Saturday Link List - Challenges

Challenges are a favorite activity for me.  It keeps my creative juices flowing.  If you're an artist of any kind, I highly suggest you join a blog or team to be able to participate in challenges.  

Many challenges you can follow on your own.  Even though the Etsy BBArtisans team has a monthly challenge, I tell visitors to the site to join in and challenge themselves, even if they're not a member.  One of the team requirements is to complete 6 out of the 12 challenges throughout the year.  Our first challenge this year was to try a new art technique.  Here is a post with a link that lists all the participants.

The Sketchbook Challenge blog was introduced by a group of artists in January 2011.  It's a take off of the Brooklyn Art Museum's Sketchbook Project that I participated in two years ago.  The thing I didn't like about the Sketchbook Project was that I had to give up my first sketchbook, though it's now part of the Brooklyn Art Museum.  With the Sketchbook Challenge blog, you always get to keep your artwork.  You can listen to Sue Bleiweiss talk about the blog in this short podcast:

 

There's a lot of literary challenges for those of you who like to write.  I know of one challenge, hosted by Inkygirl.  

The goal for her 1000 Words a Day Challenge is to inspire writers to write.  Her site, which is "an illustrated guide for those who write and draw for young people" also has a 500 and 250 Words a Day Challenge.  If you enjoy writing, for no matter what age group, this challenge might be for you.   

Want a more active challenge?  You can participate in the President's Active Lifestyle Award (PALA) challenge.  You may remember being involved in an activity like this as a child, but this challenge is also available for adults.  It  involves both physical activity for 6 out of 8 weeks, and discusses eight ways to eating healthy.  You can create an individual account or start a group account with co-workers, community members or your family and friends.      

Carving My Own Stamp Blocks

My personal challenge for the month was to make some stamps from scratch.  I first wrote about my plan at the beginning of the month:
http://www.storybeader.com/2012/01/januarys-bba-challenge-try-something.html

But what happened?

I had a lot of fun!  I started out with some easy shapes, to discover how it all  worked.  And I made a circle and heart.  See all of the lines near the bottom of the heart, that I didn't carve away?  Oh dear!  But then, I like how the stamped image looks and decided to keep it that way.

For making stamps, you have to invest in a carving tool of some sort.   I bought a hand chisel from Speedball, that came with various tips.  You can use stamp pads to get different colors onto your blocks.  Or color the blocks themselves, with acrylics or watercolors, like my little car below.  When you use watercolors though, you have to act fast or the color will dry.

Making my own stamps have become a regular part of my AlphabeThursday.    

This little car fit in nicely for my Letter J: Journey.  

And last week, I carved an Ice Cream Cone! 

So, I feel this challenge worked out great; 

I had fun, learned a new technique, and   

found something I can use in my journals.

AlphabeThursday - J is for Journey

I practiced my carving skills earlier in the week, making little cars for my AlphabeThursday post (these posts will one day be put together in an  alphabet book for children).  Journey might be a difficult word for young children to spell, but I'm sure they understand what it means.  Most  have been in a car and taken a journey to see a relative.  Or have gone on a  vacation.  

I wonder where these two cars are going...

Come on a journey with me and visit one of my favorite blogs, ...off on a tangent...    

The AlphabeThursday link list  will take you to many other blogs, where you can learn about different places and people, all beginning with the Letter J.  

Art Journaling - Faces

I must admit, I've never known how to draw a face.  And that's something I'd like to learn.  I spoke about this to my online art journaling teacher, in our last class together.  So I was really thrilled during the second week of our current class, when Moira shown us some steps to follow, and asked us to practice drawing faces.

Here's some of my faces I drew:

They are both very scary, to tell the truth, but I think with time, I might learn how to proportion the face and get the shadows correct.  A lot of people who don't draw portraits professionally have fun with people's faces.  Moira said she tries to draw a face everyday, to practice.  And showed us a bunch she did.  This is my favorite: