Lady Zen Again!

I've been working on Lady Zen again today. She is mostly done. The camera was readjusted so the colors aren't exactly right but you get the idea. Her collar was done with gold leafing. Now just for the record, in the past I have always been afraid of the paintbrush but this technique was so easy! I love mixed media! I'm a new addict but have to stop and finish writing a class!

WIP: Lady Zen

Well Lady Zen is bopping along and demanded I play with her today instead of doing what I was supposed to do. I suppose I should be grateful my Muse is popping in again to push me. Anywho, without further ado, I present the current status of my Lady Zen, still a work in progress. The background makes me mostly happy so next I will focus on the lady and try to make her more respectable (in an artistic way... I've nothing to do with her knickers!) and then I'll see what's next.

A close up shows you the lacey textured underlayer as well as the pressed and printed blooms.

As A Student

I've been taking an on line class with Suzi Blu for La Petite Dolls. I thought it was all painting but the paper doll is done with colored pencils and the background is mixed media so it's still fun and not too far from my comfort zone. My first drawing is below. This is a stretch for me as the doll face was supposed to be really simple and I've worked at shading and highlighting for years. It's not as simple as it's supposed to be, but simple for me. When the drawing is attached to a canvas she will be dangling from a bunch of balloons.

My second drawing is my own style. I used the Zentangle method of drawing to decorate her head piece and am working on the back ground with lots of textures, colors and flowers so she appears to be in a garden. My own garden is such a lovely place these days. Hopefully it won't be long until I get to post the new gazebo Craig is building for me. He'll eventually screen it in so my cockatiel Pelly can visit outside while I work in the garden. He'll love talking to all the birds out there!

Anywho, Lady Zen, as I've begun to call her, will have a torso to just past her waist with a bouquet in her nonexistant hands. Suzi doesn't teach hands in La Petite Dolls and I'm in serious need of drawing and painting skills before I do some one my own worthy of posting here! So both these drawings are still a little rough with the intention that we add to them after mounting them to the background. Hopefully I'll find time to work on them theis week but first I need to focus on the workshop I am still writing!

Fiber Face Collage

My newest endeavor has been to work on flat collage faces made of fabrics and fibers for fabric journals. I'll be teaching this on Joggles late in July. So last night, working on a beginer level piece I struggles like the Dickens. I kept losing pieces. Things like eye brows would just vanish from my workspace. Then I learned why.

It seems that my lovely little cockatiel, Pellenore was helping himself to bits as I laid them in place and went to focus the camera. Caught in the act, my little man was sent back to his perch six times! He wasn't happy with scraps I gave him, he much preferred his life of crime. So I laid a piece I didn't want where he had been stealing my needed bits and he absconded with a scrap thinking he'd won. Pelly is in his terrible two's, we have decided, but I do like having him in the studio with me. We just need to work on the rules and obedience stuff I guess.

Anywho, here is the finished face, after I remade one eye lid that I never did find. The lashes were trimmed after this photo, and are loose fibers. The workshop will teach the faces which can be later attached to clothing, bags and other spectacular places, as well as the fabric journal I am making. Just wait till I show you the highly detailed faces! You'll love them!