And the Challenge Continues

 

These are two of three pieces I pulled out of my pile of unfinished pieces a few days ago.  Looking at them I thought they looked done but they didn't really look like me.  At least not the me that is painting lately, they are way too neatly done. I have been wondering what I was going to do with them and another project gave me the answer.

We're going to be traveling sometime next month so I got out a 4x6" concertina sketchbook I purchased awhile back.  It seemed perfect for carrying in my purse during the trip and another unfinished project seems perfect for the cover.  It's another sketchbook I started in a class but didn't like it so I never finished.  I have since been cutting it up and using parts for other projects.  I think this will be the cover.

There's room at the bottom to write dates or destination information.

And that prompted me to make a concertina sketchbook -- just a bit larger -- that I can also take along.  After looking and discarding many potential covers I had an aha moment -- two of the pieces I vowed to finish during the #100dayproject -- the ones I thought were done but not me.

Perfect and just the right weight, sturdy but not too heavy so it will be easy to carry it around.  And I just had a thought about the third piece in the threesome.  I can cut it in half to make a couple pockets, one for each sketchbook.

So now back to working on a couple others from the pile.

Hooray! I Don't Have To Learn A New Blog

Welcome to my blog. I write about my journey as an artist.  I'll be posting about my process, why I paint, what I paint, my art journals and things that get my attention.  Along the way I'll also post about different artists that I like and show you some of their work.  I hope you find it interesting.

This isn't a new blog as I had been planning. My blogging nightmare finally ended. Blogger kept telling me I wasn't me so I finally gave up and thought I'd start a new blog to go along with the website I'm working on.  Problem is the website is slow going as is a new blog.  I suppose you can teach an old dog new tricks but it's harder.

Interestingly Blogger wasn't the only one that seemed to not recognize me and after several tries, a few chats and a couple phone calls to one of those other sites I got a suggestion to try changing browsers.  Thank you WSJWine for finally coming up with something that worked.  I changed and now can get in to all three that I had been locked out of. This old dog is so happy for that.  Still slow going on the website but I don't need to reinvent the blog.

There's been a lot going on since my last post before Christmas. The Ukraine is the biggest. This little sketch is in memory of my Ukrainian friend Chrystyna and prayers for her home country.

There has been so much more happening in my studio.  First, #100daychallenge is on again and  every day I've been working on a huge pile of pieces that I never finished.  I vowed to finish them.  So far I've been happy with some -- here are two of them. The ones I end up not liking I'll gesso over and start again.

                             

I also took a 5 day workshop on bookmaking.  I've made a lot of books but have always just figured out a way to do it. When I saw this workshop available on line I decided to try learning a correct way of doing it and I did. These are the ones I did in the workshop and I tried out one of them.

 My first attempts are not the best but I learned a lot and will make more. 

There's been a lot more going on but I think this is enough for now.  It's good to be back