Intuitive Watercolor Faces

It's been over a month since my last post! I've been busy with work and had the bug that's going around (as has everyone in my office). SO ANYWAY, I did have time to make ATCs for the 10-Minute Intuitive Watercolor Faces Swap at Illustrated ATCs. This swap is hosted by Sal Scheibe, aka Amerasu, who wrote an article on this technique for the Winter 2010 issue of Art Trader Magazine. (Don't know about Art Trader? Check it out! It's a FREE digital 'zine about mail art!)

In theory, we spend ten minutes on each card, so three cards plus a host thank you card should take 40 minutes. In practice, I ended up making ten cards because this is an addictive technique! I got out the timer and the Twinkling H20s and sketched out five blobby faces in 30 minutes. So that's 6 minutes spent on each card, 4 minutes to go. After the watercolor dried, I added details with Pitt artist pens, some in black and some in sepia, and a bit of Souffle pen.

Then I had to do another set of five! (Did I mention this was addictive?) It was fun not knowing where the sketch would go. Some I really liked, and some were bleh. I do have a tendency to draw everyone with the same expression! Here are the 4 cards I'm sending in for the swap:


You can see all the cards I did here.

New Year's Resolutions, or lack thereof

My mom asked me what my New Year's resolutions were for 2010, and I surprised myself by echoing my husband's sentiments: "I'm not making any resolutions." Every year I have some vague idea that THIS is the year when I will organize my office & art space and make art to sell and so forth and so on. Well (as my hubby will tell ya), my work areas are still a mess, and while I did sell some art and teach workshops this year, it wasn't through any concerted effort on my part. So this year, I figure I'll try to do my best, and we'll see what comes of it!

My book arts group is doing a monthly mail art swap where we each send someone else in the group a piece of mail art each month. Above is the postcard I made for my friend Darlene, who is also a cat lover.

So Happy New Year, and let's all just try to do the best that we can in 2010!