This scrapbook layout is from Jessica Sprague's Pen Tablet basics course week 4.  The photos of I were taken on Friday while playing in the paddling pool wearing her new Hello Kitty bathing suit courtesy of Auntie Ronnie (thanks Auntie R).  
 Photos taken on Friday. 

Week 2 layout from Jessica Sprague's Pen Tablet Basics course. Although this is a digital layout, you can see how my own handwriting can be incorporated into the layout. I used a calligraphy brush in Photoshop to do this.

This is an older layout done as part of the Jessica Sprague Wacom Basics course. I thought I better post it before J has another birthday in 2 months!

My Snapshots of a Good Life course got cut short at the end of last year due to an emergency in my home land requiring my presence.  Rather than take it again as an alumni, Kelli (of Caffeine Induced) and I are coaching each other through the course albeit at a snail's pace.

Kelli just posted her week 1 assignment which put the pressure on 'lil ol' me. So here goes:

Viewpoint:



And on composition:

I inherited these two watercolor paint boxes from my aunt who passed away last November.  I haven't really touched her art supplies so far as it's been too sore a subject for me as I am not yet over her death but I think I'm ready now to take a look at what I have and try to use it.

The larger box is a Daler Rowney Georgian watercolor set with 14 pans and two tubes (white and black). The pans are removable but aren't 1/2 pan size so I'm not sure whether replacements are possible.  The smaller box is an Alwyn Cranshaw box, also by Daler Rowney (not sure if these are Georgian the student series or not).  This box seems to have been sold as part of a set but might have been available separately as I didn't inherit anything else with it. It holds 6 x 1/2 pans.  The original colors were: Crimson Alizarin, French Ultramarine, Yellow Ochre, Cadmium Yellow Pale, Cadmium Red and Hookers Green. As you can see only the crimson and the cad. yellow still have much left.  I'm  not sure what is supposed to be in the section to the right (if you know please leave a comment).  I am going to purchase the 1/2 pans and clean up the kit for some plein air painting (probably just out in my neighborhood to start with).

If you've been reading my blog a while you'll know that my first creative spot was inside a closet and then I moved out into the family room.  Well after hearing my husband complain about so much "c**p" everywhere for the 10,000th time, we agreed that I would take over the spare bedroom (former nanny's bedroom, former office with said closet).  I knew I couldn't fit all my Ikea furniture in there so hubby has inherited 1 desk as a result.

This is the end result:

View from the doorway, you can see my art table immediately in front of you.



Once inside you see my magazine rack. 1st shelf = knitting, 2nd shelf = photoshop, 3rd shelf = scrapbooking. This shelf was picked up from Winner's a while back.

Jutting into the photo from the right side is my easel.  It's a french easel with 3 legs so it isn't the smallest thing in the world but I can't afford a floor easel right now so I'm making do. The only thing that is good about it, is that it does have a forward tilt - an essential for pastel artists so the dust falls to the floor and not all over the painting. To the right of the easel is my metal drawer unit (from Ikea) that stores art supplies not in my plein air bag, includes tubes of paint, all the left over pastel sticks (I only use 1/3 or 1/2 in Heilman pastel box), pencils etc. Garbage can is underneath on the floor.  Brushes are on top in a metal pot.
P.S. This is my latest work, it's a portrait of Eric Dolphy, a jazz bass clarinetist/saxophonist.

Next up is my computer workstation area.  I've moved back into the closet.  You can see my printer, laptop, 24" monitor and scanner.  I also have a rubbermaid drawer system under the desk for my stamping supplies.  Since this photo was taken I've added an additional shelf and bulletin board above the scanner.

Next up are my shelving units - cubes from Ikea.  I *love* these shelving units they are so versatile. I actually have 3 of them and used to keep them all upright, but this time I thought I'd turn one on it's side so I could use the top for additional storage. Baskets on top are journaling basket and unmounted stamp storage.  File folders are full of genealogy stuff to be sorted (on a backburner right now).


Immediately above these shelves is a window where I keep my camera collection, 4 vintage rangefinders and my grandfather's kodak.


Next you'll see my Ikea Alex drawers.  I love these because they are shallow and can hold large paper - 13x19 printer paper but they are not quite large enough to hold newsprint paper pads.  On top is my cutting station - an SU guillotine and a mat cutter.

Now for my art table.  This is also from Ikea.  The table can slope or be level and can be at various different heights. I try to keep it sloped to prevent me from piling too much on top of it! 

So that's it.  I hope you enjoyed the tour of Studio M, my creative playground :)

My previous post detailed my experience at the Kelowna Photowalk, one of thousands of World Wide Photowalks that took place last week.  So what's it like to go on a photowalk?  The Munich photowalk group created a video of the experience to give you an idea.


Annual Worldwide Photowalk - Munich, July 24, 2010 from Ewalis Emotions on Vimeo.

If you think you'd like to try this experience then you'll have to wait until next year to register for one of the photowalks available at www.worldwidephotowalk.com.