The heat may be waning...

 ...outdoors, but it's still heating up the studio.  I'm auditioning some papers for another Arcturus painting,

and I've finished a floral playtime in my journal.  It looks a lot different from the start of last week, doesn't it?

I had intended to leave it like the photo below, but saw that it needed just one more flower at the top right - strange what a difference one element can make, right?

The birthday boy's painting is coming along - it's even sporting his name now.

Meanwhile the large painting languishes against the wall until I can hoist it back onto a table and tear into it again.

How's your week been going?  Are you losing your summer heat?  If true, it means you're not on the other side of the planet, where you'll be warming up.  I'm looking forward to the autumn colours, and sweater weather.  

Squirrel!

Like most creatives, I'm easily distracted.  I'm 'supposed' to be working on Tracy Verdugo's Abstract Mojo course, and I am - truly.

But each month I pull an art prompt from the stash (some of which I've created, some suggested by other artists, and some from Tracy.  The one for March was the latter, a request that we choose three disparate shapes and  and draw them in different sizes, layering as desired, to create an abstract.   I used a background 'in progress' piece to start and chose a necklace, a slotted spoon and a mask for the shapes.

I wanted some more punch in the shapes, so I added a yellow highlighter to all the masks, a green highlighter to the necklace, and a blue one to the spoon.

The desire to move the background into the back had me adding grey to those areas, and while I can see progress, I'd like to push it back even more.  That would be great, but - squirrel!

I received an email from Ali Manning at Vintage Page Designs to let me know that she is participating in this year's 6h Annual Sketchbook Revival, and her segment features a free tutorial for an upcycled Traveler's Journal.  So of course, I had to start one right away.  I headed down to Gleaner's (our local upcycling place extraordinaire) to purchase a book or two.  For $1 each, I found four of them, three of which are of a size that will host a project that has been sitting on one of my tables for months  years for lack of knowledge.

After removing the book block in the first one, I've added the not-yet-dried fabric to the spine, and enhanced it with my crystalline paper over part of the gorgeous endpapers on the inside cover.

I'm not certain how Thoreau would feel about the situation, but rest assured, the rest of the book will be used as well.  His writing is exquisite and will make lovely additions to collages.  I'm just so enamoured of the stunning end papers I could eat them.

Meanwhile, the in-progress abstracted floral sits on another table, waiting for some extreme help!

And a birthday card had to be created for a gym buddy - he is the most dedicated fitness guru I know, having worked out for over 50 years.  It's hard to imagine he's turning 76 - he looks well over 20 years younger.

And another table holds a host of in-progress pieces that require further extensive enhancements or more experimentation.  Truly, who could have a better life than an artist?  It's hard to imagine!

Now I'd better get back to the - oh, SQUIRREL!!!