Zooming In - IF

After taking the plunge and posting something for Illustration Friday last week, I thought I'd give it another try with this week's topic. 

The word was "zoom". Easy, right? Not so much for me....

Do you go with zoom like "zoom-zoom" for a car? That's what I thought at first and sketched and water colored a little car.....Meh.

Or how about zoom as in "zooming in" on something? Well, maybe, but nothing really came to mind. No inspiration. Zero. Zip. 

So, I gave up. IF just isn't for me. 

Then this weekend, I picked up a book I'd had on my nightstand for a while by J.I. Packer - Growing in Christ.  (My book's cover art isn't nearly as pretty or inspiring as the current edition on Amazon, btw.) In this book, Packer takes the Apostle's Creed, baptism & conversion, the Lord's Prayer and the Ten Commandments and drills down (i.e. zooms in on) into each with short, readable essays. Starting with the Apostle's Creed, I've made it through the "God the Father" portion. While reading, I was reminded of this pin a friend had put on one of her boards and I thought I'd try it with this part of the Creed. So - here's the black and white version:  

And here's the colored version via Photoshop Elements. Doodling this while reading Packer's essays (not at the same time, of course!) definitely made me "zoom" into what these words really mean when recited. 

There was so much I liked about Packer's essays. The view that "Almighty" speaks of God's sovereignty and how "men treat God's sovereignty as a theme for controversy, but in Scripture it is a matter for worship." Or in the essay on "Maker of Heaven & Earth" and his view on how Genesis 1 & 2 "tell us not how the world was made, but who made it" and that "Rather than criticize these chapters for not feeding our secular interest, we should take from them needed rebuke of our perverse passion for knowing Nature without regard for what matters most; namely, knowing Nature's Creator."

But, finally, the part that has stuck with me most from my reading is from the very first essay on "I believe in God." Packer says the more literal translation from the Greek would be "I am believing into God" which means "I am living in a relation of commitment to God in trust and union." "When I say "I believe in God," I am professing my conviction that God has invited me to this commitment, and declaring that I have accepted his invitation." 

And I even like it printed! So, here's my IF submission - "Zooming in on the Apostle's Creed."

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New Tree and Mary Doodle Frame

A friend sent me this new tree shape as an idea for a Christmas tree doodle on our 2012 cards. Not sure that I like it, but I'll probably color it in today and see of it appeals to me more. 

And I played around in PSE with the doodle frame I did for E's picture....worked with the masking tool to get a better fit in the frame. Much better. (This is a picture I took of Mary some months back at Hobby Lobby. I just happened to snap it in front of the LOL! sign. Ha!)

Ok - off to work! Have a good one, bloggy friends! And go check out AEDM for some creative inspiration if you get a chance.

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A Day with E

Yesterday was a good day... I got to spend all of it with my girl E in Raleigh. Her boyfriend was with us, too. We went to church, had lunch, shopped and shopped some more for a new "big girl" outfit she needs for a speech on Wednesday, had dinner, and then picked up a few groceries. She's such a good girl. And I love her puppy. And her boy is  pretty good fella, too!

I took this picture just before we left for church and doodled the frame this evening.

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Tree Doodle with Color and PSE Tutorial

I spent some time today coloring my doodle-tree in Photoshop (I use version 10.) I find coloring in a doodle electronically so relaxing. There's no worries of messing anything up like there is when you color with paint or markers. And I'm pretty pleased with the results. I still don't think this is the tree for our Christmas card, but I've really enjoyed the process plus I figured out something new with Photoshop: How to color in spaces without boundaries (like the petals that fall out of the "edge" of my tree shape).  

Here's a quick tutorial to fill an object without a boundary. I needed to fill in this green petal, but there's no boundary because my tree shape is design doesn't have any edges.

1. Select the eyedropper tool.
2. Pick the color you want to fill the petal with. (See the green color box in the bottom left-hand portion of the screen? Now the "paint" I use will be this color.)

3. Select the paint brush tool and choose a regular brush.
4. Set the size to about 6 or 7 pixels.

5. Draw a boundary line at the tip of your petal connecting the black outline.

6. Switch to the paint bucket tool and paint the line you just drew with the brush. (This makes it thicker and gives a more secure boundary.

