Thanksgiving Cards

I made some thanksgiving cards last week during one of my dizzy days that I thought were pretty fun. The problem with making a variety of cards instead of the same design for all means that I can never decide who should get what card. Not the worst problem ever, I suppose. And...I realize now that I only took a picture of my turkey one. I did a bunch of other ones with strips of paper woven together to make bright fall trees. It was all a fun experiment.

Gobble Gobble.

Yardsale project

We're pretty much all moved in! We got a lot of our furniture today and will get some chairs over the weekend so we can stop sitting in camping chairs. It's all coming together slowly. We've also been hunting yardsales for a few things we've been missing. Mostly for small desks, lamps, and end tables.

I did find a lamp at one yard sale but decided to try and spruce up the 70s vibe. I painted the shade with some of my parents leftover chalk paint to cover up the orange/brown. It seemed to work fairly well even though I think I watered down the paint too much and it warped the paper a bit. It also got slightly crushed on the way here from Petitcodiac. I'm not sure how much light it would've originally let through but with the paint added on, it's not a very bright or useful lamp so we may invest in a new shade afterall.

Our 70s corner in full force.

Artwork to leave behind.

I was gifted a watercolour pencil book awhile I was in the hospital and have been going through it to learn a bit on how to use the pencils to do more than Christmas cards and abstract drawings.

While packing this week, I threw out my practice sketches but took some pictures so I can remember them.

One of the lessons was grass and bark with a practice deer eye

When I was tired of practicing from the book, I drew a giant chicken because it's fun.

Trees are also a good thing to pratice.

Also, not related to the water colour book, I have been working my own version of the 'shed party' by Adam Young (his work is amazingly colourful and playful). I haven't had time to finish it and am not going to move it home but will probably try another version once we're back in Springhill. 

Mittens

I finished the thumbs on my mittens. They look a little funny and triangular but they are crazy warm and functional so I'm happy. I realized when I started putting them together when I decreased the number of stitches from the pattern, I forgot to decrease the number of stitches for the thumb itself. As a result, the thumbs would have been giant if I made them the proper size. The problem with that is that I didn't have enough yarn left for giant thumbs hence the triangular shape as I had to shrink them down pretty quickly. I think the second attempt (one on right) turned out slightly better.

First pair of successfully knitted mittens!

The long wrists will be fantastic for the cold.

Knitting a scarf!

Since my friend Cheryl's visit, I've been back to knitting. She taught me a few things about making mittens and working with the circular needles which made me excited to start knitting again. It also helped that since I was too nauseous to look at a computer screen or focus on a book, I could knit away while listening to mindless history podcasts.

So I made an infinity scarf! I'm very proud on how it turned out. It's my first ever 'bigger than a dishcloth' piece. I somehow managed to twist it with the circular needles but that doesn't matter so much with a scarf. Amy said I should tell everyone I did it intentionally. It's the latest thing in the scarf world!

I dampened the wool in an attempt to stretch it out slightly as it kept rolling into a tube.

Modelling my newest winter scarf! Bring on the cold weather!

Stormy Skies painting

I made this landscape scene the other day when I wasn't feeling overly upbeat. I thought that I could paint the blues away. It seemed to work a bit as I definitely felt better afterward. I think my emotions definitly came through in my colour choices. I used the watercolour pencils, I'm definitely getting better at blending them to make different shades and effects.

Halloween cards!

I spent yesterday listening to podcasts and making some Halloween cards. I think festive cards need to extend to other holidays and not just around December. Everyone loves getting cards!

This years theme is apparently is orange and bats. Although to be fair, that is probably the theme of most Halloween cards. The bats extended to the envelopes as well. While not as spooky as last year's ones, they still scream Halloween. I honestly really like bats, I think they're kind of adorable and they eat all our mosquitoes. We should really be doing more to save them from that white nose syndrome that's wiping them all out. What else do we have that can eat half its body weight in insects every day? I don't think pigeons are going to be volunteering any time soon as they chow down on our garbage and french fries. 

They're Spooktacular! And yes, I made that joke all day about everything.

Bat envelopes potraying how bats drink nectar from a flower. I guess slightly less informative when each person only gets one card each. 

Look how cute he is with his face full of pollen. He looks like he's about to sneeze.

Rooster painting

It seems like my new physio days are now Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. Except I have to go to the dreaded 8am slot tomorrow as lately it seems like I spend every Tuesday afternoon hanging out at St. Micheals.

So in lieu of exercising today, I dusted off my "Chinese brush painting kit" and painted a rooster. I think he turned out pretty well and is now guarding the fridge from intruders.

Kayak Pic

I took a break from reading this week and finally finished my kayak picture that I had started over a month ago. I had it all drawn out and coloured but never took the time to paint it in for some reason.

It's Dad kayaking down the Petty river in the Spring, based on a picture. I eliminated a lot of the background trees in the picture as they were all grey and I don't have a grey water colour pencil. I've tried using the black lightly and it works okay if it's splotchy but I wasn't confident how it would work trees. I guess that is the limitation of the watercolour pencils.

