Denton, Texas- Downtown Square

Last night I "met" a new person online who had become a follower either here or on Flickr. She is a talented photographer who had taken many photos in  the North Texas Area, more specifically, Denton! Today, I stumbled upon some sketches I did around the charming downtown Denton Square. Like most small towns, some antique buildings have had a metamorphosis. Dentonites (is that the right word?) will recognize this old theater which eventually became a place of worship. I meant to go in the building while we lived nearby and never did. Shoot! What's it like inside?

I am thinking of all the people I love in the Denton area. Sketches certainly imprint fond memories!

Mais Oui, Sunflower

The previously mentioned workshop has me fully charged and I am playing with so many old sketches and turning them into new "creations". Truly, it's a blast!

So the first image is stage one that includes torn up copies of a some of my mixed media journal pages, (thanks Linka for teaching me how to do that!) and various fruits, flowers, leaves, stamps from other old paintings.

I added gesso to some Strathmore Inkjet Textured Paper. After all, the 15 minute online workshop I took was sponsored by Strathmore. Oddly, I had bought the paper before I even knew of the workshop. Then, I added some really drippy acrylics. I ran the original collage through the printer onto the newly painted paper.

I have some ideas about how to proceed. Stay tuned! Could be interesting :)

So, I did the next step according to the lesson and I had no feel for what to do with oil pastels. None. And, I haven't even decided I want to learn how to use them. I added some black. Linka always tells me "you need a little black". And, outlined some lettering, smeared some pastels around and walked away from the painting! So, I'll wait for the next lesson to see if I continue this little exercise. It's a process!

Sacred Sepia

There are so many inexpensive and even free workshops online. FREE fits right into my budget! I signed up for a cool little series of Visual Journaling workshops and took the first today.  http://www.strathmoreartist.com/vjworkshop2011.html.

It was more fun than a barrel of monkeys collaging with bits and pieces of old sketches, photos and miscellaneous ephemera!

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Step 2--added a little depth, definition and softened some edges with colored pencil

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Step 3
I think I mushed this one up trying the oil pastel route. It's either take a class or trash those suckers! Poor lady, looks like she got socked in the face. Back to the drawing board!

Last step. Hard to see the changes actually. Changed the Artist's Way to Enjoy and it's definition.There is alot of metallic added to with ink, pigment and markers that simply don't show up in this post. Per the lesson, I added some designs and doodles in the negative spaces, added some white and darkened some lines. a very fun exercise. Now, on the finish the next! (Not that I won't revisit this one at some point!)

As I said, I had to revisit this project. I am addicted to altering images in http://www.picnik.com/  It is so much fun!! This is simply "reversing" the previous image. I think it is far more interesting than the original, but I love color and these colors appeal to my senses.