Wednesday, January 1, 2014

Life Book 2014 January Lessons

It's here! Life Book 2014 begins. I'm very excited to see what this year's teacher line-up has to offer. I'm still finishing some of the last lessons of 2013, but really don't want to fall behind in 2014. My goal is to do at least one of the 2013 lessons AND a 2014 lesson per week in order to catch up and keep up.

Today, my grandson and I worked on Week 1's Warm-Up lesson. Here's his work-in-progress. We viewed the lesson on my laptop while we worked, step-by-step. We each picked a split complementary color scheme. He chose his main color and helped find the watercolor crayons that matched the main and complementary colors. As we were using "real artist supplies" (expensive), he took great care to use them carefully. He loved using the brayer to apply gesso and bubble wrap stamping.
 
Here's his finished page. He drew the hearts, I cut them out and glued them where he wanted. We're both very pleased with the outcome.

 And here's my finished page. We used slightly different colors (so we wouldn't have to share colors), but they look very similar here.
 
The second part of the lesson was to create a Guardian and choose a word for the year. I used the same color scheme. I'm happy with it, but always feel like I muck it up with the handwriting.
     
This lesson is by Micki Wilde, a new teacher for me!
I'm quite far behind, but life has just been way too busy.
    
A fun lesson in creativity by Carla Sonheim!
Here's my mixed media envelope / page for the lessons

Eyes-closed zebras:
 
 Imaginary flowers:
 
Wrong-hand knick knacks:
My knick knack models:
 
One-liners:
 
    
Love Kelly Hoernig! I may or may not be done with this page. Time will tell.
    
Ooh, a new teacher! Marieke Blokland is this week's instructor. I'm calling my page "Cupcake Love."
 
More Art Journaling Explorations HERE

3 comments:

Sher in Albuquerque said...

Hi Deanna! I too signed up for Lifebook 2014.
I think you are an amazing doll artist and will come to visit your blog to see what you are creating. I am interested in dollmaking as well and plan to join a doll club (that specializes in soft dolls)..I can't wait!

Sher in Albuquerque said...

here's my email address.

Deanna Hogan said...

Hi Sher!

Thank so much! I just stopped by your blog. Wow! You had some major changes last year. I see you started Life Book 2013 - I really enjoyed the lessons and learned so much. I'd never done any art journaling or mixed media pages before, and can only think that these new skills will enhance my dollmaking. I know there's quite a doll community in Albuquerque - have you connected with anyone?


My big challenge for the year will be to keep up with the Life Book lessons AND continue making dolls. I backed way off dolls in 2013 due to significant lack of free time, which made me sad. I still have no free time, but have to get creative about making the best use of what I have...


Keep me updated!


Deanna