Day 2 (L. Doctor) -- Value

Day 2 was a bit more tricky than Day 1, but still so much fun!

Day 2 was about Value. We were to make varying shades of blue watercolor, and also use a writing tool found in nature. I did not have anything from nature to use, so I just used one of my new W&N pointed brushes. A bit hard, but not bad.

  

We started out with the lightest shade (pretty much just water), then added more color as we went down the column (actually, the first 2 columns are more toward the bottom, so scroll! *But i'm showing these first, as they look nicer.)

We then did more columns using other tools, and incorporating scale. *The left column is my original and the Right is where i touched it up.

Left to Right:  1) pointed brush & w/c, 2) Clear Glaze gel pen then used w/c over (you can see I did darker values at the top & bottom, creating a somewhat gradation), 3) grey Posca, trying to increase the lettering at the bottom (bigger), then brushed over in grey at the bottom; 4) alternating between connected caps and our own handwriting (fine pt black pen)

I then added more effects as I did for the practice sheets on Day 1 (filling in neg. spaces, outlining, etc.)

Fun!

close up. I struggled with my left column in slightly increasing the blue. (See? Tricky!)\

another close up. Fun how the ink bleeds. I also added w/c ink to the Posca column, to rep. more value.

These are the original 1st run practice columns.

Not bad, but hard to letter with my brush.

Since I didn't like them, I decided to paint over and add my own lettering/ musings /prose of "what is healing?"

Top:  I scratched in the word, "healing" while still wet, then when dry, added some lettering with 2 Glaze pens. After all dried, I added this velum overlay, again using a light blue Glaze gel.

You can see the words here. I don't like the smaller ones done with the Glaze pen, as they conflict with the big word (but that's also representative of scale!)

Bottom part:

Using the same light blue Glaze, I lettered my thoughts on healing. I love how it fades upward, almost rising (representing healing to me).

On its side, I added "healing is..." with metallic ink and pp.

I love how these turned out and glad I decided to paint over them!

Then, my final piece, mixing both scale & value, while also depicting MY Value in regard to healing.

I wanted the bottom part darker, but it was hard to letter with watercolor. Wish I had used India ink, but I could always go back and redo.

Close up.

It says, "i was here. this was me. I yearned to be heard, to be seen. I would ROAR to be noticed. But I was still small. i then started to HEAL, and found my VOICE. i will continue to do so but now i know i do not have to be so LOUD."

On a roll... (L. Doctor inspo)

I got SO many ideas from just Day 1 of Laurie's class! I did another sectioned piece I'll share later, but for now, here are 4 separate strips of paper i combined for one of my poems (entitled "Nature Glimmers").

I have a lot of scrap strips I don't know what to do with, but have been saving them, as I see so many cool collage pieces online, and I have no idea how to piece together (but NOW i do!)  😁 Yay!

My poem includes nature glimmers for each season, so I took strips that I thought represented them best (color-wise). I also tried using fonts/hands that would represent each season the best. Not sure I did that for all, as I was too excited, so some may get redone in the future. (But I gotta say, i LOVE the winter one...more on that below.)

Close up of spring and summer.

For spring, I tried using fun lettering to exude the excitement of warmer temps, and the new greenery of everything. Summer was bright colors, also to depict heat, while fun too (with neons).

Close up of Fall/Winter.

*I still have to color in the leaf (AND not sure where or how I'll paste.)

For fall i used brush lettering and jewel tones, then for Winter, this lovely blue-gray paper that had markings already on it. I decided on pointed pen and metallic ink.

The winter piece was a scrap of paper testing white inks. I thought the strokes were perfect to represent winter at times. I also added dots of glitter glue for accents.

Not liking the bottom part as much, as I used a grey extra-fine point Posca, and it blends in too much. But that also represents the dreary grey of winter.

(I would post my entire poem on here, but I'm not ready to share yet. Maybe someday!) 😉

Laurie Doctor's Class (Day 1)

Hello!! (to whoever may follow and actually read this blog of mine!) 😁(and thank you if you do!)

It's been a short while since I've updated, as although I do have things to share, nothing that stands out right now. PLUS, the main reason I haven't been posting, is that I've really gotten into my writing this past month.

It started in late 2022, and this year, I've really been at it, writing 2 books, one of which was a small tribute to my paternal Grandma (less than 100 pages). I wanted to record all the memories I have of her/with her, writing them as stories. This then lead to another book I'm currently working on, of which I've already written nearly 30 chapters.

I'm also continuing with my poetry here & there too.

It's been SO much fun! So much so, that my art kind of took a back seat to it all. However, now I'm taking a bit of a break from that, as I missed creating with my lettering, etc.

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Back in May, i bought Laurie Doctor's "Speak to Me..." class, and for each lesson, she suggests setting aside at least 1 hour. Usually not hard for me to do, but I just wasn't making the time. So, finally, I had a free day to play, and that's exactly what I did. (Plus, I also wanted to make sure my desk area was mostly cleared off so I had enough room.)

