Happy Halloween Dearie

Happy Halloween Eve!

Art Teacher Conference

I went to the Illinois Art Education Association Conference last weekend 

and enjoyed some creative workshops.

I went to a collage workshop where we altered paper with paint, printing, sanding and tearing.

Here's my finished collage. Working abstract is a stretch for me.

I also tried felting. You use soft colored wool and a needle to create felt.
I didn't make the pumpkin but I had to share - the stem is a cinnamon stick!

Metallic watercolor on black paper. Wonderful!

Kick Leaves

We like to find a day to kick leaves in the fall. Sunday was the perfect day. 

I made these cool collages on my phone using the app pic stitch. It's free and easy. It has lots of layouts to choose from and you just tap on the layout and position the image. It also has other cool options like frames, adding text, drawing and more. I made these in under a minute. 

Liquid Watercolor

Teaching art in an elementary school produces lots of dried up markers. 

Here's a way to get more mileage out of them - liquid watercolor!

Sort your dried up markers into like colors. Fill a disposable container with plain water and soak the tips of the markers for a day or 2. The longer you soak the more vibrant the color. I was able to soak the markers again in another batch of water and still got good color. There's a lot of color left in a dried up marker!

The result is a rich color perfect for liquid watercolor work.

Painting Clay Leaves

Here is a little clay leaf bowl being painted from start to finish.

I used air dry clay to create a little hand built bowl about 3" wide.

I started with dark green acrylic.

Filled in with other shades of green.

Finished using rich brown details with a pinch of white.

Another leaf bowl with layered greens and frosty white on top. 

Here they are together.

Pumpkin on a Zentangle Background

Once I started doing zentangles, it's hard to stop. 

The King of the Castle

Rusty

Beautiful

Halloween Cards

My artist friends and I get together to make and exchange Halloween cards. 

Here is a sampling of our creations.

Little Pots

2 more little model magic pots - mixing colors to create various shades of green. 

Clay Leaves

I've been using air dry clay in the classroom to teach my students how to make clay leaves. 

Here are some of the leaves that I made. 

I rolled out the clay, cut out a leaf shape, used a clay coil for a small pedestal on the bottom and draped it over a tube to give it a gentle curve. 

I blended and layered the paint...

added gold accents on some of them...

and added my favorite spiral motif on others.

clay leaves

The Fall Circle

watercolor * micron pen

Acorn Friends

Acorn small - have a great weekend!

Warm Leaves, Cool Sky

fall leaves in watercolor

Apples

Apples everywhere! We like to walk after dinner and everywhere we go apple trees are laden with fruit. They don't look perfect like grocery store apples but when you cut into them, they are fresh and perfect for applesauce, pies and eating. Enjoy the abundance of fall. 

Leaves on Black

5.75 x 4.5 fall leaves on black paper.