7. Now you can use the paint bucket tool to fill in the empty space in the petal (make sure you have "contiguous" checked on the top tool bar) and "TA-DA!", you've filled in an object in Photoshop that appears to not have a boundary!! Yay!

I've never had a class on PSE so I mostly stumble around trying to figure things out as they come up. I'm sure there's a smoother, more elegant way to do this but for now, this works for me. 

Have a lovely weekend out there, bloggy friends!

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Doodle Tree Attempt #1

I scanned in the doodle ornament and darkened the black lines with Photoshop. I like it!

Then last night I worked on my first attempt for a Christmas tree. That's the direction I think I'll go for our Christmas card design this year - a doodled tree with the four of us around it. And maybe something about Savannah since The Boy and The Girl are there now.

I scanned this first attempt in and darkened the lines. It was drawn with a Micron .01 pen. I might play around with coloring it in Photoshop and see how that goes. More to come....

Don't forget to check out the lovelies on AEDM!

Hope you are looking forward to a long weekend as much as I am, bloggy friends!

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Clean Up

Here's my doodle ornament scanned in and black lines darkened in PSE. Loving AEDM! Making me DO SOMETHING CREATIVE every day! 

Go forth and create, bloggy friends!

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Doodle Ornaments

Last year the Christmas cards we sent out were hand drawn.

The year before that they were a photo of Mary as the angel Gabrielle inserted in a hand drawn frame.

The year before that..... they didn’t exist!

Yep…. It took me 25 years of marriage to get it together enough to send out Christmas cards. *Sigh.*

But now, this year, I’m looking forward to coming up with a new design. And, like I often do, once I have a project in mind I’ll look to other artists for inspiration. I’ll practice their style and let it morph into my own with some new ideas. Last night I found this artist, took one of his cards, and gave it a try. Mine’s a bit more crowded than his and not nearly as smooth, but I like it just the same.

  

I especially liked the way he colored each flower in with one or two colors and left a good bit in black-and-white. I think I over-worked mine, though.

I’ll be thinking on this one…. Maybe not a doodle ornament, but a doodle Christmas tree? And how to show the family? Maybe I can show us decorating the tree with doodle flowers?

For more doodle inspiration, here’s one of my favorite artists – Jennifer Judd-McGee. Isn’t she awesome?

Have a thrummy Thursday, bloggy friends! And stop by AEDM for more creative awesomeness!

Update: Scanned version posted here!

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Happy Books

My daughter, three of her friends, and three of us moms are going through this book together. We meet about every other week and the mom’s have been alternating turns leading the discussion.

This week was my turn and the chapter was “A Girl Who Knows True Happiness.” The main point was  “true happiness is found not in your circumstance but in your thoughts.”  The chapter was long and full of lots of good things. Reading it, I envisioned each girl having a “Happy Book” she could turn to when feeling blue or angry or without hope to remind herself of the truth of God’s Word. So…. we made “Happy Books!”

Here’s the cover to my Happy Book. (The back says “Book.”)

And here are the girls hard at work:

 
The main gist of the “book”:

If you’re struggling with finding happiness, here are some things to consider -

• Tell yourself the Truth (found in God’s Word)
• Take every thought captive (get rid of those negative thoughts!)
• Agree with God (know what He loves, what He wants for your life)
• Forgive (yourself and others!)
• Trash your idols (those things that crowd out God in your life)
• Live a life of contentment (prioritize, simplify, help others, enjoy what you have)
• Find happiness on the other side of heartbreak (trust God’s plan for your life)

Here’s my page on “Take Every Thought Captive”. The girls put an illustration on each page with related verses to remind them of what they learned. You can see my whole “book” here. 

We spent a good bit of time talking about how these verses should be read in context and also that the expectation is not for us to have these happy, happy little lives. As Christians, we know there will be pain and suffering…. We will be sad and we will be hurt. But our faith in Christ gives us the ability to have a deep and abiding joy that is always flowing in and through our lives.

