It has been a busy couple of months with some BIG deadlines both at work and personally at church and some other areas of my life.  I am going home today but I have spent the last week with family at a rental home on the beach on Hilton Head Island, SC.  It has been a FABULOUS week with lots of family fun and sunny activities. I even had time to make some art!  I have been having some extreme reactions to the sun the last couple of years due to some supplements I have been taking so I had plenty of time to be inside and be creative.  I wish I could take this work space home with me–beach view and ALL!  🙂
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In between running in and out to take a quick dip in the pool or the surf or to take some of the MANY photos that I took of nieces and nephews and other family members, this was my primary space.  I have been spending a lot of time lately studying (and imitating) Dina Wakley and Diana Trout.  Dina Wakley seems to use mostly acrylic paints (she has her own line now with Ranger) and Diana Trout uses a lot of items that many artists already have in their supply closet and recently seems to be spending a great deal of time working with watercolor.  I actually mentioned a couple of their books back in this post earlier this year.  Dina has also published a second book that made its debut last November.

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I really like this book as well.  It spends a little more time building skills as you go through it and also has some great instructions for portrait sketches–something that I have been trying to do and improve for quite some time.  Here is one of the pieces I finished along with another set of journal pages at that I started by cleaning my paint brushes off in-between colors.

DSC_1506scan.071Two stencils were used.  One created by Ronda Palazzari Designs and the other by Balzer Designs.  They are manufactured by The Crafter’s Workshop and both are available for sale at various on-line and brick-n-mortar locations

TCW2030PodsFragment71cZQRjt45L._SL1200_The page below was inspired by Diana Trout’s Journal Spilling book.  I want to do more watercolor and this page was good inspiration for that.  I liked her idea of providing the quote from Picasso as well (even if I didn’t spell his name right on the page–LOL).

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I hope you are having a good summer.  Be sure and enjoy all of the childish fun that you can–especially if you have some children to enjoy it all with!  🙂

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If you are in the USA, have a Happy 4th of July and Happy Birthday, America!!

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