaque and others I thinned with water for more transparency (can't see this well in photo). I sprinkled salt on the wet paint. However, once dry, the salt didn't come off easily, so some was left in place. The salt created some texture in the plum crazy and persimmon colors, but not as much as I had hoped for. I used a 0.02 black Sakura micron pen to draw in music staffs and notes, as well as a saying by Oliver Wendell Holmes, "Most of us go to the grave with our music still inside us.". I found this in the book Creative is a Verb by Patti Digh, which I am reading for book club for April, May and June (see my review for chapters 1-3 here). This saying really struck a chord with me, so I had to put it on a tag. (Painted by Lynnita.) |
Luggage Tag, 2 3/4" x 5 1/5", Twinkling H2Os on fabric. Using pieces of Tim Holtz's Electric Elements fabrics leftover from the Nov 2014 Fabric club kit reviewed Dec 1, 2014,I cut small pieces of the fabric and enhanced the print with the Twinkling H2O paints in several of the colors. Once the paint dried, I heat set it. I stitched a collage of the fabric for the front of the luggage tag. I finished the edge with a piece of fuzzy, multicolor, eyelash yarn. The hand of the fabric stayed soft for the luggage tag front. (Painted by Lynnita.) |
Product Review:
I thoroughly enjoyed working with the paints - they are bright, luminescent and easy to use. I was able to reactivate the paints that dried on the freezer paper palette even after 30 minutes. This was awesome to find out! This ability to reactivate allowed my daughter to fix mistakes in a couple of her tags that she thought were lost causes. This also allows mixing the paints to create new colors, knowing that I won't waste paint from it drying out too fast.
The paints work well with both stencils and stamps, although you want to use stamps that are deeply etched, have thick, wide lines, bold graphics, and/or large surface areas. Avoid stamps with shallow tiny detail lines. These do not work very well. When using stencils, be sure the paints are not extremely wet, so they do not bleed under the stencil. Also a small brush can be used to paint in small stencil openings.
I have one negative comment. It was stated that the paint needs to be dry before closing the jars. Even in the 'dry' Arizona heat, the paints were still wet after 2 1/2 hours. I closed them, anyway, as I was ready to sleep by 1:00 am. When I checked them the next day, all the paints were still wet, paint had gotten on the lids making it difficult to open a couple of them, and two of them had actually leaked. So I left them open again.It still took another 2-3 hours before they were fully dry and I could close them. This will create a challenge for me to use them, as I do not have a dedicated work space at the moment and cannot leave opened jars of paint out where grandchildren could get a hold of them.
I hope you enjoyed this review and will consider using these wonderful, sparkling watercolors! They are worth buying, even if you have many other paints!
Keep creating!
Lynnita
The paints work well with both stencils and stamps, although you want to use stamps that are deeply etched, have thick, wide lines, bold graphics, and/or large surface areas. Avoid stamps with shallow tiny detail lines. These do not work very well. When using stencils, be sure the paints are not extremely wet, so they do not bleed under the stencil. Also a small brush can be used to paint in small stencil openings.
I have one negative comment. It was stated that the paint needs to be dry before closing the jars. Even in the 'dry' Arizona heat, the paints were still wet after 2 1/2 hours. I closed them, anyway, as I was ready to sleep by 1:00 am. When I checked them the next day, all the paints were still wet, paint had gotten on the lids making it difficult to open a couple of them, and two of them had actually leaked. So I left them open again.It still took another 2-3 hours before they were fully dry and I could close them. This will create a challenge for me to use them, as I do not have a dedicated work space at the moment and cannot leave opened jars of paint out where grandchildren could get a hold of them.
I hope you enjoyed this review and will consider using these wonderful, sparkling watercolors! They are worth buying, even if you have many other paints!
Keep creating!
Lynnita
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