Thursday, November 18, 2010

Day Trip Joshua Tree






My best friend had a conference right outside of Palm springs so I drove up for a few days of fun.  The drive is perfect as the surrounding areas have almost no traffic so it was a quick trip.  We spent last Thursday at Joshua Tree climbing on rocks. looking at birds and avoiding the spurs of Teddy Bear Cactus.

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Susie's journal.


The next book in the round robin is ready to go and we are all on a little break to get caught up.  The holiday season and extra projects have a way of getting stuck.  This is  Susie's book  and she wrote a lovely intro into her book and  putting together little things to get to the big picture.  I made this self portrait a year ago but I went back and improved it and am much happier with how it turned out. I found out that black Gesso is much easier to control vs. liquid acrylic paint when you have to paint a larger area.   The photograph/ illustration turns into a flip out where I made notes for my day.  Tuesday was my usual day off when I worked in retail and it has morphed into my health day where I go to the acupuncture and chiropractic and walk to the next neighborhood and get lots of exercise.  It was raining on and off that week so things were a bit wacky.  People in San Diego can't handle the rain.  The roads flood and the number of accidents on the road triple for the day. 

The second photo was of a rose I took after the rain and then I layered tracing paper over it and worked on a paper cut overlay.  It's been a while since I have cut anything this intricate but I have a new knife and it works like a dream.  It's a ceramic knife from Slice and you can hold it close to tip without hurting your finger.  Magical.