Sunday Scripture

Hebrews 11 verse 1  

Faith is being sure of what we hope for
and certain of what we cannot see.

Printed by Hand

Today I am posting a piece that I hand-printed…  It’s that fabulous Hudson Taylor quote, that I love so much. 

I used a Marvy LePlume II marker in grey on Arches MBM Ingres paper, and added just a touch of collage. 

TGIF, everybody!!!

XOXO,
Lucky Dog
♥

Thankful Thursdays

Today I am thankful for my health.  ♥

I have been having some side effects from my thyroid Rx, which have been MOST inconvenient and troublesome.  And they have kept me from feeling well and doing much this past weekend. 

(Let’s face it, I was puny with a capital P!)

I’m much better now, having switched back to my compounded Rx, and I am thrilled to feel more like myself again.  I’m not 100% quite yet, but I’m sooooo much better.

I know it’s a cliché, but when you have your health,
you really do have everything!

XOXO,

Lucky Dog  
♥

Whimsical Cursive

I have been playing with my little whimsical pieces a lot lately, and realized that I had a problem.  Well, a “need”.

I needed to be able to emphasize a word or have one word bigger than the others.  I needed to have a way to create contrast.

The problem is, I’m using gel pens that are monoline.  There’s only one size of the line that it makes.  So off to the drafting table I went to experiment. 

First I used my Crayon Cursive with a black crayon and sparkly gel pen highlights.  But that ended up being actually too big.  And I wasn’t wild about my results with a colored pencil.  It needed to “go” with my gel pen hand printing better or something.

Then I tried drawing a cursive-style, coloring in the thicks and thins with the gel pen, but I was sorely lacking in enough skill to pull that off.

Then I tried using two colors of gel pens for an almost double-stroke, which looked crummy, but it gave me the idea to use a colored pencil to “shadow” the gel pen line.  And that looked kinda neat.  And soft.  And I generally love soft.

And I don’t know what got into me, but somehow I got the idea of putting polka dots on top of the monoline.  Polka dots??  I truly have no idea how that occurred to me.  But I tried it, and they were fun, and sorta worked!  So, yay!

Then I graduated from a “shadow” to a “halo”.  It reminds me of the outlined words of my junior high days.  Hahaha  Did everyone else do that, too?  Outline around complete words, kinda like puffy clouds?  …  Ah, youth.

Anyway, that’s what this new combination is:  my fun cursive made with a gel pen + a halo done with a colored pencil + polka dots using a gel pen. 

Oh, and done with neon colors, too!  How much fun is that?!

And just think of all the possibilities:  you can use the same color for both for a low-contrast look, or something like neon yellow dots on top of a neon green cursive for a high-contrast, very whimsical look.  (I find myself using that combo a lot.)

So that’s the latest from the studio…  Fun, fun, fun!!

I hope it brings a smile to your face!

XOXO,

Lucky Dog 
♥

Quote o' the Day

"A creative block happens when you think you should do something while you are truly interested in doing something else."

-- Michele Cassou, in Point Zero-Creativity Without Limits

Lover Boy

Well, our sweet male cat has developed diabetes.  :(

He’s old-ish, well, 12, and I was expecting a diagnosis of kidney problems or hyperthyroidism.  So the diabetes thing kinda threw me.

The only symptom so far was an extra-full cat pan and lots of water drinking.  And the vet said we caught it early, so that’s good.  (No ketones, yet.)

The bottom line is, we have to give him 2 shots of insulin every day, about 12 hours apart.

I just didn’t think I could “do” needles, but really, it isn’t as bad as I expected.  I don’t enjoy doing it, but I can do it.  At least it’s treatable, and relatively easily so.

And like I’ve said before, as problems go, this really isn’t one.   So, whew, that’s a blessing!

XOXO,

Lucky Dog
♥

Sunday Scripture

Psalm 42 verse 1  

Like as the hart desireth the waterbrooks,
so longeth my soul after Thee, O God.