Sharpie Pointillism

I haven't had much time to do any new watercolour paintings but I have been doing some more of the sharpie pointillism pictures. They are fun to do as I don't feel I need to complete the entire thing in one block of time. I've been spending more time out on the terrace and it's easier to take out my book and sharpie than trying to set up paints outside. It also helps that if I mess up an area, I just add some more dots.

I was trying for a 'balloons dispersing into the sky' effect. 

Dancing Sheds

Happy Birthday Amy!! Thanks for being the best sister ever.

Here is a drawing I made with her in mind as she loves the artist from Young Studios that paints funky sheds and houses from Newfoundland. I coloured it in with the 5 pencil crayons that I own.

Lighthouse Painting

Here is a lighthouse pic I did awhile ago. I thought I would share it before I went out for sushi tonight. Yum!

More cards

My card supply has been diminishing so I spent yesterday working on rebuilding my stock. Not a very exciting way to spend a long weekend but definitely relaxing. I'm still not up for much more than a relaxing day doing arty things. I can't believe how long this cold has taken over my life. It's amazing/terrifying how slow my recovery time is now. What would take anyone else 4 or 5 days to get over, seems drag on and on into weeks. Urg. But the upside is that I made some pretty cards!

I recycled some of the beautiful cards that people have sent me as I can't stand throwing them out but I have no room to store them all. I really like how the gecko series turned out.

Scenic cards.

I haven't been drawing as much lately but I have been playing around with watercolour landscapes to make for cards. The beach scene was for a friends wedding card (whose wedding was today, congrats Mark and Carina!!! I wish I could have been there). The first version ended up looking like there was a serious storm brewing as the blue was much darker than I anticipated. So I added some stars to turn it into a night scene which is much more cheerful. The second version is much more representative of a beautiful Caribbean day.

 

Happy Easter!!

Happy Easter all! I hope everyone gets to spend quality time with their family and/or friends enjoying delicious food and chocolate. We have three Easter meals planned this weekend so no need to worry about us being lonely and hungry here in Toronto. This morning, the Easter bunny hid what was left of the chocolate eggs around the apartment (suspiciously after Isaiah got up) for me to find. I wonder how many forgotten ones we will find over the next few weeks.

Sketches of Trail

There was sadly no pottery class last night, I guess because of the Easter holiday? The instructor didn't know why as the museum is still open and she doesn't have the day off.
So instead of pottery class,  I watched old movies and practiced my shading/sketching. I've done a few sketches of my sister's dog, Trail, so I tried to fix them up a bit last night. Trail has super fine hair so I find it hard to get the shading right.


 

Jellyfish drawing.

I haven't done much over the weekend but I did manage to draw this jellyfish while watching a few Harry Potter movies. I've been playing around with pointillism-type drawing and I think it turned out really well, even though Isaiah claims that its tentacle things look weird. I think that is because the jellyfish is weird to start.

I hope everyone in the Maritimes is having a good stormy weekend! It was sunny and above freezing here!

Jellyfish at the aquarium!

Giant fish painting

My 'Art Mondays' seem to be going by the wayside for the past few weeks as my physio time has been switched from 1030am to 1pm. Instead of doing arty things, I end up just sleeping in and by the time I get home from physio I seem to find other non-art things to do. So, art Tuesday or Thursday is becoming a thing instead.

On Tuesday,  I returned to the Chinese brush painting determined to try something a bit more detailed than a tiger or rabbit. I opted for the 'bird on a branch' picture and it went okay at first until it said to use thinner paint, meaning more water. Something between the way I was painting and the paper provided made everything looked blotchy and wasn't blending together. The leaves looked a very sickly and the bird had a crazy eye thing happening (I did not take a picture as I did not want to remember the experience). In the end, I got super frustrated and gave up. I will try it again on different paper.

After that, I painted a giant fish and it made me feel better.

Sunset pic

As you probably noticed, I really like sunsets. I like taking pictures of them and turns out I enjoy painting them as well.

Sunset over Paros from the island of Naxos in Greece.

Spring is officially here!

Happy Spring! Even though I've declared it several times this month, spring is officially here. Yay! I'm just going to ignore the flurries outside.

I'm been feeling kind of blah the last few days. I'm not sure why as I don't feel like I'm getting sick and everything seemed fine at physio yesterday. I just feel unmotivated to do anything. Like I want to lay on the couch and watch mindless TV for the afternoon. So that is what I've been doing. I've been on a horrible sleep cycle the last week and I think maybe it has caught up with me. I have to get back on track!

To celebrate Spring, here is a piece I did last week of the tulips Mom bought at St. Jacobs. I used watercolour pencils so I'm not sure if I get to call it 'painting' since I coloured everything in and then used water and paintbrushes afterward. The flowers are on their last leg (I haven't had the heart to chuck them yet) so it is nice to remember when they didn't look as sickly.

Spring flowers!