So, AEDM Day #2 was a fun and crafty time with some beautiful little girls I love very much. Thanks, Lovelies, for such a good evening!

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AEDM!

Leah over at Creative Every Day is again (I think for the 10th year running!) hosting the November Art Every Day of the Month Challenge! Click over there and see all the beautification going on in Blog Land! So much talent, inspiration, and nice people to meet!

I’d like to say I’ll be posting something everyday for this challenge, but I’m too old and wise to actually put that in writing. So, here’s to giving it a try without black-and-white commitment! I definitely could use some creativity flowing every day right now, how about you? These days with less and less sunlight are beginning to wear me down a bit… and we’ve so many more months of this to go! Bleh.

I’ll start off this month with a gift I made for a friend who just bought her first house. It’s 5x7, drawn with Micron pens and then colored in just a bit with Prisma Markers. I’m afraid I’m cheating (*maybe*) since I actually drew this on Sunday and framed it yesterday then passed it on to her dad to deliver this weekend. But, I did want to share this and I’m happy with how it turned out. I was also practicing for a similar gift I want to make for The Boy and The Girl’s upcoming 2nd anniversary. Hard to believe it’s already been that long! Here’s anniversary gift #1.

Here it is framed. Not super happy with the framing, but it’ll do.

So’s here’s wishing you a most creative first day of the month and a most glorious November! Grab all the sunshine you can today, bloggy friends!

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Time to Make

This is a “B” I doodled in my hotel room during a recent trip to Baltimore for work. I brought a sketchbook and my trusty travel bag of pens and pencils because I promised myself I would find some time to doodle. Which I did. Yay for me!

Finding time for art (and creativity in general) has been a little difficult as of late. Juggling homeschooling Mary and working and trying to make progress with home improvements has pretty much been all-consuming. Not that I’d want to get rid of any of those things…. My job is a blessing in so many ways… I wouldn’t trade the special time I’m getting to spend with my girl right now for a-n-y-t-h-i-n-g!….. And, well, it’s just *TIME* to get some things done around The Brown House. 20 years and 3 kids can wear  a little house down without some intensive TLC.

So… how to fit in time for creativity?! Hmmm…. that’s the question of the day.

Here’s fuel for your creativity, bloggy friends - the video I used for making this “B”:

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Home!

There’s no place like home…. and I’m surely glad to be here! After a really good trip away, it’s still wonderful to be home, sitting on my back porch, sipping coffee and listening to the birds sing. Ah….. God surely showers me with blessings upon blessings that I do not deserve!

Our buddy Erin turned 12 Saturday and we enjoyed a few hours with her and family. She loves orange and loves cows so I doodled and framed an orange cow for her.

This is the purple peacock I did for Mary for Easter.


And here’s the original “doodle animal” – “Annie” – made for E for Christmas.



Not sure what the next doodle animal project will be….. Maybe a Bee??

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Purple Peacock

I doodled this purple peacock as an Easter gift for Mary. Purple is her favorite color and peacocks are her favorite animal, so viola! She was fun to make and I was pretty pleased with how she turned out. (Drawn with Copic pens, scanned, and colored in PSE.) E's Doodle Dog and Mary's Purple Peacock are two of my favorite things I've made recently. :-) 

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Shower Invite

Shower Invitation!

I've been working on a shower invitation for a friend. (She's a hairdresser, hubby is a chef, and there's big sister Trinity.) I'm hosting it next month and need to (*GULP*) get the invitations out tomorrow. Tuesday at the latest! Well, I have the front designed and now I'm off to see how they print out.

Hope you all have had a lovely Sabbath day!

And, oh! I*Walked*Six*Miles*Today!! Hooray for me!

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Happy B-Day to E!

She's 19 today! Wow!

And making a go of it at a new school in her spiffy apartment with her furry little roommate, Annie.

This is the painting I worked on to surprise her with right after Christmas. It's of her favorite verse and was an early birthday present. She really likes it but it's still growing on me. I think I just looked at it too long. 

And Her Boy came through with probably the most beautiful flower arrangement I've ever seen. And cupcakes. One for mom, too! :o)

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