(hart = deer)

(This version of this verse is from a piece we performed
 in choir in college.  The music is very beautiful, too.)

Thankful Thursdays

Today I am thankful for my husband being my very own art patron.  ♥  He is so supportive and so generous.  Plus, his stargazing ways have inspired yet another painting.

“Moon over Venus”, though, apparently isn’t possible, sky-wise.
I painted the crescent moon going the wrong way for that…  It should’ve been painted like a backwards C.  Aarrgghh!!!!

Mr. Man said it was covered by “artistic license”, but I think another painting is in order.  Too bad, eh?  Haha  I guess I’ll just have to paint another one!  :)

This is about the most realistic that I paint (being a true Lover of Abstracts), and it’s the view that we had each night in Missouri, at the condo on Table Rock Lake.  Venus really was setting then, behind just such a hill, but I added in the moon myself.  Moons are so romantic, aren’t they?  I find them to be utterly irresistible.

To crescent moons and the starry sky...
 

And to my sweet husband who buys me pastels and glitter
and gel pens and black paper and and and…. !

XOXO,

Lucky Dog 
♥

Quote o' the Day

"Every day you wake up is a beautiful day." 
 -- John Wayne

Trust in the Lord Series

Here are my “Trust in the Lord” pieces…

This time I played with my pastels, coloring in the background last, after lettering and drawing the border.  I just love Easy.

I made a vivid one, and a soft one.  They’re both fun.  ♥
Then I made another white on burgundy...

Gosh, these are so much fun!  I hope y’all aren’t tired of them.

I promise I’ll post something different next time.

XOXO,

Lucky Dog  
♥

Sunday Scripture

Philippians 4:8 

And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. 
Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable,
and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable.
Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.

Trust Your Heart Series

So I played some more the other day…  (!)

First I hand-printed a little quote, Trust Your Heart, using a Sakura glitter pink pen.  Then I did a border and outlined it with a Tria/Prismacolor gray marker, 30% value.

Next, I thought, what if I did the same thing, but with a festive multi-colored block kind-of-a-frame.  So I did.

Then, what if I did multi-colored lettering, and colored the blocky frame silver and yellow.  Colorful, but not too too.

Then I remembered, I hadn’t even done it in white yet, so I lettered it onto some dark blue paper with my white gel pen.

Then after all that was done, I remembered the Bible verse about the heart being deceitful…  Aarrrggghhh!!

I just lettered “trust your heart” because “trust your instincts” didn’t look as nice, and “trust your gut” would be even worse!!  Bummer.

Okay, so, now I will make it right and do the next series saying, “Trust in the Lord”.  ♥  hahaha

Whew!  That was a close one!

To following your heart, instincts and your gut….

XOXO,

Lucky Dog 
♥
  

The Power of the Internet

May I just say, that I absolutely and totally love the Internet.  J

Oh sure, it has its perils, but it’s here to stay, despite them.

But the ability to look up just about anything at any hour of the day, with my laptop in my, well, lap, is so totally convenient and sometimes still seems downright amazing.

Whether it is looking up “How to Read A Knitting Chart” or what actor played that role in that movie we saw 15 years ago and I can’t remember his name and I think he was in Frasier last night …  The ability to “google” whatever you want and come up with so much information at the click of a mouse simply astounds me.

I love it!  :)

That’s all.  I just wanted to go on record.

You may return to your usual programming now. 

XOXO,

Lucky Dog 
♥

It's Time!

White gel pen + free paper + glue dots + glitter = FuN!

I hope you're having fun today!

XOXO,
Lucky Dog
♥

The Blues

Here is another pastel piece of mine, using my PanPastels.  What can I say?  I just *love* color and abstract art.  :)

I don’t actually have the blues, though, having spent a most wonderful day with my sweetie.  It was a holiday, and we ran around and had the best time.

I bought some new gel pens and looked at lots and lots of books at the bookstore…  Art supplies and books???  Does it get any better than that??  Hahaha!!

