fabric art journal and collage

i had a wonderful art-filled day on sunday at my monthly art sister meeting up in S.F.  my fellow art sister, vicki, led us in a super creative book making project based on pamela huntington's  gorgeous fabric journals as inspiration.

the inside pages are heavy watercolor paper edged with vintage trims, lace, ribbon and fabric.  it gives the journal such a floofy, girly feeling.  i love it.  i used bright colors because that reflects my tastes, though i tried to stick with a kind of vintage feel.

and this was the last canvas i did for the online class "pages and paint."we made an image transfer onto contact paper using a photo-copied vintage photo.  you can see parts of the collage pieces peeking through the transparant label.  it's not quite finished, needs a little more blending and maybe a few more layers, but i like it!

and then i was inspired to do just plain collage--no paint.  this was inspired by the style and techinques of randel plowman of "a collage a day."  i have admired his work for years and when i saw that he had written a book, i bought it right away.  it is wonderful!  it contains all kinds of fun techniques and tips for making amazing and simple collages.

and just for fun, here is the newest member of our family: vincent (as in the artist, of course)!  he is just a few months old and full of energy--just like my youngest daughter!  they have been running around all day together.  i think they are the perfect match, energy-wise!  we are happy to have another feline friend in the house again.  maybe he'll keep the little one busy while i can sneak away and make some more art! :)

Ww Watermelon

this was the last week of the online workshop "pages and paint."  above is a painting i made based on a sketchbook idea (shown in the previous post).  i had a lot of fun drawing colors, images and textures from the original sketch.  that's a new thing for me.  i usually just go into a project without a clue as to what i'm going to do.  maybe i'll have some color in mind.  but it's nice to have some kind of theme to play with.

just a few more sketchbook pages...playing with color and inspiration (above).

this was the result of a prompt from the course instructor.  she mailed us goodie bags filled with fun little bits and prompts and ideas to get us going on our paintings.  the above was a game where we had to take whatever words she had given us and incorporate them into our sketchbooks or a painting.  my words were: "bubble gum pink, seaside, lines & dots, joy."  and that's what i came up with.

i hope to continue with the sketchbooks. i think they're a great place to play and try out ideas without the pressure of an entire blank canvas.  what kinds of activities do you do before a big project?  do you use an inspiration board?  a sketchbook?  or do you just dive in and see what happens?