Geometry again

Happy
Acrylic and watercolor
Cotman 16 x 12 in. watercolor pad
IKEA frame

There are aspects of this experiment I like and some I don't. That being said, I do like to look at it hanging on my wall. I really like how my plants, flowers, dragon, prey, and scrip came out. I think my mushroom, scroll work at the bottom, and background have issues. The geometry at the top I like, and the way the bugs wings let it show through.

Geometric background

Well, the reflections distort the image a bit, I am sorry about that. But there you are, no one is going to hire me for taking pictures of museum pieces. In this experiment I decided to try out with geometric designs in the background. I like the way they turned out. In this one I used acrylic with watercolor on my 12x 16 in. watercolor pad. I like the way the acrylic repels the watercolor when it is dry.

Painting - Plants

Plants
Acrylic and watercolor,
Cotman 16 x 12 in. watercolor pad, IKEA frame

In this painting I am starting to experiment more with acrylics and using a watercolor wash. In this way I am able to get more sense of depth.

A redo

God is the flower of life

This one is a redo from a smaller size on copy paper to my Cotman watercolor pad. It doesn't have quite the same free floating, non-grounded feel as the original, but I like the way it turned out. It feels happy. I experimented with watercolor, colored pencils, and acrylics.

Welcome - Arabic

After painting the two Welcomes in English, I wanted one in Arabic for my friends to whom that language is native. It turned out like I wanted it to (quite unusual for me). When you first see it from a distance the butterflies wings recede and jst the accent marks show, but when you are close the butterflies all have two wings.

I like this one better than the other two, but not all my friends can read this one, so I get to keep them both (well it will be both when I decide which one of the English ones I like best ;) ).

Welcome... two

I wanted a welcome sign to hang in the entryway, so, in October I painted two. We don't need two, but I haven't decided which one I like better, so one hangs in the entry and one in the living room. Eventually, I will gift one... But for now we have two.

New family member ;D and a painting

Okay so October flew by like an red-orange leaf in a windstorm. Last week I didn't paint: the family was home over Eid AND we acquired a new family member. It has been in the works for a while and is a promise full-filled to my daughter on moving here (we are still looking for the 'right' cat). Transportation to and from is still a bit of an issue, but we will work it out.

Saba Al Hasa

He is a lovely 2 year old beautifully tempered Arabian. We are very excited to welcome him into our family and looking forward to our new adventures with him.

This is a painting I did in October experimenting with water color and acrylics. I used my Cotman 16 x 12 in. cold pressed water color block. This size fits perfectly in the frames I get from IKEA. As you can see I chose to represent one o my dragons in a pose I haven't exhibited before. The jury is still out, but I think he is a bit too far to the right. He disturbs the symmetry too much, but that is what experimenting is all about - trying new things, making mistakes, regrouping, and moving right along.

Todays Experiment

I finished this one today. The photograph came out poorly (bad lighting), but I really like the way the painting came out. I used my 12 x 16 in. water color block, watercolors, and watercolor pencils.

Have a great day!

Theta

Experiments 3+

 This is the first painting in a three painting series. I've been thinking of desert sand and rock.

This is the second painting of the series. The third painting is in progress. Since it wasn't my idea, and it involves perspective and some other things, it will be awhile before I get it done. Prodding always makes me take longer on a project "/

This is my newest Leaf Dragon. I am obviously having fun with my new watercolors here :)

Grass King is my newest scene. Also done in water colors. I thought about doing a wash first, started painting the scene, and then decided to forgo a wash. I was having fun and when I was done, that was it.

Made this today for a lady that took Megs and I around a week or two ago. I have to return some stuff to her, so this is going with the returned stuff.

These are for Jean. They are called hood-hood in one of my husband's Arabic children's books and hunt for bugs in the sand our 'lawn' is growing in. The second photo was taken through the screen door and so is not as clear, but you can see it's beak meets better.

More on the 'lawn'. Here they put down a layer of sweet sand (in other words it's clean, no salt) and then put plugs of grass (often Bermuda grass) in it. So water intensive grass is planted in quick draining medium. Interesting... This way of planting calls for several hours of watering in the morning and in the afternoon. Having grown up in water rationing areas and this being desert and all, I keep cringing. However, since they use desalinization plants for water, I'm told "Don't worry, this is the way they do it here." It's still hard not to cringe...

Have a great day!

Theta

Experiment 2

I've been very busy, but stayed up late to finish this one...

It is done on one of the 4 A4 copy papers I had fun with the other day.
Enjoy,
Theta

An Experiment

Well this is what I worked on this morning. The paper is plain old copy paper and the size is most of an A4 sheet (part of the top portion got torn while I was ironing the paper to dry it faster and I had to trim the paper). The water color affect is from markers (I don't have any paints or paintbrushes here, grrrr), the cheap kids BIPUNTA dual ended markers made in Italy. I had lots of fun coloring on my fingures and splashing color and water everywhere. My new desk top is now christened and so is the wall..... Then I inked in my design with an 03 Micron (I remembered to bring those!) and colored it in with my Prismacolor pencils. I think I may take up finger painting, it is much fun and stress relieving ;D

Have a blessed day,

Theta

finished large piece

The internet is back on. We are not sure for how long it will remain on... In the meantime I started and finished my large drawing.

Now all I have to do is find a frame.

Have a great day,

Theta

Card #5

After cutting out square windows in a bunch of other cards we were making, we had a lot of cut squares. These we stamped with 1 inch square flowers from Inkadinkado and glued to a larger colored square. We made several color combinations. The merci stamp is from Ellison.

Have a great day!
Theta

Card #4

My daughter and I had fun with this one. Randomly stamping the swirls and butterflies gave us a release from the exactness of some of the other cards we did.

 

Butterflies and happiness - Studio G
Swirls - Inkadinkadoo

Be creative today!

Theta

Card #3

Here is another card. We made quite a few of these as we really liked how they turned out. On some of them we used clear glass affect and glitter on the swirls and circles. It doesn't seem to show up in this picture.

 

Inkadinkado - Circles and Grateful; White pen - Sakuro (sp?); Swirl - unknown

Have a great day!

Theta

Notes

Okay, so this is a bit off topic from what I usually post here, but I am so excited because the cube from IKEA fit perfectly across on wall of our living room. Also, I scanned a placemat from IKEA Photoshopped it and used it for my son's birthday deco along with a graphic I picked up off the internet.

Wall cubes, empty right now...

Original graphic from internet

Modified graphic with IKEA birds and my flowers

More modifications and a mobile

And here's the bush

I may have to add some dragons ;)

Have a great day!

Theta

Card #3

For this card we cut a 1.25 inch hole in the lower right corner and stamped a 1 inch square stamp from Inkadinkado. The word Beauty in the opposite corner is from the same set. We used a wood butterfly stamp (unknown origin) with a rainbow ink pad to add interest and some glitter for fun. Some of the cards we made are for specific occasions, but this one is general. It's a pleasure to give cards "Just because".

 

Have a great day!

Theta

Cards #2

Here is another set of the cards we made.

 

I'm not sure who the manufacturer of the patterned paper is, we used scraps. 

The stamps:

Happy Birthday, Miss You, Grateful, lily - Inkadinkado

You're Special, heart, and die cuts - Sizzix

Sun - Stampendous

Butterflies - Unknown wood stamps (I didn't bring them)

Swirls - Unknown