The cat doodle

Well, I haven't been keeping up with this blog as I intended. My year of action hasn't been very action-filled, unfortunately. While I am finding my way back to my plan, I have been absorbing inspiration from YouTube videos, random web surfing, and ill-advised shopping sprees.  I have even splurged on a paid online class. I have made my way through nearly half the lessons on video so far, well watching them, that is. The class is Eclectic Altered Journals by Christy Sobolewski, aka Gulfsprite. Here is a nice introductory video explaining the course. I am having a great time, so I highly recommend it. It is kind of the next class after the free altered backgrounds course I did. It shows how you can take a flimsy catalog/magazine (the kind that is stapled in the center) or a book you want to alter that has thin/glossy paper and turn it into an art journal with sturdy, workable pages. It is right up my alley. I can use my junk mail for much of it. It saves me from having to haul a bunch of junk mail to the recycle bins. Free samples and catalogs are fine. I am not such a fan of credit card offers that keep coming no matter what steps you take to make them stop. Now, instead of picking through for things to shred, a lot of them can be used in these journals as a first layer. Needless to say, I have been carefully sorting through my junk mail and catalogs for appropriate journal fodder and spending an hour or two each night with my glue stick. Whoopee! Eventually, like all my other started art journals, I will start making completed pages. I guess I am still in the cocoon.

Yesterday,  I was looking at my cat relaxing on my daybed next to me, and I decided it was time to sketch something. This portrait of my cat turned out pretty cute. I am thinking of making it a little paper doll one day. I just need to finish his body, add legs and a tail. Cute! I gave him jaunty whiskers like he was sporting in the photo.

Handsome, isn't he?

Sketchy

Today, I did some sketching. I have many lips and eyes that are cut out of magazines. For a time, I was doing collages of eyes and doing a clear glass mosaic on top of them with black grout. It looked really great. Unfortunately, the pieces I made did not make it to Seattle. I had very limited space and had to leave a lot of precious items behind. So, I have these eyes and lips that were meant for more mosaic projects that really needed to be used.

I loosely glued some of the more interesting images to pages in my Moleskine journal and sketched them. I am pretty rusty with drawing, but I was pretty happy with them. I have a couple more pages to fill, then I can move on to other body parts, I suppose.

This is a sketch I did a couple of weeks ago. I just drew a few things in my apartment and  one outside my window. Don't worry if you can see that small one. I can barely see it up close. It is of a frame for a cool framed print my aunt bought for me.