Kool-Aid hair

Drawing of hair plan

Well, Kool-Aid didn't work great for my hair, mostly because I was trying colors that were too close to my own color, and my hair isn't as light as it used to be.

But this is my very artistic drawing of how I was dying my hair. No photos of the after shot, because you really couldn't' see any extra color.

Oscar

I love to draw or craft while watching TV. This year's Academy Awards watching led to this fun scribble.

The Morning Sun is Shining Like a Red Rubber Ball

Well, OK, a Pink Rubber Ball.

This ball is me playing around with shading and blending colors in Corel Painter Essentials, the program that came with my Bamboo graphics pad.
Yes, I bought myself a new graphics pad, tax return money burning a hole in my artistic pocket. The old one I bought probably ten years ago, so I guess I shouldn't be too upset that it finally gave up the ghost.
I've been playing around with it for the last couple weeks. There is a lot of just practicing to get the feel down, most of which doesn't get saved. The feel of the pen on the pressure sensitive pad is unique, and takes just lots of doing to feel comfortable with. So different than seeing a line behind the pencil in your hand.
Other than playing with the graphics pad on the computer, I've been doing a lot of embroidery with felt, mostly at work. I'm putting full force into just going with the flow, embroidering as I go, not making any pattern in my head or on paper. It's good exercise to not have a plan, but when I get so far into no plan, with practicing and not saving on the graphics pad, and the embroidery being the main things I've been doing, then I get to the point of not knowing where to start with a plan or pattern.
Case in point today: I'm inspired to work on the lining for the fulled purse that I started a long time ago. I really want to start carrying it, and after some thinking through of what I do and do not want in the lining, I just want to get it done. I have everything I need at hand. The sewing machine is out on the table. And the afternoon to myself. And I have butterflies in my stomach at the prospect of HOW to make myself make a pattern. Even creating the bag itself was a make-it-as-you-go design.
So much free-flow lately. Much needed, and much appreciated. But I need to be able to free-flow as well as flow-within-the-lines, too, right? (as long as the lines are my own)

Art Journaller: Destroy RFA

Destroy RFA
Originally uploaded by seeshells

Do you ever get a strange nervous feeling and you don't know why? I know some people don't, but I do (probably something to do with being the parent of teens). I decided to call it Random Freefloating Anxiety. The other day, I had one of these attacks of RFA, and in the process of getting rid of it, I had the idea for this drawing.
I've been working more on my Art Journal, but have been still working very timidly, and I wanted to explore a more purposeful style. In all my art classes in high school and college, I learned to sketch, to pencil things in first, but I've been seeing and hearing about just drawing without sketching, and I wanted to try that out for myself.
So this drawing is both a visualization for me calming my brain, and an experiment with a technique I don't usually use.
The Boy Friend Forever said "it's not your usual style...I like it" LOL Those are two separate statements, and I knew it when he said it, but it sounded funny. I like it too. And it's not my usual style. But I do want to explore this style more.