I hope you’re enjoying Fall where you live!  The moon sure was pretty tonight…  Feels like a painting’s coming on.  :)

XOXO,

Lucky Dog 
♥

Sunday Scripture

Colossians 3:23 

Whatever you do, do your work heartily,
as for the Lord, rather than for men.

Haiku Fun

Today I am combining elements from 2 of my favorite blogs:  Haiku, from Aimee in Artsyville’s blog and photo staging from Elvie Studio's blog.

Here are the links: (sorry I'm not more techno-savvy)  http://artsyville.blogspot.com/ and http://elviestudio.blogspot.com/ .

What a blessing these girls are to me -- I read their blogs daily.  Check them out, and then go take a look at their Etsy shops!  (They both have links to their shops on their blogs.)  Christmas is coming, and Etsy is the perfect place to buy *handmade* gifts from artists you know and love.   www.etsy.com

TGIF, y’all!!

XOXO,

Lucky Dog 
♥

p.s.  Don’t forget:  10/10/10 is Sunday!  Sounds like a
great time for some special memories to be made!

Thankful Thursdays

This week I am thankful for last week. 

Mr. Man and Mr. Furball and I had an absolutely wonderful vacation to Branson, Missouri. 

Mr. Man had gone online to find a place for us to stay that was dog-friendly, but one that wasn’t just a crummy motel room, ya know?  He wound up booking us a condo (owned by Yakov Smirnoff, as a matter of fact) that was wonderful.

We had a gorgeous view of Table Rock Lake, and the condo had the best floor plan.  It was so spacious and nice.  Between that and the view, we didn’t want to leave, it was so relaxing!   And we weren’t even trying to get an incredible lake-view condo, just a nice place that took dogs.  (!)

The sunsets every night were so beautiful...  And we saw 3 meteors the first night there.  The next night we had a flock of wild geese fly right by us while we were out on the balcony, honking the whole way!  And one morning the fog had rolled in, and you couldn’t even see that there was a lake out there.  Very wild and cool.

We got in a lot of good tourist-stuff, too, but more importantly, we got some much-needed R&R.  And we are very thankful for that. 

The crazy thing was, we had no idea that the area would remind us of west Austin and Lake Travis.  It was like being back home.

I imagine it won’t be our last visit there…  ♥

XOXO,

Lucky Dog
♥

P.S.  This photo was the view from our balcony!

Become Who You Are

Here is another in the series…

See, this is how my mind works:  okay, I did one white on black with yellow glitter accent and a line border.  What would it look like if I did another checkerboard-style border and filled in some of the boxes with yellow glitter this time?  But less boxy, this time.

And that’s how I play.  One experiment begets another.

And I’m still working on the alphabet…  Combining capitals with lowercase seems to work well and provide the *variety* that characterizes whimsical art.  We’ll see how it goes.  It is all a work in progress.

Okay, so!  More to come!

XOXO,

Lucky Dog 
♥

Quote o' the Day

“Tension is who you think you should be.  

Relaxation is who you are.”

-- Chinese Proverb

Bee Yourself

This little piece is another in my newest series of handprinted quotes.  They are so much fun -- they’re like eating potato chips: you make one and you just want to make another one!

This piece was done on black charcoal paper with a Uni-ball Signo broad white gel pen and just a touch of yellow glitter on the back of the bee.

This was all done freehand with no rough draft.  I don’t know why I work that way a lot, but I do.  It seems like a little planning and a pencil layout would make my life easier, but there you have it.

Its little drawn frame reminds me again of the beauty (and usefulness) of the irregular line.  Oh, and I drew it on last, after finishing the lettering.  The whole piece of paper measures a little over 4 inches square.

Today I played and made lots of these, so I’ll be posting more later.

XOXO,
Lucky Dog 
♥

Sunday Scripture

Psalm 8 verse 1  

O Lord, our Lord, Your majestic name fills the earth!  

Your glory is higher than the heavens.