Summer Fun on the Books

Hello everyone!
This post is bittersweet for me.  I love that I can join in one more week over at Butterfly Effect,  the theme is BOOKS....
....but, I'm going to miss you sooooo very much!

You see, we are leaving for our annual camping excursion tomorrow....so, I'm going to be disconnected and unplugged from CyberWorld for a while.  Please don't do anything too exciting while I'm gone!  Then, again, it will be fun to catch up with all of you upon my return.

Plus, I'll get to subject you all to lots (and lots...heehee) of pictures ;-P

We look forward to being together, enjoying the great outdoors and getting away from the heat of the Summer every year.

I love trees, always have...and one of my most favorite things about camping where we do.

I was thinking about them at sunset when I tried coating book pages in black acrylic paint and smooshing (such a technical term, I know...haha) them together to see how the image would transfer to the other side.  The answer....

Not very well...but interesting to try.

Maggie was so intrigued by the whole notion of painting inside books...she wanted to join in.

This is her tree, complete with grass, sky, flowers, the 3 of us....and the words, "I love my family" :)

I also just played around with a quick face and lots of bubble wrap stamping....

Maggie told me her next page represented her room...and how we switched the blue, dark space into a bright and happy place for her. (You can read about that transformation HERE)

She added glitter as the last layer, which is hard to see here, but really does make the whole page sparkle.  I  was smiling to myself thinking how easily she grasps the whole concept of expression.  Proud Mama moment :)

Well, I guess that's it for now....

Need to finish cleaning the house and packing up the pantry items...so, I better go, but I'll most definately be thinking about you!

Sandy toes and Adventure awaits!

See you Mid July!

Yep, you read that right!

Enough hugs to last you,

Cam

Blind Giraffes - Lesson 2

Okay, so the giraffes aren't really blind in Lesson 2, but instead, are blind contour drawings...

To jog your memory of what a blind contour drawing is....you spend your time looking only at your subject and not at your paper while slowly moving your pencil/pen in unison with your eyes.  You are supposed to use one continuous line to draw your subject.

It was hard to fight the urge to look down and "correct" myself....but it's a cool feeling to have your drawing be revealed to you in all it's wiggly, askew and sometimes scary glory and think "Hey, that's not half bad "  :)

The book author does say it's okay to lift your pencil to begin the interior details...which I did for the eyes above.....but, I didn't look while I was drawing them....I swear!  That head on the top left is my favorite.

I started enjoying the transformations...so I tried a couple more.

I cranked up the contrast on this so the lines would stand out a bit more.

Barn Owl

Penguin Chicks

Squirrel

Every time I see that squirrel drawing I hear Gollum in my head saying, "My Precioussss"....haha!!

I told you they sometimes turn out scary :)

But I hope you give this Lesson a try.  I learned to slow down my pace, to really take the time to notice all the curves and details (even if they didn't register on the drawings) and to be open to the end result without expecting too much from it. This allowed me to be pleasantly surprised rather than miserably disappointed :)

Please link up here to share your adventures in blind contour drawing!

Can't wait to see what your blind animals look like :)

Hugs,

Cameron

Cats, But Not in Bed - Lesson #1

Helloooo Bloggy Friends!!

I had mentioned last post that I was going to try to tackle this book.

I can't tell you how thrilled I am that so many of you accepted my invitation to dive in and play along!

My intention is to have this be an ongoing project that anyone can join and link their lessons up to.

I need to figure out how to do it (Mr Linky and adding categories is new to me), but I want to have this on my sidebar so we can keep track of everyone's progress :)

So, thank you so much for the great excuse to learn a few new tricks in the real world and the Bloggy one!

Lesson one is all about drawing cats.  You're supposed to draw them while lying in bed....I didn't do that part....cuz once I get in bed, I sleep....I wouldn't be able to keep my eyes open, let alone hold a pencil....haha!

They are supposed to be out of your imagination....and the instructions say to make your lines "simple and expressive".  I told you I had trouble with letting go of details.  These were the first 3 attempts.

Then I did these.

I started looking at her examples and applying that feeling to my drawings a bit more....

Then, I realized I was supposed to be using a pen....oops...

....promptly switch utensils...aaaaand....

This page came about.

I was numbering them to keep track of how they were flowing.  Maggie wanted to write the numbers for me...and after that got boring, she did her own cats...

These just make me smile!

She even numbered hers, too :)

I finished up with one last cat....in alien superhero colors...

....just to try to loosen up and be ridiculous...

I've got a long way to go....haha!

Please link up your posts as you complete the lessons!

This will be for Lesson 1.

I'm going to shoot for a lesson a week.

I'm hoping you can still link if these are accessed from the sidebar *crossing fingers*

We shall soon see!

Can't wait to see what you do with this book!

Remember Me?

So, I try to get back here often....I really do!
I always feel so good when I have a new post under my belt.  I'll be sailing on wonderful visits and delightful comments for a few days.....then a few more days will pass....and I'll keep saying that I need to put a new post up....then a few more days go by....and I start feeling stressed and rushed....it couldn't have been a whole week already, I never finished (fill in the blank) to share!

Well, that's just the way it goes ;P
I don't have as much as I'd like to show you, but, things start to get even busier starting tomorrow....so I hope it will suffice until next week.

It's been pretty warm around here for Winter.....has me thinking of vacation, which gets me excited about Glass Beach....which, in turn, makes me realize I need to make more hair clips :)

It's almost therapeutic sifting and searching through all my found bits of glass and shell....putting them together to make little pieces of wearable art.

I say "almost therapeutic" because while it is relaxing to my brain, my neck protests ;)

Being able to find the perfect way to use those extra special finds is gratifying, though.  I've hoarded them long enough...haha!  That mussel shell above is gorgeous in person.

These are among my favorite colors to find on the beach.....like solidified water droplets.....they almost glow in the sunlight...

See, only 4 new clips....not much.....but, it's something.  I'm working on other things, really!  Like my submissions for Stampington....getting close to done on that whole process....

...and....Lisa from the Wright Stuff and I have decided to do the lessons from this book together every week or so....

Haven't started yet....

Soon, very soon!

Do you have this book, too?

Do you wanna join us?

It looks really fun....loose and playful....

I get so hung up on details and have trouble being loose like this.  I think it will be good for me...for us...

C'mon....play along if you can :D

Oh, and if you are on Skype, let's totally set up some crafty Playdates!!

Hope your February is already starting out wonderfully!

Hugs to you all,

Cam