OMG, Love, love, LOVE day 1!!!

The theme was Near & Far (focusing on Scale), and I had such fun with it, that I plan to do again!

(And I even came up with ANOTHER poem!) 

Here was my "final" piece, based on the exercises. Not my best lettering, as I got too excited, so I'll be redoing this as well, maybe even lettering my poem, and/or adding more words.

I used my healing journey as the basis for the piece, depicting what feels close to me right now and what seems far off/ what I want to achieve (with a lot of overlapping because of the "journey"!) 😉

These are the warm up exercises. I measured off 1" sections, and we were to letter words without picking up our pens (continuous writing). From R to Left: 1) fine pt black pen, 2) white color pencil (she used a china marker, which I do not have), then colored over with w/c ink (but I used my Ferris Wheel press fount. pen ink), 3) my radius cut Parallel Pilot, 4) again fine pt black pen, 5) pencil with various leads.

*with both 4 & 5 we were to start with very tiny lettering and get bigger as we made our way down the page.

At first, I did my column 1 "wrong" by lettering my words backwards, but since it's all unreadable, no biggie!

Close up

*I then went back and added to it, as I love how it turned out, and wanted to "correct" it to make it better/more fun.

This time, from L to Right:

1) White Glaze gel pen, colored over with a light layer of my FW Press ink

(*I erased some of the pencil, so I could do my glaze gel instead, since my masking didn't work out with the white color pencil)

2) I added primary colors to this fine pt black pen column, and also darker "effects" by outlining some shapes with a black glaze gel pen. (I kinda wish I had used a more maroon color to match the other ink vs. red.)

3) I kept this column the same

4) I tried lifting off some of the dark ink to see if any of the color pencil would show through (which extended over to the last column, and I thought that was pretty cool! #happyaccident!), but since it didn't, I decided to letter over it with metallic ink, using a ruling pen (the word "Near" repeated big; and "far" smaller and extended at the top). I then used more Glaze gel pens, lettering the word "Far" tiny at the top.

5) For the last column, I kept the same, except for the few strips of ink.

Love how it turned out!

Close ups

The "Near" lettering.

and the tiny "Fars"

Also, "far" in metallic ink

I have another idea I plan to do with this layout for my healing journal and can't wait!!

Looking forward to the other Lessons from this class!

Smile

Lately, (in addition to my mini books) I've been taking old pieces of my art (mostly from ig challenges), and adding more lettering to make them into inserts to give away to snail mail pals!

This is one where I lettered "Smile" using my RW and walnut ink with drop-in colors. I then added various sayings within the swirls.

"A smile is a frown turned upside down."

I love this one:  "A laugh is a smile out of control." 

Keep on Smilin'.  :)

Before pic. (I messed up the top of the l)

 

Waves

I am LOVING how this turned out!!!

I tried making this calligram with an old Pigma brush pen. (and shout out to Julie W once again for her awesome pointed brush class!!! I feel like I can letter better with this tool b/c of her instruction! Thank you Julie!!! #awesometeacher )

I added coloring/ink to emulate waves

Me so happy! (does it look like the ocean??) 

Had no idea what I was going to do with it, but was so excited with the initial result.

Decided on this quote. Not diggin' "emotions" (haha!) as I was trying to emulate waves again (up & down), and tried using the tail of the W for part of the E, but a bit of a fail. Oh well. 

At least I know feel more confident I could re-create!

More "writing".

    Another creation, taken from a failed piece (also from my P&I Takeover week!)

Started out as "ruling writer", but I ran out of paper. And instead of tossing this part (which actually looks nice), I added a couple quotes about writing (which is something I've been doing for a few years now!) I just wish I had used parts of my poem, but I composed that after doing this.

Quotes didn't turn out as well as I wanted, as the paper is too textured to letter on.

I could have just gone with one side too.

Spacing off.  :/

RW with walnut ink and drop-in colors. Love the accidental ligature of the w and r.

May have to redo for my healing journal!

Before (somewhat) pic.

New Toy! (Ruling Pen)

After taking Julie W.'s (wonderful!) Ruling Pens class, I got the urge to replace my current ruling pens, as they've gotten rusty (see close-up pic below). I bought them shortly after Cmas, 2019 (a post-Cmas gift to myself!) on amazon (for only $10 for all 3!)

When i browsed around again, I found another 3 pack (once more, only $10!), and this time, there was a bonus pen included (below).

I love the bigger size, and the marks it makes, however, I do not like the handle. I wish it was round instead of flat, as it's not comfortable to hold. (see vid. below)

All of my ruling pens: 

Top R corner, old set

Bottom 3 still in package, new ones.

Close up of new ones -- same as old ones.

Can you see the rust on these? They work pretty good, but for $10, why not "upgrade"?😉

Sample of pen play.