Week four and the finished product of the graphite U.P. silhouette with trees! Slow week with half a charcoal birch tree, a watercolor valentines day card, burnt graphite drawing and the paper mâché sculpture in the works.

Week two and three consisted of pen doodles, charcoal birch trees, and another graphite silhouette drawing but this time with the silhouette of the upper peninsula! An aluminum can and spray paint sculpture, and the start to the wire sculpture. The finished version of week ones watercolor and a new pen, colored pencil, and watercolor tree. And some photography as well.

Week one consisted of a graphite drawing of a human silhouette with trees inside, a handprint watercolor. A yarn sculpture with a wire and sock internal structure and rock base! And if course some unfinished watercolors.

I’ve chosen to do ephemeral art. My first one I did, I wanted it to reflect a beginning, something new/fresh… To me Spring is the new beginning, I love to start things in the spring! With all of these freezing cold temperatures, I wanted to create something that would remind me of spring. So what I did for my first piece was simplistic – but from my photography background – beautiful. I chose a shamrock bloom and carefully placed it in my favorite (crab apple) tree in our yard near some of the naturally fallen snow and waited for the sun to be as a background.

The Redstarts (Warblers) on a Hemlock branch was done to THE GOAT RODEO SESSIONS, Yo Yo Ma…a goat rodeo is when “multiple conflicting elements all must be choreographed and aligned to avoid a chaotic result.” For this context, those elements are the branch design, needle placement, position of the birds, the male and female reproductive parts of the Hemlock, color, ink. I recognize the process is gaining strength. In this third piece, I felt less hesitant in the overall approach to design and balance. However, I’m finding it difficult to adhere to the 3 hr./day rule and tend to work longer most days. This, of course, has it’s consequences. Overall, I’m pleased with the effort and see improvement.

This is a very exciting month! Evolve!, the game that I’ve devoted my 100-Day Project to illustrating, did very well in the Champaign-Urbana Design Organization’s yearly game design contest. This resource and evolution game took first place in the Education category for its scientifically accurate content and modeling, and second in the Innovation of Game Play category. My husband, Keith, and I together make up the Chimeric Creations game design team that created Evolve! With this success under our belts, we hope to Kick-Start Evolve! in the coming year. Here’s a picture of the prototype we entered in the competition.

30 Days and 30 unique sock puppets, actually more because I counted the aliens as 1. From day 31 on, I will be group the puppets and writing magnetic poetry to build the plot line of the story of the missing socks. The biggest obstacle is the limitation of the magnetic poetry words. I really have to stretch my brain to find a way to say what I want to say with a limited number of words. Below is one of the characters from days 21 through 30: The Diva.

The100DayProject

“Something wicked this way comes…”
18″ x 24″
Medium: Pen & Ink / Watercolor

The 100 Day Project will be a view of what I am doing in my Studio and without over a 100 day period.
As I create my works I will also attempt beginning an Arts Organization here in my hometown of Republic, Michigan.

DAY #35

I complete the hoody with some simple stippling to create folds and creases on the hooded jacket.
I then brush on a simple wash over it. Later when I will take an eraser and apply some softer tones simply by removing some of the wash to create highlights.
I then apply some very fine, soft stippling detail on the moon to create distant craters and shadow on the surface.
I then brush a very soft wash of yellow just barely visible.
And then I use a Xacto knife and begin scratching in very small distant stars onto the night sky and even a shooting star.