A Midsummer Night's Secret Dream Party

 

It's here, it's here!  A Midsummer Night's Secret Dream Party is finally here!  It's a magical night when the fairies come out to listen to your deepest creative secrets.  Hosted by A Stuffed Life with participation from some very talented people.  Please be sure to visit everyone by clicking the links in the sidebar of the Midsummer Night's blog which you can reach by clicking the link above.

I had planned on doing a witty, creative little story for my Secret Dream; however, we've had a really bad day with one of our feathered friends and I just don't have it in me.  Our beautiful little Sunny seems to have broken one of her legs.  She doesn't seem to be in any pain but she can not bear weight on it and the claw part of her foot is limp.  Unfortunately, we are not in a financial position to take her to a vet, especially on an emergency basis so we had to try to splint it ourselves, which has not been an easy process.  I'm hoping she will be ok in the long run so if there are any fairies listening, my current secret dream is for my poor little bird to be feeling well and back to her usual feisty self.

As for my projects for this blog party, I had planned on having three pieces.  A watercolor, an acrylic and an oil pastel.  The acrylic did not go well at all and by the end of it I was ready to throw it against the wall.  I love the vibrant colors in my oil pastel sunset but the photo just doesn't do it justice.  Wasn't in the mood to try to get better ones.  I do love my watercolor and I tried something new with them, I not only used the ones in the tubes instead of the cakes/pan (not sure what they're called), I also used a cotton canvas board instead of watercolor paper.  

Without further ado...

Watercolor on Cotton Canvas Board

Oil Pastels on Acrylic Paper

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A Birthday Gift

'Serenity'

Pencil on Sketch Paper

My boyfriend's mother's birthday is on Tuesday and he wanted to send something to her that I made.  I had just drawn this at work and I have to say, this is my favorite sketch so far.  The picture really doesn't do this one justice because of the extreme lights and darks.  This is the first sketch I have done with a water reflection and I think it turned out pretty good.  This was another practice sketch in the book I'm working out of so I didn't just dream it up or get it from a photo, but I'm still very proud of it.  As soon as my bf saw it he immediately declared this to be the gift for Mom.  I happen to agree so I framed it in a 4 x 6 black frame which really brings out the graphite even more.  Loving it!  Going to be hard to part with this one.   lol

I also wanted to tell you about my great finds at Hobby Lobby and Walmart.  At Hobby Lobby I found a 16 piece Oil Pastel Set on clearance for $3.59 which normally runs $9.99!  The end of the box was smooshed so I'm guessing that's why it was marked so low but all of the pastel crayons are intact.  Then, we went to Walmart and I happened to stumble upon a small but nice selection of fine art materials.  I got another set of oil pastels, this one had 25 colors for $4.99, they are slightly smaller than the Hob Lob ones but look to be of similar quality.  I got a pack of three 8x10 cotton canvas boards for $3.96, a pad of acrylic paper for $3.96 and a set of twelve 0.4 oz tubes of water colors for only $6.49.  It was like Christmas for me.  My boyfriend's birthday is Sunday and he received some b-day cash from his parents and let me buy some art materials.  Isn't he the sweetest?

Now, does anyone know what I'm supposed to do with oil pastels?  lol.  I've watched a ton of U-Tube videos and I think I just may like this medium.  Anything I can stick my fingers in to blend is a plus in my books!  

TGIF and hope you all have had a great week!

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